[Discussion] Mass Shootings - Yeah, we need a thread just for this...

This year is the deadliest year ever in terms of mass shootings. In a political climate of polarization, it becomes harder to suss out legitimate information from the misinformation propagated by those with political agendas. Complicating this more is the continual resistance of 2nd amendment advocates to allow for political talk surrounding these massacres. This will involve political discussion to see if there are ways we can all agree might be good ways to prevent mass shootings.

This discussion should involve the details of any current, or future mass shooting, and how they compare to past mass shootings. How are they the same? How are they different? Do gun laws have an impact? Does the race of the shooter affect how we treat them? What makes one a hate crime and one an act or terrorism? Are these shootings the price of freedom?

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that the proportion of white shooters maps pretty well to the USA's racial demographics - I would've expected a huge amount of over-representation. The huge percentage that legally owned the guns (combining both purchasing for the shooting and owning prior to the shooting), should be reason enough to convince a reasonable person to restrict sales, but y'know...

Video shows officers waiting in hallway during Las Vegas shooting

Las Vegas Journal-Review wrote:

Newly released body camera footage shows two Las Vegas police officers holding their position in a hallway one floor beneath the Oct. 1 gunman for nearly five minutes as rounds are continually fired into the Route 91 Harvest festival crowd below.

Officer Cordell Hendrex utters an expletive on the video while on the 31st floor, reacting to the sound of rapid gunfire, which he later described in a report as being “like thunder all around and above us.”

Four and a half minutes would pass between the moment Hendrex and his first-day trainee, Elif Varsin, stepped out from an elevator into the hallway in the middle of the mass shooting and what would be the final volley of gunfire.

In that time, at least one of the three armed Mandalay Bay security guards with the officers reported the shooter’s location: “the 32nd floor, room 135.” Still the pair held their position.

...

The first 30 seconds of footage contain no audio, but about 22 seconds in, the officers can be seen walking out of the security office and onto the casino floor, accompanied by the three armed guards. A few seconds later, the audio cuts in, and the words “active shooter” can be heard in the background.

For about two minutes, the group walks past slot machines and casino patrons as police radio transmissions describe what is unfolding at the festival grounds. It is not until another officer broadcasts over police radio that shots are coming from Mandalay Bay that the group begins running and makes it to an elevator, hopping in front of hotel guests waiting with their luggage.

Inside the elevator, the group discusses the 32nd floor — where the shooter is located — and the 31st floor. For unknown reasons, Hendrex and Varsin get out on the 31st floor with the armed guards, pistols drawn.

The next nearly five minutes take place in a hallway on the 31st floor, directly beneath the gunman.

Nearly two minutes after the group arrives on the 31st floor, Hendrex announces his position over police radio.

“I’m inside the Mandalay Bay on the 31st floor,” he says. “I can hear the automatic fire coming from one floor ahead, one floor above us.”

About 20 seconds later, the group hears a transmission from an officer on the ground: “Multiple GSWs (gunshot wounds) to the chest, leg, femoral arteries in the medical tent.”

As the transmission ends, Hendrex suddenly takes several steps backward, then dips behind an alcove next to a hotel room door. His trainee and the guards do the same.

“I know I hesitated and I remember being terrified with fear and I think that I froze right there in the middle of the hall for how long I can’t say,” Hendrex would later write in his report.

The video doesn't show any of the actual shooting, but you can clearly hear multiple, sustained bursts of fully automatic gun fire as well as other police describing the attack and announcing casualties over the radio.

OG_slinger wrote:

Video shows officers waiting in hallway during Las Vegas shooting

Las Vegas Journal-Review wrote:

Newly released body camera footage shows two Las Vegas police officers holding their position in a hallway one floor beneath the Oct. 1 gunman for nearly five minutes as rounds are continually fired into the Route 91 Harvest festival crowd below.

Officer Cordell Hendrex utters an expletive on the video while on the 31st floor, reacting to the sound of rapid gunfire, which he later described in a report as being “like thunder all around and above us.”

Four and a half minutes would pass between the moment Hendrex and his first-day trainee, Elif Varsin, stepped out from an elevator into the hallway in the middle of the mass shooting and what would be the final volley of gunfire.

In that time, at least one of the three armed Mandalay Bay security guards with the officers reported the shooter’s location: “the 32nd floor, room 135.” Still the pair held their position.

...

The first 30 seconds of footage contain no audio, but about 22 seconds in, the officers can be seen walking out of the security office and onto the casino floor, accompanied by the three armed guards. A few seconds later, the audio cuts in, and the words “active shooter” can be heard in the background.

For about two minutes, the group walks past slot machines and casino patrons as police radio transmissions describe what is unfolding at the festival grounds. It is not until another officer broadcasts over police radio that shots are coming from Mandalay Bay that the group begins running and makes it to an elevator, hopping in front of hotel guests waiting with their luggage.

Inside the elevator, the group discusses the 32nd floor — where the shooter is located — and the 31st floor. For unknown reasons, Hendrex and Varsin get out on the 31st floor with the armed guards, pistols drawn.

The next nearly five minutes take place in a hallway on the 31st floor, directly beneath the gunman.

Nearly two minutes after the group arrives on the 31st floor, Hendrex announces his position over police radio.

“I’m inside the Mandalay Bay on the 31st floor,” he says. “I can hear the automatic fire coming from one floor ahead, one floor above us.”

About 20 seconds later, the group hears a transmission from an officer on the ground: “Multiple GSWs (gunshot wounds) to the chest, leg, femoral arteries in the medical tent.”

As the transmission ends, Hendrex suddenly takes several steps backward, then dips behind an alcove next to a hotel room door. His trainee and the guards do the same.

“I know I hesitated and I remember being terrified with fear and I think that I froze right there in the middle of the hall for how long I can’t say,” Hendrex would later write in his report.

The video doesn't show any of the actual shooting, but you can clearly hear multiple, sustained bursts of fully automatic gun fire as well as other police describing the attack and announcing casualties over the radio.

I hope this buries the “good guy with a gun” rhetoric, forever
.
.
.
but I know it won’t

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

Video shows officers waiting in hallway during Las Vegas shooting

Las Vegas Journal-Review wrote:

Newly released body camera footage shows two Las Vegas police officers holding their position in a hallway one floor beneath the Oct. 1 gunman for nearly five minutes as rounds are continually fired into the Route 91 Harvest festival crowd below.

Officer Cordell Hendrex utters an expletive on the video while on the 31st floor, reacting to the sound of rapid gunfire, which he later described in a report as being “like thunder all around and above us.”

Four and a half minutes would pass between the moment Hendrex and his first-day trainee, Elif Varsin, stepped out from an elevator into the hallway in the middle of the mass shooting and what would be the final volley of gunfire.

In that time, at least one of the three armed Mandalay Bay security guards with the officers reported the shooter’s location: “the 32nd floor, room 135.” Still the pair held their position.

...

The first 30 seconds of footage contain no audio, but about 22 seconds in, the officers can be seen walking out of the security office and onto the casino floor, accompanied by the three armed guards. A few seconds later, the audio cuts in, and the words “active shooter” can be heard in the background.

For about two minutes, the group walks past slot machines and casino patrons as police radio transmissions describe what is unfolding at the festival grounds. It is not until another officer broadcasts over police radio that shots are coming from Mandalay Bay that the group begins running and makes it to an elevator, hopping in front of hotel guests waiting with their luggage.

Inside the elevator, the group discusses the 32nd floor — where the shooter is located — and the 31st floor. For unknown reasons, Hendrex and Varsin get out on the 31st floor with the armed guards, pistols drawn.

The next nearly five minutes take place in a hallway on the 31st floor, directly beneath the gunman.

Nearly two minutes after the group arrives on the 31st floor, Hendrex announces his position over police radio.

“I’m inside the Mandalay Bay on the 31st floor,” he says. “I can hear the automatic fire coming from one floor ahead, one floor above us.”

About 20 seconds later, the group hears a transmission from an officer on the ground: “Multiple GSWs (gunshot wounds) to the chest, leg, femoral arteries in the medical tent.”

As the transmission ends, Hendrex suddenly takes several steps backward, then dips behind an alcove next to a hotel room door. His trainee and the guards do the same.

“I know I hesitated and I remember being terrified with fear and I think that I froze right there in the middle of the hall for how long I can’t say,” Hendrex would later write in his report.

The video doesn't show any of the actual shooting, but you can clearly hear multiple, sustained bursts of fully automatic gun fire as well as other police describing the attack and announcing casualties over the radio.

I hope this buries the “good guy with a gun” rhetoric, forever
.
.
.
but I know it won’t :(

This usually reinforces it, since the guards can't be trusted to act the individual must protect them-self.

At least 4 injured in shooting at Annapolis newspaper; suspect in custody, police say

*shooter in custody = shooter white. Wanna take that bet?

At least four people have been shot at the Capital-Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, Annapolis police said.

Annapolis Police Lt. Timothy Seipp said there had been an "active shooter” at the building and that a subject is in custody.

Anne Arundel county sheriff Ron Bateman told Fox News that multiple people were killed.

Phil Davis, a reporter at the newspaper, tweeted from the newsroom that a "gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees."

"Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad," Davis tweeted.

So Trump and company spend two years yelling about how the media is the enemy of the people.

Today, someone shoots up a newspaper.

The narrative here will be that the above two events are completely unrelated, and also still not worth talking about gun control.

Yes Trump already tweeted thoughts and prayers.

Thoughts and prayers, yay first responders. That's about as much as expected.

Chaz wrote:

The narrative here will be that the above two events are completely unrelated, and also still not worth talking about gun control.

Except for the people who are trying to blame Maxine Waters, for some godawful reason.

Stele wrote:

Yes Trump already tweeted thoughts and prayers.

Two weeks after he tweeted that the media was America's "biggest enemy."

OG_slinger wrote:
Stele wrote:

Yes Trump already tweeted thoughts and prayers.

Two weeks after he tweeted that the media was America's "biggest enemy."

Nobody knew civility could be so hard.

OG_slinger wrote:
Stele wrote:

Yes Trump already tweeted thoughts and prayers.

Two weeks after he tweeted that the media was America's "biggest enemy."

That matches with his support for America's other biggest enemies though.

farley3k wrote:

*shooter in custody = shooter white. Wanna take that bet?

You'd win.

Shooter was a white male in his 20s. Apparently he damaged the tips of his fingers to thwart police efforts to identify him.

EDIT:

The shooter's been identified and, hoo boy, it looks like he ticked off a lot of the boxes from that FBI study.

He has history with the newspaper in that they ran an article back in 2011 about him pleading guilty to a charge of criminal harassment. The article was told from the perspective of the woman he had stalked and harassed on Facebook for years.

He sued the newspaper for defamation in 2012 (representing himself, of course) and his lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in 2013 because the he failed to show or even explain how he was harmed by the article. He just thought it was "unfair."

His Twitter account consists almost entirely of years of tweets ranting about journalists and judges. He stopped tweeting January 2016 (he did tweet once this morning). And his Twitter bio links to a web archive of his My Verizon page where he, supposedly, lays out his ongoing beef with the newspaper and the judiciary.

Chaz wrote:

Thoughts and prayers, yay first responders. That's about as much as expected.

That Tweet clearly wasn't written by him. He also avoided reporters later when asked about it directly.

f*ck that guy.

The more pushback the phrase gets, the more I expect Trump to intentionally use the exact words- “thoughts and prayers”- every single time this happens as a way to troll people.

gewy wrote:

The more pushback the phrase gets, the more I expect Trump to intentionally use the exact words- “thoughts and prayers”- every single time this happens as a way to troll people.

Exactly. Governing via "Liberal tears".

Also, totally f*ck that guy.

An artist is streaming GTA V on Twitch as a piece on American gun violence, which is re-enacting the total number of US gun related deaths in 2018.

Thought it might be of interest to some who post in this thread!

There are not words to describe the insanity of this video Shannon Watts has released. I can't find it on Youtube, so here is link. Do you think Sacha Baron Cohen could convince US politicians to endorse arming children in schools?

Kinderguardians

Jayhawker wrote:

There are not words to describe the insanity of this video Shannon Watts has released. I can't find it on Youtube, so here is link. Do you think Sacha Baron Cohen could convince US politicians to endorse arming children in schools?

Kinderguardians

"And rudimentary knowledge of mortars", that's awesome. As is the BS they fed to Larry Pratt.

Those politicians should be immediately recalled by their constituents.

........ the f*** did I just watch o.0 ......

NathanFillion.gif

Those guys shouldn’t be anywhere near a law-making position.

“blink 182 pheromone” & signal travels to the “wiz kalifa” ... I cant even.

Here it is on YouTube. Previous link was the last few minutes from this. A few trigger warnings if you watch the whole thing, including a comment about rape jut after the 7 minute mark.

Antichulius wrote:

“blink 182 pheromone” & signal travels to the “wiz kalifa” ... I cant even.

Here it is on YouTube.

...

Did these people listen to the words that they’re saying? Honest question. Like, what the actual f*ck.

I posted this on a local forum and was called a sucker for thinking the video wasn’t fake.

Yet, those politicians did this. The fact that they were duped might be worse than really thinking 4-year-olds should have guns. It explains why the Russians have found it so easy to infiltrate the GOP.

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

Allow me to post one of the most important statements on the guiding philosophies of the people SBC punked:

Jayhawker wrote:

I posted this on a local forum and was called a sucker for thinking the video wasn’t fake.

Yet, those politicians did this. The fact that they were duped might be worse than really thinking 4-year-olds should have guns. It explains why the Russians have found it so easy to infiltrate the GOP.

Yea it's 'fake,' but the politicians aren't in on the joke, so the only fake part is the interviewer, the politicians THINK the interviews/meetings are genuine so their reactions should be treated as genuine

I don't know that it will lead to any mass shootings - yet - but starting tomorrow you can once again download the 3D printer schematics for a usable handgun. It is, of course, untraceable since it has no serial number, and doesn't trip metal detectors since it's entirely made of plastic. (Source: CNN)

I'm sure eventually someone will figure out how to 3D print a working fully automatic weapon. Soon after that, this post will probably become extremely relevant to this thread.

Hooray for the second amendment, I guess?

This may get more interesting, as the NRA is against this. That finally pits the NRA against the 2nd Amendment, because the NRA was never about freedom, but about making sure gun manufactures have a steady stream of consumers.

Jayhawker wrote:

This may get more interesting, as the NRA is against this. That finally pits the NRA against the 2nd Amendment, because the NRA was never about freedom, but about making sure gun manufactures have a steady stream of consumers.

I was about to say, this is actually a BIGGER threat to the NRA because it directly attacks their patron's profits.