Sadly, school shootings have skyrocketed in the last twenty years. But what if I told you that each incidence could have been prevented? What if I told you that we CAN prevent the next shooting…before it happens?
In part 1, I discussed the issue of mental health in school shootings, which is often ignored by the masses. Many want to preach about the importance of gun control or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, gun promotion. However, they fail to discuss the root problems which too often lead to these tragedies- bullying and mental health.
Preventing future shootings is easier than you think. All it takes is to seek out the kids in your school, whom are bullied, ignored, marginalized, sad and alone. You have to admit that these kids are the easiest to spot.
I can guarantee that if everyone reached out to the kid who always sits alone in the lunchroom, to the kid known for having his face slammed into the lockers, the kid who gets a swirly every day, the poor girl who is constantly slut/fat-shamed, or the pregnant girl or teen mother who’s relentlessly being called a whore and gave them a kind word- an encouraging message of love, and them know that they still matter and have value, I’m positive that it would make a huge difference.
Kindness costs nothing. Just one kind word or gesture, just ONE, can be the difference between life or death, the difference between a senseless suicide or the will to live, and the difference between the decision to go on a shooting spree at school or to leave the gun at home and employ more constructive and productive means to handle bullying!
Think about it!
“Kindness costs nothing”.. So true! Yet often we forget in the midst of our busy lives that a kind word can make such a difference.
Thank you for the inspiration and motivation!
You’re most welcome! 💖🌺🌹
So very true. Just one kind word. Thanks.
You’re most welcome, Jack! 😊
Yes. This.
Right after I started actively using WordPress (my old blog that I don’t use anymore, that I wrote from 2014 to 2019), the Isla Vista shooting in 2014 happened. (This isn’t a school shooting per se, since it happened off campus in a university town, but the principles here work for that too.) I wrote about how, basically, every time there is a shooting like that with a lonely outcast perpetrator, it really hits home, because I always feel like that could have been me, if not for having found friends at age 18-19 who cared about me and led me to Jesus Christ (see DLTDGB #28, 29, 68, 71). So, I made the same suggestion, maybe instead of ridiculing outcasts, we should be welcoming them and getting to know them.
Of course, some of my woke friends accused me of victim-blaming, but that just goes to show their true colors…
I remember when that happened, Greg. These crimes are just so senseless! I’ll never understand what processes people to pick up a gun and go shoot people! And there was a mass shooting at a church in NY this past weekend. I just don’t understand why this guy shot all these people, who were only having church services and worshiping The Lord! 💔💔💔 He didn’t do it because he was being bullied and drove to it, he did it based on racial hatred and I hope he gets the maximum penalty for it! At the same time, I pray for all those who were shot and for their families! 🙏🙏🙏🙏
It’s a blessing that you found your friends when you did, Greg! I’m so glad everything turned out well for you. God was watching over you and I hope you have a wonderful future ahead.
Well said!
Thank you so much! 😊🤗
Again, spot on Cherie! An act of kindness could do far more to address this problem than anything else.
Correct, Michael! And kindness is so easy and costs nothing!