[Beyond Politics] School shooting PSA (aka "well, that escalated quickly")

[CaitSeith]

So, the Sandy Hook Promise organization published recently a school shooting PSA that is, well, really out there. It starts lighthearted, quickly diving into dark humor until it reaches the point of just dark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ykNZl9mTQ

Unfortunately the PSA itself isn't really informative, just a shocking conversation starter. So, let's start the conversation...

 

[Leg End]

They missed the perfect chance to make a joke about those bullet-resistant backpacks and inserts. Nice transition from perfectly normal school supplies to the 'Hey, wait a minute'. Might just be my sense of comedic timing.

 

[CaitSeith]

They missed the perfect chance to make a joke about those bullet-resistant backpacks and inserts. Nice transition from perfectly normal school supplies to the 'Hey, wait a minute'. Might just be my sense of comedic timing.

I'm also too used to dark humor. The transition here is so smooth that for a moment it plays like a parody.

 

[Marik2]

I guess their heart is in the right place, but the execution is stupid and laughable. Glad I got out of high school before shootings became cool again. The most we had were fake bomb threats that made us evacuate the building.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT7Q_Gn8eIk

 

[McElroy]

When you "know the signs"? But what if I've only seen The Sixth Sense?

Seriously though, what signs?

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Yeah.

So, to me, this is akin to those re-election commercials in 2004 where Bush just reminded everyone that terrorists exist and they need to be very afraid all the time [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s71-Q2XBZg].

Everyone put said it already. All that was accomplished here was frightening children and adults. I never want to see any child bloodied again, because that makes rage that I didn't know exist within me. But this is actually useless.

And I'm speaking as a paranoid person. I recently happily showed off my new Solar Inverter because it can make me prepared in case a black out happens sometime in the foreseeable future. I have stored food, water, and supplies because I went through Hurricane Sandy and had to do with a week of inconvenience. And even I can see that this is just an easily excitable piece probably meant for good, but really does nothing but create fear and uncertainty.

Honestly, it's also damaging. I don't think anyone of us here are in law enforcement or Psychology dealing with Active Shooters. Us groping in the dark and guessing what the signs could be are INFINITELY more damaging than anything else. And I'm not inclined to go to the webpage or use it as a source of creditable information because the first thing I've learned about it is that it's prone to shock tactics. And it's been my experience that associations that do that are akin to Snake Oil Salesmen.

I hate this. Even more so that I know it's well-intentioned.

 

[Leg End]

I'm also too used to dark humor. The transition here is so smooth that for a moment it plays like a parody.

Oh, more meant that the bullet resistant packs would have been perfect timing just around the break point. I don't know why, but I think the transition is just a weeeee biiiiiit too fast. Like it needed just one more thing in-between as a bridge between the regular stuff and pause from the audience. Maybe an extended version sometime?

Though on the parody note... in a way, isn't that what it really is? Just in this case, closer to a parody of our own reality. The Onion is getting screwed over because truth is stranger than fiction. Like, fuck me, I'm actually going to be getting a loved one a Class III armor insert for their backpack once they actually go to school. Shit is nuts yo.

 

[Leg End]

Honestly, it's also damaging. I don't think anyone of us here are in law enforcement or Psychology dealing with Active Shooters. Us groping in the dark and guessing what the signs could be are INFINITELY more damaging than anything else.

This, even if I don't have much liking of LEOs and such on this matter either. People guess and assume stupid stuff, and that can end up with someone on the business end of a social mob screwing over their life, or worse. Speaking as someone here who was a bit of a problem child in school, and probably voted most likely to do something comparable as a result. Shocker, I know.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, just reminding people that school shootings happen. In fairness, lots of people like to forget this.

OTOH, school shootings are done by boys/men, and (in retrospect) there's very often warning signs which are, in of themselves, serious problems. For example, a guy who is stalking a fellow student and ends up shooting the place up when she rejects him (which the media likes to spin as tragic unrequited love). I don't know if doing something about it when it was just stalking would have stopped the shooting, but stalking is something worth trying to do something about.

But that's feminism or whatever, so let's not talk about that.

 

[Saelune]

Yeah, just reminding people that school shootings happen. In fairness, lots of people like to forget this.

OTOH, school shootings are done by boys/men, and (in retrospect) there's very often warning signs which are, in of themselves, serious problems. For example, a guy who is stalking a fellow student and ends up shooting the place up when she rejects him (which the media likes to spin as tragic unrequited love). I don't know if doing something about it when it was just stalking would have stopped the shooting, but stalking is something worth trying to do something about.

But that's feminism or whatever, so let's not talk about that.

Has there EVER been a mass shooting by a woman? I honestly dont know.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Has there EVER been a mass shooting by a woman? I honestly dont know.

Assuming these statistics are correct, there have been 3 since 1982 [https://www.statista.com/statistics/476445/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-gender/], as opposed to 111 carried out by men.
Mass shooting is defined here as a single attack in a public space with 4 or more killed victims.

Sometimes women are also arrested for threatening to go on shooting sprees, including one this week [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbm7da/18-year-old-woman-arrested-for-threatening-to-shoot-up-her-high-school-for-fun].

 

[Trunkage]

Has there EVER been a mass shooting by a woman? I honestly dont know.

Assuming these statistics are correct, there have been 3 since 1982 [https://www.statista.com/statistics/476445/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-gender/], as opposed to 111 carried out by men.
Mass shooting is defined here as a single attack in a public space with 4 or more killed victims.

Sometimes women are also arrested for threatening to go on shooting sprees, including one this week [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbm7da/18-year-old-woman-arrested-for-threatening-to-shoot-up-her-high-school-for-fun].

Also, that Youtuber last year who went to the Youtube studios because she thought they had done her wrong

 

[Marik2]

I'd like to point out that most mass shootings are mainly done by white guys. Hispanics and blacks more or less keep crime and gang shootings in poverty stricken areas.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Yeah, just reminding people that school shootings happen. In fairness, lots of people like to forget this.

OTOH, school shootings are done by boys/men, and (in retrospect) there's very often warning signs which are, in of themselves, serious problems. For example, a guy who is stalking a fellow student and ends up shooting the place up when she rejects him (which the media likes to spin as tragic unrequited love). I don't know if doing something about it when it was just stalking would have stopped the shooting, but stalking is something worth trying to do something about.

But that's feminism or whatever, so let's not talk about that.

Has there EVER been a mass shooting by a woman? I honestly dont know.

Look up the "I Don't Like Mondays" shooting, Brenda Spencer. It was actually one of the earliest school shootings.

 

[CaitSeith]

When you "know the signs"? But what if I've only seen The Sixth Sense?

Seriously though, what signs?

I tried to find the signs at their website before making the post. Supposedly there is a PDF version; but unfortunately I couldn't find it.

 

[Schadrach]

I'd like to point out that most mass shootings are mainly done by white guys. Hispanics and blacks more or less keep crime and gang shootings in poverty stricken areas.

It's worth pointing out that this depends highly on your definitions, and a lot of folks talking about it will casually switch definitions when it's convenient.

If you use a definition in which there's only been 114 mass shootings in the last 37 years, then they are primarily done by white guys. If you use one of those definitions that leads to the claim that there are several hundred mass shootings every year, around one a day, then they're primarily done by black guys because those definitions capture a whole lot of gang violence to make the problem bigger.

When you "know the signs"? But what if I've only seen The Sixth Sense?

Seriously though, what signs?

I tried to find the signs at their website before making the post. Supposedly there is a PDF version; but unfortunately I couldn't find it.

You have to sign up for their mailing list to be given the link.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/promise/pages/42/attachments/original/1568751618/SHP_Know_the_Signs_Guide_2019.pdf

 

[CaitSeith]

I'd like to point out that most mass shootings are mainly done by white guys. Hispanics and blacks more or less keep crime and gang shootings in poverty stricken areas.

It's worth pointing out that this depends highly on your definitions, and a lot of folks talking about it will casually switch definitions when it's convenient.

If you use a definition in which there's only been 114 mass shootings in the last 37 years, then they are primarily done by white guys. If you use one of those definitions that leads to the claim that there are several hundred mass shootings every year, around one a day, then they're primarily done by black guys because those definitions capture a whole lot of gang violence to make the problem bigger.

When you "know the signs"? But what if I've only seen The Sixth Sense?

Seriously though, what signs?

I tried to find the signs at their website before making the post. Supposedly there is a PDF version; but unfortunately I couldn't find it.

You have to sign up for their mailing list to be given the link.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/promise/pages/42/attachments/original/1568751618/SHP_Know_the_Signs_Guide_2019.pdf

Thank you. The link wasn't working when I first tried, so I gave up.