It's Been Said....

  October 15, 2015 Eric Mace published the following missive on his Facebook timeline Do Something . In it, he asks folks on both sides of the gun safety reform issue to actually do something. His daughter, Ryanne, was one of the victims in the Northern Illinois University mass shooting February 14, 2008. I'll let Eric speak for himself, though: Eric Mace:   Several days ago a close friend of mine posted a statement about doing something to reduce the number of mass shootings there have been over the last several years and the fact that they are becoming more frequent. He referred to what I've gone through since Ryanne's murder in '08 and echoed a sentiment that I've had since the day she was gunned down. That sentiment is simple and easily encapsulated by the following statement: do something! To put some more detail behind it, it's not a simple request even though it can be boiled down to just those two words. Remarkably, it confuses the hell out of lots of pe...

I did a thing. Yes, I did. The thing I did I probably shouldn't have done given past experiences debating with gun nuts, but I did that thing anyway. What was that thing? The thing I did was I posted a tweet on Twitter awhile back in which I said: Ted Zocco-Hochhalter Twitter Link That tweet was a retweet of, and response to, K-12 School Shooting Database (David Riedman), a researcher on school gun violence I have an awful lot of respect for. The reason I retweeted his tweet was because he mentioned school shootings in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s compared to school shootings today. Because the Columbine massacre took place in the 90s, I thought I'd throw in my two cents in support of what he was putting forward. Enter the gun nut: Well, DUH!! That is the newest in a long and idiotic line of AR style weapons defender's defenses I've seen so far. "The AR isn't some magical weapon." That's what he said. It was meant as an insult directed at those advocat...

  NRA, All Y’all Might Want to Stay in your OWN Lane!   Awhile back (2018 following the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to be exact), the NRA created a virtual shitstorm when they ‘suggested’ that medical professionals stay in their lane. That same year, the NRA also created something they called their "National School Shield Program". Between the time they created the National School Shield Program and today, there has been little, to no, media coverage I'm aware of for this highly touted program (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek)....until May 31, 2023 that is. I give you their tweet here: Tweet: NRA National School Shield Program There's a video attached to the above tweet, but I won't share it here. That's how much I think of it. If you, the reader, feel the need to view it, you'll have to go to Twitter by clicking the above link and watch it there. “Stay in their lane”….that’s what the NRA said medical professionals should do. ...

  You Really Need to Educate Yourself (About AR-15s/Ammo) That's what he was told: "You really need to educate yourself".  That comment was directed at Brett Cross. Who is Brett Cross? Well, Brett's son, Uziyah (Uzi), was one of the children murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.   Brett Cross on Twitter According to ChadHud39666678 (Twitter handle), Brett apparently needs to educate himself on the nuances of AR-15 style weaponry.  It doesn't seem to matter to Chad what Brett Cross believes regarding his son's death because, according to Chad, Brett apparently doesn't know anything about what killed his son, Uzi, in the Robb Elementary School massacre. It only matters that Brett doesn't understand, according to Chad, that AR-15s can chamber a number of different caliber bullets. Therefore, according to Chad, Brett can't be involved in a discussion or debate about the weapon of choice for so many mass shootings here of late. Why? Beca...

Who remembers a TV show in the 1970's called The Brady Bunch? For that matter, does anyone besides me remember the start to The Brady Bunch? It begins by saying "this is a story". The show, for those too young to remember, is about a blended family that includes three boys (sons of the father in the series) and three girls (daughters of the mother in the series). It took place in the 1970's, so I wouldn't be too surprised if some folks don't remember it. Anyway, the show featured a lot of family dynamics going on. Some might even call those family dynamics dysfunctional. Things often got a bit chaotic at times by standards of the time. But the things I remember about the show include how the lessons learned by the children from their individual parents before being blended into The Brady Bunch influenced how they reacted to their new lives as The Brady Bunch. Morals of the stories presented? There was always a happy ending with lessons learned somewhere along ...

Today is the 24th anniversary of "Columbine". It just doesn't seem that long ago when so many lives were irrevocably altered in a manner that a lot of folks have said they just cannot imagine happening to themselves. We'll be seeing a lot of remembrances on a lot of people's social media pages today. That's as it should be. After all, 13 precious lives were taken that day. I usually share some kind of remembrance on this day, as well. This year I'll also focus on a "thank you".  Thank you to everyone engaged in talking about their own experiences and memories of that day. Thank you for doing that no matter how brief you decide to be or how lengthy, no matter how traumatic it might be for you emotionally to share your thoughts and your feelings about what went on that day.....for you. That's something that I believe all too often gets kind of lost in the story that quite literally defined the way in which this particular massacre is presented....

Active Shooter Drills are NOT School Safety!!!! I could write a book on this one, but suffice to say if people (parents especially) want safer schools, they're going to have to invest themselves in the process to get there instead of being passive/aggressive about it. Frankly, I'm tired of people who keep condemning and vilifying active shooter drills while offering nothing as an alternative especially as presented in this article from April 14, 2019: Active shooter drills are scaring kids and may not protect them. Some schools are taking a new approach. Since then, nothing has really changed other than even more subject matter experts, psychologists, and psychiatrists weighing in and saying virtually the same thing.....repeatedly - that active shooter drills are harming kids. Folks, I'm here to tell you there's an entire process involved in designing, developing, and implementing an effective active shooter drill. Too many folks don't use that process, though. And ...

The below graphic has been circulating on pro-gun sites for quite awhile now, at least since 2011. I've seen it pop up in different variations many times since then. I'm  sharing it here for one reason, and one reason only: to try to illustrate something known as a logical fallacy.  Numerical statistics can be both a blessing and a curse especially when they're being used as justification for illustrating one's point of view.....in this case doing nothing when talking about, and discussing possible remedies for gun violence in this country. If this is all we are willing to look at, then woe is us. Maybe we need to start calling them illogical truths. I don't know. It's frustrating. By looking at the graphic we can obviously infer what the message is - do nothing because the number of fatalities by assault style weapons is smaller than anything else and pretty minuscule when compared against both drunk drivers and malpractice deaths. So many gun rights...