Salon.com > school shootings

Could “smoke screens” save lives during a mass shooting?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:34:00 +0000

Could a veil of smoke be a new line of defense against mass shooters in public places? A British company called Concept Smoke Screen seems to think so.

Concept Smoke Screen has begun to market its Security Smoke Screen as a solution to gun violence in schools. Commonly used to stop bank robberies, at the push a button, thick, non-toxic smoke fills the room, obscuring potential victims from a shooter's gaze.

Concept Smoke Screen suggests that the smoke would not only protect teachers and children by hiding them from view, but would also alarm a shooter and possibly even draw police attention to the school.

While the country continues to debate gun violence in our schools and on our streets, many businesses are seizing an opportunity to market their products -- like bulletproof backpacks and lead inserts for kid's clothing -- to terrified parents.

And while the smoke screen might allow people to hide temporarily in the event of a public shooting, it is far from a solution to our nation's problem with guns and violence.

To suggest otherwise is all smoke and mirrors.

“Amish Mafia”: Amish gone wild?

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:33:00 +0000

“Amish Mafia,” the popular Discovery Channel series that I first wrote about when it debuted in December, has prided itself on its authenticity: Nearly everyone in Lancaster County, Penn., where the show is set, knows – or knows someone who knows – a cast member or someone who worked on the show (often, as has been claimed to me, with the enticement of free booze) or who works at a business featured in the show. But any local, even one who doesn’t have a connection to the program’s production, can tell you: Amish guys wielding guns and sledgehammers in broad daylight isn’t a regular feature of county life.

Which is not to say portrayals of Amish criminal behavior couldn’t be true. Of course, the Amish are no more immune to vices and temptations than are any other group. Donald Kraybill, an expert on the Amish at Elizabethtown College, points to the 1998 drug bust of a group that included members of the Pagans motorcycle gang along with two young men from the Lancaster Amish community as the spark that fueled media interest in Amish behaving badly and led to the torrent of Amish documentaries and reality shows focusing – with varying adherence to the truth – on less noble aspects of the community.

NRA vows to help prevent school shootings

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:59:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association is breaking its silence four days after a school shooting in Newtown, Conn., where 26 were killed, including 20 children.

The nation's largest gun rights organization made its first public statements Tuesday after a self-imposed media blackout that left many wondering how it would respond to the killings. In its statement, the group said its members were, quoting, "shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders."

The group also said it wanted to give families time to mourn before making its first public statements. The organization pledged "to help to make sure this never happens again" and has scheduled a news conference for Friday.

On being Adam Lanza’s mother

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:59:00 +0000

On Sunday, an essay titled "I am Adam Lanza's mother" began to receive viral attention. The piece, first published on Blue Review and later reposted in full by the Huffington Post and Gawker among many others, was written by a Boise-based mother struggling with the challenge of living with a son with serious mental health problems. She compares her 13-year-old boy to the gunman who shot dead 20 children and six adults in Connecticut last week.

“I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me," wrote Liza Long.

Long described a number of frightening incidents involving her 13-year-old son, "Michael" (a pseudonym) -- a child with a soaring IQ who has threatened his mother with knives so many times that she carries around a Tupperware container for the days she has to collect and hide all the sharp objects in the house. Long's other two children, she wrote, know to follow a safety drill to lock themselves in the car during Michael's fits of rage.