Opinion Will I Die Today In A School Shooting?

Link (Archive)

Will I Die Today In A School Shooting?​

Will I die today in a school shooting? Did teenagers today attending Applachee High School in Winder, Georgia, ask themselves that this morning? As I write, four are dead and nine injured by a school shooting.

A pastor friend of mine, Rev. Jarmo Tarki, asked his teenage confirmands: what are the existential questions that deeply concern you? Recall that existential questions are life and death questions. They ask: will I exist or not? Here are two dramatic ones on their list.

1. When I go to school today, am I likely to die from bullets shot by a school shooter?
2. Will Earth support me in my old age? Or will global warming and ecological destruction so pollute the oceans and the atmosphere that I will either starve to death or suffocate from lack of fresh air to breathe? Will the present generation so deplete the planet of nonrenewable resources that nothing will be left for me and my children?

In this Patheos post, let’s deal with the first: will I die today in a school shooting? We’ll take up the second question in another Patheos post.

Is today the day I will die in a school shooting?​

First, fear that our death may be imminent creates uncontrollable anxiety. To eat breakfast and then go to school worried that today might be the day – well, that’s unbearable.

Second, our fear of a school shooting raises a moral issue. Not for the teenagers. Rather, there is a moral responsibility on the shoulders of the older generation, namely, to keep schools safe. This responsibility has been shirked. Those investors who make a financial profit off gun and ammunition sales benefit from the anxiety generated out of fear for the next school shooting. And the will of these investors has prevailed.

Which is more important: big profit or victims of school shooting? Our nation has made a choice. This choice leaves our teenagers with existential questions such as: will I die today in a school shooting?

Blog posts on school shootings and related massacres​

For details on the moral issue, try one of these.

Gun Safety Prevarication and Legislation

America’s Two Killing Fields

A Billion Bucks for Bullets and Blood

Two Mass Shootings Per Day

School Shootings Meet AR-15 Lapel Pins

Conclusion​

The deep anxiety rising up out of existential questions can be tortuous. When a teenager asks – will I die today in a school shooting? – my heart breaks.

My wife, Karen, and I wear tee shirts that read: “we can end gun violence.” We can. But we don’t. Is this the human condition?

 

[Mike Matei's Penis]

You might if there's a Kingdom Hearts obsessed pooner around and you're a Christian kid.

 

[Otterly]

Kids don't even think about this shit. It reminds me of when I was a child post 9/11. All the adults were losing it, but the mentality the kids had were more along the lines of: "WTF does a building in New York have to do with me?"

I keep telling people this. I see people around me agonising about ‘how do I discuss racism with my kids?’ You look at their kids and there’s a small posse of girls playing ponies in the corner utterly unaware that one is Syrian. They don’t care. Do not give a single hoot about it. They either like a kid or they don’t.
I try to point out that the very idea of racism and ‘big issues’ is adult baggage that has no business being foisted on children.
If there is a genuine reason to know then you explain in the least dramatic, least fussy way possible. Don’t scare them.
During Covid, my kids came home from school having been told it was the end of the world and they were quite distressed about that. Had to tell them ‘it’s a really bad cold/flu. Some grown ups get really silly about these things, but IT IS OK. You’ll be fine, we should be considerate and not sneeze on grandma, so if you have the sniffles let me know so we can delay our visits to her ok? Make sure you wash your hands when you come in from school.’
That was it. We all got Covid, and they were fine and that was that. ‘Was that it?’ Yes, that was it. Some people might get sicker if they’re very old.
You do not need to, and should not, be filling children’s heads with adult baggage about sexuality, racism, global warming, climate change or any of the other scare stuff.
I have been shouted at for this opinion and told I was no longer welcome somewhere because of it. People are nuts.

 

[FuluFuckwit]

No.

You will die in a drunk driving incident.
It will be me driving the car that strikes you. I will have downed five four lokos and two redbulls by the time I arrive at your location.

 

[Seething Troon Collector]

Those investors who make a financial profit off gun and ammunition sales benefit from the anxiety generated out of fear for the next school shooting. And the will of these investors has prevailed.

Psycho kid decides to do crazy shit and shoot up a school. Talking heads and disingenuous politicians talk about all of this crazy gun grabbing shit they want to do. Lie with statistics, twist the definition of things, and stand on top of bodies that aren't even cold to retroactively take a constitutionally guaranteed right from you. As a result, people suddenly want to build up their gun collection, because they distrust said disingenuous politicians.

That's the non-emotionally charged translation for this bullshit.

When I go to school today, am I likely to die from bullets shot by a school shooter?

No. You're more likely to die in an accident or a terminal disease. Most people die this way.

If it's gun related deaths specifically, you're more likely to be involved in or get caught in the middle of a friendly argument between street gangs, a robbery, a carjacking, a violent end to a drug deal, or other criminal activities if you are black.

If you are white, statistically, the biggest danger a gun poses is if you decide to shoot yourself in the fucking head with it. There's also always the chance that you're the victim of a criminal act and shot as well. If you're white trash, reference the previous statement.

I'm filing accidental shootings, under the accident category and am not even considering it here. Get better trigger discipline and know where the muzzle is pointing at all times. Ignore this advice at your own peril.

School shootings are rare events that are given lots of media attention to manipulate people and create a false narrative for universal disarmament. It's a rare event when it happens, it's tragic, it's used as a foundation to construct a psyop machine. Notice how every argument any grabber makes after a rare event like this happens is an emotionally charged screed like this that lacks any valid factual basis. Numbers are made up, lies are told with statistics, etc.

Imagine if we did that with regular gun violence, often committed with handguns. People would demand that cities like New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, etc. would be quarantined and placed under martial law.


Overall, here's the thing. Guns are tools. They're not evil. They're not good. There is no room for debate anymore and I just don't discuss it. My position is clear. The Constitution is what it is. The interpretation of the Constitutional guarantees to own and employ firearms in accordance with lawful activities is clear. There is no room for argument. It is absolute.

Queue the:
Muh Nuclear Weapons!
Not a gun dipshit.

Muh Missles and Drones and Fighter Jets.
Also not a gun dipshit. You can even legally buy all of those. You can go out right now and buy a fucking fighter jet.

Think of the Children!
Nobody thinks of the children that get brutally murdered by illegal aliens, street crime, domestic violence, etc. Why is it only school shootings? Why don't people mobilize against feeding children a diet of processed food while taking away all opportunities to exercise and develop a sense of self and self reliance and healthy interpersonal relationships? When are we going to stop children from burying their face in front of an iPad from the cradle to the point that they don't have any fucking social skills?

It's not about the children, it's about the guns. You're just using children as a prop. If children weren't a prop, why did the Audrey Hale shooting get buried because the shooter was a mentally unstable member of the LGHDTV+++ cathedral.

I'm not giving up my guns. Go. Fuck. Yourself.

 

[dick brain]

If only.

 

[Happy Fish]

I'll be imagining that the author wrote this while loading his AR(Assault Rifle)-69 and dawning his black trenchcoat.

 

[LaxerBRO]

Will I die today in a school shooting?

There are 74.6 million minors in the US.
From 1999 to 2022 there have been 169 people killed in a school shooting.

Such about SEVEN (7) students are killed per year in a school shooting.

Over a course of 17 years, this is a 0.0000016 chance of dying in a school shooting.

---

Unless you have a crippling fear of other issues that present a 0.0000016 chance of dying, I think you will be fine.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

My wife, Karen, and I wear tee shirts that read: “we can end gun violence.” We can. But we don’t. Is this the human condition?

First...Karen? Really? LOL.

Second: It is just violence. It is not gun violence it is violence.

People kill other people. People especially kill other people when conditions impact their mental state and human life is valued just under gum mixed with pigeon shit on the bottom of your shoe.

If you really want to solve the problem you stop allowing schools to be soft targets. If I go to a courthouse or hospital my ass walks through a fucking metal detector. Why should schools be different?

You start addressing societal issues that are causing brain rot.

Two mass shootings a day
If you really cared you would be advocating for commonsense nigger control not gun control.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

If only.

Hope springs eternal.

 

[Flamin Park]

How about nobody goes to school, everybody stops working, nobody gets internet, nobody has guns and we can all sit at home in our basements and coddle our offspring 24/7 until we grow together into familial centipedes whereupon we will roam the streets finding other assholes to attach our faces to until the planet becomes one unified human spaghetti.

What do you call an act like that?

The twitristotroons!

 

[Standardized Profile]

It's possible, but mathematically, you almost certainly will not be in a school shooting or know anyone who has been in a school shooting at any point in your life. But you will probably be molested by a teacher.

 

[BulkForceFive]

You can shut this disingenuous bullshit down by pointing out you're more likely to be a victim of immigrant criminals than school shooters. Suddenly banning things won't solve problems, rights, etc etc.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

Idk do you go to school with a bunch of groids in the hood? No? Then statistically not. Too bad!

 

[Derka Derka]

Mugshots of the shooter

And a yearbook one

Someone posted an image of a deleted X account, but this looks to have been faked (the real account is a different person)

Looks like he comes from a fucked up family

 

[Archie_Kimkicker]

For decades, Patheos has been a wellspring for men who write like SSRI-addled single white women.

 

[Would]

Will I Die Today In A School Shooting?

I wish, but God is not so easily swayed to grant me my wishes.
Anyway, this wouldn't happen if teachers and senior High Schoolers were allowed to learn to pack heat.
My eldest learned gun safety, maintenance, and handling after turning 12.