Shooting at Amarillo WalMart

Y'know, regdog, I really don't mean this in any negative sense. But while this *is* news, it's barely a blip. Remember Memorial Day this year? A lovely three day weekend marking the unofficial start of summer. Only not so lovely for some people.

From Friday evening to the end of Monday, 64 people will have been shot in this city of 2.7 million, six of them fatally. In a population made up of nearly equal numbers of whites, blacks and Hispanics, 52 of the shooting victims are black, 11 Hispanic and one white. Eight are women, the rest men. Some 12 people are shot in cars, 11 along city sidewalks, and at least four on home porches.

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In Chicago, people are SAFER at work than at home.

It is vital that we keep track of the blips. If we don't the real facts will never be known. Some are anxious to pin labels on shootings: radical Islam, mental illness,undateable white guy, neighbor feud, domestic violence, gang activity, so they can ignore the one common factor. --s6

the "one common factor" is but one of three vital components of a crime: means, motive and opportunity.

it's a well-established fact that there are nearly half a billion guns in the US and few limits to opportunities to commit acts of violence.

and yet there are not half a billion shootings, despite the prevalence of means and opportunity.

the fuse is motive. why should we not examine that?

William Haskins said:

the fuse is motive. why should we not examine that?

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Because there's motive-based lobby in congress?

explain?

Politics, complex as it is, is also filled with very simplistic ideas.

Guns bad! X-relgion bad! Poor mental health bad! screams one side. The other side of each argument has their own people screaming, too.

They attempt to boil a complex issue into a simple, attainable goal. People who want ultra-gun control (of the outlaw them all variety) will try and skew their argument to imply that without gun being sold, gun violence would stop. The gun lobbies will try and skew their argument to imply that if no guns are sold, then your families will be vulnerable.

Both sides present the issue as "Do X, and your result will be Y."

Motives are as varied as the people who have them. Examining them ruins that simple equation. Was the shooter mentally ill? Focus on that, some would say. Advocate for dealing with mental health and that will solve the problem.

Was the shooter a member of [insert religion here]? Well, then they must have been a radical version of that religion. Get rid of that religion, and that will solve the problem.

All of these points of view have lobbyists, or at the least proponents/opponents whose sole job is to stand in front of lawmakers and skew available data to make it appear that their position is the one that will "fix" things. They don't want additional information added to the mix, because if the complexity of motive becomes clear, then the impossibility of one unilateral change being the answer is revealed.

A shooter can be mentally ill, but on stabilizing medication. They can be religious, but not devout. They can be angry, and lose their better judgment. They can have access to an unloaded weapon and buy their own bullets.

Lobbies want things simple because their primary goal is to "win." Admitting the complexity of most motives, means that "victory" would be shared with others.

William Haskins said:

and yet there are not half a billion shootings, despite the prevalence of means and opportunity.

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No, there are around 33,000 fatal shootings. Per year.

Speaking of motive, though, here's someone else who shot a guy (with a legal handgun, for which he had a valid concealed-carry permit) because God told him to do it.

Well, if God told you to do it, you'd probably have to. Like if He told you to stab your beloved son and then burn him on an altar--right? Jesus might be a wus but there is no fucking with G. Almighty!--s6 (I don't know why I joke about the Almighty when there is one hell of a lightning storm going on all around me!)

shakeysix said:

Well, if God told you to do it, you'd probably have to.

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That's where an atheist has an advantage. I'd know I was nuts if "God" told me to do anything.

shakeysix said:

It is vital that we keep track of the blips. If we don't the real facts will never be known. Some are anxious to pin labels on shootings: radical Islam, mental illness,undateable white guy, neighbor feud, domestic violence, gang activity, so they can ignore the one common factor. --s6

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While that's true, should we have a thread to keep track of every blip when someone uses a fire arm to protect themselves from a predator? Human or otherwise?

Yes. Just a month ago a woman was grazed by a bullet at a high school graduation, right here in Kansas. Why? Because some gun fool had to bring his pistol to watch a graduation. The gun was in his boot. It dropped out of his boot and fired. He was so very surprised to find out that carrying a concealed weapon to a school function is a crime. I guess we should be grateful that assault rifles are a little bulky to carry in a boot.

This is the kind of trivial crap that people need to know. Unless, of course, you are fearful that thousands of "gun anecdotes" might affect public opinion. Perhaps even persuade some voters that the second amendment is not being defended by the brave and responsible gun owners but being abused by the paranoid and stupid. --s6

PS-- Wichita Eagle, May 16, 2016--GUN GOES OFF AT AUGUSTA HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION: 2 WOUNDED (The idiot with the gun and the poor woman in the next aisle.)
It would be funny if it weren't so damned scary.

Vince524 said:

While that's true, should we have a thread to keep track of every blip when someone uses a fire arm to protect themselves from a predator? Human or otherwise?

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The NRA already has that. They call it "The Armed Citizen."

They leave out all the accidental shootings, all the suicides, all the crimes, and all the stupidities.

shakeysix said:

It is vital that we keep track of the blips. If we don't the real facts will never be known. Some are anxious to pin labels on shootings: radical Islam, mental illness,undateable white guy, neighbor feud, domestic violence, gang activity, so they can ignore the one common factor. --s6

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People?

Angry people, hating people, mentally ill people, paranoid people, racist people, thieving people, stalking people, kid people, drunk people, stoned people, bully people--might be easier just to limit the guns--s6