Another Mass Shooting

[Stormlight]

Oh man.

[curses]

Fucking hell what's wrong with America?

[Ari]

Now that we know it was a white dude, the only question now is what gripe did the manbaby have about society that he thought was owed him.

[Limoncello]

ISIS is claiming this one, despite lack of evidence at this point.

[The Man]

"No Way To Prevent This," Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens - The Onion - America's Finest News Source

[The Lone Ranger]

The truly terrifying thing is how ... ordinary ... this seems. I was listening to the news* this morning and contemplating canceling my morning classes. Then I went outside ...


... and everyone was happily chatting about the latest boyfriend/girlfriend issue, what was on television last night, etc. No one was talking about the shooting before class, or at lunch; the campus flags were not at half-mast.

All in all, it was a perfectly ordinary Monday. And that is what's so terrifying about it.


*No, I did not listen to our Sociopath-in-Chief's address about the shooting. I have only so strong a stomach, after all, and I'm sure that whatever he had to say on the matter was ignorant and tone deaf at best, and gag-inducing at worst. [And with this guy, you have to figure that he'll pick the worst possible response every time -- and more often than not, his response will not only be horrible, it'll be even worse than you imagined it could be. I mean, every time I think that guy can't sink any lower, he proves me wrong.]

[lisarea]

There's a pretty common belief that paying too much public attention to mass killings like this tends to encourage future shooters. So the biggest reason that people are going about their business is that it's pretty much normal at this point, but the fact that they are is an improvement.

I'm assuming that Trump will eventually dedicate someone else's "Craziest Golfing Pants" award to the victims who have suffered for a brief period in these tragic events.

[erimir]

The best case scenario with Trump is that he reads off a teleprompter and stays on script, but you can tell by his tone of voice that he doesn't actually give a shit and is having trouble concentrating. Since it was white-on-mostly-white violence, he might have managed not to insert any disgusting off-script comments.

(reading)

From the news reports, it seems that's what happened. He read a bunch of platitudes, but didn't mention guns.

[ChuckF]

As ever, it is too soon to mention that the shooter used a gun.

[erimir]

The NRA is a white supremacist, stochastic terrorist organization.

[Kael]

I caught parts of his little speech on NPR this morning. He gave what would have been, for any other President, a boilerplate speech for this sort of incident (that we have a boilerplate speech for this sort of incident speaks for itself). But because it's Trump everyone kept on about how remarkably unremarkable it was for him. Apparently we have to pat his head whenever he manages not to publicly shit himself now.

As an aside, I fucking hate the sound of his old-man-with-toddler-vocabulary-and-diction voice, though I try not to focus on that when there's so much real shit going on.

[Ari]

Every Member of Congress who took money from NRA and tweeted Thoughts and Prayers

This is just donations, the NRA produces campaign ads among other work to the tune of millions per election cycle. Nothing significant is going to happen until this stops.

[erimir]

Is it too much to ask that if we're going to have more mass shootings (and we are), that Wayne LaPierre be a victim of at least one of them?

[ChuckF]

NRA’s blood money buys lots of thoughts and prayers, turns out.

[Corona688]

Even in the USA, it's not easy to obtain a full-auto weapon like that. That gun was illegal or illegally modified.

[Ari]

Bump stocks, bump triggers, trigger cranks, are all some variant of legal in many places which allow turning a legal gun into a legal automatic weapon. The Gun manufacturers have been catering to those that want to play shooty mcbigdick in their backyard. Beyond that many designs aren't modified in any way to prevent an easy conversion.

ETA: I've been waiting for the weapons list to be released but there's speculation he used a trigger crank (something which when everyone plays with thinks "how can this be legal?" and "This could really mow a lot of people down combined with totally legal 50 or 100 round drum magazines." Given the varied fire rate and reports of fire time vs not I'm betting they will find both of these things. On full auto a 30 round mag lasts all of 3.5sec or so, so bursts of 6-9 seconds seem like 75 or 100 round mags.

[erimir]

This case is a pretty perfect demonstration of how "a good guy with a gun" isn't good enough. Your concealed carry handgun is pretty useless against a sniper.

It made me think of a more personal story. My father's college roommate was a serial killer. Ok, so not super personal, since it didn't happen to me. He wasn't a serial killer at the time as far as anyone knows. But anyway, he shot several people from a distance outdoors, including at least a couple hunters. They had guns too. Having a gun doesn't necessarily make you safe.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I'm sure this will help. Pair of pro-gun bills on move in House - San Francisco Chronicle

eta:

It would also legalize the sale of armor-piercing bullets so long as the manufacturer claims the ammunition is made for “sporting purposes.”

Happy Tuesday, y'all.

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

I'm sure this will help. Pair of pro-gun bills on move in House - San Francisco Chronicle

eta:

Happy Tuesday, y'all.

APC season! Tank season!

[Ari]

The aftermath of this one is going to be interesting. With one country singer who was there changing his mind on gun control, it has to be wondered how many times will this need to happen *too* republicans before they suddenly start to care. As I read elsewhere, it's the party of "it only matters if it's happening to me" and well now it's happening to them.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by Kael

I caught parts of his little speech on NPR this morning. He gave what would have been, for any other President, a boilerplate speech for this sort of incident (that we have a boilerplate speech for this sort of incident speaks for itself). But because it's Trump everyone kept on about how remarkably unremarkable it was for him. Apparently we have to pat his head whenever he manages not to publicly shit himself now.

As an aside, I fucking hate the sound of his old-man-with-toddler-vocabulary-and-diction voice, though I try not to focus on that when there's so much real shit going on.

In his defence: he has more important things to take care of these days. Like those nasty football players. Or Golf tournaments.

[Miss Shelby]

CBS fires vice president who said Vegas victims didn't deserve sympathy because country music fans 'often are Republican' | Fox News

[Ari]

And of course the good ol 'lone-wolf' headlines come out. But of course he wasn't a lone wolf and he wasn't crazy, it doesn't take 'some kind of psychopath' or whatever else people say to do this. This was, just like so many shootings before it, a suicide with additional casualties driven by the society fed idea that he was owed something and he was going to take it. I know I'm armchairing a bit here but with reports that he shot himself and that he had ingredients for explosives it reads like so many other suicide via mass killing where they have a mass plan of destruction but at some point through their shooting they realize that's good enough and end it. Often right before confrontation as part of the point is to be the one in power. Unlike say attackers who want to kill to dead or escape. One of the many bigger problems here is this is basically a variant of the domestic abuser murder suicide and a lot of the same society fuck ups come into play.

Frankly incidents like this should show just how few serial murdering psychopaths and terrorist cells we really have. This was one guy with a set of guns he never really trained with, and potential explosive material he never used. Just think what an organized group could do, but haven't in the many years since the war on terror.

[Miss Shelby]

dress it up all you like, the sentiment is far from lone wolf. and it's pretty shallow to assume all repubs are for 'pro gun'

[Ari]

What is the sentiment then?
#notallrepublicans. But they take the most from the nra.