The Washington Post finds that since the Columbine shooting in 1999 there have been 208,000 children exposed to gun violence in 212 schools.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The Washington Post has spent the past year determining how many children have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. 

Beyond the dead and wounded, children who witness the violence or cower behind locked doors to hide from it can be profoundly traumatized. 

The federal government does not track school shootings, so The Post pieced together its numbers from news articles, open-source databases, law enforcement reports and calls to schools and police departments.

Since March, The Post has taken a closer look at states with fewer local news sources and searched more deeply for less visible public suicides and accidents that led to injury. 

The count now stands at more than 208,000 children at 212 schools. 

The Post has found that at least 131 children, educators and other people have been killed in assaults, and another 272 have been injured.

In 2018 alone, there have already been 13 shootings — the highest number at this point during any year since 1999.

The Post goes on to make the point that school shootings remain rare, and only a small percentage of school students are affected by them.

But I would counter with the fact that in most developed countries the number of school shootings are close to zero.

Which does not seem to make ours all that rare. At least not in America.

Instead I would argue that they are becoming less rare every year.

A few words about Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" list.

Time magazine revealed its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and according to Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal, it's the "youngest list" they've "ever had." #TIME100 https://t.co/VS6P95DVcj pic.twitter.com/TNSybTPP10

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 19, 2018

This was quite an amazing list.

I of course have not read it all (Who has that kind of time?) but I will share what I thought was the best, followed by the worst.

The best in my opinion was Barack Obama's write up for the Parkland student activists.

In fact it was so good I am going to share the whole thing here:

America’s response to mass shootings has long followed a predictable pattern. We mourn. Offer thoughts and prayers. Speculate about the motives. And then—even as no developed country endures a homicide rate like ours, a difference explained largely by pervasive accessibility to guns; even as the majority of gun owners support commonsense reforms—the political debate spirals into acrimony and paralysis. 

This time, something different is happening. This time, our children are calling us to account. 

The Parkland, Fla., students don’t have the kind of lobbyists or big budgets for attack ads that their opponents do. Most of them can’t even vote yet. 

But they have the power so often inherent in youth: to see the world anew; to reject the old constraints, outdated conventions and cowardice too often dressed up as wisdom. 

The power to insist that America can be better. 

Seared by memories of seeing their friends murdered at a place they believed to be safe, these young leaders don’t intimidate easily. They see the NRA and its allies—whether mealymouthed politicians or mendacious commentators peddling conspiracy theories—as mere shills for those who make money selling weapons of war to whoever can pay. They’re as comfortable speaking truth to power as they are dismissive of platitudes and punditry. And they live to mobilize their peers. 

Already, they’ve had some success persuading statehouses and some of the biggest gun retailers to change. Now it gets harder. A Republican Congress remains unmoved. NRA scare tactics still sway much of the country. Progress will be slow and frustrating. 

But by bearing witness to carnage, by asking tough questions and demanding real answers, the Parkland students are shaking us out of our complacency. The NRA’s favored candidates are starting to fear they might lose. Law-abiding gun owners are starting to speak out. As these young leaders make common cause with African Americans and Latinos—the disproportionate victims of gun violence—and reach voting age, the possibilities of meaningful change will steadily grow. 

Our history is defined by the youthful push to make America more just, more compassionate, more equal under the law. This generation—of Parkland, of Dreamers, of Black Lives Matter—embraces that duty. If they make their elders uncomfortable, that’s how it should be. Our kids now show us what we’ve told them America is all about, even if we haven’t always believed it ourselves: that our future isn’t written for us, but by us.

I almost forgot how the eloquence of this man can literally put a lump in my throat and give me the shivers at the same time.

Damn, do I miss him!

Now for the worst, and this was an easy one.

Superb @TIME magazine digital cover#stormy
pic.twitter.com/eGqFbVB0v9

— Andrew Bloch (@AndrewBloch) April 13, 2018

Ted Cruz's embarrassing homage to the man who once insulted his wife's looks and suggested that his dad killed JFK: 

President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America. The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature. 

The same cultural safe spaces that blinkered coastal elites to candidate Trump’s popularity have rendered them blind to President Trump’s achievements on behalf of ordinary Americans. While pundits obsessed over tweets, he worked with Congress to cut taxes for struggling families. While wealthy celebrities announced that they would flee the country, he fought to bring back jobs and industries to our shores. While talking heads predicted Armageddon, President Trump’s strong stand against North Korea put Kim Jong Un back on his heels. 

President Trump is doing what he was elected to do: disrupt the status quo. That scares the heck out of those who have controlled Washington for decades, but for millions of Americans, their confusion is great fun to watch.

Well at least it was short and stubby.

However I still prefer this, much more honest, description of Donald Trump from Ted Cruz.

The Ted Cruz humiliation tour continues with his Sonnet to Trump in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People edition.

But history will never forget the only wise words ever spoken by Ted Cruz.

"Trump is a pathological liar" - Ted Cruz

pic.twitter.com/OLcLinhHrr

— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) April 19, 2018

Hard to imagine how you go from that to licking Trump's boots, but somehow Ted Cruz made the transition.

Sandy Hook parents are suing Alex Jones for accusing them of being "crisis actors."

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Alex Jones has spent years claiming the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School ― where a shooter killed 20 small children and six adults ― was faked. He has claimed the parents of these dead children are liars and “crisis actors.” 

Now, those parents are coming after him. 

In a pair of lawsuits filed late Monday, the parents of two children who died in the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, say Jones’ repeated lies and conspiratorial ravings have led to death threats. The suits join at least two other recent cases accusing the Infowars host of defamation.

Neil Heslin, the father of a 6-year-old boy killed in the shooting, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, who lost their own little boy, filed the suits in Austin, Texas, where Jones’ conspiracy-minded media outlet is based. Each suit is seeking more than $1 million in damages from Jones, Infowars and a related company, Free Speech Systems LLC. Infowars reporter Owen Shroyer is also named in one of the suits. 

“Even after these folks had to experience this trauma, for the next five years they were tormented by Alex Jones with vicious lies about them,” Mark Bankston, the lawyer handling the cases for the parents, told HuffPost. “And these lies were meant to convince his audience that the Sandy Hook parents are frauds and have perpetrated a sinister lie on the American people.”

Jesus, it's about time.

For those who may be unaware of just how far Jones went in smearing the memory of these dead children, prepare to be horrified:

In 2013, Jones called the shooting “staged” and said, “It’s got inside job written all over it.” 

In March 2014, Jones said, “I’ve looked at it and undoubtedly there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were pre-planning before it and rolled out with it.” 

In December 2014, Jones said on his radio program, “The whole thing is a giant hoax.” 

Jones continued: “The general public doesn’t know the school was actually closed the year before. They don’t know they’ve sealed it all, demolished the building. They don’t know that they had the kids going in circles in and out of the building as a photo-op. Blue screen, green screens, they got caught using.” 

Making it clear he didn’t view the occurrence of the shooting as an open question, Jones explicitly said that the Obama administration was behind the shooting, noting, “It took me about a year with Sandy Hook to come to grips with the fact that the whole thing was fake.” 

Clearly one of the most disgusting assholes on this planet. 

Jones is also being sued by a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School he incorrectly identified as the shooter.

Yeah, that also happened. 

Marjory Stoneman Douglas teacher who said he would carry his gun in school arrested for leaving it unattended in men's room.

Courtesy of The Miami Herald:

Not the most normal sight: a gun left in the bathroom stall. 

But that's exactly what went down on Sunday in a men's room at the Deerfield Beach Pier. 

The circumstances of how the Glock 9mm got there are unusual. 

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the weapon was left by Sean Simpson. If his name sounds familiar, he's the teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who said he'd be willing to arm himself while on duty. 

According to the sheriff's office report, Simpson told deputies he'd left his gun by accident. By the time the chemistry teacher realized his mistake, the Glock was already in the hands of a drunk homeless man who had picked it up and fired. The bullet hit a wall. 

Simpson was able to grab the gun away from the vagrant, Joseph Spataro, who was charged with firing a weapon while intoxicated and trespassing. 

As for the MSD teacher, he was arrested and charged with failing to safely store a firearm, a second-degree misdemeanor. Simpson posted a $250 cash bond and was released.

Gee, just imagine if this had been in a high school bathroom, and it was a student instead of a homeless man who picked up that gun.

Guns do not keep us safe.

Guns endanger us.

ALL of us.

Alex Jones is being sued. Again.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

On Monday, attorneys for Marcel Fontaine ― a 24-year-old Boston man whom Jones’ website, Infowars, incorrectly identified as the Parkland, Florida, school shooter in a Feb. 14 article ― filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones and his publication. 

What’s more: Fontaine plans to take his case against Jones’ conspiracy-laden site to a jury instead of settling the matter behind closed doors, Fontaine’s lawyer Mark Bankston, of the law firm Farrar & Ball, told HuffPost. 

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Travis County, Texas, names Jones, Infowars, Free Speech Systems and author Kit Daniels as defendants in the case. 

Daniels’ Infowars article featured a photo of Fontaine and incorrectly identified him as the gunman who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 

“Another alleged photo of the suspect shows communist garb,” read part of the article, later removed from the website, that showed a photo of Fontaine wearing a popular shirt from 2005 depicting communist leaders partying. 

Good for this guy.

Look people make mistakes, it happens to the best of us, but to purposefully  accuse somebody of a crime like this, with no evidence to back it up, is indefensible.

Which I am guessing is something that Alex Jones is about to learn the hard way.

After calling he Parkland students "soulless" Ted Nugent complains that HE is under the victim of "hate speech."

You may remember that a couple of days ago Ted "Poopy pants" Nugent attacked the survivors of that school shooting by calling them "mush brains" and "soulless."

Well Ted got a little backlash on social media, and it hurt his tiny little run toting feelings.

Courtesy of Media Matters: 

TED NUGENT: I was told, coming out of a firestorm, a firestorm of guitar solo magic, that I was trending on Facebook because somehow, some dishonest, lying idiots claimed that my identifying, accurately and honestly, those in the gun control marches who call people who don’t agree with them child murderers -- now if I called you a child murderer without having any evidence, that would be hate speech. So they are guilty of hate speech. I merely identified that you have to have mush for brains to accept, blindly accept, the propaganda from the gun-hating, freedom-hating, America-hating, liberal Democrat left media. And who out there believes that so much of the media – who believes CNN, anybody? MSNBC, anybody? ABC, CBS, NBC? Certainly Media Matters, really? Boy, what a hypocritical title that is. Media Matters, MoveOn.Org, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Huffington punks, who believes these people? So they claimed that it’s hate speech to identify the hate of people that call us child murderers, because we don’t believe in banning guns, which won’t save any lives. So they’re so blinded by their hate, and their mushy brains have so robotically accepted the propaganda ministry’s lies and deceit, that they’re hate isn’t hate. My identifying their hate, is hate. What the hell? So I stand by my words.

So to be clear THIS guy is the victim of hate speech. 

I see.

Have you ever noticed that the most verbally vicious Ammosexuals out there are also the most likely to cry like a bitch the minute they are confronted with their assholiness?

I have.

In other gun news.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Lawmakers in Vermont, a place long steeped in hunting culture, on Friday approved a sweeping package of new gun restrictions, making the state all but certain to join Florida in passing a raft of new gun control measures after a teenage gunman killed 17 people last month at a high school in Parkland, Fla. 

Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has vowed to sign the measure. It represents a remarkable departure from the state’s existing gun laws, which are some of the weakest in the country — and an about-face for Mr. Scott, who decided to consider new gun control measures only after a teenager was accused of plotting a school shooting in Vermont in the days after the violence in Parkland. 

“No state is immune to the risk of extreme violence,” Mr. Scott said in a statement on Friday, adding, “If we are at a point when our kids are afraid to go to school and parents are afraid to put their kids on a bus, who are we?” 

The bill, which passed the Senate, 17 to 13, on Friday after clearing the House earlier in the week, would raise the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21 and ban bump stocks, which are devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire more rapidly. It also contains restrictions that go beyond those in the measure signed in Florida, like an expansion of background checks and a limit on the capacity of magazines that can be sold or possessed in the state.

Chalk another one up for the Parkland students. 

Interestingly enough protesters of this new bill gathered outside of the Vermont Statehouse where some participants were handing out 1,200 30-round magazines, because nothing says we do not need no stinking gun laws like providing protesters with an increased ability to kill.

As their national presence grows the Right Wing is going to extremes to discredit Parkland students.

Alex Jones played a video featuring @davidhogg111's #MarchForOurLives speech dubbed over with a Hitler speech https://t.co/icsyQcxG4I pic.twitter.com/3Dt5mhIL4J

— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 27, 2018

The above tweets features the always rational Alex Jones suggesting that Parkland student David Hogg is the new embodiment of Hitler.

Because you know that makes sense.

But the smear tactics did not end there. Not by a long shot.

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

Right-wing media outlets amplified claims that Parkland survivor David Hogg made a Nazi salute after his speech at the March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C. But the gesture Hogg made was clearly a raised fist, not the Seig Heil salute.

In a March 25 article, Breitbart writer AWR Hawkins positively highlighted several Twitter accounts that claimed Hogg made a Nazi salute, although the image used to illustrate the article debunked the claim.

Writing for conservative pundit Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire, Ryan Saavedra wrote that Hogg “threw up a salute that sent Twitter into a frenzy.” Saavedra claimed it’s “not clear what Hogg meant by his hand gesture” but went on to include nine tweets that called the gesture, among other things, “Hitler-esque.” 

In a March 24 blog post, Alex Jones’ pro-Trump outlet Infowars called the march “the ‘Hitler Youth” invasion of Washington D.C.” and referred to the speakers as “young fascists-in-training,” specifically calling Hogg “the propagandist-in-chief”.

At left is @tyler_mitchell’s photo of @Emma4Change for the cover of @TeenVogue. At right is what so-called “Gun Rights Activists” have photoshopped it into. #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/jW6tTOv2Db

— Phillip Picardi (@pfpicardi) March 25, 2018

Here, by the way, is the video from which that image on the left was taken, just in case there are any trolls here who want to argue that the one of the right is not photoshopped.

💪🏼🧡 pic.twitter.com/aSuEgPEh5o

— Sarah Chadwick// #NEVERAGAIN (@Sarahchadwickk) March 26, 2018

And yes, there's more:  

And as of this weekend, this group of idealistic young people have officially become the right’s leading hate figures. 

The first and most repugnant strategy was to directly attack high-profile campaigners, especially students David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez. 

Running short of reasoned arguments, many attempted to push conservative buttons with high impact visuals. Alt-right social media company Gab was one of many that disseminated a doctored animation of Gonzalez in which she falsely appeared to be tearing up the US constitution. Cartoonist and Trump sycophant Ben Garrison depicted Hogg as an assault rifle, wielded by CNN, and loaded with Marxism. Breitbart re-published a round of tweets accusing Hogg of throwing a Nazi salute. 

On Front Page – an outlet led by David Horowitz, whose main stock in trade is virulent Islamophobia – Bruce Thornton decried Hogg’s “profanity laced tantrums” and reduced him and his fellow students to political “shock troops” being manipulated by a progressive “ideology of melodrama and moral exhibitionism”.

Though David and Emma have born the main brunt of the vicious attacks from the Right Wing, likely due to their effective messaging, other Parkland kids have also been targeted:  

Along with Hogg and Gonzalez, the right found some new targets among the Parkland survivors. The one who got the most scrutiny was Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Delaney Tarr, who spoke at the Washington rally. In her speech, she suggested that bump stock bans could be expanded into further gun control. Many rightwing outlets drew the inference that the movement would not stop at an assault weapons ban, but would try to ban firearms altogether. 

Fox News did not resort to calling the Parkland students Nazis, but they did call them sanctimonious pawns.

Fox News covered the #MarchForOurLives by insulting students for not wanting to be gunned down at school. This is unhinged. pic.twitter.com/xBArtKREu8

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 26, 2018

Keep in mind that these are children.

Children who just had their lives torn apart by gun violence, and many of whom lost friends to that same violence.

But to the Right Wing they are nothing more than adversaries who must be crushed under foot, and their suffering does not buy them any sympathy or empathy whatsoever.

A Facebook post by a comic book store owner reminds us that these parkland kids may be brave on the outside, but on the inside they are shattered and barely holding it together.

Facebook post by a comic shop owner who met some of the Parkland students recently. Very hard to read but I’m glad I did. pic.twitter.com/Cuq8rvs6Ea

— Tres @ C2E2 AA #T14 (@tresdcomics) March 24, 2018

We keep expecting these kids to save the country, but who is making sure that they will be saved as well?

They have gone from one terrifying reality involving gun violence, to another terrifying reality involving being thrust onto the national stage.

At some point they need the time to heal.

Hopefully that time will come before the wounds become too deep, and the wounds become too forever.

A no pulling our punches comic to start your day.

I don't really have anything more to add than to say that this is just as gross as it is accurate.

The Children Shall Lead Them. #MarchForOurLives. Update!

The March For Our Lives takes over DC.

I have been around for some time now, and I have participated in more than a few protests, starting with anti-Vietnam war protests in the early seventies.

This..this...was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Now don't get me wrong, I was blown away by the Women's March right after Trump's inauguration.

But this protest, led by these children, was fucking amazing!

Before I left to join protesters here in town..

Anchorage #walkforourlives pic.twitter.com/UfEPU2qVeK

— Gryphen 2009 (@Gryphen2009) March 24, 2018

(Here is one of my tweets)

...I watched in awe as these young people around the country, and the world, put my intermittent activism to shame.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Delaney Tarr at #MarchForOurLives rally: "We are here to call out every single politician...they know that if there is no assault weapons ban passed then we will vote them out." https://t.co/rFLdpVwg4i pic.twitter.com/0P2SJK912m

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 24, 2018

It seemed as if every one of these students was born to change our world, and I was blown away by their passion, their determination, and their grace in the face of ugly adversity.

I can’t wait to vote today’s students into office and vote out yesterday’s dinosaurs. #yourtimeisup #Resisters #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/MPE62fqKyS

— Kelly Mantle (@thekellymantle) March 24, 2018

And I am not just talking about the teenagers.

11-year old Naomi Wadler: "I am here to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don't lead on the evening news." #MarchForOurLives  (via @CBSNews) pic.twitter.com/1JIGsj0VJ1

— HĪP MAGAZINE (@hipmagazines) March 24, 2018

There was this eleven year old girl, who quite frankly took my breath away.

Yes the students had some very talented, and charismatic back up.

VIDEO- Miley performing The Climb at #MarchForOurLives today pic.twitter.com/YuUcvFHyKQ

— MileyCyrus Updates (@CyrusIsMyVirus) March 24, 2018

(Damn, I love that song now.)

But in the end this was the student's march, and it was they who stole the show.

And for my money this incredible moment from Emma Gonzalez was the most powerful of all. (Wait for it.)

Emma Gonzalez stayed on stage at the D.C. #MarchForOurLives rally for 6 minutes and 20 seconds - the duration of the Parkland shooting. https://t.co/B7yFTn23Nz pic.twitter.com/jdyYagtZCO

— ABC News (@ABC) March 24, 2018

Watching this damn near broke my heart.

I am not going to lie, I was choked up and leaky eyed for most of the day today.

But I was also incredibly reassured that the future of this country is in some of the most capable hands imaginable.

And even some of our leaders from the past recognize that.

Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today’s marches happen. Keep at it. You’re leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 24, 2018

Listening to the students from Parkland and across the country today is a reminder of what is possible when our future is in the right hands, and when we match inspiration with determination. https://t.co/fhiEBIw15B

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 24, 2018

However our current leader remained unimpressed.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

President Trump arrived at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida as hundreds of thousands of students gathered in Washington, D.C., to call on him and Congress to act on gun control.

Still hiding out from the truth, huh Mr. Trump?

Update: Oh yeah, there was also this.

March for Our Lives draws bigger crowd than Trump inauguration, organizers say https://t.co/q6eQuw5yFI pic.twitter.com/1Vk5DYK8T1

— The Hill (@thehill) March 25, 2018

So what are your plans for today? #MarchForOurLives

Courtesy of March for Our Lives:  

March For Our Lives Anchorage students advocate for a number of solutions, which include: 

• Reclassification of the AR-15 and other military pattern semi-automatic rifles as Class III, Title II under the NFA. Semi-automatic rifles are only fractionally different than fully-automatic rifles, and are just as lethal. Military grade weaponry deserves to be regulated as such. 
• Reclassification of magazines over 10 rounds of ammunition as Class III, Title II under the NFA. According to a 2013 study on active shooters done by the FBI, active shooting incidents take place over a matter of minutes. Being limited to 10 rounds per magazine, as opposed to 20, 30, or 40 can save potentially dozens of lives within a mass-shooting timeframe. 
• Repeal of the Dickey Amendment, a 1996 measure which effectively bans the CDC from researching preventative measures for gun violence. 
• Purchase age increase to 21 years. 
• Mandate for gun show and private sale background checks. 
• Mandatory gun safety training accompanying first legal purchase. 

All of these measures comply with the modern understanding of the 2nd Amendment, and in no way infringe on the right of Americans to bear arms. Furthermore, each one individually, and certainly all of them together, show real promise in reducing the risk posed by mass shooters.

Here in Anchorage this march will take place on the Delaney Park Strip starting at 12:00 PM.

I am hoping to get there, but unfortunately I am actually working today so I am trying to move some things around.

But if I can swing it I will see you there.

Number of Maryland school shooting deaths rise to two after teenage girl taken off life support.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

The teenage girl who was shot by an ex-boyfriend inside their Maryland high school died late Thursday after she was removed from life support, the sheriff's office said Friday. 

Jaelyn Willey died at 11:34 p.m. ET just hours after her mother said the 16-year-old was brain dead and that there was "no life left in her." 

"My daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head ... and took everything from our lives, " Melissa Willey said at a news conference. "She will not make it."

The teen was shot Tuesday by 17-year-old Austin Rollins at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County.

This young lady was apparently the main target for this gunman, as she had recently ended a relationship with him.

The teenage gunman shot her and anther student, before being gunned down by a school resource officer.

So what should have been a momentary teenage heartbreak, ended with the completely unnecessary deaths of two young people who would still be alive in a country where guns were not so readily available.

Guns do not protect life, guns take life.

Period.

The Washington Post learns that more than 187,000 students have been exposed to gun violence while at school.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Over the past two decades, a handful of massacres that have come to define school shootings in this country are almost always remembered for the students and educators slain. Death tolls are repeated so often that the numbers and places become permanently linked. 

What those figures fail to capture, though, is the collateral damage of this uniquely American crisis. Beginning with Columbine in 1999, more than 187,000 students attending at least 193 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus during school hours, according to a year-long Washington Post analysis. This means that the number of children who have been shaken by gunfire in the places they go to learn exceeds the population of Eugene, Ore., or Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

Many are never the same. 

School shootings remain extremely rare, representing a tiny fraction of the gun violence epidemic that, on average, leaves a child bleeding or dead every hour in the United States. While few of those incidents happen on campuses, the ones that do have spread fear across the country, changing the culture of education and how kids grow up. 

Every day, threats send classrooms into lockdowns that can frighten students, even when they turn out to be false alarms. Thousands of schools conduct active-shooter drills in which kids as young as 4 hide in darkened closets and bathrooms from imaginary murderers. 

“It’s no longer the default that going to school is going to make you feel safe,” said Bruce D. Perry, a psychiatrist and one of the country’s leading experts on childhood trauma. “Even kids who come from middle-class and upper-middle-class communities literally don’t feel safe in schools.”

These statistics are terrifying.

No child should have to fear going to school, or sitting down in a movie theater, or shopping at the local mall.

And yet many of them live with that fear every single day.

That is why this march on Saturday is so important.

It might not change anything on its own, but it is the first positive steps in that direction. 

The March for Our Lives event on Saturday is going to be huge.

We see these lawmakers representing the NRA, and not their constituents. We see our “leaders” making excuses and refusing to act. On Saturday, they’ll see US. pic.twitter.com/7OGttnRSsz

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) March 21, 2018

I do not know how they keep doing it, but these kids continue to impress me just about every day.

Usually this is where the media moves on from another senseless shooting to focus on other issues, but these students refuse to let that happen this time, and almost by sheer force of will they are keeping the debate alive.

Another school shooting. This time in Maryland.

Video shows police officers responding to shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland. “The event is contained,” according to the school district. https://t.co/p6ZPCw44RZ pic.twitter.com/m9TMfrSjyi

— ABC News (@ABC) March 20, 2018

Courtesy of the AP: 

A shooting at a Maryland high school Tuesday wounded three people, including the shooter, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said. 

Authorities said the situation was “contained” as deputies and federal agents converged on the crime scene. 

St. Mary’s County Sheriff spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Yingling said three people hurt, including the shooter. She didn’t know the extent of their injuries, but said all three were taken to hospitals and none were killed. 

The Baltimore Sun reported that a student said the shooting happened around 8 a.m. Terrence Rhames, 18, told the Sun that he heard a gunshot and saw a girl fall as he ran for an exit. “I just thank God I’m safe,” Rhames said. “I just want to know who did it and who got injured.”

I held off on posting about this because as usual there was all kinds of misinformation coming out, including that there were far more than three shot, including some fatalities.

What we think we know now is that there was one shooter, weapon unknown, who fired on at least two students and was taken down by a school resource officer. The shooter and a female student remain in critical condition.

Sheriff tells NBC re Maryland school shooting: 8am male student shot female student and injured another. School resource officer (aka sheriff deputy) then engaged shooter and they exchanged fire. The shooter and two students have been taken to hospital in critical condition.

— Stephanie March (@steph_march) March 20, 2018

So keep in mind that the school HAS a police presence on campus and still there were students shot.

The fact that there were no fatalities (As of yet.) is good news, VERY good news.

The bad news is that it appears that this will never end.

Update: Okay new reports are that the shooter has died.

Let's hope he is the only fatality from this unfortunate, and all too common, incident.

Fred Meyers to stop selling guns and ammo in ALL of its stores.

Courtesy of the Seattle Times:

Fred Meyer is dropping guns and ammunition from its retail stores. 

Friday’s announcement follows the Portland, Oregon,-based chain’s decision about two weeks ago that it would no longer sell firearms and ammunition to buyers under age 21. Fred Meyer said in a statement it is working to phase out the firearms category after evaluating customer preferences.

A growing number of retailers including Kroger, Walmart, L.L. Bean and Dick’s have tightened gun restrictions or cut ties with the National Rifle Association after February’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida. However, several outdoors specialty chains continue to sell assault-style rifles. 

Fred Meyer, which carries general merchandise in addition to groceries, has 132 stores in four states. It is a division of The Kroger Co.

Damn, this is fairly huge.

Fred Meyer is my preferred one stop shopping destination, and it has bothered me for years that in order to get to the paint or electrical section I have to walk by a display that looks exactly like the  one pictured above.

There is no way to continue saying that these Parkland students are not having an impact. Because clearly they are indeed.

But still there is so much work to be done, as evidenced by this tweet this morning from Sarah Kendzior.

Rural Alabama gas station. I was there getting a Snickers. pic.twitter.com/eGraFplA43

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) March 18, 2018

Yeah, that's a little obscene.

Long island man pulls out knife during public meeting on school safety in order to intimidate teenager he was debating.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Long Island man terrified students and others by pulling out a knife to demonstrate why he believed schools should have armed security guards. 

The man took out the pocket knife during a face-to-face confrontation with a student Wednesday during a public meeting in Rocky Point on school safety, reported Newsday. 

“I’m considerably larger than you, OK?” the man tells the student in cell phone video recorded during the incident. “If something happened, if I decided to attack you, it would take the cops three to five minutes to come here — probably 10 if the traffic’s bad.” 

The man, whose name was not released, apparently disagreed with 17-year-old senior Jade Pinkenberg, who spoke up during the school board meeting to argue against arming teachers. 

“What are you going to do now?” the man says, as the teen backs away. 

Pinkenburg’s father and others shouted to tell the man to stop, and school security escorted the man out of the meeting. 

“I had no idea what was happening,” Pinkenburg said. “He was in my face a bit and I didn’t know what he was about to do. When I realized, I kind of jumped back. My legs got weak and my heart was beating fast.”

What is it with these adults thinking that violence, or the threat of violence, is the way to demonstrate to children that they are overreacting about violence?

Clearly this man believed that if he could scare this kid, that in some way he would make his point that the only way to feel secure in school is with armed guards at every  exit.

That is simply not the case, and in fact, as we have seen several times just recently, guns in school tend to go off accidentally and place MORE children's lives in danger, instead of protecting them from danger.

All this guy proved is that he's an asshole and a bad role model to his own children. 

Students all over the country are walking out to protest gun violence. I could not be more proud.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

Thousands of students, emboldened by a growing protest movement over gun violence, stood up in their classrooms on Wednesday and walked out of their schools in a nationwide demonstration, one month after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida. 

The 17-minute protests unfolding at hundreds of schools are intended to pressure Congress to approve gun control legislation after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and come 10 days before major protests in Washington and elsewhere. 

Here’s what to know:

 • The first large wave of students began to leave their classrooms at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Across the country, others are walking out at 10 a.m. in their local time zones. 

• The demonstrations were not limited to school property. In New York, students marched in the streets, while in Washington, sign-clutching students gathered outside the White House and on Capitol Hill. 

• School administrators have been grappling with how to respond. Some districts welcomed or even tacitly encouraged walkouts, while others threatened disciplinary action against students who participated.

Apparently the threats of disciplinary action has done little to dissuade the students who are showing up in huge numbers.

And they are making the most of the media attention.

Boston students show up on school snow day to protest gun violence https://t.co/Wfh9fZTMTE pic.twitter.com/5akFg8eMWd

— The Hill (@thehill) March 14, 2018

Atlanta students take a knee as part of gun violence protest https://t.co/Imt9seLAzz pic.twitter.com/zPpUU56bx8

— The Hill (@thehill) March 14, 2018

"In an ideal world, the 20 first graders and kindergartners who died at Sandy Hook would be in middle school... the 32 students who died at Virginia Tech would be at work.
The students at Stoneman Douglas would be eating lunch right now.” (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/OKOONTx1hN

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 14, 2018

It's things like this which put my mind at ease about the future of our planet.

Trump Administration decides to address school shootings by arming teachers and appointing Betsy DeVos to head up commission. Following the NRA's blueprint to a "T."

Courtesy of Politico: 

The White House on Sunday night announced backing for a new Justice Department program that would aid states that seek to train teachers and other school personnel to carry firearms, as part of a package of steps to curb school violence. 

In addition, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will chair a government commission exploring steps to prevent school violence, following the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month that left 17 dead, the Trump administration said. 

“We are committed to working quickly because there’s no time to waste,” DeVos said on a conference call with reporters. “No student, no family, no teacher and no school should have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook or Columbine again.” 

DeVos said the commission would include teachers. A senior administration official on the call said that it was expected the work would be completed within a year. The official said existing Justice Department funds would be used to assist states and local law enforcement groups that want to bolster their armed school personnel programs.

Trump also backtracked on his call to raise the age limit to buy certain firearms after his meeting with the NRA. (Remember how Trump mocked the Republican politicians for being scared of the NRA? Yeah well he better check the mirror.)

Let me save you all the trouble of waiting and tell you exactly what this commission will decide to do to effe3ctrively combat school shootings. Not a goddamn thing.

Sure they will have a few metal detectors installed, put in some safety glass, and of course suggest that several teachers start packing heat, but it will not protect a single child from gun violence.

And of course this will do NOTHING to address the shootings in shopping malls, movie theaters, or churches. 

Putting DeVos in charge of this commission is essentially a giant "fuck you" to the Parkland students who are the driving force behind gun control legislation, and they certainly recognize it as such.

"Betsey DeVos basically paid for her position...I think she's not the right person for this," says Florida shooting survivor David Hogg after WH unveils plan to establish a school safety commission chaired by the US Education Secretary https://t.co/eTBqSkJnS0 pic.twitter.com/e4btWpov5Y

— CNN International (@cnni) March 12, 2018

Clearly these kids see through the bullshit, which means they are only going to become more determined to advocate for real change in this country's gun laws.

The next school shooting, and yes we know there will be one, is going to be a public relations nightmare for the Trump Administration and only empower these students even more than they have been already. 

This is far from over.