Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

even tho we live in a dystopian hellscape, i really dont think the talk about teachers carrying guns (or even "hardening" schools more than they are) will really come to fruition -- in public schools. as i think has been mentioned elsewhere, i do think that there will be at least a small portion of private schools that start touting their security as a selling point

the fact that arming teachers is even a remote possibility is already a victory for the nra. the real debate should be about whether to ban all guns or not, or at the very least whether to ban assault rifles (again). instead half the conversation moves to the possibility of training teachers to function as auxiliary SWAT units. it's unbelievable.

Philanda Castile, a teacher, was carrying a fully legal gun when he was murdered by the cops. Everything about this is just outrageous and stupid.

(Philando)

I love the idea that the kids in the old post-Sandy Hook videos and suchlike were ‘obviously crisis actors’ because they fluffed their lines and stuttered and were clearly ‘forgetting’ the script or ‘not sticking' to it. Yet now after Florida they’re obviously crisis actors because they’re so well-drilled and organized and everything seems so slick and ‘rehearsed’.

it's almost like the whole idea of crisis actors is a ludicrous fiction

thoughts & prayers makeup tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDkHmQEOkYo

lol at these adults trying to beat teens at twitter

I’m a junior. https://t.co/P9clE1ks5N

— Sarah Chadwick// #NEVERAGAIN (@sarahchad_) February 23, 2018

lol Sarah on fire this morning

wait wait i seen this i know how this fight ends pic.twitter.com/mI3ttzapCV

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 22, 2018

It would certainly send a powerful statement if millions of high school kids wore bullet proof vests to school in protest/defense

and that statement would be ‘school shooters, aim for the head’

maybe a little tooclose to legit NRA proposal

Rereading that crazy and depressing GQ story from last fall that's linked way upthread (https://www.gq.com/story/inside-federal-bureau-of-way-too-many-guns), and looking again at all the familiar stats about sheer numbers of guns sold in the U.S., and pondering the Dickey Amendment and the great lengths the industry has gone to to basically make it impossible to ever know anything about how many guns are sold to whom ...

It all makes me think that we usually talk about the wrong things in gun discussions. We get bogged down in constitutional debates and what is or isn't an assault weapon and whether anyone really needs a gun for self-defense -- while mostly ignoring the underlying economics of all of this. Yes, we say "the gun industry," and we know "they're just trying to make money," but there's still this assumption that this multi-billion-dollar thing is all being driven by Ford-truck yahoos with 75 guns in their basement. Obviously they are out there, but c'mon. A lot of the legally purchased guns in America go to much more organized efforts than just suburban gun nuts who go to the range on weekends. I'm not saying the gun industry is deliberately covering for all the cartels and militias and mafiosos who are a significant chunk of their end users. But at the very least, like Purdue not wanting to know too much about where all those Oxycontin prescriptions were going, they know that too much disclosure would be bad for business.

i had to work a few days in the suburbs of Atlanta last year and it blew my mind that just about everyone in the office had a concealed weapon. it freaked me out , like if I lived there I would have to seriously consider having one too or be the only one walking around without a piece.

Oh there are plenty of people with them, even though it's a minority of the population. I just don't think there are anywhere near enough legit gun nuts to account for the hundreds of millions of guns out there. And I imagine the NRA knows that too.

That Twitter smackdown of Laura Ingraham was a much needed laugh this morning. (many xp)

Insurer Chubb says will stop underwriting NRA insurance for gun owners https://t.co/jiJ99GRFgw

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 23, 2018

https://i.imgur.com/S2Tvscb.gif

Somebody please reset this simulation.

Here is the NRA surprising FCC chairman Ajit Pai with an award (it's a gun) for "courage under fire" and "saving the internet" (ending net neutrality) https://t.co/EhhBUesXK5

— Pam Vogel (@pamela_vogel) February 23, 2018

xxp

There have been a bunch of companies that have cut ties with the NRA and a bunch more that are being pressured to follow suit. A good sign.

https://thinkprogress.org/corporations-nra-f0d8074f2ca7/

In related news, I got a message from my son's high school that there was a planned student walk out and that students would not face any punishment as long as they observed the student code of conduct.

NRA spokeswoman: "Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it... Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you..." https://t.co/zdMoiq3AIN pic.twitter.com/gXJ3bussp3

— CNN (@CNN) February 22, 2018

As a reporter, I covered more than a thousand handgun fatalities and spent a full year following homicide detectives from scene to scene. Covered a mass shooting.

Did I love it?

Fuck you, you stupid, senseless, sociopathic, Moloch-worshipping mouthpiece for this American hell. https://t.co/dWIPXncVP4

— David Simon (@AoDespair) February 23, 2018

We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRA’s rental car discount program with Hertz.

— Hertz (@Hertz) February 23, 2018

I had a conversation several years ago with a libertarian friend who thought everyone should just shut up about guns and let people do what they want. He laid out all the reasons serious gun regulations wouldn't fly under the 2nd Amendment, and basically said, how would you stop it? The only thing I could thing of was stigmatization. Like with cigarettes. You don't have to ban it, you just make it less socially acceptable. Maybe that's starting.

I think its one reason it works everywhere else! People are *horrified* by guns in most places not proud of the fucking things.

They never see any. The first time I saw a gun in real life was a policeman in London carrying one - outside the US embassy, where else? I was in my 30s, for sure.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/father-school-shooting-survivor-allegedly-doctored-cnn-emails-article-1.3839063

That dad is such a dick.

I knew as soon as RCP & Fox were the only outlets pushing that story that there was more to it. What a fuckface. Poor kid.

Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website.

— Delta (@Delta) February 24, 2018

I hope this is an avalanche

i'm generally pretty cynical about the political import of corporate partnerships or w/e but the number of companies bailing on the NRA is pretty impressive

This is such an amazing turn of events. I do hope it continues.

Anyone have theories on why this particular massacre seems to be turning the tide? I'm sure the organization of these kids plays a big part.

it makes me think of this interview of edouard louis
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/19/interview-edouard-louis-the-end-of-eddy-front-national-marine-le-pen-kim-willsher

"Some subjects should be considered obsolete, and yes, let’s shut down the debate because they are obsolete. I grew up as a queer child in a small village. Lots of gay children in this situation suffer the same things: being threatened, beaten up. When I published my book in Paris, some said, ‘Well, if you’d grown up in a bourgeois milieu, people would have thought the same thing, they just wouldn’t have hit you.’ Are they joking? I would rather that, than being constantly beaten up for being queer. Of course I’d rather people weren’t racist or homophobic, but if they are they can keep it to themselves. Just shut up.

“And if they don’t and won’t, we need to start redistributing shame, making people feel ashamed, so when they repeat what the FN is saying, we reply, ‘Quelle honte!’ [Shame on you]. That would be progress, that would be democracy, not letting people say what they want, not giving their racist, homophobic views the same value, the same credibility as other propositions. Not giving those stupid, unacceptable propositions weight and currency by responding to them. This has been the great tragedy of recent years in literature, the press, intellectual life, this ideology that in a debate all views have the same weight, that we can debate with the FN, with the extreme right. That’s wrong.

“We should say to the FN and far right: just shut up. Keep your stupid, nasty views to yourselves. This shame business is quite important."

xp The nation has been terrorized for a year-plus now, people have been activated, high schoolers included. To me this seems the clear difference—networks for activism nationwide have grown in strength and number.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/the-nra-lobbyist-behind-floridas-pro-gun-policies

Marion Hammer of the Florida NRA has had such influence over the years. Scary

I know a couple different people (I'm sure we all do) who have argued that Trump, by expediting the logical extension of status-quo corruption, will facilitate change in a way his opponent never could have.

Obv this is a batshit crazy reason to abide his presidency, not least because it fails to consider the long-term damage to climate, broken alliances, the deportations and on and on. But I do think we're gonna be able to identify decades-in-waiting corrections that might not have happened otherwise...?

November decides a lot.

The NRA just went beyond the pale with their messaging over the past year. They're practically inciting violence against progressives and protesters in this video, which is probably the worst own goal I've seen from any political lobby in years. The term "stochastic terrorism" was made for this sort of thing.

i'm generally pretty cynical about the political import of corporate partnerships or w/e but the number of companies bailing on the NRA is pretty impressive

― gbx, Saturday, February 24, 2018 11:10 AM

I think the real push to get corporate partners to bail on the NRA here is disincentivize any actual pros to NRA membership. I know you have to be card-carrying to shoot at some percentage of shooting ranges/clubs around the country, but if you're not getting preferred rates on your Visa or discounts on your car rentals and airfare, what's the point in remaining a member?

that's a good point, ty

xxpost Wooooooow, how have I not seen that NRA video before? That is almost literally insane.

yeah good point johnny fever

The few gun owners I know are not NRA members.

The NRA may keep them on its rolls but perhaps hasn't updated its contact information, as it wildly inflates its membership numbers (~ 5 million).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjqOpd_7Vrw

I wonder if this also applies to Gun Owners of America (1.5 million), an even more extreme organization that criticizes the NRA for its willingness to compromise.

I am seeing a sea change here. The NRA have just not been able to talk their way out of this one. It's not just corporate policies - people I know are who were pro-gun are _changing their minds_. I don't know why it's happening now and not before, but I'm grateful.

As I understand it, these corporations cutting ties are a big deal because the NRA has been facing dwindling memberships and funds. If this makes a real dent, we could see their political influence significantly diminished.

United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website.

— United Airlines (@united) February 24, 2018

As outrage continues over Florida school shooting, NRA loses sponsors and corporate support https://t.co/McDHqVKxiK

— L.A. Times National (@latimesnational) February 24, 2018

I may have said this upthread but it feels a bit like the Weinstein case as being the inception point for the #metoo moment, a very organic response coupled with a completely despicable and tone-deaf defense.