Well it looks like the NRA just found its scapegoat. Reports are saying the shooter was Muslim. Whether it’s true or not is anyone’s guess. Either way, some domestic terrorist killed a bunch of innocent people.
Sickening. Every time.
What are they afraid of? Nobody is going to take their guns away. Certainly not this current “government”.
Terrorist group calls Stephen Paddock ‘a soldier of the Islamic State’
If Paddock had been a Hasidic Jew aged 5 who killed a bunch of people at an Islamic music festival in America Daesh would have still called him a “soldier of the Islamic State.” But of course, the NRA will be running with it.
By the way
Good. A statement from the White House should eliminate all those dangerous rumours and restore an atmosphere of reason and calm and unity in the face of tragedy.
Wait, I forgot, it’s no longer 2014.
I am so tired of being stuck on this ‘insane carousel…’
Mass shootings?
Or station good guys with guns on the top of surrounding hotels to pick-off anyone suspicious. Hmm.
Vegas is my town man. I did not grow up there but i went to college there and continued to live there for years after. I’ve since moved but i have a lot of good memories and lots of friends. The thought of something so cruel like this happening to so many innocent people breaks my heart. I know that stuff like this happens daily in other parts of the world but i can’t help how i feel about this attack.
I don’t know, it just seems senseless and i’m worn out over all this bullshit. I just need the world to stop with all this hate and insanity.
Yup. After Sandy Hook, I thought, ok, now something will be done, after all, these are kindergartners, surely this will resonate with folks opposed to minimal gun control in a way heretofore not possible. Nope. If anything the opposite.
Turns out that carrying a handgun around 24/7 doesn’t do you much good when somebody is mowing people down with an automatic rifle from a balcony across the street. Who knew?*
(*We knew.)
this. THIS is what I would say to Congress if I could have their attention for just 30 seconds.
I don’t think there’s a need for a complete ban but there’s definitely more that needs to be done as far as military style semi automatic and automatic rifles goes. I can guarantee you NRA will use this to push more for less gun controls, they will want more people out there armed because that’s what stops bad guys. No it doesn’t
The problem is also America’s obsession with guns and gun culture, and thinking its their god given right when it’s a privilege. Things will never improve until gun owners stop the excuses and BS.
Ok, as long as we are dusting off extremely relevant articles, I feel it’s ok to post (or perhaps repost if someone has done that in an older thread):
Damn.
it’s really about self-loathing, if you can do that with it. It’s a complete loss of relation to humanity and self. Don’t try to understand it, I only have a glimpse because I’ve known some people in their own bad times and places. Usually people just self-destruct.
That’s number 273 this year.
Like we were saying at work this morning, “If you can understand the motivation, you need to seek professional help.”
This is so fucked up. I hope the guy’s motives will somehow emerge, but regardless - in any civil country, automatic rifles that can snipe from 30 floors up are not sold to anyone except the military. Sort it out, America, for your own fucking good.
We need guns! We want guns! We have a right to own guns! You won’t take my guns, or my right to own guns!
Uh, why do you need a gun?
Because everyone else has a gun.
FYI: Because the shooters motivations are unknown, I’m going to allow discussions regarding labelling this a “traditional” act of terrorism to remain. We see many groups (for example, the NRA apparently in this case) often labelling the shootings as having a specific motivation without evidence, which I believe makes the importance of discussing labels important.
However, I also happen to believe that the likelihood that an act this egregious could not be ideologically, politically or religiously modulated to be pretty slim. There’s no other effective label for this sort of act of evil IMHO.
That being said, motivations are, for whatever reason, important to others, and finding out that the shooter had religious or cultural or whatever motivations for their heinous act would almost certainly change the entire conversation, so it’s a little disingenuous to declare such discussions as “beside the point”.