[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?

2 dead, 4 injured in shooting on UNC Charlotte campus

Insanely, this is basically a 2nd or 3rd-tier story today.

Prederick wrote:

Insanely, this is basically a 2nd or 3rd-tier story today.

It's the 70th mass shooting of the year...

Number 69 happened about 15 miles from me. A family of four were shot and killed in their apartment on Sunday night.

I don't think it was covered by more than regional media, which is kinda amazing considering the family was Sikh (and one was an Indian citizen just visiting).

Chairman_Mao wrote:

2 dead, 4 injured in shooting on UNC Charlotte campus

one of my best friends lives about 4 miles from UNCC campus. This is the first one I've has a live account of what happened at the time. It shouldn't make it more affecting than the shooting in san diego, but it does.

I think the important part is you still feel. We can't afford to get numb to all this.
Note: my home town is Thousand Oaks and my father still lives there. He even told me a few months back when the Westboro Baptist Church came to Thousand Oaks to protest the memorial there. The world is absolutely upside down at this point.

thrawn82 wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

2 dead, 4 injured in shooting on UNC Charlotte campus

one of my best friends lives about 4 miles from UNCC campus. This is the first one I've has a live account of what happened at the time. It shouldn't make it more affecting than the shooting in san diego, but it does.

No it should affect you more. That's real life. I was on the phone with someone during the Virginia Tech shooting who was in a building across the street and it f*cks me up way more than any other.

It's messed up that eventually we're all going to have some level of connection to a mass shooting like that.

Add another one to the list. 7 injured, 2 suspects captured in Colorado. Barely took a week.

Prederick wrote:

Add another one to the list. 7 injured, 2 suspects captured in Colorado. Barely took a week.

Sadly Highlands Ranch is the nation's 10th mass shooting since UNCC.

This thread breaks my heart every time it has activity and the government continues to do nothing to address it.

but by all means, arm teachers.

Well yeah, apparently, someone needed to shoot the guard.

Remember, the only thing that can stop a good guy with a gun is another good guy with a gun.

Is it common to have an armed guard in schools in the US?

halfwaywrong wrote:

Is it common to have an armed guard in schools in the US?

Usually a cop, yes.

So this is what we have come to? We have given up on stopping shootings and just gone to how to lower the body count.

Pretty soon we will have debates about "should we have sniper nests on school roofs or machine gun turrets?

Should private security be used more at schools — or police?

After posting the above I saw this...

A record 4,855 people queue for hours to see if they are are stem cell match for this five-year-old boy battling cancer.

I just can't figure out how to reconcile the two. So many people care about saving one life but so many don't care about saving hundreds... The paradox just kind of freezes my brain - like a calculator when you just get the "E" on the screen because it can't logically figure out an answer.

It's because after ten million years of hitting rocks together we've gone from "hey this stick can knock down the high up fruits" to nuclear weapons. Meanwhile all we really want is to convince our parents and our kids that we know what the f*ck we are doing.

farley3k wrote:

After posting the above I saw this...

A record 4,855 people queue for hours to see if they are are stem cell match for this five-year-old boy battling cancer.

I just can't figure out how to reconcile the two. So many people care about saving one life but so many don't care about saving hundreds... The paradox just kind of freezes my brain - like a calculator when you just get the "E" on the screen because it can't logically figure out an answer.

The article you linked requires individual action. A bunch of individuals decided to do so but it's still a personal decision on the potential donor's part. It's also one-and-done if they aren't a match, at most that's going to take up a couple days.

Effective fun control or gun removal requires collective action and organization. It requires convincing other people to do things and care about stuff. It takes effort over a long time period.

That's why people are on board for dropping cops into schools, it seems like it'll help and it's easy to just say "do that, now" and pressure the local government to allocate some funds.

And much like with that kid, it won't fix the systemic issue. But it makes some people feel good.

bnpederson wrote:

Effective fun control or gun removal requires collective action and organization.

I know it’s a typo, but it’s kinda true though, isn’t it... gun ownership is “fun”, but it’s a reckless fun that kills hundreds (not counting “military (and military-adjacent) conflict”), every year - be it through criminal misuse, simple mishandling, or suicide.

It needs to be more strongly regulated... stepping on someone’s “fun” be damned.

This morning, I started an essay about the movie Cabin in the Woods as an allegory for American gun laws.

farley3k wrote:

After posting the above I saw this...

A record 4,855 people queue for hours to see if they are are stem cell match for this five-year-old boy battling cancer.

I just can't figure out how to reconcile the two. So many people care about saving one life but so many don't care about saving hundreds... The paradox just kind of freezes my brain - like a calculator when you just get the "E" on the screen because it can't logically figure out an answer.

For one thing the National Cancer Association hasn't spent the past 40 years and billions of dollars convincing people that having cancer is an inviolate right and that any attempt to cure it--or even treat its symptoms--will have a catastrophic impact on the space-time continuum.

OG_slinger wrote:

For one thing the National Cancer Association hasn't spent the past 40 years and billions of dollars convincing people that having cancer is an inviolate right and that any attempt to cure it--or even treat its symptoms--will have a catastrophic impact on the space-time continuum.

Well, I mean... there is Philip Morris...

farley3k wrote:

After posting the above I saw this...

A record 4,855 people queue for hours to see if they are are stem cell match for this five-year-old boy battling cancer.

I just can't figure out how to reconcile the two. So many people care about saving one life but so many don't care about saving hundreds... The paradox just kind of freezes my brain - like a calculator when you just get the "E" on the screen because it can't logically figure out an answer.

I keep going back to Stalin's quote about "one death being a tragedy but a million is just a statistic."

It makes me think that people think they have some amount of power/empowerment to help one little baby by showing up to see if they are a match but solving something like gun violence, I think, puts people into a "what can one person do?" give up mentality.

halfwaywrong wrote:

Is it common to have an armed guard in schools in the US?

It wasn't until I read this post that it occurred to me that schools in other countries don't have armed guards.

I was mostly asking because while arming teachers sound ridiculous in itself, I had assumed it was because there was no armed person on site. But it sounds like there usually is, so I guess it really is just another step up in dystopic ridiculousness?

Over here guards aren't particularly common during school hours as far as I'm aware. It varies state to state, but there are schools that have some degree of police presence and I'm fairly sure they're armed. They also don't act like a security guard or patrol officer or whatever, but more focused on crime prevention and relationship building. I don't think they're a permanent presence either.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
halfwaywrong wrote:

Is it common to have an armed guard in schools in the US?

It wasn't until I read this post that it occurred to me that schools in other countries don't have armed guards.

Up here in Canada, the last time there was police officer at any schools I am aware of is when they are practicing lockdown procedures. Armed guards? I don't know of any schools that have them.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
halfwaywrong wrote:

Is it common to have an armed guard in schools in the US?

It wasn't until I read this post that it occurred to me that schools in other countries don't have armed guards.

I can't talk for the entire US, but my wife is a primary school teacher and there are no armed guards at her school. That being said though, last Friday one of the students parents left home and took his guns with him. The school was told he wasn't in a right mind (don't know if that means he has mental health issues or just maybe a family issue) but there was a police officer stationed at the school that day.