University of Nevada, Las Vegas senior Mike Henderson had just left his classroom on the second floor of Beam Hall on Wednesday when he heard about eight gunshots.
"I said, 'Dad, I have to go, if this is the last time we talk, I love you,'" Henderson recalled. "I lost my mom a few years ago, so my dad is like my lifeline. Just saying goodbye to him was tough."
Wasn't a spree shooter. Just a disgruntled person who had no more prospects left so killed those who he felt were in his way from getting a job.
The gun was bought over a year ago legally. He had just been evicted and lost out on getting a promotion to tenure so he had no more options left. None of the students were targets because he killed coworkers.
It's sad that the students were afraid, but gun control wouldn't have changed anything. The way to prevent this from happening would be to spread the tuition money to associate professors who actually teach the classes instead of all the money going to Administrative Profit.
The shootings won't stop by banning the tools, but by fixing the inequality in our economic systems. Sadly the media and politicians will talk about guns instead of the actual problems with pay. UNLV already was a gun free zone, but somehow that will never come up in the media coverage. Banning AR-15's wouldn't have changed this outcome.
The media loves sowing fear. Articles about scared students will feed the vultures for weeks and never go into actual real world ways to stop this problem. We have lost hope in this country. The majority of people are 1 crisis away from death, and we are stuck with politicians and a President who don't want people to be able to defend themselves. Not to mention asking the corporations bleeding us all dry to please stop raising prices.
What I was talking about the media focusing on fearful stories.
Maybe I'm old, but shouldn't we fear fear itself instead of having a media push stories that promote fear? Kids have been pushed into fearing guns and school shootings when it is such a low percentage of death.
Or maybe you just are unwilling to see past the narratives and see the bias inherent in the media recently? The media has been pushing division for decades now to keep the money hungry corporations happy. Local news has all been bought up.
I'm sad about that students hardship, and am happy they were able to tell their father they loved them.
I just recognize that it is pushing a fear based narrative to become fish in a barrel and embrace death during a crisis.
you should fear guns. Isn't that the first rule of gun ownership? The gun is always loaded, even when it's not. Only point it at stuff you intend to destroy.
That is legitimate and helpful fear. Same as you should be afraid of electrical current, raw chicken, fast flowing water and bears.
If I posted, "you should fear cars. Isn’t that the first rule of car ownership?" under and article about truck stampeding protesters, most would call it absurd. Try to understand logical consistency.
You said the first thing individuals are taught is to fear firearms when learning to use them, which is patently false.
Learning to use a firearm isn't storming the beaches of Normandy, just as learning to use a car doesn't require an individual to leg it across a highway. Pertaining to an ordinary setting, the only similarity is using a tool, you confuse fear for respect.
Respect isn't fear. Knowing what something is capable of isn't being afraid of the item. Fearing something puts more emphasis on the bad possibilities than is reasonable.
Recognizing danger should have nothing to do with fear. Fear is irrational.
I'd argue "respecting what could kill you" is both a form and consequence of fear, fear being an instinct borne of self-preservation and the necessity of the social contract.
Sounds like you're not forced to spend 5 days a week at a location targeted by mass shooters.
The media has been pushing division for decades now to keep the money hungry corporations happy. Local news has all been bought up.
Firearm manufacturers have been making record profits selling guns to people who shouldn't have them, then using lobby groups to donate $16 million a year to Republicans -- a figure that conspicuously doubled in 2012 after Sandy Hook.
But of course they're not "money hungry corporations" putting profits before lives, it's all the medias fault for greedily reporting on things that happened.
I'm sad about that students hardship, and am happy they were able to tell their father they loved them.
You're not very good at pretending to have emotions and compassion.
Hearing your peers being indiscriminately executed and surviving through nothing but dumb luck is not a "hardship", it's trauma on par with living in a war zone.
There is nothing at all "happy" about a child fearing for their lives and calling their father to say their last words. It's genuinely surreal to see you describe it like that. Who are you happy for?
I just recognize that it is pushing a fear based narrative to become fish in a barrel and embrace death during a crisis