So I briefly touched on what tragedy is and I mentioned that I find this situation tragic. I want to go into why its tragic and how the tragedy needs to be resolved.
According to the I would like to throw out some numbers.
In 2000, 1,242 children in the United States died from
intentional firearm-related injuries. Homicides of children are most
often murders of teens by other teens.
Youth homicides represent the greatest proportion of all firearm
deaths. Each day in the U.S., firearms kill an average of 10 children
and teens, even though the number of teens killed by firearms in the
U.S. has dropped by 35% in the past four years. In 1999, the Youth Risk
Behavior Surveillance Survey reported that almost one-fifth of the 10th
and 12th graders indicated that they had carried a firearm within the
previous 30 days for self-defense or to settle disputes.
According to the CDC, 25,423 murders by gunfire
took place in the United States in 2006 through 2007 — the years of the
most recent available statistics.
Among these
deaths, the rate of firearm homicides was higher in inner cities than in
other parts of cities and higher than the murder rate of the country as
a whole, Dahlberg said. People living in 50 of the largest cities, in
fact, accounted for 67% of all firearm homicides.
In
addition, children and teens aged 10 to 19 in these areas — more than
85% of them male — accounted for 73% of all firearm homicides, Dahlberg
noted.
Tragedy presents ethical conflicts, between state and family, intention and action, responsibility and necessity. Conflict may exist even where ethical principles are not the primary interest, because the tragic character may experience internal conflict, as Hamlet or Othello. Tragedy lies in the denial of absolute right on either side, or affirmation of equal right, and its spiritual value consists in presenting justice as reconciliation:
We look at school shooters like Cho at virginia tech: Due to mental illness he developed a profound sense that the humanity in others held no value to him. Lets also take a look at another shooter:
On February 29, 2012, Tim Grendell, the juvenile court judge presiding over Lane's case, allowed the release of the suspect's juvenile records to the press. According to his records, T.J. Lane was arrested twice in December, 2009. The first time, Lane restrained his uncle, while his cousin hit him. The other case involved Lane hitting another boy in the face.[42] To the second charge, Lane pled to a count of disorderly conduct.[43]A child who grew up in a home where violence was common became a young man to whom violence was not only common but became an answer. The tragedy is of course that these violent experiences do not happen in a vacuum. People see these children and families. Teachers and administrators encounter warning signs: and they ask the question "What am I legally required to do" and they do not move to the more important question "What am I morally and ethically required to do?" The tragedy of these shootings is they have increased in number as the community has declined in the 20th and 21st century. But if you go back further into the 19th century you see these shootings still occurred and occurred during times of social upheaval: 1880s (6), 1870s (2), 1860s (3), and1850s (1).
Although family court records concerning T.J. Lane had not been released, as of March 12, 2012, the press did expose criminal records of Lane's father, Thomas M. Lane, Jr. The records showed that in 2002 the elder Lane was incarcerated for one year for attempted murder. In an ordeal lasting nine hours, he physically and verbally assaulted a woman while three children were present. In addition, "he has arrests on a wide range of offenses including drug abuse and possession, violation of probation, public intoxication and disorderly conduct".[42]
As we have changed and faced the challenges of becoming a modern country and as there were challenges of economic/social/political inequalities we see an increase of these mass shootings. Because the conflicts of these inequalities are ones that invalidate others.
"The Man is keeping me down"
"Queers are trying to change our marriages"
"the 1% is stealing from the 99%"
"Illegal aliens are stealing our jobs"
ETC
We invalidate the humanity of other people in general, and we ignore the humanity of people more specifically that we see falling through the gaps in our society. Some of them are beyond our ability to help but we are unable to help them all. We need a society where we are not individuals existing in a cynical relationship with our social/political/ and cultural institutions. People can live in material poverty without being violent: But if they live in material poverty with a cultivated spiritual poverty (that the world is out to get me and violence is the answer) we will see these sorts of violent incidents continue as people who feel they have no way to change their place in the order of things snap and become violent.
Gun control isn't the answer (as these crimes increased during the increases of gun control in the united states) people control is the answer. We need to be a society of neighbors and communities again so the communities can help diffuse this sense of indignity and rage.
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