Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

[Tony33]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

Provide real opportunity to them other than the streets. Too many low income people see no hope in legitimate means. So they see the local drug dealer as a role model because they flash money. Notice how i state they flash it, not have it. So many kids in these neighborhoods look up to the wrong role models, so when they grow up they follow in line. The few that have opportunity to escape still visit the neighborhoods and sometimes get caught in the middle of stuff. The way to eliminate all of this, is to start finding better opportunity than is currently available. For all the money spent on poverty all we have is more poverty to show for it. If they would have spent it on infrastructure with incentives to the companies to hire and train and employ low income adults, the problem would be better and we wouldn't have crumbling infrastructure either. But it is easier to ignore the problem and blame guns, because that is where the votes and bribes are.

BINGO, but it also starts with education. Inner city teachers are more like babysitters than teachers, can you imagine having to teach children that come to school hungry? The focus needs to be more on breaking the cycle they are currently living in. The old saying never forget where you came from is true, don't forget, but you don't have to remember by staying in that environment on continuing visiting that environment, unless its to improve the environment, not just to hang in the environment.

[Tony33]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

Let me also say this, back in the day we used our fists to solve problems. Now, the problem solver is the of guns. I'm not a gun owner, but at times I feel that I need to own one just for self-defense. But this problem is much deeper that just weapons, if you ask any young man that is carrying a weapon why? They'll probably say "for self-defense, shoot or be shot". That's the mentality we are dealing with today, and until that changes this will never end.

[Mikefln]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

The majority of deaths by guns are suicides, not mass shootings or gang/drug dealing violence.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...icides/578812/

Not trying to be a wise ass and others may feel different but I feel the means that someone commits suicide is irrelevant. A person who is hell bent on self destruction will self destruct no matter what they need to do. It is sad that people get to this point, and I wish there was more that was being done, but this issue is not a gun violence issue, it is a mental illness issue.

[Mikefln]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

BINGO, but it also starts with education. Inner city teachers are more like babysitters than teachers, can you imagine having to teach children that come to school hungry? The focus needs to be more on breaking the cycle they are currently living in. The old saying never forget where you came from is true, don't forget, but you don't have to remember by staying in that environment on continuing visiting that environment, unless its to improve the environment, not just to hang in the environment.

My Sister in law teaches at a Pittsburgh Inner City school and you described it very well. She has said as much as " how am I supposed to teach a kid who is stealing food in the second grade because they are hungry? They are already in survival mode and only so much can be taught to them because their focus is on getting their next meal." Guys trust me when I tell you that she is not even teaching in the poorest neighborhood in Pittsburgh and she deals with this way too much. The cycle needs broken, but no leader has the resolve to really fix it. They just want to act like they care and are trying. They are not doing the work though.

[ironmaniup]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

BINGO, but it also starts with education. Inner city teachers are more like babysitters than teachers, can you imagine having to teach children that come to school hungry? The focus needs to be more on breaking the cycle they are currently living in. The old saying never forget where you came from is true, don't forget, but you don't have to remember by staying in that environment on continuing visiting that environment, unless its to improve the environment, not just to hang in the environment.

its way harder than that. These student-athletes friends and family are in this environment, everyone is more comfortable in an environment they are used to and sometimes they need to reattach with friends, and unfortunately get into trouble.

Consider that they have more demands on them at college, they don't know who they can trust, and certain elements of academia are telling them how they should be feeling about being in the new environment. They really have to learn how to keep connected to two cultures - One is judging you because of your background ( remember the unkind comments about certain black athletes families behavior at the games), your academics which maybe be difficult because of the weak schools you attend and people you grew up with think you are rejecting them. Its an incredibly difficult thing to do, even without the athletic demands. Its really amazing there are as many good outcomes as there are. I'm not talking about coddling, but understanding and support for what is really going on with them. BTW the same is true for the white kids from rural poverty who are currently killing themselves with opioids.

[Mikefln]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

Let me also say this, back in the day we used our fists to solve problems. Now, the problem solver is the of guns. I'm not a gun owner, but at times I feel that I need to own one just for self-defense. But this problem is much deeper that just weapons, if you ask any young man that is carrying a weapon why? They'll probably say "for self-defense, shoot or be shot". That's the mentality we are dealing with today, and until that changes this will never end.

I am going to have to disagree here a little. Go to the majority of neighborhoods and if tensions rise to a level of physical violence, it is still handled with fist (or body since MMA changed fighting). Yes there are A Holes who first instinct is to grab a gun, but they are in the extreme minority. I carry a gun and it is a true last resort. I am not going to ruin my life over stupidity nor will most people. Again most gun violence is centered on the drug trade. There are a few crimes of passion here and there, a few mentally ill people causing great destruction, but the majority of gun violence is the drug trade. Maybe we should just legalize drugs. Makeing it illegal is not stopping people from abusing and all it is causing is crime.

[iupgroundhog]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

The majority of deaths by guns are suicides, not mass shootings or gang/drug dealing violence.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...icides/578812/

That may be true, Bart. But more to the original point of this thread check out these sobering statistics from the NAACP (link below). Somebody mentioned the opioid crisis and all the attention that it is getting but this problem receives little, if any, attention. We seem to categorize it as self-inflicted like the suicides you refer to. But, hey, lives are lives, right?

"Gun violence is of a major concern to our nation, and especially to the communities served and represented by the NAACP. Curbing that violence, at every opportunity, is a major goal. Roughly 50% of gun-related deaths in our country in 2015 were African American men, despite the fact that we make up just 6% of the U.S. population. The leading cause of death among African American teens, ages 15 to 19 in 2008 and 2009 was gun-related homicide. African American children and teens were less than 15% of the total child population in 2008 and 2009 but accounted for 45% of all child- and teen-related gun deaths."


https://www.naacp.org/latest/preventing-gun-violence/

[Bart]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

Not trying to be a wise ass and others may feel different but I feel the means that someone commits suicide is irrelevant. A person who is hell bent on self destruction will self destruct no matter what they need to do. It is sad that people get to this point, and I wish there was more that was being done, but this issue is not a gun violence issue, it is a mental illness issue.

Yes it is a mental health issue, but having guns readily available makes self-destruction that much easier. Police die by their own hands, much more than by the hands of criminals; the reason is they have a gun on their hip that can be used to kill themselves. Some mental health professionals state that gun violence, especially in the inner city, is the result of PTSD among the youth.

[Bart]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

That may be true, Bart. But more to the original point of this thread check out these sobering statistics from the NAACP (link below). Somebody mentioned the opioid crisis and all the attention that it is getting but this problem receives little, if any, attention. We seem to categorize it as self-inflicted like the suicides you refer to. But, hey, lives are lives, right?

"Gun violence is of a major concern to our nation, and especially to the communities served and represented by the NAACP. Curbing that violence, at every opportunity, is a major goal. Roughly 50% of gun-related deaths in our country in 2015 were African American men, despite the fact that we make up just 6% of the U.S. population. The leading cause of death among African American teens, ages 15 to 19 in 2008 and 2009 was gun-related homicide. African American children and teens were less than 15% of the total child population in 2008 and 2009 but accounted for 45% of all child- and teen-related gun deaths."

g-gun-violence/[/URL]

All true. Suicide also doesn't receive much attention. The Vietnam War had roughly 58,000 American deaths from combat and non-combat combined. Americans commit suicide at the rate of around 30,000 a year (not all by guns). Homicides occur at about 15,000 a year (not all by guns). Yet the news doesn't address suicide, but will break in for shootings to paint a dire picture of city life and scare people into anti-gun laws.

As for African-Americans, the suicide rate for teens is rising. We all have a better chance of killing ourselves, than being killed by another. It only takes one phone call with tragic news to send someone into a downward spiral, leading to depression. Depression can kill. The highest suicide rate is among old white men, so just a warning for most of the posters on here.

[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

Re: Grambling player shot-brother killed in New Orleans

All true. Suicide also doesn't receive much attention. The Vietnam War had roughly 58,000 American deaths from combat and non-combat combined. Americans commit suicide at the rate of around 30,000 a year (not all by guns). Homicides occur at about 15,000 a year (not all by guns). Yet the news doesn't address suicide, but will break in for shootings to paint a dire picture of city life and scare people into anti-gun laws.

As for African-Americans, the suicide rate for teens is rising. We all have a better chance of killing ourselves, than being killed by another. It only takes one phone call with tragic news to send someone into a downward spiral, leading to depression. Depression can kill. The highest suicide rate is among old white men, so just a warning for most of the posters on here.

A few weeks ago I came across a very interesting account of a U.S. Marine recon team in May 1970. One of their members was killed and taken by a tiger as they bedded down for the evening in the jungle. The team did recover his body or whatever was left of it the next morning.

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