School shootings are extraordinarily rare. Why is fear of them driving policy?

And? We've had more people killed at train crossings than by terrorists over the last 20 years (including 9/11). Your chances
of being killed by a Muslim terrorist in this country have been about the same as winning the lottery - yet, the conservatives on this site freak out about Muslims. So why are you surprised when, after a number of recent school shootings - that parents and students are a bit freaked out about school violence?

 

The only thing driving this attempt to circumvent the Constitution is liberal gun grabbers exploiting some deaths, while completely ignoring thousands of others...

 

Of course, the entire gun-control obsession is in charge of that propaganda, and that is fear-driven; not just about schools, but about guns of anykind, anywhere. Many fear guns like some fear snakes, thinking they are all evil and are all plotting to kill them if the can.

Drug overdose deaths in the USA are greater than the total of all gun homicides AND motor vehicle accidents combined.
Statistically, you are four times as likely to commit suicide than you are to be the victim of a gun homicide.
The chance of dying in any mass shooting in your lifetime is 0.0002.

It would seem there would be bigger fish to fry- not to say that the issue is not of great importance- but to say that allowing it do overwhelm larger sources of violence and loss of life says that there are political motivations here, cashing in on the psychology of these events and ignoring those other issues.

 

Americans do not have "virtually unrestricted access to guns". We have a mountain of gun control laws already. Try enforcing those first.

 

Problem with this analogy is that most people see drug deaths as self-induced - while kids getting shot up in schools is
hardly a tragedy of their own making.

 

Takes the “it’s because of access to ARs” argument out the equation

 

This is where the NRA really falls flat on their face, and it's why so many people have such a dim view of the NRA.

The laws are on the books - if the NRA stepped up with a campaign to help enforce or re-write those laws to be more effective, people with have a better view of the NRA. But their rhetoric is consistently, "**** you, school kids. Some of you are going to die. Deal with it. You're little liars and puppets of Soros anyway."

Not really the best way to sway the votes of average Joe voter.

 

Ask the MEXICANS are all killers and rapists folks.

 

No. It really doesn't. Because some very high profile shootings (Vegas and SandyHook etc) are more recent and more
in the minds of the average mom who sends her kid to public school.

You make the mistake of thinking the average voter spends their days going over crime stats.

 

Facts matter

 

I'm freaked out about it, and what freaks me out the most is that before the shooting we constantly heard "if you see something, say something" and then the authorities are supposed to "do something." People saw and said, and the authorities did nothing. That, and I have a son in high school, and my wife is a middle school teacher. Of course I'm freaked. I'm freaked that somebody with the biography of Cruz was out on the streets. This isn't a technology problem, it's a people problem.

 

Up to the point where it's your child who could have been killed.
Then fact lose out to emotion. And that's just a fact of life.

 

The interesting thing is since we started making stopping opioid deaths a priority a few years ago, they've gotten worse.

 

Facts still matter.

 

The NRA just backed a GVRO plan.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/nra-gun-violence-restraining-order-support-good-move/

 

But that was trending upward before the problem began making headlines ... takes awhile to stop that train.

 

Daniel that observation is true. Another equally true is that the element in school shooting that determines if they will happen or not is a deranged person having sufficient anger at society or some part of it, that they feel they it's justifiable to kill people. That is the element that makes the difference- not the weapon chosen. We have certainly attempted to contain the drug issues by adding drug laws, without success. Even those in prison for drug convictions are running drug rings on the inside, demonstrating how impotent the law is at controlling behavior of such people. I have hoped that at some point, we could turn our focus to the variables in people, recognize the many warning flags that are nearly always present as they were with the Cruz shooter in Florida- and act before the fact. There seems to be little interest in that.

 

Because people react to catastrophe even if they are rare. Which 17 school children getting killed in the US is

 

You have a source & quote for that rhetoric, of course?

 

May be a case of too little - too late. The PR mess that the NRA is in is one of their own making.

 

I was paraphrasing a number of replies I've seen on these threads. There are threads that accuse the students of being Soros puppets. There are threads that state nothing can be done to prevent school shooting deaths - live with it. There are threads that call the students liars.

This is the kind of rhetoric that average voters are seeing from gun advocates in social media.

 

Clearly fear. People are terrified of school shootings and terrorist attacks. No matter how irrational that fear is. We have seen great sacrifices made in liberty due to people's fears.

 

Sort of like the kind of rhetoric that access to ARs are the reason for mass school shootings even though ARs have only been used in a few mass school shootings.

 

The original post stated that there is a 1 in 614,000,000 chance a student being killed in a mass shooting on any day. That works out to about a 1 in 262,000 chance during his entire school career. It still is very unlikely. However, for that child and his family it is more like the end of the world. If we can reduce the risk of gun violence and killings, is it worth it? How many kids would make it worth it? If we can do something reasonable and effective to reduce the risk, how many children's lives would justify the cost and inconvenience?