Besides being the halls of learning, schools are also the halls of raging hormones. We had the "Jocks" against the "Hoods in my day. We had the arranged "see you after school" fight. We had the bullies inside and outside of school who pushed you around, stole your lunch money and other possesions.

The one thing we didn't have was the massive violence with weapons on television and in the theaters. When you got into a fight in my days, the two things I remember most were that getting beaten while fighting back didn't really hurt that much, and if you fought back, even the toughest bully would be less likely to take you on again either because he gained respect for you or because despite losing, you still managed to hurt him.

Todays violence in schools, as well as "drive-by" shootings seem to be committed primarily by cowards or wimpy kids who use guns because of of the desire to emulate a lot of the movies "anti-heros" who are always forgiven and even looked up to at the end of the movie by those who shunned them at first.

The bully who uses his fists and in the process vents some of his inner anger is actually a better person than the quiet "good kid" who maintains his pent up rage while planning a slaughter against all because of the actions, (real or imagined) of a few.

Bountyhunter