OR

stay logged in   forgot password?

Please wait... Blue_on_grey_spinner

Is modern society so desensitized by all of the recent past shootings that the sound of a gunshot doesn’t even make people flinch?

  • over 5 years ago

    4 Comments

  • over 5 years ago

    3 Comments

    We cannot be desensitized to gun violence Information-grey

    If you can imagine making split-second decisions in an environment that requires coping with challenging conditions such as time pressure, uncertainty and team coordination in the heat of the moment, then you have some insight about what it’s like for a first responder entering an active shooter situation on a campus somewhere. As for students and teachers caught in such horrific circumstances, deciding whether to run, hide, fight – or perhaps pray that first responders will arrive soon – are the only viable options from which to quickly choose.

    Yet, learned experience that guides first responders in mass shootings – law enforcement and medical professionals alike – evolves with each incident, sometimes in significant ways. For example, the University of Texas shooting in 1969, in which a Marine-trained sniper indiscriminately killed 14 people and injured more than 30 others from an observation deck atop the Main Building tower on campus, led to the creation of SWAT teams. Lessons from the shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999 led to a massive tactical shift among all law enforcement: instead of delaying engagement out of fear increasing casualties in a gun battle, the first three to four officers who arrive immediately engage the situation with the goal of neutralizing the shooter(s).

    ...

    Read more and comment

  • over 5 years ago

    Examining a Dual-Process Model of Desensitization and Hypersensitization to Community Violence in African American Male Adolescents Information-grey

    The purpose of the current study was to examine a dual-process model of reactivity to community violence exposure in African American male adolescents from urban communities. The model focused on desensitization and hypersensitization effects as well as desensitization and hypersensitization as predictors of aggressive behavior. Participants were 133 African American male high school students, mean age = 15.17 years, SD = 0.96. Participants completed measures of exposure to community violence, depressive symptoms, hyperarousal symptoms, aggressive beliefs, and aggressive behaviors at two time points. Community violence exposure predicted changes in aggression, β = .25, p = .004, and physiological arousal, β = .22, p = .010, over time, but not aggressive beliefs. The curvilinear association between community violence exposure and changes in depression over time was not significant, β = .42, p = .083, but there was a significant linear association between the exposure to community violence (ECV) and changes in levels of depression over time, β = .21, p = .014. Results indicated a significant mediation effect for hyperarousal on the association between community violence exposure and aggressive behavior, B = 0.20, 95% CI = [0.04, 0.54]. Results showed support for physiological hypersensitization, with hypersensitization increasing the risk for aggressive behavior. ...

    Read more and comment

  • over 5 years ago

    Effect of systematic desensitization training on acceptable noise levels in adults with normal hearing sensitivity Information-grey

     

    https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=658834805

    Transcipt of podcast:

    AILSA CHANG, HOST:

    We're going to go now to a region of the country that's been labeled tragically the suicide belt. Suicide rates are high across rural America. In a new poll on rural life conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, more than half of those surveyed said they knew someone personally affected by suicide. But eight rural mountain west states are among the 10 U.S. states with the highest suicide rates. NPR's Kirk Siegler visited one town, Grand Junction, Colo., which is trying to do something about it.

    KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: At the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado rivers, Grand Junction sits in a bowl of a valley ringed by tall mountains, desert mesas and red rock cliffs. You can see how someone who is struggling could feel a little trapped here. ...

    Read more and comment

  • over 5 years ago

    6 Comments

    The Psychological Explanation for Why We Become Desensitized to Mass Shootings Information-grey

    By Kate Morgan

    On December 14, 2012, in the middle of reading a news report about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, I threw up in my kitchen sink.

    It was all so devastating — the victims so small and the act so heinous — and my reaction felt visceral, like a literal punch to the gut. I walked around in a stupor for days afterward. I could barely process what had happened, and my desire for an explanation I knew I likely wouldn’t get was haunting.

    On Wednesday, when my iPhone buzzed with a report that dozens of young people and their teachers had been shot in a Parkland, Florida, school, I skimmed the news alert and then went out to dinner.

    ...

    Read more and comment

  • over 5 years ago

    3 Comments

    Here's Why You Can Shut Out the Shock of Mass Shootings Information-grey

    VIdeo: http://time.com/5116457/kentucky-marshall-county-shooting-desensitization/

    By JAMIE DUCHARME January 24, 2018
    It took only 23 days for the U.S. to witness its 11th school shooting of the year, during which a Marshall County High School student killed two of his classmates and wounded more than a dozen others. The Jan. 23 assault, in Benton, Kentucky, was the second school shooting of the week. It was only a Tuesday.

    Despite (or perhaps because of) the recent frequency of such horrors, the story was somewhat lost in a news cycle dominated by Oscar nominations, the end of the government shutdown, and the impending sentencing of Larry Nassar. While the town of Benton was undoubtedly rocked by the incident, the rest of the country’s focus was largely elsewhere. “We have absolutely become numb to these kinds of shootings, and I think that will continue,” former senior FBI official Katherine Schweit told the New York Times in the wake of the shooting.

    That numbness undoubtedly has an impact on policy, politics and news coverage of shootings. But...

    Read more and comment

  • over 5 years ago

    How One Colorado Town Is Tackling Suicide Prevention — Starting With The Kids Information-grey

     

    https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=658834805

    Transcipt of podcast:

    AILSA CHANG, HOST:

    We're going to go now to a region of the country that's been labeled tragically the suicide belt. Suicide rates are high across rural America. In a new poll on rural life conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, more than half of those surveyed said they knew someone personally affected by suicide. But eight rural mountain west states are among the 10 U.S. states with the highest suicide rates. NPR's Kirk Siegler visited one town, Grand Junction, Colo., which is trying to do something about it.

    KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: At the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado rivers, Grand Junction sits in a bowl of a valley ringed by tall mountains, desert mesas and red rock cliffs. You can see how someone who is struggling could feel a little trapped here. ...

    Read more and comment

© Copyright 2021, Paul Allison.
"NowComment" is a registered trademark of Paul Allison. All rights reserved.

Back to Top

Quickstart: Commenting and Sharing

How to Comment
  • Click icons on the left to see existing comments.
  • Desktop/Laptop: double-click any text, highlight a section of an image, or add a comment while a video is playing to start a new conversation.
    Tablet/Phone: single click then click on the "Start One" link (look right or below).
  • Click "Reply" on a comment to join the conversation.
How to Share Documents
  1. "Upload" a new document.
  2. "Invite" others to it.

Logging in, please wait... Blue_on_grey_spinner