Speak My Piece
Luke Campbell Responds to Speak Your Piece Callers
Kayla Velasquez
It is evident from your statements that you haven’t really spent a lot of time on [the Second Amendment].”
— Bill Tallen
Recently, I was on Speak Your Piece on KODI with CHS seniors Trisha Tamblyn and Lucille Sax. On the show, we spoke in support of student led protests and student activism. Through the course of the hour-long interview, Bob Berry, Steve Torrey, Vincent Vanata, and Bill Tallen called in to join the discussion. Darian Dudrick did a great job of moderating the conversation. However, all four callers were condescending and harassing, and we weren’t able to respond as fully as we would have liked to their complaints, insinuations, attacks, and attempts to discredit us.
First, Bob Berry said one of his main problems with the student walkout was that it took place during school hours “on the taxpayer’s dime.” After trying to establish common ground with Trisha through “musicality” interests, he claimed Vietnam protests he was involved with were “ethical” because they “did it on [their] own time.” He disagreed “with the way the protests were done” because he thought an intercom announcement was made “to take students out of school without their parents’ permission.”
Respectfully, Mr. Berry, no intercom announcement was ever made, and how did a few students walking out of classes for 17 minutes cost the taxpayers anything? Teachers still taught, and the students walked out on their own – they weren’t “taken out.” Even if Vietnam protesters “did it on [their] own time,” the 1967 Los Angeles protests and the 1968 Democratic Convention protests, to name only two, cost just a little more than a few students walking out of CHS to honor 17 fellow students who were murdered in cold blood. The latter involved police, National Guard, reconstruction of entire neighborhoods, and attorneys to prosecute or defend protesters over the course of a decade. Our walkout involved about 80 peaceful students quietly leaving class for a few minutes.
The next caller allowed to talk was Steve Torrey who opened with, “Quiz time for the kids.” After asking Trisha if she knew what the Bill of Rights is, Lucille what the Declaration of Independence is, and me, what year the Constitution was ratified, he hung up. To Trisha’s and Lucille’s credit, they passed Professor Torrey’s quiz with an A+. I, however, was eleven years off, but I have a pop quiz for you, Mr. Torrey: What year was Tinker v Des Moines decided by the Supreme Court, and what was the majority opinion? That is relevant to our conversation, while the year the Constitution was ratified is not.
Vincent Vanata called to identify himself as the author of the Bighorn Basin Tea Party e-mails that were sent to Trisha and Lucille. He apologized for sending them without using his name and claimed they were “FYI” on an “article from NPR saying that school shootings were actually on the decline.” I read this article, and Vanata misrepresented it: it does not claim that school shootings are on the decline in the U.S., but that although “multiple-victim shootings in general are on the rise, that’s not the case in schools. There’s an average of about one a year — in a country with more than 100,000 schools.”
School shootings, Mr. Vanata, have occurred at an average rate of 10 per year, with a high of 15 in 2014. This is a BIG difference, and I suggest you exercise more care when paraphrasing news organizations.
The final individual who joined the discussion was Bill Tallen, who said, “You have made it very very clear that you are all three pro gun control, so that is something we should walk away with an understanding of” and that “it is evident from your statements that you haven’t really spent a lot of time on [the Second Amendment].”
When the words “gun control” are brought up in a conversation, people tend to have a knee jerk reaction, and I believe Mr. Tallen’s statement was meant to discredit us. Many people believe gun control means taking away every gun from every citizen. Contrary to his insinuation, I believe Americans should have the option to own a gun, and that guns are an important part of many citizens’ definitions of self. I also believe there should be background checks before a person is allowed to own a gun, and that is gun control, just not in the way that Tallen implied.
Mr. Tallen also said, “I’d suggest more research so you have a deeper understanding of what the Second Amendment entails.” I think Trisha responded to that quite eloquently, so I see no need to reiterate, but here is a bit of research for you, Mr. Tallen, so you have a deeper understanding of the real issue: 138 people have died in American school shootings since the Sandy Hook massacre. 438 people have been injured, and countless more have been scarred for life due to the violence committed in American schools. Any life lost in a school is too many lives lost. So far, just in 2018, there have been 107 people killed in 86 separate mass shootings. According to the concurrent listings on gunviolencearchive.org, I calculated there is an average of one mass shooting in America every 34.8 hours.
Perhaps I shouldn’t respond to these men. As Cyrus Stuart Ching said: “What’s the sense of wrestling with a pig? You both get all over muddy . . . and the pig likes it.” However, to remain silent in the face of this opposition would be a disservice to those who have devoted time, energy, and money to student voice.
For the full “Speak Your Piece” episode referred to, go to:
http://www.mybighornbasin.com/podcast/speak-your-piece/page/3/
My hat is off to you and your intelligent, mature, and articulate comments and responses. It is our youth such as you that reassures me our country will be in good hands. Stay strong, stay informed, stay committed. To paraphrase TS Eliot. “Dare to disturb the universe”!
You guys don’t leave it alone, and they had good points. Schools shootings are on the decline and yet you are calling for gun control. He sent it to you because he didn’t have another way, which also your school email isn’t an attack or an invasion of privacy. They did not at any point harass you, but yes they did discredit you because you do the same. People who support this have nothing to back it but feeling. Let’s take a look at history. For example, Jews couldn’t defend themselves because Germans wanted their guns and in the second amendment the right to bear arms is due to protecting yourself against a government who wants control. Many Liberitarians say, “Ask if they know what the second amendment is” but cannot tell you what it is themselves. You want to complain that your feelings are hurt and you are being attacked simply because you are wrong. Also Luke let’s get real, they did all the talking. You maybe answered 2 questions in total. The group that walked out had no respect for anyone standing outside the school for the second amendment while we all stayed in for yours peacefully you laughed and made snarky comments. One more thing just like the walk out this is my freedom of speech.
Luke, you’re right, my call-in on Speak Your Piece, and the response I gave on the May 3 Speak Your Piece, to what you, Trish, and Lucille had to say, was intended to discredit you, because your research is faulty, your conclusions are wrong, and your approach was deceptive. This is your forum, so I won’t clutter it up with more verbiage; but if you are interested in reading my longer response to your opinion piece, come to my Facebook page “Common Sense About Guns in Park County Schools” – https://www.facebook.com/secureourschools/ where it will appear momentarily.
Mr. Campbell: Thank you for
your very thoughtful and polite thoughts concerning the 2nd Amendment. I’am 74years old. Have proudly served in the US Army and at local and state levels. Thank goodness there are individuals like you who are concerned and mature beyond their age. You made excellent points, all of which must be more fully discused by every citizen of the USA. I know Mr. Tallen and greatly respect him.. But his message delivery might be a little “strong”. Both of you should probably get together for coffee. Friendships are made and respect gained thru such get togethers.
It is interesting to note that there are very few US SUPREME COURT decisions on “gun
Control”. However the Court has ruled that local,state and the federal government can reasonably regulate “gun” ownership and use. Good luck! Thank you! Keep advocating. Bill Johnson
Mo
I didn’t know of this website, or this article until delay. Thus, my delay in responding. However, to respond to Mr. Campbell’s comments I believe the email in question should be shown. See below.
For that matter it was and still is an FYI, that’s short “for your information”, email. In order to come to a conclusion on any matter it is important to gather information from many sources. I was simply providing information, from another perspective, to the people who had organized the demonstration.
———————————————————————-
From: Big Horn Basin TEA Party [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 11:06 PM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Despite Heightened Fear Of School Shootings, It’s Not A Growing Epidemic
This recently came out on NPR regarding school shootings being on the decline. Just an FYI.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Martin Kaste, Correspondent, NPR’s National Desk, Seattle
March 15, 2018 7:39 AM ET
The Parkland shooting last month has energized student activists, who are angry and frustrated over gun violence. But it’s also contributed to the impression that school shootings are a growing epidemic in America.
In truth, they’re not.
“Schools are safer today than they had been in previous decades,” says James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University who has studied the phenomenon of mass murder since the 1980s.
Fox and doctoral student Emma Fridel crunched the numbers, and the results should come as a relief to parents.
First, while multiple-victim shootings in general are on the rise, that’s not the case in schools. There’s an average of about one a year — in a country with more than 100,000 schools.
“There were more back in the ’90s than in recent years,” says Fox. “For example, in one school year — 1997-98 — there were four multiple-victim shootings in schools.”
Second, the overall number of gunshot victims at schools is also down. According to Fox’s numbers, back in the 1992-93 school year, about 0.55 students per million were shot and killed; in 2014-15, that rate was closer to 0.15 per million.
“The difference is the impression, the perception that people have,” Fox says — and he traces that to cable news and social media. “Today we have cell phone recordings of gunfire that play over and over and over again. So it’s that the impression is very different. That’s why people think things are a lot worse now, but the statistics say otherwise.”
Other experts agree. Garen Wintemute is an emergency room physician who leads a prominent gun violence research program at the University of California, Davis. He says school shootings, specifically, are not epidemic.
“Schools are just about the safest place in the world for kids to be,” Wintemute says. “Although each one of them is horrific and rivets the entire nation for a period of time, mass shootings at schools are really very uncommon, and they are not increasing in frequency. What’s changed is how aware we are of them.”
But Wintemute believes mass shootings — whether in schools or elsewhere — are increasing social pressure to address the far more common threat of small-scale shootings, which mostly happen in private.
“For school-age kids, the kind of shooting we most need to worry about is the kind of shooting that occurs off the school grounds,” Wintemute says. “The best way to prevent school shootings is to prevent shootings in general.”
He endorses broader gun safety measures, such as “red flag” laws, which give authorities the ability to remove firearms temporarily from people deemed to be threatening violence to themselves or others.
Wintemute and Fox say that by focusing so narrowly on school shootings, we run the risk of turning schools into fortresses. Fox says, given the statistics, it’s misguided to put kids through metal detectors and active shooter drills, and he doesn’t like the new calls for armed teachers.
“Most adults wouldn’t want their workplaces to look like what some of the schools are looking like, now,” Fox says.
But the perception of danger puts school administrators in a difficult position.
Marysville Pilchuck High School, about an hour north of Seattle, has experienced the tragedy of a shooting, and the statistical rarity is no comfort.
On Oct. 24, 2014, a freshman shot five other students in the cafeteria, killing four, before killing himself. Ever since, administrators have struggled to restore the students’ sense of safety.
“Probably, every day it pops into your head at one time or another,” says acting district superintendent Jason Thompson. “You think, ‘Okay, we’ve had our shooting,’ right? It’s human to think that way. But I think a lot of times for me, it’s like, ‘This could happen again.'”
For the last three years, the district has wrestled with how to make schools safer, without going overboard. Local voters defeated a bond levy which would have remodeled the open-style campus into a more secure, single-entrance configuration. So the school remains very open. There’s a new security camera, a security guard near the entrance, and visitors are told to wear a badge on campus, but there are no new fences or metal detectors.
Greg Dennis, who runs security for the district, says it’s hard to reach consensus on what precautions to take.
“From a parent’s perspective, they say, ‘Holy cow, why aren’t we doing this? Why aren’t we building prisons, why aren’t we building moats?'” Dennis says. “And the next person says, ‘We can’t do that! This is public property, you have to make it accessible, how do we use the playgrounds on the weekend?'”
Without the money to rebuild the school, administrators have opted to emphasize training and preparedness. They try to think tactically — for instance, since the shooting in Parkland, they’ve been reconsidering how to conduct fire drills, to make kids less of a target to potential attackers as they leave their classes.
But Marysville staffers also try to keep the risk in perspective. Dennis says he tries to learn security lessons from other shootings, but he doesn’t want to obsess about them.
Madysen Pruss, who’s part of a federally-funded counseling program at the school, says that’s also her message to students when another shooting is in the news.
“We talk about how it’s publicized through social media,” Pruss says. “So it makes the threat feel greater than it is.”
This year’s seniors were freshmen when the shooting happened, so this is the last class that still has memories of the incident. Senior Olivya Cerdinio is one of a group of students who organized the school’s observance of the 1-month milestone since the shooting in Parkland.
“I’m like kind of done being sad about it, and I’m just really mad about it, and I want to make a change,” she says.
But it’s shootings in general that she’s mad about — not school shootings in particular.
“It’s not dangerous because of how schools are,” Cerdinio says, “but because a shooting can happen anywhere. It’s more about gun availability.”