LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor
Since 2004

Tag: school shootings

  • Know The Signs: You can prevent gun violence and other harmful acts

    Know The Signs: You can prevent gun violence and other harmful acts

    People who hurt themselves or others often show warning signs before they carry out an act of violence. If you don’t know what to look for, it can be easy to miss the signs, or dismiss them as unimportant. Significantly, missing the signs can have tragic consequences. Notably, in 4 out of 5 school shootings, at least one other person had knowledge of the attacker’s plan but failed to report it.

    Now more than ever, it’s essential to know the signs. Students and educators who participate in our Say Something program learn these life-saving warning signs. They’re taught to recognize signs and get help when their classmates show they may be in danger or need help. Warning signs can include things such as thoughts, feelings, actions, and behaviors. At-risk people can show significant or sudden changes in behavior or personality.

    9 Critical Warning Signs of Violence

    Here is our list of nine potential warning signs* that can signal an individual may be in crisis or need help:

    1. Suddenly withdrawing from friends, family and activities (including online or via social media)

    2. Making statements or engaging in behavior meant to intimidate or mock others based on real or perceived differences (including race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) 

    3. Excessive irritability, lack of patience, or becoming angry quickly

    4. Experiencing chronic loneliness or social isolation 

    5. Expressing persistent thoughts of harming themselves or someone else

    6. Making direct threats toward a place, another person, or themselves

    7. Bragging about access to guns or weapons

    8. Recruiting accomplices or audiences for an attack 

    9. Directly expressing a threat as a plan 

    * NOTE: This isn’t a complete list of all warning signs. Exhibiting one of these signs doesn’t necessarily indicate imminent violence. When concerned about troubling behaviors, tell a trusted adult or call 911 if there is an immediate threat.

    Watch Evan, Our Warning Signs PSA

    How You Can Help Prevent Violence

    Say Something Program Logo

    Learn more about the signs and when and how to speak up with our Say Something program. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, programs are available at no-cost to middle and high schools nationwide.Get Started

    Sandy Hook Promise Favicon

    Join with more than 5 million caring people like you who have made the promise to protect our kids. This is a Promise to truly honor the lives lost by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation.

    Make The Promise

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  • Dianne Decker Bomar to City Council: For our children, there is no more important work that you will do

    Dianne Decker Bomar to City Council: For our children, there is no more important work that you will do

    EDITOR’S NOTE:

    This is a statement Dianne Decker Bomar read at the open forum of the May 22 Loveland City Council meeting. Loveland Magazine Publisher, David Miller stood at the podium with Bomar and expressed his endorsement of the statement. Council did not engage in the conversation of declaring June 1 Gun Sense Safety Day in Loveland.

     

    Dianne Decker Bomar

    by Dianne Decker Bomar,

    There have been 288 school shootings in the United States since 2009.

    At least 2,500 children and adults have died as the result of these shootings.

    We have all heard the newly-released statistic that more school children have been killed in 2018 alone than Americans serving in the active military service. I will let that sink in. More children are dead from school shootings than those serving in the Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard in 2018.

    Gunmen, whether adults or youthful peers of the victims, have had access to firearms with the ability to wound and kill quickly in settings where we send our children to learn and grow. 

    “The end result was the same:  children as young as five, and adults as old as 75 were killed in the place we believed for decades was safe… their school.”

    Whether this ability was a result of multiple guns, or firearms with modified features to fire on victims in rapid succession, the end result was the same:  children as young as five, and adults as old as 75 were killed in the place we believed for decades was safe… their school.

    This council has been asked to declare June 1 Gun Sense Safety Day in Loveland.  

    This council has been asked to celebrate Gun Sense Safety by decking themselves and our community in orange: ribbons, lighting, clothing, and whatever conveys your support of the mission of Moms Demand Action, Mayors Against Gun Violence, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Sandy Hook Promise:

    That mission is to engage in meaningful change to address the epidemic of school violence in our community and across the United States.

    That mission is to support the Second Amendment and at the same time provide fundamental, common sense approaches to the very specific issues which are a result of modern technology and profound special interest lobbying.

    This is not an effort to strip responsible gun owners of their firearms, about which I believe at least a few of you on council have personal concerns.  

    “I encourage each of you to search out answers which prove to this community that you take our children’s, teachers, aides, and administrators lives seriously.”

    I encourage each of you to search out answers which prove to this community that you take our children’s, teachers, aides, and administrators lives seriously. That you acknowledge that the current means and methods are not working and a new view and action is necessary.

    Please show that your personal beliefs are congruous with the health and well-being of all of Loveland’s children.

    Please know that you hold a unique position of influence and that meaningful change has to include everyone in the conversation about gun sense legislation and safety.

    There is no more important work that you will do than to engage in the conversation in this meaningful way to work toward safety in our schools.

    Please declare June 1 Gun Sense Safety Day in Loveland and promote the conversation which you know has to take place in order for change to begin, and for healing to take place.

    There is no more important work that you will do than to engage in the conversation in this meaningful way to work toward safety in our schools.