By: Liberate Zealot
It's the first day of school in a lot of areas of the US. It is in my state and the surrounding ones. I had already intended to do a first day of school post, about gender neutral toys and play or something. Instead I'm posting about a school shooting.
During the first lunch period of the day there was a shooting in the cafeteria at Perry Hall High School in White Marsh, MD.
I didn't hear about it from the news, or the school alert system that lets me know of school emergencies in the area.
I heard about it from a co-worker, whose daughter was in the cafeteria when the shooter opened fire. She called her mom immediately after fleeing the building with the other students in the cafeteria.
Luckily the shooter is in custody and, as far as the news or my co-worker's daughter knows, there's only one victim. As of now the victim is alive and being treated at the hospital.
No names are being released as of yet, and the motivation of the shooter is pure speculation.
All I know is that the gun violence continues. A student has been injured. Thousands of people are scared for themselves and their loved ones. Thousands more are struggling with shock, worrying that this might happen to their school/students/children (themselves). Lock-downs and emergency plans will be practiced with a greater sense of fear and urgency.
And the count down for when we can seriously discuss better gun control laws without "politicizing a shooting" has restarted. For the forth time in two months.
I'm quite depressed as a friend of mine in the US, lovely peaceful guy, doesn't own a gun, is defending the Second Amendment on Facebook. Because it was seen as a defence against a tyrannical government, and from a peace-lovers' point of view, the US government is seeming quite awful. With the drones and Guantanamo Bay still and the Patriot Act and everything and corporations.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective, in the UK, the 2nd amendment seems pretty dire because of all the shootings. With there being far fewer shootings (per capita) here. (And to Americans who say, "But criminals will get hold of guns anyway", we do also have criminals here.)