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Originally posted by pianojuggler:
This is not a mental health problem, it’s a gun problem. And if it were a mental health problem, which this country does have, that goes back to a republican, Reagan, who shut down the mental health care system.

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Originally posted by Amanda:

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Originally posted by pianojuggler:
This is not a mental health problem, it’s a gun problem. And if it were a mental health problem, which this country does have, that goes back to a republican, Reagan, who shut down the mental health care system.

PJ if you were replying to my post, you misunderstand me.

I wasn't claiming this nightmare phenomenon was the result of a mental health problem, but that it had caused a serious (additional) one for the children of America.

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What is the psychological toll?
There have been countless reports of students and teachers experiencing severe emotional distress during and even long after high-intensity drills that simulate violent situations at school.

A 2021 study from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Social Dynamics and Wellbeing Lab found that active shooter drills in schools were associated with a 42% increase in stress and anxiety, 39% increase in depression and 23% increase in physiological health problems in children from as young as 5, up to high schoolers, teachers and parents.

Teachers who participated in the study recalled students “texting their parents, praying, crying” because they felt like “they were going to die” during these kinds of trainings. Parents noted that their children subsequently started experiencing “extreme reactions such as panic attacks and “downright fear” in response to innocuous things like hearing a fire alarm go off.

“The impact of these active shooter drills varies depending on the child, their understanding and interpretation of it, their past experiences and their personal worries and fears,” Dr. David J. Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, told HuffPost. “Children who are highly anxious or just a bit concerned may become more anxious and more concerned because going through these scenarios raises the perception of the likelihood that this might occur to a level that is not tolerable for them.”

He emphasized that frequent drills and discussions in anticipation of active shooter events gives children the expectation that these sorts of things will occur and that the world is an inherently unsafe place. This is particularly true with young children, who may develop a sense that there are lots of people out there looking to harm them, so they are in danger ― which shapes their mental well-being and the way they interact with the world...

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Thursday he met earlier in the day with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and encouraged the senior Republican senator to begin discussions with Democrats, including Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to see if they can find a middle ground on legislation to respond to the tragic Texas elementary school shooting.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are facing enormous pressure to take action in the wake of the horrific shooting, but members on both sides acknowledge the uphill battle to find common ground given the highly polarized political climate around gun legislation and widespread GOP opposition to stricter gun control.

It is significant, though, that McConnell has decided to weigh in and is giving a greenlight to a bipartisan effort on a potential legislative response to the shooting. But it still remains to be seen what, if anything, talks will amount to given that countless mass shootings in recent years have failed to break the partisan stalemate over the issue of gun policy in Congress.

McConnell would not say specifically what the contours of that legislation should be, instead signaling he wants Cornyn to be the one to negotiate.

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Originally posted by wtg:
Local law enforcement screwed up fifty ways to Sunday.

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Originally posted by wtg:
Local law enforcement screwed up fifty ways to Sunday.

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The guidelines provide sobering clarity: The first officers may be risking their lives. But, it says, innocent lives take priority.

“A first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field."
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The training expectations are obviously in stark contrast to what we are seeing in Uvalde. Police officials have said that officers were reluctant to engage the gunman because “they could’ve been shot.”

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Congressman Chris Jacobs (R-NY), who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2020, said he would support a ban on assault weapons following two horrific mass shootings at a grocery store in New York and an elementary school in Texas.

Jacobs made the remarks — a contradiction to the Republican party's staunch stance on gun laws — during a news conference on Friday.

“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” he said, according to The Buffalo News. “So I want to be clear: I would vote for it.”

Jacobs, a Republican from New York who was endorsed by the NRA in 2020, also said he is in favor of raising the age for some gun purchases to 21.

"Individuals cannot buy beer, they cannot get cigarettes until 21. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that the age limit at least for these highly lethal, high-capacity semi automatic weapons should be 21," he said.

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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:

I'm guessing that many of those officers who stood around fearfully while the town's children were murdered for sport will likely have difficulty living anywhere near that community for fear of retaliation. You have to expect someone will FOIA the department and get a list of names of every police officer who stood there doing nothing. Pleading that they were under orders won't help them with their neighbors.