Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

Agreed.

Chicago’s punitive stance on gun violations has contributed to high incarceration rates, particularly in low-income neighborhoods of color, according to a 2016 report from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. The students behind Good Kids Mad City say this approach contributes to a cycle of violence and poverty — and that it doesn't address why people feel the need to carry guns in the first place.

https://theoutline.com/post/3887/fighters-good-kids-mad-city-chicago?zd=1&zi=athc6fyv

eh i understand the pushback toward the most abusable by bad actors portions of their manifesto. especially given *waves arms wildly*

yeah I can absolutely see RWers cherrypicking the worst of the manifesto and saying they're honoring the memories of the fallen or whatever

the parkland kids are probably tough enough to take some good-faith criticism of their ideas. if we agree that they deserve this platform, then we should treat their ideas with the same respect and skepticism that we would an adult, imo

anyway I think the proposals are mostly fine, if very vague. I doubt adding more cops to schools will do much to protect kids. the mental health reporting thing has the potential to be quite dangerous, tho again it’s vague enough to arguably be reasonable. clearly there are some people who are a danger to themselves or others who should not own guns. there are already some laws in place to this effect; the idea that these could be expanded does not strike me as ridiculous on its face

also I think it’s probably important to keep in mind what the goal of these measures is. is it to reduce gun deaths (most of which are suicides) or is it to prevent mass shootings (which represent a tiny fraction of gun deaths)

I spent some time in Benton, KY, the site of the last major school shooting before Parkland. I found a much more conflicted and complicated conversation happening there about guns, gun violence, and what I came to think of as "gun fatalism." https://t.co/ZHML2x0O6d

— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) March 24, 2018

https://jezebel.com/gun-fatalism-is-reasonable-in-a-terrifying-country-1823489725

The crowds have been impressive today.

good posts kevin

I find the mental health one offensively bad but they're smart kids and I think people will be able to convey to them why it's bad

yah it's bad

it's great they're thinking in terms of public policy options, but is anyone looking to these high school kids to come up with realistic solutions? imo it's not about educating this kids about why some of their ideas are misguided, it's about taking the social momentum of their movement and pressure on lawmakers, such that it is, and fusing it with public policy ideas that have already been formed by generations of people studying this and arguing about it for the last 40 years.

i don't mean to diminish their capabilities as policy analysts, but in their position they are much better suited for things like shaming the NRA and marco rubio on national television

stuffy old gun violence analysts, in contrast, have historically been ineffective at shaming the NRA on national television

jfc

This @Reuters photo. pic.twitter.com/IcFnGBbx9r

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 24, 2018

lmao there are people on FOX talking about how suspicious it is that there were so many buses dropping off people

it's not the movement's job to have the answers. it's the movement's job to force the question.

there was a critical motif in the kids' speeches today that the politicians have to choose a side, and that those on the wrong side will be held accountable. i'm not sure anyone even said "universal background checks," let alone "let your shrink snitch on you."

Paul McCartney is marching in Central Park. “One of my best friends was killed by gun violence right around here.” #imagine

— Ann Killion (@annkillion) March 24, 2018

Yes thank you hoos

Oh good sir Paul makes it about himself 👏👏👏

oh come on you grump

I find Paul to be kind of annoying but that is cool and not the worst answer

^I'm assuming someone asked him why he was there and he was not just repeating this line through a bullhorn

Delaney Tarr approves

Found out after the march today that @PaulMcCartney was marching with us, starting chants for John. To say that means so much to me is an understatement. My hero, fighting for the loss of his friend, an icon. Incredible.

— Delaney Tarr (@delaneytarr) March 25, 2018

it's not the movement's job to have the answers. it's the movement's job to force the question.

HOOS the movement is pretty ruthless on its own when anybody on the inside gets the answer wrong ime

Your experience is inarguable, but I think hoos was explicitly disagreeing with that approach by defining a better way.

oh my god

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/24/us/march-threw-up-on-stage/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives-emma-gonzalez/index.html

Yeah, both of those were amazing to watch live.

These kids. <3

I stayed home so my wife and daughter could go, but their account was glowing.

Trying to imagine having one's first public speaking gig be in front of basically a million+ people and NOT throwing up, frankly.

HOOS the movement is pretty ruthless on its own when anybody on the inside gets the answer wrong ime

― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:16 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for sure, and i think the tweets simon posted make that point handily--as aimless suggested i happen to think that approach is a misuse of energy, and that the guardian made the wrong call in calling the students into the policy lion's den.

I think that’s a little harsh on “the movement” because as much in-fighting as there is, there are common understandings and coalitions that bring people that aren’t _living politics in their blood_ not just to the ballot box but to marches like today. I think of all my friends marching, only a few have a bunch of aggro ideas about what the puritanically right stances are, and they’re still marching hand in hand with people who just want movement on the issue.

Having well-defined stances is important and you should always be a little critical of your chosen officials when they stray, but it’s all nuanced. For gun violence, I think there are definite experts and few people are going to bang on rhetorical hard-line stances if we see real movement in policy, even not ideal. Anything would be great at this point.

Trying to imagine having one's first public speaking gig be in front of basically a million+ people and NOT throwing up, frankly.

i felt anxious enough on her behalf just watching it to throw up tbh

A friend on FB:

We should be able to hold multiple truths at the same time. One, that the young people today had more nuance and courage in professing obvious differences and pledging solidarity - authentically - than mostly all adults with the hot takes. Can you imagine if being called out to identify your privilege was met with the humility that we have witnessed from these young folks today, not self-flagellating despair among adult activists? I don’t know, because I honestly haven’t witnessed it. I am sure there was a lot that went on behind the scenes, but to an outsider, it seemed like genuine learning.

Second, the gigantic rift between liberal white led gun reform orgs and black led gun violence orgs is decades old, and the former have an obvious leg up to influence post-Parkland policy directives because racism is real and opportunism is rampant. Nothing from the students’ Guardian policy manifesto editorial (which is mostly bad!) is any different from what mainstream GVP orgs have been advocating for, for years. These are the same orgs that responded to Pulse with No Fly No Buy. Their politics are no surprise. Why anyone expects the Neera Tanden variety of Dems to come around to the greater truth is still a mystery to me.

In summary, the policy world is a ruthless battlefield and we cannot expect young people to write the solutions for a radical new world within the month (or be prepared to challenge bad policy with better one) when we’ve been barely hanging on ourselves. They are fortunate to have met kids that deal with this every single day in New Orleans and DC and Chicago - all we should hope for is that their relationships are lasting and transformative, and surpass the strength of *all* the vultures.

Follow some amazing folks at Community Justice Reform Coalition to start - and give the kids a chance.

re mccartney, the march also went right by the dakota

and to be fair he was approached by a reporter, not like he tweeted it or shouted it from a bullhorn. It does come off a bit gauche, but that's Paul. didn't know about the chants. w/e

I cried looking at photos of the march & signs last night. This is the most encouraging thing to happen in America since Obama was elected 10 years ago imo.

And the fact that so many of the kids marching told reporters they still don't think anything is going to change, yet they're still out there marching, is testament to their will & bravery. it's really incredible.

nothing's going to change this year. but 19 years after Columbine, the general, majority tone of the US is likely to become accepted as knowing that gun control is sensible and necessary.

The built-in two-party system means that even if a house or houses flip in November, we're stuck with the Democratic Party's ineffectuality. But there's (cross fingers) another two years of activism in which they can realise that people want to hear a better message from them.

The NRA exist only because of money, and the Georgian legislature's $30 million reaction to Delta cutting a discount for THIRTEEN PEOPLE shows how shook they are. I painted a sign and marched yesterday: my straight-up "abolish all guns" position is not going to mean anything, but smart teenagers being given the opportunity to speak will, and is. They haven't been heard after any of the hundreds of school shootings in the last decades, but these ones, who have lived in that environment their whole lives, finally are. The voices shouting them down sound more like murderous idiots than usual because the kids are being heard, instead of just the idiots. That's the change now, and it can lead to changes in both people and policy.

OTM it is so inspiring

They haven't been heard after any of the hundreds of school shootings in the last decades, but these ones, who have lived in that environment their whole lives, finally are.

this was the first thing I thought about after the Parkland kids started getting attention: Sandy Hook was 5 years ago, some of these kids were still in elementary school when that happened. Every year it got worse and worse. I'm imagining going to school now and having lockdown drills taken as seriously as fire drills. Fucking horrible

there was a 6-year-old survivor of sandy hook who is now an 11-year-old marcher

my eight month old nephew has had a lockdown drill at his daycare (which is right by northwestern’s campus). it makes me think of the weathered air raid drill signs on my elementary school’s walls and how they seemed like an abstraction even during THE DAY AFTER era

I thought this was a pretty thorough and empathetic left critique of the published demands

...in moments such as this one, or the massacres at Columbine, or Virginia Tech, or the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, or Sutherland Springs in Texas, or Las Vegas that the violent roots of the American experiment we have been all too willing to ignore begins to print upon our collective psyche. The massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is one more instance where the outline sharpens a bit more, and the obvious becomes a bit more so to a few more people.

What the students of Parkland — in coalition with the students and victims of American violence both here and abroad — are attempting to do is nothing less than the cutting back of the bloody roots of the American project. That is a tall ask of kids who should be preparing for college, going to their proms or ring dances, and gearing up for another summer lost to the laughter and love that characterizes what it means to be young.

It is inevitable that mistakes will be made given the nature of this undertaking. Much as we have learned through them, these young activists and leaders need to learn themselves, and we should be open with our knowledge and our hearts.

https://thesouthlawn.org/2018/03/25/like-our-lives-depend-on-it/

a shame the writer used "mistakes will be made"

sic otm. Politicians that are canny follow the winds, and these kids have changed the fucking weather.

i know that the NRA tends to use mass shootings as a chance to really rally the troops to their belief in guns being the solution but i find it hard to believe they'll continue to survive as an influential group as these continue to occur. which seems inevitable.

Has this been posted elsewhere? Because fuck this clown.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/26/eagles-of-death-metal-jesse-hughes-march-for-our-lives-bataclan

ugh