September 5, 2024 • 25 mins
In this episode, Tudor, along with Kyle Olson and Sara Broadwater, discuss the recent school shooting in Georgia. Tudor expresses her shock and concern as a parent, emphasizing the emotional toll on families and the need for deeper conversations about school safety, mental health, and gun access for minors. Kyle highlights Michigan's initiatives to address youth mental health and questions the effectiveness of reactive laws. The episode underscores the urgency of a comprehensive approach to protect children, advocating for education, accountability, and proactive measures to prevent future tragedies. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I'm here with Kyle
Olsen and Sarah Broadwater and we are talking about Georgia today.
Yesterday we had a devastating school shooting. It's I mean,
it's just shocking to me. It's the first week of school.
It's very hard to hear these things as a parent.
And I know Sarah and I were talking this morning.
(00:24):
She's like, look, even if you're not a parent, it's
devastating to hear. And I think that we as a
society want to immediately blame someone, you know, we instead
of kind of unpacking it, stepping back, we want to
blame someone. And that is hard because I think that's
human nature to be mad and want to know why.
I mean, just before we started recording, we're like going
(00:45):
through what details do we know? And we're still learning,
We're still learning what happened. We're still trying to figure
out how this kid got in there. I think, to me,
the most shocking part about this is that this kid
was fourteen, younger than my oldest child, walking in with
what we understand from what we little we know was
(01:06):
an ar style weapon that he went in and shot
up his classmates. With and I think it's shocking. But
I also think that we say this and then we
move on, and I'm tired of us moving on.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I was texting you this morning about the coverage. I
was flipping through the different networks, and I'm not saying
I want wall to wall coverage, because I think there's
a balance here, because you also don't want to glorify
the shooter and make him famous, and that's exactly what
a lot of these kids wants and the reason that
they do it. But it was an interesting way to
look at it this morning, when I mean, it really
(01:42):
didn't get the coverage that it typically got, and so
the conversation becomes, are we starting to be hardened to it?
And it just becomes a part of regular society that
we just say, oh, with the school shooting, it's going
to happen every once in a while. And that's the fear,
I think.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And that's what I thought when I because yesterday I
picked up my daughter from high school and I was
listening to the coverage on the radio, and she got
in the car and she was like, what's wrong? And
we talked about it, and I said and then and
then they immediately said the Vice President's coming out and
she's going to speak on this, and so we were
both quiet and we listened, and you know, she said
(02:17):
the normal things like this is devastating, we're sad our
kids and our kids should never have to be worried
about going to school, and everybody cheered, and that felt
off Like in that moment, I felt like, I don't know,
it just didn't feel genuine and you know, in these moments,
(02:39):
do you what do you say? But it still felt
very disconnected to what it's like as a parent to
be wondering if your kid is safe and what these
parents are going through, the unimaginable losing your child in
such a violent way. And then she says, but we're
(03:00):
the underdog in this race and we've got to keep fighting,
and just this roorist cheer, and I thought, this is
the problem. It's something that we don't it's an uncomfortable conversation.
People don't want to have the conversation. But what are
we doing about it? And maybe it's not politically. I mean,
we've talked about this. Maybe it's not politically. Maybe we
(03:20):
need to be educating our kids in a different way.
Maybe there needs to be campaigns going to kids talking
about the importance of life and you know, not not
doing these things and there's nothing that bad, and there's
I don't know, I don't see those messages going to
my kids. I don't see positive messages. In fact, in
(03:41):
society today, see a lot of negative messages going to kids,
like nothing can be this bad. And yet at the
same time, I look at what happened in just Michigan
this year they cut school safety funding. I mean, there
are options too to keep our kids safe, and we're
cutting funding to that. It just blows my mind.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And The Midwesterner had a story Wednesday about you know,
one of these one of the issues is that I mean,
I think it's anecdotal, but I think clearly people are
saying there are mental health issues going on. If you
are a fourteen year old kid and that is one
(04:20):
something that you think is right or it's justified or
anything like that, obviously there's some significant issues going on.
So then the question is how do you deal with
that and how do you try to intervene in these
sorts of situations so something like that doesn't happen. And
(04:40):
what Michigan is doing is they are they're bringing in
AmeriCorps personnel, which is eighteen to twenty four year olds
to be health mental health navigators, that's what they're calling them.
They're going to put them in schools. I don't know
exactly if the idea.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Is enough themselves at twenty four, how does that even work?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
But they're saying that this is a solution, is to
have kids who have just graduated, just graduate, graduated high school,
or are in college or just graduated college. They're the
ones that we're going to look to to intervene on
these sorts of situations. And is that a solution? And
then on top of that, what we see and after
(05:23):
these sorts of you know, horrific things, is we need
red flag laws. We need we need to charge parents
and all of it in its whether it's every town
US or every town what's it called, every town USA, whatever,
or it's the other you know, anti gun groups. They
(05:45):
have sort of whittled down what needs to be done
and if you pass these laws, then you know things
will be better. But there but the other incident we
haven't talked about yet is what happened at the Michigan
State Fair and the fourteen year old kid was killed,
and so of course the logical question is, well, one,
(06:05):
why is a fourteen year old out at four o'clock
in the morning at the state fair? Why does the
state fair open all of that? But how did this
person get the gun? Is the parent going to be charged?
But then, of course the problem is that that is
a that is a reactive sort of thing. So this
happens and then the parent has charged, so it's a
(06:27):
very complicated thing.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, and it's not legal. It's not legal for these
kids to have weapons like this and walk into the
state fair and shoot someone or walk into school. But
honestly to what you're saying, I mean, I don't understand
how does a fourteen year old get this kind of
a gun? How does this happen? And yeah, I do
think the parents are responsible. The kid is fourteen. Now,
(06:51):
I went to the doctor yesterday with my daughter who
is thirteen, and she's such an adult now. She had
to sign over a medical proxy to me so that
I can actually help her with her medical decisions. So
apparently there are people that feel like someone who is
thirteen has the mental capacity to take care of everything
(07:12):
in their lives, which I think is ridiculous because I
do not understand how a fourteen year old has this gun.
And honestly, when we talk about these air fifteen guns,
I know this is an unpopular position to take, but
why are kids allowed to use an AAR fifteen anywhere?
(07:32):
Why do they get to Why would a shooting range
allow this? I mean, why do we not have limits
on the age of somebody who can be shooting and
be practicing with an air fifteen gun. Why does a
fourteen year old have this kind of teaching in their lives?
And yeahsad that does I go back to the parents.
(07:53):
Who is responsible for this? Why do you have to
be twenty one to get alcohol, but you don't have
to be twenty one to shoot an AR fifteen.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
This is the part that both sides don't want to
talk about because every side is ingrained on their little
niche issue of this area. The Republicans don't necessarily want
to talk about how guns potentially could be involved in
some of these things. The Democrats don't want to talk
about how big pharma and mental health potentially could be
impacting a lot of these things. And so we get
into this political DC world where something happens and they
(08:25):
say we're going to do a commission. Something happens and
they say we're going to research it and study it
for ten years, and then ultimately nothing happens. I mean
the MSU campus shooting at Michigan State. They claim they're
going to do all these things to protect these kids.
The parents go and ask where the update is and
they're like, oh, we installed some sirens to alert people,
but it doesn't It still doesn't actually solve any of
(08:47):
the problems. And that's the problem with politicians being involved.
I think there's a place for politicians to be involved.
They need to have a discussion about it. They need
to be pursuing meaningful legislation where it makes sense, but
they can't automatically go to the politicized version of it.
And that's which I mean Parkland for instance. It was
very clear after Parkland. I worked in the Department of
(09:09):
Education afterwards where we did the commission on school safety.
But both sides wanted to pick apart which parents they
listened to from Parkland. And again I'm going to talk
about both sides are in this sense. Obviously, the Republicans
had their pick parents that they wanted to talk to.
The Democrats had their pick parents and students that they
wanted to talk to as well. And it's just like, why,
(09:30):
I don't understand why we can't have this conversation altogether.
Every parent's can feel differently about losing their child or
having their child almost taken from them. Every kid's going
to feel differently about when they were in that position too,
But we're not having the conversation together. We just immediately
pick sides and we say these parents are advocating for this,
and these parents are advocating for that, and then there's
no coming together on what actually the solution is.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Think the majority of these young kids that are getting
these I am all for parents hunting with their kids
and kids being you know, go through going through hunter safety.
I mean, I know people that went through hunter training
in high school. They learned how to use a weapon
and it was a hunting rifle. And like I said,
(10:22):
I know this is unpopular, but I just don't understand
why little kids are using a weapon of this caliber.
And I know that I'm going to get attacked for
that statement, but I got kids going to school every day,
and I keep hearing people say, oh, you know, I
care about making sure schools are safe. The other thing
(10:43):
you brought up is pharmaceutical companies. Why the heck do
we not get to know what medications these kids are on?
And I'm sorry, but when you go shoot up a school,
your privacy is over. Forget about that. We're going to
know every I want to know everything about this kid.
I want to know who is responsible, because I don't
believe we just suddenly have this mental health crisis. This
(11:05):
is directly correlates with suddenly all of these kids being
on meds, every one of them. You got somebody on riddling,
you get somebody on adderall, you get somebody on this.
Tell me what these kids that specifically committed these crimes,
these kids who decided to go do the unthinkable shoot
up their classmates, what medications are they on? How was
(11:30):
their mind changed through some sort of medication that is
in their system?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Correct me if I'm wrong on this. But wasn't it
just this week that the Covenant shooter in Nashville, the
manifesto and everything was finally released. So to me, I mean,
why are we waiting so long? They've had this information.
I obviously you want to make sure it's all accurate,
and you want to go whatever. I get that, but
I mean, this is so much past the time where
(11:56):
they wait for people because again we're hardened to this
issue you and so people forget about it to then
release this information where they assume it will get no
one will cover it, and we just still don't actually know.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And that's why I'm like, is this outside of politics?
Because we look to politicians to help us all the time,
which seems kind of funny to me because these politicians,
when they have a vested interest in not exposing what
pharmaceuticals are on because the pharmaceutical companies pay for them.
The fact that corporations play in our politics.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Is a disaster well and really, to me, the Democrats
love to say common sense gun legislation, but when it
comes to these things, it really does come down to
common sense. I mean, if you have weapons of whatever,
it doesn't matter what it is, keep it away from kids.
I mean, why is this complicated?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And there is a story now this has been reported,
Like I mean, we're very early on, I don't know
if this is true, but it's been reported that the
FBI already had this kid their watch list, that they
already went to the parents' house and the dad told them,
don't worry, I've got all I only have hunting rifles
and they're all looked up. He can't get to them.
(13:10):
So if it didn't come from his house, which I
who knows, I mean, I suspect it must have. But
if it didn't come from his house, how the heck
does a fourteen year old get an air style weapon?
I just and but also how many how many times
do we have to hear that the FBI knew that
(13:31):
the FBI knew that a fourteen year old kid was
on the list, Like, I don't know, what is this
is crazy? That's one thing that we don't talk about
a lot is why are there no improvements being made
within our government system for how all of these agents
agencies talk to each other. I mean, I just remember
even from the level of like the Treasury Department talking
to federal student aid, like those systems didn't really even
(13:54):
work in the breakdown, And that's in the scheme of things,
so much less important than the FBA. F yeah, talking
to federal like local law enforcement. So how do we still,
like we talk about the school safety aspect of this,
but also why are we not talking about how our
agencies talk to each other and improving the infrastructure of
that as well, because that's a key part of this
that continues to happen. You know, we had a family
(14:16):
on the podcast who lost their son. They been championing
Ethan's Law across the country, and he was a kid.
His situation was that he went to a friend's house,
the friend got out the dad's gun that wasn't locked up.
He ended up getting shot in the head and dying,
and mom and dad are trying to get the law
(14:36):
passed across the country that would say that if you
have an unsecured gun and it goes off and kills someone,
then you are responsible and you will be locked up.
So you know, this is this is now in I
think they enacted it in Michigan's right. So so now
we've had grandparents and we've had parents and a lot
(14:58):
of people who had a gun just on the couch
and a toddler shoots themselves and dies. Again, Like to
your point, Kyle, that's a reactive law, and I think
that you know that's well, okay, so maybe you're getting
maybe you feel like you're getting justice after the fact,
but it's not preventing it. And we pass these laws
(15:21):
with no education. That's the thing that blows my mind.
Why are we not running ads as a community like it?
Why isn't there And maybe it's not a government thing.
Maybe there needs to be organizations that are about protecting
kids and they're running ads to young people, young families
that probably have a gun, that say this is and
(15:42):
you see the tragedy of losing someone or to kids,
or you know, there were just we got to educate
people on this. A law is only effective after someone's dead.
Why can't we tell people ahead of time do this.
There are options for you to get these safes. They're
there for you. It's not hard, you can get money,
(16:03):
you can You should not be prohibited from getting a
safe for your gun. That should be the easiest thing
possible to make sure kids are safe.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Well, And yes, I think that needs to be done.
But then also, you know, maybe it is reactive, but
maybe penalties need to be increased. If you're going to
be that stupid and irresponsible, then maybe you should never
be a member of society. Again, I mean, maybe that's
it needs. And I suppose that's extreme. But either we're
(16:32):
going to take this seriously or not.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think that's the are we taking this seriously or not?
And I'm like throwing that out to both sides again
because everybody seems to want to just use it during
an election year to score a couple points. I mean,
I remember in your debate with Whitmer, it was, are
you going to tell me that books are more dangerous
than gone? She has done nothing but Sandy, there's nothing
that's actually been done, so everybody loves their little talking
(16:56):
point that they can go out there.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And she was a governor during a school shoe That's
the thing that makes me so mad about it. I'm like,
I just feel like going to these people and saying,
screw you, you just used it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
For your She had a tangible report on how to
help protect kids, and she did none of it.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Ahead of time.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
She is doing something. She's putting teenagers into schools to
be health mental health navigators. That's what she's doing.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And she had a report. And this is obviously I'm
talking about a Democrat here, and I'm not saying that
Republicans are in the right because, like I have said,
man Or Columbine you go through them all in your head.
Columbine happened when I was in college, just like almost
(17:43):
thirty years ago that Columbine happened, and here we are
today talking about this again. So there has not been
a solution there. And to all the people who say
it's got to be stricter gun laws, there's stricter gun
laws in areas, and it hasn't. How why aren't we
sitting down and saying, Okay, let's really seriously talk about
(18:05):
how to protect young people in our communities. Because a
school is You've got a school one day, You've got
the state fair another day. I mean, a few weeks
ago we had the largest mass shooting ever in the
city of Detroit. It's there is a constant situation going on,
and we just go, oh, this is so, this is
just such a problem, and nobody and one side blames
(18:27):
the other side constantly. But Whitmer, for example, she campaigns
and says that she says that it sounds great in
a debate. She has done nothing. And our Republicans have
begged her and begged the Democrats and the legislature to
do something. And we had the what the biggest surplus
we've seen in decades in the state of Michigan. We
(18:50):
could have gone into these schools, we could have put
these locks on these doors, we could have had the
bare minimum safety measures put into our schools. And they
chose to cut the school safety budget. It's unthinkable, it's unforgivable.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
We talk a lot about government spending and where money goes,
and the Democrats love to say where you spend your
money is where you prioritize things, and so that's when
they always come after the Republicans in Congress or in
the local and state level too when they want to
cut a certain niche area as well. You clearly don't
care about that because you're not going to spend money
on it. I have issues with that argument for a
couple reasons. But in this case, we waste a lot
(19:27):
of money on a lot of things. Yeah, right, And
this is an area where if we're going to invest
in something. You've said this before, why are we not
investing in our kids, who ultimately are the future of
the country to meet us a national security issue on
top of everything else, protecting our kids and protecting the
future of our country. I mean, when I worked in
Capitol Hill, my boss at the time, introduced a bill
(19:50):
that was co sponsored. He was a Republican from Texas.
We co sponsored it with a Democrat who represented Parkland
after the Parkland shooting to put two billion dollars out
there in a grant program for schools over ten years
specifically to apply to increase and harden their schools. It
was all focused on proven methods of surveillance or you know,
(20:11):
automatic locking doors, bulletproof things. And it went nowhere and
he tered. I mean, my boss continued to introduce it
every year, and this was bipartisan support from the legislation
side that could have a meaningful impact.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, and I'm suppose it gets lost. I'm so sick
of hearing. If you do that, then it's like your
kid goes to school on a fortress. The kids don't
even know. It's done in a way that you don't
even see it. And so it's a sophisticated now that
it is not like you're walking through metal detectors and
you're being wanded down. But I mean that's just not
the reality. And the alternative is to just leave it
(20:46):
out there and just continue to have this occur. And
I mean, you have to at some point wonder do
people want it to occur because they want to just
keep this narrative going. I don't know. I mean, I
would hope that no one would ever want this. Why
does it? Why does it happen? And then it goes
by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Why are the Michigan State parents
saying that they're not hearing back from anybody in government
in Michigan. I mean, to me, that is shocking. You
had a shooting on your campus. Your campus is located
(21:26):
in the heart of the eighteenth most violent city in
the country, and they put up a few cameras and
a siren and what were you saying? There was a
siren and nobody budged.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I was told this from a parent who has not
publicly gone out there and said this yet, so I
will not name names. But they were brought back onto
campus on Michigan State's campus to say, look what we've done.
And they played this siren. Think of it like a
tornado siren or something that goes off. And the parents
were sitting there watching as a siren goes off, and
nobody was doing anything students weren't stopping in their tracks nothing,
(22:00):
And she actually stopped a student and said, do you
know do you hear that? Like what's going on? You know?
A student on his phone? And he was like, I
don't know. They're probably testing something, who knows, but.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
What the what is a kid? Michigan State, where I
graduated from, is a massive campus like IU or anywhere else.
It's a massive campus. So this this siren goes off. Realistically,
what are people supposed to do? Which is why the
quote unquote solutions are so stupid, because what are they
supposed to run inside? Are they supposed to run outside?
(22:33):
Are they supposed to stop, drop and roll? What are
they supposed to do? They have no.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Idea, So we obviously haven't come up with a solution,
but we are talking about it, and that's how That's
what I feel like is important. And I wish that
we would come together and say we are going to
forget about who's on what side of the aisle and
just look at our kids. And honestly, I don't think
(22:57):
that's so hard. I think it's outrageous that people it's
so hard, and I wonder where we are in society
today that we think it's impossible to go to their side.
I might disagree with the other side nine times out
of ten, but I think we agree on keeping our
kids safe. We disagree on how, but why can't we
come together and say, Okay, I'll take this idea from
(23:19):
you and we try this one got to try something well.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And this is what I know. You brought up the
Song family in Ethan's Law. This is why I respect
that family so much because I think, I mean, they
have been open that I think they've gotten probably more
reception from the Democrat side, but they are not only
talking to the Democrat side. They are engaging with legislators
on both sides there. I mean, they agree to come
on the podcast and have that conversation. And so it's
(23:45):
just that's what has to happen. And so we think
about the Parents' Right movement during COVID. In my mind,
this should be the next iteration of the parents Right.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
This should have been before. I mean, yes, it should never.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Have been stop in with yeah, but if you want
to take that Parent's Right movement and kids rights movement
at the end of the day to the next iteration,
this should be the focus because it's something that all
parents can come around. It's not a very It should
not be an issue that only one parent group focuses on.
I mean, this is a broader movement.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Tuck your pride away, forget about all of the things
that you think you have to stand for every day.
Look at kids like Peel back all the layers of
what you know as a political person as being on
one side or in one party. Peel that back and
just sit down and talk. I mean, this is not
so hard. And if this is so hard, and where
(24:38):
do we go from here as a country, If it
is honestly so hard for us as society to sit
down and say, okay, let's I mean, let's brainstorm. I
think about what we were little and our teachers would say, okay,
we're gonna put on our thinking caps. We're all going
to sit in a circle and let's make bubbles on
the paper, and we're all going to put our ideas
down and let's see which ones are the best ideas
(25:00):
at the end. We did this in business, when I
was in business, we did this. Why are we doing this?
Are we really that incapable of talking to one another
that we can't put down our ideas and say, okay,
let's pick and choose which ones can go together.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It shouldn't be that hard if the focus is actually
on kids, right, And that's where everything gets lost. The
focus no longer becomes on kids, it becomes on adults.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well, we haven't solved the issue, but I really think
that there is an opportunity to solve it. And I
hope that we can continue talking about this in the future.
And I'm glad that you guys were all here to
listen to us today. I thank Kyle Olsen and Sarah
Brownwater for being with me on the Tutor Dixon Podcast
for this episode and others. Go to Tutor dixonpodcast dot com.
You can subscribe right there. Send us your email will
(25:44):
send you out some stuff about the podcast. Also, go
to iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts and join us next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Have a bless day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I'm here with Kyle
Olsen and Sarah Broadwater and we are talking about Georgia today.
Yesterday we had a devastating school shooting. It's I mean,
it's just shocking to me. It's the first week of school.
It's very hard to hear these things as a parent.
And I know Sarah and I were talking this morning.
(00:24):
She's like, look, even if you're not a parent, it's
devastating to hear. And I think that we as a
society want to immediately blame someone, you know, we instead
of kind of unpacking it, stepping back, we want to
blame someone. And that is hard because I think that's
human nature to be mad and want to know why.
I mean, just before we started recording, we're like going
(00:45):
through what details do we know? And we're still learning,
We're still learning what happened. We're still trying to figure
out how this kid got in there. I think, to me,
the most shocking part about this is that this kid
was fourteen, younger than my oldest child, walking in with
what we understand from what we little we know was
(01:06):
an ar style weapon that he went in and shot
up his classmates. With and I think it's shocking. But
I also think that we say this and then we
move on, and I'm tired of us moving on.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I was texting you this morning about the coverage. I
was flipping through the different networks, and I'm not saying
I want wall to wall coverage, because I think there's
a balance here, because you also don't want to glorify
the shooter and make him famous, and that's exactly what
a lot of these kids wants and the reason that
they do it. But it was an interesting way to
look at it this morning, when I mean, it really
(01:42):
didn't get the coverage that it typically got, and so
the conversation becomes, are we starting to be hardened to it?
And it just becomes a part of regular society that
we just say, oh, with the school shooting, it's going
to happen every once in a while. And that's the fear,
I think.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And that's what I thought when I because yesterday I
picked up my daughter from high school and I was
listening to the coverage on the radio, and she got
in the car and she was like, what's wrong? And
we talked about it, and I said and then and
then they immediately said the Vice President's coming out and
she's going to speak on this, and so we were
both quiet and we listened, and you know, she said
(02:17):
the normal things like this is devastating, we're sad our
kids and our kids should never have to be worried
about going to school, and everybody cheered, and that felt
off Like in that moment, I felt like, I don't know,
it just didn't feel genuine and you know, in these moments,
(02:39):
do you what do you say? But it still felt
very disconnected to what it's like as a parent to
be wondering if your kid is safe and what these
parents are going through, the unimaginable losing your child in
such a violent way. And then she says, but we're
(03:00):
the underdog in this race and we've got to keep fighting,
and just this roorist cheer, and I thought, this is
the problem. It's something that we don't it's an uncomfortable conversation.
People don't want to have the conversation. But what are
we doing about it? And maybe it's not politically. I mean,
we've talked about this. Maybe it's not politically. Maybe we
(03:20):
need to be educating our kids in a different way.
Maybe there needs to be campaigns going to kids talking
about the importance of life and you know, not not
doing these things and there's nothing that bad, and there's
I don't know, I don't see those messages going to
my kids. I don't see positive messages. In fact, in
(03:41):
society today, see a lot of negative messages going to kids,
like nothing can be this bad. And yet at the
same time, I look at what happened in just Michigan
this year they cut school safety funding. I mean, there
are options too to keep our kids safe, and we're
cutting funding to that. It just blows my mind.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And The Midwesterner had a story Wednesday about you know,
one of these one of the issues is that I mean,
I think it's anecdotal, but I think clearly people are
saying there are mental health issues going on. If you
are a fourteen year old kid and that is one
(04:20):
something that you think is right or it's justified or
anything like that, obviously there's some significant issues going on.
So then the question is how do you deal with
that and how do you try to intervene in these
sorts of situations so something like that doesn't happen. And
(04:40):
what Michigan is doing is they are they're bringing in
AmeriCorps personnel, which is eighteen to twenty four year olds
to be health mental health navigators, that's what they're calling them.
They're going to put them in schools. I don't know
exactly if the idea.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Is enough themselves at twenty four, how does that even work?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
But they're saying that this is a solution, is to
have kids who have just graduated, just graduate, graduated high school,
or are in college or just graduated college. They're the
ones that we're going to look to to intervene on
these sorts of situations. And is that a solution? And
then on top of that, what we see and after
(05:23):
these sorts of you know, horrific things, is we need
red flag laws. We need we need to charge parents
and all of it in its whether it's every town
US or every town what's it called, every town USA, whatever,
or it's the other you know, anti gun groups. They
(05:45):
have sort of whittled down what needs to be done
and if you pass these laws, then you know things
will be better. But there but the other incident we
haven't talked about yet is what happened at the Michigan
State Fair and the fourteen year old kid was killed,
and so of course the logical question is, well, one,
(06:05):
why is a fourteen year old out at four o'clock
in the morning at the state fair? Why does the
state fair open all of that? But how did this
person get the gun? Is the parent going to be charged?
But then, of course the problem is that that is
a that is a reactive sort of thing. So this
happens and then the parent has charged, so it's a
(06:27):
very complicated thing.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, and it's not legal. It's not legal for these
kids to have weapons like this and walk into the
state fair and shoot someone or walk into school. But
honestly to what you're saying, I mean, I don't understand
how does a fourteen year old get this kind of
a gun? How does this happen? And yeah, I do
think the parents are responsible. The kid is fourteen. Now,
(06:51):
I went to the doctor yesterday with my daughter who
is thirteen, and she's such an adult now. She had
to sign over a medical proxy to me so that
I can actually help her with her medical decisions. So
apparently there are people that feel like someone who is
thirteen has the mental capacity to take care of everything
(07:12):
in their lives, which I think is ridiculous because I
do not understand how a fourteen year old has this gun.
And honestly, when we talk about these air fifteen guns,
I know this is an unpopular position to take, but
why are kids allowed to use an AAR fifteen anywhere?
(07:32):
Why do they get to Why would a shooting range
allow this? I mean, why do we not have limits
on the age of somebody who can be shooting and
be practicing with an air fifteen gun. Why does a
fourteen year old have this kind of teaching in their lives?
And yeahsad that does I go back to the parents.
(07:53):
Who is responsible for this? Why do you have to
be twenty one to get alcohol, but you don't have
to be twenty one to shoot an AR fifteen.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
This is the part that both sides don't want to
talk about because every side is ingrained on their little
niche issue of this area. The Republicans don't necessarily want
to talk about how guns potentially could be involved in
some of these things. The Democrats don't want to talk
about how big pharma and mental health potentially could be
impacting a lot of these things. And so we get
into this political DC world where something happens and they
(08:25):
say we're going to do a commission. Something happens and
they say we're going to research it and study it
for ten years, and then ultimately nothing happens. I mean
the MSU campus shooting at Michigan State. They claim they're
going to do all these things to protect these kids.
The parents go and ask where the update is and
they're like, oh, we installed some sirens to alert people,
but it doesn't It still doesn't actually solve any of
(08:47):
the problems. And that's the problem with politicians being involved.
I think there's a place for politicians to be involved.
They need to have a discussion about it. They need
to be pursuing meaningful legislation where it makes sense, but
they can't automatically go to the politicized version of it.
And that's which I mean Parkland for instance. It was
very clear after Parkland. I worked in the Department of
(09:09):
Education afterwards where we did the commission on school safety.
But both sides wanted to pick apart which parents they
listened to from Parkland. And again I'm going to talk
about both sides are in this sense. Obviously, the Republicans
had their pick parents that they wanted to talk to.
The Democrats had their pick parents and students that they
wanted to talk to as well. And it's just like, why,
(09:30):
I don't understand why we can't have this conversation altogether.
Every parent's can feel differently about losing their child or
having their child almost taken from them. Every kid's going
to feel differently about when they were in that position too,
But we're not having the conversation together. We just immediately
pick sides and we say these parents are advocating for this,
and these parents are advocating for that, and then there's
no coming together on what actually the solution is.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Think the majority of these young kids that are getting
these I am all for parents hunting with their kids
and kids being you know, go through going through hunter safety.
I mean, I know people that went through hunter training
in high school. They learned how to use a weapon
and it was a hunting rifle. And like I said,
(10:22):
I know this is unpopular, but I just don't understand
why little kids are using a weapon of this caliber.
And I know that I'm going to get attacked for
that statement, but I got kids going to school every day,
and I keep hearing people say, oh, you know, I
care about making sure schools are safe. The other thing
(10:43):
you brought up is pharmaceutical companies. Why the heck do
we not get to know what medications these kids are on?
And I'm sorry, but when you go shoot up a school,
your privacy is over. Forget about that. We're going to
know every I want to know everything about this kid.
I want to know who is responsible, because I don't
believe we just suddenly have this mental health crisis. This
(11:05):
is directly correlates with suddenly all of these kids being
on meds, every one of them. You got somebody on riddling,
you get somebody on adderall, you get somebody on this.
Tell me what these kids that specifically committed these crimes,
these kids who decided to go do the unthinkable shoot
up their classmates, what medications are they on? How was
(11:30):
their mind changed through some sort of medication that is
in their system?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Correct me if I'm wrong on this. But wasn't it
just this week that the Covenant shooter in Nashville, the
manifesto and everything was finally released. So to me, I mean,
why are we waiting so long? They've had this information.
I obviously you want to make sure it's all accurate,
and you want to go whatever. I get that, but
I mean, this is so much past the time where
(11:56):
they wait for people because again we're hardened to this
issue you and so people forget about it to then
release this information where they assume it will get no
one will cover it, and we just still don't actually know.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And that's why I'm like, is this outside of politics?
Because we look to politicians to help us all the time,
which seems kind of funny to me because these politicians,
when they have a vested interest in not exposing what
pharmaceuticals are on because the pharmaceutical companies pay for them.
The fact that corporations play in our politics.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Is a disaster well and really, to me, the Democrats
love to say common sense gun legislation, but when it
comes to these things, it really does come down to
common sense. I mean, if you have weapons of whatever,
it doesn't matter what it is, keep it away from kids.
I mean, why is this complicated?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And there is a story now this has been reported,
Like I mean, we're very early on, I don't know
if this is true, but it's been reported that the
FBI already had this kid their watch list, that they
already went to the parents' house and the dad told them,
don't worry, I've got all I only have hunting rifles
and they're all looked up. He can't get to them.
(13:10):
So if it didn't come from his house, which I
who knows, I mean, I suspect it must have. But
if it didn't come from his house, how the heck
does a fourteen year old get an air style weapon?
I just and but also how many how many times
do we have to hear that the FBI knew that
(13:31):
the FBI knew that a fourteen year old kid was
on the list, Like, I don't know, what is this
is crazy? That's one thing that we don't talk about
a lot is why are there no improvements being made
within our government system for how all of these agents
agencies talk to each other. I mean, I just remember
even from the level of like the Treasury Department talking
to federal student aid, like those systems didn't really even
(13:54):
work in the breakdown, And that's in the scheme of things,
so much less important than the FBA. F yeah, talking
to federal like local law enforcement. So how do we still,
like we talk about the school safety aspect of this,
but also why are we not talking about how our
agencies talk to each other and improving the infrastructure of
that as well, because that's a key part of this
that continues to happen. You know, we had a family
(14:16):
on the podcast who lost their son. They been championing
Ethan's Law across the country, and he was a kid.
His situation was that he went to a friend's house,
the friend got out the dad's gun that wasn't locked up.
He ended up getting shot in the head and dying,
and mom and dad are trying to get the law
(14:36):
passed across the country that would say that if you
have an unsecured gun and it goes off and kills someone,
then you are responsible and you will be locked up.
So you know, this is this is now in I
think they enacted it in Michigan's right. So so now
we've had grandparents and we've had parents and a lot
(14:58):
of people who had a gun just on the couch
and a toddler shoots themselves and dies. Again, Like to
your point, Kyle, that's a reactive law, and I think
that you know that's well, okay, so maybe you're getting
maybe you feel like you're getting justice after the fact,
but it's not preventing it. And we pass these laws
(15:21):
with no education. That's the thing that blows my mind.
Why are we not running ads as a community like it?
Why isn't there And maybe it's not a government thing.
Maybe there needs to be organizations that are about protecting
kids and they're running ads to young people, young families
that probably have a gun, that say this is and
(15:42):
you see the tragedy of losing someone or to kids,
or you know, there were just we got to educate
people on this. A law is only effective after someone's dead.
Why can't we tell people ahead of time do this.
There are options for you to get these safes. They're
there for you. It's not hard, you can get money,
(16:03):
you can You should not be prohibited from getting a
safe for your gun. That should be the easiest thing
possible to make sure kids are safe.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Well, And yes, I think that needs to be done.
But then also, you know, maybe it is reactive, but
maybe penalties need to be increased. If you're going to
be that stupid and irresponsible, then maybe you should never
be a member of society. Again, I mean, maybe that's
it needs. And I suppose that's extreme. But either we're
(16:32):
going to take this seriously or not.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think that's the are we taking this seriously or not?
And I'm like throwing that out to both sides again
because everybody seems to want to just use it during
an election year to score a couple points. I mean,
I remember in your debate with Whitmer, it was, are
you going to tell me that books are more dangerous
than gone? She has done nothing but Sandy, there's nothing
that's actually been done, so everybody loves their little talking
(16:56):
point that they can go out there.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And she was a governor during a school shoe That's
the thing that makes me so mad about it. I'm like,
I just feel like going to these people and saying,
screw you, you just used it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
For your She had a tangible report on how to
help protect kids, and she did none of it.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Ahead of time.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
She is doing something. She's putting teenagers into schools to
be health mental health navigators. That's what she's doing.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And she had a report. And this is obviously I'm
talking about a Democrat here, and I'm not saying that
Republicans are in the right because, like I have said,
man Or Columbine you go through them all in your head.
Columbine happened when I was in college, just like almost
(17:43):
thirty years ago that Columbine happened, and here we are
today talking about this again. So there has not been
a solution there. And to all the people who say
it's got to be stricter gun laws, there's stricter gun
laws in areas, and it hasn't. How why aren't we
sitting down and saying, Okay, let's really seriously talk about
(18:05):
how to protect young people in our communities. Because a
school is You've got a school one day, You've got
the state fair another day. I mean, a few weeks
ago we had the largest mass shooting ever in the
city of Detroit. It's there is a constant situation going on,
and we just go, oh, this is so, this is
just such a problem, and nobody and one side blames
(18:27):
the other side constantly. But Whitmer, for example, she campaigns
and says that she says that it sounds great in
a debate. She has done nothing. And our Republicans have
begged her and begged the Democrats and the legislature to
do something. And we had the what the biggest surplus
we've seen in decades in the state of Michigan. We
(18:50):
could have gone into these schools, we could have put
these locks on these doors, we could have had the
bare minimum safety measures put into our schools. And they
chose to cut the school safety budget. It's unthinkable, it's unforgivable.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
We talk a lot about government spending and where money goes,
and the Democrats love to say where you spend your
money is where you prioritize things, and so that's when
they always come after the Republicans in Congress or in
the local and state level too when they want to
cut a certain niche area as well. You clearly don't
care about that because you're not going to spend money
on it. I have issues with that argument for a
couple reasons. But in this case, we waste a lot
(19:27):
of money on a lot of things. Yeah, right, And
this is an area where if we're going to invest
in something. You've said this before, why are we not
investing in our kids, who ultimately are the future of
the country to meet us a national security issue on
top of everything else, protecting our kids and protecting the
future of our country. I mean, when I worked in
Capitol Hill, my boss at the time, introduced a bill
(19:50):
that was co sponsored. He was a Republican from Texas.
We co sponsored it with a Democrat who represented Parkland
after the Parkland shooting to put two billion dollars out
there in a grant program for schools over ten years
specifically to apply to increase and harden their schools. It
was all focused on proven methods of surveillance or you know,
(20:11):
automatic locking doors, bulletproof things. And it went nowhere and
he tered. I mean, my boss continued to introduce it
every year, and this was bipartisan support from the legislation
side that could have a meaningful impact.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, and I'm suppose it gets lost. I'm so sick
of hearing. If you do that, then it's like your
kid goes to school on a fortress. The kids don't
even know. It's done in a way that you don't
even see it. And so it's a sophisticated now that
it is not like you're walking through metal detectors and
you're being wanded down. But I mean that's just not
the reality. And the alternative is to just leave it
(20:46):
out there and just continue to have this occur. And
I mean, you have to at some point wonder do
people want it to occur because they want to just
keep this narrative going. I don't know. I mean, I
would hope that no one would ever want this. Why
does it? Why does it happen? And then it goes
by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Why are the Michigan State parents
saying that they're not hearing back from anybody in government
in Michigan. I mean, to me, that is shocking. You
had a shooting on your campus. Your campus is located
(21:26):
in the heart of the eighteenth most violent city in
the country, and they put up a few cameras and
a siren and what were you saying? There was a
siren and nobody budged.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I was told this from a parent who has not
publicly gone out there and said this yet, so I
will not name names. But they were brought back onto
campus on Michigan State's campus to say, look what we've done.
And they played this siren. Think of it like a
tornado siren or something that goes off. And the parents
were sitting there watching as a siren goes off, and
nobody was doing anything students weren't stopping in their tracks nothing,
(22:00):
And she actually stopped a student and said, do you
know do you hear that? Like what's going on? You know?
A student on his phone? And he was like, I
don't know. They're probably testing something, who knows, but.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
What the what is a kid? Michigan State, where I
graduated from, is a massive campus like IU or anywhere else.
It's a massive campus. So this this siren goes off. Realistically,
what are people supposed to do? Which is why the
quote unquote solutions are so stupid, because what are they
supposed to run inside? Are they supposed to run outside?
(22:33):
Are they supposed to stop, drop and roll? What are
they supposed to do? They have no.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Idea, So we obviously haven't come up with a solution,
but we are talking about it, and that's how That's
what I feel like is important. And I wish that
we would come together and say we are going to
forget about who's on what side of the aisle and
just look at our kids. And honestly, I don't think
(22:57):
that's so hard. I think it's outrageous that people it's
so hard, and I wonder where we are in society
today that we think it's impossible to go to their side.
I might disagree with the other side nine times out
of ten, but I think we agree on keeping our
kids safe. We disagree on how, but why can't we
come together and say, Okay, I'll take this idea from
(23:19):
you and we try this one got to try something well.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And this is what I know. You brought up the
Song family in Ethan's Law. This is why I respect
that family so much because I think, I mean, they
have been open that I think they've gotten probably more
reception from the Democrat side, but they are not only
talking to the Democrat side. They are engaging with legislators
on both sides there. I mean, they agree to come
on the podcast and have that conversation. And so it's
(23:45):
just that's what has to happen. And so we think
about the Parents' Right movement during COVID. In my mind,
this should be the next iteration of the parents Right.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
This should have been before. I mean, yes, it should never.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Have been stop in with yeah, but if you want
to take that Parent's Right movement and kids rights movement
at the end of the day to the next iteration,
this should be the focus because it's something that all
parents can come around. It's not a very It should
not be an issue that only one parent group focuses on.
I mean, this is a broader movement.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Tuck your pride away, forget about all of the things
that you think you have to stand for every day.
Look at kids like Peel back all the layers of
what you know as a political person as being on
one side or in one party. Peel that back and
just sit down and talk. I mean, this is not
so hard. And if this is so hard, and where
(24:38):
do we go from here as a country, If it
is honestly so hard for us as society to sit
down and say, okay, let's I mean, let's brainstorm. I
think about what we were little and our teachers would say, okay,
we're gonna put on our thinking caps. We're all going
to sit in a circle and let's make bubbles on
the paper, and we're all going to put our ideas
down and let's see which ones are the best ideas
(25:00):
at the end. We did this in business, when I
was in business, we did this. Why are we doing this?
Are we really that incapable of talking to one another
that we can't put down our ideas and say, okay,
let's pick and choose which ones can go together.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
It shouldn't be that hard if the focus is actually
on kids, right, And that's where everything gets lost. The
focus no longer becomes on kids, it becomes on adults.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well, we haven't solved the issue, but I really think
that there is an opportunity to solve it. And I
hope that we can continue talking about this in the future.
And I'm glad that you guys were all here to
listen to us today. I thank Kyle Olsen and Sarah
Brownwater for being with me on the Tutor Dixon Podcast
for this episode and others. Go to Tutor dixonpodcast dot com.
You can subscribe right there. Send us your email will
(25:44):
send you out some stuff about the podcast. Also, go
to iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts and join us next time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Have a bless day.
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