Moment of slience

kat303 · ‎02-14-2018

Let us all give say a prayer or have a minute of silence for the 17 students that were killed in a mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas high school down here in Fla. They caught the person right across the street where my daughter lives. She watched the arrest from the upstairs bedroom window. And that's about 3 - 4 blocks from her my granddaughter goes to elementary school.

versailles · ‎02-14-2018

It's dramatic indeed, all my prayers to the families.

But let's remember that it's a very rare occurrence. Fox News lists only 10 recent school shootings in the US. That's nothing. It almost never happens.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light" —William Ashbless

gilbert-phyllis · ‎02-14-2018

That sounds about right, for Faux News. Multiple news outlets are reporting 18 so far this calendar year, a substantial uptick over prior years (more than twice as many as we had in the first 45 days of 2017). Eight resulted in injury or death.

kat303 · ‎02-15-2018

Rene, it may be a rare occurance, but when it happens "in your own back yard" it becomes a different thing. It's 4 blocks from my daughters house. She knows people in her development that go to that school. Right now, roads are closed, streets are blocked off. Things will never be the same.

She just called me. And I'm going up to be with her, because her daughter, my granddaughter's (9 years old) school (3 blocks from the shooting) has just gone into lockdown. We don't know what's going on.

versailles · ‎02-15-2018

Kathy, I've been totally sarcastic. I'm upset beyond recovery. We are at 82 dead and 139 wounded since the beginning of the year and it's not even a bad year.

In the US, you cannot even mention the fact that those figures are totally out of the charts without taking serious heat from gun lovers. People don't even believe the figures published by the FBI. Last time somebody laughed at me because we had terrorist attacks in Paris and they insinuated that we are not doing any better for that reason.

Americans are killing more Americans each month than terrorists did in the last decade. I'm totally pissed off. Something is very wrong in the US and everybody acts like there is no elephant in the room.

Some people are making big money out of this. Every bullet sold, every victim is a raise in revenue.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light" —William Ashbless

yitwail · ‎02-16-2018

It’s too late to do anything now but it’s absurd that in Florida, you only need to be 18 to buy a semiautomatic rifle with a 30 round magazine but 21 to buy a handgun.

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"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

gilbert-phyllis · ‎02-16-2018

@John K wrote:
It’s too late to do anything now but it’s absurd that in Florida, you only need to be 18 to buy a semiautomatic rifle with a 30 round magazine but 21 to buy a handgun.

Or a beer.

kat303 · ‎02-17-2018

How close to home this was. My daughter knows 2 of the people who were killed. One lives in her development and is a friend of my granddaughters best friends brother. The other one..... both my daughter and granddaughter know her. She's in my granddaughters dance company/school. My granddaughter of course knows about the shooting, How could she not when it's 4 blocks from her house and streets are blocked off and there's news reporters, police, helicopters etc. But she doesn't know yet, that the person in her dance company is one of those that have been killed. She will know on Tuesday when she either goes back to dance, or before when my daughter tells her. This will be her 2nd personal experience with death. So we'll see how that goes.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎02-18-2018

Kathy, my heart goes out to you and your family, to all of the families who are and will continue to deal with the trauma of children being forced to know they are not safe at school.

petra_r · ‎02-18-2018

Kathy, I am in despair for all those affected, hugs to you and your family members, nobody should have to go through anything like that.

However, a moment of silence won't do any good. Quite the opposite.

It is time your people STOP staying silent while your children are slaughtered.

It is time to make so much noise that even the mighty Dollar of "your" gun lobbies can not silence it.

So much noise that weapons of mass destruction are no longer available to people who have no legitimate purpose to own them. There is no legitimate purpose for a private citizen to have such a thing. None!

And that comes from someone who's grown up in a hunting and shooting family and who was shooting before she could ride a bike...