Parkland School is turning into America’s Grenfell Tower

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Last week’s shooting at Parkland School in Florida is turning into America’s Grenfell Tower:

Driven by rage and grief over one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history, students from across the country were taking action in hopes of pushing their lawmakers to rethink their positions on gun control, even as the Florida State House rejected a move on Tuesday to consider a bill that would ban assault rifles.

From California to Florida, teenagers walked out of classes, stopped traffic and made stirring speeches calling out their elders for inaction.

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed last week, traveled on Tuesday to Tallahassee, the state capital, to call for an assault weapons ban. The direct appeal to the Legislature follows protests outside schools, social media appeals and national television appearances.

It is understandable that students who’ve survived a school shooting and seen their friends killed should be angry. But being a victim of trauma doesn’t in itself make someone knowledgeable of the legislative process or even the subject at hand. The American media has shamelessly got hold of these kids and, rather than helping them, has coerced them into attacking the NRA and Trump administration. It might make good television but a bunch of angry teenagers isn’t going to add much to any national debate on gun control, even if they have been on the wrong end of a firearm. Here’s what one had to say:

“The people in the government who are voted into power are lying to us,” she said. “And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and are prepared to call B.S.”

“They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence — we call B.S.!” she continued as a chorus of supporters echoed her. “They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun — we call B.S.! They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars — we call B.S.! They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred — we call B.S.! That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works — we call B.S.!”

She wiped her eyes aggressively. Then, she urged the people in the crowd to register to vote — and to give their elected officials “a piece of your mind.”

Here’s another:

Tyra Hemans, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, brought a poster featuring the word “ENOUGH” to a funeral for one of her classmates on Friday. She said she also wanted to deliver a message to President Trump.

“I want our politicians to stop thinking about money and start thinking about all these lives we had lost,” she said. “I want to talk with him about changing these laws.”

This is all very touching and I’m sure their parents are very proud, but the best thing these kids can do is get this incident behind them as quickly as possible and move on, seeking professional counselling if necessary. What they shouldn’t do is allow themselves to be catapulted onto some pedestal by the likes of CNN and used as a club with which to bash Trump, because this is a fight they’re not going to win.

We saw this after the Grenfell Tower fire, when victims – and half a million other people who were also in the tower, or knew someone in it, or were nearby, or had been to London once – were seized upon by political lobbyists to attack Theresa May’s government and promote Corbyn’s Labour. Traumatised, angry people who should never have been on TV were shoved in front of a camera and encouraged to make ludicrous demands and hurl wild accusations at Tories. What should have been a compassionate but serious response to a terrible incident was hijacked and turned into an absolute circus.

The situation in America is slightly different, though. Those who exploited the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire got away with it because the Tories are piss-weak and the British people, particularly Londoners, can be relied upon to wring their hands in enough numbers that slapping the protesters down and carrying out a proper investigation would have spelled political disaster. And the demands of those allegedly representing the victims were, when it comes down to it, more looting of the state coffers for their own benefit. Nobody in Britain is going to protest that with any great vigour as the last two decades have shown.

But these kids in America have decided to go after the gun lobby, particularly the NRA. Now the reason the NRA is so powerful is because it has three million members all of whom voluntarily pay an annual fee in return for the NRA doing exactly what it does: represent their interests in Washington and the state capitals. If you were to believe American liberals or the average Brit, you’d think the NRA is powerful because gun manufacturers give them money which is used to bribe Republicans who then vote against the direct wishes of ordinary Americans. This is a handy narrative, but it is demonstrable nonsense. In reality, the Republicans listen to the NRA because the organisation represents millions of gun-owning Americans who each have a vote and will use it if they believe their rights are under threat. The reason that gun control is such an intractable issue in the United States is not because of the intransigence of the NRA, but the intransigence of its three million members. Going after the NRA is an exercise in shooting the messenger.

American gun owners probably have a lot of sympathy with these children who intend to march on Washington, but they’re not going to stand idly by while they bawl at congress to remove their gun ownership rights. If necessary they’ll fight back, and hard. The most likely result of this will be to leave the children bitterly disappointed, disillusioned, and exhausted and – once the news cycle has moved on and they’re inevitably dumped by the likes of CNN as no longer useful – feeling exploited to no small degree. If any of them haven’t managed to completely embarrass themselves in a live interview with a serious adult, they’ll have done well. They’ll then have to return home, pick up their lives, and deal with whatever emotional mess they’re left with. The best thing the Democrats and media can do is to leave these kids alone and let them get over this incident however they can, not shamlessly use them as cannon-fodder in a futile battle in their never-ending war against the Republicans and Trump. Ultimately, their parents should be putting a stop to this.

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24 thoughts on “Parkland School is turning into America’s Grenfell Tower”

  1. I liked the Tweet (can’t remember who it was from) that said, to paraphrase, ‘I’m not going to be lectured on constitutional rights and freedoms by a bunch that just yesterday were eating Tide Pods…’

  2. I agree with every word.
    The American left has demonstarted that it will take every opportunity to attack its detractors. Taking christian bakers to court and the like. The second amendment exists to keep the people safe from the government. Statist control freak government. Until the left drops its manifestly obvious desire to control people’s lives and rigidly enforce right-think then the other side are simply going to dig their heels in. Want gun control? Don’t offer up the likes of Clinton, Pelosi, Obama, Schumer, Kennedy, and all the other cunts as potential political masters. It’s too transparent.

  3. For over 100 years now we’ve seen how excitable, left-leaning children and young adults are easily manipulated by the press and propagandists. The press then allows itself to be influenced by them in turn.,

    The number of high school shootings in the US has being dramatically exaggerated by the US press in cahoots with anti-gun lobby groups.

    Nicholas Cruz had had dozens of visits from the police over the years. The police, the FBI, the school all knew that he was a ticking time bomb, and yet nothing was done about him. This is the real problem.

  4. Nicholas Cruz had had dozens of visits from the police over the years. The police, the FBI, the school all knew that he was a ticking time bomb, and yet nothing was done about him. This is the real problem.

    And this is why there’s this massive push to deflect onto firearms that are legal in practically every European country if you’re a sports shooter. Cos, for the nth time, a massive bollock has been dropped by the authorities. Again.

  6. I’m no fan of widespread gun ownership, but surely the easiest counter is “So these are the gun laws Obama was cool with?”

  9. 3 million members of the NRA sounds like a lot. The population of the USA is what? 600 million? (From memory, don’t quote me) It’s a small proportion of the total population. I think that if every parent of a school child was prepared to donate say 50 dollars per child, they could crush the NRA lobby

  10. I think that if every parent of a school child was prepared to donate say 50 dollars per child, they could crush the NRA lobby

    Half of those parents will be gun owners…..

  11. I think that if every parent of a school child was prepared to donate say 50 dollars per child, they could crush the NRA lobby

    That’s true for anything, in theory. Making it happen, and sustaining it long enough to make a difference, is something else entirely.

  12. ” I think that if every parent of a school child was prepared to donate say 50 dollars per child, they could crush the NRA lobby”

    Mark in Mayenne, the NRA membership is approximately 1% of the US population, HOWEVER somewhere between a fifth and a third of the population (depending on where you get the numbers ,I’ve seen estimates of start at 50M and go up to over 100M) owns at least one firearm. If it looks like someone is going to try and take them away that 50-100 million is the number to worry about.

    Furthermore recall that many of the gun owners are the parents of kids in schools and are unlikely to contribute $$ to crush themselves. Indeed given the demographics of people who actually have children, I’m going to say that the rate of gun ownership amongst households with children may actually be over 50%.

  13. BTW someone I know posted this meta-analysis of statistics etc. as quoted by “activists”. It seems to be particularly true of gun-control sorts:

    Rule of thumb: if they’re using percents, it’s because the actual numbers aren’t impressive.

    If they’re using raw numbers, it’s because the rate per 100k isn’t impressive.

    If they’re focusing on individual stories, there aren’t any numbers they can make impressive.

  15. I think a lot of this outpouring of grief is displacement activity. Or rather the shifting of a guilty feeling they may have inside. Because the one thing that these school shootings have in common is that the perpetrators were isolated individuals while at the school, who had been shunned by the mainstream of school life. And thus the one thing that everyone of these kids could have done to stop this sort of thing happening is the one thing they won’t do – engage with their marginalised fellow students and try and give them a social outlet they otherwise lack.

    But that involves a lot of hard emotional effort, and is highly risky on a personal level, to actually reach out to the kid no-one likes at school, because kids are basically animals – the pack throws out certain individuals and anyone who associates with them is tainted themselves and gets thrown out too.

    So instead someone else must solve the problem.

  16. My first reaction to yet another school slaughter was just “oh the Americans are a violent people”. Which is true enough but not explanation enough. I read a short post by someone explaining how when he was growing up in the fifties there were guns everywhere: lots of schoolboys would go out to shoot deer, for instance. There were no school shootings. So even among the violent Americans an explanation is needed for these 1960s-and-afterwards mass shootings. What changed?

    There is, I fear, little need to explain all the casual shootings in certain cities. Too bloody obvious.

  17. “What changed?”

    Several things. One: mass medication of children and teenagers with brain chemistry altering drugs that have known side effects such as suicidal thoughts and aggression. Two: the internet – misery can now seek out misery on a global scale, and seek to copy what others have done.

    Mix the two together and you have a dangerous cocktail of alienated youths whose minds are fixated on death, who also can get hold of weapons reasonably easily.

  18. even as the Florida State House rejected a move on Tuesday to consider a bill that would ban assault rifles.

    You can simply stop there and not bother with the rest of the fisking. When media outlets continue to conflate “assault rifle” with “assault weapon”, despite having been corrected on this over and over and OVER and over again, you know you’re dealing with wilfully mendacious reporting.

  19. What Patrick said.

    Maybe the State ought to try being more restrained in its thieving (eg. tax), lying (eg. Goebbels Warming), spying (eg. speed cameras) and bullying (eg. hate speech laws) before asking it’s citizens/subjects/victims to disarm.

    A mate once commented to me that not everyone is as paranoid about the government as me. But then my pay packet gets raided by the State; his gets filled up by it.

    PS: O/T, just finished the ebook, Tim. Enjoyed it. Burned through it in about three days.

  20. There is a backlash starting – this article outlines the reason why high levels of crime by school students are not even investigated and more importantly, ignored:

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/19/school-shooting-was-outcome-of-broward-county-school-board-policy-now-local-and-national-politicians-weaponize-kids-for-ideological-intents/

    And if you want to become as famous, if not more so than the President of the USA (and God knows, with their rabid hatred of Trump, the media has something about him every damn day) then you can do no better than this:

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/5-things-terrible-media-communicates-every-potential-school-shooter/

    But Joe Biden made the schools gun free zones – or in the terminology of the Military, Free Fire zones where you KNOW you won’t have any incoming fire to interfere with your plans:

    https://conservativetribune.com/joe-biden-turned-schools-into/

    Note that in Israel, after a school massacre, they trained and authorised teachers to carry firearms and since then there have been zero incidents:

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/reading_writing_and_return_fire.html

    Then there is the issue of doping boys up to the eyeballs to counter “Toxic masculinity” and that 3% of those using these psychotropic drugs have a bad reaction to them:

    file:///home/phil/Documents/Gun%20Related/Gun%20Control%20and%20Rights/Mass%20Shootings/School%20Shootings_%20FACTS%20Trump%20POLITICAL%20CRAP%20in%20[Market-Ticker].html

    Now, correct me if I am wrong but pharmacists have a long training period and are paid a lot of money to be able to spot when a combination of drugs will be dangerous. How about if, as the last article linked there states, that :

    According to the data about 3% of the young people under the age of 24 who took these drugs had a violent crime conviction — and that is double that of the next age cohort and double that of someone in the same age cohort who wasn’t taking the drugs.

    How about we add in an uncontrolled mind altering drug such as cannabis because cannabis is like, y’know, totally natural, dude, and see what the result is.

    Add in the combination of single parenthood, the erosion of morality (yeah, like, dude, so SQUARE. Tune in, drop out and go with the flow) and the only answer is more gun control to add to the 20,000 laws restricting guns in the USA.

    But of course, gun owners should compromise:

    http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.co.nz/2010/09/ok-ill-play.html

    Skip the questions if you must but read the bit about the cake analogy.

    OK this has been too long (even without reading the links) but a simple answer to a complex set of factors will NOT give the result you expect. Unless of course, banning guns is the aim and this is an excuse to push that agenda.

  21. Thinking about all the US school shootings, I’m struck by the responses to them and to Islamic terrorism (which is killing people in broadly comparable amounts, quite a few of whom are children, in particular the Manchester attack).

    The response to the former is ‘This must stop! Something must be done to remove guns from our society! Anyone who says otherwise is an evil child killer!’

    The response to the latter is ‘Its all our fault because of the way the West behaves and this is price we have to pay for living in a Western city. We mustn’t think that all Muslims are terrorists, and we must protect Muslims from any backlash from the native population. The perpetrators are often mentally ill and their religion has nothing to do with their crimes. Nothing that impacts at all on Muslims may be done to combat the attacks’

    Spot the difference.

  22. Thinking about all the US school shootings, I’m struck by the responses to them and to Islamic terrorism (which is killing people in broadly comparable amounts, quite a few of whom are children, in particular the Manchester attack).

    A lot of people are saying this. It’s a useful indicator of how the ruling classes view different groups.

  23. Jim nails it.

    Piss on all gun controllers. And these juvos need to be punished for letting themselves be used as leftist stooges.

  24. dearieme:

    To answer “what has changed since the 60’s?” one would need clarification on what you’re specifically inquiring about. If the question is in reference to the US murder rate, the answer is “it’s been steadily declining and the US is arguably the safest it’s ever been all while gun ownership continues to increase.” If the question is actually “why are seemingly more current/former students killing their classmates?” then we have to carefully explore all of the related factors. Unfortunately democrats are still deranged from the Trump election and are absolutely desperate to find an issue to bolster their unexpectedly poor polling in the run up to the mid-term elections. So instead gun rights advocates will get children’s corpses thrown in their front lawns by screaming teenagers while ostensibly liberty-minded Brits will scoff at those violent Americans as “not our kind, dear.”

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