Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

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

TBF the answer to my craving for heroin is more heroin.

This is all besides the fact that the kid had enough history to not be let near a fork let alone a knife let alone assault rifles

https://media1.tenor.com/images/a451e58b31bd6e315fa07f4515f6a48f/tenor.gif?itemid=5689634

nra pushing the 'more cowbell' approach to gun laws because, after all, we shouldn't fear the reaper

"You thought it was fine for a 19-year-old to have an AR-15?" Blackstone asked.

"It's his right to have it," James said.

"Do you feel any differently about that now?" Blackstone asked.

"No. Nope," James said.

i mean come on

No, nope, no sirree, hell naw, more guns, guns for everyone

this may seem obvious to all here but I've spent the weekend disturbed that what the NRA and its allies have done is encourage an arms race among private citizens. the parallels between militarized police, budget priorities increasing military spending, and all of this have been swirling in my mind in ways that I cannot articulate but it's all left me very shaken.

yeah, its like the atomistic vision of american public life gets extended to personal safety, that only appropriately matching lethal firepower as hypercriminals and deranged mass killers can keep you safe. instead of, you know, looking at the multiple factors that can contribute to public safety like fewer guns and expanded public health care and a guaranteed baseline of economic security. but nah lets just do austerity and private security and let god sort it out.

"the only way to protect ourselves from being mowed down by these lethal machines is having more of these lethal machines"

yea okay i was bullied too but he shot me so like whats ur point https://t.co/ZhOfiwaDdS

— isa (@isabelchequer) February 18, 2018

I think the other thing that's so dispiriting is how many people have internalized this extremely cynical, completely dystopic worldview that these corporate entities and advocacy groups have created and egged on. Like during the development of ACA and you had people screaming about how citizens SHOULDN'T have healthcare... it's not too much of a stretch to end up with people who just shrug off all of this bloodshed as the inevitable price of freedom. They've been gotten to. I could only imagine that LaPierre & associates must be proud of their accomplishments.

Trying to understand these people's minds is like studying cannibalism as an anthropologist.

In my lifetime smoking was legal not just in bars and restaurants, but *airplanes* and *hospitals.* And now it's not. The smoking industry I'm going to guess had or has more money than the gun industry. Smoking, in terms of deaths, was and probably still is more lethal than guns. And yet, this huge, major shift happened. So ... I guess nothing is impossible.

none of that actually limited people's access to cigarettes though, just redirected where they could smoke. there was a little consternation for a bit, but smokers didn't make as big of a stink for long because they found ways to adapt.

"You thought it was fine for a 19-year-old to have an AR-15?" Blackstone asked.

"It's his right to have it," James said.

"Do you feel any differently about that now?" Blackstone asked.

"No. Nope," James said.

imagine this conversation about any other terrible product that kills people, all of this fetishizing over "rights" and all that bullshit. people love their precious stupid "never-should-have-been-invented" doom sticks that go bang.

none of that actually limited people's access to cigarettes though,

But it did/has. There are no more cigarette machines and the age to buy (and taxes) keeps creeping up.

even after all this time i'm still amazed by the genuine stupidity/insanity/psychopathy of people who actively question the truthfulness of mass shootings. even if they were caught up in the middle of one i would be willing to bet a few of them would call it a false flag.

I don't know anybody who smokes cigarettes anymore.

we went over to a house for a playdate the other day and the parents stepped outside for a smoke. i was completely taken aback, i haven't seen anyone smoking socially in what feels like years. small sample size, probably. if they were smoking w33d i'd have been completely unruffled.

My former downstairs-beside neighbours smoked and so did their friends and when they'd have their parties until 4 in the morning they'd all be out in the garden below my head while I was trying to sleep.

xp: oh yeah. There've been a couple of "some other kid's parent at the park" things.

gotta say i love that kid's tweet above