John Lennon killer opens up about motives -Bob Cummins Per. 6

     In 1983, reporter Jim Gaines interviewed Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon in 1980; he told Gaines about his life and his motives for the murder.  He said that there was a voice in his head repeating,"do it."  He recalled that as a child, he wanted to be a Beatle, but after he heard about Lennon making the comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus," he quickly grew to hate Lennon.  In the late 1970's, he read up on John Lennon, and hated him more.  His other great influence was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. With these influences, along with claims that Satan was sending him mental messages, he decided to kill John Lennon.
     This man was obviously not in his right mind when he killed Lennon, and this article mentioned that he had phases of schizophrenia throughout his life.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/08/us/mark-david-chapman-lennon-interviews/index.html

Adriana Hinojosa, 8th, Police Officer Kills North Texas student--motive?

Okay. I'm thoroughly confused about this whole article. Yesterday a student from the University of North Texas was shot by a police officer until he met death because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. The student, Ryan McMillan, was seen in the school's parking lot holding an ax. Earlier that night, the officer had received several phone calls about there being a breakage of car windows in that same lot. Whether there is a correlation between Ryan and the car robberies, we don't know. What we do know is that Ryan was "wielding" the ax. The dictionary definition of "wielding" is "to use effectively." That being said it seems that Ryan was indeed swinging the ax at the officer. According to the article, Ryan was shot as he "advanced at the officer while holding the ax." This is just too vague for me. Advanced? Advanced could literally mean he was running, calmly walking, skipping, etc. And "holding the ax"? That makes it seem like he was passively holding the ax. This writer is inconsistent. What I am having trouble understanding is why police officers are equipped with tasers? I mean in a case like this it seems pretty logical to use a taser as opposed to a handgun thus robbing this 21 year old of his life when it obviously wasn't aggressive enough of an encounter. If it was, the journalist who wrote this article would not have such trouble deciding on what intensity level of adjectives to use. She is wavering between two different intensity levels of word choice thus making it seem she, too, is unsure. The article totals at about 10 sentences and the officer has not been able to prove anything he has said as true. I don't know about you, but this is already giving off a vibe of yet another innocent killing. Don't get me wrong, though. What that guy was doing in the middle of the school parking lot equipped with an ax in the middle of the night sure looks bad. But whatever it may have been, he didn't deserve to die. The officer obviously did not have enough of a motive considering he has not been able to give any major news source concrete evidence or really evidence of any kind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/us/texas-student-wielding-ax-is-shot-dead.html?ref=us

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/unt-police-fatally-shoot-ax-wielding-man.html/

Graffiti are spray-painted at two mosques in Southern California - Ari Robinson, Period 3

Graffiti are spray-painted at two mosques in Southern California


Summary: In Hawthorne California, two mosques were spray painted with Christian slogans. Police have labeled it as a hate crime. One mosque said "Jesus" and the other said "Jesus is the way." There was an item resembling a hand grenade near one of the mosques, and bomb squad came, but it was only a replica. These events follow the Friday intentional fire at a mosque in Palm Springs.


Analysis: Freedom of religion, anyone? These events are an atrocious rebellion of our country's very founding principles. This is not a Christian country. Therefore, shouldn't Muslims be able to practice their faith? Shouldn't any religion be able to practice their faith? Hate crimes against Muslims are becoming more and more frequent. Prejudice against Muslims is becoming very widespread. It seems as though soon, it could be an even larger issue than racism against African Americans.

Sandy Hook (extended) By M'Lynn Musgrove

Summary: On December 14, 2012, after killing his 52 year old mother, Adam Lanza drove five miles from his home to Sandy Hook Elementary school, where roughly 700 students sat in their classrooms. After shooting his way through the front entrance of the school, Lanza proceeds to kill 20 students (ages 6 and 7) and six adults. Eleven minutes after the first shot is fired, Lanza walks into Victoria Soto's classroom, kills six children, Soto and her teachers assistant, and himself. Later that day, President Obama gives a televised address where he states we must "come together" and change in order to "prevent more tragedies like this..."

Analysis: I have written multiple blogs on this topic before and I am sure I will write more blogs on this topic, but it never ceases to amaze me when I think about how big an issue gun control is in this country, and how we have not made real progress in the last handful of years in attempting to put a stop to these mass school shootings.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html

Carlos Joglar- Progress for Saudi Women

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/initial-results-show-3-saudi-women-elected-first-123633610.html

Today, the progressive announcement has bee made that 20 women have been elected for local government seats. These women vary in locality, coming from big cities to small towns. Even though this 20 is a mere 1% of the 2,100 available positions, this is still seen as a step towards gender equality for women. Since 2005, this has been the first election open to women. Most women used social media to their advantage. Strict rules restrict public gender mixing, so opposite genders could not address each other in person. The General Election Committee also helped women because they recognized the women who hide their face in the traditional full body veil, so they banned both men and women from showing their face in campaigns.

This is amazing news. Of course, compared to the United States, Saudi Arabia is still in a very bad state in terms of gender equality. However, one must recognize that women didn't have the right to vote in the US until 1920. Also, taking into account Saudi Arabia's oppressive culture, this step is hugely progressive. I would also like to remind everyone that, even though Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country, oppressing women is not a Muslim problem. It is a Saudi Arabian problem. Many other Muslim countries, like Turkey, have as much of an issue with gender equality as the US has. All in all, it's great seeing feminist ideals and gender equality spread.

Gunman shot at Walmart by Shara Jeyarajah p8

Recently in Pennsylvania, a man went to a local Walmart wielding two hand guns. He started to threaten people, and the local police was soon called in. After he refused to drop his guns, he started pointing them at police officers. He was shot in his upper chest area, and sustained fatal injuries. The gunman has not been identified. No officers or shoppers were injured.
I find it despicable that someone would be so horrible to make people believe that they were going to die. I cannot fathom how anyone could be so motivated to spread terror. Background checks when purchasing guns are required, but I believe that mental evaluations and more airtight checks would greatly benefit us.
This connects to apush because after the publication of the second amendment, it was abused and is still used to justify events resulting in many deaths.

 http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/13/us/pennsylvania-walmart-shooting/index.html

STAR WARS T-Shirt Gets Boy In Trouble --Madeleine Norton, 4th period

 This past Thursday a 7th grader by the name of Colton was wearing a shirt depicting a stormtrooper holding a "rebel blaster", an imaginary gun of the Star Wars universe. He was warned by his authorities to cover it up, zipping up his jacket so that the derogatory image could not been seen as derogatory towards  guns or to make some kind of stand. Understandably his father is upset, saying, "It’s political correctness run amok; you’re talking about a Star Wars T-shirt, a week before the biggest movie of the year comes out." Colton has reportedly worn this same shirt several times before with no problem. But with things the way they are now, gun hype is especially touchy.

This can be directly connected to the first amendment (the right to freedom of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly, and petitioning for governmental redress of grievances) and second amendment (the right of the people to keep/bear arms). In this instance, is Colton's freedom of speech is being infringed by him having to cover up his shirt depicting a gun? And even though the gun is fantastical and the boy is claimed to have "not a violent bone in his body" (according to his father Joe Southern), cold this really influence bad behavior? Star Wars? right before its opening?
I myself am not quite sure, since the whole ordeal seems a bit over-reactive to me. But in this instance the child has worn the shirt many times before, clearly showing that current gun issues are arousing fear in public school systems, and strictness for the safety and well being of everyone. Apparently you just can't be too safe.

Article link here: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/13/star-wars-t-shirt-lands-7th-grader-in-hot-water-at-texas-school/