[QUOTE=xilman;514990][url]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48081535[/url][/QUOTE]I was within 1km of that location in January. I have some friends that have dealt with the organization.

... I live within a few miles. I drove (to a mountain hike) on that road on that Saturday (not on that block, we didn't know until later). Sad and shocking events!

One literally cannot say - "hey that's just on the news, that's not my life", nope.

I haven't had the "privilege" of having been very near the site of a mass shooting around the time it happened. At least not yet. I suppose that, sooner or later, I will have the honor conveyed on me.

A couple of years ago, I lost a good neighbor. He was driving on a 2-lane 2-way, and a drunk driver going the other way crossed the center line. I'd seen a news account of the wreck soon after, but didn't know who was involved until the man's wife, suddenly widowed, and obviously in a state of shock, called me to say a State Trooper had come to her door...

Happens all the time, but, when it's someone you knew and talked to many times who's suddenly [i]gone[/i], and a car [i]you'd ridden in[/i] that is now a mass of twisted wreckage, it's not the same as just hearing about it on the news.

It may give one pause to think that, be it a fatal car wreck, a run-of-the-mill shooting, a drive-by, or a mass shooting, when you hear on the news that people have died suddenly and violently, it's that "close to home" for [i]somebody[/i].

Just over a month ago, the Sandy Hook mass shooting claimed another victim. The father of one of the murdered children apparently took his own life.

[url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/27/politics/nra-new-york-investigation/index.html]New York Attorney General investigating NRA finances amid group's internal dispute[/url]
[quote](CNN)The New York attorney general's office has launched an investigation into the National Rifle Association.

"As part of this investigation, the Attorney General has issued subpoenas," a spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement to CNN. "We will not have further comment at this time."

The spokesperson would not confirm what the investigation was regarding.

However, the gun-safety group, Everytown for Gun Safety, said it filed a complaint about the NRA's tax-exempt status with the IRS.

The group said it was prompted by a recent report by The Trace, in conjunction with the New Yorker, alleging that a small group of executives, contractors and vendors affiliated with the NRA "have extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from non-profit's budget."

"In light of the recent, credible allegations of excessive invoicing and personal enrichment by insiders, it's encouraging that the New York Attorney General is looking into the NRA, and we renew our call for other state and federal authorities to do the same," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.[/quote]

Well, I [U]am[/U] very near of the sites of mass shooting. I mean, from Thailand to US (and the rest of the world) I still believe I am too close...

[url]https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/08/us/massive-seizure-of-guns-la-trnd/index.html[/url]

[YOUTUBE]y88Jb8aBBvc[/YOUTUBE]


machines to take the place of horses? neee....

So another [url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48481814]eleven glorious martyrs[/url] to that 2[sup]nd[/sup] thing.

I'm glad those thoughts and prayers were delivered promptly. They will make a fine replacement for those martyrs.

However this is day 151 and that is only the 150[sup]th[/sup] mass shooting this year.[quote="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48481814"]According to US tracking website Gun Violence Archive, the incident is the 150th mass shooting in the US so far in 2019.[/quote]So the average is a smidgen below 1.0 per day.

[url]https://phys.org/news/2019-06-good-guy-gun-deadly-american.html[/url] [quote]A reality check

Most gun enthusiasts don't measure up to the fictional ideal of the steady, righteous and sure shot.

In fact, research has shown that gun-toting independence unleashes much more chaos and carnage than heroism. A 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research study revealed that right-to-carry laws increase, rather than decrease, violent crime. Higher rates of gun ownership is correlated with higher homicide rates. Gun possession is correlated with increased road rage.

There have been times when a civilian with a gun successfully intervened in a shooting, but these instances are rare. Those who carry guns often have their own guns used against them. And a civilian with a gun is more likely to be killed than to kill an attacker.

Even in instances where a person is paid to stand guard with a gun, there's no guarantee that he'll fulfill this duty.[/quote]Who is adding facts into the discussion? Please stop with the reality. We should continue the fantasy that somehow more guns makes everyone safer.

[QUOTE=retina;518805][url]https://phys.org/news/2019-06-good-guy-gun-deadly-american.html[/url] Who is adding facts into the discussion? Please stop with the reality. We should continue the fantasy that somehow more guns makes everyone safer.[/QUOTE][quote]There is a bird in a poem by T. S. Eliot who says that mankind cannot bear very much reality; but the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear.[/quote]-- [u]The Lathe of Heaven[/u] (Chapter 11) by Ursula K. Le Guin

[QUOTE=retina;518805][URL]https://phys.org/news/2019-06-good-guy-gun-deadly-american.html[/URL] Who is adding facts into the discussion? Please stop with the reality. We should continue the fantasy that somehow more guns makes everyone safer.[/QUOTE]
The shooter was a long time employee in a building where the employer's policy prohibited employees from being armed. He had years to observe his fellow employees' obedience of the policy, and gain confidence that he would have only unarmed helpless victims unable to effectively oppose him. Average casualty count in a gun-free zone is about a dozen excess deaths per mass killing attempt, compared to unrestrictive zones.

There have been jurisdictions where, for as long as 20 years now, with specified training and approval requirements, teachers or other staff may be armed during school hours while students are present. The total number of injuries due to armed teachers or staff discharging a weapon while students were present during school hours, is ZERO. One case was documented of a teacher, without students present, after hours, injured HIMSELF. In 20 YEARS.
Yeah. Can't have reality intruding on a political/religious crusade to disarm everyone everywhere and make us more completely wards of the state.
Perfect safety and security does not exist. Even in maximum security prisons, people get killed or maimed. There are only differing strategies and tradeoffs.
Homicide by all methods isn't in the top ten causes of death in the USA. Homicide by firearm is small compared to the top ten. Falls total about as many deaths as suicide by firearm plus homicide by firearm. (And if all firearms disappeared from the continent, substitution of other methods would occur at a high rate.)
[URL]https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/LeadingCauses.html[/URL]
If you had a billion dollars or a specific amount of political capital to spend, it is likely that more lives could be saved by reducing heart disease, the current leading killer.
Definitions of mass shooting vary. [URL]https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting[/URL] uses a very different definition than the FBI (4 or more fatalities). That 150 count at the gun violence archive drops to about 11 by the FBI definition. By the broader violence archive definition, I note [B]no[/B] entries year to date for Wyoming, which has gun ownership ~60%, the highest in the nation. This is consistent with other factors, such as urban density, violent crime rate in general, poverty, demographics, culture, etc. being more significant factors than firearm availability. If the problem were proportional to firearm availability, Wyoming would likely make an appearance there. But it does not. Other states with much more population and significant firearms ownership would likely also. But many such do not.
It breaks down by state and DC as follows:
AL
AR
AZ
CA
CO
DC
DE
FL
GA
IL (disproportionately & repeatedly, Chicago)
IN
KS
KY
LA
MA
MD (Baltimore repeatedly)
MI
MO
MS
MT
NE
NC
NJ
NV
NY
OH
OK
OR
PA
SC
TN
TX
VA
WA

Note, that's 33 states and DC; 17 states are absent, had zero so far:
AK CT HI IA ID ME MN ND NH NM RI SD UT VT WI WV WY
Many of these are higher gun ownership states than in the first list.
[URL]https://state.1keydata.com/state-abbreviations.php[/URL]