----- Original Message -----
From: "Julia Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: San Diego Shooting
>
>
> On Tue, 6 Mar 2001, Kristin A. Ruhle wrote:
>
> > I think school violence comes from several things put together --
> > people try to pin the blameon one alone but it is several things
> > interacting:
> >
> > --1 the sheer number of guns out there - makes it a LOT easeier for a
> > mentally unstable person to actually act out his/her pain in a
> > murderous way.
>
> Not so much the sheer number, but the casual way in which these guns are
> stored & used. They have lots and lots of guns in Switzerland, but we
> don't hear about this happening in Switzerland.
>
> What we need is to change the cultural perceptions of guns. Easy enough,
> right? :(
With 250M+ people, 83M who own firearms, it is amazing that these rampages
dont happen more frequently. The fact that this seems to be a recent
aberration in most minds implies that there has been a long long peace in
the lives of westerners. OK Corrall anyone?
As to the cultural perception of firearms, you only have to look as far as
your TV screen or the movies to see that you really never see weapons used
responsibly. Even fictional police are pretty haphazard in the display and
use of firearms.
The responsibility meme is weak here.
>
> (other points snipped)
>
> > ...Sometimes you might be able to identify a high(er) risk kid in
> > advance in terms of genetics. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out
> > with the San Diego perpetrator that "Oh...his Aunt Jane was depressed,
> > spent time in a hospital." Or if one/both parent(S) used drugs and
> > alcohol (why the divorse?) Now a family history of problems does not
> > mean one's child is going to shoot anybody! but if depression runs in
> > your family, you should defnitely watch your teen more carefully for
> > danger signs.
>
> You should also let your kid know that this is something that runs in the
> family, like any other problem (heart disease, diabetes, etc.), so that if
> they survive adolescence and then leave home and still have some of the
> same sorts of problems, they know that there could be a biological basis
> and can tell this to a physician.
>
Children are the products of their cultures.
xponent
rob
