I have to say going to school in the late 40s & 50s, I didn't see much in the way of bullying. I saw some fighting but not much in the way of bullying. I don't know what to contribute that to, maybe the lack of things people here have been mentioning - social media, violent computer games & movies, less hands on parenting, etc. Only one episode stands out in my mind in around the sixth. A bigger & older kid was intimidating & bullying a group of us smaller kids. He was just an older, bigger, nasty, & not very smart person. One of the other kids noticed. He was older and well developed. He came over & told the bully in front of all of us, if he wanted to pick on somebody to try it with him. Called him a stupid coward, etc. The bully declined and walked away never to bother us again.

I remember in 7th grade we had a horrible History teacher that would walk away from the class and leave us alone for 10 minutes or more, I had no idea what she was doing.

Frank would walk up to Irene and hit her in the head with a hard covered book as hard as he could. She would just say "o.k." and cower at her desk. I hated Frank, Frank had picked on me in the past but decided Irene was a better target now, so I kept my head down and pretended not to notice. I felt horrible for Irene and when I got older had much regret for my inaction, as I should have taken the heat off of her.

I also remember Darren he was a little off but he went to the same church as me so we had a connection there. He was relentlessly picked on for being a little off, he was really awkward socially but brilliant, we were only in gym class together All other classes he was in what is called AP today or Honors classes back then, I was in NY State Regents classes, one level below, GC's wanted me in Honors but my ADHD suffering self knew better and begged my parents not to push me into those classes.

One day in the gym locker room some little punk was pushing Darren around, I stepped in and told him to push me around first. I was a runt, he was a smaller runt. He declined. Darren was very grateful someone stood up for him.


Irony at its finest, I hove owned my business for 20+ years now. about 15 years ago when I actually used Zuckenbook, Frank the bully messaged me and asked me for a job he was no where in the world, taking crap jobs as a short order cook etc... and was willing to do anything for a job.

I never responded but know Irene was most likely in a much better place than him, she was a straight A student and I was pleased to see an A hole suffering in life and getting what he deserves.

As I said, when Columbine happened I was not surprised at all. I saw a lot of bullying when I was a kid growing up, and I was born in the 60's.

I cannot imagine how bad it is now, specially since social media keeps it in your face 24/7.

The best part of putting my kids in private school is the zero tolerance to bullying, you will be expelled from the school if you are caught.

Total accountability, something you do not see in public School anymore. Especially in the Parkland shooting where the shooter should have been in jail.

In this particular instanced it sounds like the shooter was pushed over the edge and with today media glorifying the shooter (notice I will not type names) it is no wonder there are copycats.

Couple that with anti-depressants and ADHD narcotics being handed out like candy together with parents that are not involved at all and we have what we see now the new normal.

Jims5543 I not only think you hit the nail on the head you are one class act.

-Oliver North

No I was a wimp that was afraid to stand up for the bullied when I was a kid.

in 2004 I was kicked off or better described as bullied off the HS reunion website for recalling the people who were bullied and I did not stand up for them. I was told it never happened and I was an ahole for bringing it up.

Needless to say, I never went to the and HS reunion, I took a page from my grandfathers play book, never look back just go forward and live your life.

The only reason I brought any of this up was because bullying is nothing new, Somehow it has become a right to passage in this country and with social media it is 100X worse than it was. Now you cannot go home and escape it.

You don't understand being the victim of bullying.

Bullying has been around since there have been people. If you want to see an accurate historical depiction of real bullying, (not kids but powerful adults), I suggest the cancelled HBO series, "Deadwood" about the mining camp in South Dakota 140 years ago.

Nearly everyone in the series is an actual historical figure, from Wild Bill Hickok to Calamity Jane to Seth Bullock, etc. There is a lot of horrible treatment of people from other people w any iota of power over them at the time but the biggest bully is George Hearst, a real life robber Barron who was the father of William Randolph Hearst and the eventual owner of the valuable mines in the area.

The reason I bring this up, besides to promote a seriously great dramatic cable series, is that everyone had a gun and people got shot and murdered all the time. The only thing new about the current situation in the United States is that it's become a trend among people who consider themselves losers or victims, both children and adults with a deep sense of grievance against a society that has not treated them right in their view. Coupled with mental illness, (which has always been around), and the unbelievably easy access to powerful weapons for seemingly just about anyone.

Yes, sometimes people use a car or van to run people over or a bomb but the vast majority of these terrorist acts are committed with guns and usually ARs w large magazines. The death toll would have been almost certainly higher if this kid's dad had an AR handy for him instead of just a pistol and shotgun.

What's odd is that if one person from the ME killed 5 Americans at once for no good reason, using any method, we would be quickly trying to pass new laws to prevent it from happening again. Our real terrorist problem in this country is ordinary Americans mass murdering other Americans, on a regular basis like clockwork. And make no mistake, this is the very definition of terrorism. You can't create a travel ban against the real terrorists in this country because they are our countrymen. Tougher gun laws are coming at some point because the vast majority of Americans want them. The NRA will lose their ownership of all the politicians at some point.

Killing is already against the law, more laws are only going punish law abiding citizens.

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You started off fine...those sections I did not quote. Pure speculation on your part saying a different weapon would have been worse, especially when we're talking about a shotgun vs AR. Both are devastating...as demonstrated.

We did quickly pass laws to block those who mean harm, example the process to now board a commercial airliner. An appropriate response to school shootings is to make schools a much more difficult use case for a repeat crime. This should be 100% non partisan. Don't get wrapped around the axle with arming teachers, focus on immediate results. Harden the entry points, body scans, simple searches for those that are dressed in a manner not relevant for the environment, or if seem 'off'. We use these techniques daily in every city/airport/theme park/county building in the country. For some reason our schools are not important enough?

Dennis, we all understand your disdain for semi-auto weapons, removable magazines, perhaps the entire concept of the 2nd A. Curious if you would outline, without BS, your actions if king for a day. What changes would you enact to make school shootings stop? What changes to eliminate terrorism from behind a gun?

You started off fine as well but lost it in the last paragraph. I own semi-auto pistols, including collectibles. I really like the guns I have but never shoot them. It just doesn't appeal to me enough to get off my ass and get to the range. I need to do it, just to stay proficient in the extremely unlikely case I ever need to defend myself w one.

A young guy who works for me occasionally is a real gun nut, in the way that I'm a car nut. Nothing derogatory, he just loves guns. It's a guy thing, some guys love guns, some love baseball, some love cars, etc... I love cars and baseball, guns don't fascinate me but I appreciate the quality and engineering that goes into good ones. He is a huge fan of the AR rifle and like 99% of the people that have them, he is no danger to society, IMO.

As for "the entire concept of the 2nd A...", I have probably a different interpretation of what that is than you. The SC has ruled repeatedly that (most) gun restriction laws do not conflict w the 2nd Amendment. I'd personally like to see laws that make it tougher to buy a gun and more hoops to jump through including some type of mental health certification. You need a DOT physical to get a truck driving license, that is to protect the public from drug-addled people asleep at the wheel of semis on the highway.

We need severe penalties for people who let their guns fall into the hands of others who do harm w them, including family members. You have to realize that we have essentially no laws at all in many parts of the country regarding safe storage and stewardship of guns.

I have lots of other ideas but frankly, find these discussions a complete waste of time on this forum, (and elsewhere). The pro-gun/NRA crowd has such set-in-stone positions that I find ridiculous, nothing ever gets sorted-out and it's tiresome. You are a smart guy but we will have to agree to disagree on this subject.

What new gun law/regulation would have kept this kid from taking his dad's two guns and killing those kids?

Or making those bombs.

I'm waiting to hear how he got a hold of those guns that were not his to take.

People need to be more responsible with their weapons when kids are around. Maybe that's where we need to toughen things up.

You must be one of the older members here, Marv. My mom graduated HS in '49 and she would be 87 last month. Maybe you were in grade school then and you're 10 years younger?

At any rate, human nature hasn't changed and I always value your insight here. :)

It is one thing to bully someone 70-80’s style. But today when you do it on SM it is for the world to see and there forever. FB and Twitter is the Holy Grail of society to kids today. It is sad and illogical to some old guy, but take away some kids iPhone and chances are they will call 911.

That actually seems doable.

Seperate topic, but my 82 year old dad just won't....I discovered he had been given a POS .380 Saturday Night Special derringer a couple of years ago (he's never shot a pistol in his life :(), along with three shotspoons (one his rabbit/dove gun as a young teen), unlocked, ammo right there....yep, I examined 'em all yesterday, then put them all back. I've been an avid gun nut for over 50 years....

I don't know what the answer is, nor am I really a fan of the NRA, butHRC and Bloomberg will NEVER get my spoons either ;)

What would y'all do if in my position with dad?

I'm right there with ya...

A real wimp would never admit what you did.

i have to imagine social media makes modern bullying soooo much worse than it was when i was in school.

the idea that private schools have no bullying is unrealistic.

Agree on the penalties for allowing your guns to be used by those who aren't the legal owners and who commit a crime with them.

Mine are locked up in a big arse safe and only the wife and I have the combo. I trust my kids around them but it's not my right to force others to trust my kids around my guns.