Another US Shooting

[Anubis]

Internet high five for your daughter.

[Anubis]

Make yourself useful and send us some Spam and the Fighting Third.

And, while you're at it, do you have any collapsible nuclear shelters? Cheers.

[lifetime fan]

Shoe memorial for the 7,000 children killed by gun violence since 2012...moving as fuck.

 

 

[VladimirIlyich]

Shoe memorial for the 7,000 children killed by gun violence since 2012...moving as fuck.

 

 

So thats only the last five years then?

[lifetime fan]

So thats only the last five years then?

 

Yes.

[Anubis]

Shoe memorial for the 7,000 children killed by gun violence since 2012...moving as fuck.

 

 

 

That's a very powerful image.  As a senator, how can you look at that and not think the argument for some form of more stringent gun control is valid.

[VladimirIlyich]

That's a very powerful image. As a senator, how can you look at that and not think the argument for some form of more stringent gun control is valid.

They either a. Don't look at it or b. Look at your donations from the NRA et al. US politicians strike me as some of the most unintelligent people on the planet and the few that are very intelligent are actually ridiculed,smeared and labelled 'anti american.'

 

As you live over there Rev,are people as stupid as they appear to be outside of the large towns and cities? I tend to believe that they can't really be and are completely misrepresented by their politicians.

[TheHowieLama]

They either a. Don't look at it or b. Look at your donations from the NRA et al. US politicians strike me as some of the most unintelligent people on the planet and the few that are very intelligent are actually ridiculed,smeared and labelled 'anti american.'

 

As you live over there Rev,are people as stupid as they appear to be outside of the large towns and cities? I tend to believe that they can't really be and are completely misrepresented by their politicians.

 

Some of them sure -- of course we tend to believe the English are represented by their football pundits so .....

[VladimirIlyich]

Some of them sure -- of course we tend to believe the English are represented by their football pundits so .....

Jockey is happy for you to believe this too.

[Section_31]

Shoe memorial for the 7,000 children killed by gun violence since 2012...moving as fuck.

 

 

 

Looks like my wife's part of our wardrobe. 

[Rico1304]

A dog died on a flight yesterday after the airline made the owner put it in the overhead locker. Today Senator John Kennedy is introducing a bill to make it illegal.

 

Dogs > kids.

[Anubis]

Howie has been holding out on us. It appears several members of the same extended family in Austin, Texas, have been receiving pipe bombs in everyday packages. So far three people have been killed.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/03/13/us/austin-package-bombing-victims/index.html

[G Richards]

They either a. Don't look at it or b. Look at your donations from the NRA et al. US politicians strike me as some of the most unintelligent people on the planet and the few that are very intelligent are actually ridiculed,smeared and labelled 'anti american.'

As you live over there Rev,are people as stupid as they appear to be outside of the large towns and cities? I tend to believe that they can't really be and are completely misrepresented by their politicians.

Culture is an enormously powerful thing, and many of the issues (that seem to appear stupid) are down to cultural factors.

 

On guns, the Second Amendment is deeply ingrained, and the right to bear arms is sacrosanct. In my view it’s just an amendment, and should be amended to suit the modern world. Something like no guns in homes or on person in city limits, but if you want a gun say for sporting purposes, it should be kept in a lock up place where you check it out and in after, say, your hunting trip. I’ve no problem with people owning and keeping guns if they live outside city limits, as it’s a different world there, with lions and tigers and bears, oh my...

 

The vast majority of gun deaths would be stopped with this simple adjustment, so long as there was a massive amnesty to have a reset.

 

I don’t think it will ever happen, largely because of culture. For a huge swathe of the population the right to bear arms is almost synonymous with being a good American. The country was founded with that in place and people won’t let it go. Obviously outfits like the NRA keep the insanity going, as they benefit financially from more guns in the hands of more people. It’s fair to say they exist primarily for gun manufacturers, not gun owners. Early on they were about safety and good marksmanship, but that ship has long sailed.

 

Anyhow, I’m rambling, but the bottom line is people are people. Some are well read and some are pretty stupid as it happens. But the factor that is often overlooked is the cultural factor, as cultural forces help shape our worldview and sense of norms and so on. This is why I know plenty of sane, lucid people who are professional people and highly educated... but as gun owners they would look at my ideas about gun control sideways and think I am the nutjob, not them.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Getting ready for war over here son.

 

 

Make yourself useful and send us some Spam and the Fighting Third.

That's a teacher getting ready for class.

[skend04]

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/boy-shoots-sister-in-argument-over-video-game-controller-11296605

 

Brother shoots his sister dead in a row over a game controller.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Culture is an enormously powerful thing, and many of the issues (that seem to appear stupid) are down to cultural factors.

 

On guns, the Second Amendment is deeply ingrained, and the right to bear arms is sacrosanct. In my view it’s just an amendment, and should be amended to suit the modern world. Something like no guns in homes or on person in city limits, but if you want a gun say for sporting purposes, it should be kept in a lock up place where you check it out and in after, say, your hunting trip. I’ve no problem with people owning and keeping guns if they live outside city limits, as it’s a different world there, with lions and tigers and bears, oh my...

 

The vast majority of gun deaths would be stopped with this simple adjustment, so long as there was a massive amnesty to have a reset.

 

I don’t think it will ever happen, largely because of culture. For a huge swathe of the population the right to bear arms is almost synonymous with being a good American. The country was founded with that in place and people won’t let it go. Obviously outfits like the NRA keep the insanity going, as they benefit financially from more guns in the hands of more people. It’s fair to say they exist primarily for gun manufacturers, not gun owners. Early on they were about safety and good marksmanship, but that ship has long sailed.

 

Anyhow, I’m rambling, but the bottom line is people are people. Some are well read and some are pretty stupid as it happens. But the factor that is often overlooked is the cultural factor, as cultural forces help shape our worldview and sense of norms and so on. This is why I know plenty of sane, lucid people who are professional people and highly educated... but as gun owners they would look at my ideas about gun control sideways and think I am the nutjob, not them.

 

I think it's hard for outsiders to grasp just how much the concept of America and the existing culture is ingrained into the population, to the point where questioning the status quo is to be considered unpatriotic. I remember having a discussion during a sociology class one day, where it was put forward that Americanism, to its population, could be considered a recent religion. I scoffed, yet the arguments put forward were all pretty valid: an overwhelming belief in exceptionalism, founding scribes who put down the word of law that overrides all modernity, ubiquitous symbology, veneration for inanimate objects etc. 

 

Little episodes give you an insight into the mindset and why change is so hard, such as when a US athlete lets a flag drag on the ground and they're criticised for it. In most other countries no one would even notice. I'm reasonably hopeful change will happen on gun laws eventually, but steering a nation founded on puritanical fervour around will take some time. I still find it odd that at a constitutional level it's a secular country, however a belief in god is standard for all politicians to profess; yet Blighty has the head of state and head of church intrinsically linked (well, it's the same person), however offering similar sentiments to their US counterparts would render an MP pretty much unelectable.

[TheHowieLama]

Howie has been holding out on us. It appears several members of the same extended family in Austin, Texas, have been receiving pipe bombs in everyday packages. So far three people have been killed.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/03/13/us/austin-package-bombing-victims/index.html

 

 

This got weird this morning - coppers basically closed down the city this am for a few hours

[Anubis]

Just read upon it. It seems the latest blast was set off by tripwire, but they haven't linked it to the other bombings as of yet. I can see why they closed down the neighbourhood, thinking the bomber may have set more traps.

[SasaS]

I think it's hard for outsiders to grasp just how much the concept of America and the existing culture is ingrained into the population, to the point where questioning the status quo is to be considered unpatriotic. I remember having a discussion during a sociology class one day, where it was put forward that Americanism, to its population, could be considered a recent religion. I scoffed, yet the arguments put forward were all pretty valid: an overwhelming belief in exceptionalism, founding scribes who put down the word of law that overrides all modernity, ubiquitous symbology, veneration for inanimate objects etc. 

 

Little episodes give you an insight into the mindset and why change is so hard, such as when a US athlete lets a flag drag on the ground and they're criticised for it. In most other countries no one would even notice. I'm reasonably hopeful change will happen on gun laws eventually, but steering a nation founded on puritanical fervour around will take some time. I still find it odd that at a constitutional level it's a secular country, however a belief in god is standard for all politicians to profess; yet Blighty has the head of state and head of church intrinsically linked (well, it's the same person), however offering similar sentiments to their US counterparts would render an MP pretty much unelectable.

 

 

Good point, I am always baffled how even liberal minded people engage in interpreting what the Founding Fathers said or meant to say, effectively treating a political manifesto of a group of colonists who decided they were strong enough to break free from England's grasp as a collection of religious texts, a revelation of original truths and beliefs to which the following generations must adhere.

 

My other source of constant bafflement is why do so many people who don't live in the US have such strong opinions about their gun culture.  

[VladimirIlyich]

 

My other source of constant bafflement is why do so many people who don't live in the US have such strong opinions about their gun culture.

I can't speak for others necessarily but my concern for kids being mowed down with an automatic weapon by one of their classmates or former students is akin to Indian street kids or african children starving to death,it simply doesn't need to nor should ever happen. 'Bafflement' seems strange word to use when other human beings express concern at the needless loss of young lives not through an illness or natural disaster but a purely preventable situation.

[Pureblood]

I’ve no problem with people owning and keeping guns if they live outside city limits, as it’s a different world there, with lions and tigers and bears, oh my...

 

It's a bit harsh allowing people to gun down members of popular sports teams. 

[SasaS]

I can't speak for others necessarily but my concern for kids being mowed down with an automatic weapon by one of their classmates or former students is akin to Indian street kids or african children starving to death,it simply doesn't need to nor should ever happen. 'Bafflement' seems strange word to use when other human beings express concern at the needless loss of young lives not through an illness or natural disaster but a purely preventable situation.

 

Yeah, except not really, people do not discuss American gun culture because they are concerned about  the needless loss of young or other lives, they discuss it along ideological lines and because they are fascinated by the phenomenon, since it happens in what they obviously see as the most important country in the world. You mostly don't see pages and pages of heated discussion of Bangladeshi flood defence system or the situation in the Congo.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Whilst I don't support everyone having a gun, the constitution does say that everyone has the right to. They NRA should win that as it's a clear violation.

The Second Amendment doesn't mention guns. It says "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

 

Either you interpret that as an absolute - in which case, Americans of all ages, mental capacity, etc. should have free access to tanks, nukes, chemical weapons, etc. - or you interpret it as a qualified right, in which case it's just a question of where you draw the line on who has access to which weapons.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/boy-shoots-sister-in-argument-over-video-game-controller-11296605

 

Brother shoots his sister dead in a row over a game controller.

Politicians will probably use this as evidence that video games encourage violence.

 

I use it as evidence that it's normal for humans to lose their shit and lash out from time to time, so it makes sense to make sure that they don't have deadly weapons ready to hand when that happens.

[Numero Veinticinco]

Yeah, except not really, people do not discuss American gun culture because they are concerned about the needless loss of young or other lives, they discuss it along ideological lines and because they are fascinated by the phenomenon, since it happens in what they obviously see as the most important country in the world. You mostly don't see pages and pages of heated discussion of Bangladeshi flood defence system or the situation in the Congo.

You make an interesting point. To me, and the citizens of the country I’m in, the US isn’t the most important country in the world, it’s just (depending on the given day) one of the most visual. It is partly ideological, but it’s also partly an empathic response to seeing children shot. If it happens once, people say it’s terrible. When it’s a regular occurrence, it makes your skin crawl.

 

I’m not sure if you were just passing comment or had a real objection to it being spoken about so much, but the US can’t be one of the most visual counties in the world, so close to other countries, without others looking at it. For many decades the US has promoted itself as the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the leader of the free world. Putting themselves upon high like that leads to people looking at them and pointing out issues. Gun control is one of those issues that baffle people. That’s not to say I think nobody should have guns, but the US has a massive gun violence problem and to see politicians and lobbyists using mass killings of children as platforms to sell more guns turns the stomach just enough that people around the world talk about it. We would talk about it if it were Canada or Germany or Thailand too, but the US is the only major country where it’s happening.