The Role Of The Public Library In American Life : A Speculative - Ideals: Fill & Download for Free

update：Some friends said that he could scold their president in the United States, and he laughed at the fact that the Chinese could not scold their president.I will tell Chinese people abroad how to answer such questions. A humorous, a serious.The first answer: I can shout "long live trump" anywhere in China without anything happening. Can you do this safely anywhere in the United States?The second answer: in fact, if you scold Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping on private occasions in China, you will not happen, even if you do this in front of Communist Party members or police.Of course, you can't do it on official occasions.Three reasons,1. In China, if you insult a beggar and are hit back by the other side, no one will sympathize with you. This is respect.2. The Chinese are more concerned about constructive criticism. If you attack for the sake of attack, you will not be welcomed. It has nothing to do with the system.3. It's related to the system. There's nothing to avoid. It's part of the power transferred by the Chinese people. Leaders enjoy more power and you have to take more responsibility.In addition, those who say that the president of the United States they can scold at will, don't deceive yourself. Learn the story of J. Epstein by yourself.－－－－－In this answer that I would like everyone to face up to the essence of history.Friends in the comment area, as an adult, I know the intention of your words. But you have made a mistake. Every Chinese wants to face up to their own history, which is what I want to do in this answer.But you have to face the reality, and you have to have the courage to understand the role of the United States in this matter too. If the United States continues to use this matter as a toy and tool, you will get nothing but hatred.If you look at my past responses, I've never been outraged, but last night I was outraged by the comments, and I used fierce words to answer a comment. I'm sorry for that.If you're a politician, I know I don't have any effect on you.If you are just a good westerner, ask yourself, are you fair?Yes, there are many things we don't know about Tian'anmen.If you really want to help the Chinese understand the truth, why not set up higher moral standards and behaviors and let the Chinese learn.In this way, the Chinese people can better urge their own government.However, with regard to Iraq, I did not see a westerner refer to reflection or compensation for those who lost their lives and homes.Why did the United States withdraw from who when the world agreed to an equal investigation of the source of the virus. Those who want to sue China and claim compensation, where are you now?Well, people who can't understand my answer, I'm willing to communicate with you. If you can do the following, you will win my respect.1. I have never opposed freedom of speech, but when you enjoy the right to freedom, please do not forget the responsibility of freedom. Before you comment on a matter or a person, have you ever seriously understood, at least carefully read every word he said. This is not only respect for others, but also respect for yourself. For example, please don't sit in front of the TV, drink coke, eat French fries, see someone take a test tube dressed in washing powder to incite, support a war that causes 100000 deaths and millions of refugees, although these people are thousands of miles away from you. They are also living people. They are not nobler or inferior than you.2. Before you criticize a person, please think about whether you can do better when the same thing happens to you. Ask yourself if you want to give your time, money, energy and even life to help others, or just to satisfy your false sense of superiority.3. If you have ideals, no matter what they are about, everyone has freedom of belief. But remember, if this ideal requires sacrifice, please let yourself make efforts and sacrifice first. Please never believe every word of those who shout their ideals but let others bleed.-------This is an answer for the Chinese people.It is also an answer that only Chinese can understand.If you don't understand the Chinese characters in the picture, you won't know what I want to say.Although I don't really like Li Peng.At least he didn't hide in the basement of the White House.At least he didn't get rid of the people outside and take a picture with a Bible.He didn't say that the protester was a lower creatureBUT if you are a Chinese growing up in China, I Believe you will know what I want to express。All picture from google.I don't know more about it than you do.At that time, I was only nine years oldI always want to write about the impact of this event on China's future and how we can face it more meaningfully.But, I always have deep sorrow，Can't calm downOriginally, We had a chance solve it better by ourselves.It has hurt everyone's psychology, including the Communists in CHINA.Sorrow is not because one or ten or 100 people may die.Even if there is only one person, it is also a tragedy.Under every topic about Tiananmen Gate, there is a debate about whether 10000 people died.I know that if you don't argue, they say you're acquiescing.If you argue, he'll let you prove that ten thousand people didn't die.This is really a sad thing.In fact they don't care if you have dead people or how many people have died.They're just enjoying it.What makes me miserable is that I see you debating how many people are dead. Rather than discussing why，and about its past and future.But abroad, They use our grief as a toy and a tool for making a living.The only thing I can tell you for sure is that none of these leaders who lead the students are dead. Recently, he was received by the Secretary of state of the United States.if Secretary of stat wants Wang Dan to help lead the protests across the United States？－－－－－－－－－－I've always thought that attacking each other is very non gentlemanly.However, some people in the comment area said that I was insensitive.To prove that I am compassionate. Let me list some things that we all should know about.In China, a famous person said that if a person doesn't know how you are hurt, but advises you to be generous, please stay away from him, because when lightning strikes him, it will affect you.Welcome to continue to add，If you need more, I can find more for you. A middle school student who will go to the library can do it.All of the following are from American and Western scholars.If you think which is not true, please let me know and I will delete it.The Chinese are willing to believe and respect the facts.Reply1. In 1871, the U.S. military court sentenced a person to death and wrongly sentenced him to death. The victim settled the counterclaim and asked for $100000 in compensation, which was only $5 in the end2. Pennsylvania farmers fought for whiskey tax, and Washington led 12950 people to personally suppress farmers.3. The property listed in Washington's will, from Virginia to Kentucky to Maryland to Pennsylvania to New York to Washington, consisted of 33000 acres of land, 300 slaves, and the president's salary, accounting for 2% of the U.S. government budget in 1789. (property equivalent to $225 million now)4. During his tenure, Adams signed the immigration law and riot act, which restricted immigration and curbed freedom of speech.5. In the declaration of independence, black people are not one person, only three fifths of them.6.At least 14 of the founding fathers of the United States were land speculators. At the age of 14, Jefferson inherited more than 2700 mu of land and a large number of serfs. When he grew up, he owned 10000 mu of land and 100-200 slaves. The reason why he spare no effort to write his great works on human freedom is that he was completed by three generations of serfs.7. In 1800, 24-year-old slave Gabriel launched an uprising, which was suppressed by Monroe and hanged on October 7 of the same year. In 1831, Turner was hanged in the slave uprising. In addition, a large number of innocent black people died in the hands of angry white people.8.Little Adams set up a gambling table in the presidential palace, secretly supported the monarchy, falsely reported expenses, and provided women to the Tsar. In the presidential election, Jackson had 99 votes, little Adams 84, and clay 37. Clay made a private deal with little Adams, with clay as secretary of state, and Jackson was defeated. Become the first "minority president" (30%) in history.9. When Georgia seized Indian land in the 1920s, the Indians sued the Supreme Court. Although they won the lawsuit, President Jackson refused to enforce it.10.After 1830, the Indian "footprints of tears": 17000 people were arrested and 4000 died on the way of migration. Before the white people came to America, there were about 2.5 million Indians. After 300 years, 90% of them were wiped out, leaving only 250000. In the 20th century, Indians sent the hearing records to the United Nations, asking for confirmation of their "natural sovereignty". The United Nations ignored it for 46 consecutive years, because what Indians signed with the United States was an international treaty, which was difficult to deal with.11. In 1767, Britain issued a new regulation to support Indians to keep their native land. As a result, it annoyed the land speculators who wanted to occupy the Indian land. They wanted to get rid of their home country, Britain, in an independent way, so as to let go of bullying the Indians. (one of the reasons for independence) Indian Migration Act12.On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington, with 750 cavalry, killed more than 500 people in the Indian concentration camp on the sandside of the Kiowa river. He cut off the scalp of the dead to make booty, and some cut off the pubic part of the Indian women, pinned them on their hats or saddles.Since 1862, at least 800 Indian men, women and children have been killed in my district, general Sheridan said in his report. Men are usually scalped, corpses are cut, eight pieces are cut, genitals are cut off, and stuffed into the mouth of the victim. Women are raped, gang raped, sometimes up to 50 or 60 times, and then killed. The scalp is also cut off, and the genitals are inserted into sticks, some even before they die13.At the age of 28, in 1801, President Harrison became the "hero of tippecano" because he destroyed the Shawnee Indians, seized 3 million acres of land and killed the Indian leader.14.During President Taylor's time, the United States smuggled a large amount of opium into China, accounting for one tenth of the total trade with China. It also sold opium shipped from India by the United Kingdom on a commission basis. In addition to 3% commission, 1% net profit will be added.15. President Taylor owned more than 100 slaves and bought 1100 acres of land for $90000 to work on his farm.16. During the Black Hawk War, as a captain, Lincoln took part in the massacre of Indians. When men, women and children crossed the river, they were all killed in the river. 12. Little Adams set up a gambling table in the presidential palace, secretly supported the monarchy, falsely reported expenses, and provided women to the Tsar. In the presidential election, Jackson had 99 votes, little Adams 84, and clay 37. Clay made a private deal with little Adams, and clay became Secretary of state, which made Jackson lose the election. Become the first "minority president" (30%) in history.17. When Georgia seized Indian land in the 1920s, the Indians sued the Supreme Court. Although they won the lawsuit, President Jackson refused to enforce it.18.After 1830, the Indian "footprints of tears": 17000 people were arrested and 4000 died on the way of migration. Before the white people came to America, there were about 2.5 million Indians. After 300 years, 90% of them were wiped out, leaving only 250000. In the 20th century, Indians sent the hearing records to the United Nations, asking for confirmation of their "natural sovereignty". The United Nations ignored it for 46 consecutive years, because what Indians signed with the United States was an international treaty, which was difficult to deal with.19.In 1767, Britain issued a new regulation to support Indians to keep their native land. As a result, it annoyed the land speculators who wanted to occupy the Indian land. They wanted to get rid of their home country, Britain, in an independent way, so as to let go of bullying the Indians. (one of the reasons for independence) Indian Migration Act20.On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington, with 750 cavalry, killed more than 500 people in the Indian concentration camp on the sandside of the Kiowa river. He cut off the scalp of the dead to make booty, and some cut off the pubic part of the Indian women, pinned them on their hats or saddles.Since 1862, at least 800 Indian men, women and children have been killed in my district, general Sheridan said in his report. Men are usually scalped, corpses are cut, eight pieces are cut, genitals are cut off, and stuffed into the mouth of the victim. Women are raped, gang raped, sometimes up to 50 or 60 times, and then killed. The scalp is also cut off, and the genitals are inserted into sticks, some even before they die21. At the age of 28, in 1801, President Harrison became the "hero of tippecano" because he destroyed the Shawnee Indians, seized 3 million acres of land and killed the Indian leader.22.During President Taylor's time, the United States smuggled a large amount of opium into China, accounting for one tenth of the total trade with China. It also sold opium shipped from India by the United Kingdom. In addition to 3% commission, 1% net profit will be added.23. President Taylor owned more than 100 slaves and bought 1100 acres of land for $90000 to work on his farm.24.During the Black Hawk War, as a captain, Lincoln took part in the massacre of Indians. When men, women and children crossed the river, they were all killed in the river.In 1920, American women had the right to participate in politics.25. It is also the enemies of the union that President Johnson declared the abolition of slavery. He was the last president to have slaves.26. During his term of office, President Hayes signed the China Exclusion Act. In 1848, a gold mine was discovered in California. Due to lack of labor, it attracted Chinese people. After the gold fever subsided, Chinese people were excluded. The construction of the Pacific Railway attracted 36900 Chinese laborers, reaching 103000 in 1875. After the railway was repaired, Chinese were once again excluded. In 1879, it passed the anti Chinese case, and in April 1882, it passed the anti Chinese case again.27.On October 31, 1880, 3000 Americans surrounded Denver Chinatown, causing Denver riots. Denver City Police Department shut all the victims into the police station, and then US Secretary of state Evans said the president would not intervene in local administration.28.The Chinese were sold to the United States as "piglets" to do hard work, with a mortality rate of 1 / 4. A total of 4.5 million people were sold to the United States. One tenth of the farmers in California were Chinese. Ten thousand Chinese laborers built the transcontinental railway, and when the completion ceremony was held in 1869, the Chinese were forbidden to participate. Then came the cubic Air Act and the braid rule, which required that bedrooms have 500 feet of fresh air circulation. Chinese workers couldn't afford it. As a result, hundreds of them were arrested and jailed. 15 people act: each ship can only carry 15 Chinese. Violators will be fined $100 per passenger and imprisoned for 6 months. By 1904, the Chinese Exclusion Act had been extended indefinitely. In 1943, during World War II, the China Exclusion Act was abolished.29. In the event of Shiquan mining area on September 2, 1885, nearly 100 Chinese people were shot and burned, and 6700 people fled to the wilderness, causing numerous property losses. White atrocities spread to the western United States. Within a month, Chinese people in Seattle had been killed and burned. Two months after China protested, the U.S. government said it was not responsible for the illegal actions of Americans.30.On February 17, 1890, the local authorities of San Francisco limited the Chinese people to move outside the urban area within 60 days, otherwise they would be arrested.31.After the anarchist joelgosh was executed by an American electric chair, his body was poured with sulfuric acid.32. From 1899 to 1902, when the United States suppressed the independence of the Philippines, it used more than 126000 troops before and after, killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. By 1946, the population of the Philippines had reached nearly 20 million. If the Philippines were to become a state of the United States, it would take a lot of seats and resources. Therefore, the United States would let the Philippines become independent as long as Clark air force base and Subic Bay naval base were preserved.33. In 1918, the United States sent troops to interfere in the Russian Revolution, and it did not recognize the Soviet Union until 1933. To prevent the "red threat", the United States seized 6000 people in New York overnight and 10000 in 33 cities across the country without evidence.34.After the US declared war on Germany, German music including Beethoven was prohibited. To remove and destroy German books, any immigrant born in Germany must be fingered.33. In 1917, the U.S. introduced the anti Espionage Act, and in 1918, the Sedition Act, which imposed a fine of $10000 or 20-year imprisonment on those who obstructed the conscription and sale of war bonds. As a result, it expanded to "anyone who dared to say, draw, write or publish any unfaithful, blasphemous, abusive or insulting words to the government". 250 were deported and 1500 jailed for espionage and insurgency. 450 of them are conscientious dissidents - rejecting war is based on religious or moral beliefs. Eugene v. Debs, the socialist leader, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for an anti war speech.35.President Coolidge announced that "no one has the right to strike at any time and place". In 1924, the immigration law was promulgated to restrict immigration. The federal court ruled that it was a crime to publish Communist publications in the United States in order to curb speech.36. In 1932, 17000 World War I veterans sat in Washington's central government square for two months, asking for pensions. The U.S. government opened fire, veterans' wives supported their husbands, the U.S. government released tear gas, some babies were killed by the gas, some children were stabbed by bayonets. The U.S. government also sent out tankers, infantry and cavalry, led by MacArthur, button and Eisenhower.37.On May 4, 1970, four students of Kent State University were shot and killed by the government. Thousands of students gathered in the playground in defiance of the ban to protest against the march into Cambodia. The U.S. government sent out tanks, the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and the 145th infantry regiment. A large number of National Guard and police were sent to suppress the attack. They fired guns at the same time, killing four male and female students on the spot, injuring 10, and stabbing many students with bayonets. The blood of the victims dyed the campus of Kent University red. Then there was a major arrest, with 900 military and police officers occupying the school. A student, with grief for the students who died and hatred for the reactionary authorities, bravely climbed up to the top of a tall statue on the campus and made a V-shaped sign of victory with his fingers, calling on the students to continue their struggle. More than 1000 faculty members gathered in a church near the school to protest against the atrocities of the US government.38.In 1965, the 40th armored division and 49th infantry division suppressed the riots in Los Angeles, killing and injuring more than 1000 civilians and arresting 4000 people. In July 1967, the United States suppressed the uprising in Newark, killing and injuring more than 2000 civilians. In the same month, American paratroopers and tanks drove into Detroit to suppress, killing and injuring thousands of people and arresting 7000. In the first four months of 1968, the United States sent troops to suppress 107 times, killing 2600 people and arresting more than 21000 people.39.On February 17, 1890, the local authorities of San Francisco limited the Chinese people to move outside the urban area within 60 days, otherwise they would be arrested.40. After the anarchist joelgosh was executed by an American electric chair, his body was poured with sulfuric acid.41. From 1899 to 1902, when the United States suppressed the independence of the Philippines, it used more than 126000 troops before and after, killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. By 1946, the population of the Philippines had reached nearly 20 million. If the Philippines were to become a state of the United States, it would take a lot of seats and resources. Therefore, the United States would let the Philippines become independent as long as Clark air force base and Subic Bay naval base were preserved.42. In 1918, the United States sent troops to interfere in the Russian Revolution, and it did not recognize the Soviet Union until 1933. To prevent the "red threat", the United States seized 6000 people in New York overnight and 10000 in 33 cities across the country without evidence.43. After the US declared war on Germany, German music including Beethoven was prohibited. To remove and destroy German books, any immigrant born in Germany must be fingered.44.In 1917, the U.S. introduced the anti Espionage Act, and in 1918, the Sedition Act, which imposed a fine of $10000 or 20-year imprisonment on those who obstructed the conscription and sale of war bonds. As a result, it expanded to "anyone who dared to say, draw, write or publish any unfaithful, blasphemous, abusive or insulting words to the government". 250 were deported and 1500 jailed for espionage and insurgency. 450 of them are conscientious dissidents - rejecting war is based on religious or moral beliefs. Eugene v. Debs, the socialist leader, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for an anti war speech.45.President Coolidge announced that "no one has the right to strike at any time and place". In 1924, the immigration law was promulgated to restrict immigration. The federal court ruled that it was a crime to publish Communist publications in the United States in order to curb speech.46.In 1932, 17000 World War I veterans sat in Washington's central government square for two months, asking for pensions. The U.S. government opened fire, veterans' wives supported their husbands, the U.S. government released tear gas, some babies were killed by the gas, some children were stabbed by bayonets. The U.S. government also sent out tankers, infantry and cavalry, led by MacArthur, button and Eisenhower.47.On May 4, 1970, four students of Kent State University were shot and killed by the government. Thousands of students gathered in the playground in defiance of the ban to protest against the march into Cambodia. The U.S. government sent out tanks, the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and the 145th infantry regiment. A large number of National Guard and police were sent to suppress the attack. They fired guns at the same time, killing four male and female students on the spot, injuring 10, and stabbing many students with bayonets. The blood of the victims dyed the campus of Kent University red. Then there was a major arrest, with 900 military and police officers occupying the school. A student, with grief for the students who died and hatred for the reactionary authorities, bravely climbed up to the top of a tall statue on the campus and made a V-shaped sign of victory with his fingers, calling on the students to continue their struggle. More than 1000 faculty members gathered in a church near the school to protest against the atrocities of the US government.48.In 1965, the 40th armored division and 49th infantry division suppressed the riots in Los Angeles, killing and injuring more than 1000 civilians and arresting 4000 people. In July 1967, the United States suppressed the uprising in Newark, killing and injuring more than 2000 civilians. In the same month, American paratroopers and tanks drove into Detroit to suppress, killing and injuring thousands of people and arresting 7000. In the first four months of 1968, the United States sent troops to suppress 107 times, killing 2600 people and arresting more than 21000 people.

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.Can I get a pro-gun conservative's sincere views on how to stop school shootings in the US? Can it really be done without introducing strict gun laws?ObjectiveYou are asking a policy question that unfortunately does not boil down to a short answer. Solving school shootings has nothing to do with being liberal, conservative, libertarian, left, right, or whatever political flavor you want to focus on. If the goal is to stop school shootings, the answer is not particularly difficult, practically speaking. If political posturing is added, well the stated objective can become as impossible as an opposition wants it to be. Is the goal to end school shootings or is it to get rid of guns? The two are not the same.Stopping mass shootings is too narrow a goal. Why not stop school killings? This word choice, shootings rather than killings, is a semantics game. The mechanism of killing becomes the object of focus rather than the cause—the underlying social factors. When we say mass shootings we are giving more weight to someone killed by a gun verses someone else who is killed by any number of other devices. Yet, the dead are equally dead. Not all mass killings are shootings. Some attackers use multiple weapons—improvised pipe bombs, cars, knives, pistols, shot guns, rifles of various types, and commercially made explosives. The principle weapons of the Columbine attack were pipe-bombs and shotguns—over 100 explosive devices were used. The deadliest school attack in the US involved dynamite, not firearms[i].If we are going to put forth effort to stop school shootings, we might as well go through the effort to stop school killings. The effort is not significantly different, either requiring a layered approach.I identify 12 steps. Some local and some focused on society at large. Approaching this effort by breaking down actions taken by the school and local community and those actions taken by the larger society allows action to be taken at several levels of society. Breaking down the steps taken to reduce mass killings into a layered process also allows a flexibility avoiding a monolithic effort capable of being slowed or stopped by making one step dependent on another. The first steps are local. They are carried out by the community at the school. These are hard-nosed practical steps. Other actions take place at the larger social level, targeting school killings and broader social trends that contribute to a culture of violence. The school and local level is easier to control or influence. Change is more personal being felt most directly. The more change moves beyond the local the more time and effort such change takes. The steps I layout are not dependent on another step to be carried out. Although, when taken together, they are mutually supporting.No one course of action will stop school killings. Yet, implementing any one or any number of these acts will bring improvement. Some will have more positive impact than others. Long term steps aimed at targeted socio-economic change will take time, but will have the greatest impact. Some steps are immediate and can be enacted more easily but generally they focus on limiting an attacker’s ability to inflict harm. These 12 steps, should be used jointly for maximum effect.If the solution in your mind comes down to, stopping school shootings requires a gun ban, you have made a link—curtailing school killings has a prerequisite, banning guns. This drives the discussion in one direction. Gun bans precede other action. This stops progress we can make now. It omits actions immediately available and side-steps many causal issues without direct association to firearms. If the objective is stopping mass shootings (or mass killings) don’t limit the method by first myopically focusing on the tools used to commit the violent act rather than the context that facilitates the act.ContextThe hype that follows any type of mass killing but especially shootings generally undermines situational awareness. I have yet to see an assessment of: the attacker(s), the space the attack takes place in, and the make-up and posture of the defenders or targets of the attack. A lot of coverage is passed off as analysis that is not more than leveraging grief and spectacle.Or, we dismiss the attacker as impenetrablely crazy and leave assesment at that.We do a great disservice to the discussion when we begin with, the attacker is crazy; there is nothing we can you do about crazy?This is simplistic thinking. The attackers might be crazy. Often, school attackers have diagnosed mental health issues that bear out the assertion. Many times, the mental health issues are well known before the attacker acts. There are clear benefits to understanding the contributing effect of mind-altering drugs on all mass killings at school or elsewhere. This is especially true when considering long-term consequences beyond school killings to larger, far more deadly, social concerns like suicide. Suicidal ideations are one of the tell-tale red flags. This correlation should be explored; there are potential life-saving lessons to be gleaned from such studies.Nevertheless, despite the merit of understanding mental illness and its role in school attacks, focusing on the impact of drugs up-front side-steps an immediate clear-minded assessment of the attacker's actions subsequent to their motivation. The discourse goes something like this.Person in state of confusion or shock: Why would anyone do this?Answer: They are crazy. Whoever attacks innocent people is crazy. Full stop. No need to explore further. There is no explaining crazy.This answer is an excuse. Really, it is lazy. There is a great deal to be learned from understanding the attacker's actions in the now of the attack that helps us reach our goal. Principally, that there is a predicable rationality to almost all school attacks or attacks on any public place people gather in.Crazy or not, under the influence of mind altering drugs or not, school attackers are making very rational assessments about their objective and how to reach their objective. School attackers are thinking, evaluating, then picking targets based on desired outcome. And, so far, the outcome matches desire. The actions of school attackers are rational within the context of their objective. The objective might be crazy. The approach to the objective is not. When professionals tell you, there is no way to predict where a nihilistic, narcissist, seeking notoriety might attack, they are being intellectually dishonest.Ask yourself, where do most non-military mass killings take place? Locations that are:1. Public.2. High visibility.3. Easily accessibility—the areas have multiple entrances and exits and limited security or no security (security does not mean a fortress).4. Greatest shock value—Locations are selected to elicit emotional response and maximum media coverage.5. Familiarity—attackers pick areas they know usually better than law enforcement knows them.This is not target selection of truly crazy people. This is rational decision making following a perceived need to act out. This does not justify the decision or negate the fundamental truth that attackers preying on defenseless people is anything other than sociopathic or psychopathic. However, the attacker comes to the decision to attack defenseless members of their own community, execution of the decision is far from crazy. In most cases, maximum damage is limited by lack of experience in executing their plan, not by the location and lack of planning. Many people are repulsed by the idea that perpetrators of mass killings might be rational. Basic rationality at the level of execution is a good thing though. Rational acts are predictable even if the justification behind them is not sane.Targeted locations are not military targets. Attacks in public places, (schools or similar locations), are generally not carried out to shape public policy. These are not terrorist targets designed to shape political, economic outcomes as an act of asymmetric warfare. Perhaps there is commonality with acts of terrorism at the execution level, but the motivation is different. It should be noted though that many of the steps taken to reduce school attacks will decrease the possibility of attacks carried out for other reasons as well.School attackers are after social targets first and foremost. Attackers are narcissistic, often nihilistic, individuals who want attention. Notoriety and infamy are confused with more positive forms of attention, acceptance, and respect. If life is truly nihilistic, the difference between infamy and fame is trivial. The value of one life over another life, is of little distinction. Often the attackers want respect from the community the they feel denied them respect and, given the self-focus and nihilism, they have no problem elevating their response past more conventional, healthy, measured methods used to get attention. Usually, the attackers present many warning signs making their actions predictable as much as the location of such attacks is predictable.In their study published as, Mass Shootings and Mental Illness, James L. Knoll IV, M.D. George D. Annas, M.D., M.P.H. noted perpetrators of mass shootings shared, “a persecutory/paranoid outlook, narcissism, depression, suicidality, and a perception of being socially rejected.” My speculation is many perpetrators of mass killing where the means of killing is something other than a firearm ought to follow similar psychological trends. The same article noted of the perpetrators who survive, “Most perpetrators acknowledged being influenced by previous mass killers who received significant media exposure… Since the 1990s, mass murders, and especially mass shootings, have arguably taken on a different quality, influenced by a cultural shift, social media, and expansive news coverage of the tragedies.” This is proving to be such the case that the authors note there is a cultural shift taking place where, through media, we are creating a “script” for such events. We are normalizing it.The attackers want attention and lots of it. They want spectacle. They want to be remembered.The combination of rationality tied to unhealthy motivation, hyper self-focus, and the urgent desire for notoriety, define what should be the immediate response to this threat.Initial steps taken to limit the effectiveness of an attack are primarily tactical responses to a threat. Some steps have both a tactical and a larger strategic impact e.g. step one below. Following step one, subsequent steps take place at the local level, then shift to broader social considerations that should be addressed to reduce mass killings. These tactical responses are not specific to any one school.Step 1: Deny the SpectacleDon't plaster, name and face of the attacker all over media platforms. The method of news coverage adds to the chaos initially after an attack, rather than diminishing it. This increases the spectacle. Details can still be discussed without elevating the attacker’s profile and without compromising information and public awareness. But, the public speculation, 24/7 publicity of 'crazy' is what the attackers want; it increases emotion, generally without honestly assessing the situation. Feeding emotion gets ratings, not reasoned results. Feeding emotion, feeds ego but leads to poor policy. Each attack elevates the spectacle and feeds the next attack. The greater attention on crazy acts we provide lifts the spectacle level and normalizes crazy actions—it draws the next attackers in. More importantly, as detail of the homicidal act is dissected without context, it teaches other attackers without providing social framework that reduces future attacks. We don’t really discuss the motivation and larger causes that shape the social context that drove attackers the same way we focus on the method. That is a mistake of emphasis.The conversation is reduced to, “You can’t stop crazy. Don’t take my gun. Don’t punish me for the crazy man’s actions. The Constitution.” Or “Guns. Scary guns. Arrogant pigs hand-over your phallic guns! Ignorant red neck. Well, gun owners want to see kids killed.” Meanwhile, we create spectacle, the very spectacle the attacker wanted and that hypnotizes the next attacker into a dead-end act of horror. The way the discussion is framed just adds to the spectacle of chaos and destruction.The sound-bite news media is the worst medium imaginable for bringing social awareness to such tragedy. Quit flashing pictures and names of the attackers. Giving them more fame than the victims is bad practice.Step 2: Shape Areas to Your Advantage / Protect YourselfWhy are attackers so successful, within a short time period? Department of Homeland Security research reveals that the average duration of an active shooter incident at a school is 12.5 minutes. In contrast, the average response time for law enforcement is 18 minutes.[ii]Attackers have two things on their side by virtue of being attackers—time and initiative. The time between the attack beginning and the attacker resisting (or committing suicide) belongs to the attacker. Keep in mind most attackers pick targets they are familiar with. Usually, they are more familiar with the area where they carry out the attack than the police or medical responders.I refrain from calling police or medical responders, first responders. First, that is an impossibly inaccurate label. The targets of the attack, school officials and students are the first responders, no matter how they choose to respond. This is true of any potential target of an attack. How the real first responders take responsibility for their own lives means everything. This leads to the second reason calling police and medical responders, first responders, is unhealthy in this situation. It creates a mindset that victims must wait for a response because the first responder is not them i.e. it is someone else who is responsible for their lives. The victims of an attack are always the first responders. The police and medical responders are clean-up even if they arrive in time to engage the attacker. Average response time for police to a school attack is more than 12 minutes. That is a long time to wait for help when you are being attacked by a knife, a pipe-bomb, or a shotgun, a pistol, or a rifle, or a bat, or a car.Denying an attacker, the time / initiative advantage, means understanding the space being attacked. What is the school designed to do? In the hundreds of schools, I've been in, most are not actually designed to protect students and teachers. That is a loaded statement. I understand. My assessment of the schools I have been in, is that they have policy and physical layout designed around accountability and limiting liability. That is not the same as safety. School administrators have plans for fire and things like tornadoes. In most cases, they also had action plans that sounded like they addressed even dire sounding ones like active attackers. They might have brevity codes they can use with urgency. Yet, by physical layout and school policy, in accordance with daily activity and conventional emergency scenarios, schools are typically designed to control students, not protect students. The layout and design of school buildings channels students and teachers into kill zones (commonly called classrooms, lunchrooms, and libraries) and provides avenues of approach leading to the kill zone (wide, empty hallways).Generally, this seems to come down to a lack of willingness to come to terms with what an actual attack entails, and then unwittingly, conceding initiative to an attacker. Prime example, most students and teachers huddle in the classrooms with no way out, but the single door to the classroom. This is a natural reaction. Walls protect us from wind and rains and define our space. We feel safe inside them. Truth be told though, never retreat to a cave with only one way in and out.The result, from the perspective of an attacker, despite the earnest desire of most people involved, is that most schools are physically and administratively set up to box teachers and students into kill zones with no escape. Solutions need not be drastic. Schools don't need to be fortresses. Fortress schools are a waste of time and money. That does not equate to complacency though. A fortress is designed to withstand assault and potentially support a proactive deterrent force. Students are not trained combatants armed for providing quick response with force. We also know despite many brave acts to the contrary, police and security may not defend the students or confront the attacker. Fundamentally, the need is to avoid conflict. Leave. Where conflict is unavoidable, shift the balance of power from the attacker to any number of first responders.There are a number of safe guards that can be incorporated or retrofitted into building design that increases safety and reduces attacker’s ability to achieve their goals. For the most part, these actions do not need to drastically change the appearance of the school.Schools that foster situational awareness and flexibility of escape are not difficult to create. As a matter of resources, we spend more on sports by far than would be needed for safeguards. Schools should be evaluated for ease of movement allowed by the building structure and the awareness students and teachers have for who moves through the school spaces. We need to give students and teachers a greater advantage. Rethink how we build schools. This does not necessitate new construction. Simple cost effective remodel will do.Basically, the layout of a school is set up to keep students controlled. As that was the singular goal for most designs, most classrooms have one way in and out. Student movement is channeled into primary hallways where people are concentrated together for short bursts of predictable of time (Usually announced by a broadcast chime or bell) then moved back into the control boxes where students sit in regimented formation i.e. rows of desks. The passageways are then empty and unimpeded. This is an ideal target rich environment for an attacker. Avenues of approach: are well defined and open, lead to target rich areas, and limit ability for targeted people to evade or escape. Picture, the proverbial fish in a barrel with a red carpet leading to the barrel. Even many campuses with open plans have disastrous choke points.Classrooms lacking alternate ways in and out are deathtraps. Retreat to a classroom with no way out drastically limits options. Classrooms should have two means of entry and exit. Rooms on exterior walls can exit to the outside via a door or suitable window. Interior rooms can link via doorways between classrooms, left shut except in response to emergencies, making rooms a chain allowing students and teachers to move in emergencies without giving away their position. This is good for fires and earthquakes too. Adding doors or windows capable of allowing quick emergency evacuation is not cost prohibitive.Step 3: Limit Initiative & Reduce the Time AdvantageA. Fix / Slow attackers—deny them free access. Entrances should have metal detectors, which will catch many weapons like pipe bombs and knives, as well as firearms. This restricts entrance of weapons. As important, interior spaces should be able to be isolated (locked down) so movement throughout the school is not possible by an attacker. This does not mean fortress doors. It means solid fire doors or gates that lock under specific circumstances. Reduce an attacker's time to act and the impact of first initiative. Doors, drop down gates, or sliding gates that section off areas of a facility are options. Secure fire doors with a lock down trigger also work and can be less obvious especially if the door or gate is hidden in a wall. Fire doors also help reduce fire damage too. When not in use, these doors need not (should not) conspicuously choke passage ways.Improve door locks. Use solid doors with hardened locks. Slow the undesired attacker’s entrance (take the attacker's time) and give students and teachers the ability to escape. These doors can still have windows. They don’t have to look like prison doors. In fact, it is better if they do not look like prison doors.Barriers without overwatch are meaningless. Without surveillance, barriers are often counter-productive. They become places to hide. Or the barrier intended to protect becomes a trap that slows escape. Well intentioned people want fences and walls. When one of the best responses is to leave the area of attack, adding fences and walls slows evacuation as well as limits the police and emergency responders situational awareness. The goal of a school administration should not be to hold students on site, it should be to evacuate as quickly as possible in as unpredictable a manner relative to the attacker as possible. This ties to the next facility related piece of the solution. Deny hiding places and give the students and teachers as well as emergency responders maximum situational awareness.B. Mirrors made of shatter-proof surfaces that eliminate blind corners and hiding spaces. We see these in hospitals to keep doctors and nurses from running into each other. This has the added benefit of reducing other undesirable activities too. Make it harder for attackers to surprise potential victims and enable law enforcement, and the attacker’s intended targets, to have greater situational awareness.C. Cameras. Hallways, entrances, approaches, and areas of congregation should have cameras. Cameras should be monitored. This is not just for attackers. There are many activities that take place in schools that ought not to take place, whether vandalism, bullying, drugs, student teacher interactions, that would also see beneficial response from attention.D. Public Address (P.A.) System. Mass notification is an ability most schools have. Use existing resources. School announcements: lunch menu, basketball scores, student body activities are broadcast over the P.A. along with emergency responses codes, drills, and assembly notices. P.A. systems gain their greatest potential when used in connection with cameras. Don’t simply use the P.A. to broadcast a threat in general terms e.g. “Attention students and teachers there is an active shooter on campus”. Use the P.A. and cameras to define the space for everyone; let everyone know where the threat is. If an attacker is identified in one area of the school, this should be announced. As the attacker is isolated in one area, the students and teachers in other areas should vacate.The only people in a school, or victims of any attack, who should be hiding, are those who cannot leave the area of the attack. Evacuation is the first goal. Hiding is a secondary course of action. It should not be a primary course of action. The last course of action is fighting. In the last few years this priority of actions has been reduced to the mantra, run, hide, fight. (see FBI / Homeland Security video, Run Fight & Hide https://youtu.be/ZvkdGK2j2Bs) It was developed for active shooter scenarios. The concept holds true for mass killings where an active attacker is the threat. If an attacker comes into a room the last thing to do is sit there. In Columbine, the students sat in their desks and let the two attackers put guns to their heads. In Springfield, the students hid behind tables until several decided to rush the attacker and disarmed him before emergency responders arrived at the scene of the attack. The first action should have been to leave. The second action should have been to hide in the least predictable place possible. In a school where students congregate in classrooms, this is predictable and a poor place to hide. The last thing to do is fight.Step 4: Make a Plan, Know the Plan, Work the PlanSchools range in how prepared they are. Being who I am, which is a slightly untrusting Marine father of seven, I test every school my children are students of. We've lived in 12 states and overseas. No public school other than on military bases, has ever lived up to their stated safety policy. Schools don’t need to be on a military base or be a fortress. They do need to be run by people with a clear plan. That plan needs to be known and practiced. Only then will it work in a crisis.I have always been told that visitors must check-in at the front office accessible through a main door and usually get a visitor pass. I make a practice to enter through a side door that should have been locked, and walk the hallways without a pass or ID. Most of the time I am not stopped. When I am, usually an excuse works to explain away my presence—I ask directions to the office and then I am then allowed to walk-off unescorted. I could be a divorced parent of a student I am not supposed to pick-up, or a homicidal maniac. I have never been escorted or stopped.Don’t establish policies that are not enforced and practiced. The students, teachers, administrators, and if possible, law enforcement should be familiar with the school plan of action. Where are exits? Where will students and teachers vacate to? Is there an officer on site who is familiar with the plan? If you ask students and community members to report information or ask for help, follow-up and provide help. Don’t advertise support that is not available. Stating there is a plan that is not practiced leads to false security.Step 5: School UniformsHelp defenders identify attackers quickly. Make strangers stand out. Although there are several benefits to school uniforms—better behavior, fewer distractions in class, and reduced money spent on clothes, the benefit in this context is, school officials and students alike instantly identify outsiders. There is much less chance of an attacker blending in.School uniforms have several psychological benefits from a schooling perspective. Yet, many communities do not like the lack of individualism. Coupled with cameras, this is likely one of the things many students and parents seem to dislike. Cameras require an investment in technology that costs money and having people man the cameras to provide active overwatch. For the most part, uniforms save money and are tech free.Step. 6 Don’t Advertise a Weakness“Gun Free Zone” is the worst advertising campaign in history. It not only invites people with firearms to attack a school (or similar space), it invites anyone with a rational plan built on a foundation of crazy to use pipe-bombs, knives, cars, “manufactured whatevers”, etc. to carry-out an attack. It is the same as saying, “Lunatics Come One, Come All”. Gun Free Zone is the kind of thing you announce when you want to draw attackers in. It feels good to some people. It lets them take the moral high-ground till it puts people six feet below ground.I am not going to go into too much detail, but the average American supermarket has what is needed to carry out an attack on a school or similarly cloistered public space resulting in the same number of deaths as most mass shootings. No need for a firearm at all. Average high-school chemistry classes provide knowledge of chemical reactions to do the same, plus they train students how to control the process of making hazardous compounds. Most warning labels and Material Safety Data sheets provide similar information. I am not saying anything new. We like to think we have a system of safety, but the means of providing safety in one area, like easily accessible labeling for hazardous material so firefighters know what risk they are taking, also provides a beacon of temptation for any nut-job with a vengeance issue, an empty basement, and time to use two brain cells.Easily, tens of millions of people in this country have knowledge to use this information to do harm. Letting the world know you have no means of stopping them, or at least equalizing the playing field, is not rational. It is called, the world of let’s pretend to be safe and fixate on a weapons platform that kills less than knives or hands/feet annually. The solution to the mass killings is in addressing the cause not the symptom. Advertising, Gun Free Zones exacerbates rather than ameliorates the problem.Step 7. Let People Protect ThemselvesEither bring law enforcement into the schools like it exists in other parts of the community or let legal gun owners who are trained and want to carry a firearm do so. Publicize it. As much as “Gun Free Zone” in an invitation for lunacy (it attracts lunatics like cows to low hanging fruit) letting the community know that a school or public place is protected is a deterrent. There is a reason communities patrolled by Neighborhood Watch post signs stating the neighborhood is patrolled. Advertising active real presence works, especially when there is an actual presence. Similarly, homes protected by security systems advertise the presence of the security system. Let people know the school is patrolled, watched, and there are active antibodies in the school ready to respond to human pathogens. Or do both. Wait you say, someone with a gun might go crazy and shoot… We’ve passed that point. That’s already happening. Plus, firearms are not the only means of killing. Also, allowing someone to protect themselves is not the same as mandating that they do so. No adult on a school campus should be forced to carry a firearm. Forcing people to carry who are not prepared increases risk.Harden the target. Although, I am a proponent of firearms wherever people are vulnerable, including schools, protection that potentially decreases the advantages an attacker has, doesn’t need to be limited to firearms. In most school shootings, where students hide in a classroom, a can of Raid Wasp/Hornet killer, or pepper spray that has similar range, would have gone a long way to saving many students and teachers. The insecticide in Raid makes it nearly impossible to see, it burns if sprayed in the eyes or soft tissue and shoots a tight stream of fluid 20 to 30 feet. An incapacitated attacker (one that cannot see or breath well) will not attack as well, if at all. Personally, I don’t like leaving an opportunity for the attacker to move. In the face of reluctance to use firearms, there are methods that reduce an attacker’s advantage of time and initiative. A wide range of non-lethal self-defense tools could be used. Many schools don’t encourage the use of non-lethals any more than firearms. In some cases the non-lethals proposed were silly. They required teachers and students to get within arms reach of the attacker without really incapacitating the attacker.Step 8: Enforce Existing LawsThere are millions of people who, by virtue of being diagnosed with some type of mental illness or having criminal records for domestic abuse or other violent crime, should not be allowed to buy a firearm. These people buy firearms not because of a legal loop hole, but because the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)[iii] system used to perform required Federal background checks is not used fully or at all by many states. From the FBI website,Mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 and launched by the FBI on November 30, 1998, NICS is used by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to instantly determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms. Before ringing up the sale, cashiers call in a check to the FBI or to other designated agencies to ensure that each customer does not have a criminal record or isn’t otherwise ineligible to make a purchase. More than 230 million such checks have been made, leading to more than 1.3 million denials.NICS is located at the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia. It provides full service to FFLs in 30 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. Upon completion of the required Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Form 4473, FFLs contact the NICS Section via a toll-free telephone number or electronically on the Internet through the NICS E-Check System to request a background check with the descriptive information provided on the ATF Form 4473. NICS is customarily available 17 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays (except for Christmas). Please be advised that calls may be monitored and recorded for any authorized purpose.20 states do not fully use the NICS system. Let me say that again, millions of people across the country, who should not be allowed to purchase firearms (of one type or another) based on accepted standards, are able to do so because the Federal background check database is not used, or it is used incompletely by many states. The infrastructure is there. The process is there. Sometimes this is a case of data not getting submitted. In other occasions the reasons differ. Each state has its justification for participating or not, and to a degree, many reasons make sense—lack of funding impacts staffing and software development. So, why create another program that causes a new requirement when the previous hasn’t been fully implemented? Yet, for the victims of violent attacks, the answers which are often rooted in bureaucracy, lack moral merit.Many states have databases of their own. These state databases do not communicate with other states or the federal government NICS database. A mentally ill person from one state can move to another state and buy a firearm. Similarly, a criminal convicted of a state level crime, who ought to be prohibited from purchasing a firearm, can relocate to another state and purchase firearms. Although this is not universally true, it allows millions of people who legally ought to be prohibited from buying a firearm to purchase what they want regardless of any “ought to” stopping them. Technically, these are legal purchases. They should not be.The means to implement change is largely in place already. To resolve this issue, each state should either use the Federal NICS system or purchase/develop software allowing communication between the respective state systems and the NICS system. Point of sale background checks are reality. The background checks are taking place. The process breaks down on the database side of the house. The states are not entering the data.Step 9. Keep PerspectiveDespite the great deal of attention given to mass killings in and out of schools, the overall trend for all violent crime is going down and has for decades. In fact, US homicide rates are tied for the lowest they have been in a century. This is true of gun violence. If the goal is to end school shootings, and as I have added, mass killings regardless of the weapon used, then we should be asking, why is violent crime going down overall? How do we reinforce that trend?Using a window from 1982 to Feb 2018, mass shootings are not “all white” they roughly reflect demographics. Latino numbers were not nearly as high previously compared to now in part because Latino population has grown over time. So long term studies tend to skew down. Black mass shooters accounts for slightly higher percentage than their demographic but not by a huge margin. Males make up all but three shooters during this period. There was only one couple. These statistics mix school and non-school shootings.https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race/Mass shootings kill fewer people than other methods of firearm homicide. Also, the popular notion that all mass killings are carried out by white men is not correct. Apart from gender mass killings generally reflect the demographic make-up of the US.Step 10. Recognize US RealityWhen the solution to the problem means conceding the criminal act of the perpetrator is unmanageable and then shifting from managing the crime to managing the non-criminal who is self-managing instead, there is a problem. This is not a reasoned approach. It is not a just approach. The gun control debate, and the mass-shooting sub-category, has shifted from reducing the crime and number of criminals, to attempting to control the law abiding. We cannot honestly say we are doing everything in our power to curb mass shootings/killings when we don’t use the provided tools like NCIS at even 50% efficiency. We cannot say we really want to stop the problem when we dismantled the mental health system decades ago over accusations of abuse (many true) rather than reform it. This is a two-fold tragedy. First, the law-abiding are being punished for something they did not do by removing weapons they lawfully and safely held and then leaves them less safe. Second, gun-control will not address the underlying issues that leads to criminal acts of homicide.This question addresses mass shootings. But part of the mystique that shapes the gun violence and other forms of violence, is the ambivalent social attitude we have on criminal violence in general. As a society, we want to punish criminality “hard”—get those guys in prison and make them pay. Given the level of incarceration the US has, we don’t mind paying for prison. But, a convicted criminal has a tough time getting a job once they are out of prison. That leaves us paying for the ex-cons again, once they get out of prison in other ways: welfare, revolving prisons stays, increased criminality by many, etc.Treat drugs as a health issue. Provide treatment. Lower prison populations. Reduce the hardening of criminals. Why? Significant amount of gun homicide in the US is associated with some other criminal activity like drugs and gang activity. My personal perspective on this has shifted recently through discussions I have had online. Many gun-rights advocates perceive gun homicides to be linked to drugs and gangs. There is significant correlation but not near the levels I previously thought (More on this in Step 11). Still, drugs and gangs play a significant role in creating a culture of gun violence. Reduced drug trafficking and gang activity will result in lower gun violence since drug traffickers/gangs are primarily protecting supply lines and territory.This means two things. One, treat drug-use like a social health issue rather than a criminal issue. Stop putting people in prison and giving them records that decrease employment once a convict gets out of prison. Two, reduce trafficking. This means having a functioning immigration policy at the national level to address cross border traffic. It also means rethinking what constitutes recreational drug use. Is it marijuana and alcohol? Or something else too? Whatever it is, the ambivalent approach we are taking doesn’t work.Why does it matter? Less crime, higher employment, means safer healthier communities and that drives down the environment that produces many social ills that are connected to mass killings.Step 11. It’s Not the Guns. No Really. It’s Not the GunsThis is not another version of, it is the person not the weapon—the often-raised point made by gun rights advocates. That is a perspective I agree with at the point of attack. However, at a larger socio-economic level, whether this is true or not is irrelevant to the causal factors that drive gun homicide. Long term, poverty and income inequality is the single most important issue driving gun violence. It is connected to Step 10 but given the almost singular role it plays in homicide rates it merits focused attention and deliberate policy response. It also merits singular attention because the connection to gun-homicide and poverty and income inequality is almost completely ignored. It is also likely to be the most controversial.A great deal of hay has been made by gun control advocates asserting the US is unique in gun homicides. Comparisons showing the US evaluated against other selected developed countries are almost germane to the discussion. Near universally the data is manipulated to reach a set conclusion—guns ownership equates to shooting homicides.Everybody’s Lying About the Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide discusses the distortion of statistical data used in many stories and studies. The author, BJ Campbell does a better job than I can of explaining the data manipulation in Everybody’s Lying and two following essays (cited at the end of this answer). For me to make a point he makes well on his own, I would shamelessly copy his charts and graphs. Instead, I encourage you to look at his articles (all three together are shorter than this answer).Yes, this flies in the face of common assertions made by many networks and media outlets. It also flies in the face of the general assertion made by many gun-rights advocates that firearm homicides are mostly linked to drug trafficking, which is an assertion I have made in the past. Drug related killing is significant but not nearly as much as is often stated.Yet, if the root cause of gun homicides in the US has more to do with poverty and income disparity than the firearm, ultimately gun-control will not succeed by banning scary deaths by AR-15s because it won’t curb the cause. Over time the method based on firearms will be replaced by something else.Mass shootings have less to do with gun availability than socio-economics. Firearms are a means to an end. So are pipe-bombs, and knives used in an attack, or any other tool used to commit murder. There is no causal connection to homicides and guns in society. When the data is examined, the single biggest impact on who commits murder with or without a gun is income disparity and poverty. Jobs and social mobility and things like school choice that voluntarily break-up stagnant communities that reinforce victimization and mediocrity will decrease homicides across society far more than gun-control efforts. Jobs and social mobility and being able to take responsibility for yourself are seeds of hope, which is the opposite of nihilism.Step 12. Head Games & Heart PainsIn Step 8, I mention enforcing existing laws that would keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill. It is beneficial to the goal. It also side-steps the problem. It treats a symptom, not the cause. Mental health and emotional health drive the issue of mass killings, homicides, and suicides. Addressing the mental health issues and emotional issues that drive people to kill on mass is the real challenge. I would separate ideological extremists from this discussion. People like the San Bernardino couple, the Unibomber, the 911 attackers, and the attacker of the Oklahoma City Federal Building show, the ideologically or politically motivated attackers can share similar characteristics as perpetrators of mass killings at schools and similar locations. Yet, perpetrators of the mass killings discussed here are more tied to health issues, socio-economics, and the broader culture of nihilistic narcissism.In a world of post-modernist relativism where having standards for ethical behavior and just action can be hard to achieve, setting standards is a daunting task. Yet, society fails if there are not standards of acceptable behavior. Society depends on social norms. Perhaps coming to such agreement on what those social norms ought to be is the hardest to achieve of all the steps above.In simple terms people deserve respect. People have intrinsic value. We are not a virus plaguing the planet. We are not simply animals chasing our most urgently felt passion i.e. live for today for tomorrow we die. My anguish does not supersede your right to exist. My feelings should not condemn you. Protecting individuals from correction and truth leads to miserable self-image. Meritless platitudes aimed at promoting self-esteem, create oversized egos. Inflating ego through false or exaggerated praise is not the same thing as recognizing intrinsic value; it often leads to inflated sense of self-worth, which does not bode well when confronted by reality. To a greater degree than before, we are raising children with expectations of instant gratification, and who have a false idea of self-importance. Simultaneously, we are allowing near unfettered access to social media platforms that feed the narcissism and enable mobs of narcissists or bullies to attack others more than ever before. It is a situation almost designed to create distorted self-image. In an age of instant gratification, it can be hard to see past the pain of today to a better tomorrow. My grandfather, who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, used to say, “This too shall pass.” We are not helping the youth of today understand that many trials and tribulations of today are temporary. The mentally ill are even less able to contend with pain and anguish.If we are to give our children healthy self-images, we need to tame social media. Too much of a good thing is bad. In the case of social media there is just a lot of bad. Parents need to be parents. Where parents are less present, other social agencies need to step in. Pastors, coaches, teachers, mentors of various types need to model and enable activities that provide an outward focus for young people growing up.Additionally, in the case of every school attacker I have looked at, the signs were clearly seen by parents, teachers, health workers, and peers. In some cases, even police agencies were aware. Yet, in all cases there were multiple levels of failure. Let that sink in. Multiple levels of failure by the people who knew the attackers best and professionals most trained to deal with these attackers.A principle at a school my children attended once said of students who suffer behavioral disorders, that these students could not be held accountable because they did not have the privilege of stable families. So, the students were allowed to hit, spit, throw things, and yell at other students and teachers. This principle threw-away every referral that involved these students. Instead of providing some structure and stability needed for learning, he fostered the next generation of mal-adjusted community members who will act out. Like the examples of the attackers in almost every school killing every professional, parent, and teacher involved in these student’s lives sees the red flags. They know the trouble that will come. Yet, the students are passed on from year to year without addressing the issue.If we tell children there is no inherent value in life, then reinforce it by withholding better options for education and jobs, and we instill a self-focus that creates limited connection to community and family, we ought not be surprised when we have mass killings of any kind. Affluence is not the remedy for nihilism or narcissism. Community involvement, personal responsibility, and purpose is. As adults and members of our various communities we need to personally engage and demonstrate options besides the path to self-destruction. This is the greatest challenge. It is also the only way to create real change.Editorial Comment:One way technology can be leveraged is through smart phone apps. Students already have faster communication than law enforcement and administrators are capable of. Students text details faster than information can be compiled because those details are not being sent and processed by emergency responders. Capitalize on this. Let students voluntarily provide details through an app that links to parents, emergency responders, and school officials. Use it for all emergencies. KEEP IT SIMPLE & INTUITIVE. This is a quick response app that provides key details: location of attacker, health emergency, fire, etc. once the person sending info is not in immediate danger. This improves communication and situational awareness.This could be a general site plan with a drop down menu to provide a short list of emergencies, touch screen for location, and level of security i.e. unsafe but can't move or safe. The details need to be refined. The point is there are tools available that are not expensive. They primarily cost time, thought, and effort to implement.Everybody’s Lying About the Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide” @Freakoutery https://medium.com/@bjcampbell/everybodys-lying-about-the-link-between-gun-ownership-and-homicide-1108ed400be5“The Gun Homicide Epidemic Isn’t” @Freakoutery https://medium.com/@bjcampbell/the-gun-homicide-epidemic-isnt-ac13b21ff3f9The Left Is Making the Wrong Case on Gun Deaths. Here’s a Better Case.” @Freakoutery https://medium.com/@bjcampbell/the-left-is-making-the-wrong-case-on-gun-deaths-heres-a-better-case-1429e7ad2f25[i] The 1927 Bombing That Remains America’s Deadliest School MassacreThe 1927 Bombing That Remains America’s Deadliest School Massacre[ii] Quicker Response to Active ShootersQuicker Response to Active Shooters[iii] National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)

The Second Great Awakening spread new religious sects through America like a wildfire spread embers. The SGA movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the late 1840s. Revivalism tended to blur the distinctions among major religions somewhat, and even though the major denominations generally enjoyed greater good will toward each other under this circumstance, the revivalists promoted division within the sects. Presbyterians, for example, divided into "New Light" and "Old Light" factions, as had the Congregationalists during the awakening of the 1740s. Several early leaders found themselves victims of divisive critical spirits and were set upon by their synods or conventions, and forced out. “The spirit of enthusiasm has lately possessed the New Light inhabitants of the forests,” wrote one observer, “and it has been a common practice for companies of 20 or 30 of these hair brained fanatics to ride thro’ the woods singing psalms.”Campbellites, Shakers, Rappites, Fourierists, and other minor religions popular in the North espoused theories of associative communism and utopian socialism by making provisions for the correction of inequalities of temporal possessions among their members. Many members gave up all their wealth or placed it at the disposal of the congregation. A large number of these sects experimented with novel arrangements regarding marriage, sexual relations, procreation, and childrearing.People were drawn to fringe religions like Millerism, Shakerism, or Mormonism because of the larger cultural climate of the era. The wider movement toward evangelicalism itself picked up many discrete characteristics from other sects—doctrinal precision from the Presbyterians and individual introspection from the Puritans, for instance—but from the Pietists, it inherited a form of warmhearted and devoted spirituality and a sense of a wider community of God. Although Quakers and Moravians had been major components of American religious life since colonial times, both groups had won respect and admiration for their productive farms and orderly communities — an earthy success that many utopian communities attempted to reproduce.From the opening of the 19th century Northerners persisted in an effort to portray the American Republic in idealistic terms that reflected openness, unpretentiousness, and ease of ascent. Even though the reality was far from the ideal, America continued to be viewed as a Zion for the world, and the non-utopian inconsistencies, most evident in Northern urban life, were excused as temporary problems with which the nation would come to terms in time. Socially conscious Northerners declared that America was the archetype of the perfect nation, with its expansive borders, rich and prolific soil, abundant raw materials, citizens blessed with industry and enterprise, and institutions and forms of government more free and equal than any in Europe.Utopian communities in 19th-century America were considered by many to herald a new age in human civilization. Often led by charismatic leaders with high religious or secular moral ideals, these settlements experimented wildly with different models of government, marriage, labor and wealth. Utopian socialist practices and communal societies littered the landscape during the 1840s, most disappearing without a trace before the Civil War. Besides Brook Farm there were only a handful of communities that lasted long enough to warrant mention as anything other than cultural oddities.“The world was not ready for Utopia yet, and those who attempted to found it only got laughed at for their pains … to live for one’s principles, at all costs, is a dangerous speculation.” — Louisa May Alcott [i]The Transcendentalists, who practiced a form of Christian humanitarianism at Brook Farm in Massachusetts, were both anti-slavery and anti-business. Today they would probably be classed as social democrats. They had an effect on the intellectual development of New England out of all proportion to their number, which totaled no more than a few dozen persons. Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, and (Amos) Bronson Alcott spent time there, and Ralph Waldo Emerson supplied funds to the failing commune in the last year of its existence. The group had coalesced around the rising social religion known as Unitarianism. In 1831, a devotee described Unitarianism as being nothing more than the spirit of freedom and individuality with no established creed or symbol, its members aiming for the social harmony of earth with mankind.Besides Brook Farm there were only a handful of communities that lasted long enough to warrant mention as anything other than cultural oddities.Prominent English reformer Charles Lane and Bronson Alcott, ironically two men with no practical experience in either farming or self-sufficiency, later founded Fruitlands at Wyman Farm in Worcester, MA in 1843 as a self-sufficient farming community. In contrast to the more freewheeling Brook Farm, Lane advocated a far more rigorous lifestyle. Residents were forbidden to eat meat, consume stimulants, use any form of animal labor, create artificial light, enjoy hot baths, or drink anything but water. Linen sufficed for clothing, because the community would not use cotton produced by slave labor or any animal products, including wool. Lane also included the idea of celibacy within marriage, which caused no small amount of friction in the community.Alcott, originally a teacher at the prestigious Temple School in Boston, had relocated his wife and four daughters to Fruitlands from Brook Farm in 1843. As assistants at the Temple School, Alcott had two young women who have subsequently come to be considered among nineteenth-century America's most talented writers, 30-year-old Elizabeth Palmer Peabody who, in 1835, published A Record of Mr. Alcott's School, and 26-year-old Margaret Fuller who was a teacher there during 1836–37. Bronson’s family included nine-year-old Louisa May Alcott, future author of the novel Little Women (1869). The residents became communists in property (for all property belonged to God), anarchists in government, free lovers in marriage, and vegetarians in diet. Ann Page (the only adult woman other than Mrs. Alcott) was expelled for eating a piece of fish. While animals were freed of their normal roles as prime movers and beasts of burden, the human female residents appear to have been saddled with the lion’s share of labor at Fruitlands, despite lip service from Lane about the alleged equality of the sexes. The community lasted a mere seven months. When winter set in, most of the original members fled. Louisa later wrote a scathing report of utopian life at Fruitlands called “Transcendental Wild Oats,” an essay published and reprinted in the newspapers in 1873.One of the earliest antebellum utopian settlements was New Harmony (1825-1829) in Indiana. Visitors to New Harmony commented on the commercial and industrial work being done in this religious settlement along the Wabash River. The nearby town (named Harmony founded by the German immigrant Harmony Society in 1814) had a steam-operated wool carding and spinning factory, a horse-drawn and human-powered threshing machine, a brewery, distillery, vineyards, and a winery. Unlike many later groups formed around the concept of social reform, New Harmony was established to allow its members to pursue the study of the sciences and natural philosophy without the encumbrances of capitalism. Its founder, social reformer Robert Owen, successfully lured an entire community of scientists from Philadelphia to his community including several founding members of the National Academy of Science. New Harmony's residents established a free library, a civic drama club, and a public school system open to men and women. Its prominent citizens included Owen's sons: Indiana congressman and social reformer Robert D. Owen, who sponsored legislation to create the Smithsonian Institution; David D. Owen, a noted state and federal geologist; and Richard Owen, also a state geologist, Indiana University professor, and first president of Purdue University. The community thrived for four years before collapsing—as did many of these utopian communities—amid internal disputes over money.Hopedale community (1842-1868) was based on "Practical Christianity", which included ideas such as temperance, abolitionism, Women's rights, spiritualism and education. It also included advocacy theology, such as the various theologies of liberation (of the oppressed in general, but also of the disenfranchised, women, immigrants, children, and blacks). Practical theology also included the practice of Christians caring for others as Christ cared for the poor in the Bible. Each person, upon joining the community, invested all of his property into the Community and were credited with any profits according to this amount. Within the community men and women were allowed to take part in democratic processes, but the women were given domestically oriented jobs while the men took the role of governmental leaders. Hopedale Community was founded upon Adin Ballou’s Universalist beliefs as later described in his book, Practical Christian Socialism (1854). The lifestyle at Hopedale was more concerned with equality, love, and sharing than religious dogmas.Western New York was a site of intense religious revivalism during the middle of the 19th century. Due possibly to the ease of travel offered by the Erie Canal and an expanding rail system, the region became extremely popular and was related to other reform movements of the period such as abolition, women's rights, and utopian social experiments. Charles G. Finney, one of the 19th century's great revivalists, had been preaching along the length of the Erie Canal in New York. Frustrated by the limits of Presbyterianism, Finney had become a Congregationalist and in 1835, he had accepted an appointment to teach theology at Oberlin College in Ohio. The term “burnt over district” was coined by Reverend Finney, who referred to a "burnt district" to denote the area in central and western New York State that had been so heavily evangelized as to have no fuel (unconverted persons) left to burn (convert) with the fire of the Lord. Whatever the cause, the Genesee region in particular certainly had more than its share of cults and true believers as wave after wave of religious revival spread across the region.Besides being the geographical origin of Mormonism, the region was home to the immediate Second Coming cult espoused by William Miller (Millerism), the Free Methodism of Benjamin T. Roberts, the Millennial Kingdom of John Humphrey Noyes called the Oneida Society, the Fourierist utopian socialist movement, a Shaker community, and several Pietist enclaves. It was chosen by local feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton who organized the Seneca Falls Convention there, which was devoted to women's suffrage and rights, and later was the home of several religious camps including one at Lake Chautauqua, which gave its name to an entire religious movement.The Oneida community (1848-1881) in upstate New York considered all its residents to be married to each other in a practice they called “complex marriage.” Monogamy was thoroughly rejected, and a committee handled all decisions about childbearing and procreation. Nevertheless, a number of children were born without the sanction of the community, though they appear to have been provided for just as if they’d been planned in accordance with the rules. Mothers were only given the care of their offspring for the first few years of life after which period the community at large assumed responsibility for all children.Technically founded in the 18th century, the Shakers nevertheless enjoyed a heyday in the 19th, spawning numerous settlements across the United States, attracting converts and adopting infants and children who were left in their care. The Shakers are known today mostly for their starkly simple furniture design, the successful manufacture and sale of which was a primary reason for their enduring success. Shakers practiced celibacy and communal ownership of goods, along with a strict separation of the sexes in both work and life. Membership dwindled in the early 20th century, eventually leading to the consolidation of more than a dozen communities into just a few. Most Shaker settlements have now been converted into museums, although one small cluster still persists in their unique way of life in a small community in rural Maine.Founded in 1758 by Ann Lee, who styled herself as the Mother of the community, Shakerism was a celibate religious movement rooted in Protestantism. The religion is most noted for being founded by a woman, and there was a strand of early feminism that punctuated its doctrine and organization. Actually named the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming, the religion took on the name of Shakerism because of the dancing and shaking that characterized some of its rituals. Shakerism was brought to America by Mother Ann Lee in 1774 and was most widely followed in New England. In the antebellum period it made great gains in membership in Ohio and Kentucky, as the Eastern congregations sent out colonies to the Midwest. Like many other groups that followed a sort of social Christian doctrine, the Shakers believed in communal living, productive labor, and a closed self-sustaining economy. “Without Money, Without Price” was one of their mottos. Shakers practiced absolute celibacy, and suffered from the need to attract new adherents to their communities, as there was no natural increase due to birth. By the 1850s this aspect of the religion caused a good deal of concern, as the number of young men entering the fold diminished to the point that many communities were almost solely composed of women and had to hire non-adherent male workers to perform heavy tasks such as plowing.[i] Louisa May Alcott, Transcendental Wild Oates. URL: More Than Little Women: The Life and Writings of Louisa May AlcottSee:Amazon.com: Blow Ye the Trumpet in Zion: Religion in the Civil War Era (Traditional American History Series, Book 12) (Audible Audio Edition): James M. Volo, Gloria Mason Martin: Audible Audiobooks