The Children's Crusade: an answer to screaming kids

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Th:J

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The Children's Crusade by Th:J

People are terrible judges of risk.
This is a universal truth, but even more so for children, whose history of terrible decisions prove the necessity of restrictions on them. Because of children's history of bad decision making we restrict their access to automobiles, alcohol and firearms. We also restrict their access to voting. We do these things because we love our children. Children need time to gain the experience and maturity of adults - and even then as adults we accept that people are still poor judges of risk.

So why are grown adults now giving credence to the opinions of children on gun control? Maybe because rage trumps the simple analysis of risk, or perhaps because those who desire gun control assume strident cries from children will drown out reason and analysis. Children care about their own losses; very few of them have learned to care about the losses of others.

The simple truth is you are more likely to die from lightning¹ than a mass shooting in the United States.
Upset children raging over lightning strikes would be laughed off, because there isn't a liberal 1% lightning control lobby.
Perhaps we should find a better use for all of this rage. Instead of less than a hundred mass shooting deaths a year:

3,092 people were killed and 330,000 people were maimed by impaired drivers chatting on car phones last year² - a very large number of them happen to be very young drivers. Where's the children's rage at a failure they share?

52,000 people will die of Opioids this year³, as many as died in the entire Vietnam war- Where's the children's rage?

255,000 people will die this year from preventable medical errors nationwide. ᵝ Where's the children's rage?

650,000 people will die from the abuse of Tobacco and Alcohol, ᵟ many of them underage users. Where's the rage?

650,000 people will die from their rotten eating habits and lack of exercise, ᵟ many of them parents. Where's the rage?

The simple fact is that we are a 'free country' and part of being 'free' is people having the opportunity to make very bad decisions, and some of those decisions hurt other people. Only if we become a dictatorship can we eliminate these acts.

Now let us consider our fine government and how great it currently is.
The US Supreme court has found repeatedly that you have no right to protection by the police. ᶿ Where's the rage?
The US Supreme court has found that police can actively interfere with citizens saving a life. ᶵ Where's the children's rage?
The US Supreme court has found that one citizen has no responsibility to protect another. ᶺ Where's the children's rage?
You are three times more likely to be murdered (not a justified shooting) by police than a concealed gun permit holder. ῏
You are eight times more likely to be shot by the authorities than a terrorist.ᶶ Where is our children's rage?
The utter failure of our government to do its' job has not become the end of the American way of life precisely because we have a second amendment in our bill of rights and it affirms we have the right to bear arms and defend ourselves.
This is not a privilage, it is a right as sacred as free speech or the right to worship as you please, and no amount of screaming children can change those statistics or those legal decisions I am mentioning above. Any real change can only come when all of us feel rage at the massive failures of our government and the failures in ourselves.

When some of that misplaced childhood rage at their extremely unlikely misfortune gets applied to the enormous, ubiquitous and far more numerous problems of our society, perhaps a children's crusade will be worth listening to.

¹ NOAA 2018
² NTSB/NHTSA 2017, CBS news 12/2/02
³ AP news 12/9/16, CBS News 12/21/17
ᵝ Mayo Clinic, NEJM 1/13/17
ᵟ Nat'l Research Council & Inst of Medicine Sept 2015
ᶿ Warren v. DC and Castle Rock v. Gonzalez
ᶵ Sinthasomphone v. Milwaukee
ᶺ People v. Beardsley
῏ Gun Watch 10/7/13
ᶶ CATO institute 8/10/12
 
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I will repeat something I alread posted

We had small student walk outs locally covered in Wednesday's paper. The students were quoted as saying they wanted social media threats taken seriously, security beefed up, maybe metal detectors at entrances. They complained that some entrances were unlocked when most entrances require the students to swipe their student ID cards to open. The school (2,200 students) has two School Resource Officers SROs. At another local school a few years ago, an armed SRO engaged an armed intruder with a beef against the principal; the SRO may well have prevented a massacre (like Cruz at Parkland the intruder wanted to trigger the fire alarm).
A walk out student at another local school was quoted as saying: "I was trying not to make it about gun control necessarily." That school, 2013, two students were thwarted while planning an attack to kill students and faculty. The local walk-out students apparently were focussed on identifying threats and beefing up school security.

Sometimes, someplaces, the kids are alright. With their heads in better places than some adults.
 
Words can not describe the frustration I feel knowing these facts. You have put these ideas forth better than most. Well said.

I just think we should guard our children at least as well as our money.
I think some politicians should be as protected as some of these children. The shoe on the other foot, so to speak.
 
Children are being fielded and given credence to their opinions because they will pull the heartstrings of emotionally driven adult VOTERS, and these children are soon to be VOTERS themselves. This is a formulated political strategy for change.
 
Children are being fielded and given credence to their opinions because they will pull the heartstrings of emotionally driven adult VOTERS, and these children are soon to be VOTERS themselves. This is a formulated political strategy for change.

Useful Idiots.

Read Marxx and understand the enemy.

They change school schedules because the poor babies need more sleep. They raise the driving age, the smoking age, and the drinking age. But they want these same CHILDREN to vote and set gun policy.

The left uses whatever they can to destroy us.
 
I will repeat something I already posted

A walk out student at another local school was quoted as saying: "I was trying not to make it about gun control necessarily." That school, 2013, two students were thwarted while planning an attack to kill students and faculty. The local walk-out students apparently were focused on identifying threats and beefing up school security.

Sometimes, someplaces, the kids are alright. With their heads in better places than some adults.

Absolutely true. I know a special ed teacher who has been extremely upset at the total lack of security in the facilities she has taught in, the lack of concern about who wanders onto the property in general, but ESPECIALLY how the SpEd programs are frequently in standalone portable buildings with no security measures whatsoever. These facilities frequently have strict rules about keeping doors unlocked, etc. She's had children in these programs ask her about their safety.
What can she say?
 
Absolutely true. I know a special ed teacher who has been extremely upset at the total lack of security in the facilities she has taught in, the lack of concern about who wanders onto the property in general, but ESPECIALLY how the SpEd programs are frequently in standalone portable buildings with no security measures whatsoever. These facilities frequently have strict rules about keeping doors unlocked, etc. She's had children in these programs ask her about their safety.
What can she say?
After my classroom at a community college the school didn’t want to hear from me. Their so,Union was to hire an UNARMED GUARD
 
While I don't think the kids traveling the news circuit are experts in firearms, well versed in deterrence, or even scholarly regarding the Constitution, they do have some knowledge that I'm not privy to. They have survived a lunatic shooting down 14 of their classmates and teachers in cold blood. I have never cowered in a closet hoping not to be found while the deafening roar of a rifle echoed down the hall. I have never seen blood on the floor and walls of my high school. I have never had to pick and choose which funeral of which friend I was going to attend.

Once again, I'm not saying these kids are right. However, at least they are speaking their minds and voicing their concerns. I don't agree with many of their points of view, but I owe them a listen. Most aren't saying we need to round up and melt down all guns, and even if they were they deserve to be heard as they have a right to their points of view just as all of us do. Many of these kids speaking AREN'T kids. They are very young adults having just turned 18. Like it or not, they could be the faces of the 2018 and 2020 elections. It's not just that the ultra left will rally behind them, they will. It's that so few on the right will do nothing more than trot out tired talking points that haven't really seemed to work.

To reiterate, I don't agree with them. However, I feel a little bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't going on here. In one thread, someone will rail against Safe Place millennials and how they are weeping for our future because these special little snowflakes weren't raised in a gun culture and have the audacity to play video games. Other places I have heard people kind of dismissing them for emotionally speaking against what many see as constitutional fun rights.

Which is it? How are they "suppose" to act? Are they suppose to simply be the weak willed brats boomers paint them to be, or are they only suppose to speak with courage if what they are saying aligns with what we as gun owners believe to be true?

Schools are unsafe. Be it from what they think of as "dangerous military grade weapons" (not my opinion), lack of armed personnel, or even having too many damn doors left unlocked or ones easily kicked in leading to building designed in almost shooting gallery-like ways. Something needs to be done. Thoughts and prayers and promises of keeping weapons out of the hands of mental unstable people aren't going to cut it. I try to be a good Christian, but if I'm trapped in a school building with an assailant and you offered me a choice of a thought, a prayer, or a steel lined security door barring my classroom...guess what I would pick. If my daughter were to be gunned down in school which of those three would i have she rather had?

Kids are scared. Hell, in the last 3 days 4 copycat (luckily empty) threats were made at local schools here. A few cops showed up, leads were followed up upon, and obviously nothing happened. However, if none of those things were in place, when all of this dies down, our schools around here are porous at best. Local kids are doing a Walk Out and it has nothing to do with guns or statistics. It's about being able to feel safe where we learn.

I went to a fun little Bingo For Books pizza dinner tonight at my daughter's elementary school. Great community get together where kids win free books.
I sat at the front of the cafeteria and looked at the entry points. I was unarmed, of course, but I couldn't help thinking to myself that IF someone wanted to come in guns blazing there was nothing to stop them. Even if I had my pistol and got an immediate shot, dozens of kids and parents were going to get hit. We were sardines in there. No measures were taken, and normally i dont give that a second thought. I know these people. We were just there for a good time. The town is small, the people kind. However, I kept an eye on those doors all night.

Once again, gun control isn't the real issue here, but I think these kids and their parents at least have a right to be heard, and when the time is right and emotions have subsided, reasoned with on what are reasonable safety methods going forward.

Statistics are damn tricky things. They are easy to trust in until your kid "wins" the lottery and ends up in a box.
 
I survived TWO CAMPUS SHOOTINGS.
I was off campus working on my PHD at Va Tech when it happened.
I had my classroom shot us at NRCC

So name one other person to survive TWO
Read the Roanoke Times on the NRCC shooting
It was me he said he didn’t have a clean shot at
 
Sorry that you had to through those, sir. I had no school shootings, just fist fights every so often.
I just read the SRO at the Florida shooting refused to enter the building while the killer was murdering the unarmed kids and staff.
 
Why don’t they focus on all the Laws broken by the murdering scum.They all broke many Laws already on the books .Laws don’t stop bad people from doing bad things,But good folks with the courage and tools could and would stop them.It’s almost enough to make me believe those scum are encouraged by the anti gun people just for fuel.
 
Sorry that you had to through those, sir. I had no school shootings, just fist fights every so often.
I just read the SRO at the Felorida shooting refused to enter the building while the killer was murdering the unarmed kids and staff.
It’s ok
This week has been hard
Fiv3r’s post really pissed me off.

It took me over a year before I could process what really happened after the NRCC shooting. And a few more to heal. In fact, weeks like this open the wounds again.

Those kids are still in shock. They’re not qualified to say anything of substance yet. And anyone pretending otherwise is simply using them as pawns for the anti gun agenda.

Unlike them, I went from a centrist position on the 2nd Amendment to a far right position as I figured that no laws short of eliminating gun free zones will stop this stupidity.
 
Useful Idiots.

Read Marxx and understand the enemy.

They change school schedules because the poor babies need more sleep. They raise the driving age, the smoking age, and the drinking age. But they want these same CHILDREN to vote and set gun policy.

The left uses whatever they can to destroy us.
Yes, a formulated political strategy for change. It is a small portion of their handbook.
 
The most unfortunate thing about the OP’s post is that the majority of the kids don’t care. It’s about them. Just as society has deemed of the utmost importance. It’s not accountability. It’s not about statistics.

50 years ago, those same kids would have been in the middle of the Vietnam “conflict” fighting for their lives watching their buddies get blown to hell. 50 years later, they’re to scared to walk the halls of their schools because they treat other kids, not like them, like Peewee Herman with Ebola and wonder why those kids come back with vengeance. And dammit “We want protection”. I’ll make a wager with anyone on this forum. If kids started treating other kids with The Golden Rule, mass shootings would all but cease. I don’t know about you all, but I’ve never wanted to attack ANYONE that treated me with kindness.

But I am sending the link to this thread to as many people as I think would be interested. Because it is VERY well thought out and articulated.
 
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Given the fact that a persons brain isn't fully developed until about age 25 I'm not sure why anyone would even listen to them.

Also the age group 18-25 votes less than any of the other 3 age groups by a large margin.

Maybe if they want to make some changes they should start voting at 18. Not likely to happen.
 
I'm becoming to get a little frustrated with the whole "millennial generation" bashing. I don't "identify" as any kind of generation, and I guess by some standards I am right on the edge of Gen X and Millennial or whatever.

Currently, I am in my mid-20's. I served. I am finishing my doctorate. I'm paying for it on my own and working my tail off. There are many, many people like me that are "young and stupid" who work hard, were raised right, and have to clean up the mess of older generations. But this whole "kids these days..." arguments are nothing but counterproductive and isolating.

What generation do you think is still dealing with fallout from Iraq and Afghanistan? The Baby Boomers? The Hippie generation? How come so many young people are still buying firearms, joining rights groups, and signing up for the military? How come all my friends who grew up with absentee drunk parents are doing a better job taking care of their own kids and their own parents as well?

Don't let the media hype fool you, there are idiots in every generation. There are also great people in every generation.

I currently work in rehabilitation in a hospital and have experience in nursing homes and in school districts... with elderly and children. I've seen kids overcome insurmountable odds due to debilitating birth defects and congenital issues through pure grit and hard work. I've also seen capable middle aged men cry and have an 18 year old intern wipe their rear after a bowel movement because they were too stubborn to get out of bed. Doesn't make one generation better than the other.

I'm sure that THR is an echo-chamber of sorts, as it is a group of gun-oriented folks, most of which are probably of a certain age demographic. Don't let that make you think that you are alone. Interacting with humans all over the country, I can say that I do have hope for the future of the RKBA and the 2nd Amend.

I don't blame any generation for these issues. Who do you think are influencing these kids? Instead of bad mouthing them, welcome them in. Recruit them. Give them some credit. Not every kid is a "snowflake".
 
They aren't 'mere' children, they are trained political operatives with media connections, professional experience, affiliation to advocacy groups, and talking points, able to maintain a calm demeanor and focus amid a room of peers seething, roaring, shouting hatred during a televised program. Or be seen as completely unglued and inconsolable, depending on the needs of the venue. They are jockeying for the top spot as the face of gun control for multi-million-dollar national political advocacy groups, for the next thirty-plus years of their life. This is their shot at the big time media/politics career, the really big Hollywood audition (performing arts school; a bunch of the kids jumping in front of cameras the most are even Drama club brats)

I'm sure there is a lot of wisdom coming from their mouths; generated by much older and experienced operators, calculated to be the most memorable and carry the most impact for the cause

*this does not apply to everyone speaking out, but there are clearly some who fall solidly into the 'media gadfly' behavior class, and the endless CNN & gun control group connections that keep popping up between so many people that show up on the screen reinforce this impression
 
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