#Tennessee school shooting

[r0semultiverse]

blaming “trans people” who aren’t actually trans to create a bunch of mini reichstag fires across the United States, like wow get some new material you absolute bozos

[citalsmamcgovern]

The School Shooting Generation

This Is a longish essay/thought piece so brace yourself

TW: School Shootings

The School Shooting Generation

I saw a post on instagram today where a mom spoke about putting bulletproof shields into the backpacks of her children.  She was angry, and frustrated; she felt like she was doing anything she could and it wasn’t enough to keep her kids safe.  

I felt the expected wave of anger and frustration and perhaps less expected, guilt.  These were not the emotions of a parent stuck in an unimaginable situation of trying to protect their child.  I am not a parent.  I graduated high school in 2019.

I am on the upper end of Gen Z.  By many things people have tried to define our generation: by smartphones and social media, by covid, and by political tensions.  Those things do shape our generation, but some of the oldest of us don’t feel we grew up with the same relation to those factors as those only five years younger.  But what defines all of us in the US, all of our psychology as a generation, is the fear of gunfire in the halls. Columbine happened shortly before we were born.  We knew through our entire lives this was a possibility.  We heard teachers whispering in the halls around the country, having no idea what, if anything, they were supposed to say to their own students after classrooms of second graders died in Sandy Hook.  We practiced the switch from Code Red drills where we hid like sitting ducks under desks to ALICE training, where we were taught to build barricades, to run, and to fight for survival.  We knew this training was more effective under the premise that it saved more children, sacrificing whichever few were fighting up front, or running in the rear.  It wasn’t about saving everyone.  

When the Parkland shooting happened, we were in high school.  It could have been any school, it could have been our school.  It was not my school.  Despite a few scares, and a plethora of threats made entirely out the ass of whatever dumb kid wanted classes canceled, it was never my school.  It could have been my school.  

We felt so powerless.  We all wondered: When will it be here? Will I know the shooter? Will I know the victims? Will I live or die? Will I be a hero? Do you finish out the football season if someone on the team dies? What will we lose because it will be considered unsafe? Will anyone really care?

Then, the students from Parkland, they started screaming.  They led a movement.  They spoke up and faced down a world that said they weren’t old enough to vote but they were old enough to be sacrifices to a culture where guns were more protected than kids.  We followed them into the streets.  We felt like maybe, finally, we had a voice.  Maybe, finally, we were screaming loudly enough to be heard over the gunfire.  Maybe things would change.  We would not let it be our school next.  We would not let it be any school next.  We would not let it reach our younger siblings, our nieces, our nephews, the kids we coached and babysat.  They would not see the carnage.  

And nothing changed.  

We continued to have more school shootings every year.

Children continued dying.

We had been screaming in vain.

We fought like hell.

We lost.

I lived to graduate.

I went to college, adopted a cat, eventually stopped jumping every time there was noise in the hallways.  Universities aren’t spared, but they are so vast it’s not the same.  We aren’t fish in a barrel.

And I heard the news.  Again.  Again.  Again.  

And I felt guilty.  Maybe it is survivor’s guilt.  It never was my school though.  I never knew the victims.  But I did live to graduate.  Maybe it is guilt we did not fix the world.  That we failed.  This is an absurd reason to feel guilt.  We were children fighting like hell to be able to go to school safely.  We weren’t the ones responsible.  We should never have had to be fighting.  We didn’t break this world.  But we couldn’t fix it.  And now parents send their children to school with bulletproof backpacks, and those children are taught to fight for their lives.  Maybe it is guilt because if we are no longer the children, then we are part of the society that excuses their deaths as an acceptable price to pay to defend people’s ‘right’ to carry assault weapons without proper background checks.  It’s a shameful society to be a part of.  We are still voting for gun reform.  We are still fighting.  I don’t know if we’re screaming anymore.  Sometimes, we breathe a sigh of relief before the grief and the anger kick in, because we made it out.  

Thank you for your participation in the American Education System.  We hope you have learned your lesson in futility.  Here is your diploma of (dis)honorable discharge.  

[shaftking]

You should care about the children and the families of the children who were killed more than you care about any kind of insult or disparaging comments made towards their killer. This should not have to be said. Seriously adjust your priorities if you’re legitimately thinking this way because this shit is psychotic and embarrassing.

[mirielvairenen]

Thoughts on the recent school shooting in Tennessee:

I can't help but identify with the school- it's a small K-8 private Christian school in a wealthy Midwestern suburb, associated with a mainline Protestant denomination. That's where I went for my K-8 schooling, even though it was a different school. We trained for school shootings, and I saw that any shooter could look through a window to see where we 6 year olds huddled by the teacher's desk, trying to stay still and quiet. They could shoot into us rapid-fire, barely move the gun, and bury the central children under a pile of bodies. The teacher was endangering herself by going to lock the door (it only locked from the outside), but she told us that was her job, to protect us, and not send one of us to do it (I was 7, she was in her 60s, and I don't know what she thought of the children offering to die for each other).

We memorized Bible passages there, and had flannelgraphs of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door on Reformation Day, not Halloween. Bible class was the fifth core subject, besides English, Social Studies, Science, and Math. We had art classes, Spanish classes, computer classes, music classes, and gym with a teacher out of an 80s comedy. We learned about the weather and Young Earth Creationism, the Care and Keeping of You and abstinence only. I was depressed and queer (though I didn't know it) and smart and loved the playground that was built like a castle. One of my good friends there was bullied terribly, because he was autistic and a trans man and didn't play woman well and middle school boys can be terrible. I think I was bullied too, but it mostly slid off; I was too wrapped up in my own head to notice.

Today's shooter is a trans woman and an alumna of the school, my age. Who knows what brought her to kill teachers and children; I can easily believe she was bullied there too, but a decent human's reaction is simply to leave it alone, not to go back and kill. If she had been a cis man, if this had been a public school, this would just be another tragedy, and that is a horrible sentence to write. But she is a trans woman, and the school is a Christian school, and... the Right can have a field day with this. She can be turned into a demonic representation of the Left's War on Christianity, a subhuman avatar of Why Trans People Shouldn't Exist, another iteration of Why Trans Women Are Just Men Actually, and I fear for what this will mean for my trans siblings. Tennessee already has a drag show ban in place; this could be the spark kindling worse.

Edit: apparently the shooter is a trans man, not a trans woman. I seem to have given too much credit to the news. Feelings still stand, minus what the TERFs will say.

[cyarsk52-20]

DEAD KIDS CAN’T READ 👏👏👏

[liquidgirl13]

Release the manifesto!

[ithoughtiwasthegayone]

the school shooting that happened in TN yesterday affected me way more than others

i felt more sick and more upset

the shooter was a transgender-man (most likely)

theyre going and are blaming this on him being trans

just like they blame everything on the minority of the person that did a terrible thing

he just made it so much harder for trans ppl in TN and across the country

he killed 9 year olds

fucking 9 year olds

i just cant anymore

im so tired and sad and mad about everything fucking thing right now

so yeah

we're screwed here

[stylebyash]

Happy Friday everyone. Hope everyone had a great week. I know this past week In Tennessee and Kentucky it has been a somber week. Starting in Tennessee with a three car - road rage crash taking six children under the age of 18. Then on Monday with the shooting at covenant school taking three children and three adults lives. If that was not enough nine soldiers lost in a training exercise involving two Blackhawk helicopters Wednesday night at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. My heart goes out to everyone that had lost their lives this past week and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families that were affected by these tragic events.

On a more upbeat note. It’s Friday so you know what that means. Another vogue cover from years ago.

Circa March, 31st 1898

Just a small disclaimer I am a huge history and fashion person. I like combining the two to make a great post for flash back Friday.

[king-sassy08]

Ok but how about instead of telling children they can be murdered at any time for wanting to learn the alphabet we fix the fucking gun laws

[high-quality-tiktoks]

This is what is happening in Tennessee while CNN plays plane footage on loop. how you gonna protect these kids when you are so scared of them?

[seraphic-sapphic-safehaven]

I cannot believe that the same man I protested alongside for BLM during the summer of 2020 got elected to be a state representative.... just for other lawmakers to put in a formal request for him and 2 others to be removed this year. Why do they want him removed, you ask? BECAUSE HE PROTESTED WITH 10,000+ STUDENTS YESTERDAY FOR BETTER GUN LEGISLATION, THEIR RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE IN SCHOOL, AND MORE!!

Representative Justin Jones, also known as Brother Jones to many of us here in TN, does not deserve this. He's a fantastic organizer and now state legislator who has repeatedly put his body, mental health, and life on the line for countless people. And the other two Reps., Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson, don't deserve it either. Especially not for joining people they're meant to represent in a fight for their safety and rights.

If you wanna help them, please call Speaker Cameron Sexton's office at +1-615-741-2343 and leave a voicemail demanding they not unlawfully remove Reps. Jones, Johnson, and Pearson from their rightfully-elected positions. You can leave a name, real or not, and number if you want, but you don't have to. You can also email Speaker Sexton at speaker.cameron.sexton@capitol.tn.gov.

PLEASE REBLOG THIS IF YOU SEE IT, AND PLEASE HELP IF YOU'RE WILLING AND ABLE TO!

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[queerism1969]

[arwyd]

Sunday always comes. Resurrection is a promise, and it is a prophecy. It’s a prophecy that came out of the cotton fields. It’s a prophecy that came out of the lynching tree. It’s a prophecy that still lives in each and every one of us to make the state of Tennessee the place it ought to be. So I’ve still got hope, because I know we are still here and we will never quit.

-Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) on the day of his expulsion (04/06/2023) from the Tennessee House of Representatives, for standing with his constituents as they protested gun violence following a school shooting that left 6 dead at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

[thedreadpiratejames]

it happened again

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Coral Murphy Marcos at The Guardian:

Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow teachers to carry concealed handguns in schools despite protests at the state capitol.

House Republicans passed the bill, one of the biggest gun moves since a mass shooting in a Nashville Christian school left three children and three adults dead last year. The bill is headed to Bill Lee, Tennessee’s governor, who is expected to sign it. The law would allow teachers, principals and faculty or staff of a school to carry a concealed handgun on school grounds if they have a permit and complete an annual training. Tennessee teachers and parents heavily criticized the proposal, with dozens flooding the state capitol and chanting “Blood on your hands” on Tuesday. Cameron Sexton, Tennessee’s house speaker, ordered state troopers to remove the protesters. House Democrats were also vocal about their opposition to the bill. “When bullies and cowards have power, they abuse it,” said Justin J Pearson, a Memphis representative, in a tweet. “These are dangerous laws and scary times in TN.” The state proposal is in response to the massacre on 27 March 2023, when a former student killed six people with two “assault-style” weapons and a handgun after elaborately planning the shooting by drawing a detailed map and surveilling the building.

Just over a year after The Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, the cowards in the Tennessee State House passed a bill (#SB1325) that would allow teachers to conceal and carry in schools. Gov. Bill Lee (R) is set to sign it. #TNLeg