In case you have not been inside a modern American high school lately, this is a sight so common that my kids never even mentioned it to me until I brought it up after back to school night. A little context: There was a shooting last winter at my kids’ school. 🧵
Three kids in a bathroom. There was some kind of beef and an online-purchased ghost gun. A kid got shot and the shooter disappeared into a classroom. The school was locked down for hours as the cops searched for the shooter. 2/x
The only reason the kid survived was that the school nurse had grabbed a bleeding control kit when security called after finding the kid on the floor of the bathroom. 3/x
The shooter was eventually found in one of the locked down classrooms. The ghost gun disassembled and hidden in pieces in his socks. He’s being tried as an adult. 4/x
Maryland already has pretty good gun laws. Shortly after this incident they even banned ghost guns (legislation that our “moderate” republican neither signed nor vetoed). But guns cross state lines easily. So what’s a school to do? 5/x
The answer: line the halls with bleeding control kits. It’s an admission of how bad the situation is that it’s wiser to have trauma response equipment in every hallway than to expect our nation will act to protect kids and communities from guns. 6/x
It is a reality so perverse and banal that my kids, who have grown up with active shooter drills, along with the trauma of an hours long lockdown with a shooter at-large in their school, can’t possibly realize how profound fucked up this reality is. 7/x
We need to do more. We need to support more and stronger legislation at a national level through groups like @MomsDemand and @Everytown. And we need to stop accepting that lining the halls with the tools of medical triage is the best we can do.
• • •
Bleeding control kits are like seatbelts. They are both a reality of life and a necessity. Sure, we need to get a handle on the guns in MoCo, in this country. But we use seatbelts even though we should all drive responsibly. We need bleeding control kits because guns in schools are a reality. They've been there a long time. Finally, I pray for the day we can take the kits out of the schools. But that won't happen soon.
ReplyDeleteThe constant news foreboding
ReplyDeleteThe law and order is eroding
The politicians are corroding
The country slowly imploding.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/11/26/thieves-plunder-rockville-gun-store/
ReplyDeleteLocated not that far from the Rockville Police Department.