Boy, 10 years old, fires shotgun at cops during 2-hour SWAT standoff in San Diego, CA

I liked this not because it’s a good thing, but because it’s true facts.

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Wrist rocket ftw.

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That is terrifying.

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Why, in my day, the last thing a ten year old would want would be getting called out to the shed.

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I had access at that age. It was a different time and place. Mostly I got in trouble with slingshots and once with cannon powder and twice with gasoline. Boys will be boys will be savage pyromaniac woodland terror-beasts.

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I still have mine!

Also, if you’re a Joerg Sprave (slingshot channel) type person, then it’s interesting that you can buy the really heavy surgical tubing type exercise bands from most sporting goods stores in ridiculous weights (the one I bought was #50 pull), and cut them up into bands for your wrist rocket. Buy (or cast) some musket ball sized pellets, and the humble wrist rocket goes from “yeah, those can be a little dangerous if you’re not careful” to “man, I’m a little scared to even shoot these things…”

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According to one of the links the shotgun and ammunition were in the shed

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Armed and taken alive. Let me guess, the kid is white?

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I have 2 better rules: If you have kids, don’t have guns. If you don’t have kids, don’t have guns.

And if you’re serious about preventing violence: don’t give guns to the police.

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I see this problem due way more to militarized policing and societal over-dependence on cops than about gun control. Shotgun or not, there is no way a swat team is the best response to a 10 year old acting out. Its a 10 yo that had not hurt anyone. How about an adult talking to him and deescalating the situation.

Appreciate the point, but I feel the need to point out that Tamir’s “gun” was a plastic toy

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Can you explain what you mean, because I just don’t get it.

True. Maybe in that case there were no adults around, just the parents and a bunch of cops. :grinning:

It was probably the time and place where the seeds for today’s situation were sown. (or is it sawn? sewn? sowed? IDK)

I would still love my child, and tell them so. Just for a start. Then I’d probably listen to what he wants to say, and figure out what he actually needs. If my kids murder me with one of my guns, I’d probably deserve it. But they won’t, because I don’t have any.

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That was my point. Cleveland cops didn’t even see the toy gun due to their lack of restraint and hair-trigger response.

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'Murkastan’s new motto

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Gun violence was higher back then, so maybe. Overall it probably took us 200 years to get to this point w.r.t. our culture’s view on guns.

It probably doesn’t help that we are a war mongering nation and we frequently romanticize war and violence in our art. Our ability to project physical violence onto others is the key reason our nation holds the position in the world that it does. There are larger economies, but not a larger superpower.

As long as you continue to let our country be ran on war hawk principles you will find those principles permeating even civilian interactions in our society.

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Yes! First, this from wiki: Relativism is the idea that views are relative to differences in perception and consideration.

So – by and large, current perceptions and considerations have changed drastically from what they were, say, 50 years ago. The change is driven by the seemingly exponential, drawn out, uptick in numbers and viciousness of violent acts. Riffing off @GulliverFoyle’s sadly true observation, a 10 year old firing a shotgun at cops (and not even harming then) would have been surprising enough 50 years ago; these days, though? “Universally”, a mere blip now.

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I was agreeing with you, just adding to your point. Someone unfamiliar with Tamir Rice’s case could have read your comment and reasonably thought that he too had a shotgun

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I understand what relativism is, but I’m not sure it applies here. What you describe is a more like a collective shift in perception.

Sleep on it, my friend. :slightly_smiling_face:

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It’s possible that my views concerning the level of baseline humanity one can rely on from children are still heavily shaded by some formative elementary and middle school experiences; but I can’t really dismiss the idea that a 10 year old acting out in ways that include obtaining an operational shotgun goes firmly into the “It’s a 10 year old that had not hurt anyone yet” bucket, rather than the “10 year old that had not hurt anyone” bucket.

You don’t have to subscribe to the notion that kiddo is fundamentally depraved to be concerned; just recognize that emotionally perturbed children are not a hotbed of careful consideration of consequences; while firearms are superb tools for turning momentary impulses into gruesome levels of tissue damage well before any pesky second thoughts have time to creep in.

Actual slings are not to be trifle with. With some practice you can put a few dozen Joules of energy into a sling bullet and make holes in car doors.

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