Another Mass Shooting...

The news I've been seeing now lists up to 24 dead, with another 20 injured.

CBS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sutherland-springs-texas-witnesses-say-several-people-shot-at-church/

The local county newspaper site is swamped.

Why do people have so much anger in them? What does it take in their life to make someone think this is a good thing to do?

Where is the anger coming from? We have a president actively promoting divisions in the country between race, religion, and economic status. People are buying into the line "Your problems are because of THEM!". And people are seeing others commit mass shootings and effectively being told "Hey, this is one of your rights."

It's disgusting.

Mass shootings in the US:



1. Breaking news alerts
2. Thoughts and prayers
3. Hashtags
4. Outrage
5. Back to normal lives
6. Repeat

nighttimer said:

Mass shootings in the US:



1. Breaking news alerts
2. Thoughts and prayers
3. Hashtags
4. Outrage
5. Back to normal lives
6. Repeat

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*sigh* It does appear that way, doesn't it? I could elaborate, but I fear #6 would happen before I finished the thought.

7. More guns being sold and bought

Marian Perera said:

7. More guns being sold and bought

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I think that one should be #6, and move the Repeat to #7.

M.S. Wiggins said:

*sigh* It does appear that way, doesn't it? I could elaborate, but I fear #6 would happen before I finished the thought.

Click to expand...

Marian Perera said:

7. More guns being sold and bought

Click to expand...

ShaunHorton said:

I think that one should be #6, and move the Repeat to #7.

Click to expand...

Ah, fuck it. It's not as though we won't be doing this same thing all over again sooner than later.

We are stuck in an endless loop of bullets, blood and bodies and nobody is going to stop it.

nighttimer said:

Ah, fuck it. It's not as though we won't be doing this same thing all over again sooner than later.

We are stuck in an endless loop of bullets, blood and bodies and nobody is going to stop it.

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A mass shooting at an NRA meeting or at a meeting of congress might stop it.

4% of the town wiped out in church as they were praying. So if praying doesn't work, then perhaps some thoughts?

ShaunHorton said:

A mass shooting at an NRA meeting or at a meeting of congress might stop it.

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I doubt it. A mass shooting at a Congressional charity baseball game didn't. Victim Scalise was back to earning his NRA money not long after. I follow legislation and I didn't see any victims drop off the active NRA-written bills. It's insanity. Greed-fueled insanity.

nighttimer said:

1. Breaking news alerts
2. Thoughts and prayers
2.1 Gun control laws back in the news
3. Hashtags
3.2 Now is not the time to talk about gun control
4. Outrage
5. Back to normal lives
5.1 Surge in gun & accessories sales
6. Repeat

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Fixed.

-cb

ABC Reporter Mike Levine tweeted that the shooter is a white male in his 20s (explains why we haven't heard "terrorist" yet) and that:

Authorities are now scrubbing his social media; on Facebook in recent days, he showed off an AR-15 style-looking gun.

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Is that usual? The scrubbing?

Interesting that he's certain that the government is supposedly scrubbing social media. I have to wonder if SM companies are getting quicker to archive and close accounts to preserve stuff for the cops, without them having to wade through an ocean of crap.

Where was the Good Guy With a Gun[SUP]TM[/SUP], the oft-touted excuse for preserving gun rights? Why didn't he stop this slaughter?

If it was a white guy, let's mumble a couple of words about mental health and then continue to do less than nothing to make mental healthcare easier to obtain. If it was a brown guy let's put some more Muslim countries on our banned list.

Actually, there was one. A nearby neighbor engaged him with a rifle and followed him until cops could catch up.

I'm also reading that he was a dishonorably-discharged Air Force veteran, so he was permanently disqualified from firearms ownership.

cmhbob said:

Actually, there was one. A nearby neighbor engaged him with a rifle and followed him until cops could catch up.

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After he'd finished murdering people in the church.

Helix said:

After he'd finished murdering people in the church.

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It's always too little too late. We've got a glut of guns in this country. A glut of machines of mass murder. Good Guy with a Gun[SUP]TM[/SUP] is an impotent notion. Last I read there were 26 dead and another 16 injured. The Good Guy with a Gun[SUP]TM[/SUP] was brave and had good intentions, but it doesn't justify the glut of weapons of mass murder in this country.

How many deaths is it going to take for people to realize that too many damned guns means these guns more easily fall into the wrong hands, leading to more mass shootings? It isn't just about "Gee, he was dishonorably discharged and couldn't have had this weapon legally." It's about the fact that there is a glut of these weapons lying around making it ridiculously easy for white male terrorist jerk offs* to obtain them, legally or not.



*And other varieties of murderous jerk offs.

cmhbob said:

I'm also reading that he was a dishonorably-discharged Air Force veteran, so he was permanently disqualified from firearms ownership.

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And how many under-the-table or 'private' gun sellers would have responded to his 'I was in the Air Force' with "Thank you for your service, no sense bothering a patriot like you about this silly paperwork".
added
And then I followed the link, and saw what he was discharged for. Unless she was in the congregation, somewhere out there is a lucky, lucky woman, and her child.

If that's what happened, then charge the sellers with a crime as well for furnishing a firearm to a prohibited person.

But that would require law enforcement and prosecutors to actually go after individual lawbreakers, which isn't as sexy as busting a whole gunrunning gang. So people who confess to making a straw purchase where the gun is later used to murder a cop get off with 180 days of house arrest, a year of probation, and 40 hours of community service instead of 10 years for two federal felonies. Yeah, that'll make people think twice about breaking the law.

Well, what's the glory in essentially a white collar crime, when you could be going in with guns blazing and a SWAT team?

Devil Ledbetter said:

Good Guy with a Gun[SUP]TM[/SUP] is an impotent notion.

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It also has its tactical limits. Handgun against a semi-automatic or fully automatic rifle? Not a winning situation to begin with. Another is what happened in Las Vegas - those who had handguns would not use them in the presence of the police for fear of being shot at.

-cb