Fema Active Shooter guide
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/active_shooter_guid…
I haven't laughed so hard at a ridiculous government pamphlet in a long time. According to FEMA we are all on the brink of going crazy.
Strongly at risk people with access to guns, or knives, or an open gas line and a match, or just muscles to use in a beat down...just get people to help.
Instead, yeah, let's blame people with well managed mental health issues, responsible gun owners, or some really vague thing like "assault weapons". LOL file down the mechanism on a bunch of different rifles and install a pistol grip, it fits the definition of 'assault weapon', what a bunch of malarky.
This is just another example of American culture of being pound poor and penny wise: treat the problem instead of preventing it from becomming a crisis in the first place. You can blame gov't, business, or whoever. Fact is, it's just built into American culture.
250 ppl killed since columbine over 13 years ago...13 YEARS?! An average of 100 ppl die each year of lightning strikes. Where is the FEMA pamphlet on lighting strike epidemic?
http://pasco.ifas.ufl.edu/fcs/Lightning.shtml
Sounds like we need to start writing for grants. If colon cancer can, lightning 'reflexes' can too :D
//
Yeah, gotta love the government creating hype when none is warranted. The 250 dead in 13 years stats basically sums up my endless argument about how rare and statistically insignificant these random shootings are.
THREAT. Gotta love creating bullshit acronyms.
I hold the same opinion about school shootings as I do about terrorism: pay more attention to people at risk instead of waiting for a breakdown and then running out on some crusade. I'm somewhat amused that the people most against prepping for school shootings are the same people who were totally gung ho on the GWOT a few years back. I'd be more amused if my country didn't ring up a multitrillion dollar debt in pursuit of that war, and had instead taken things seriously in the early 90's. Less than $50BB could have been used in MENA reconstruction after the Soviets left, no one wanted to be bothered. That's not liberalism, that's just common sense. But again, America would rather deal with a crisis than be a big kid and focus on prevention where possible.
The people that do these shootings are almost always profiled well before the killing starts, but no one does anything. If it sounds like I'm preachy on this, it's because I work directly with at risk people on my off time. I'm all for gun ownership, hell, I like guns....but when someone is in bad shape, you keep them away from guns and help them. Then they tend not to snap and kill people.
I don't know that there's a way to legislate this, and Americans don't seem to want to have this conversation. So the problem will continue until there's a major crisis. How much worse than Newton is even really possible, I don't know, so the unfortunate reality I see is that these school shootings will continue well into the future.
This is simply not true. Of the 90 or so mass shootings we have had since the 90s only 19 of them have been by people who are considered to have mental issues.
You are over 4 times more likely to be killed by lightning than you are in a mass shooting. On average just under 20 people a year die in mass shootings, while over 100 people a year die from direct lighting strikes (actually being struck not a secondary cause like a fire caused by lightning). So the whole hysteria is totally blown out of reality.
at risk =/= mental issues
It's why I find the current debate of pitting gun rights vs mental health rights to be off the mark
The issue isn't even about mental health and guns. Its about getting everyone classified as needing mental augmentation. I.E. making sure everyone is on some kind of medication. A highly medicated public is much easier to control than a public that isn't subdued in some way. Religion is falling out of favor with young people, they need something to replace it.
Maybe, I think we're getting off topic, even if that's an interesting line of though. I'm more just pointing out that if you can get to people before they completely snap you could stave off a disaster. The easiest example I can think of is laid off postal workers: guy gets laid off 17 years into the job then comes in and shoots everyone the next day. Why? They had no history of depression, substance abuse, etc. What happened? Their whole social status just got shattered, they gave up other opportunities in favor of the benefits that they are now cut off from, they enter high risk for divorce/depression, they live close to the people they percieve as having wronged them, etc and this has become an explosive situation. Americans would rather sit around clucking their tongues and coming up with ever more disconected theories instead of actually lending the guy a hand. Y'know....actually DO something. People are more inclined to spend their time going from 9 to 10 than helping someone get from 0 to 1. When you fall off the gravy train, this becomes painfully obvious in ways that privelage blinds you to.
There's always going to be some kind of pathological person who kills innocents and there's just nothing we can do about that. What I'm looking at is when a toxic situation is created that breeds the behavior in otherwise healthy people. I'm all for personal accountability, but I know for sure that if I didn't have the social support I did when I was younger I'd have landed in prison or been killed. I'm no different than a lot of people, I'm just willing to admit it (at least, on an anonymous internet forum). But ask around, most people have come from hard backgrounds or at one point fallen on hard times despite their background. While a few people pull through on their own, most really have their social networks to thank for floating them through stormy waters.
Younger people like us really are oblivious to a lot of this, but older people do have the responsibility to pay attention. If not, they don't deserve their status. Maybe it's because I come from a small town where everyone kind of gives a shit, so my perspective is maybe different, but if you have power....you have responsibility. If you neglect that, bad things happen and while you can technically lay blame on one person or another, the people responsible for the overall dynamic are at fault in the larger picture. Think of it this way: if you're mayor and someone robs a bank, that's the crook's fault. If you're mayor and lots of banks are getting robbed....that's your problem. It's not just political though, I'd say plenty of people where I came from held far more power, and used it, than the political folks.
As a private citizen with no future interest in political activity beyond voting (sometimes), this is where I see charity as a way of accepting the responsibility that my position comes with. In lieu of me helping directly, I'm totally comfortable with some social programs. Everyone is so annoyed with the freeloaders or agencies that they lose sight of the fact that these programs actually really help people....and making them more efficient would reduce their size on the back end. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rich at all and don't pretend to be. I'd expect more of myself as my situation continues to improve and I'm kind of apalled at people who cut and run after they reach a certain level of financial success. It's unnatural.
How would you suggest helping the guy who gets laid off and goes in the next day and shoots the place up. Unless there are obvious leading indicators then there is nothing anyone can do. The irony is the "helping" you suggest is exactly what the government wants. With everyone needing some kind of help we can now say that everyone has mental issues and therefore needs to be medicated and have their guns taken away. If you read the list of things that FEMA considers triggers 50% of the things normal people feel at some point on a weekly if not a daily basis.
This is impossible and futile. Every instance is really a black swan. There are tons of retarded goth kids, gay jocks, postal workers, etc. that fit the bill. I'd bet any serious action for prevention will be an ulterior motive to implement a new product, take away rights gradually, or something similar. People need to deal with reality.
Well that escalated quickly. Guy gets laid off, you typically want to buy them a drink and help them figure out what's next, start there. Bringing up mental health, guns, medication, and gov't conspiracy theories just say to me that you look at a person who's fallen on hard times and think "not my problem". All fine and well. It's the difference between me and you, and it's unlikely we'll ever see eye to eye on a lot of things.
I agree with your idea of help. Sure you can help people anytime. However the problem is, you can't regulate violence out of society. In order to prevent problems you have to know how to segregate the problem. Its not that much of conspiracy theory to make a whole step if you think of things from a big picture. These political people can't get their agendas passed legislatively because people can vote them out. However if you designate everyone a potential threat because you cast an extremely wide net then you can get what you originally wanted by calling everyone crazy.
"you can't regulate violence out of society" - it's not the focus of what I'm saying. I'm not even saying gov't is the solution. I'm merely pointing out that American culture, in general, contents itself with looking the other way from problems that tend to later blow up in their face. Maybe it's just human nature, but if we're able to fly to the moon I'm pretty sure we could come up with a way to address this...with or without the gov't.
Look at the Ft. Hood incident, it's the same thing. A family member home from the frontlines in Pakistan (yep, we're in there despite what the news says) and I spoke about this over Christmas break. The bottom line is that a toxic and explosive situation developed and while the shooter is certainly at fault, the whole thing could have been prevented...but the Army isn't adjusting it's structure to address this.
The frustrating part is the more you try to bring this to light, the more people argue and then change the subject to their pre-decided political response, and my only guess why is that people don't want to be bothered with doing anything. So, these things will keep happening, and we are...as a society...bringing this on ourselves. Again, you can never stop everyone from going nuts, but when bad situations are created, it's cause and effect that bad things happen.
Here: http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html
God the reality that libertarians live in is weird. I understand the mindset, but I'm never going to be able to think in those terms. You give on worthwhile pursuits without even trying, all out of this paranoid fear of working with other people on anything.
This is a manufactured crisis. A statistically insignificant event.
What event are you talking about?
In general. The entire mass shooting drama. Shit rarely ever happens and when it does it is on the news endlessly. We live in fear of the most obscure occurrences.
You're right. News should just show heart attacks and car crashes during sports breaks
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