I would like to start by saying that I am 100% for a Ban on Guns! There are instances (hunting/sport shooting....) where guns should be allowed, but why anybody needs a gun in their bedside table in beyond me.
As for the issue of school shootings....and not just that, but teenage violence in general (and I am only speaking for the US as I do not know the rest of the world situations enough to give an educated opinion)
1) I find it a shame that we only hear about the "white, suburbanite" kids that shoot their "white, suburbanite" classmates at school. I blame this on the media. We hear little snip-its here and there about other violence but nothing to the degree of 'columbine' or now 'san diego'.....we need to start reacting to all teenage violence not just the "rich white kids"
2) The problem is beyond what is portrayed. After these shootings we always hear about "where was the parent?", "what went wrong?"......well here are a few statistics that may startle you and show a little of what the actual problem might be
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These are 2000 stats for the US
#18 years and younger = 63,604,432
#with one parent = 13,809,652
%with one parent = 22%
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# of adults (25+) with less than 9th grade education = 16,502,211
# of adults (25+) with a graduate degree = 11,477,686
I am not saying that you need a graduate degree to be successful or raise children, but it is shocking that there are more high school drop-outs in america than MD's, PhD's, or JD's........how can we expect our kids to do any better when many of their parents only went through 8th grade
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Median household income (poverty line) = $17,654
#households with only female parent = 10,381,654
#households (female parent) w/ children under 18 = 6,783,155
# living below poverty = 2,866,941
% living below poverty = 42%
These kids are 55% more likely to commit any crime and 72% more likely to commit a violent crime
Is this a parenting issue??? I don't know......this is an issue that society as a whole has to step up and deal with....we cannot lay ALL of the blame on the parents!
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