Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

Because prior to Tuesday the NRA had an unblemished reputation for... oh wait...

Seriously, I'm guessing he was getting a ton of cyber vitriol yesterday. And rightly so.

xxp

fucking hell

he should still play, being subjected to a Don McLean concert is the least of the many punishments those goblins deserve

truly a broken heart... jesus christ

This NRA convention wasn't made for one as beautiful as you

'drove the chevy to levy and we shot at some guys...'

The NRA did not listen. They're not listening still. Perhaps they never will.

The state of this scumbag...

https://news.sky.com/video/texas-school-shooting-sky-news-qustions-senator-ted-cruz-over-gun-control-at-uvalde-vigil-12621594

“I’m sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful,” Cruz said. “You’ve got your political agenda. God love you.”

Yeah, Ted, I think we can all agree that particular example of exceptionalism is pretty awful

Do I think systemic change is imminent? No. Do I think enough people are changing their minds to make a lasting difference? Extremely doubtful. That said, I am ever so slightly heartened today to see some folks in my life who, up until this very week, have been bootlickers and toeing the "cops are great" line, start expressing doubts about that very idea and acknowledging that they really maybe aren't all that worthy of praise.

These are barely bits of crumbs of hope, but after this week I need to take solace where I can find it and fucking anything that starts to chip away at the idea that cops are good is appreciated.

seeing a lot of bad faith "what law would have prevented this" arguments and it's infuriating because we know what laws actually are effective (see: every country on Earth) but also because in some sense, I know they're right

the problem is the guns. we all know that. we have 1.2 guns for every man, woman, and child in this country. we have 5% of the world's populations and 40% of the world's guns. and the reason for this is our culture is so gun crazy. an entire political party has made it their signature issue and uses the 2nd amendment as a reliable applause line. they make campaign ads with their guns. they take Christmas cards where the entire family is packing heat. half their social media posts showcase them outfitting their middle schoolers with AR-15s with captions like "triggered yet, libs?" this entire culture is based around the idea that one day, you WILL need to shoot someone. it's fucking insane. what if, instead of guns, they were holding sticks of dynamite? or vials of cyanide? you'd think these people are lunatics. but it's all normalized now and I don't know how you can reverse it. even Dem politicians start off every sentence with "look, I'm not trying to take away your guns..."

the problem with this is that every fucking campaign ad where some dipshit conservative starts shooting up some newspaper is an advertisement for guns. every Instagram post, every time they tweet "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED", it's all an ad. it works the same way any product placement in any movie works. what I keep coming back to - and maybe those older than me can correct me here - is that pre-Columbine, nobody would've conceived something so horrible. I don't think it would have been in anyone's head to shoot up a fucking school no matter how depressed or bullied or "redpilled" or whatever they were. now, the idea is in everyone's head. if the world pisses you off too much, you can just shoot up a school, or a supermarket, or a church, or just start firing into a crowd. how do you go back??

Cops should get on their knees every night and bless Hollywood for every cop show ever. Hollywood has stuffed money in the pockets of cops with all the fervor of James Harden in a strip club.

the shooter bought his guns on his 18th birthday, which was the first day he was legally allowed to buy a gun. sure seems like legal restrictions were keeping him from buying a gun before.

how do you go back??

No perfect answers, but you start with making it far more difficult to purchase assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. An 18 year old can't buy beer, no way should they be able to buy TWO weapons in the same week. Increase background checks, increase the wait times in order to do so, and push for licensing and registration of firearms just like cars. Most of this is common sense, and some conservatives are even on board with some of it (or at least claim to be in the wake of the gun tragedy du jour.)

I'm so fucking sick of arguments like "well, if they want the gun bad enough they will buy it illegally anyway." A kid in small town Texas might not know anywhere to buy an illegal firearm, and the difficulty of finding one might just dissuade him. I'm willing to see how that works.

I remember years ago Feinstein briefly went on this tack: "The 2nd Amendment doesn't say word one about ammunition" and her idea at the time was a thumbprint for any ammo purchase.. it didn't go anywhere, but there's something there

Cops should get on their knees every night and bless Hollywood for every cop show ever.

Imagine the shooter's terror if those cops had blasted "Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do" while they waited for backup to arrive.

A mom of two children at Uvalde was put in handcuffs after urging police and law enforcement to enter the school.

Once freed from her cuffs, she jumped the school fence, ran inside and sprinted out with her kids.

New from @WSJ: https://t.co/SYdgysw0gF pic.twitter.com/ZCadllw9aT

— Megan Menchaca (@meganmmenchaca) May 26, 2022

I remember years ago Feinstein briefly went on this tack: "The 2nd Amendment doesn't say word one about ammunition" and her idea at the time was a thumbprint for any ammo purchase.. it didn't go anywhere, but there's something there

― Andy the Grasshopper

This wouldn't help for these kind of situations, since the shooter ends up dead or in custody anyway.

You could permanently ban all gun sales tomorrow and there would still be too many.

Imagine the excrementstorm of sending police (or sheriffs or marshals or whatever) door to door through Texas, attempting to confiscate the existing guns. "Hello, sir, would you please put your seventeen guns into this bin?"

It's not feasible.

Never mind that the people charged with collecting even a fraction of the existing firearms are, themselves, probably ammosexuals who would instinctively oppose the whole project.

Note, I am not saying it's a bad idea to try to do anything, just that anything you could realistically try to do would be woefully insufficient.

Parkland should have ended the entire "good guy with a gun" shtick, but it didn't, and this probably won't either. Guns are always the answer. More people with more guns. The answer to any gun question is always more.

vent to nobody in particular. i haven't read this thread.

shut up, shut up, shut up. people keep talking about this one and they're talking about it more but not in a way that _changes_ anything they're just finding more reasons to hate the people they already hate. the right are blaming trans people and the left are blaming the cops and i'm not "both sidesing" this, i'm trans, all cops _are_ in fact bastards, but what, you think there's some critical mass of upset you can get where things will actually change? i mean, people talk about "stochastic terrorism", blaming trans people for shit brings about violence against trans people. so yeah, i hate cops, what the fuck am i supposed to do about it?

i'm sorry, all of this Discourse, it's all performance, you're talking like you're delivering closing statements on a lawyer show but nobody's _actually_ on trial. there was a time when i would have been all "we can't normalize this" and that was newtown, that was, like, 2013, and this is normal now. this is fucking normal. talk to your therapist about it if you need to, but shut the fuck up on twitter. you're not helping anything. i know i'm a hypocrite, i know i'm not helping anything, but i spend a lot of time and effort trying to prevent me from your fucking outrage trauma porn and when it doesn't work i get upset.

Saturday, June 11th, near you.

https://marchforourlives.com/march22/

the longest journey begins with a single step ymp

gun buybacks have worked elsewhere. it galls me to give money to gun nuts but whaddya gone do

Fair point Tracer, I am just despairing and venting some frustration. Best of all possible vibes to the many well-meaning people in this flawed world.

Huh well I clicked on this thread with hope of articulating my anger and frustrating with everything surrounding gun violence in the US, but apparently on Rushomancy is allowed to vent on this thread. Fucking hell you fucking people. This shit is not about you for fuck's sake.

well she didn't read this thread and said "shut the fuck up on twitter"..... this is a pretty good place to go on n get it all out

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-tdsb-schools-lockdown-1.6466880

"Suspect shot dead by Toronto police after schools locked down over reports of man with rifle"

intersection near several schools

"A long barrel firearm was recovered, she said, but it's too soon to confirm whether the man was holding the weapon when officers shot him."

the heck

Cops will quickly for overcorrect for anyone who thinks they aren't shooting people fast enough.

Meanwhile, they've lost Lee Greenwood. I'm sure he will have a makeup date once the heat dies down. But it's at least a sign of the heat.

Statement from Lee Greenwood, who was scheduled to perform in Houston this weekend: pic.twitter.com/MOLp18W0bV

— Alli Gordon (@alligordon_) May 27, 2022

i think lee's apology should only go into effect once he writes a single song that doesn't suck

lol

Don McLean too.

someone in my small 50/50-right/left town posted to Reddit and basically said "what will the cops do with my guns if i turn them? i've always been a gun guy, but i just can't be a part of this anymore"

it gave me a tiny sliver of hope ... not that there will be a wave of people like him, necessarily, just ... nebulous, desperately needed hope

*if i turn them in

This is possibly dumb - I realise that confiscating every yahoo's AR-15 after they've been banned is impractical, but could the ammo for these automatic weapons not be banned instead? A gun is useless without bullets.

Shutting down the industry has to have an impact, even if it encourages a black market.

I mean, you'll never preclude a black market. But this kid would probably not have bought his AR15 off the black market.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-tdsb-schools-lockdown-1.6466880

"Suspect shot dead by Toronto police after schools locked down over reports of man with rifle"

intersection near several schools

"A long barrel firearm was recovered, she said, but it's too soon to confirm whether the man was holding the weapon when officers shot him."

the heck

― maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, May 26, 2022 8:04 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Cops will quickly for overcorrect for anyone who thinks they aren't shooting people fast enough.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, May 26, 2022 10:14 PM (yesterday)

The "rifle" turned out to be a pellet gun. tipsy otm

Holy shit

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/05/26/scarborough-schools-lockdown-man-with-rifle/

Parents who witnessed the incident tell CityNews they heard officers yell “show me your hands” three times before they heard three or four shots fired.

Steve Matthews, whose son attends William G. Davis Junior Public School, was one of the first people to witness what he described as a man pacing back and forth outside the school with a gun.

“I don’t even know how I feel at this moment. Still just in shock that this could happen, but I am just glad everyone is safe,” Matthews said. “I saw a gentleman [near] school property walking with a rifle on his shoulder, pacing back and forth.”

Matthews, who was in his car at the time, said he was focused on the man’s gun. He quickly turned his vehicle around and kept an eye on him.

“I just saw that he kept pacing, so that’s when I decided to park and run inside [the school] and make sure 9-1-1 was contacted.”

They’re really going with the “there should only be one door in schools” huh? Okay.

They’re either reinventing every old timely firetrap disaster or reinventing the prison.

Old-timey

Schools should be like bank vaults. You lock the kids in at the beginning of the day, provide them with knowledge (but just about math and stuff - nothing about history, especially not American history, 'cause it makes the white kids' parents feel bad), and unlock the vault at the end of the day and let 'em all out again. Give 'em catheters so nobody ever has to leave their seats.

they're not going to get rid of doors i assume? all but one will set off the fire alarm. so you'll need a man inside?

The other big idea in the news is ratting to the authorities about peoples mental states to have them put on a list. .ya....

Is it too cynical to assume that support for gun freedom (or whatever you wanna call it) is to some extent contingent on lawmakers’ need to ensure their/their families’ continued safety?

We're beyond cynicism

i think it is ultimately the same instinct that led to massive opposition to seatbelt laws. and masks. land of the free. if i want to be a total fucking lunatic that’s my business. yes there might be some collateral damage but the principle is sacred. it’s incredibly juvenile but probably more psychically powerful for being so.

stupidly looked at fb for the first time in months, and the all the conservatives (mostly replying to normal friends’ posts) solemnly concern-trolling in unison about Mental Health I’m asking you to pls have a very nice dip in a vat of acid

otm