Map of 74 school shootings since Newtown

Actually, no. Our murder rate is much higher than most (except a few countries, notably Mexico). Our rape rate is pretty high, too (though a lot less than Australia and Sweden). Where other countries outdo the U.S. is assault, robbery, burglary and car theft.

http://www.civitas.org.uk/crime/crime_stats_oecdjan2012.pdf

 

So we shouldn't worry about school shootings because of the legitimate problem of campus sexual assault (and cover-up)?

Is that your point?

 

It's a lot better than 74, isn't it?

74, just the size of the number is what generated headlines, and the focus of the media elite. Take a look at the twitter feed of the guy who "debunked" some of these shootings. He re-tweeted a bunch of high profile media members who were seizing on the number 74.

If the number was 41, would this have gotten as much attention?

It's propaganda, and people fell for it. And, it's disgusting to me that people will defend political propaganda because the underlying point it was trying to make is supposedly a good one.

They're not news because they are not the kind of random acts that scare the shit out of people. Networks, and local stations, won't get great helicopter footage of scared white kids filing out of their school. The soccer moms that the media tries to scare on a regular basis (on any number of topics) won't care about most of these shootings because they won't relate to them.

Plus, the kids involved are mostly African-American, and don't live in tree lined suburbs, so no one gives a shit, especially in the media.

 

We can worry about them. But, the odds your child will be shot at school in a random shooting, are infinitesimal.

In 2001, the media was worked up about shark attacks. It was the "Summer of the Shark". Should we really have been worried, or was it bull shit?

 

Seeing the forest through the trees would be a nice change of pace.

 

Clearly the solution is to outlaw education. :

 

9% of our population has diabetes. Another 33% is pre-diabetic.

Most of these cases are preventable.

But, let's spend all of our time worried about the slim chance there will be a school shooting at your kid's school.

 

Yeah, the nation is so not-worried about diabetes, preventive screenings, thanks to the ACA, are available to insured patients at no out-of-pocket cost.

http://www.diabeteseducator.org/export/sites/aade/_resources/Advocacy/AADE_Affordable_Care_Act_Flyer.pdf

The nation is so not-worried about diabetes, the CDC has a public-private program aimed at prevention.

http://www.cdc.gov/DIABETES/prevention/index.htm

Thanks to the NRA and its legislative allies, the CDC is legally barred (has been since 1997) from studying firearms injuries and deaths. So I guess, in your mind, that helps give it more time to worry about diabetes.

 

This makes them acceptable, then.

 

LOL. OK. The media coverage of "school shootings" is directly proportional to the threat.

Let's be honest, TV news is driven by visual stories. And, school shootings provide great pictures, and almost by definition, can be edited in time for the evening news cast, and/or carried live.

We get the great shots of kids lined up, coming out of the school. We get police in combat gear. We get worried parents.

This is TV Nirvana.

Covering a diabetes epidemic doesn't translate well to TV.

Even something like the Boko Haram kidnappings was a terrible TV story. If there had been video of the girls being loaded onto trucks, TV would have been all over it.

Instead, the media had to be shamed into covering it. And, they used pictures, like the First Lady holding up a sign saying #bringbackourgirls to tell the story.

 

Media coverage of Powerball is indirectly proportional to the chance of winning.

 

I'm a proponent of (reasonable) gun control but I can't really classify Person A being determined to kill Person B and the fact a gun was used at a school is really just happenstance as a "school shooting." And when they are lumped into an article about "school shootings" it makes me question the credibility of said report.

It's akin to me having a beer, dropping dead from a preexisting condition, like a blood clot not at all caused by alcohol, then someone saying I drank myself to death.