Numb to Gun Violence? Twenty Kids a Day, One Kid an Hour, Harmed or Killed By Guns

While we know way too many children and teens are killed by guns (last count: 11,000 people, many of them younger than 12, in 2013, according to Slate, which took up the accounting after Newtown), did you know that almost one child or teen an hour is injured by a firearm seriously enough to require hospitalization?

 Michelle Healy at USA Today reports that a new study shows that six percent of the 7,391 young hospitalizations analyzed resulted in a death, quoting February's Pediatrics, released today.

 "Every day, 20 of our children are hospitalized for firearms injury, often suffering severe and costly injuries, clearly shows that this is a national public health problem," Robert Sege, director of the Division of Family and Child Advocacy at Boston Medical Center and a co-author of the study, tells Healy.

 I don't know about you but I have a horrifying thing to say.  I am becoming numb to all the mass murders and drive-by shootings of innocent children who just happen to be sitting in their strollers as bullets spit from a car passing by.  This weekend, again, in Maryland at a mall.  Two at separate New Jersey malls at Christmas. And don't even mention all the school shootings.  It seems like one a day.

 Where are we going with all this? I'm tired of hearing -- and writing -- about gun control, sickened by people's desperate clutch on rights they feel guaranteed to them (in a different world, a different place, a different time 200 years ago), over the right of the rest of us to go to the mall, or church, or school, without being killed.

 I don't believe kids need iPhones, especially in school, but I'm thinking seriously of getting my middle school son one so I can text him if something happens at his school, which, although the school does everything it can to keep the students safe, seems almost like a given.

 How did we get to this place where a mom just assumes her son is going to be in a deadly shooting spree?

 But if people are allowed to carry guns into movie theaters and shoot and kill someone texting just because it was annoying him, I feel there's no hope for any of us to go safely anywhere there are people.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Take Herbal Supplements? Even Green Tea Extract Can Lead to Liver Damage

Take herbal supplements? You might want to listen up. A new study is warning that new information is showing that some supplements may damage the liver, along with over the counter drugs and even those prescribed by physicians, according to newswise.com. The rate of drug-induced liver injury (DILI), a rare adverse drug reaction which is challenging to diagnose -- and which can lead to jaundice, liver failure and even death -- is increasing more and more.  Experts put it down to the overwhelming use of herbal supplements and other drugs in the last 10 years.  “A lot of consumers have a preconceived notion that if it’s a natural product, it must be safe. But that is not necessarily the case,” the Web site quotes Herbert Bonkovsky, MD, FACG, co-author of the guidelines. “Most of these products are not well-regulated and have very little oversight. Traces of heavy metals and prescription drugs have even been found in some herbal and dietary supplements. We encourage patients to
Read more

Social Media Replacing Human Contact? Nah

I used to think my son only talked to his "girlfriend" (did I mention he'll be 12 in June?) in school.  Then I happened to walk by his computer and saw her on his screen.  They Skype.  About three hours a day.  Then I got it.  It's real.  Kids mostly communicate electronically these days. But Joe McKendrick at smartplanet.com believes there are reasons social media won't completely replace face-to-face interactions.  For one, there's less distraction.  If you're sitting at your computer, you're scanning for emails or googling or watching the news, in addition to talking to someone.  When you're actually with someone, it's harder to do this -- though, Joe, are you living on Mars? Have you never seen a teen texting at the table, while talking to you, or God forbid, driving? Most of McKendrick's points have to do with the office, and meeting in person to do business rather than connecting online.  I have to admit here, it makes sense.  He
Read more

Be Humble. Your Employees May Work Harder

You wouldn't know it from our current crook- er - commander-in-chief but it pays to be humble , new research is showing. It’s good to be humble when you’re the boss – as long as that’s what your employees expect, according to newswise.com. Researchers studying workplaces in China found that some real-life teams showed more creativity if the employees rated their bosses as showing more humility. “Whether leader humility is a good thing really depends on the team members’ expectations,” says  Jia (Jasmine) Hu , lead author of the study and associate professor of  management and human resources  at The Ohio State University’s  Fisher College of Business . Humble leaders are most effective when team members expect a low degree of distance between the leaders and followers, Hu explains. When there is "low power distance" (I assume, this means when the boss is humble), employees share power with their boss in a collaborative way. But humility may be seen as a weaknes
Read more