This Week’s School Shooting

The 19-year-old gunman who killed a teacher and a 15-year-old girl at a St Louis high school on Monday was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition. Back in July, the House passed a bill that would raise the age of ownership of such assault weapons to 21. A similar bill has languished in the filibuster-plagued Senate, thanks to Republicans.

Monday’s school shooting was the 40th this year resulting in injuries or death, according to Education Week.

Missouri, which allows open or concealed carry of firearms without a permit or background check, has one of the highest gun death rates in the nation.

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Democrats Focus on Marjorie Taylor Greene like a ‘Jewish Space Laser’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, GA-14), the congresswoman from QAnon, has denied the reality of the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings, so naturally her fellow Republicans have put her on the House Education Committee. She also also thinks California’s wildfires were caused by secret Jewish space lasers, so maybe Republicans will put her on the Forestry Subcommittee, too. Democrats, appalled by this and her other conspiracy beliefs about 9/11 and international Zionist plots, and her rabid racism and Islamophobia, are calling for a vote to expell Ms. Taylor Greene from the House. This is milder treatment than the congresswoman has suggested for Democrats: execution.

Ms. Taylor Greene

More:

“Parents of Sandy Hook victims slam Taylor Greene’s appointment to Education Committee,” Lexi Lonas, The Hill

“GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“How Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, promoter of QAnon’s baseless theories, rose with support from key Republicans,” Michael Kranish, Reis Thebault and Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post

“The Republican establishment’s long dalliance with the conspiracist right,” Zack Beauchamp, Vox

“QAnon Fears That Greene’s Obsession with Jewish Space Lasers Is Distracting Her from Battling Baby-Eating Cannibals,’ Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

Update:

“McConnell says ‘loony lies’ spread by Marjorie Taylor Greene are a ‘cancer’ on G.O.P.,” Catie Edmondson, New York Times

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K-12 in 2020: Virtual Active-Shooter Drills

In the pandemic year of 2020, children’s homes became their classrooms as America’s K-12 education went online. The curriculum included school active-shooter drills, required by law in most states. Lesson objective: in America’s gun culture, even your kitchen table isn’t safe. Will this be on the test?

More:

“Active-Shooter Drills Look Pretty Weird Over Zoom,” Monica Chin, The Verge

“School Shooting Drills Have Gone Virtual,” Dan Kois, Slate

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American Ritual

“A Unique American Ritual: The School Shooting,” a short video from the New York Times.

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More Than a Single March

Gun violence marches this weekend span the entire country, and over 800 places around the world.

What can be done? The Parkland students have some ideas.

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School Shootings

What students think about school shootings. A Vox video.

More:

“Parkland Students: Our manifesto to fix America’s gun laws,” The Guardian

Follow the March for Our Lives with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Eagle Eye

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187,000 students experienced school gun violence since Columbine

More than 187,000 students at nearly 200 U.S. schools have experienced gun violence during school hours since the 1999 Columbine shooting. A Washington Post analysis found that there have been 10 school shootings a year since Columbine. There have already been 11 shootings in 2018.

Read the analysis:

“Scarred by school shootings,” John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, Washington Post

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Guns for Teachers

“It’s no wonder the NRA likes this solution — it involves buying hundreds of thousands of guns, and that’s their solution to everything.” — John Oliver

More on this topic here.

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Trump School Safety Plan

After last week’s tragic shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, President Trump determined how to stop  further school shootings: give teachers guns. The idea was met with horror and roundly condemned by the teachers’ union, law enforcement, military veterans, individual teachers, and students.

Mr. Trump claims that 20% of K-12 teachers are military veterans, but the number is closer to 1%. The president says that “gun-adept” teacher vets should get a “small bonus” for packing heat in the classroom, and claims he can find the money to do so, at a time when teachers have to pay for student supplies out of their own pockets.

More:

Want to know why arming instructors is a bad idea? Hear from a former teacher,”  Monica Rhor, Houston Chronicle 

“What happens to teaching and learning if educators holster 9mm Glocks on their waistbands?” Valerie Strauss, Washington Post

“’No way’: Three teachers explain why Trump’s proposal to arm teachers won’t work,” Heather Timmons and Caitlin Hu, Quartz

“Gov. Rick Scott opposed to arming teachers with firearms.” Jeffrey Solochek, Tampa Bay Times

“Former RNC chair: Trump suggestion to arm teachers is ‘delusional.’” Brandon Carter, The Hill

“Trump Blames Gun-Free Zones for School Shootings, Echoing Myth Spread by NRA,” Robert Mackey, The Intercept

“Trump’s push to arm teachers gives the NRA what it wants and highlights GOP radicalization,” James Hohmann, Washington Post

“Arming teachers isn’t just a ridiculous idea. It’s a deliberate distraction.” German Lopez, Vox

Update:

“Seaside High teacher accidentally fires gun in class, students injured,” Amy Larson, KBSW-TV

Related:

“5 Ways the Trump Budget Undermines Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Efforts,” Chelsea Parsons and Scott Sargrad, Center for American Progress

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18th US School Shooting of 2018

17 are dead and at least 15 others wounded at a Florida high school after a former student returned to campus with an assault rifle on Wednesday. This is the 18th school shooting in the first 45 days of 2018. Wednesday’s school shooting in Broward County’s Parkland is the 10th deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. So far. The Republican congress continues working to further weaken America’s gun laws.

Wednesday’s alleged high school shooter, a former JROTC member who was on the school rifle team, showed obvious signs of instability while he was still a student, according to former classmates: “All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting.” “I’ve seen him wear a Trump hat.”

More:

“Florida School Shooting: ‘No Words’ as 17 Die in a Barrage of Bullets,” Audra D.S. Burch and Patricia Mazzei, New York Times

“17 People Died In The Parkland Shooting. Here Are Their Names,” Laurel Wamsley, NPR

“Trump, Who Made It Easier for Mentally Ill People to Buy Guns, Blames Mental Health Issues for Florida Shooting,” Inae Oh, Mother Jones

“Trump Calls For Mental Health Action After Shooting; His Budget Would Cut Programs,” Vanessa Romo, NPR

“President Trump’s Victim-Blaming Response to the Mass Shooting in Florida,” Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker

“White House refuses to release photo of Trump gun law repeal,” BBC News

“American Carnage,” Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic

“Student who survived Florida shooting pleads with Trump and Congress: ‘Please, take action,’” Kristine Phillips, Washington Post

“Teacher who survived school shooting breaks down in tears calling for gun control,” Rebecca Savransky, The Hill

“School safety money would be slashed in Trump budget,” Kimberly Hefling, Politico

“Report: Florida Shooting Suspect Nikolas Cruz Passed Background Check for AR-15,” Daily Beast

“Most Americans can buy an AR-15 rifle before they can buy beer,” Lois Beckett, The Guardian

“The AR-15: ‘America’s rifle’ or illegitimate killing machine?” Marc Fisher, Washington Post

“All the things Fox News blamed the Parkland shooting on other than the gun,” Adam Epstein, Quartz

“Laws we used to have on the books could have prevented the Florida school shooting,” Robert J. Spitzer, Washington Post

“It’s time to bring back the assault weapons ban, gun violence experts say,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post

“Shooting suspect was on school rifle team that got NRA grant,” Michael Biesecker and Collin Binkley, Associated Press

“After Sandy Hook we said never again. And then we let 1,607 mass shootings happen.” German Lopez, Ryan Mark and Soo Oh, Vox

“After Sandy Hook, More Than 400 People Have Been Shot in Over 200 School Shootings,” Jugal K. Patel, New York Times

“The normalization of America’s school shootings, in one chart,” Ana Campoy, Quartz

“After Sandy Hook, More Than 400 People Have Been Shot in Over 200 School Shootings,” Jugal K. Patel, New York Times

“This is America: 9 out of 10 public schools now hold mass shooting drills for students,” Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

“Before FL Shooting, NRA Posted Valentine Featuring Guns And Bullets,” Cristina Cabrera, TPM Livewire

“The NRA Is a Terrorist Organization,” Michael Harriot, The Root

“The gun lobby: See how much your representative gets,” Tyler Fisher,  Sarah Frostenson, and Lily Mihalik, Politico

“The NRA’s step-by-step playbook for responding to a mass shooting,” Heather Timmons, Quartz

Related:

“Five types of gun laws the Founding Fathers loved,” Saul Cornell, The Conversation

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