[QUOTE=kladner;480124]The US is light years away from sanity on guns. Roll out some more "Thoughts and Prayers®". Those seem to be Workin' Real Good.[/QUOTE]

I've already seen people (like, non-politicians or spokespeople) rolling out "thoughts and prayers", "how could this happen", "it's mental illness, not the guns", "now's not the time for gun control / gun control wouldn't have stopped this", among others. It's pathetic.

And, of course, it's just now coming out that the shooter had ties to, wait for it, white supremacists! SURPRISE! But because it's not an Islamic group, that won't matter.

[QUOTE=wombatman;480131]And, of course, it's just now coming out that the shooter had ties to, wait for it, white supremacists! SURPRISE! But because it's not an Islamic group, that won't matter.[/QUOTE]

Interesting affiliation, given that he's a Latino.

So, in week 7 of 2018, that's already the 18th school shooting here in the exceptional US of A. Frightening how normalized/ritualized the whole shoot-up-a-school/media-frenzy/politicians-virtue-signal-about-needing-a-national-conversation process has become. At the same time, opioid-mediated deaths of despair have far surpassed the height of the AIDS crisis in terms of numbers, but hey, it's mostly Deplorables dying, so no national quilt nor unprecedented public-health-emergency mobilization as there was with AIDS anywhere in sight. The almighty Free Markets™ have decided that both of the above epidemics are desirable outcomes!

[QUOTE=ewmayer;480178]Interesting affiliation, given that he's a Latino.

So, in week 7 of 2018, that's already the 18th school shooting here in the exceptional US of A. Frightening how normalized/ritualized the whole shoot-up-a-school/media-frenzy/politicians-virtue-signal-about-needing-a-national-conversation process has become. At the same time, opioid-mediated deaths of despair have far surpassed the height of the AIDS crisis in terms of numbers, but hey, it's mostly Deplorables dying, so no national quilt nor unprecedented public-health-emergency mobilization as there was with AIDS anywhere in sight. The almighty Free Markets™ have decided that both of the above epidemics are desirable outcomes![/QUOTE]
It took quite a while to get that HIV-Aids ball rolling. After all, it was only queers at first, and then queers and mainliners, and then prostitutes. Saint Ronnie didn't even mention it for a [U]long[/U] time. There were reasons that groups like Act Up! appeared.
Where are the opioid disrupters and civil-disobeyers?

So now we know why people in USA are resorting to using guns. Because the only way they can have their say and make people listen is to have a weapon in their hands.

[url]https://thinkprogress.org/easier-to-buy-gun-than-vote-095a34c11e02/[/url] [quote]The truth is that in most states, it is easier to purchase a gun than it is to vote.[/quote]

[QUOTE=retina;480192]So now we know why people in USA are resorting to using guns. Because the only way they can have their say and make people listen is to have a weapon in their hands.[/QUOTE]

That's why the NRA's motto is, [b]When life hands you a lemon, pull out a gun and start shooting[/b]

Oh, and speaking of gun myths...

In [u]Beyond This Horizon[/u], one of Robert Heinlein's characters utters the immortal phrase, "An armed society is a polite society." Surely this explains why we USA-ers are known the world over for our good manners

:missingteeth:

I have read a lot of Heinlein since I was 10 or 11. I was a bit older when I started to realize what a misogynistic, militaristic, and, in later years, sex-addled a**hole he was. I will credit him that he started to try late in life to work around the homophobia he expressed in Stranger in a Strange Land. He couldn't really shake it, though. I think he identified too much with Hemingway, among other flaws.

"I’m not sure what the current definition of a “failed state” is, but levels of violence so extreme that you have to arm schoolteachers should certainly be one of the qualifying criteria." --- seen on Twitter.

[QUOTE=xilman;480567]"I’m not sure what the current definition of a “failed state” is, but levels of violence so extreme that you have to arm schoolteachers should certainly be one of the qualifying criteria." --- seen on Twitter.[/QUOTE]
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWnQ_FuW4AYNtVF.jpg[/img]

Oh, image linking doesn't work here, so here is the image as attached.

[QUOTE=retina;480626][img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWnQ_FuW4AYNtVF.jpg[/img]

Oh, image linking doesn't work here, so here is the image as attached.[/QUOTE]

Excellent illustration. And if I remember right, none those armed men fired their guns- I believe they tackled and restrained the assailant.

Norm

.

Another problem with "good guys with guns" stopping bad guys with guns was illustrated by the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Empire_State_Building_shooting]2012 Empire State Building shooting[/url]. The bad guy with a gun was named Jeffrey T. Johnson, the very model of a disgruntled ex-employee.
[quote]When confronted by the two officers, Johnson raised his weapon, but did not fire. The officers fired a total of 16 rounds, killing Johnson and injuring nine bystanders, none of whom suffered life-threatening wounds. Three of the bystanders were directly hit by police gunfire, while the rest of the injuries were caused by fragments of ricocheting bullets, or by debris from other objects hit by police.[/quote]

And that was with trained professionals, who are supposed to be proficient in the use of firearms. Imagine what might happen in a crowded place if a gunman started shooting, and a whole bunch of armed citizens drew their weapons and started blazing away!