The bad (typically gun related) things happening in America thread

VorZakone

What would Kenny G do?
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
33,318
So nobody knows his motivation yet? It's all just assumption at this point.
What about the Vegas shooter motive by the way?

I don't think we've ever actually found out what the hell his motive was. Financial problems perhaps?
 

Grinner

Not fat gutted. Hirsuteness of shoulders TBD.
Staff
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
72,287
Location
I love free dirt and rocks!
Supports
Arsenal
What about the Vegas shooter motive by the way?

I don't think we've ever actually found out what the hell his motive was. Financial problems perhaps?

Good point. I think the massacres just come so often that we move on to the next one and forget the previous.
 

nimic

something nice
Scout
Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Messages
31,990
Location
And I'm all out of bubblegum.
What about the Vegas shooter motive by the way?

I don't think we've ever actually found out what the hell his motive was. Financial problems perhaps?
Financial problems would have been an extremely easy motive to figure out. I am pretty sure they were so stumped at the motive of the Las Vegas shooter that they looked at his brain for signs of a brain tumour.
 

Wolverine

Full Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
2,449
Location
UK
Is it me or has the news coverage shifted recently from hyperfocusing on perpetrators motive, background, mainfestos etc?
In comparison to columbine, virginia tech, elliot rodger. Wondering if this is a conscious choice to prevent notoriety-seeking copycats?
 

Organic Potatoes

Full Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2013
Messages
17,174
Location
85R723R2+R6
Supports
Colorado Rapids
It is an angle when people are popping these pills like aspirin without having therapeutic assistance to go with it.

Edit: But quick googling tells me the anti-pharmaceutic line is a staple talking point used by US gun apologists, and that's not something I want to associate myself with at all, and it's also not an argument I want to make at all, so I retract the sloppy comment.
No worries. I’m sensitive to the macho stigma against mental healthcare here in the US; as you can see it has severe consequences.
 

Grinner

Not fat gutted. Hirsuteness of shoulders TBD.
Staff
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
72,287
Location
I love free dirt and rocks!
Supports
Arsenal
I think the Las Vegas shooter is pretty infamous. But it just means that the next nutter will want to go bigger.
 

VorZakone

What would Kenny G do?
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
33,318
If he wanted lasting infamy, he should have done a mass shooting in a country that doesn't have so many of them.
The US may be the only Western country where he could have brought 24 guns to hotel rooms.
 

Hansi Fick

New Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
5,057
Supports
FC Bayern
No worries. I’m sensitive to the macho stigma against mental healthcare here in the US; as you can see it has severe consequences.
Apologies if my post came across as pushing this attitude. It's completely the opposite of what I feel about the issue.

I'm not opposed to medication at all, I just think that therapy is indispensable first and foremost, but then I shouldn't have needlessly brought that into this discussion. It was a quip on the 'radicalized' notion, nothing more.
I don't live in the US, I made a sloppy outsider's view comment, but I realize now that I was waltzing into a highly enriched and politized arena, where mental health and gun control are played off against each other by the usual bad faith actors, and the last thing I want to do do is contribute there. Especially in face of such a sad and tragic event about whose details I know nothing. So apologies, again.

Obviously, the single most straightforwardly and commonsensically relevant thing to do first, in order to try and combat this horrifying epidemic of mass killings, is stopping access to guns. That's not a debate.
 

NecssryEvil

Full Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2013
Messages
531
Born, raised and lived in CO all my life. Three mass shootings and countless other multiple casualty murders, this one twenty miles down the road and still people more concerned with race/political affiliation than what we can do to stop this.

The Colorado State Shooting Association posted this last night:

“There will be a time for the debate on gun laws. There will be a time for the discussion on motives. There will be a time for a conversation on how this could have been prevented,” the group said in a statement. “But today is not the time.”

When will be the time? Never in this fecking county. When I saw what happened (nothing) after 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook (including 20 elementary school children ages 6-7ish) I knew nothing would ever happen.

Oh, and if I hear one more person say "he aint white, he's Muslim", I am going to lose my shit.
 

MrMarcello

In a well-ordered universe...
Joined
Dec 26, 2000
Messages
52,912
Location
On a pale blue dot in space
I think its around 22% of Americans who own a gun (330m population so around 72.5 million americans)

so on average I would say they don't, however, there are 120 guns for every 100 americans (393 million guns) therefore your average gun owner owns 5 guns which suggests that of the minority that own guns those that do tend to own a lot (if you further factor in that im sure a lot of pople own only 1 or 2 guns meaning there will be a lot of people who own a lot more than 5 guns)

Around half of the worlds guns owned by civilians are in the united states ... and as the above shows probably something like 30% of the worlds guns are going to be owned by perhaps 10% of the american population or in real terms 30% of the worlds civilian guns are owned by 0.5% of the population and they are all huddled together in one small corner of the globe - so yeah no wonder its messed up
The word you're seeking is ammosexual.

Not to be confused with Dwazzasexuals who love guns and skeletons.
 

Port Vale Devil

Full Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Messages
3,406
Supports
Port Vale
So much surreality in this clip from the store, shows the majority of the confrontation (contains disturbing images)...



Don’t think I have ever seen a live stream so close to such a tragic event not from a perpetrator (alleged perp walked out at 58:28, looks like a lovely fellow) before. Comments are really interesting.
Actually watched the 1st hour and it was very disturbing to see this as an ongoing situation. I skimmed through the rest of the video and the cameraman/journalist seemed like a total piece of shit though by abusing police officers to ignoring phone calls from his friends inside the store as it would stop his live stream.
 

WI_Red

Redcafes Most Rested
Joined
May 20, 2018
Messages
12,237
Location
No longer in WI
Supports
Atlanta United
If the last year has proven anything it's that I am glad kid's never happened. I see what my sister is struggling through, and the increasing levels of hate, destruction and greed and I don't know how much of a future our species has. Depressing as feck. I picked the wrong Lent to give up drinking.
 

Grinner

Not fat gutted. Hirsuteness of shoulders TBD.
Staff
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
72,287
Location
I love free dirt and rocks!
Supports
Arsenal
If the last year has proven anything it's that I am glad kid's never happened. I see what my sister is struggling through, and the increasing levels of hate, destruction and greed and I don't know how much of a future our species has. Depressing as feck. I picked the wrong Lent to give up drinking.


I know what you mean though. America is truly fecked.
 

berbatrick

Renaissance Man
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
21,892

the ethnicity game played after every mass shooting is sick. yes, the right wing is going to do what they do, ahmed will now be on fox for a few days and facebook for longer, but these gleeful declarations when a shooter appears to be white (which have backfired more than once) are awful.
 

GiddyUp

Full Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
4,921
Born, raised and lived in CO all my life. Three mass shootings and countless other multiple casualty murders, this one twenty miles down the road and still people more concerned with race/political affiliation than what we can do to stop this.

The Colorado State Shooting Association posted this last night:

“There will be a time for the debate on gun laws. There will be a time for the discussion on motives. There will be a time for a conversation on how this could have been prevented,” the group said in a statement. “But today is not the time.”

When will be the time? Never in this fecking county. When I saw what happened (nothing) after 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook (including 20 elementary school children ages 6-7ish) I knew nothing would ever happen.

Oh, and if I hear one more person say "he aint white, he's Muslim", I am going to lose my shit.
If these cowardly bastards were influenced or radicalized by something like "gangsta rap" the right wing would today be calling for the banning and restriction of all forms of hip hop and the 2nd amendment rights taken away for anyone who listens to it.
In regards to Sandy Hook, a very uncomfortable percentage of conservatives in this country believed that Obama orchestrated it to enact gun control. That tells you everything you need to know about their compassion for the innocent lives lost.
 

NecssryEvil

Full Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2013
Messages
531
If these cowardly bastards were influenced or radicalized by something like "gangsta rap" the right wing would today be calling for the banning and restriction of all forms of hip hop and the 2nd amendment rights taken away for anyone who listens to it.
In regards to Sandy Hook, a very uncomfortable percentage of conservatives in this country believed that Obama orchestrated it to enact gun control. That tells you everything you need to know about their compassion for the innocent lives lost.
That kind belief is actually getting some elected to Congress (see MTG among a couple others)! We are actually at a point where being a racist, conspiracy spouting nut job is a feature not a bug. Lauren Boebert (US Congresswomen from Colorado) sent a fund raising email out less than two hours after this started asking for donations with a "hell no, they won't take our guns" teaser. Before she even sent her first "thoughts and prayers" bullshit tweet.

They don't give two squirts of piss about lives lost. They will switch the narrative to something else and move on with their lives while the people close to the ones that were murdered have to think about this tragedy every day, for the rest of their lives.
 

The Corinthian

I will not take Mad Winger's name in vain
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
12,004
Supports
A Free Palestine

the ethnicity game played after every mass shooting is sick. yes, the right wing is going to do what they do, ahmed will now be on fox for a few days and facebook for longer, but these gleeful declarations when a shooter appears to be white (which have backfired more than once) are awful.
I don't agree with you here (not commenting on the tweet, but about your comment).

There's a sizeable portion of black people that have been killed during a non-threatening arrest. Contrast this with the massive amount of actual white shooters who have not only been arrested without a bullet being fired, but have been spoken of in an endearing way by the police chiefs and the press. I mean, it was only the other day your guy who arrested the Atlanta shooter described him as 'just having a bad day' or something along those lines.

Secondly, the US / US press has been scaremongering the US public for nearly 20 years about Islamic terror on their shores. It's a drum they won't stop beating. When the majority of terror related (or mass shooting) incidents are perpetrated by right wing white males (and not brown Muslims), I think people are within their right to say that the real threat to a person's safety on American soil is an armed angry white male.

Overall, I don't think there's anything wrong with making a distinction on how a white murderer is portrayed in the media or generally, when compared to a brown / black person.

However, I do think that that type of conversation shouldn't happen so soon after a tragedy.
 

berbatrick

Renaissance Man
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
21,892
I don't agree with you here (not commenting on the tweet, but about your comment).

There's a sizeable portion of black people that have been killed during a non-threatening arrest. Contrast this with the massive amount of actual white shooters who have not only been arrested without a bullet being fired, but have been spoken of in an endearing way by the police chiefs and the press. I mean, it was only the other day your guy who arrested the Atlanta shooter described him as 'just having a bad day' or something along those lines.

Secondly, the US / US press has been scaremongering the US public for nearly 20 years about Islamic terror on their shores. It's a drum they won't stop beating. When the majority of terror related (or mass shooting) incidents are perpetrated by right wing white males (and not brown Muslims), I think people are within their right to say that the real threat to a person's safety on American soil is an armed angry white male.

Overall, I don't think there's anything wrong with making a distinction on how a white murderer is portrayed in the media or generally, when compared to a brown / black person.

However, I do think that that type of conversation shouldn't happen so soon after a tragedy.
on the 1st point, sure, my problem is with people automatically equating an apparently non-violent arrest with ethnicity, and then motivation. it seems to be correlated for sure, but i find the jubilation that greets this speculation quite sick.

about the atlanta guy, the police chief did not say that: https://reason.com/2021/03/19/aaron-robert-long-spa-killer-atlanta-jay-baker-cop-bad-day/

yes, it's likely that politically motivated murders by the right have outnumbered those by other categories for a few years. this one might be yet another example too, i dont know if his motivations have been revealed yet.
and while there is a distinction, the way that distinction is sometimes covered doesn't seem ideal either:


agree abt the compulsion to post the perfect sassy take very soon.


it all feels like a played-out game.
 

WI_Red

Redcafes Most Rested
Joined
May 20, 2018
Messages
12,237
Location
No longer in WI
Supports
Atlanta United
I don't agree with you here (not commenting on the tweet, but about your comment).

There's a sizeable portion of black people that have been killed during a non-threatening arrest. Contrast this with the massive amount of actual white shooters who have not only been arrested without a bullet being fired, but have been spoken of in an endearing way by the police chiefs and the press. I mean, it was only the other day your guy who arrested the Atlanta shooter described him as 'just having a bad day' or something along those lines.

Secondly, the US / US press has been scaremongering the US public for nearly 20 years about Islamic terror on their shores. It's a drum they won't stop beating. When the majority of terror related (or mass shooting) incidents are perpetrated by right wing white males (and not brown Muslims), I think people are within their right to say that the real threat to a person's safety on American soil is an armed angry white male.

Overall, I don't think there's anything wrong with making a distinction on how a white murderer is portrayed in the media or generally, when compared to a brown / black person.

However, I do think that that type of conversation shouldn't happen so soon after a tragedy.
At the rate this shit keeps happening here, there will never be a time that is not "too soon after a tragedy". Just look at Atlanta, that has already been forgotten b/c of Boulder.

We should be having these conversations every day. We should be doing everything possible to ban as many types of guns and ammos now. No civilian should need to own a gun. I don't give a crap if it's "your hobby". Guns were designed to do one thing: kill. With the way the "christian right" seem to be talking about their fellow humans these days there is no longer a difference between murder and hunting as they barely see "the other" as anything but animals anyways.

But hey, thoughts and prayers.
 

The Corinthian

I will not take Mad Winger's name in vain
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
Messages
12,004
Supports
A Free Palestine
on the 1st point, sure, my problem is with people automatically equating an apparently non-violent arrest with ethnicity, and then motivation. it seems to be correlated for sure, but i find the jubilation that greets this speculation quite sick.

about the atlanta guy, the police chief did not say that: https://reason.com/2021/03/19/aaron-robert-long-spa-killer-atlanta-jay-baker-cop-bad-day/
Fair enough re the police chief. To be honest, a police captain giving an explanation via the killer's own words is a bit strange. Is that done for all suspects?

yes, it's likely that politically motivated murders by the right have outnumbered those by other categories for a few years. this one might be yet another example too, i dont know if his motivations have been revealed yet.
and while there is a distinction, the way that distinction is sometimes covered doesn't seem ideal either:


agree abt the compulsion to post the perfect sassy take very soon.


it all feels like a played-out game.
To be honest, I don't use twitter so maybe the jubilation, glee aspect is more apparent on there. It's not something I've personally seen in other mediums. Generally, on channels that invite speakers from different backgrounds, the distinction is made in a more tactful way. Maybe it's the nature of twitter.
 

Solius

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Staff
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
87,221
The youngest victim of this asked for people to donate to a gun rights charity a few weeks ago for his birthday. Believing in increased rights for people to buy guns. Shooter bought the gun same day as the killings apparently.
 

WI_Red

Redcafes Most Rested
Joined
May 20, 2018
Messages
12,237
Location
No longer in WI
Supports
Atlanta United
The youngest victim of this asked for people to donate to a gun rights charity a few weeks ago for his birthday. Believing in increased rights for people to buy guns. Shooter bought the gun same day as the killings apparently.
I'm not going to donate to that charity as a present for him, but here is something that Republican think are more valuable than legislation or lives: Happy Birthday, here are some thoughts and prayers!
 

calodo2003

Flaming Full Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
42,105
Location
Florida
The youngest victim of this asked for people to donate to a gun rights charity a few weeks ago for his birthday. Believing in increased rights for people to buy guns. Shooter bought the gun same day as the killings apparently.
Hopefully the first point is broadcast far & wide incessantly & obnoxiously, but it won’t be. There has to be some media narrative on ‘reap, sow.’
 

Dr. Dwayne

Self proclaimed tagline king.
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
97,875
Location
Nearer my Cas, to thee
The youngest victim of this asked for people to donate to a gun rights charity a few weeks ago for his birthday. Believing in increased rights for people to buy guns. Shooter bought the gun same day as the killings apparently.
Just like Atlanta, yet they don't want background checks or waiting periods.