The right desperately tries to blame women for the 21 murders in the Uvalde school shooting On Fox News, Lara Trump blamed "fatherless children" for mass shootings. Jesse Watters echoed this claim, arguing that divorce "rates have skyrocketed." (In reality, divorce rates have been in decline since 1980.)Watters also said that "shooters didn't have a dad in their life." Fox News commentator Dan Bongino worked the same nonsense, claiming kids don't have fathers to teach "physicality doesn't always mean violence." It's probably not true, but definitely not in this case, as the father of the shooter has already publicly apologized. Despite the heavy use of the word "father," anyone who has even a cursory understanding of right-wing media knows this is a standard-issue woman-blaming narrative on the right. The idea is that feminism "ruined" women by making them too independent and giving them too-high standards, which supposedly runs off the men. Alongside single mothers, teachers themselves, the majority of whom are women, were also blamed. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin argued that "we stopped teaching values in so many of our schools" and "we're teaching wokeness." It's a narrative of racist paranoia, but also gendered paranoia. The underlying theory is that the "problem" is letting those college-educated women who teach school have too much control over what happens in classrooms. Right-wing podcaster Steven Crowder claimed "public schools are a breeding ground for evil," because of those majority-female teachers supposedly "browbeating young white boys." Glenn Beck rolled out the same talking points about "wokeness" in schools, taking a shot at trans students and staff by decrying "bathrooms that anybody can use." It got even more explicit with Fox News guest Jason Whitlock arguing that school shootings happen because "masculinity, traditional male values, are under attack." On One America News, Oliver North blamed women for having abortions. (Note that the same conservatives who blame single mothers want to force more women to be single mothers.) And no matter how often it's debunked, Candace Owens of Daily Wire is determined to blame trans women for a cis man shooting up a school.
You're really not too bright, are you? And because you're not bright, I'll state that this question is rhetorical.
The Uvalde local police story just keeps getting sadder and sadder. Texas shooting: Teacher's police officer husband barred from entering school to save her Eva Mireles, had been speaking to her police officer husband Ruben Riaz, who was a school district police officer, shortly before she was killed - she is one of two teachers who was killed at a shooting at Robb Elementary School https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/texas-shooting-teachers-police-officer-27128065 A teacher killed in the Texas school shooting desperately phoned her police officer husband for help but he was prevented from going into the building by colleagues. Police chiefs have been criticised over why they took so long to kill gunman Salvador Ramos at Robb Elementary School, with officers trained to confront an active shooter rather than hold back. Yet the gunman entered the school at 11.33am last Tuesday and he was not killed until 12.51pm, according to a timeline from the head of state police Steven McCraw. During this time children were calling the police to say there was a gunman in the school and yet officers remained outside the classroom apparently believing Ramos had barricaded himself in and there was no risk to more life. The attack saw 19 children and two teachers died in one of the worst school shootings in the history of the United States. One of the teachers, Eva Mireles, had been speaking to her husband Ruben Riaz, who was a school district police officer, shortly before she was killed. Uvalde County Judge Bill Mitchell said: “She’s in the classroom and he’s outside. It’s terrifying.” Ms Mireles, who had been working at the school for 17 years, was killed trying to protect pupils, said her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado. Her husband Officer Riaz had rushed to the scene but while he wanted to go inside, other police prevented him. “He could not go into the classroom where all the shooting victims were at,” said Ms Martinez Delgado, reported the New York Times. Judge Mitchell said it was not clear how long the couple was able to speak but that deputy sheriffs had confirmed that it took place. “I don’t know what was said,” he explained but said it would be a situation like “he’s outside hearing his wife: ‘I’m dying’.” Mr Mitchell said he did not know if Mr Ruiz told the chief of his six-member department, Pete Arredondo, about the call. State police have said it was Chief Arredondo’s decision to wait to send officers into the classrooms, which has since been branded "wrong". The gunman's motive is still unclear.
Ron Johnson ladies and gentlemen: Reiterating his belief that the solution lies in “renewed faith” and “strong families, Johnson then quickly leaned into the latest right-wing moral panic. “We stopped teaching values in so many of our schools. Now we’re teaching wokeness,” the senator fumed. “We’re indoctrinating our children with things like CRT, telling, you know, some children they’re not equal to others and they’re the cause of other people’s problems.” Pushing back, Cavuto interjected: “But school shootings have been happening long before CRT.” The fucktards on the right yell at the dems for making a shooting political.... yet Dick Johnson is telling us how CRT and lack of forced religion is why we have school shooting. I never heard of a teenager walking into a school with CRT and killing children but thye certainly have done it with AR15s and no impediments to acquire it.
While I believe that Ron Johnson is totally off base with his comments on CRT having a relation to school shootings --- there has to be a recognition that school shootings were much, much less common in schools 40 or 50 years ago --- in the 1970s and 1980s -- and earlier. The 1970s in the U.S. was an era filled with civil strife (civil rights, Vietnam protests ) and high crime -- yet many schools had riflery teams. Students would bring their guns to school every day for riflery and there was never issues with them being used to shoot fellow students and staff. So what has changed in the U.S.? The answer is not -- "well powerful AR-15s are causing school shootings these past two decades". At some point personal responsibility needs to be discussed as well as other factors causing students to shoot up schools (whether it be violent video games, mental health, etc.).
The U.S. had looser gun laws in the 1970s and 1980s. The U.S. did not have frequent mass shootings at schools in the 1970s ad 1980s. The AR-15 weapons may be more common today in the U.S. causing higher casualties in a school shooting -- but there were plenty of guns available in the 1970s and 1980s which could be used to shoot up a school. The social safety net in the 1970s and 1980s in the U.S. was just as poor as it is today. So tell us what has changed in the last 40 years to bring on a continuous spat of school shootings? Is it social media? Violent video games? Mental health issues among younger people? Lack of personal responsibility? What?
Perhaps I am mistaken, as I don't really study stuff as carefully south of the border, where you guys reside, but I had the sense that gun laws were slackening. My bad. But there are certainly more guns per capital in the US now than there were in earlier decades, no? Economic disparity is widening. Not a good thing in any culture for any number of reasons. Especially for those falling through the cracks for one reason or another. The effects of a failing safety net seem amplified. https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/covid-unemployment-inequality/ And while the rich get exceedingly richer, the US poor are worse off than in any other OECD country: https://confrontingpoverty.org/poverty-facts-and-myths/americas-poor-are-worse-off-than-elsewhere/ Next, hate and bigotry continue to have a home, and they're adding an extension and a pool. Maybe a guest house. And they're coming out to play in the neighborhood more boldly than they have in the past. (The aggregating power of social media among misfits and the likes of Trump have strengthened their resolve.) I don't know about video games, but the popularity of those first person shooter games with their incessant killing doesn't make me feel warm all over. Especially when played daily for hours on end by developing minds. Your social media comment has merit, because isolated crazies can now interact with one another which can have a cascading effect. But you would think that the effect would be more uniform across most like countries. However, it is not. The US has it the worst; the country with the most guns and the loosest gun laws.