May 10, 2019 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
17:22
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| Hi everybody, Stephen Molyneux from Freedom Inn. | |
| Hope you're doing well. | |
| So I'm speaking to Jack who left a message on YouTube. | |
| About the recent, very recent, shooting at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado. | |
| One student dead, eight others injured. | |
| And I was kind of struck, Jack, by what you said about the school and the families and the neighborhood. | |
| I wonder if you could help people get a sense of where the school is and what the people are like. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Highland Ranch is basically your typical American suburban town. | |
| It's about 80,000 people. | |
| It's a red district. | |
| The STEM Academy there is a specialized school for mathematics, science, and robotics. | |
| And I actually grew up five minutes away from the high school. | |
| I graduated two years ago from Thunder Ridge High School, if anybody is familiar with the area, which is just a mile down the road from where the shooting took place. | |
| And I still have a little brother who goes to Thunder Ridge High School, and his school was on lockdown the entire day that that happened. | |
| It's really crazy, because Highlands Ranch is about the safest town in America, honestly. | |
| I mean, the crime rate's got to be close to zero. | |
| It's a very typical, just standard suburban American town, and yet, Like I said, people are familiar. | |
| It's only 10 miles. | |
| It's not even 10 miles from Columbine. | |
| It's really close to Aurora and Arapaho. | |
| So there's been four major shootings in really close proximity to my town. | |
| It's really crazy. | |
| I don't understand why. | |
| my town. | |
| And yeah, it's just, it's really crazy. | |
| And it's really, I don't understand why. | |
| And I couldn't, I honestly can't tell, tell you why I think that that, why it's happened this way. | |
| I mean, that really is an astonishing cluster. | |
| What are the families like? | |
| Because people have this kind of view of small towns like Maybury, you know, like Leave it to Beaver. | |
| And I mean, there are those small towns around, but a lot of the small towns that I've been to when I was sort of working up north, Were not that way. | |
| They were kind of end-of-the-universe places where people kind of didn't have anywhere else to go. | |
| There was not a lot of optimism. | |
| There was not a lot of sense of a positive future and any of these kinds of things. | |
| Where would the town fall along those kinds of spectrums? | |
| Well, I mean, honestly, almost the complete opposite. | |
| Like I said, it's a wealthy, affluent area. | |
| There's a lot of people who are doctors, lawyers. | |
| It's a wealthy area. | |
| It's in Douglas County, which I think is one of the wealthiest counties in America, actually. | |
| So there is no shortage of optimism from what I've seen. | |
| And for myself, certainly, I never felt a sense of any lack of optimism in the way that I was brought up. | |
| And I think it is Again, it's concerning because the outcomes, you know, these shootings do not make a lot of sense when you step back and sort of, you know, realize where they're coming from in these, you know, this is a very affluent community. | |
| And it's, like I said, the crime rate is nearly zero. | |
| I mean, it's just shocking. | |
| Is there drug issues? | |
| Because the other thing I've seen is that in some of the more wealthy private schools, drugs can certainly be an issue. | |
| No, honestly, not really. | |
| I mean, it is Colorado. | |
| Obviously, there's probably higher marijuana use, I would imagine, among teenagers. | |
| I know a lot of my friends are into that. | |
| No, I would not say that it's not like the Rust Belt, where you see people dying of heroin overdoses. | |
| It's nothing like that. | |
| It's really sort of shocking. | |
| I mean, honestly, because, uh, you know, I actually, my, my, my, one of my best friends actually lived right next to the, uh, the shooter. | |
| And, um, you know, the shooter lived, you know, less than a mile away from the high school that I went to. | |
| And like I said, you know, my, one of my best friends lived in his neighborhood and, you know, he said that, uh, the parents were really normal. | |
| They were, they seemed like they were caring. | |
| But he also said, though, that the kid was, you know, a little strange and was, you know, easy to anger. | |
| And that's what he told me. | |
| And like I said, he grew up right next to this kid, you know, for 18 years. | |
| Did he say easy to anger? | |
| Yeah, he said easy to anger. | |
| I mean, he sent me a text and he said, you know, he was talking to one of his neighbors and they honestly weren't shocked, they said, when they found out it was him. | |
| You know, he just said he was He was a little weird and he said he was easy to anger and I didn't really, you know, go into more of the detailed aspects of that because I just, you know, I was kind of busy or whatever. | |
| I'm in college, so I'm kind of busy. | |
| But yeah, that's what he said. | |
| And the thing that stood out to me about that was they said, you know, they were talking to a neighbor and they both came to, you know, the consensus that they weren't shocked that this happened. | |
| And so that's, I mean, maybe you could expand a little bit on this, but that's kind of concerning to me that if we have these sort of alienated, you know, teens who we think might be violent or could potentially be violent, and we don't do anything about it, and then they do something like this, and we're just like, oh, I'm not surprised. | |
| Like, I don't know. | |
| That just seems to me like a horrible way to go about this. | |
| Well, it's the old 2020, right? | |
| I mean, hindsight. | |
| That there's lots of people out there who are odd and prone to be hot-tempered and so on, but of course the vast majority of them don't go shoot up a school, right? | |
| And you have, you know, you kind of sort of have the oddball thought crime scenario where it's like, you seem out of place, let's do something to you. | |
| That's true. | |
| And that's the big challenge, but I'm really struck by this cluster of four shootings in a relatively tight area in Colorado. | |
| Now, of course, we're talking Columbine, which is decades ago now, I guess. | |
| But that is a, that's a hell of a cluster. | |
| And do you know, are there any theories floating around in the community? | |
| Or I mean, this must be a big topic of conversation these days. | |
| Yeah, I mean, so, you know, I'm a, I'm 20 years old. | |
| So my, you know, everything on social media on Facebook, from Twitter to Instagram is all about this. | |
| And everyone is talking about it. | |
| And you know, growing up in Colorado, because we were so close in proximity to Columbine, you know, we were, you know, we talked about it from the time when we were really young. | |
| And it was, it was sort of a, like, it was well known, even when I was like, eight years old about what happened there. | |
| And I don't know if that sort of, maybe, because it's such, it's almost like a myth or a legend. | |
| At this point, it's such a big event that if that, like putting a bunch of emphasis on it, if that is what triggers these events, but I'm not, I couldn't tell you. | |
| It is strange. | |
| But yeah, I mean, the proximity that, I mean, maybe it has to do with, you know, there is, we do, this is an affluent area and there are maybe perhaps, really high expectations for children to do well and if they start falling behind or they're depressed or whatever and their grades start slipping or they don't see themselves becoming successful or living up to expectations, maybe that's a reason why these people lash out. | |
| Well, by that calculation, the East Asians who have ridiculously high standards, or some of the Indian community, they should be the ones doing that, but it doesn't seem to be quite as common, I guess. | |
| Absinthe, Virginia Tech and so on. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Now, let me ask you this. | |
| Is there an issue now? | |
| It's a big open ended question. | |
| But in general, is there an issue with bullying in the schools? | |
| No. | |
| So I, yeah, I went to Thunder Ridge, which is very similar in culture, I'd imagine, to these schools. | |
| And there was almost no there was no bullying. | |
| I mean, we're like a very, like I said, a suburban, very, you know, low crime area. | |
| And you know, bullying was, I remember as a kid, you know, bullying was a big, big, big deal. | |
| They made sure that no one was bullying. | |
| And I never saw bullying happen when I was in high school. | |
| And for my four years, I saw one fight and it was the last week of high school, my senior year. | |
| So there's, there's not a lot of bullying in this community. | |
| I don't think, and I mean, like, again, even if there were a lot of, there was a lot of bullying there. | |
| I mean, there's plenty of kids who have been bullied. | |
| I mean, 99.999% of kids who are bullied don't go and shoot up a school, so I really don't think that was it at all. | |
| And the kids' relationship to fame these days, because there is always of course that suspicion that there's this dark fame that comes out of these kinds of appalling events, and kids who want to make a mark or kids who want to be talked about or kids who want to be famous, I guess by any means necessary. | |
| I remember reading a study some years ago about British kids and the number one thing they wanted to be was famous, like kind of an unspecified kind of fame. | |
| Do you know if this thirst for notoriety, because it was kind of impossible when I was a kid to be famous, but now of course there's lots of YouTube stars and so on who are pretty young. | |
| Is there much of a thirst for fame? | |
| Is that a way of making your mark? | |
| Or do you think that could be any kind of motivating factor? | |
| Yeah, I think that if anything, if there's a unifying, I'd say, linkage between these massacres, it would be SSRIs. | |
| And that media aspect, because, you know, if you see Columbine, Columbine is, you know, there, of course, there were other shootings before Columbine, but Columbine is what, in my mind, really kicked off the modern school shooting and the modern, you know, just shooting in general, where it was incredibly publicized. | |
| They, you know, these kids, it hadn't even, the bodies weren't even cold, and they're shoving cameras in these kids' faces. | |
| And, you know, that actually reminds me, a couple of the, or not a couple, but a large majority of, There was a visual the other night. | |
| A large majority of these STEM students at the visual walked out because, you know, this visual, which was meant to remember, you know, the life of the, the young man who, who is a hero, by the way, uh, the man who Kendrick Castillo, who tackled a shooter and Joshua Jones and, uh, Brandon, uh, Biley. | |
| These are, you know, the three men who are three kids who tackled the shooter. | |
| And, um, instead of remembering them, well, one of them died. | |
| Uh, two of them, I think are still in critical condition instead of praying for them or supporting them, the media and apparently the adults who are staging this, holding this vigil, they turned it into this big deal about gun control and repealing the Second Amendment and adding measures. | |
| And the students, to their credit, said, we're not going to stand for this. | |
| And they were pissed off and they left. | |
| And I think that that speaks volumes to how these tragedies are sort of first publicized majorly by the media. | |
| I mean, like CNN and MSNBC and Fox News, I think they all profit majorly off of these tragedies by running constant coverage of them, turning the shooters into antiheroes and really making a big media stunt out of these things. | |
| And a second thing, too, how then publicized, Politicians like Ilhan Omar, she tweeted about it, and so did David Hogg, and I can guarantee you Ilhan Omar and David Hogg have no idea of the community that I'm from. | |
| They've never been there. | |
| I can almost guarantee that. | |
| And they don't speak for me. | |
| And I know for a fact they don't speak for the 90, I would say 90% of the people that I know in my community. | |
| And I live there my entire life. | |
| And so just seeing that is one aspect that really frustrates me about these events, especially when it's close to home like this, is that, you know, I have a brother who, you know, had to spend the entire day at school locked out in a lock-in because of this. | |
| And then, you know, knowing that what he believes and what I believe, and then, you know, somebody like Elon Omar comes and pontificates and, you know, tries to go for the low-hanging fruit that this is about guns or something. | |
| I just, I can't stand that and that's... | |
| That's really where I say that my opinion on that would be. | |
| I mean, there is this temptation that a lot of people have to take this and try and jam it into a political narrative. | |
| And look, I mean, there are important lessons to be learned from this, but jamming it into a political narrative when the body is still cooling is pretty reprehensible. | |
| Yeah, I mean, it really did make me pretty angry when I saw that tweet and I saw David Hogg, too. | |
| I can't remember what he said. | |
| I was, you know, it took, and this event, you know, Tuesday, it was two days ago, you know, it really took the wind out of my sails. | |
| I was pretty upset about it. | |
| I was pretty down. | |
| And then, you know, just to see these people sort of, you know, using my community and its tragedy to sort of catapult their political agenda, you know, it really does piss me off, to be quite frank. | |
| Yeah, and of course, I think that's one of the reasons why this coverage is so strong, that because they want to get rid of the Second Amendment, the left wants to get rid of the Second Amendment in the U.S., just as they wanted to get rid of it in Venezuela. | |
| We'll see how that turned out. | |
| Because they want to publicize all these shootings because it helps them, I guess, make the case for getting rid of the Second Amendment, although I mean, I couldn't agree more. | |
| legally, even by this alleged shooter. | |
| And so what is it, you know, what's the point? | |
| The point is to try and get rid of the Second Amendment and to do that, they'll focus on these shootings, which gives the fame to the alleged shooter. - I mean, I couldn't agree more. | |
| And like you said, to your point, you know, I know the kid used two handguns and he's 18, he's not 21. | |
| So there's no way he could have legally obtained those weapons And so, I see a lot of people my age who are from my community, you know, a lot of my friends and people I went to high school with, who are, you know, sort of towards the left side of the spectrum. | |
| I remember they were all reposting this thing from the Women's March page that said, you know, it had pray for Highlands Ranch, or pray for STEM, and then it crossed out pray and put, you know, policy change. | |
| The fact of the matter is there already is a policy that there already would have been a policy or there is a policy on the books that says you know 18 year olds can't buy handguns because you know like most people I'm sure most of your listeners and you you know know the majority of gun crime is perpetrated by handguns not by assault rifles. | |
| Right. | |
| So what would you like to say to the media and to those who are politicizing this? | |
| Well I would just say that I don't Well, first off, I don't appreciate them sort of going for the low-hanging fruit, as they always do, blaming guns, blaming the Second Amendment. | |
| And this is kind of coming at a time, not ironically, but maybe prudently, this is coming at a time where Colorado just passed the red flag law. | |
| And so, you know, the danger I think of conflating, uh, if anybody doesn't know what the, the red flag law is, it's basically where if, you know, if they get, if one of your neighbors thinks you're crazy or you has a vendetta against you, they can go to a judge and the judge can, you know, legally sign up, uh, you know, Write up a warrant and they can go in and seize your guns until you take a psychiatric test to prove you're not insane with no probable cause, no evidence whatsoever. | |
| And so this is coming at a time, I think, where this is just, they're being, this is being implemented now and actually in Highland Ranch and in other parts of Denver. | |
| So yeah, I think it, it's definitely at a, at a crucial time now. | |
| And when it comes to defending the second amendment and all these rights and Yeah. | |
| And I would just, you know, I, it really, I think this is really where you see what these people are after when they go and they conflate, uh, you know, a person who has clearly had issues, was clearly, uh, evil, committed a horrible atrocity. | |
| And then they're going to conflate that with the, uh, you know, law abiding citizen who just wants to protect their family. | |
| Um, and has, I know, and, and, and is a proud American who likes to partake in the, uh, second amendment. | |
| Well, I think it's going to be pretty tough for them to try and overturn that, although I'm sure that is the eventual goal. | |
| But listen, I really, really appreciate getting the view from somebody from the community that's really, really helpful. | |
| And, you know, if you do talk to people, as I'm sure you will, please extend, you know, my sympathies and I'm sure the sympathies of many others. | |
| It is not the actions of crazy people that should define the rights of sane people. | |
| But of course, that's the goal. | |
| But I really, really appreciate your time today. | |
| Thank you so much. | |
| All right. |
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