Another Texas school shooting

[WX]

meh

im with keith wilson, mass shootings arent really that big of a deal

If that is an attempt at humour, then it's in exceedingly poor taste.

[Dave Gray]

You could always live in cartel land across the border. Well supplied by the US, lots of horrific killings .

[Paul Pless]

If that is an attempt at humour, then it's in exceedingly poor taste.

seriously, we are all over emotional right now in the moment

we should let things simmer down and in a few months time begin a rational debate on the subject

I'm going to swim against the current just a bit. The prototypical mass shooting, where a murderous lunatic runs amok in public and shoots a bunch of people at random, is horrible, attracts a lot of attention, and is very rare, even in the US. There are generally between ten and twenty mass shootings (defined as four or more dead) in the entire country per year, most of these are domestic violence incidents (a murderous lunatic kills his family), and the number of people killed per year is about 100, give or take. Compare this with about 20,000 murders using guns every year that don't qualify as mass shootings. Not that they're not awful, but that's a very very small part of our gun violence problem.

Data here, and here.

[Decourcy]

Time for everyone to watch “bowling for Columbine” again.

[Canoeyawl]

if only the teachers had been armed

Or the students.... It feels like the NRA is missing a huge marketing moment here

[Paul Pless]

Time for everyone to watch “bowling for Columbine” again.

we need to talk about kevin

[SMARTINSEN]

My mom's visiting. She observed all the Hispanic names - the police chief, the town, the proximity to the Mexican border . And offer to bet me $100 that the shooter was white, and that the thing was racially tinged. Replacement theory again, trying to keep illegal or legal Hispanic kids from growing up and "replacing" "real" Americans.

I didn't take her bet. F#cking hell, I wish I could, and think my money would be safe.

According to a San Antonio TV station, Gov. Abbott identified the shooter as 18-year-old Salvador Romas.

[Paul Pless]

Or the students.... It feels like the NRA is missing a huge marketing moment here

federal tax subsidies to appropriately arm teachers, librarians, and certain responsible students (members of the jrotc, ffa, a d the football team for instance)

[Ralphie Boy]

federal tax subsidies to appropriately arm teachers, librarians, and certain responsible students (members of the jrotc, ffa, a d the football team for instance)

More guns, that’s the answer? You don’t think things are F-Ed up enough already with the disgustingly excessive amount of weapons we already have?

[TomF]

According to a San Antonio TV station, Gov. Abbott identified the shooter as 18-year-old Salvador Romas.

literally, thank God. I'm taking consolation wherever I can find it tonight.

Was a crap shoot though, eh? Remember the guy who drovex2 hours to St. Antone couple of years back, to get to a grocery store apt to be teeming with Hispanics? Or in the past 2 weeks, the guys who shot Asians, or Blacks, because the SOBs set out to especially target Asians and Blacks?

Your country's f#cked if you can't figure this out. Not 30 weeks into the year, and there's been a school shooting every week. Quite apart from all the other mass shootings.

[Decourcy]

Nearly 400 million firearms in civilian hands in the US. Let that sink in. Civilians in the US are better armed than most militaries.

[Canoez]

A46CC403-A270-457C-BE31-8A7A89B3F488.jpg

[LeeG]

Nearly 400 million firearms in civilian hands in the US. Let that sink in. Civilians in the US are better armed than most militaries.

The consumer ethos. If you can buy it you can do it. 400 million guns and how many trained to kill another human being. What a national aspiration.

[CWSmith]

We still have rape shield laws in this country, right? How about we use the same concept to protect society?

Let's pass a law that forbids the press from printing the name of the shooter. Then we enforce it with serious jail time like 10 years for anyone who discloses the name of the shooter in the news or on the internet. No matter what they do, no matter how many they kill, their name will never be known in society. I want every would-be shooter to know they will die without fame, that nobody will know their name, and they will rot in obscurity for the rest of time. If fame, or infamy, is their goal, let's deny them that BEFORE they pick up a gun. Maybe then they'll just put the barrel under their chin and blow their d@mn heads off and leave the children alone.

[Decourcy]

The consumer ethos. If you can buy it you can do it. 400 million guns and how many trained to kill another human being. What a national aspiration.

Killing is​ actually the national aspiration. It’s just that some killings are more acceptable than others and not everyone got that memo.

[RFNK]

Wouldn't it be great if those opposed to mass murder of children were as outspoken and outraged as those opposed to abortion?

[SMARTINSEN]

A child. Bullied. Bought guns just days after his 18th birthday to set things straight.

[skuthorp]

and took it out on kids in primary school…………….

Bullied is no excuse or reason whatsoever.

Quote Smartiensen:"Killing is​ actually the national aspiration. It’s just that some killings are more acceptable than others and not everyone got that memo."
That's what Donn told me as long time ago after a mass shooting, "It's cultural".

[gypsie]

There'll be talk of gun control; gun sales are about to go through the roof.

[RFNK]

Home of the brave.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Dog bites man.

American children murdered at school.

Not news.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

According to the CDC, more American children and teenagers were killed by guns than by anything else, including road accidents, in 2020.

BBC news, just now.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

I have to assume that the American people are happy with this, and that it is none of my business.

[skuthorp]

Either that PI or their system of elected representation has been suborned.

Likely both.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Human sacrifice is customary in the Americas. The ancient Mexicans sacrificed prisoners and the modern Americans, like the ancient Carthaginians, sacrifice other peoples’ children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tophet

[WX]

I've been "debating) with US gun fanciers on Facebook.
The usual arguments.
1 Guns don't kill people, people do.
2 It's criminals buying illegal guns.
3 It's in the constitution, right to bear arms blah blah blah.
4 Well, there are an awful lot of weird arguments as to why someone needs to own a handgun or an AR15....and none of them make any sense. Not when you think about the fact there have been 27 school shootings this year. How many dead children is enough?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

It’s in our Constitution too. In one of the written down bits:

“That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law”

Not the US Bill of Rights (1789), the English Bill of Rights (1689). The Bill of Rights is still part of the statute in the UK; the Supreme Court cited it in recent decisions concerning Brexit and the prorogation of parliament.

Lots of British people have no idea it exists even though it remains a central plank of our uncodified constitution.

The UK has gun control. It passed legislation to protect citizens in 1997 following a massacre at a school in Scotland. It also passed gun control legislation in 1824, 1903, 1920, 1937, 1968, 1988, 2006 and 2019.

These are facts that are helpful to remember when you’re told that gun control isn’t possible in the US because of its constitution and the second amendment.

The vast majority of countries have constitutions. Many of those have included rights around gun ownership. That’s not prevented them from taking action to protect their citizens.

This is cut and pasted from a Twitter thread by Larry the Downing Street Cat.

As is this newspaper column by Boris Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson:

[Garret]

The UK has gun control. It passed legislation to protect citizens in 1997 following a massacre at a school in Scotland. It also passed gun control legislation in 1824, 1903, 1920, 1937, 1968, 1988, 2006 and 2019.

So - you started back when the sides were willing to talk with each other. We never did & now we have a huge swath of the population & their politicians who believe killing kids en mass is the price for freedumb. Largely the same folks who believe masks & vaccinations are the devil's work.

[Peerie Maa]

ACB, it looks as though you cut & pasted Pfeffell twice.

P.S. Our restrictions have only banned short barrelled guns, deemed inappropriate for home defence in 1937. Long guns for sport, hunting, and culling wildlife are still in use, licenced and safely stored when not in use.
It works for us.

[John Smith]

what do the words, 'shall not be infringed, bitches' mean to you???

The right to 'keep' and bear 'arms' shall not be infringed. What does 'keep' mean? It is not synonymous with 'own'

[John Smith]

Gun ownership is infringed in various ways. Reality is sorta ugly that way.

What do the words “well regulated” mean to you?

Again, sorry for being redundant, but the constitution says NOTHING as to the 'ownership' of guns, or any 'arms'. It is silent in that regard. Nothing prohibits people from owning guns, and nothing prohibits the government regulating the ownership of guns.

2nd amendment applies to the (then) necessary militia, which has since been replaced by police, the army, the navy, the marines, the national guard, and other law enforcement agencies

If you lease a car, you get to keep it for the duration of the lease, but you do not OWN it. If you join the police or military, you get to keep and use many weapons, but you do not own them.

[John Smith]

If I could leave, I would. Who wants to live in such a s——hole country?

Me too. If I could I'd move out of the USA.

[John Smith]

Some are saying we should regulate guns the way we regulate cars. Require registration, licenses and insurance. That’s not so crazy, now, is it?

I'm all for it. Problem is, if not guns were sold beginning now, what would change.

I've gotten virtually NO support to simply establish a fund to help gunshot victims; something paid for by a bullet tax, a gun tax, or gun insurance. We get angry. We may weep. But these families are going to have expenses that ought to be covered by the gun owners.

[John Smith]

More guns, that’s the answer? You don’t think things are F-Ed up enough already with the disgustingly excessive amount of weapons we already have?

I'm not sure there is an answer. When I was a boy I found this puzzle. Very simple thing. On a piece of paper put three xs and 3 os

X X X

0 0 0

Draw a line from each X to all three Os. Can't be done.

Given that the current unacceptable gun violence is being done with guns already in the hands of the public, I see no solution unless it includes getting those guns out of the public's hands.

[John Smith]

Wouldn't it be great if those opposed to mass murder of children were as outspoken and outraged as those opposed to abortion?

What would be great is, come Nov. they stopped voting for the party that blocks efforts to change this.