Ongoing US Mass Shooting Thread

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

what the? grocery stores! what's next? banks requiring that a person be 21 to receive a free gun when opening an account? Tire places requiring a person be 21 to receive a free gun when getting new tires?
what a crazy world.

Kroger is more like Walmart than a strict grocery store like Safeway or Coop.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

Kroger is more like Walmart than a strict grocery store like Safeway or Coop.

Kroger is a regular grocery store and doesn't sell guns. This applies to the Fred Meyer stores they own.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by edslunch

What I don’t get is how often do people actually have intruders in their house? It seems exceedingly rare here, just the odd report of a home invasion. I guess some domestic disputes qualify, but does the average person have really anything to fear from a stranger in their home? I get that there are places way more dangerous than SW Calgary but it this fear really justified seemingly all across the US?

It's fear - Americans are the most fearful people in the developed world. It's rooted in their history and culture - a seed population made up of persecuted religious refugees, and indentured servants who took to the hills as soon as they were free. The lawlessness of the frontier. The brutality of the civil war. And for many, the nightmare made real - black slaves set free to roam the land.

They're an extraordinarily frightened people, and fear makes people irrational.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by edslunch

What I don’t get is how often do people actually have intruders in their house? It seems exceedingly rare here, just the odd report of a home invasion. I guess some domestic disputes qualify, but does the average person have really anything to fear from a stranger in their home? I get that there are places way more dangerous than SW Calgary but it this fear really justified seemingly all across the US?

Parts of the United States are very frightening. More so than most third world countries I've visited.

Part of the fear is justified, but it's mostly over the top fear mongering in my opinion.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Another one.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/b...red-meyer.html

Does this even make much of an impact? It doesn't stop mom or dad or older brother from buying 17 year-old Billy a gun for his birthday. A useful move would be to just not sell guns, period.

[snootchiebootchies]

Originally Posted by _Q_

Parts of the United States are very frightening. More so than most third world countries I've visited.

Part of the fear is justified, but it's mostly over the top fear mongering in my opinion.

I would agree it's mostly fear mongering by the media, although that doesn't mean I don't feel guns are a problem down there. But I have family in the US and they are nonplussed about the topic of gun violence and mass shootings. Many of them are ex-military so they are comfortable around weapons and around people carrying arms. It says something about America that the members of my family in the US voluntarily join the military while none of my family in Canada would even consider it, even though they immigrated to their respective countries around the same time.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Does this even make much of an impact? It doesn't stop mom or dad or older brother from buying 17 year-old Billy a gun for his birthday. A useful move would be to just not sell guns, period.

Every little bit helps in the long run. Why wouldn't you encourage small steps to make things better? It doesn't have to necessarily be massive overnight change - but change is good here.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

I would agree it's mostly fear mongering by the media, although that doesn't mean I don't feel guns are a problem down there. But I have family in the US and they are nonplussed about the topic of gun violence and mass shootings. Many of them are ex-military so they are comfortable around weapons and around people carrying arms. It says something about America that the members of my family in the US voluntarily join the military while none of my family in Canada would even consider it, even though they immigrated to their respective countries around the same time.

I think it all really depends on where you live in the US as well.

Here in the greater DC area, most people I know are either anti gun or pro gun control at the very least. When I was living in Louisiana, it was a whole other ball game. The attitudes of people in DC as opposed to New Orleans is quite different as well in terms of general fear and mistrust of other people. People in Washington have no issue with being out and about in their city at all times of the day. In Louisiana, I was told specifically not to go in to New Orleans after 8pm unless I want to get shot.

I find the states that have a greater sense of fear in the population usually have a higher number of gun nuts.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Every little bit helps in the long run. Why wouldn't you encourage small steps to make things better? It doesn't have to necessarily be massive overnight change - but change is good here.

I don't see anything wrong with small changes that are meaningful. How this plays out, I just imagine it is it more, "wink wink, we won't sell you the gun, but tell your 21 year old friend to come a and get it for you". It just gives the appearance of doing something, while not hurting their sales.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I don't see anything wrong with small changes that are meaningful. How this plays out, I just imagine it is it more, "wink wink, we won't sell you the gun, but tell your 21 year old friend to come a and get it for you". It just gives the appearance of doing something, while not hurting their sales.

I don't think it's wink, wink...it's more a step they can take to try to make things safer but also not completely sacrifice their business. It's a balance to be a good community steward while still making money.

But mostly, these are steps forward but the real steps still need to be taken up by the houses.

[FlameOn]

Edited billboard in Vegas

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Every little bit helps in the long run. Why wouldn't you encourage small steps to make things better? It doesn't have to necessarily be massive overnight change - but change is good here.

totally agree...

it might seem incremental, but considering what has been done before after mass shooting, ie nothing, small steps is actually a success.

the mindset that small changes "Don't do much" is what prevents any change... like "only a few 1000s bumpstocks have been sold"... doesn't mean banning it isn't a great thing...

same with the lack of success in banning high capacity mags... "well it only takes 2 -5 secs to reload"... tell that to someone trying to run away or find cover...or in rare cases, a chance for someone to try taking down the gunman (not encouraged)...

the laughable logic of gun supporters...if its zero inconvenience for a active shooter to reload in the middle of an event, then its even easier for some dude on a gun range...

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

totally agree...

it might seem incremental, but considering what has been done before after mass shooting, ie nothing, small steps is actually a success.

the mindset that small changes "Don't do much" is what prevents any change... like "only a few 1000s bumpstocks have been sold"... doesn't mean banning it isn't a great thing...

same with the lack of success in banning high capacity mags... "well it only takes 2 -5 secs to reload"... tell that to someone trying to run away or find cover...or in rare cases, a chance for someone to try taking down the gunman (not encouraged)...

the laughable logic of gun supporters...if its zero inconvenience for a active shooter to reload in the middle of an event, then its even easier for some dude on a gun range...

Yeah, I get that. I just think its a little much for these companies to be patting themselves on the backs while having really sacrificed nothing. I mean, at least MEC, who has no skin in the game at all, offered up something more.

The small, not-so-meaningful changes, just gives fodder to organizations like the NRA and various gun nuts to say "look at this list of things that have been done, we're good now, right?"

I am projecting a bit on the last point - my wife can recite a list of probably 20 menial tasks that she completed over the course of the day, while my short list of 2 huge tasks pales.

[snootchiebootchies]

The boy who shot himself at school in Ohio last week had been planning a mass shooting.

Police: Boy who shot himself planned attack on school

https://apnews.com/6636dea2893a43ec8b7542e2f78f7e04

A seventh-grader who shot and killed himself inside an Ohio middle school restroom last week was planning to shoot others at the school before changing his mind at the last second, a police chief said Thursday.

The boy, 13-year-old Keith Simons, came out of the bathroom holding a semi-automatic rifle just before classes began and then abruptly went back inside and shot himself in the head, said Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink.

Police don’t know why Simons didn’t carry out the attack and probably never will, the police chief said. “We should thank God every day, whatever made him change his mind,” Brink said.

[Flashpoint]

The rate of gun injuries in the United States has regularly declined during the National Rifle Association’s annual convention, according to a study led by Harvard Medical School and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Fewer people using guns means fewer gun injuries, which in some ways is not surprising,” said Anupam Jena, a Harvard Medical School professor who co-authored the study, in a statement. “But the drop in gun injuries during these large meetings attended by thousands of well-trained gun owners seems to refute the idea that gun injuries stem solely from lack of experience and training in gun use.”

Put all the "law abiding" owners in a tank, and the rest of us are safer

[Flashpoint]

Joe Biggs, an Austin, Texas-based NRA member and chief executive of Rogue Right, a conservative news website, was among those unimpressed by the proposal.

“That’s the stupidest ******* thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Hopefully he was just having a momentary brain fart, a lapse of judgment,” Biggs said.

He added: “Hopefully someone pulled him into the back and said: ‘You’ve just lost half your base by saying something that stupid.’”

During the meeting Trump called for a “beautiful” bill which would expand background checks on gun purchases and restrict young people from purchasing certain weapons. But it was his suggestion that in some cases law enforcement should be allowed to “take the guns first, go through due process second” – that most alarmed gun owners on the right.

“You spend your whole life on the right and you always think that Democrats are going to be the ones who take your guns,” Biggs said.

You were dumb enough to vote for Trump. You get what you deserve

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

The boy who shot himself at school in Ohio last week had been planning a mass shooting.

Police: Boy who shot himself planned attack on school

https://apnews.com/6636dea2893a43ec8b7542e2f78f7e04

How the frick does a 13 year old bring a semi automatic rifle into a school?

[evman150]

Trump actually has a unique opportunity to do something on the gun control front.

If he ends up being impeached and removed because of the Russia stuff, but beforehand manages to usher through meaningful gun reform, his presidency will be a success IMO.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by OldSam

How the frick does a 13 year old bring a semi automatic rifle into a school?

gets gun, goes to school.

[getbak]

Executive Director - NRA Institute for Legislative Action...

https://twitter.com/user/status/969393625611333632


No gun control, but they will somehow keep guns away from dangerous people?