Be sure to Click LIKE at the bottom of this article, and share it everywhere!! By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot and Right Side Patriots – Commentary

In the 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s there existed in our public schools something which we do not see today. It was common place back in those days. Many schools had a special room, usually in a basement for the activity.

The practice even extended into the 1980’s in some places.

Gone the way of 45rpm singles, cassettes and 8 tracks. Gone like typewriters, and movie projectors in classrooms…gone like those old mimeograph machines that used to leave an aroma on test papers when they were freshly printed by the teacher.

There are no more wooden bats on the playgrounds, and what so many schools had back in the day, what so many high school students loved back in the day, is now a nearly forgotten relic of distant memories.

School gun clubs.

Back in 1975, the state of New York had some 80 school districts with a school gun club, but by 1984, that number was down to 65. By 1999, there were only 26 left in the state, long outliving the NY State Riflery Championships by some 13 years.

It wasn’t just a rural thing, as NY City, until 1969, had a shooting club in nearly every city high school.

Back in the day of school gun clubs and state championships for riflery, school shootings were rare indeed and those that did happen were clearly not on the scale of such terrible events we see today.

Have you ever heard of the Combined Cadet Force? Probably not unless you went to a high school in England where kids from the ages of 16 through 18 walked about on school grounds carrying SA-80’s exactly like the SA-80’s given to British soldiers – so it wasn’t just a thing in schools in the United States either – and before you ask, school shootings across the pond back in the day were just as rare as they were over here.

Today, liberals are quite fond of blaming guns for shootings. It’s their go-to whenever a mass shooting takes place. They have made our schools “gun-free zones” and in cities like Chicago, and New York, it has become nearly impossible for a law-abiding citizen to own a gun. You’ll notice I said “law-abiding” because the criminal element seems to have no problem with being the only person in a gun-free zone to be armed. They rather enjoy the power and time a gun-free zones provides as they know in such a zone, they won’t be immediately challenged, and the zone is, in fact, target rich.

Liberals say that guns are the problem. They want to prevent you, the law-abiding citizen from being able to purchase a gun, and they want to take the guns that law-abiding citizens already have away from them. They intend to punish the law-abiding for the actions of the criminals because they know, as well as you do, that criminals will never abide by their anti-gun laws.

Teachers, back in the days of school gun clubs, thought nothing of having their students bring their own guns to school, and then engaging in safety and marksmanship activities after school on school property. Parents thought nothing of their children taking their guns to school, and those whose children were not part of the club didn’t fear for their children’s lives because other kids had guns on school property.

So, what changed?

Guns are still guns, and they are still deadly weapons in the hands of criminals. Guns back in the days of school gun clubs didn’t take themselves off of shelves or out of car trunks. They didn’t load themselves, point themselves and pull their own triggers either back in the school gun club days and guess what, none of that has changed today.

Guns aren’t the problem. Society is the problem because from a societal standpoint, things have most certainly changed but don’t even start on the whole “we need more religion” as religion has been what far too many wars have been fought over. What we DO need is more common sense.

I don’t want to seem overly quaint, but kids used to come home from school and rifle practice and have milk and cookies while doing their homework and struggling with math problems. Today, kids come home from their gun-free indoctrination centers not knowing if they’re boys or girls, do common core math problems where there are no wrong answers, and eat Tide Pods.

Kids used to watch afternoon cartoons. Today, they make TikTok videos and issue tweets.

Kids used to read comic books. Today, they play video games centered around war, or criminal behavior.

Parents used to ask their kids how school was as they sat down for dinner. Today, kids tell their parents they’re stupid and wrong as they put Hot Pockets in the microwave.

It’s a different world today and a big part of the problem, I believe, is parents. Gone like the gun clubs at school are single income families. Often times, parents aren’t even home when the kids return from a day of indoctrination, and left to their own devices, kids often times are up to no good. Gone too, like the single income family, are two parent families, and that accounts for a quantum shift in our society. Two parents in the home adds stability which adds to a child’s sense of well-being and self-esteem. Take that away, and children start looking for acceptance or a sense of belonging elsewhere, and that seldom ends well.

Without a stable family, without parental guidance and without a sense of self-worth or regard for others, is it any wonder we have seen the ilk of Nikolas Cruz, Adam Lanza, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Salvador Ramos, Dylann Storm Roof and so many more? They didn’t “slip through the cracks” of society, they were ignored by society, and in many cases, ignored by their parents, but there’s more to it than just that.

Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology at Hamline University, and James Densley, a professor of criminal justice at Metro State University, did an in-depth study regarding the profiles of such mass shooters and after speaking with families, friends, teachers, co-workers and in a handful of cases, the shooters themselves, what they found was staggering.

Early childhood trauma, violence in the home, sexual assault, parental suicides, and extreme bullying that leads to hopelessness, despair, isolation, self-loathing, and rejection from peers. From an early age, those who become mass shooters just don’t fit in, or at least they don’t think they do. Rather than trying harder to find their place as productive members of society, they lash out after being triggered by…something.

According to the study, these kids, or young adults begin to ask themselves, “Whose fault is this?” and why wouldn’t they? They’ve been raised to believe that nothing is THEIR fault…it’s always somebody ELSE’s fault which causes them to look outward rather than inward and they blame society, their peers, their friends or church for the problems they have created for themselves.

From kindergarten on, kids today are indoctrinated to believe that they are special, that’s there’s no wrong answer, failing grades in many places no longer exist, we don’t keep score on the playground, and kids “graduate” complete with a ceremony from kindergarten and middle school. Rather than identifying problem kids as we used to, and separating them from the rest of society based on their adverse and many times, dangerous behavior, we now MAINSTREAM those kids into the general peer population because today’s society, thanks to liberal indoctrination, we must not offend the kid who think Charles Manson is their hero, who tortures and kills animals, who plays Grand Theft Auto all day and builds bombs in their garage at night.

When they go off, when that kid or young adult discovers that they’re NOT special, that real life requires correct answers on tests, that keeping score in life matters and that they’re NOT entitled to the things that people earn through hard work and success…when that kid goes off…we blame the gun?

Rare indeed is the case of a mass shooter that showed no warning signs. In way too many cases, schools, teachers, a parent, friends and all too often, even the police are aware of what eventually becomes a mass shooter, but nothing is done before the tragic event takes place, and too much head-scratching and finger pointing goes on after such an event. Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 17 people and injured 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is a perfect example. At least 30 people knew of his behavioral issues BEFORE he opened fire in that school, and nobody did a thing to stop him. Cruz reportedly tortured and killed animals. That was reported 7 times.

On 19 occasions, he was reported to have in his possession a gun, ammo or a knife. 8 times he was reported for making hateful statements to individuals or groups, 11 times he was reported as telling others that he desired to hurt of kill people, and there were 3 reports that he intended to shoot up his school. Police were called to his home on better than 30 occasions regarding his behavioral issues and yet…nobody did anything that would have, or could have prevented him from going off and just like clockwork, before the dust had settled and the smoke had cleared, liberals blamed the gun.

Trust me, I’m only scratching the surface on Nicolas Cruz and you can read more about him here then ask yourself…is the gun to blame?

Guns are NOT the problem. The problem is that when society disengages from the kids, the kids disengage from reality and what we see today with regard to both mass shootings like the most recent one in Uvalde, Texas, as well as on the streets of places like Chicago, are young people who have no basis in reality. They no longer fear nor respect the real world consequences of their actions. They have no moral compass because society hasn’t provided them with any sort of foundation. Young people, not all of them but clearly far too many of them, simply can’t handle reality.

We are seeing mentally damaged and mentally ill young people being mainstreamed when they should be institutionalized for their own protection as well as for the protection of the public at large. When young people are inundated with society, under liberal control, making heroes out of common street thugs like Mike Brown and George Floyd, who seek instant gratification via social media infamy and feel entitled to success but are offended by having to achieve it and demand respect without having to earn it, they retreat into that world of hopelessness, despair, isolation, self-loathing. The bullying we so often hear about isn’t the cause of that retreat, it’s the product of it.

Today’s liberal evolution of society has ignored them, coddled them, mainstreamed them and worries about offending the burgeoning sociopath bordering on becoming a psychopath because “equity” and “fairness” are more important than public safety. Nothing in a liberal society is the fault of the person ultimately responsible for any action, and therefore, dealing with the individual becomes abhorrent to the liberal norm.

Is the current state of our national society responsible for mass shootings? Certainly not, but for decades, the liberal assault on societal norms has clearly played a role in normalizing, championing, mainstreaming and excusing the behavior of mass shooters, and those shooters, not their guns ARE responsible for their acts of murder.

Back in the days of gun clubs in schools, 18 year olds rushed beaches under heavy machine gun fire from the enemy to preserve our way of life and bring freedom to the world. Today, thanks to a liberal “woke” society, 18 year olds don’t even know which bathroom they’re supposed to use. If you’re pro-life…you’re the bad person. If you believe that ALL lives matter…YOU’RE the RACIST.

We are now living in a society where the loudest voices pretend to be offended by everything but criminal activity.

Any questions?

Copyright © 2022 Craig Andresen / thenationalpatriot.com all rights reserved

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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Diane Sori’s blog The Patriot Factor to read her latest op-ed Channeling 44

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