Stop the World I Want to Get Off

WTF happened this week, were there sunspots? Is Mercury retrograde into planet Shoot Your Sister? THREE SEPARATE STUPID KID SHOOTINGS, and these are only the ones I know about.

On Wednesday morning in Oxnard, CA, about forty minutes south of where I live, an eighth-grade boy shot another boy in the back of the head, twice, for appearing to be gay and threatening the well-being of all sentient beings by, uh, wearing nail polish to school. The victim, who was in the foster care system and who commuted to school every day from a residential center for troubled and abused kids, was in critical condition for a while, but then he took a turn for the worse, and NPR reported Thursday morning (I heard this right after I'd dropped my own kid at school) that he'd been declared brain dead and they were keeping his organs functioning until they could be donated.

"You know what? Gee, looking at you gives me an uncomfortable feeling, so I'm just going to SHOOT YOU so I don't have to feel all weird like this anymore. Problem solved! Except for having to spend the rest of forever in jail."

My husband works with a guy whose wife teaches at the school where the shooting happened, and apparently the shooter has his own troubled family -- dad out of the picture, mom drinking a lot, house full of trash, no one really looking after him. The whole thing is tragic from every angle.

(Pictured is Lawrence King, the victim, holding a caterpillar.)

But did you hear about the potato chip shooting?

There was this ten-year-old boy, and he and his nine-year-old sister were eating potato chips. The boy wanted the bag but his sister wouldn't let him have it. So he went and got his dad's shotgun, loaded it with a shell, and shot her in the face! PROBLEM SOLVED. Except not. Apparently the boy hadn't been taking his ADD meds, which wouldn't normally lead to felony, except gee, that gun was just such a handy way to show his sister he meant business. Fortunately, she's going to recover from her physical injury. No word on how she's going to do emotionally.

Do we need to talk about the Northern Illinois University shooting, too? Seven dead! Had enough shotgun fun for the week? Can we start talking about banning bullets again?

Comments

[JennyM]

You know... I mean... Well, this is not really intended to start an acrimonious gun-control debate, but... When are are going to decide that enough is enough? How long does this have to go on before we decide, as a society, that clearly the message that guns are NOT an acceptable determinant of who should get the damn potato chips is NOT GETTING THROUGH?

[Liana]

WHY is it so easy for these kids to get guns in their hands?? Why did that little boy even KNOW where his dad kept the shotgun OR how to load and shoot it????
Grarrgh.
And that photo the little boy the caterpillar who got shot for wearing nail polish is just heart breaking. What a cutie. :(

[veronica]

It's because any idiot can become a parent **shakes head**. Not only for the individual to know enough to keep a gun locked up (and bullets in a diff place and locked) if you kids in the house, but also teaching them a bit of gun safety/respect (and respect for s**t in general!).

It's also the same reason why we have to have warning labels on everything like "do not put hands near moving blad in lawnmower"...people are STUPID!!!

**rant over**

Such tragic events though :(

[BaltimoreGal]

This all just sucks. It happens everywhere, all the time, sadly. I have just moved around a lot so I've been exposed to more of it.

I went to a high school in central VT where a kid got beat up a lot for being "different" just like that (he wore eyeliner). And nobody did enough about it, probably because they also didn't approve. I yelled a lot but I was just a kid and also "not from around there." I think about him sometimes and wonder how he is. Those asses are lucky he was better than them and didn't try for revenge.

And when I was a kid in Georgia a young neighborhood boy totally accidentally shot his brother and killed him. They were playing with a loaded gun in a bedside table.

I'm totally willing to get into a debate. Gun control isn't working because there isn't enough of it- I know HUNTERS who have quit the NRA of late because of their ridiculous positions. If you don't own a gun for the purpose of hunting only (and you had better have a whole lotta training for that) you had better be trained for weapons, combat and safety, otherwise you are, without question, endangering yourself and others.

Rant over, thanks.
(The daughter of an Army Airborne Ranger who holds sharpshooting records from his ROTC days, and Yes, I have read the Constitution and that argument is pre-National Guard and therefore Bullshit.)

[lady]

about the middle schooler in oxnard: i'm a teacher, i work with this age group. and i do not know these kids. however, i would guess that the shooter had some mixed feelings about his own sexuality, perhaps he even had an encounter with the victim. i wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, anyhow. i'm not sure it's a hate crime; it may be a "self hate crime," know what i mean?

[rhi]

I can not even deal with this. I can hardly open the paper (and I um, WORK for the paper) anymore. These stories just wreck me.

I'm all about teaching my kids gun safety. But now I can't feel comfortable sending my babies to school? What next?

[Mrs. Kennedy]

I was a little concerned about posting news like this on MamaPop so I'd like to thank you guys for responding so well to a non-celebrity post.

Hug your kids and don't forget to vote for candidates who aren't controlled by the gun lobby!

[Sara]

And did you hear about the Teacher in Ohio? Her estranged husband went to her classroom and, after waving a gun around for a while, stabbed her in front of her class of 5th graders. WTF!!!

[kdiddy]

unfortunately, i don't think it's really an issue of gun control or parenting. i think everyone's just losing their damn minds. we're just lucky that *we* haven't to this degree yet.