School shooting in Minnesota

[Green Gaia]

Teen kills 9 at Minnesota high school, home
Boy apparently then killed self; he reportedly made threats earlier

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7259823/&GT1=6305

 

[michel]

Well, introduce the human being into the world, and that's what you get!!:banghead3

 

[Green Gaia]

Sad story to happen anywhere, but this is what caught my attention:

‘Darkest hour' for tribe
Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, called it “without a doubt the darkest hour” in the group’s history.

It was the nation’s worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.

The rampage in Red Lake was the second fatal school shooting in Minnesota in 18 months. Two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring in September 2003. Student John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time, awaits trial in the case.

Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, has about 300 students.

The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state. According to the 2000 census, 5,162 people lived on the reservation, and all but 91 were Indians.

 

[robtex]

It will be interesting to see the investigation unfold. I would be surprised if nobody was aware of it before he went on his shooting spree.

As a country, the USA, has a very unhealthy mentality when it comes to guns and incidents like this are a by-product of our gun culture. I remember a national tv station one day put an unloaded 38 pistol in school with a hidden video cam and watched the students. The kids kept picking it up over and over again throughout the day with one kid grabbing the pistol 10 times in one day. The news station asked him why he grabbed the gun so many times and he said, "He couldn't help it". I don't know how honest his answer is but I do feel that many of my neigbors equate guns to power and control and the feeling it gives them of protection and being in control is not unusual but closer to the norm. It is a small step from giving one a sense of self control and a need to control others.


Very few schools in small rural towns have metal detectors in them and I am thinking this one had them because of past troubles. I wonder what the perception of the killer's classmates were of the him say a month or so before the shootings and what the perceptions of his parents and grandparents were?

I am a big fan of Galvin De Becker and something he articulates in great detail is that in violent crimes where the victim and attacker know one another it is rare that the victim had not conceptualized the assult ahead of time measured in days weeks months or even years. He suggests in his book, "The Gift of Fear" that alot of victims go through denial at the early stages of their interaction or at least with the notion of , "I hope it doesn't happen" instead of taking steps to insure or enhance their safety.

I guess in this case nobody is really talking yet .since so little info is posted but I am sure the media will dig to get a story and think good things will come of this as it will probably become apparent that the shooting was possible to predict and that it is possible thatthe school and parents of the shooter played the denial game until after the incident.

 

[Dr. Nosophoros]

I'd like to say one more sociopath for the fire, but looking at his family history according to that story, father committed suicide, mother in the hospital for brain injuries, overall its just one more sad tale to me not to mention the victims and their families. I think it's easy to judge but I don't think heavy metal music, admiration of hitler ( I myself admire Hitler in a few ways but overall no) "Goth" culture etc. had anything to do with it, this is someone that had a lot of problems and they acted out. MOA

 

[Lookingformeaning]

Great, now I bet we will have a check at our High School where we have to go through metal detectors and they check our bags and coats. And we have to wait in the cold weather for like 30 minutes...yeah. lol It is sad though that kids would do stuff like that, really sad.

 

[Green Gaia]

I wonder what this kid was going through to make him come to this end. Emotionally stable people don't do things like this.

 

[jewscout]

I wonder what this kid was going through to make him come to this end. Emotionally stable people don't do things like this.

i know what it was...Ozzy and too much "Natural Born Killers"
you can always boil it down to the media as being responisible for underminding our society and its morals!:banghead3 :banghead3

 

[Green Gaia]

i know what it was...Ozzy and too much "Natural Born Killers"
you can always boil it down to the media as being responisible for underminding our society and its morals!:banghead3 :banghead3

No, I don't think so. I think it's wrong to blame the media in cases like this. Millions of other kids watch and listen to that stuff, and they don't go on killing sprees. There's something else that makes these kids do this. But perhaps it is that something else that attracts these kids to "darker" media like you mentioned. But I do not believe the media is the root cause.

 

[jewscout]

No, I don't think so. I think it's wrong to blame the media in cases like this. Millions of other kids watch and listen to that stuff, and they don't go on killing sprees. There's something else that makes these kids do this. But perhaps it is that something else that attracts these kids to "darker" media like you mentioned. But I do not believe the media is the root cause.

sorry apparently the sarcasm didn't come through on that one...
I think my imagination is broke. Here let me try and think of the best thing ever...uhhh beef ummmm stew...yep it's busted alright...

I think that media has little to do w/ what's going on w/ school shootings and more to do w/...crazy

 

[Green Gaia]

sorry apparently the sarcasm didn't come through on that one...

Actually, it did I just wanted to respond to that in general, because it's always brought up after something like this happens.

 

[Lightkeeper]

It's so sad and it can happen anywhere. There was never a thought of anything like this happening when I went to school. It must be frightening for the students, parents and teachers. I wonder how often they think of this possibility.