Shooting Girl-ery

People, we don't need a better system to help people deal with disappointments. Disappointment is never a reason to go and kill anyone. We need people to accept their responsibilities as citizens.

Why are they mutually exclusive? We can look at an act and call it heinous and then think, as a society 'Gee, a certain percentage of people respond to normal life pressures in a heinous way. Maybe we should have some mechanisms in place to help these emotionally stunted individuals not go on killing sprees.'

Because, ultimately, who cares whose responsibility an act was, or whether it was warranted - step one is trying to make sure it doesn't happen again, or worse.

"We need a better system in which all people are taught effective ways of coping with the disappointments that inevitably come with life. Maybe five innocent girls would be alive today".

I disagree.

Why is it that now, when an individual commits a henious crime, we wring our hands, look for their "reasons" and blame the system? What happened to people taking responsibility for their actions?? Most people in this world, as long as they are alive have disappointments. Some are pretty huge, some not. Some people - gasp - right now are actually wondering where their next meal is comming from. Do they pick up a gun, a few solid rounds of ammo and go and shoot people, children? Tying them up first?

People, we don't need a better system to help people deal with disappointments. Disappointment is never a reason to go and kill anyone. We need people to accept their responsibilities as citizens.

It makes me really sad and extremely angry. I saw the same thing on Nightline.
A.Elliot ( http://www.flexibleparenting.com )

I posted a very short entry about the spate of shootings recently and a friend sent me a song by Cheryl Wheeler. The lyrics are here ( http://www.cherylwheeler.com/songs/iiwutm.html ).

What she said.

Nerd's Eye View ( http://www.nerdseyeview.com )

We could not think of a time when a woman went on a senseless killing spree. Of course, women have done, but why does it seem like it's mostly the men that lose it and turn violent, taking out their aggression on innocent people...children...girls.

The fact that girls were targeted in these latest killings just makes me so sad. That's doesn't mean I'd feel less bad if it were young boys that were targeted, but to specifically target girls, sexually assault them (or plan to), and then shoot them in the head just sickens me.

On Nightline last night, an expert mentioned that the Amish shooting was probably a copycat crime and that these types of violent crimes tend to trigger other similar crimes...which of course make me think it will happen again.

Suicide was too good an end for these murderers. Too bad they will never have to suffer the consequences for their heinous actions.

Stefania Pomponi Butler
Contributing Editor, Arts & Entertainment, BlogHer

I blog:
CityMama ( http://citymama.typepad.com )
Kimchi Mamas ( http://kimchimamas.typepad.com )
Family F ( http://citymama.typepad.com/cityfood )

Hi Suzanne,

What a horrible month, with school-age girls stalked by gunmen from Colorado ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15066834/site/newsweek... ) to Pennsylvania ( http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?t... ). It's true that women are far less likely to kill than men, and when women do murder, statistics show that self-defense is often a factor; For example, this article ( http://www.umich.edu/~clemency/clemency_manual/man... ) on domestic violence cites a 1992 Boston Globe report that as many as 90 percent of women incarcerated for killing men were abused by them.

However, I think it's important to note that violent killing sprees against other humans are not the exclusive bailiwick of the male gender. When you said above that you couldn't recall "when a woman took out her anger" by randomly killing a bunch of people, I immediately thought of these examples:

Brenda Ann Spencer ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer ) shot up a San Diego school in 1979. Why? "I don't like Mondays" among other reasons
Female suicide bombers are now commonplace. Here's a National Geographic story that attempts to investigate why: Female Suicide Bombers: Dying to Kill ( http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/12... )
I realize these acts aren't the random sprees you invoked above, but the problem is insidious and real in our society: Violence by women against children and domestic partners, (physical and sexual), is traditionally underreported by victims and underinvestigated by authorities and media alike.
That said, I agree wholeheartedly with you that "we need a better system in which all people are taught effective ways of coping with the disappointments that inevitably come with life."

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder ( http://www.blogher.com/member/lisa-stone )
Surfette ( http://surfette.typepad.com )