Yet another school shooting

[AthenaAwakened]

Some Rightists say Cruz (the FL school shooter) was Antifa, or Muslim, or a Dreamer. Some Liberals say he was alt right. People who knew him say he was weird and depressed. His social media says he had a lot of guns and he killed small animals.

I'm going with the last two. I find those sufficient to explain a mass shooter. And they are things that you can actually check for yourself in the world of real things,

 

[Vork]

Some Rightists say Cruz (the FL school shooter) was Antifa, or Muslim, or a Dreamer. Some Liberals say he was alt right. People who knew him say he was weird and depressed. His social media says he had a lot of guns and he killed small animals.

I'm going with the last two. I find those sufficient to explain a mass shooter. And they are things that you can actually check for yourself in the world of real things,

Yeah neither "antifa" or "alt-right" would really explain shooting up a school. So even if he was one of those things, it wouldn't have clear relevance anyway, unless you could maybe make an argument that he was only targeting specific people at the school.

 

[Artemus]

Meanwhile, Trump blames the victims (over Twitter, of course):

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

But it's okay since 15 hours earlier he offered his prayers and condolences to the victims. Guess he learned that "thoughts and prayers" weren't working so he changed one of the words and reversed the order. His brilliant leadership is so insightful that it brings tears to my eyes.

 

[marc]

Some Rightists say Cruz (the FL school shooter) was Antifa, or Muslim, or a Dreamer. Some Liberals say he was alt right. People who knew him say he was weird and depressed. His social media says he had a lot of guns and he killed small animals.

I'm going with the last two. I find those sufficient to explain a mass shooter. And they are things that you can actually check for yourself in the world of real things,

I agree. As a teenager, the kid probably has no real concept of what any of those groups are about. If he belonged to any of them it is more likely out of trying to find some place to belong, rather than sincere, thought out agreement with the groups principles. Of course, that is many of the more loathsome groups look for when trying to recruit.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I live about 4 miles from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland where the shooting took place. Needless to say everyone is pretty shook up.

My facebook feed is flooded with comments about the event. A lot of my friends live in Parkland. Some of my friends went to that high school and some had/have kids there. One of the kids that I know witnessed the shooting
and is understandably hysterical.

I had the pleasure of hearing folks last night blame liberals for not allowing faculty to carry guns.

I feel your pain. My wife works in a school system and so she gets shaken up whenever this stuff happens and there have been some lockdowns. I also live about 10 miles away from Sandy Hook. I know personally someone whose daughter was murdered there. He still after all this time has to listen to right-wing conspiracy theories and accusations about the whole thing being fake.

 

[marc]

So many signs that the Florida shooter President was mentally disturbed, even sent to military school for bad and erratic behavior. Voters knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

Hmm... true statement, that didn't take much to turn into a true statement about a bigger threat.

 

[Lumpenproletariat]

What can protect us from these angry White males?

When will these shootings finally end?

As soon as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump bring back our factory jobs from China, so we'll have a place to put these angry White males to keep them out of mischief.

All this murder and mayhem began when they took away our good-paying factory jobs.

GIGO...

View attachment 14537

No, you watch: As soon as our heroes Don 'n Bernie bring back our factory jobs, you'll see that red line turn sharply down. It's always been those good-paying factory jobs that kept us safe from these AWMs by putting them someplace where their natural aggressiveness could be suppressed.

 

[funinspace]

Donny and Marie would have similar odds...

GIGO...

View attachment 14537

No, you watch: As soon as our heroes Don 'n Bernie bring back our factory jobs, you'll see that red line turn sharply down. It's always been those good-paying factory jobs that kept us safe from these AWMs by putting them someplace where their natural aggressiveness could be suppressed.

Maybe you could work on a duet with whichphilosophy...

If you were going for humor, you should try adding an emoticon, as your views are often so off the wall, it would be next to impossible to tell w/o it. Of course, POE would explain it as well...

 

[Opoponax]

Bah. It's just more hand-wringing and noise until the next one. The only practical solution is to outlaw new sales of semi-auto rifles and all handguns, including spare parts. Current owners would be able to keep what they have, but not be able to sell or devise them to next of kin.

IOW, nothing's going to change.

Even on liberal gun-owner forums I became quite unpopular yesterday for suggesting this after reading several posts claiming to want to "have a rational discussion" (or some other similar sentiment). My posts were downvoted out of existence and no small amount of personal insults hurled at me.

Liberals who own guns are, by and large, every bit as fanatical as conservatives on this issue. Their right to own nearly any type of gun they want outweighs your life and the life of your kids. They make the same idiotic arguments the right does, e.g., "Then why not outlaw cars too!"

In other words, this is an American gun-owner phenomenon, and no amount of data matters. For example, 3,000+ people died on 9/11 and we're still carrying on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq because of it. Since 9/11, well over 160,000 Americans have died from being shot by a someone with a gun, but we've done nothing. You'd think that kind of information would cause a good majority of these people to rethink their position, but it doesn't.

All this talk about mental health, background checks, etc., it's all bullshit. Crazy is a human thing. Armed and crazy is an American thing. And it's not going away.

 

[PyramidHead]

Bah. It's just more hand-wringing and noise until the next one. The only practical solution is to outlaw new sales of semi-auto rifles and all handguns, including spare parts. Current owners would be able to keep what they have, but not be able to sell or devise them to next of kin.

IOW, nothing's going to change.

Even on liberal gun-owner forums I became quite unpopular yesterday for suggesting this after reading several posts claiming to want to "have a rational discussion" (or some other similar sentiment). My posts were downvoted out of existence and no small amount of personal insults hurled at me.

Liberals who own guns are, by and large, every bit as fanatical as conservatives on this issue. Their right to own nearly any type of gun they want outweighs your life and the life of your kids. They make the same idiotic arguments the right does, e.g., "Then why not outlaw cars too!"

In other words, this is an American gun-owner phenomenon, and no amount of data matters. For example, 3,000+ people died on 9/11 and we're still carrying on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq because of it. Since 9/11, well over 160,000 Americans have died from being shot by a someone with a gun, but we've done nothing. You'd think that kind of information would cause a good majority of these people to rethink their position, but it doesn't.

All this talk about mental health, background checks, etc., it's all bullshit. Crazy is a human thing. Armed and crazy is an American thing. And it's not going away.

Well-said. I don't shy away from the "gun-grabber" label anymore since Sandy Hook. Enough is really enough. Military and registered hunters get to RENT lethal firearms. The rest of the industry, if they want to stay in business, should get to work on viable non-lethal (or less-lethal, anything to improve over spraying hundreds of bullets a minute) firearms for cops, security guards, homeowners, and target practice enthusiasts. The military has a device that emits sound waves at a frequency that instantly incapacitates crowds of people and makes them vomit. There are tranquilizers, tasers, rubber bullet shotguns, projectile nets, and all manner of ways to subdue a person without also ending his life that haven't even been devised yet. Yes, these can be abused like anything else. But measures like these could at least substantially reduce the instances of mass injury and death.

 

[TSwizzle]

Enough is really enough. Military and registered hunters get to RENT lethal firearms.

Interesting, I don't think I've ever seen that suggestion.


Anyway, background check or not, selling a weapon such as an AR-15 to a teenager is madness. FFS, you can't buy alcohol until 21. At least start there, you can't buy an AR-15 type weapon until the age of 50 or something.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Bah. It's just more hand-wringing and noise until the next one. The only practical solution is to outlaw new sales of semi-auto rifles and all handguns, including spare parts. Current owners would be able to keep what they have, but not be able to sell or devise them to next of kin.

IOW, nothing's going to change.

Even on liberal gun-owner forums I became quite unpopular yesterday for suggesting this after reading several posts claiming to want to "have a rational discussion" (or some other similar sentiment). My posts were downvoted out of existence and no small amount of personal insults hurled at me.

Liberals who own guns are, by and large, every bit as fanatical as conservatives on this issue. Their right to own nearly any type of gun they want outweighs your life and the life of your kids. They make the same idiotic arguments the right does, e.g., "Then why not outlaw cars too!"

In other words, this is an American gun-owner phenomenon, and no amount of data matters. For example, 3,000+ people died on 9/11 and we're still carrying on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq because of it. Since 9/11, well over 160,000 Americans have died from being shot by a someone with a gun, but we've done nothing. You'd think that kind of information would cause a good majority of these people to rethink their position, but it doesn't.

All this talk about mental health, background checks, etc., it's all bullshit. Crazy is a human thing. Armed and crazy is an American thing. And it's not going away.

Well-said. I don't shy away from the "gun-grabber" label anymore since Sandy Hook. Enough is really enough. Military and registered hunters get to RENT lethal firearms. The rest of the industry, if they want to stay in business, should get to work on viable non-lethal (or less-lethal, anything to improve over spraying hundreds of bullets a minute) firearms for cops, security guards, homeowners, and target practice enthusiasts. The military has a device that emits sound waves at a frequency that instantly incapacitates crowds of people and makes them vomit. There are tranquilizers, tasers, rubber bullet shotguns, projectile nets, and all manner of ways to subdue a person without also ending his life that haven't even been devised yet. Yes, these can be abused like anything else. But measures like these could at least substantially reduce the instances of mass injury and death.

But they ain't guns. We've lost. It is that simple. These paranoid fucks refuse to see the problem of semi-automatic weapons in the general public. They won't give them up, and any attempt to eliminate future sales will be treated like the crucifixion.

 

[PyramidHead]

Bah. It's just more hand-wringing and noise until the next one. The only practical solution is to outlaw new sales of semi-auto rifles and all handguns, including spare parts. Current owners would be able to keep what they have, but not be able to sell or devise them to next of kin.

IOW, nothing's going to change.

Even on liberal gun-owner forums I became quite unpopular yesterday for suggesting this after reading several posts claiming to want to "have a rational discussion" (or some other similar sentiment). My posts were downvoted out of existence and no small amount of personal insults hurled at me.

Liberals who own guns are, by and large, every bit as fanatical as conservatives on this issue. Their right to own nearly any type of gun they want outweighs your life and the life of your kids. They make the same idiotic arguments the right does, e.g., "Then why not outlaw cars too!"

In other words, this is an American gun-owner phenomenon, and no amount of data matters. For example, 3,000+ people died on 9/11 and we're still carrying on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq because of it. Since 9/11, well over 160,000 Americans have died from being shot by a someone with a gun, but we've done nothing. You'd think that kind of information would cause a good majority of these people to rethink their position, but it doesn't.

All this talk about mental health, background checks, etc., it's all bullshit. Crazy is a human thing. Armed and crazy is an American thing. And it's not going away.

Well-said. I don't shy away from the "gun-grabber" label anymore since Sandy Hook. Enough is really enough. Military and registered hunters get to RENT lethal firearms. The rest of the industry, if they want to stay in business, should get to work on viable non-lethal (or less-lethal, anything to improve over spraying hundreds of bullets a minute) firearms for cops, security guards, homeowners, and target practice enthusiasts. The military has a device that emits sound waves at a frequency that instantly incapacitates crowds of people and makes them vomit. There are tranquilizers, tasers, rubber bullet shotguns, projectile nets, and all manner of ways to subdue a person without also ending his life that haven't even been devised yet. Yes, these can be abused like anything else. But measures like these could at least substantially reduce the instances of mass injury and death.

But they ain't guns. We've lost. It is that simple. These paranoid fucks refuse to see the problem of semi-automatic weapons in the general public. They won't give them up, and any attempt to eliminate future sales will be treated like the crucifixion.

I'm aware of that. I once saw a good blurb somebody wrote about knives, in which she made the point that if there was really no shelf high enough or no lock secure enough to keep her child from finding and playing with a sharp knife, she'd be fine with just not using sharp knives in her household if it meant the safety of her child. Cutting a steak with a butter knife is less convenient, but it's a small price to pay for preventing injury or death to her child. This is a sacrifice grownups are usually willing to make to protect those who don't know better or can't control their impulses. As a society, we haven't yet reached this elusive "grownup" stage with regard to lethal firearms. The shelves and locks we have in place are woefully inadequate, and our children keep getting hold of these things. Mentally ill people get hold of these things. Yet, sacrificing the luxury of being able to blow somebody away in an instant is never on the table, no matter what the cost.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Blah, blah, blah. I see all the mealy-mouth empty suits, this politician, that hospital representative, and sheriff stars on my collar, all the usuals are all on TV talking about grief, time to heal, and understanding. Bringing to light every problem except what a blind man could see.
Maybe when enough parents have to bury a child we'll all get together and put in the ground what deserves to be put in the ground: the fucking NRA.

 

[marc]

Anyway, background check or not, selling a weapon such as an AR-15 to a teenager is madness. FFS, you can't buy alcohol until 21. At least start there, you can't buy an AR-15 type weapon until the age of 50 or something.

The AR-15 has been such a big thing that a number of politicians, and I think even a conservative church or two, have offered them as prizes. Wonder what would happen if one of these prizes ends up being used in a mass shooting.

 

[rousseau]

So the U.S. has got the most mass shootings in the world, an opioid epidemic that's getting increasingly worse, Trump in office, a major political party that's filled with literal evil morons, increasing political polarization, Fox News, and abysmal scientific literacy.

Did I miss anything?

 

[funinspace]

So the U.S. has got the most mass shootings in the world, an opioid epidemic that's getting increasingly worse, Trump in office, a major political party that's filled with literal evil morons, increasing political polarization, Fox News, and abysmal scientific literacy.

Did I miss anything?

Yeah, we have the mostest bad ass military in the world, and we aren't afraid to use it




I wonder what things will be like a few years after the PRC has a larger GDP than the US...

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Numerous fatalities are being stated. We lost. That simple. The NRA won, we lost, and all of the mass murder victims are are lost.

But you know... terrorism and shit. We need to stay on top of that.

Attacking the NRA about this is wrong--the NRA's lobbying budget is small. It's just they say what tens of millions of gun owners think.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

These are the messages one local girl received from her sister who is a student at Douglas H.S. Her sister is safe, but the terror she was feeling is palpable in her messages.

BTW, note what she's saying about not being able to make calls but the messages are getting through. This is common in a disaster situation--when the network gets swamped or is otherwise marginal messages--especially plain old texts--get through much better than calls.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It's actually pissing me off that the media covers it. Why bother any longer? I watched a few moments of MSNBC and I'm getting the helicopter view of law enforcement vehicles driving down the road. Why? Still doing this let's dedicate every moment of the news to this for the day shit. Why! To what end?

Is Fox trotting out the teachers with guns shit again?

Yeah, a simple way to reduce such things would be to severely limit the press coverage of them.

I am not saying to censor the news--the facts are fine. Once. Don't go on and on about what happened!