Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

https://i.imgur.com/IRMCyJt.gif

large parts of america just wholesale embracing nihilism in the face of the climate-related disaster coming down the pipe

i have had a student recently voice - apparently w/ sincerity/conviction - refusal to do anything about climate change w/ attendant disasters on the grounds that as a believing christian they accept that the world is going to end anyhow and this is a matter out of human hands

naturally this is matched by a corresponding nihilism about the norms of argumentative discourse

only way to stop a bad guy from accidentally dropping a gun and injuring two people is a good guy accidentally dropping a gun and ah fuck it i'll take it to the "posts you decided not to post" thread

lord almighty xp

literally i guess

Oh wait now, the shooting was an accident but apparently the dude who dropped the gun then fled, presumably with the gun, and is now at large...somewhere. Rad!

both of these things can't be true simultaneously, but you hear them trotted out by gun nuts every time, sometimes within the same conversation

They don't care about this because they aren't arguing in good faith. Like I said before, when you have already decided that guns cannot be the problem, you make dumb arguments, conflicting arguments, etc. Which makes it friggin maddening when you get people who take the detached "hey stop responding to this problem out of emotion. We need to stick to logic and facts and pragmatism here" yet clearly have a strong emotional attachment to guns.

I've heard/seen/said the word "guns" so much at this point that the true nature of the thing is somewhat lost. It's a step away from a euphemism. Killing machines. They are killing machines.

guys guns are never going to be banned here, i would love it if they were but in this country people would rather have their shooting toys (to make holes appear super fast in--and hopefully close to the center of--pieces of paper) than they would rather have a drastic decrease in violence.

Obama's "clinging to guns and religion" quote was *politically* a misfire to an extent (pardon the term) but pretty accurate.

Never say never. Societies change. It won't happen in my lifetime, for sure. 500 years? Who knows. Slow, gradual change. Starting with possibly ineffective measures which nevertheless put a symbolic flag down stating a large part of society does not want guns around.

yea I said to my wife yesterday "good thing our kids are in day care, no one's going to shoot up a day care" and then realized someone's totally going to shoot up a day care in the next few years

This goes through my head probably 50% of the time when I'm on my way out after dropping the kid off.

After picking him up the other day I was behind a truck with a sticker of Michigan on the back window; I see tons of these of course because I'm in michigan, we have a distinctive outline, and the lower peninsula looks like a mitten so there's lots of joke mileage to get out of that.

This was the outline of the state with the mitten part holding a handgun. It was roundy and cute and iconic, not scary or threatening - just like "hey I'm from Michigan and I love guns!". The person probably fetishizes the objects the way other people in gear-heavy hobbies do - fishing poles, bikes, instruments, cameras, whatever. They may hunt, but probably don't, as I know a lot of hunters, and to them guns are tools that they use in their hobby, not the hobby itself.

I feel like people like this are the real problem and the key to switching public opinion. They like toys and loud noises and blowing stuff up and maybe, kind of, fantasizing about being a hero someday and are unable or unwilling to accept that their stupid hobby enables mass shootings to keep happening. They aren't apocalyptic hoarders or paramilitary types, just self absorbed and likely to get indignant when anyone dares to tell them that they might not be able to play with their toys. The actual hunters I know would probably grudgingly accept strict limitations that would allow them to have rifles and shotguns with limited capacities and severely restrict or ban handguns, as you don't fire thirty rounds in thirty seconds at deer or partridge. These gun hobbyists though will cry about "self defense" and don't want to have to register them or be limited as to what kind of guns they can own because nobody can tell them what to do.

How does society make this mindset cancerous? How can they get whatever change of opinion that smokers and drunk drivers have been subject to in my lifetime that makes them pariahs?

I mean in 100 years guns as we know they might be obsolete

Obama's "clinging to guns and religion" quote was *politically* a misfire to an extent (pardon the term) but pretty accurate.

― omar little, Friday, February 16, 2018 12:11 PM

Howard Fineman theorized yesterday that Trump, thanks to his appeal to rural white voters, would have more clout to sign sweeping gun control legislation.....

It’s weird that he’s the one New Yorker, of all New Yorkers, that these people actually like.

he's as rich and healthy as they! It's not hard.

i genuinely never thought i would see a smoking ban and it happened bam just like that and nobody blinked because smoking in restaurants etc is basically indefensible. it was like a kid who doesn't want to get into the bath, it happens and suddenly he's like ahh that feels good

Uh.

BREAKING: FBI says Jan. 5 tip about the suspected Florida school shooter was received by FBI's Public Access Line but "protocols were not followed" to escalate the tip for further investigation - https://t.co/kdrUxk2XiK pic.twitter.com/iBnPWKHQGA

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 16, 2018

McDonald's and Luby's were the first ones I remember too. I was about 11 or 12, and really didn't consider how horrible those events were. I remember the paper publishing these little cutaway maps of the restaurants, with these Billy-from-Family-Circus bars showing the path of the shooters.

I heard at the time one of the McDonald's survivors using ketchup to mock blood and playing dead. Sounded like a plan to me.

Howard Fineman theorized yesterday that Trump, thanks to his appeal to rural white voters, would have more clout to sign sweeping gun control legislation.....
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 16, 2018 12:21 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

except he's already demonstrated that he's incapable of reaching across the aisle, even for political expediency. More than needing "approval" Trump needs to be adored, he needs to be worshipped. I don't mean emotionally (he obv. does) but politically, because he's cornered himself and he knows that while a more moderate position on guns would win him broader approval, it would turn off the adoring base.

tell Howard! I need no convincing.

vigorous rallies to replace the fbi with the trump security agency, designed and overseen by erik prince in 3, 2, 1

Our building is pretty much on lockdown atm, apparently. Still. Very possibly an overreaction but it is what it is.

Probably as much a reaction to earlier shootings in the week as a proportionate precaution to this morning's incident. On top of the FL massacre, a police officer was shot and killed just a few blocks over a day or so ago. You guys probably didn't even hear about it because, hey, it was just one guy.

so, what's going on today

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWLNwLHUQAAH5ez.jpg

When do we say fuck it and put Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold on the currency? #ParklandShooting

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) February 15, 2018

the simple fact is that the GOP likes it when kids get murdered. and i don't mean that in a conspiracy theory, false-flag kind of way. more in a banality of evil way. they know the minute a mass-shooting happens that gun manufacturing stocks and NRA donations soar. which means more money for their campaigns. they have no reason to do anything about it.

and honestly i think it's time for normal people/ Dems/ PACs advertising on TV to just explicitly say that: The GOP Benefits When Children Get Murdered.

Some piece of shit on the radio was just going full sophistry. If you ban the AR line, what then? You'll have to go busting down doors, and there will be bloodshed! No, you motherfucker, you just don't let anyone else buy them, and if you are caught selling one you're fucked. Like selling heroin or lawn darts.

In an uncharacteristic attempt to restrain my hyperbole, I'd refrain from saying that the GOP likes when kids get murdered. But they inarguably like the secondary effects of kids getting murdered.

This asshat was arguing that we have laws that punish those that break the law, and that the shooter will not get away with it. And the host interrupted to say, wait a minute, his goal was to kill a lot of people with an assault rifle, he totally got away with it!

the simple fact is that the GOP likes it when kids get murdered. and i don't mean that in a conspiracy theory, false-flag kind of way. more in a banality of evil way. they know the minute a mass-shooting happens that gun manufacturing stocks and NRA donations soar. which means more money for their campaigns. they have no reason to do anything about it.

and honestly i think it's time for normal people/ Dems/ PACs advertising on TV to just explicitly say that: The GOP Benefits When Children Get Murdered.

― constitutional crises they fly at u face (will), Friday, February 16, 2018 12:30 PM

otm

that's a good Dennis Perrin tweet!

Hey, I had no trouble telling my NRA-member/"they'll never take my guns" aunt on FB today that the organization she's a member of has a vested financial interest in continued mass shootings. Why try to polish a turd?

that's a good Dennis Perrin tweet!

pretty good optics

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/16/politics/three-billboards-rubio-trnd/

It's hard not to see this as a side-effect of large parts of america just wholesale embracing nihilism in the face of the climate-related disaster

We've yet to see a Ted Kaczynski of spree killers, targeting coal executives. So far, the shooters with any political sentiments are almost universally from the Right, presumably immersed in denial and unaware of the scope of our problems. The few of the "Left" seem motivated by resentments over police racism, rather than our collective ecological crisis.

Perhaps there's a zeitgeist that penetrates indirectly. It's been a better decade for post-apocalyptic film and literature than any since the 80s. But that doesn't explain it either. 80s teens (wat least me and my peers) lived with knowledge that any day we could face blinding flashes and mushroom clouds, but we didn't shoot up schools.

I doubt video games have a unambiguous role, as violent crime on the whole has declined. Sometimes visualizing a fantasy is enough to prevent it. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the increase comes down to troubled people easily being able to find support for their views online. In the past, violent misanthropes wouldn't have their ideas supported and reflected back upon them. This Cruz fellow had 70+ followers on instagram.

yeah but how many of those were russians

that's like not very many followers for a teenager these days tbh

teens prefer to follow a duckface not a fuckface

https://thetab.com/us/2016/06/14/i-was-able-to-buy-an-ar-15-in-five-minutes-19833

teens prefer to follow a duckface not a fuckface

https://i.imgur.com/xQ6O8PA.jpg

It took me weeks to get all of my paperwork in order so I could get my first drivers license in this state. Like after having a drivers license in another state for twenty years. It was a pain in the ass and involved multiple trips to the DMV. I've never owned a gun but I could just go buy one this afternoon if I were inclined to do so.

We are so fucked.

point taken xp 😶

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/school-shooting-suspect-nikolas-cruz-snead-host-family-speaks/

Well I mean when you hear their side.....

Man, NRA is a helluva drug.

"Do you feel any responsibility?" Blackstone asked.

"We feel heartfelt sorrow for the families involved. As far as being responsible, feeling responsibility, you know we worked that out and there was nothing different we would have done," James responded.

must be nice to be so utterly fucking oblivious in the face of tragedy

When people with guns blow it

"Did it worry you, him having access to guns?" Blackstone asked the Sneads.

"No, he was just depressed. We thought he was just depressed over his mother's death," James said.

nbd just a lonely guy thinking baout things (and six guns)

Until people, let alone kids, toting around assault weapons is not seen as a red flag in and of itself, yeah, we're fucked.

nra really is a helluva drug - like how can millions of people believe that the answer to gun violence is moar guns guns for everyone guns guns guns, it's absolute madness