Driving to work

I too cannot get over this senseless act. It's heartbreaking and mind boggling.

People say not to blame this on today's society.  I don't agree.

Where have things gone wrong?  Is it the way kids are raised these days, without morals and understanding consequences?  Things are just out of control.

BTW we have somethings in common, I live in Broward and I grew up just outside of Newark (West Orange).

Actually moved from Newark to Orange!  Small world.

Other than the shooter who else is to blame but society?  Parents are not doing very good jobs with some kids and that leads to a perpetual cycle of bad decisions being handed down to next generations.  Popular media celebrates this behavior and without good parents to teach, mold and direct what these kids encounter it becomes accepted and they are desensitized.  I see it every day.

I suppose things change for better or worse from one generation to another.  Guess we could blame society, parenting, drugs, poverty, guns, media, etc. I know there were senseless acts of violence back in the old days. In fact, there were a lot of them.  However, only the real big ones made National news.  We didn't always hear about the senseless killings in other parts of the country where we didn't live. We could blame today's society, but maybe we should place some blame on yesterday's society, too.

I do remember a guy named Starkweather and his girl friend shooting and killing people. The old west was full of senseless acts of violence. In fact, there has never been a time that senseless killings didn't take place. Maybe, there are more cases these days or maybe they are just more publicized. Maybe we should just blame history.

It is impossible for normal people to understand these things.  Luckily these are not normal people who do these things.  Yet sometimes they lead what appears to be a normal life until we discover how dangerous they are.

None of this will help the victims and those left behind.  It's just sickening to hear about this stuff.  We live in a very dangerous world.

Tpm, I mean no disrespect. What are you reading,listening to, or watching? Todays society and all that goes with it is all I have been reading,listening to, or watching for @ a year.Maybe a little more.They say they were board.I lived down in that area for @ 10 years believe me come the first week of August 99% of the kids in that great state are board.

I have no clue what to make of your post.

Are you telling me that boredom caused these kids to go out and shoot someone?

Yes there have always been senseless acts, but lately more and more children are committing those acts.

IMO, this is a sign of the times we live in, if my kids were ever bored, we taught them to go out and find something to do that was productive, whether get a job or play a sport. I had to work and I wasn't there to babysit, but I found the time to make sure their needs were met as children and that was keeping busy.  It was my job as a parent to teach my kids from right and wrong and I didn't give birth to kids randomly so that the government would give me money to raise them nor did I teach my kids to do the same.  I taught them to be responsible and to stay out of trouble.  Is that really that hard to do.

Lack of proper parenting tells me that this is what happened and this is definitly lacking in these times.

As far as gun laws, what law allows 15, 16 year olds to have guns?  Where I live everyday children are being hurt and killed, all because of children having guns.

Tell me this isn't a problem in these times?

Sadly, too many kids don't don't enjoy the benefit of having 1, let alone 2, parents with your attitude, TPM.  Fix the family, you fix problems like this.

Having money or no money, 1 or 2 parents doesn't even have anything to do with it, IMO.

My kids grew up with a lot of wealthy/comfortable friends whose folks bought them cars and gave credit cards and couldn't care less what they did. Some of these friends were in messed up situations from what we would consider ordinary functional families.

My kids also had friends whose fathers were absent. Their moms had to work all of the time while growing up (we would consider a dysfunctional family) and they have become successful productive career/family adults and never in any trouble.

I totally agree, fix the family and you will see many of todays issues be taken care of, boredom is not an excuse.

The number of parents in your life doesn't necessarily make a difference, it is the amount of involvement by adult role models that make a difference. Many, many successful people have been raised by 1 parent, or an aunt, uncle, grandparent, etc. These kids need to know that someone cares, and that how they behave has consequences. I work in a school district that has had innumerable discipline problems, from kindergarten through high school. It is difficult for a society to instill discipline, when a principal calls the home about an issue and is told, "What do you want me to do? He's your problem now." This was about a 4th grader.

As to the boredom issue, I am sure my kids have been bored many times before the beginning of school, but I don't recall either of them deciding to shoot someone. 

The data proves the odds are better if you have 2 parents in the home.  That's not in any way to say it can't work with 1 parent in the home.  I would equate it to you can hit a HR in any at bat, would you rather have 2 at bats or just 1 to try?  Single parents have a very difficult job and I think the world of those that pull it off.  And, while having other adult role models in a youth's life if without a doubt valuable, it's just not the same as a parent.

I had to listen to the parent of an ineligible (due to bad grades) freshman drone on about how it's not the boy's fault that's he's failing, it's the school's.  I looked him in the eye and said "No. It's the parent's fault."  This is the same father, who along with the mother, has gone to the dugout during a summer game and taken this kid home because he was pulled from a game for not getting the job done on the mound.  The mother screamed all the way to the parking lot that it wasn't the kid's fault, it was poor umpiring.  This is the kid who told his coach to f*ck off when he didn't get to play.  The father told my husband the other night that he pulled his kid off a summer team because they changed coaches and new coach was too hard on the boys.  There is absolutely zero accountability in this family.

I think this CNN article discusses the situation of today's society very well.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/...nsibility/index.html

All I can say is Amen to that article!

Amen from me too.  Lock the parent(s) up with those little "angels" so they can get to know their kids.