Gun violence epidemic

[umjewman]

I have heard of "pray the gay away" but this is the first I've heard of "pray the mass shootings away: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...mage=AAYeTe1|2

Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, of Texas, suggested Wednesday that if government officials prayed more, mass shootings across the country could cease to exist.

"Look, maybe if we heard more prayers from leaders of this country instead of taking God's name in vain, we wouldn't have the mass killings like we didn't have before prayer was eliminated from schools," he told the House.

Makes sense. Nobody has ever been killed in the name of God before. Oh, wait.

[Bene Futuis]

These stupid right wingers can eat all the shit in the world. The problem is doors. The problem is prayer being taken out of the classroom. The problem is diminishment of the family unit or loss of family values. The problem is that not enough regular people are armed fucking everywhere. The problem is CRT. The problem is a woke society. The problem is mental health (which they refuse to fund anyway). The problem is every single stupid thing in the entire world except what is excruciatingly obvious to anyone with half a brain - there are 400 million guns in this country and every psycho in the land, including psycho teenagers, can pick up a weapon of war that can lay waste to dozens of people in seconds any time they want. We don't have a tidal wave of knife massacres or car massacres or whatever other half-baked nonsense these clowns come up with: we have an obvious and unending problem with guns. That needs to change but Republicans don't have the spine to stand up for children and stand up against the gun lobby.

edit: The Republican refrains about how to stop our children from getting shredded into tiny bits by assholes wielding AR-15s is even worse than what I've posted. They think a "return to God" will fix it. They have actively supported homeschooling - after all, your kid can't be cut to pieces if there are no schools, right? They want to use Covid money to hire more gun-wielding guards and to arm our teachers. They - swear to god this is true - blame abortion for school shootings. They blame porn. They blame weed (racist hag Laura Ingraham had some segment about "pot psychosis"). They blame absent fathers and single mothers. They blame video games. They blame rap music. They blame social media. They blame Biden for sending arms to Ukraine. They blame "taking the lord's name in vain". They blame those "dang smartphones."

Just a bunch of unserious morons foisting unserious moronic foolishness on their gullible supporters.

edit 2: Oh, almost forgot about the "solutions" these jackasses are proposing. Tripwires inside school doors. Declaring martial law. Encouraging more snitches in schools. And, of course, "hardening" schools (and perhaps movie theaters, grocery stores, country music concerts, and every other public forum where someone laid waste to human beings with an easily-purchased weapon of war). But never the guns. Never guns.

[DMT]

But never the guns. Never guns.

Bad faith, like every other argument they've put forward in our lifetimes.

[Bene Futuis]

In response to testimony from an 11 year old girl about how she had to smear her friend's blood all over her body in order to try and play dead from the murderer, Congressional Republicans have demanded immediate passage of a bill to protect Brett Kavanaugh. Unclear why they don't just think Kavanaugh having one door and arming his whole family will suffice.

[Bene Futuis]

Each new piece of information that comes out is so completely damning regarding the EIGHT law enforcement agencies present during the Uvalde massacre. I wish this was not true, but I am expecting that we will find out that one or more of the children was actually shot by police during this botched response. Cowards and liars, all of them. The "good guy with a gun" narrative has been crushed to dust. Edit: I imagine they will be forced - yes, forced, since they have thus far refused - to turn over bodycam footage and it will be unbelievably damaging regarding the cops present.

[Bene Futuis]

Here is a video showing a student taking down and disarming - twice! - a school shooter. This kid, who's not even wearing shoes, is braver than the entire Uvalde police force: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/co...eb2x&context=3


Sure would be nice if we didn't have so many easily accessible goddamn guns so our kids wouldn't be in constant mortal peril just to satisfy treason fantasies of a bunch of gun nut yokels, but I guess that's just a step too far.....

[Kevin Seitzer]

Edit: I imagine they will be forced - yes, forced, since they have thus far refused - to turn over bodycam footage and it will be unbelievably damaging regarding the cops present.

Maybe they will be forced by public pressure, but sadly, the law in Texas does not require them to do so because the perpetrator was killed. Texas law was amended in 2001 to exempt law enforcement from the open records requirements unless there was a conviction in a case.

[Bene Futuis]

Maybe they will be forced by public pressure, but sadly, the law in Texas does not require them to do so because the perpetrator was killed. Texas law was amended in 2001 to exempt law enforcement from the open records requirements unless there was a conviction in a case.

That is horrifically bad law. Sheesh. The norm is to except records subject to public scrutiny while an investigation is ongoing or when they may imperil a confidential informant, etc. Look what Uvalde's police department had to say in response to an IPRA request:

“Revealing the marked records would provide criminals with invaluable information concerning Department techniques used to investigate and detect activities of suspected criminal elements; how information is assessed and analyzed; how information is shared among partner law enforcement agencies and the lessons learned from the analysis of prior criminal activities,” the department wrote in a letter to the Office of the Attorney General that asked the office to prevent the release of the public records. “Knowing the intelligence and response capabilities of Department personnel and where those employees focus their attention will compromise law enforcement purposes by enabling criminals to anticipate weakness in law enforcement procedures and alter their methods of operation in order to avoid detection and apprehension.”

[revo]

Meanwhile, the completely out of touch Supreme Court just struck down a 100-YEAR OLD law to allow concealed carry in 6 states that didn't allow it, including NY. What an epic disaster the bench has become. Precedence schmecedence.

[Bene Futuis]

Meanwhile, the completely out of touch Supreme Court just struck down a 100-YEAR OLD law to allow concealed carry in 6 states that didn't allow it, including NY. What an epic disaster the bench has become. Precedence schmecedence.

I touched a little on this in the other thread, but this crazy opinion has unbelievably far reaching implications. It's fair to say that no gun law whatsoever is safe now. Justice Thomas had the temerity to refer to "this nation's historical tradition" of gun laws when state evaluates gun laws --- all while actively ignoring this nation's historical tradition regarding gun control laws.

Worst court in a century.

Edit: Well, and what better way to honor the memory of 19 little children torn to pieces by gunfire than issuing this opinion one month later, right?

[madducks]

Yet another reason to like Bo Jackson:

"Former sports star Bo Jackson covered all funeral expenses for the families of the victims of the Uvalde school massacre “so they would have one less thing to worry about as they grieved,” according to a statement from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told CNN that Jackson flew in and presented a check for $170,000 to Abbott while in Uvalde to cover the expenses."

[revo]

Yet another reason to like Bo Jackson:

"Former sports star Bo Jackson covered all funeral expenses for the families of the victims of the Uvalde school massacre “so they would have one less thing to worry about as they grieved,” according to a statement from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told CNN that Jackson flew in and presented a check for $170,000 to Abbott while in Uvalde to cover the expenses."

And at the same time, Gov. Abbott couldn't be bothered to attend any of the funerals for the Uvalde victims.

[madducks]

Alex Jones circling the drain:

[madducks]

Beto O'Rourke taking the gloves off:

[GwynnInTheHall]

It seems like shootings are happening every day now. Yesterday I had to pick up my wife when her classes were cancelled at University of Arizona. Apparently a former student (who'd been expelled sometime in the past) returned to the school and shot (and killed) the head of the Hydrology department. A tragedy to be sure--but what was really strange was--there was no panic, everyone seems to have an--Oh well, it's happened again' type attitude--even my wife and I just went across the street for an early dinner after I picked her up and tha was with the suspect still at large. Only a small police presence on the side of the campus where the shooting occurred--No Lockdown, just go home safely.

It's really unfortunate that these horrific things are becoming so commonplace that even people like my wife and I have become conditioned to expect them and react with less and less concern than we did in the past.

Sad day all the way around.