We Need To Discuss School Shootings

Nobody likes mass shootings, but we need to understand they happen not just because America has lots of guns, but because we have lots of angry, violent people of all races.

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I’m going to keep this short and let someone else do most of the talking. It’s been a while since we had a major school shooting (which is good) and I don’t believe it’s a topic I’ve ever discussed here. But with the new school year underway and shooting having just occurred at Apalachee High School in Georgia, I think it’s as good a time as any to talk about it.

I’m not going to get into the suspect, motivations, the underlying causes, or any of that. A lot of people were outraged over Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance saying school shootings were a “fact of life,” but not only was the quote taken horrifically out of context, as the Left always does, there’s no reason not to be prepared for shootings, no matter how many guns we have in society.

Before moving on, let’s read what Vance actually said:

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America isn’t a peaceful place. Nobody likes mass shootings, but we need to understand they happen not just because America has lots of guns, but because we have lots of angry, violent people of all races. Far too many of our fellow Americans want so desperately to take away the guns, while doing next to nothing about the violent people. If guns really were the problem, we’d have a lot more gun violence in this country, often at the hands of perfectly reasonable people. But we don’t.

That said, shootings remain, for most Americans a high-consequence, low-probability scenario. Which makes it difficult to prepare for, since its infrequency means it catches us off-guard the way other emergencies don’t. When we drive, the risk of a collision is something we’re aware of, though we may not be actively thinking about it. Shootings aren’t the same - we’re neither aware nor thinking about the risk of it. I suppose it’s a good thing, as it says something about how safe our lives have become. But that ambient safety isn’t something we’re going to count on as much going forward. Not only that, we’re all responsible for our own safety anyway, so we should be prepared to deal with shootings, whether we like it or not.

Anyway, I promised I wouldn’t do most of the talking on this one. I turn you over to the Daisy Luther, the wonderful mind behind The Organic Prepper website. She wrote an article back in 2018 on how to prepare our children for school shootings. It’s as good a starting point for discussion as any.

Here’s a great point she makes:

One thing to consider that could be pre-emptive is to teach your kids to be nice people. This shooting, like many others, is said to have been triggered by extreme bullying. I’m not blaming the victims who were shot, but we all bear the responsibility to treat others kindly.

The Apalachee High School shooting appears to have been related to bullying. whether it was or wasn’t, it costs us nothing to be decent people. I’ve found that kindness gets taken for weakness more often than we’d like to admit, this doesn’t mean we need to be cynical, might-makes-right types of people who push others around. It may not be enough to save us, but, if only for our souls, we should always treat others the way we’d like to be treated.

Read Luther’s whole article when you can. It’s not very long and contains lots of useful advice. Her key point is this: a school shooting will take people by shock. That shock needs to be overcome immediately by accepting the reality of the situation and deciding upon a course of action, the old “Run, Hide, Fight” maxim. Whatever happens, they cannot afford to allow shock and fear to paralyze their decision-making.

Women Fear Men. But How Serious Are They About Their Safety?

Just one more thing before I go on assignment. Again, I’ll try keeping my thoughts brief (Difficulty: Nightmare).

Pollster Daniel Cox recently uncovered that women have, since 2017, become more concerned about sexual assault, thereby becoming more fearful of men.

From his Substack:

After 2017 there was a dramatic increase in the concern women reported about becoming victims of sexual assault. In 2017, 39 percent of women under the age of 50 said they often or sometimes worried about being sexually assaulted. A year later, that figure rose to nearly half (47 percent). Concern dipped during the pandemic years, but by 2023, a majority (55 percent) of women under the age of 50 said they worried about being sexually assaulted at least occasionally.

This is a disturbing trend. I’ve spoken on more than one instance about the divergence between men and women in recent times, including on the matter of politics. Bottom line is that men and women have been forced by society to compete with one another and in doing so, it’s made men and women view each other with greater suspicion and animosity. This is unprecedented in human history; a society cannot function properly this way. For women to increasingly worry about the prospect of sexual assault isn’t something you want to see at a time like this.

Cox points out that culture and the lifestyles women lead today play a big role, not surprisingly:

Today, a growing number of women are single, and many of them are living alone. They are less likely to be attached to a community such as a religious congregation, and many live far from immediate family members. Young women today are also more likely to live in cities surrounded by strangers, specifically strange men. With the rise of dating apps, their dating experiences more regularly put them in contact with men who have no connection to their offline lives, making personal safety a legitimate concern. And even if the worst examples of sexual abuse are disappearing from the workplace, bullying and sexually exploitative behavior online is increasingly common.

This points to a much bigger problem: atomization. Women living in isolation was cast as “liberation,” but while it may indeed have been so, it also means they cannot enjoy the benefits of the the very thing that once protected women so well: communities and families. Anyone with half a brain could see this as an inevitable outcome, but humans learning obvious lessons the hard way is a tale as old as time. Cox further points out that married women are far less concerned about public safety than single women, again proving that family is often the best form of safety that exists. But so much of feminism is predicated on the frankly dangerous belief that family is an oppressive force in the lives of women.

From a preparedness standpoint, I find this most interesting:

Regardless of their reasons, it’s clear that many younger women feel more vulnerable than they once did. Location apps and cameras on smart phones provide greater safety. In the early 2000s, Gallup found that only about three in ten women under 50 carried mace or pepper spray. In 2021, close to half (47 percent) of women under 50 reported that they carried either.  

Life is a story of opposing dynamics. On one hand, young women feel as unsafe as ever. On the other, technology is creating as safe as society as there’s ever been. This proves that technology isn’t a solution, but an aid. At the end of the day, a culture and a society is what provides safety, not location apps and cameras. Humans evolved into social creatures eons ago because even in our low-intellect days we realized living together was the only way to survive in the long run. I also personally think it’s a good thing more women are carrying mace or pepper spray, though, as I’ve explained and will further explain, this sort of thing is only part of the solution.

I think this is the most provocative aspect of Cox’s argument:

It’s undeniably a good thing that we are having more honest discussions about sexual consent, harassment and assault. But it’s less ideal that so many conversations about the topic occur online. Social media algorithms segregate these conversations in ways that reinforce pre-existing worldviews. Women are inundated with examples of male sexual violence and most men hear little or nothing about these incidents and how they impact women’s lives. It’s especially unfortunate because an open conversation would help bridge the gap in understanding. Men might come to better understand how these fears influence decisions that women make. Nearly half of women, for example, say fear of violence prevents them from taking a walk or going for a run at certain times or in certain places.

Cox confesses that it’s hard to be too balanced due to the natural imbalance which exists between men and women, dictated by biology. I think he could try harder. I think many of us find it difficult to accept that an imbalance exists at all. This is a cultural outcome - since we regard equality as a most sacred value, by virtue, imbalances cannot exist, period. If they do, it should be corrected by any means necessary, no matter how nonsensical or impractical it may be.

Reality operates by its own rules, however. Something else many of us are uncomfortable with is the fact bad people exist and their behavior cannot be corrected, not without violence. All this talk about sexual assault, as even Cox confesses, effectively implicates all men, even though any kind of crime is ultimately committed by a minority of the population. But since singling out statistical minorities runs counter to our values also, men as a whole are implicated instead, since it’s easier on the mind to blame lots of people than few people.

From a preparedness focus, I’ve mentioned this previously, but I attend a lot of personal safety courses. You know who I never see in class? Young women. I don’t see a lot of young people in general, owing to their overall sense of invincibility, but you at least ocassionally see a young man in class, if not often. But I never see young women. I don’t even see them in something like CPR or First Aid. I know they attend these courses, but they do so primarily as part of a job requirement or something like that.

If young women really are that concerned about their own safety, that concern ought to translate into them doing more to protect themselves. Having pepper spray and practicing martial arts isn’t enough. On martial arts, I’d argue most of these classes are actually setting up women for failure by not properly educating them on how to avoid dangerous situations, properly assess threats, and legal restrictions on the use of force. But pepper spray and martial arts make us feel empowered, which is why they opt for those over sitting in a class and listening to someone teach them how to think of personal safety from a more critical perspective.

All this is to say that young women don’t take their personal safety as seriously as their rhetoric suggests. This places a limit on how seriously society, men specifically, can take women’s concerns. If a medical patient is worried about their condition, but objects to the doctor’s treatments, is there any way to help that person? The fact is, most young women don’t want to make the lifestyle adjustments necessary to be safer, nor do they want to spend their precious time listening to someone talk about things like the threat triangle, the mindset of a predator, and conflict communications because they don’t think they should have to put in the effort to be safe. Worse, they think men don’t have to worry about any of this, so out of a feeling of resentment and spite, they refuse to learn.

But they can’t have it both ways. Making the world safe for women requires policies that are often offensive to female sentiments. First and foremost, it requires violence. Bad people have to be put away or even killed, regardless of race or whatever other demographic category they occupy. Are they okay with that? Otherwise, women need to take personal safety more seriously doing more than just carry pepper spray and practice martial arts. It means learning, from the safety of a classroom, the reality of violence and, most important, shaping their lives around the reality of violence. There’s no other way. As I say so often, live in accordance with reality. Are they willing to do so?

Anyway, I hope you read Cox’s essay (it’s also not long) and draw your own conclusions. I’m off to my super-secret assignment in service of everything I know and love, so discuss today’s topics amongst yourselves; I won’t be able to participate during my communications blackout.

Be nice to each other. I’ll talk to you all upon my return.

Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.

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