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This morning a tragedy has happened in Connecticut. A shooting rampage has occurred at an elementary school there and current reports state that 27 people, including 18 children are dead, with an entire classroom still unaccounted for.
At this time the editorial staff of AVfM extends their deepest sympathies to the victims of this tragedy.
We are also unfortunately forced to pause and consider that elements in the feminist community will, as they have done historically, attempt to spin this horrific incident into something inspired by or connected to the MRM.
We urge MRAs not to react to this kind of provocation, and to just focus our attentions and sympathies on the victims of this sad event.
Paul Elam, on behalf of the editorial staff of AVfM
Addendum: After encouragement from a long time reader who commented for the first time, suggesting that I close comments on this thread, I am forced to agree. By the time he made the comment, David Futrelle was already using comments from the thread in order to push his lies, standing on the bodies of those dead children and over the sobbing of their traumatized, grieving parents.
With apologies to readers, I cannot enable that any further. Comments are closed.
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Mass shooting in Connecticut school
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I just attended a workshop that addressed the issues of “classroom emergencies.” One of the topics covered at the workshop was what to do if a “shooter” entered the classroom.
As a photographer for the college newspaper, I took photos, two of which ran on the front page of the college paper. Sorry, no online edition at this time, but I have the photo and will try to get it online with credits to the college newspaper hard copy that it ran in.
In the photo, students are rushing the “shooter,” who is played by a male. Ironically, all the people rushing the “shooter” are male too.
The photo is very controversial and “rushing the shooter” is far from a perfect solution to such a troubling situation/troubling issue.
It would be nice to see institutions of higher learning address more deeply the issues that may well lead to these tragedies – including the rampant misandry in society, which is as much, or more, a part of colleges and universities as anywhere else in society.
Lol I’ve attended a similar workshop.
In mine they told half of the people to rush the shooter and the other half to throw books and pencils.
I was kind of in awe.
One comment I made after the drill was, “If you really needed to do that, you might want to think about coming at the shooter from two sides, instead of one, in order to momentarily distract the shooter.”
In my lay opinion, I question the wisdom of rushing any shooter, and suspect any students harmed in such a real life endeavor would likely sue the college afterwards. But I suspect any educational institution unlucky enough to have this happen to them would likely be sued in any event.
A Sheriff’s Deputy present at the workshop did point out (paraphrasing), “There is no one-size-fits-all of what to do, when you’re in such a situation.”
The main presenter also said that the students in the Virginia Tech shooting were shot while sitting in their chairs – just sitting there – apparently not thinking of anything else to do, or unwilling to do anything else.
Definitely a mind-numbingly terrible, horrible situation for those poor students to be in.
My deepest sympathies to all the survivors and families of today’s mass-shooting.
Here’s the photo (dominate art) that ran on the front page of the last issue of the Fall 2012 semester, Valley Star.
http://tinyurl.com/cmefw22
The Caption for the photo reads:
“TAKING CONTROL – Valley College students simulate a take down of a shooter Thursday in the classroom emergency training in Monarch Hall.”
My sympathies go out to the families. This is never OK.
Can I state that it really bothers me that events like this will be used to pour more water on the North and East walls of a burning house?
Of course it’s all our fault.
We don’t get to blame feminists, or women, for any violence women ever do even directly in the name of feminism, but they will find some way or other to blame us in specific for this, especially if the murdering fuck ever once ever in his entire life said anything remotely critical of feminists. Whatever.
The 24 year old male entered his “mother’s” classroom, and killed kids? The “relative at the family home” was found dead?
Is the unidentified slain the father?
Why would the kid kill his mom in the class room of kids that age?
These questions are going to haunt people for a very, very long time.
One thing we can be sure of; feminists will do their best to link this to the “man bad; women good” narrative.
I think we should look to see why the mother was singled out so badly, and prepare for the fallout that may be “intentionally” coming our way. At least at my sight that is my initial plan.
Like Jovan Beltcher, nobody will ask the pertinent questions. We all know it’s wrong, but what sends these guys over the deep end?
i.e. How do we help them before they get this desperate? We know that further demonizing men and making it harder for fathers to see their children will be the response, but will this help?
“How do we help them before they get this desperate?”
I once protested in front of a police station/jail and got thumbs up from a uniformed police officer in a black and white patrol car. Here’s a photo from that protest. http://tinyurl.com/3owo3gj
Gee wiz, it’s been more than six years since that protest and what’s improved for the status of males? No Men’s Commisions, no Offices of Men’s Health, no Office of Violence Against Men, misandry rampant on college and university campuses, etc., etc. Women have all those, yet according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control CDC men leading in 12 of the 15 leading causes of death, are tied with women in two categories, and women lead in only one category.
How are those stat’s for current day oppression, gender femini$t a$$hole$?
AVfM shines like a lighthouse on a rocky shore, trying to warn, trying to help, but also waiting for the next ship wreck of a man to wash up from the Western World’s man-hating rough waters and the man-hating, gender feminist agenda that’s running amok in governmental and educational institutions. :-/
Reggie, my own country has a mass shooting every 3 – 5 years, almost all shooters have either previous histories of severe mental illness or were exhibiting signs indicative of a possible growing problem with mental ill health. Most mentally ill folk are a danger to themselves, sadly a few are a danger to others.
This was my same question. The victims will get plenty of media attention, while the gunman gets brushed into the corner by blaming whatever hot-button topic is popular right now, and we’ll never get to find out if his actions are part of a larger systemic issue, or just the actions of somebody with severe mental problems.
First: The most important thing though, is the kids and their families! This is terrible; and is happening too often.
Secondly @Reggie
Exactly; if the shooter(s) are from single mother homes there will be no coverage of that. If the shooter(s) come from normal homes it will get coverage.
And as usual with feminist run media, and just like the family court dramas day in and day out; the children and their families will get lost in the shuffle of politicians fighting to gain brownie points in the spotlight.
That makes me angry; just as much as the culprits who did this!
I am at a college and a black woman brought it up talking out loud why we allow people to fight for gun rights. These women truly trust big government don’t they?
If they think a few shooters are bad; wait till you have to fight a well armed and trained fighting force with nothing but your hands and no men trained to use the very deadly things pointed at you.
It angers me both ways, and I wonder sometimes if she is right? I also wonder what would have happened if their were men allowed to be teaching there and if they all had a sidearm what would have happened too?
Why must it always be about one extreme or the other? There are people on both political philosophies who support gun rights; they are not going away.
I presume they’re going to blame us for this guy in China too:
http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-man-slashes-22-children-near-china-school-20121214,0,6383015.story
And yes, the one thing we can never, ever ask is what impels someone to something like this. If it’s male. If it were a woman, we’d all be asking.
It’s all horrible, but the scapegoating is awful. One anti-MRA person is already out there writing about how this is us. God help us, can they not see how bigoted they are, and how horrified we are too? Jesus wept.
I agree 100% with Paul. This is a horrendous tragedy that is just starting to unfold. As MRA’s and MRM community as a whole, we need to have our thoughts and prayers for the children and families caught up in this nightmare. Some feminists will undoubtedly try to bait MRA’s and the MRM. We need to ignore their spin tactics.
I just heard about this as I walked in my house from picking up my paycheck. Could the shooter be another case of a young man who has suffered from years of social isolation from his peers? Could he have suffered some form of long-term abuse while growing up? Could he have suffered from some form of brain damage, such as psychopathy?
We may never know. All I can say is that people just don’t arm themselves for no reason and go on a killing spree. He killed his parents for a reason and his reasons were not rational. I am also not saying that his parents deserved to die for whatever it is that they did or didn’t do for this young man. As monstrous as his crime may be, he was a human being, just like all of us.
It’s just a damn shame that he couldn’t be reached in time, and the price paid was too high.
This is just so tragic. If (when) feminists try to spin it as a reason to hate on men and MRA’s, then they are truly repugnant. I do not approve of using this tragic event, and these innocent children’s deaths as fodder for their abusive and hateful ideology, or any tragic event for that matter. They don’t care about the victims. Only about how they can profit from it for their ’cause’.
Unfortunately, history has shown feminists to be talented spin artists willing to demonize men at the drop of a pin.
I think it will be gun control though.
One of the best things we can do is continue to call out and challenge those who openly call for the killing of boys and men, like the protestors we’ve identified at the University of Toronto.
Another thing we can do is call for the expansion of men’s health facilities and shelters, particularly for men and boys who are the victims of sexual abuse or intimate partner violence.
And yet another – continue to call bullshit on those who claim that men have no issues that need addressing.
My prayers are with the families of Newtown.
This will probably break down to a gun control battle more than an MRA issue.
Oh, they’ll throw ” men are mass murderers” in arguments here and there, but it’s gun control they want, and gun control they’ll get.
Control of guns = control of men.
I worked at a High School near Columbine when that shooting spree occurred.
I remember the eerie silence of the kids passing in the in the halls that day after the news got out about the shootings. When I left to pick up my younger son at school I felt the fear, very strongly, what it must have been like for parents to go pick up their child from school that day, and relieved to see his smiling face catching the sunlight.
The aftermath of the Columbine Shootings was not to be believed. All the accusations, blaming, finger pointing, craziness…the shooters were dead, and blood and blame were to be shed. Countless innocents were to pay dearly. It was like the Lincoln shooting aftermath – hangings and imprisonment for people who had nothing to do with it.
A woman literally pulled my son out of a barber chair mid hair cut while throwing her own son in his place, shrieking “we HAVE to go to the Columbine memorial!”
Parents were having melt downs in the halls over every little thing. A tardy call or “your kid isn’t doing her homework” note would result in ugly scenes and cries of “Another Columbine! Another Columbine”!!!
Of course, as a parent, I felt the loss and pain very deeply as well, and anger toward the evil boys who committed the crime.
…this was during the beginning of my son’s “treatment”. All us parents of The Group were called in for a “special” meeting, and the therapists, gigglingly told us they had been wondering which one of OUR sons would be the “next Columbine”.
This after months of assuring me my son would be the “Next Ted Bundy” .
Something just snapped inside me…I transitioned that moment into no longer being a “regular” person. I was longer a part of “good” society. I was now relegated to being a part of “bad” society.
I was now in league with those enormously hated and reviled parents of The Shooters. I was now one of…Them… the parent of a MONSTER.
I still have an old yellowed news clipping in my desk drawer from that time about the Lutheran Minister who was forced to resign by the congregation after an appeal for compassion for the parents of the shooters. The Congregation was angry and unforgiving he had allowed the funeral for their son, the shooter, to be conducted in THEIR church.
Jesus himself would have gotten the boot from those finer folks who decided THIS was the exception to the whole premise their church was founded on…
I wish so much I hadn’t seen this side of life. I wish I could just be the “regular” ignorant, self important person I used to be.
But…I can’t go back.
You can never go home, as they say.
I didn’t get why some are considering hypotetical fabricated bindings between this terrible tragedy and the MRM, I might have missed something …
In any case, I strongly believe these events are the outcome of a society in which each individual is more and more “isolated” and “alientated”; this lack of communication and self esteem, mixed with widespread availability of automatic weapons, can become an explosive mix.
By the way I have only one thought this evening and it is for the victims of this terrible act of violence, in particular for those young souls.
My deepest condoloscence to their families and friends.
That’s at bad on my part. I assumed he was the parent of a child in the school. Very tragic in any case.
Napocapo, History has shown that the feminist movement will spin tragedies such as this as being linked to the MRM. Brevik was demonized as a feminist hater. The feminists tried to link him to the MRM. Look up GirlWritesWhat’s video on Brevik.
My personal view is that the lack of empathy between human beings is beginning to create more of these bat-shit insane people.
and not surprisingly manboobz has started by quote mining the avfm forums. http://manboobz.com/2012/12/14/trigger-warning-a-voice-for-men-commenter-claims-that-the-newtown-shooting-is-evidence-of-the-oppression-of-men/
Manboobsz modus operandi. Quote mine and spin it, mangina style. Geeze, we need to make a music video spoofing Ganam style with Manboobz.
Never visited there before. Won’t bother again…what an inane bunch of drivel, and that’s just his commentators…
“and not surprisingly manboobz has started by quote mining the avfm forums.”
Fifteen years ago, ALL men were not made to collectively feel that ALL crimes were their own, personal short coming.
Fifteen years ago, people blamed the parents, rightly or wrongly.
In our new, enlightened times, everything that goes wrong are all men’s fault, men are to blame, men are to pay.
This isn’t disenfranchised kenneled young men raised without fathers. It’s just indicative of the evilness of men.
Hi, i’m new here. As the saying goes, “long time listener, first time caller”.
I wanted to state that I love what you all are doing, Men’s Rights, and human rights are an important topic of conversation in our society. I applaud the inroads you have made in the last year.
I made an account though, to address this article. Placing this article, on this topic, on this website was a risky move but Paul ended it with a plea not to capitalize on this issue. Please adhere to what he asked, he is right. The backlash from such an emotionally charged tragedy on the MRA could be devastating if the mainstream media picked up on it. I urge you all to stop commenting, especially in the forums.
I don’t believe in censorship but in this case just leave it be. You will do more harm than good by discussing the gender politics on this article, as is already witnessed by ManTitz’ website. You cannot blame this guy for ‘quote-mining’ when you naively provided him the material to ‘quote-mine’.
What you are discussing may be correct, but it is not the time nor the place to discuss it, it will backfire. Think of the people who have died and the cause in the long run.
Paul, if you are reading this, close comments on this article, just this once.