During this time of great tragedy, American Atheists along with the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics (SOMA, a SSA affiliate and University of Kansas Student Organization) and We Are Atheism, have decided to come together to raise funds for the children and their families affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The families that have been hurt did not plan for their child’s funeral, no parent does. None of us would have ever thought to have money saved for the great expense of a funeral for any of our children. The money you donate will go directly to the Sandy Hook Elementary families for funeral expenses and counseling for the survivors of the shooting and their families. Now it is your turn to show that there are more of those who love and care for their fellow community members than those who would kill mercilessly.
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There is one major dimension to school shootings, including the Sandy Hook shootings that is overlooked. The shooter has had some history with the school. There are reports that Adam Lanza was a student at Sandy Hook years back. THe COlumbine massacre too, the shooter was also a longtime participant with the Columbine school environment. The Kentucky shootings too were carried out by students. The opposite of these three examples is a 1970s Clint Eastwood movie where a psychotic gunman kidnaps a school bus of school children as the bus rolls through the San Francisco Hills, putting the school children lives in jeopardy. Interestingly that scenario has never developed with school shooting rampages because the psychotic killer in the movie had no prior history with the school the bus riding school children were a part of. THis dimension leaves the issue that schools operate in large part similar to prison systems, where the teachers spend enormous amount of time controlling the children and assessing discplinary problems in the school.. The Sandy Hook principal was known being tough, a characterization similar to a prison warden. The only difference with day and day out regimented school environment, the inmates (or students) have access to guns while they go through the daily school experience of like being in a prison. Such long periods of time spent in such a controlling environment has most likely a psychological effect on the memories and experiences of such individuals as Adam Lanza and the other shooters in the other school shootings. Hence the question as deteriorated as the mores of society has become down through the past decades a simple issue to consider, is it worth really operating the public school system anymore since the system is not capable of handling the tsunami waves of social problems that beset the system.
One more followup on the previous Harry Horton post> The Cleveland School massacre in Stockton California on January 17, 1989 by a mentally ill man called Purdy is very interesting. The wikipedia article: “Cleveland School massacre – wikipedia” relates much interesting facts on this shooting. To excerpt some of the major facts concerning the man Purdy (Forgot his first name)who carried out the shootings, the following information comes from the wikipedia article> > [Purdy had a long criminal history, which began during early adolescence….In June 1980, he was first arrested at age 15 for a court order violation….article goes on to the areas of: underage drinking, prostitution, marijuana possession, drug dealing and possession of an illegal weapon and receipt of stolen property. He was an accomplice of an armed robbery. He was psychiatrically assessed as mildly mentally retarded. At the weeks before the school massacre Purdy bought a Chinese Type 56 fire arm he used in shooting at Sandy Trading Post in Sandy California in the weeks before the school massacre.. Later he used this type of weapon in killing school children in the Cleveland School shootings in Stockton California. The fascinating facts of the killer, Purdy, in the above parade of character disorders that stemmed from or fueled in large part from alcoholism and drug addictions is the fact that when Purdy’s adolescence starts he starts himself on a string of all sorts of violations, ranging from court oder violations to later armed robbery and drug dealing, which are fairly serious offenses. By the time one reads all of these criminal and character disorder traits and actions of Purdy one would think that here we have a troubled, drug and alcohol addictied individual, who has grown into something of a delusional psychotic killer. A lone gunman who wakes up one day in a delusional state of mind fueled by drugs and alcohol with emotional frustrations and delusions of substantial severity and simply he goes to a school he randomly picks out the blue and guns down several children. Creating a hoffifying felony riven taking of lives of innocents. Hence a lone gunman, drug and alcoholic addicted, with a string of serious character disorders and criminal violations. Lone, singular, no connection to the school, just a psychotic killer who picks a random school scene environment, a playground at Cleveland School in Stockton California where he carried out the heinous action.
But guess what, that scenario is totally false. The police investigation later turned up the information that Purdy was a student at Cleveland School in kindergarten to second grade. Leaving the most debatable issue, that the over riding factor for why the students were massacred at Cleveland school had nothing to do with any of the multitude of mental problems and addictions of Purdy along with his string of criminal violations with the law, and his character problems. But rather the major highly weighted fact, that he was a participant and student at Cleveland School in his kindergarten years to the second grade. In other words if he were not a student at Cleveland School during those years he would not have carried out the massacre at Cleveland School. That factor would totally outweigh the sum total of addictions, character disorders and criminal acts that he owned –up until the time of the January shooting in 1989 at the schoolyard in Stockton Ca. And a random lone gunman totally unconnected to the school, Purdy was not. Its an interesting issue to ponder.
As if money can replace a precious six year old chlid.
As if people who live in nice houses need a handout.