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I think the reason they sent that disturbed kid back to class was because he was white. Plain and simple. If a BIPOC kid had drawn those images, the school would have called the cops (which is what should have happened in this case.) But white people always think other white people are not dangerous, in this white supremacist society.

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White? No. I think school officials are afraid of the political power of gun owners. Guns are God to too many Americans. By contrast, many kids have been expelled for ridiculous things like bringing aspirin or Midol to school (no tolerance for "drugs").

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I agree with that as well. But just look at how many stories are out there of the police being called on black kids for the smallest things, and the cops handcuffing those kids of color and hauling them off to jail. This country is incredibly racist. And that also means that white kids get a pass when kids of color do not.

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White wealthy kids get a pass. Poor white kids not so much.

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The Civil War is still going on with the slavery of discrimination from systemic racism. I served with a citizen advisory panel to get at the root cause of it where we might all one day, "sit at the table of brotherhood."

My awakening came with Dr. King in 1963. His dream is the Lord's Dream, where we can coexist. The epic Black Like Me is clear warning why most refuse to:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42603.Black_Like_Me

My younger brother read this and gave it to me when we were both quite young. He wanted to change the color of his skin for the same reason.

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Agreed. Dress code rules are weird too. I taught and had to explain to students that I had to follow rules and gave them the option of asking a friend if they had something in their locker that they could borrow. Illegal drugs…police. OTC drugs confiscated and given back at the end of the day. I always spoke to the parents and would not send them home to an empty house. Got in trouble with admin a few times.

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Yes, you rightly suggest that the school’s officials, including the so-called teacher, need to be held accountable, too. The ignorant Yahoo-like unconsciousness of just acting like everything was going to be just Jim Dandy or whatever because the parents of a purpose wouldn’t take the kid home is certainly, at best, ignorance personified..

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The school can’t send a child home and defy the parents wishes. If there was nobody to supervise an in school suspension there was no choice but to send him back to class. He made a disturbing drawing and that is not a crime. The police only get involved if there is a crime. If he had been waving a gun around…yup….police. As far as white people always thinking other white people aren’t dangerous,maybe read some of MM’s stories about his security detail and the people threatening the lives of him and his family.

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A kid who is a danger to himself or others should not of a course be wantonly returned to class…. As is pointed out on this thread, at minimum, social services could have been called. But one other thing: what about the backpack with a loaded weapon just matter-of-factly sitting on the floor or back of the disturbed student’s chair while the kid was in the principal’s office. There was every reason to believe that backpack was a safety hazard and therefore should have been confiscated and duly searched. While gun owners and the gun lobby surely have much “wagging power,” in this case it is but a subset of the power of ignorance.

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Ignorance and the quest for power over others is a deadly combination.

History is forever repeating itself, even where the oppressed become oppressive.

This is also evident in relationships, families, federal, state and local governments.

Buddha saw how Karma tries to raise our consciousness if we fail to do so on our own, as he did in prayer and meditation. He wept because of the madness of men, as did Lao Tzu, wandering off in old age, sick at heart at the ways of man.

Jesus refused worldly power to serve that we might do the same. He prayed for His enemies in their ignorance, knowing the consequences that awaited them.

The Gnostic Christ emphasized having knowledge or gnosis to free ourselves from ignorance of the evil in us that can cause us to harm others. The Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene is testament. It's why Jesus loved her most of all and made her The Apostle to the Apostles, who were forever forgetting what He said, like the Church and Christian religions who put Trump in power despite his misogyny, racist beliefs and belligerence.

Jung confirmed knowing the darkness of our hearts as Jesus said.

We are less likely to succumb, unless we want to hurt someone.

(Matthew 15:19; 23:1-13)

We're also less likely to project our evil on others.

In this case, as Michael has shown, this kid was unstable because of unstable parents. His cry for help was missed, as well as buying ammunition online at his age, after having been given a lethal firearm for Christmas after Thanksgiving.

Such ignorance defies common sense. Whatever the kid's anger issues are, it's too late for him now. He clearly took it out on his school, much like what Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook Elementary because of an unstable mother, as Michael pointed out. This is where interventions are crucial, but often missed, as at Oxford.

GOP Republicans won't restrict gun ownership in order to stay in power.

The power that comes with owning a gun is a false sense of security. It really is about power over others by having the power of death over life. It's what drives our nuclear policies and why so many people purchase firearms.

Violent video games add to the mess for children.

Feeling trapped by personal issues, a kid can shoot their way out of it as they are.

This also applies to those with genetic markers or abnormalities, except that anger issues are more severe. In the case of the University of Texas shooter at Austin, he had a brain tumor. He didn't know it, but had sought psychiatric help for his violent impulses to no avail.

Jung: We need more psychology / Man is the great danger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udc9FGGt9lo

(3:14)

The journey of self-awareness or consciousness leads to awareness of who Jung called the higher Self.

Jung: I know God exists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ25Ai__FYU

(0:28)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Mary

The Gospel of Mary is attributed to Mary Magdalene, who describes her soul's journey through the psychic realm of planetary influences, which have been long considered to affect our human behavior, as described in astrology et al.

Jung referred to such entities or Deities as archetypes within us.

http://gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

(excerpt: "The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.

20) They asked the soul, Whence do you come slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?

21) The soul answered and said, What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome,

22) and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died.

23) In a aeon I was released from a world, and in a Type from a type, and from the fetter of oblivion which is transient.

24) From this time on will I attain to the rest of the time, of the season, of the aeon, in silence." (end of excerpt)

NB the passage on the misogyny of the Apostles towards Mary Magdalene and St. Peter's hot-headed, wrathful temper, trapped in his ignorance.

Cf: The Anatomy of Violence by the neurocriminologist Adrian Raine.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16113422-the-anatomy-of-violence#:~:text=In%20The%20Anatomy%20of%20Violence,key%20culprit%20in%20crime%20causation.

I can appreciate Dr. Raine's biological assessment, even of himself. But to reject depth psychology and working with psychic phenomena as Jung did in getting to the causes is irresponsible. Medication should be a last resort and used sparingly. The collective suppression of psychological issues makes it worse. What goes down, will come back up worse than before, as Jung observed, until it is properly addressed. The increase of neurosis and psychosis may be symptomatic of this suppression. Working with dreams, especially in meditation, was Jung's prescription.

I had to caution Dr. Raine for stating: "It's medieval and regressive to attribute violence to demons." He essentially threw out the wealth of empirical literature of world mythologies and sacred scriptures, as well as personal experiences of those like Jung. He emphasized in the foreword of his last book how "the black beast will manifest," if we remain ignorant of our evil. Those of us who have heard and seen these frightful beasts, know that they are not to be trifled with. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell later emphasized this, in traveling the labyrinth of our psyche. One can end up like The Exorcist. Or St. Peter. God will grant Satan his wish because of our ignorance of evil. Or worse, our denial of it.

Jung felt he had failed, when it's a collective refusal to know the evil in us.

Jesus prayed for deliverance to His dying day.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/588138.The_Hero_With_a_Thousand_Faces

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93950.Mysterium_Coniunctionis

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As Michael showed from news reports, the kid tried to buy ammo online. The police should've been called for that alone.

It's not clear why social services or a school social worker weren't called after the disturbing pictures and that it was well-known that his parents had bought a firearm for him for Christmas.

Michigan gun laws allow for this, in accordance with US ATF Federal law.

However, the failure to secure the firearm is why the parents need to be charged. But here again, Michigan doesn't require parents to secure firearms from children, only when going to and from a shooting range. Efforts to revise these laws have been defeated by GOP Republicans.

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/guide/michigan-firearms-statutes-and-codes/download

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“Rather, the Adults amazingly sent Ethan back to his class. Maybe they did so with their thoughts and prayers…”. Michael, another well written and to the point essay. Thoughts and prayers are getting us no where. Unfortunately, I have no hope that this country will ever change. If 20 murdered 1st graders didn’t do it, nothing ever will. NOTHING.

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And why did nobody check his backpack 🙄

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I think if you buy a gun for your kid or even if you have guns in the house and send that child to school, you need to notify the school. maybe that violates individual rights, but it might make schools safer.

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Absolutely!

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I want to understand why Americans tolerate school massacres, but I just don’t get it. None of it.

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“Replacement theory.” This is idea, popular among white supremacist circles, posits that “immigrants are being brought in to replace native-born (read: White) Americans.” 🤠 Replacing this family with hard working, decent immigrants sure gets my vote!

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One of the reasons for this fear is the drop in white births.

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“For the first time ever, the portion of White people could dip below 60 percent and the under-18 population is likely to be majority non-White. ... Estimates from 2016 to 2020 show that all of the country’s population growth during that period came from increases in people of color. The largest and most steady gains were among Hispanics, who have doubled their population share over the past three decades to almost 20 percent and who are believed to account for half of the nation’s growth since 2010.”

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I would say that the cause of the lower number of births is economic. What's disturbing is the poor used to have more children and that is no longer true. So even with this fact, the cause is still economic.

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Xenophobia is curable for those so fearful and hateful of anyone different from them.

Fortunately, most of our immigrant ancestors refused to hate and contended with those who did, much like we are now. It's good to have a Walden Pond to go to, now and then.

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The NRA won't rest until everyone is armed with a nuclear warhead in their backyard.

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I wonder if Russia is supporting NRA, divided as our country is. Wouldn't surprise me.

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Russian Honey Pot, Maria Butina admitted she infiltrated the NRA. 😎

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I am involved in political activism and it is a fact that Russia is working through social media in an effort to further divide us and break down our democratic system. Putin prefers a strategy of working behind the scenes than outright war. I don’t know that the NRA has ever needed outside support, but it’s very possible.

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I know very well. You are not aware that I have been actively involved with Ukrainians in Paris, and Amnesty International and read the Novaia Gazeta, Russia’s dissident newspaper, knowing one of the journalists. I may have more knowledge on the subject than you. And yes, I already read the article. I subscribe to the paper.

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In Ms. Crumbley's letter to Trump, she complains about her family's economic struggles. Gee, shouldn't expensive military-grade weapons and ammo be among the FIRST things to cut out of the budget?

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I don’t understand why this keeps happening. I’m Canadian. There are millions of homes with guns in this country. Somehow we don’t murder one another on a daily basis. We have militia groups,the mob,poverty,joblessness,the homeless,millions of immigrants so I am flummoxed. I’m hoping somebody can explain this.

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Michael has, beginning with his epic film Bowling for Columbine.

Warning signs are ignored, access to guns isn't regulated enough, etc..

Here in Colorado and elsewhere, law enforcement is often made aware, but warrants aren't issued to investigate. With Columbine, a warrant was issued but then they buried it, which Jefferson County tried to deny until the local paper, The Denver Post, uncovered it.

The need for interventions to address or medicate anger issues has yet to happen.

Especially in cases like this and the Sandy Hook school massacre that Michael described.

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80% of the individuals that perpetrate mass shootings are in a state of crisis with noticeable signs such as “increased aggression, or a fracturing from reality, a failure to perform daily tasks.”

• 50% of shooters are suicidal, which “changes the way we approach them from a prevention standpoint.”

• Early childhood trauma was common in the lives of mass shooters.

These patterns offer intervention points where parents/caregivers, teachers, pediatricians, and others can help link youths in crisis with support systems.

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It does take a team effort in caring for someone to keep it from getting worse. I've encountered a few. We all have issues to identify and address. We are more able to assist others when we do.

Rage can be lightning that brings a rain of tears from wounds yet to be healed, just letting someone know we care for them. When the would-be Georgia shooter walked into school with a shotgun, a teacher calmly asked, "What is wrong?" The young man cried, "Nobody loves me!" She then said, "I'll love you, if you let me." It usually takes a woman's touch, as most of us knew from our mothers.

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Canadian law is much stricter and does not recognize the right of owning and carrying a gun, unlike the US Constitution. In Canada, background checks are more meticulous and there are restrictions regarding open and concealed carry.

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Laws only apply to law abiding citizens.We have all the elements that get blamed for shootings in the USA. I left out drug crimes and domestic abuse. If you want a gun here,you can get one. Throw it under the seat of a truck or the trunk of a car. Mass murder in Portapique,Nova Scotia a couple of years ago.Look it up. What is it about Canada that makes us so different ?The bulk of the population lives within 100 miles of the USA border.Easy access to guns in the USA is part of the problem but it goes deeper than that. Last year a member of a crime family was shot in broad daylight in a mall parking lot.It occurred about 20 miles from where I live.Targeted hit. We don’t have a culture of fear that is stoked on the nightly news.Much higher percentage of adults have post secondary education. The main thing you get from that education is the ability to consider facts.Instead of saying the BBB plan is going to cost umpty trillion dollars….say a cost of $2 a day ( example not fact) for every American for the next 10 years will give you some nice things. Just a thought.

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Mass murders happen occasionally outside the US, but it’s the lack of gun control that makes it a frequent occurrence.

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I live in Europe and can’t understand either, except that I have witnessed (in my long life!) dehumanization in the US that hasn’t existed here to the same degree. It’s making its way here too, but not everywhere.

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What a vulgar woman! No one saw the need to get that boy help? Instead they buy him a deadly weapon? What is wrong with this country? Why do these mothers buy their children guns? If she is complaining about her finances, I suppose that gun was not inexpensive or the ammunition. Lock her up and she will get three meals a day compliments of the Federal prison system and not have to worry about her income. What happened to buying a 15 year old a guitar or a set of drums for Christmas?? I must be from another world, another time, as I truly do not understand this country and it is NOT what I have for 68 years thought it was. And yes, if he had been someone other than a white boy, he would have been handed over to the police and not allowed back in school. As I have always known this is a racist country. My heart breaks once again! for the families of these four children who will forever be missed. This has to stop!! As someone said, if 20 first graders did nothing to stop this madness, what will it take?

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The Crumbleys need to be held accountable! Children should never have access to guns, plain and simple. It is actually harder for kids to rent a car — they have to wait until they’re age 25, than it is to buy, own and operate guns. This is some serious sick stuff… Just think if they had bought their son an AR-15 for Christmas, what then??? Oh, excuse me, my bad, in that case he could’ve pulled a “Rittenhouse” and went to a Black Lives Matter protest….

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Once again, you say out loud what’s simmering in my mind. I thought as well of the Sandy Hook tragedy and the sad life of the shooter there. The response to Sandy Hook and lack of response are almost as tragic as the event itself. This time I’m struck by the complete lack of coverage for the devastated families and children who will never grow up. All the attention is around the gun!

November 8th I wrote a rant about this, on substack, MaureenB. “The Angry Mob is Outside‼️

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The Ununited States of America is making my brain hurt. One week a boy leaves his house, his town, his state with an AK something, murders people and is almost deemed as a hero defending himself and doesn't even get a slap on the wrist and his parents hardly gets a mention. The next week a boy leaves his home with a weapon, kills people and gets charged as an adult and maybe life in prison. Nothing makes sense anymore ,anyhow, anyway.

Michael, thank you for your service in fighting the war against stupid. You are my hero. I don't know how you do it.

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White privilege, for sure. why didn't they check his back pack??

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This country is hopelessly, malignantly sick, Michael, as cancer with metastases is NOT cured. It is impossible to remove that malignant tumor, just as it is impossible to remove the Fatal 2nd Amendment from the Constitution. You know that well.

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It's why Michael said to start ignoring them and get our people elected.

We have hope for 2022 and 2024. We just need to make our voices heard.

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I am a mental health provider who works with children and adolescents. Our first priority for a child who expresses homicidal or suicidal thoughts is to ensure safety for the child and those around him -- which always explicitly includes preventing access to firearms. In New York State, where I live, most of the time parents will comply with a request to secure a firearms, if only temporarily. But in this situation, even if anyone had thought of that, would the parents have agreed? Of course the school officials could have just contacted law enforcement, either way. Sadly, we all know that the distorted culture of gun-love is the reason that the tragedy played out as it did. We are making our children expendable.

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"My life is useless.

The world is dead.

The thoughts won’t stop.

Help me."

This breaks my heart! A tragedy in so many ways.

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List of school shootings since 2000:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States

(click on the link for school shootings for the 20th century)

Note the drastic increase in the 1970's post Vietnam.

I started having nightmares in the early 80's of being killed.

The FBI claims there were 277 active shooter incidents from 2000-2018:

https://www.fbi.gov/about/partnerships/office-of-partner-engagement/active-shooter-incidents-graphics

Michael and all others are right about better gun legislation and interventions as in other countries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/23/mass-shootings-response-other-countries-gun-laws/

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Wow more than 1 a month for 18 years. that's really sad.

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