[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?

Stele wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Ten people killed and suspected shooter in custody.

So, another white male.

Yup. And taken alive even though one of the people he shot and killed was a police officer.

Stele wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Ten people killed and suspected shooter in custody.

So, another white male.

Is it time to take all the guns away from all white males until we can sort this out, yet?

AR 15. It appears to be the tool of choice for the white, male "disturbed lone wolf".

I was watching the video on Drumeo's YouTube channel where Larnell Lewis (an African-American jazz drummer), listens to and plays Enter Sandman by Metallica. At the end of his amazing performance he talks about how anyone can play any genre of music as long as they respect the music and the culture it comes from. What I took away from his comments (other than immense respect for Mr. Lewis) is that American white culture is angry (for some reason).

OG_slinger wrote:

Yup. And taken alive even though one of the people he shot and killed was a police officer.

I'm seeing a lot of people bring up that the Aurora, CO police killed Elijah McClain in 2019 for absolutely no reason. (And then later the cops staged trophy photos.)

Columbia Journalism Review: Covering the Atlanta massacre from inside the Korean community

SANG YEON LEE first heard about last Tuesday’s shootings in the same way as most others in Atlanta: after dusk fell, a breaking news alert appeared on his television screen. Little information was given about the shootings other than that they occurred at three massage spas, two of them off Piedmont Road. But Lee, president of Atlanta K, a Korean-language local news outlet, read between the lines—Piedmont had a cluster of Asian spas. It was likely, he thought, that members of his community were among the dead.

Atlanta’s Korean community knew that many of the spas in that area were run by its own. In his previous reporting on the businesses, Lee had pieced together a portrait of the people who worked there: they were largely older immigrant women preoccupied with surviving in an adopted country.

“I knew how much these Korean women struggled, how hard they worked, how difficult a situation they were under,” Lee said in an interview, conducted in Korean, with CJR. “For them to meet such a senseless, tragic death… More than anything, my heart hurt—my role as a reporter aside—as a person from the same immigrant society.”

That evening, Lee started making calls. He got in touch with a source he knew from prior reporting who had a network of contacts within the spas, and his suspicions about the victims’ identities were confirmed. Overnight, Atlanta K broke the news that at least two of the slain women were ethnic Koreans—a number that eventually climbed to four.

The press corrected course a day later, but already, public perception of the suspect’s racist and anti-Asian motives had been muddied. The shooter’s explanation for the murders—sex addiction—had been widely circulated, giving weight to longstanding associations between Asian-owned massage shops and illicit sex work. Investigations into the spas in the past week cited suggestive customer reviews and a history of police raids (some of which had been undertaken wrongfully, Lee says), in effect imputing criminality to the women. The media should ask if it is meaningful to determine whether or not the victims had been offering sexual services, and whether such questions are worth stigmatizing the deceased women and risking harm to family members and other spa workers. This also means that survivors, who have long lived under the radar—fearful of losing their livelihoods and immigration statuses—feel discouraged from talking publicly. “Unless they have immense courage, it’s improbable for these women to want to put themselves out there,” Lee says.

From the beginning, Lee had feared this sort of scrutiny. Reporters for national media outlets had asked him about criminal activity at the spas, to which he declined to respond. Why speculate on a question that lacks clear relevance to the story at hand? Already, the women have been unfairly immortalized in association to their place of work. The spas could never be a full reflection of who the women were; they were survival jobs—jobs the women might have worked tirelessly to retire from, had they been allowed to live out their lives.

Was this a headline after the shootings in the massage parlors?

Right now on CNN

Police read names of Boulder shooting victims

I don't remember it being on the banner for CNN after that shooting.

The only reason I saw was they were having trouble finding next of kin for one of the victims last week. But still doesn't make sense why they couldn't release the others names. Looks bad either way.

Then there is this headline from HuffPost

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE: 10 DEAD IN BOULDER — 21-YEAR-OLD MAN CHARGED

I am noticing the "american" in this one. Was it an "american" nightmare when it was Asian women?

Or am I just seeing racism all over the place today?

Biden just had an address. He mourned the victims. And then he called on the Senate to pass the two House bills that have already passed to restrict assault weapons.

Nevin73 wrote:

I was watching the video on Drumeo's YouTube channel where Larnell Lewis (an African-American jazz drummer), listens to and plays Enter Sandman by Metallica. At the end of his amazing performance he talks about how anyone can play any genre of music as long as they respect the music and the culture it comes from. What I took away from his comments (other than immense respect for Mr. Lewis) is that American white culture is angry (for some reason).

This is largely due to them being disenfranchised by themselves while those that broke unions, made people wage slaves, promoted monetizing absolutely every facet of society, conveniently blamed people of color for all their problems while picking their pocket.

It’s shameful and awful. It’s promotion through acquiescence and it is disturbing, especially with the rampant dehumanization that goes on every time the apologists crawl out of the woodwork for the shooter.

WTF is wrong with this country? How the hell do I get out?

From CNN currently

Gun industry prepares for surge in demand
After back-to-back mass shootings, lawmakers renew a push for gun control. If history is any guide, fears of future restrictions prompt gun owners to stock up.

and

Supreme Court to discuss case that could expand Second Amendment rights

Anytime SCOTUS decides gun cases they should have to hold the proceedings in an empty field surrounded by dense woods on one side and tall buildings with shaded windows on the other. Then maybe they'll consider the potential consequences of their decisions.

Of course if they did that dollars to donuts it would be the gun nuts who'd try to bump off all the liberal justices.

OG_slinger wrote:

Of course if they did that dollars to donuts it would be the gun nuts who'd try to bump off all the liberal justices.

From their perspective, that's a feature, not a bug.

Found out my brother in law was in the King Soopers the day before the shooting. This is the 2nd time I've had someone close almost be at a shooting. It's getting surreal.

Ten people shot with two dead in Virginia Beach. The other eight people are still in the hospital condition unknown. No details on what went down. However, a policer officer was involved. Don't know how many people were shot by the cop.

Five people murdered in Southern California in a office building. One of the victims was a child. A cop was wounded. No idea if the shooter is amongst the dead.

I am coming to dread seeing new posts in this thread.

Kind of pathetic that it isn't even the banner on CNN. It is just so normal that it is just a bullet point after killer cops, pandemic, and trump's lying ass.

A navy medic shot four coworkers killing two and leaving one in critical condition. The shooter was cornered and killed. No motive is known yet.

It's been a couple of weeks of some really bad shootings....Woof...How much syrup of ipecac do we need to drink before we evacuate this whole guns make safe notion.

Hobear wrote:

It's been a couple of weeks of some really bad shootings....Woof...How much syrup of ipecac do we need to drink before we evacuate this whole guns make safe notion.

your likelier to catch a live unicorn than get rid of that falsehood

I've been enjoying the NRA's bankruptcy hearing that's been going on this week.

Last year the New York Attorney General targeted the NRA's top executives with a lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that they ripped the organization off of $64 million--which they paid to themselves and their friends--and that the gun rights group has been so corrupted by the executives that the only solution is to dissolve it.

The NRA responded by trying to file for bankruptcy in Texas even though they're based out of New York. The gun group argued that they'd get a fairer hearing in pro-gun Texas than New York, which is a liberal hell-hole filled with Demoncrat snakes.

The bankruptcy is opposed by Ackerman McQueen, the NRA's long-time PR/advertising agency that had gotten so close and interconnected to the NRA that it was hard to tell where one group ended and the other began. The two had a falling out in 2019 when there was a failed attempt by the NRA's board of directors to push out Wayne LaPierre and audit the organization's finances.

LaPierre had to testify this week. Among the juiciest of revelations LaPierre acknowledged that he didn't actually inform the NRA Board of Directors about his plans to declare bankruptcy. He just kinda did it.

It also came out that after the Sandyhook and Parkland shootings LaPierre hid out on a borrowed 108-foot yacht (complete with servants and cooks) in the Bahamas , saying "I was basically under presidential threat without presidential security in terms of the number of threats I was getting. And this was the one place that I hope could feel safe, where I remember getting there going, ‘Thank God I’m safe, nobody can get me here.'"

He used the same excuse--security--to justify his extensive use of private planes. On such trip--again, to the Bahamas during Christmas--cost the NRA $70,000.

The group also bought LaPierre some $300,000 of designer suits which LaPierre claimed he needed because they were used in advertising.

And yesterday Ackerman McQueen’s lawyer got shut down by the judge after asking a question about a $60,000 invoice the NRA's law firm sent in 2020 that only had one line item: "Russia."

I thought guns protected you...

Nevin73 wrote:

I thought guns protected you...

Nevin73 wrote:

I thought guns protected you...

in soviet russia...

Nevin73 wrote:

I thought guns protected you...

Maybe the name of the yacht is "Guns".

NFL player kills 5 people and himself

https://apnews.com/article/phillip-a...

Biden gave a good speech today. I'm not sure if his proposal is going to help a ton. I think the red flag laws are good. But we need a lot of people to take domestic violence threats more seriously to get to the red flag point in court.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

I thought guns protected you...

Maybe the name of the yacht is "Guns".

It was aptly named "Illusions."

It is always heartening to see bold action on the part of government.

Tennessee's Governor Lee signed into law a bill allowing permitless open or concealed carry of handguns.