Nashville school shooting

[TNGal40]

I am late to this, but just feel the need to add my .02. This is still very raw. I live in Nashville. My kids go to a private religious school. The coverage may be fading nationally but it is still very much active here locally. The insinuation that somehow the “leftist” media is trying to shield the shooter’s gender identity is nonsense. It has been in every article and account that I have seen and heard. But that misses the point. The shooter was also being treated for a mental health disorder, yet was able to legally acquire firearms, including assault rifles. The “woke” media criticism is right out of the radical right playbook that deflects attention from what the real issue is. As to the shooter’s motives, yes, I do hope at some point we hear more about them. But I suspect that what we will hear are the rantings of someone who was seriously disturbed. The Associated Press puts out guidelines on language and usage for news organizations. It advises caution on the use of the term manifesto because it lends a mantle of credence to thoughts or ideas that may be vile or deranged. And whatever we learn won’t change the fact that six people, including three little kids, are dead because someone who had mental health issues was able to buy guns.

[MaxGarcia185]

I am late to this, but just feel the need to add my .02. This is still very raw. I live in Nashville. My kids go to a private religious school. The coverage may be fading nationally but it is still very much active here locally. The insinuation that somehow the “leftist” media is trying to shield the shooter’s gender identity is nonsense. It has been in every article and account that I have seen and heard. But that misses the point. The shooter was also being treated for a mental health disorder, yet was able to legally acquire firearms, including assault rifles. The “woke” media criticism is right out of the radical right playbook that deflects attention from what the real issue is. As to the shooter’s motives, yes, I do hope at some point we hear more about them. But I suspect that what we will hear are the rantings of someone who was seriously disturbed. The Associated Press puts out guidelines on language and usage for news organizations. It advises caution on the use of the term manifesto because it lends a mantle of credence to thoughts or ideas that may be vile or deranged. And whatever we learn won’t change the fact that six people, including three little kids, are dead because someone who had mental health issues was able to buy guns.

Thanks for your insight. Our society pays a heavy price for our lax gun laws.

[Dan and Holly]

May those little children rest in peace. And those adults too. 
I cried and so did my daughters when we saw this on the news. We live in Europe, Ireland to be precise. And this thankfully has never happened here, I don’t mean to get political but I could never understand why guns and particularly guns like those can be picked up so easily in USA. Dan wanted a shotgun for hunting so I said I’d get him one for his birthday, I had to go pick out gun, he had to come back with 2 forms of photo id, and prove of address, before the shop owner would take a payment for the gun. He then put gun  aside for Dan. then Dan had  to join a gun club and get permission from a land owner to hunt on, then and only then could we go to police station that did a full background check on him, and required a letter off his doctor to state he was mentally and physically ok to hold a gun license, after 6 months the government granted him a license for the gun he had put aside, he was only able to have one gun per license we went to pick it up together the gun shop owner had to verify the serial number on license matches the gun Dan wanted. Then Dan was asked to hold the unloaded gun as the shop owner took lots of photos he was allowed to purchase 30 catridges for the gun that was the limit for one month for the first 3 months. All in all the whole process took 8 months. The license must be renewed every year with the note from the doctor and checks done. It’s not that he hasn’t a right to own a gun it’s that the wrong people don’t get them. And don’t get me wrong criminals will always get guns even in Ireland particularly from the middle east, but I do think we have a good system. Anyway I don’t want to thread on anyone’s beliefs. That’s just mine.

[Thiago]

Hey it's happened in Serbia days ago and all tv, people say "like in USA". That's shock. How many happens in USA? It's easy, crazy people don't have to go around with a was rifle. Only in USA you can buy a rifle easy and usually in USA this happens. Also a 13 boy understand what you must to do.
Yes we are very different culture and everything

[Robert66]

Every time one of these shootings takes place it's a tragedy. Especially when children are involved. Unfortunately, many people just don't realize that this problem is far more complicated than just gun control. That in itself will solve nothing. We need to understand this. I live in California which has one of the most stringent gun control policies in place. Shootings still happen here. We just had one. This is a multi - tier problem. Regardless of so-called gun control laws the sick individual that wants to go shoot up a school or mall is going to find a weapon and go try to accomplish their task. So, my apology but for all the liberals shouting we need stricter gun control you need to get smarter about this. I'm not saying have none but it's far more complicated.

[Alex]

To a certain extent I agree with @Robert66, the cat is out of the bag, there are 400m guns in civilian hands in the US, a higher number of guns than population (including children), given there is now total fear in the community, not being armed is seen by many sensible people as not protecting yourself. As Robert says, one of the rooot causes is mental health issues, but there are other causes:

- lack of secure storage, lockable storage at home will prevent the accidental death of children
- lack of training, someone trained to use a gun will probably be safer with it and have more regard than someone who is not trained, again preventing accidental deaths
- lack of effective background checks on purchasers,
- loopholes that allow unregulated private sales without checks etc
- lack of gun registers (probably too late for this measure)
- the drug trade and gang culture (part law enforcement but also health and education has a role to play

Elsewhere in the World, people do go on the rampage, here it is with knives, especially amongst the young and ethnic minorities where toxic masculinity is one of the issues, with knives the death rate is much lower (but still a tragedy)

I get the feeling that fear has led US citizens to become apathetic to the problem.

No easy answer I agree, but I think the questions I would ask of politicians in the US is 'What are you going to do about it?'

Alex

[Sarah]

idk what can be done but its just awful how much this is happening. i dont listen to the news because its so bad all the time but my Daddy and bf listen to the same talk radio news in the car and i keep hearing about more and more of these. and like i said before, everytime i hear about it, i cry. i just dont know what to do. luckily im not the one in charge of deciding that but i hope the person that is can make schools and everywhere safer. i hope that isnt too political or anything, i just am really sad thinking about all the precious babies who are now angels looking down on their parents

[Melli]

Over four months have passed since this tragedy and the Nashville police still won't release the shooter's manifesto. My suspicion that they are covering up for some important highly-placed person or persons implicated therein keeps growing.