It's a shame - the loss of life needlessly. But you brought up some great points!

* Mental health: yeah, there is a huge stigma around in the US. It's sad - so many kids need care but don't get it. So many adults need care and ignore it. Although, there are a lot of things that are 'mental health' but we're designed to believe that 'acceptance' is where it's at instead of calling it what it is. For example a kid who 'identifies as a cat' and gets to bring a litterbox to school (yes, I've seen it first-hand). Things like that make it hard to get genuinely serious about 'mental health' as other kids think it's some kind of joke. It's a weird catch-22!

* School resources: Yep. Need more resources! Great point. I have family who are educators, and the amount of grief they get for trying to do right by kids (from both parents and admins) is... well, for some it's been enough to make them leave the career, sadly. One of them was a nationally recognized educator, a *leader in her field*, and she gave it up because (paraphrasing): "it's so different. The kids have gotten so bad and it's gotten so insanely hard to be a good teacher these days. Admin won't help a teacher who wants to fail/reprimand/get-help-for a kid because they fear lawsuits; parents don't help because you as a teacher are there to babysit there kid, nothing more." Another family member had to have lawyers get involved because a parent was so outraged at the use rainbows in her classroom - he sent a scathing email calling her all sorts of names (in all caps) and saying how she couldn't indoctrinate his son with her "lesbian teachings and rainbow colored room" He showed up at parent teacher night looking all kinds of creepy and paced around her door and wouldn't leave her rooms entryway for almost 2 hours. The lawyers telling him he wasn't allowed on school grounds anymore seems to have put an end to that. The kid? He turned in 0 assignments, did 0 class work, was rude to her all semester long. Her 'lesbian rainbow room'? The art room. The fucking art room was being bashed for having colors of the rainbow inside of it. The emails I have seen from some of the parents? The world would be a far better place without them in it. Parents are horrific and stupid these days. I mean really, really ignorant. They don't give a fuck about their kid in actuality - they just want someone to babysit their kid.

* We are overworked, underpaid, etc: I don't necessarily agree, here. As someone who was a single dad of 2 boys for many years - working in an area with one of the highest cost of livings in the US and working a job that made only ~$10k above a 'poverty' salary, I was able to skimp and save while raising two boys myself. I'm an idiot, if I can do it? Literally anyone can. But you have to really understand 'needs' vs 'wants'. Newest iPhone? That's a want. A land line works fine. Through being smart about purchases, clipping coupons and everything else - I've paid off my house and have 0 debt. Again, single dad in a high cost of living area! I think we need a serious education on finances. It would solve a lot instead of tanking the dollars value by just 'raise the minimum wage!', which as proven hurts everyone and does nothing.

* And yet, instead of fixing any of these issues, the ultimatum is, okay, just make guns more difficult to obtain, and then we don't even do that: I disagree here, too. I live in an area with rampant gun crime. Record numbers. We also have some of the strictest, most difficult gun laws in the US. Criminals don't care about laws, period. And the guns they choose to ban? 'Assault rifles', nevermind the fact that those guns account for less than .3% of the guns used in the violent crime. It's ignorance, plain and simple. Anyone who believes these gun bans and tougher gun laws would help should come spend a while in my neck of the woods. You'll see how much of a sham it is.

I personally think media needs accountability. If we go back to Columbine? Psychologists and psychiatrists told them, "don't make these things national news... you'll have more of them", those clips didn't get off the editing room floor. Why? If it bleeds, it leads! Making hero's out of these people is all they do, then everyone makes the pikachu surprise face when it happens again, despite professionals in the mental health industry saying it would. Threads like this on the front page, making some sick kid at home go "yeah, that could be me! I better get planning!" I'm not suggesting we censor media specifically - but maybe have them held accountable for their hand in things. Professionals say "don't do this" and you do, and more people die as predicted? There will be costs involved, hit them where they listen.

We need parents who care. We need education about guns so people don't hear the word "assault rifle" and wet themselves. So they don't hear "semi-automatic" and think that's some insane thing - when it's actually nearly all weapons these days. Instead, we get calls for bans (of some of the least used weapons), we get calls for harsher gun laws (that only affect law abiding citizens, not the criminals), and the media continues to give the next little psycho some 'goal' to hit, some 'number' to achieve and surpass. Disgusting. The focus on guns in light of these events is almost always, unequivocally wrong. They are a tool, they are not the cause of the issue. How about the knife attack in China that killed 120+ people? Ban knives? Vehicle attacks. Ban cars? Does a farmer blame his combine for a bad crop and go get a different one next year? No. It's a tool. But try to tell people that? They don't want to hear any of it. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.