American Sniper objective summary #2

In the second section of "American Sniper", Chris details the first action he got in Iraq against Iraqi militants in a oil facility. He tell about how their vehicles got stuck in mud the second they drove them off the Chinooks ramp. "'We're stuck!' said our crew chief. 'Yeah, we're stuck too,' said the Lieutenant. 'We're stuck,' said somebody else." (76) Also their scare with what they thought was a mortar shell that distributed chlorine gas, but turned out to just be some smoke coming from a dud. "White smoke started pouring out of the hole where the projectile had landed.'Gas!' yelled someone." (78) Chis goes on to tell about how he went to SEAL sniper school and the training and weapons he used. Once he graduated from sniper school, he was volunteered to be the a navigator by his CO, a position that at firs he worried that it would mean less action for him. Until later he got a message that the GROM (polish spec ops) needed snipers and navigators, so the navigator training ended up helping get into the fight faster. Chris gets a head start over the rest of his unit by operating in Iraq with the polish, but soon gets called back to fight in Fallujah with the Marines. He is sent to Fallujah to provide overwatch for the Marines tasked with clearing the slum like city of Insurgents, but soon finds that he is much more effective on the ground, so he borrows an M-16 and starts leading the Marines in their task of clearing each and every building. Fallujah held good times and bad times for Chris and the Marines. They enjoyed eating Thanksgiving dinner on the roof of a building in between firefights, and laughed as insurgents tried to cross a river on giant beach balls. But Chris makes clear what he'll remember most about his time in Fallujah is when a young Marine died on top of him when the two fell while Chris was carrying him out of a battle ridden alleyway.

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Essential question: How does gun control effect the area where it is enacted. 

Claim: Gun control does not reduce deaths in a specific area.

Reason: It will leave innocents unarmed. Civilians living without private gun ownership would be left defenseless and unable to provide for themselves and their families.

Evidence:in alaska the climate is not the heir is rampant crime and wild animals that are barely held at bay now with private gun ownership. The police are unable to get to places quick enough to stop a robbery or bear attack, so the main defense people have is to buy a gun.

alaske bear attack

The banning of private gun ownership would also leave people defenseless in the event of a catastrophic event, people would most likely be on their own to defend themselves against other hostile people. A riot would have the same reasoning of the police being unable to defend everyone that they have to.

American Sniper objective summary

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Gun control survey

Gun control survey

Discussion question post #3

Discuss how easily it was for Gary to find both the plans and parts to build a homemade bomb.
 Gary was always very good at building complicated things. "He'd made LEGO robots and programmed them with his computer so that when they ran into something they would go around it." (103) he was the brains behind the operation so it was most likely all his idea to get the bombs. The scary part of it was that he was able to get all the parts that he needed at the hardware store and the exact plans at the local library through the internet. With his brain he was able to build a very intricate and advanced bomb (advanced for the supplies at his disposal).

Discussion Question blog post #2

Discuss whether video games are the main  cause for gun violence?
Alot of people may think that video games are a direct cause for gun violence, but their is still no evidence to prove this. Yes many high school shooters have played an extensive amount of video games, and they may have been inspired by the games, but those people were already crazy and detached from logic and reason to begin with. Brendan from the book "Give a boy a gun" by Todd Strasser, is an excellent example of such a person. Brendan is a cast out in his school who is constantly harassed by the jocks for being different, he has been disturbingly obsessed with killing the jocks since he moved to the town in 7th grade, it wasn't until 10th grade that he discovered the video game doom, which he played obsessively. "Brendan was seriously into [first-person shooter video games]. If you want to know the truth, so were alot of other kids who didn't do what he did." (79). Brendan went on to shoot up the school dance with his friend Gary, but this was not caused by the games, it was, just like at columbine, caused by him being harassed by the jocks at his own school everyday for years. To answer the question, no, video games do not directly cause gun violence by themselves, they require a demented mind and years of mistreatment by others.

gun control smore

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Discussion question blog post 3/3/14

Discuss what caused Brendan to shoot up the school dance.

Brendan lost his sense of humanity after years of torment by bullies. He was constantly picked on by the jocks of the school for the sole reason that he didn't play any sports or participate in any school activities other than go to school. He changed middle schools in the middle of 6th grade after a move so as the new kid he was an easy target. He had little to no friends for the better part of middle school, and it only got worse in high school. The bullies got more physical and would shove him around the halls, and on one occasion actually beat him up over no reason. By the time he met Gary, another kid constantly harassed by jocks, he had a blood lust for their mutual tormentors, that was given new flame by Gary's smarts. Brendan couldn't go to the teachers because for the most part they didn't care about them. The school was so obsessed with their sports that the very thought of giving a football player a detention or anything that would keep him from playing was scorned apon. Brendan must have felt that he had no defense against the jocks other than violence. Which is why he felt it necessary to go to the school dance with Gary and the plan to kill everyone their and than themselves as a message to all the people that ignored their torment.

animoto on gun control

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Tuesday write blog post

 Tuesday write blog post

The Glendale school district has started monitoring their students social media. They are doing this through a company called Geo Listening.The district said that their intentions were to look for signs of drug use, bullying, and suicide. Even though their intentions were good, the district did not tell the students, and many were less than happy about their posts being monitored. I don't personally think that the district should be allowed to do this since they are obviously overstepping their bounds and authority over their students. If they were just monitoring any posts made on the school internet than that would be alright because that's the only place that they have any authority over their students. But once school is over, they don't have any power. They definitely be held responsible or feel responsible for what the students do off campus.Glendale school district viseo