How many of the shooters are named Mohammud?
Have we not āanalyzedā to death already? First you said we needed mental health care, and when I pointed out that one of your examples did indeed have mental health care for his whole life and was still able to purchase multiple guns in a single week, you responded to everyone else but me. Forgive me if I donāt feel like youāre interested in anything but āGUNS R GOODā.
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This is a public health issue. If we decide that there is too much polio in the population, and invest in a vaccine & health education, then we can decide as a nation that there is too much gun death and try a bunch of things to eradicate it. But weāre not there yet. Enough of the right people havenāt been killed yet.
It could be me, it could be you, but they have to be innocent, famous, powerful, in their prime, cut down by psychos, young like a hospital ward full of babies, or a bunch of pregnant moms or Congress or the President or something like that. This is getting macbre isnāt it? Well, itās a macabre issue. I can see it a mile away - itās a public health issue that needs action.
But this country doesnāt trade in the currency of looking ahead and trying to fix shit before it becomes an issue. This country trades in overblown, reaction politics. So until a bunch of innocent kids are killed, and then a bunch of politicians and actors or debutantes, and it keeps happening week after weekā¦ thatās when weāll see something actually happen.
Until then, chalk this one up to the latest installment in the bizarre psycho death parade this country loves to watch on TV.
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To estimate my probability of getting shot and killed in any given year; from the 33,000 annual gun deaths Iād remove all the cases of suicide by oneās own gun (I donāt own one), killed in a hunting or other gun-related accident (I donāt go hunting or otherwise hang with people who have and/or play with guns), my toddler removing my gun from my special gun-purse and shooting me dead in Walmart (I donāt have a toddler), gang members murdered (I donāt belong to a gang or otherwise engage in armed crime). That leaves a much smaller number. So my personal likelihood of dying by gunfire is actually pretty fucking small.
This doesnāt mean I donāt have a view on the significance of the gun issue for society in general. I really do belive 'murka would be much better off with far fewer guns. I donāt know how to get past the batshit-crazy-paranoid-dick-swinging-nut-job-gun-lobby though. Improving mental health care might be a better angle in terms of effort Vs reward.
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Dammit, Merāka. Again already?
Iām watching the news right now, and itās just relentlessly depressing. News crews clearly get some kind of boner covering events like this. Itās gross. No matter the motive, the likelihood of a mass shooting ending in suicide-by-cop is very high. Most people committing these acts ultimately want infamy. Maybe itās time we give them less since itās clear this is the only āWesternā country on Earth where sensible firearm regulation is, apparently, completely impossible.
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Jokeās on them, because at this point I canāt remember all the names of the people who do this shit. Thereās too many.
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I didnāt see your post. There is a lot to read and I skim.
You canāt stop everyone. Period. I donāt know who you are talking about, but just seeking mental health doesnāt currently bar you from passing a NICS check. I donāt know exactly what will get you flag for a no-go. Domestic abuse and violence charges will get you flagged, as well as felonies.
But if you want something specific to get you denied on a NICS check, then I guess we need to spell out exactly what that would be and then push for legislation. There is a system in place. It isnāt perfect. There are probably things we can do to improve it, but it will never be fool proof.
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That depends entirely on how you define āriskā, āterroristā, and āattackā
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I wish policy makers spent more time on evaluating costs and benefits before making policy. Forget gun control. Focus on things that donāt require a massive fight against a super powerful group. I think if you do that, you will find that time and money should be spent on fighting obesity, traffic deaths, drownings, etcā¦
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Name calling is totally rational in a debate.
If youāre a Republican presidental candidate, anyways.
Shooters are white so they arenāt terrorists, I hear.
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Yes, letās use terms like āteatardsā and demonise mentally ill people when gunmen shoot a centre designed to provide support to mentally disabled people. Thatās entirely appropriate.
Hereās a fun fact thatās not at all obscure: mentally ill people are at massively increased risk to be VICTIMS of violent crime and are less likely to be perpetrators than people who do not have mental illness.
But you know, who are you going to listen to: the NRA trying desperately to change the conversation away from gun availability or a bunch of social workers (like the people who spent today barricaded in closets, hoping not to get shot)?
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If only we could figure out where all this violence in America comes from!!!
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Great FSM, you are fully incapable of seeing the common thread between all those criminals. Itās the guns, man. It matters not that they obtained guns, what matters is how trivially easy it was for them to get their hands on guns in a country where the number of firearms outnumber the population.
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How āwhiteā are they, because many degrees of āwhiteā exist?
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Not in America.
Nice derail though.
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I know we were making fun of Readerās Digest the other day, but it sort of is a tradition in my family. So my mom gets it for me.
Anyway - this article is about the motivations of a failed mass shooter. A guy who got a few buddies and were going to kill people and then aborted and just happened to get discovered by a cop on their way home. They sort of half assed it and turned back after a failed car jacking. But anyway, he offers interesting insight.
In this case he stole his fathers guns, which I guess just shows how one should have everything in a safe because you never know if your kid is not just a moody teen but nuts.
