In the wake of all of this, many students are organizing "walk outs" on their schools, leaving until something is done at a federal level to protect them from gun violence in schools. What that means is that literally thousands of high school students are refusing to go to class because they're afraid of getting killed in the building. And I don't blame them. And if you do, put yourself in their shoes, then ask yourself again if you blame them. If you do, you're an asshole.
In response to the shootings, many NRA (read "domestic terrorists") members advocate arming the teachers, adding more guns to the schools, etc. Their thought process (if such a thing even exists) being that one "good guy with a gun" negates the actions of one "bad guy with a gun." First off, let me point out the inherent flaw in that. When a shooter goes into a school, there is no announcement over the PA. There is no bell-schedule for the shooting. There is one person who -SURPRISE!- starts shooting. I don't care if you're armed or not, you can't outdraw an already drawn weapon. Which means, if you're in that classroom, the first classroom, you are dead. Sure, other folks down the hall might be able to defend, but we're still talking about thirty-plus dead students here. Dead. Is that an acceptable loss? No, I don't think so. To be honest, I don't think ANY loss to gunfire is acceptable. Especially not in a school.
But that started to make sense, so the NRA came up with a different strategy. See, they pointed out that most of the people doing the shooting were loners, so they came up with the slogan, "Don't walk out, walk up." See, what they're saying is that if the students were just nicer to the outcasts, they wouldn't go on a killing spree.
See the problem with that? Anyone? Here... Let me explain it by putting it in other terms....
"You victims," they are saying. "You brought this on yourself by not being social to the weird kid."
"You brought this on yourself."
"This murder."
"This crime."
Sounds a lot like something else, doesn't it?
"You girls, you brought that rape on yourself by wearing those clothes, or by not giving them what they were entitled to."
That's right. It's victim shaming. It's telling the victims that the actions of a disturbed individual (one you might not even known existed, btw) is their fault. Their fault that their classmates got killed. Their fault their teachers died. Their fault for living their lives and exercising their right to choose who their friends are. "Hey, dead kids," says this line of thinking. "You brought this on yourself."
Whatever dickhead thought up this strategy, I don't know what you're thinking. I don't know why you think it's okay to blame the victims. But here's the bottom line: It isn't. It's not okay. It's not their fault. And you're a bad person for thinking it is. You are part of the problem, not these kids.
Now let me make this clear... I'm not demonizing mental illness, and I'm not saying that we should stay away from folks with issues. Mental illness is a serious thing, and people with emotional and mental disorders need love too. But it is unrealistic, and arrogant and entitled, to Monday-morning-quarterback this thing and say "well, you should've..." It's victim shaming. They didn't deserve to die. They didn't deserve to be killed.
There have been eight school shootings in 2018 already. Eight. We're not even out of March. Quit blaming the victims.
Walk up? No thank you. Walk out. You students that walk out, you go. You do what you have to do. Make your voices heard. And you people that blame the victims, you live with your shame.
-=SAJ=-
