Who Wants to Grow Up?

As a mom who will one day send her son to school, and as a current teacher who works with children from preschool all the way to senior in high school, it's incomprehensible as to why someone would go after children.  Especially the littlest ones--the Kindergartners.  It's not right, it's not fair, it's not humane.  And yet, "school shootings" is a term that this country is painfully familiar with, and because it has a name, it means that it's been done before.  Many times.  

Saw this today, and wondered how true it is...

Turns out that PolitiFact breaks down the international data several ways:

"...[the claim that] the "USA is #1 in gun violence" [is] only true if you compare the U.S. with other affluent nations on a per capita basis.

But widening the comparison to all nations, not just the richest ones, there are at least 17 other countries with higher per capita rates of gun homicides, most of them with rates astronomically higher than the U.S. rate.

And measured by raw gun homicides, the U.S. doesn’t rank first -- at least two and possibly as many as five countries have had more gun homicides in recent years than the U.S. did. "

That's embarrassing.  Among the industrialized elite in the world, we are exhibiting behavior as a society full of impoverished citizens, living well below an acceptable standard of living.  We've got what it takes as a nation to act mature and create some serious boundaries regarding gun control, and yet we repeatedly continue to act like a spoiled brat.

This opinion article from the NY Times hit it right where it hurts:

I came to realize that, in essence, this is the way we in America want things to be. We want our freedom, and we want our firearms, and if we have to endure the occasional school shooting, so be it. 

Somebody made a comment on Facebook (can't find it--sorry) about getting adequate health care coverage for everyone in this country so that their mental health issues can be addressed.  That sounds like a great start, but of course, this coming week will be charged with all sorts of crazed political rhetoric about the 2nd amendment and blah, blah, blah, and then it will slowly fade away into the background just like the shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wacko who did the Batman shooting over the summer, etc.

That is, until the next mass shooting takes place.  And you better believe that there will be another one.

And the sad thing is, as a mother, as a teacher, I don't know what to do about it.  Like the writer from the Times article stated, if we have to deal with the occasional massacre of innocent school children because we refuse to change our gun laws that result in uncivilized repetitive behavior, then OH WELL.  Too bad, so sad.  Just hope that it doesn't happen in your community, in your school, or God forbid, to your own family.

Grow up, America.  Grow the fuck up.