School shootings in America have now hit their highest numbers in over 20 years. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: School shootings in America have now hit their highest number in over 20 years. Wow, no surprise here. But this was a startling kind of number. This was done, this was done by the National Center of Education and Statistics. What did they find, Farron?
Farron Cousins: 93 incidents in the 2020, 21 school year, 43 resulted in fatalities, 50 involved injuries. But 93 shootings at schools here in the United States, public and private, which means on a typical 180 day school year, every other day, every other school day in this country, somebody’s getting shot in one of our schools.
Mike Papantonio: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. And, and the, the, the problem with it is the statistics speak for themselves. I mean, you can’t hide these statistics. These numbers have gone, I mean, they’re startling numbers. This is the highest total in the history of keeping up with these kind of statistics. And you can only hope that look, maybe, maybe some good comes out of the, the, out of the effort to do something. I mean, the red flag law, I love it. You know, can, I love the idea of enhanced background check for people that are under 21. The idea of if you’ve been convicted of abuse of any kind, of spousal abuse, you can’t get a gun and without having to jump through some hoops. The, this is all good stuff that the, the idea of having youth mental health facilities that are, that are improved and expanded.
Farron Cousins: And, and I think the more I think about it, especially after seeing these numbers, that may be the big one.
Mike Papantonio: Mm-hmm.
Farron Cousins: Because yeah, we understand we, we got more guns than anybody else. You and I have talked about that. But we also, we gotta get to the root of why this is even happening.
Mike Papantonio: Mm-hmm.
Farron Cousins: You know, we have to get really into that psyche, talk to these people, try to figure out, avert problems before they happen, because, because it is as, as you and I have again talked about in recent weeks, it’s not just that we have the guns. What is making these people want to use them against children? That’s what we have to get to the heart of.
Mike Papantonio: I think we’ve talked about this on other shows where the, the expansion of social media has also enhanced and almost put on steroid, steroids, the enhancement of bullying.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: If you look at every one of these shooters, you go back, you take a look, they’ve been it’s, it’s the same pattern. You know, they, they’ve been called losers and they, they’re the folks that sit up in their room all day long at home, eight hours a day on, you know, whatever they do. They’re isolated. They’re not really involved in what’s going on around the school or whatever. And so it’s that, in that bullying aspect of social media is now coming to the forefront. Matter of fact, some good friends of mine are bringing some, bringing some cases that I think are going to prevail here. And that it is has, how does social media enhance the ability and, and, and actually promote this notion of bullying? I think there’s, I think there’s something to this and the best article I’ve seen about this overall picture talks about that with each one of these people, each one of these kids that have been involved in this, there’s been some history of that.
Farron Cousins: Well, and you know, another part of that too, the other side of it really is that not only are these people experiencing more bullying because of, you know, the online presence, they also have their own communities of people who, you know, kind of have the same issues where they talk about violence.
Mike Papantonio: Ah.
Farron Cousins: Where they all, you know, kind of feed off one another.
Mike Papantonio: You’re talking about blog. I mean, a blog or message boards.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. Message boards and things like that. And, and so you get these people who hype up these feelings of hate that you have. So that’s another big part of it, you know, that’s the second half after.
Mike Papantonio: But that’s the, but that’s the social media vehicle.
Farron Cousins: Right, right, right.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: And so again, with the mental health screenings and things like that, we, we have to start teaching parents like, look for these signs.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, right.
Farron Cousins: Because it’s not just the kids, the parents, be an active.
Mike Papantonio: Be a.
Farron Cousins: Parent.
Mike Papantonio: Be a leader, a parent.
Farron Cousins: Really.
Mike Papantonio: Walk into their room and say, what the hell are you doing, kid?
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: You know what, let me, let me read what you’ve done on this computer. I mean, it doesn’t take a lot to do that. And you go.
Farron Cousins: I, I mean, sometimes it really is as simple as saying, turn that, come on, we’re gonna, let’s play monopoly.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, yeah.
Farron Cousins: Let, let’s play a board game. Let’s play Scrabble. And I’m not kidding. I mean, look, I, I, I have a 19 year old who, who has moved outta the house and he calls us every now and then he says, hey.
Mike Papantonio: Let’s play Scrabble.
Farron Cousins: Can I come over? We’ll do like a game night.
Mike Papantonio: Oh that’s great. Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Because those little things like that.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: Do have such an impact. And that falls on the parents.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: That’s not on the kid. That’s on the parents
Mike Papantonio: I mean, what’s wrong with walking through the door and saying, you know, Mary, Joe, I wanna see what you’re doing. Let me take a look at your history on com, I wanna see what you’re up to. What’s wrong with that?
