Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

Saw this: "It’s been 8,008 days since the UK had a school shooting. The United States has had 18 since January 1st."

it was the Dunblane massacre that precipitated tighter gun control laws in the UK, and the result was...

i didn't read all the recent posts but re the video game / violence link it should be pointed out that violent video games almost certainly reduce crime. iirc it's not clear whether that's bc it's an outlet for aggression or, (imo), more likely bc if you're playing video games you're busy not doing violent stuff. (nb this is also why when there's a big action film released there are fewer crimes committed - bc a lot of the young males who commit the crimes are watching a flick and not drinking / partying + subsequently making bad decisions).

cf https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18045578

hey america, you're doing it wrong

student loans
health care
mass killings

compared with other industrialized countries your problems are OFF THE FUCKING SCALE

Dude we know okay, take a back seat

Way things are going, I will myself be shouting that shit at the US from the outside soon enough.

Nikolas Cruz, the alleged gunman who killed at least 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday, trained with a white-supremacist group, its leader told the Anti-Defamation League. Jordan Jereb of the Republic of Florida told ADL that Cruz had participated in at least one training exercise near Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida. ADL reports the group describes itself as a “white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics” and seeks to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nikolas-cruz-trained-with-florida-white-supremacist-group-leader-says

there we go

Oh! And:

A spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February 15, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous day’s deadly shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, high school, was associated with his group.

But but mental problems.

BREAKING: Leader of white nationalist group has confirmed suspect in Florida school shooting was member of his organization.

give everyone all the guns, then let's guess which ones are going to kill children. we might get lucky!

I'm sure there's a lot of good people in that group, one member with mental problems shouldn't tarnish their reputation.

has this been posted already?

https://www.massshootingtracker.org/data/2018

Oh okay, so he's just a white supremacist and not a t-t-terrorist? Whew, what a relief.

And to think that I was grateful one of these shitbags was finally going to prison. He'll be welcomed with open arms.

how long before we are reading this kid's r/T_D post ?

So cool how white males are the biggest problem in this country from top to bottom.

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27752439_733648053496551_7577427506378563946_n.jpg?oh=50d8c1897dae8d7e89691405b9ad5524&oe=5B196E97

thank god we got to the bottom of this

it's our fault for not looking

i was looking at recent mass shootings and i completely forgot about the one in Sutherland Springs TX a few months ago. there's too many to keep track of at this point.

yeah it's nuts. the kill count on this was higher than Columbine and it'll be out of the news cycle in two days (unless Trump manages to say something completely insensitive, in which case it'll be...maybe three?)

xp to that fucking stupid facebook meme:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Mass_Shooting_Deaths_by_Year_1994-2017.jpg

that 1999 spike being columbine of course

people are mentioning "he left a comment on a YouTube video" but weirdly no one has mentioned that the YouTube blogger in question pretty much makes videos solely about bounty hunting. like, talk about violent video games or whatever but at least right now this is the stuff we know he's (probably) looking up

Tomorrow the stocks of gun distributors and manufacturers will rise, as they always do. We have a market that falls when the poor secure slightly better wages and rises when there are mass shootings. The problem goes well beyond assault rifles. It is life's subservience to profit

— Emma Caterine 🌹⚖️💸 (@EmmaCaterine) February 15, 2018

Every time another one of these mass shootings happen - right when the Republicans start telling us that the answer is more guns, guns for everyone, guns for teachers, guns for students - I think about Chris Kyle.

— dame judi dench's secret woodland (@markpopham) February 15, 2018

^^ that's a whole thread, worth reading

these events totally make me think about video games. i think people are trying to outdo each other. see how many people they can kill. people who are angry and depressed. instead of killing themselves by themselves they decide to take their anger out on others and also see if they can get the new high score. the only hope is that its a horrible fad. like the hula hoop. but it doesn't seem to be waning in popularity.

From nikolascruzmakarov's instagram:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWCNKAUUQAE_164.jpg

come on scott you're better than that

hey scott the entire rest of the world is playing the same games

tbf not the *entire* rest of the world

a point I will concede about games is that they are a potential funnel into a lot of overtly white supremacist-type spaces. but a potential one, not a definite one

i didn't read that post of scott's as blaming this on video games, i thought it was an analogy. i could be wrong (i usually am)

Senator from Florida on Channel 4 informing the UK that the problem is that these shootings are happening in areas where law abiding citizens aren't prevented from carrying guns.

Sorry, ignore that.

Senator from Florida on Channel 4 informing the UK that the problem is that these shootings are happening in areas where law abiding citizens ARE prevented from carrying guns.

He literally said the only way to stop the misuse of guns is with guns.

now seeing this video all over FB in which some rectangle headed bearded dude shouts at the camera about how shootings like this occur because students are too afraid to report "weird" kids because they're afraid to be called racist or homophobic, then screaming "YOUR FEELINGS ARE NOT WORTH A CHILD'S LIFE!"

never mind that the shooter was white and got expelled, so clearly someone reported him for something

this video has 11 million views by the way

He literally said the only way to stop the misuse of guns is with guns.

This trope has seeped deeply into the US gun-owning population psyche, where it is currently accepted as a truism: the only person who stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

arm teachers

i feel so depressed

Not used to that sort of psychosis being displayed on prime time UK television tbh.

hey, a good guy with a gun stopped the massacre in Texas, albeit after the massacre was already over

every school should have a bin of guns that students can come and borrow when they arrive in the morning

actually have these bins on every street corner

we won't solve the crisis until every man woman and child in america is armed

It’s time to arm our teachers!

— Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) February 15, 2018

NRO saying the same thing

One reason for caution: the SPLC says the white supremacist claiming that Cruz was part of the group is unusually attention-seeking for a white supremacist. https://t.co/BdwULbXWX6 pic.twitter.com/gJryEL6C6W

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 15, 2018

when you're unwilling to even consider that guns might be net negative for society, to entertain any proposals of gun control, these are the sort of positions you're forced to take.

The US's narcissistic failure to conceive of foreign models as potentially more successful than its own – in this and so many other instances – will only hasten its undoing. Viewed from abroad, the level of obliviousness is astounding.