The mass shooting today.

sbenois said:

Very smart to not put the date in the thread title.   Generic is good since we have at least one a day.

After seeing thread title I was very confused when I opened it and saw the OP dated May 14th

So I agree with you completely


Morganna said:

Go Beto!

All the Dems in Congress should show up on Texas doorstep.

Beto really hit a nerve today. Mayor of Uvalde called Beto a “sick sonovabitch”…I wish the dems would just start getting more militant in regards to the banning of these weapons of war, which have no place in peoples’ homes. This is on all these politicians who take money from the NRA. I’m seeing two republicans already slinked away from Friday’s event, Cruz and trump still on…


Jaytee said:

Morganna said:

Go Beto!

All the Dems in Congress should show up on Texas doorstep.

Beto really hit a nerve today. Mayor of Uvalde called Beto a “sick sonovabitch”…I wish the dems would just start getting more militant in regards to the banning of these weapons of war, which have no place in peoples’ homes. This is on all these politicians who take money from the NRA. I’m seeing two republicans already slinked away from Friday’s event, Cruz and trump still on…

here's some background on that. I say Bravo Beto!

https://thetexan.news/sick-son-of-a-bitch-uvalde-mayor-blasts-beto-orourke-for-crashing-abbotts-press-conference-on-shooting/


a member of the Republican Mental Health Caucus pipes up, threatening Biden's life


Did you all watch this?

That’s what John Howard did here, after Port Arthur(25 years ago): declared gun amnesty, bought the guns and ammo back and then destroyed  everything not worth protecting in the national museum. 


Every time something like this tragedy comes up, I find myself wondering how many lobbying dollars we are really talking about?

What is the tradeoff between political donations and lives? 

I bet it’s not all that much in the scheme of things...

The vast majority of Republican politicians cannot be voting their consciences on this issue any more. 

What is ones’ soul worth?




drummerboy said:

a member of the Republican Mental Health Caucus pipes up, threatening Biden's life

They talk big. But when the going gets tough, such as the Proud Boys acting out, they're the ones running to hide in a shelter. As we've seen on Jan 6th. 


Liberal Texan here. Beto speaks for us. I was thrilled to see him crash the press conference. We've been doormats for too long.

ETA: I never saw this side of Beto during his Senate campaign. We need some rage.


Meanwhile the supreme court is about to rule in favor of relaxing gun restrictions in two cases.


The town has a swat team?

I can't even.


DanDietrich said:

Meanwhile the supreme court is about to rule in favor of relaxing gun restrictions in two cases.

There's two cases? I know the one about open carry in NY. What's the other one?


Maplewood has its own swat team also…they’re all on MOL 

drummerboy said:

The town has a swat team?

I can't even.


Heard this morning that it took over 30 minutes to breech the school door after a school admin gave them a key!

Why didn't the cops just pretend it was a no knock warrant and break the door down?


jimmurphy said:

Every time something like this tragedy comes up, I find myself wondering how many lobbying dollars we are really talking about?

What is the tradeoff between political donations and lives? 

I bet it’s not all that much in the scheme of things...

The vast majority of Republican politicians cannot be voting their consciences on this issue any more. 

What is ones’ soul worth?



it's the one issue on which politicians are responding to the will of the voters. We can't really blame the NRA and Republican office holders for doing exactly what the majority of their constituents want.

I hate being pessimistic on this issue, but if we're being realistic about it, the majority of U.S. states are never going to put meaningful restrictions on gun ownership. Just check out some posts on FB from our SOMA neighbors ranting about NJ gun restrictions. They are a minority here, but that's a solid majority opinion in perhaps 40 U.S. states.


While a significant part of it is from NRA funded politicians, behind them are also the gunmakers who make a killing on their profits the more that fear and hysteria fan the flames, Plus the the American Cowboy and Frontier Myth, reinforcing the mystique of rugged individualism;   and the "Conservative" worship of the 2nd Amendment as hallowed American ideals.  Finally, there's the tilt in American politics towards the overrepresented rural and red states, where hunting, guns and rifles are part of the heritage, and anxiety about losing that is routinely stoked for political and financial reasons.

Jaytee said:

Beto really hit a nerve today. Mayor of Uvalde called Beto a “sick sonovabitch”…I wish the dems would just start getting more militant in regards to the banning of these weapons of war, which have no place in peoples’ homes. This is on all these politicians who take money from the NRA. I’m seeing two republicans already slinked away from Friday’s event, Cruz and trump still on…


Courtesy of the NRA - 


ml1 said:

it's the one issue on which politicians are responding to the will of the voters. We can't really blame the NRA and Republican office holders for doing exactly what the majority of their constituents want.

I hate being pessimistic on this issue, but if we're being realistic about it, the majority of U.S. states are never going to put meaningful restrictions on gun ownership. Just check out some posts on FB from our SOMA neighbors ranting about NJ gun restrictions. They are a minority here, but that's a solid majority opinion in perhaps 40 U.S. states.

I agree with you that Republican voters overwhelmingly support the right to bear arms.  I think it is less clear that they are averse to the many common-sense gun control issues like background checks, waiting periods, assault weapons bans, clip limitations, etc.

Lawmakers' objectives to these limits has to be about the NRA money.


jimmurphy said:

Lawmakers' objectives to these limits has to be about the NRA money.

Its not the NRA money. NRA money is negligible compared to all the other money.

Its cultural. A large base that is highly motivated to vote for these pro-gun Republicans. They are concentrated in the heartland of America so their votes count even more because of the senate.

Unlike many "progressives" who complain while often not bothering to vote. Demonstrations, waving signs and posting on forums is nice but if you don't vote, you don't count. 

An example are the evangelicals. I read they represent 15% of the country but they supply 25% of the vote.


White supremacy is only possible with guns…they know it. Reason why gun sales are higher today than Monday sales were. 


RTrent said:

Its not the NRA money. NRA money is negligible compared to all the other money.

You're right.  Should have just said "the money".

Anyone with good sources happen to know of polling regarding the various gun control sub-issues?  Like assault weapon bans for example?


The problem with polls on the popularity of various issue or proposals is that topline numbers are only one dimension, but it also matters how important the issue is to voters. Let's say you're a Republican voter who's open to some gun control measures, but you're also opposed to abortion. Probably your opposition to abortion is stronger than your support for gun control -- ie if you had to choose (and generally you do -- you can vote for a Democrat who supports the gun control measures you support, or a Republican who supports the restrictions on abortion you support), you're going to prioritize your policy choices on abortion over those on gun control.

There's lots of things that are broadly popular with a majority of voters, arguably even more broadly popular liberal policies than conservative ones, but issues that are extremely important to smaller groups voters (but still large enough to determine primaries and drive donations -- or small groups of voters with large collections of money) are more likely to drive party priorities.

The confounding tragedy is reckoning with the fact that apparently children being gunned down isn't enough to move more people to care enough to prioritize this over other issues (and in the case of "pro-life" voters, that apparently actual children take second place to zygotes).


jimmurphy said:

ml1 said:

it's the one issue on which politicians are responding to the will of the voters. We can't really blame the NRA and Republican office holders for doing exactly what the majority of their constituents want.

I hate being pessimistic on this issue, but if we're being realistic about it, the majority of U.S. states are never going to put meaningful restrictions on gun ownership. Just check out some posts on FB from our SOMA neighbors ranting about NJ gun restrictions. They are a minority here, but that's a solid majority opinion in perhaps 40 U.S. states.

I agree with you that Republican voters overwhelmingly support the right to bear arms.  I think it is less clear that they are averse to the many common-sense gun control issues like background checks, waiting periods, assault weapons bans, clip limitations, etc.

Lawmakers' objectives to these limits has to be about the NRA money.

there are enough one-issue voters who don't want ANY restrictions on gun ownership to tip elections. Even if a majority of Republican voters are ok with common sense reforms, very few if any of them would decide their vote based on support for background checks or assault weapon bans. So net-net, it makes sense for politicians of both parties to pander to the bloc of voters who will punish them for any gun restrictions.


nohero said:

Courtesy of the NRA - 

The article you linked proves you need to arm every citizen because as shown you can't depend on the police. A well armed citizenry is a safe citizenry. /s


RTrent said:

The article you linked proves you need to arm every citizen because as shown you can't depend on the police. A well armed citizenry is a safe citizenry. /s

Because of the ignorant and undereducated who are the "thought leaders" of conservatism, sarcasm like that is dead. For example -


just want to say that any politician, of any party, that brandishes a gun in a political ad is a sick muthaflocka.


A British reporter confronting Ted Cruz. What's nice is he has the guts to assertively respond to Cruz's bs. Unlike most of our reporters.

https://news.sky.com/story/texas-school-shooting-senator-ted-cruz-storms-off-over-questions-about-gun-reform-12621583


The tweet below contains images from Galimberti's Ameriguns project.

====================================================

Gabriele Galimberti

    // The Ameriguns

    Half of all the firearms in the world that are owned by private citizens for non-military purposes are in the United States of America. The overall number, indeed, exceeds the Country’s population: 400 million weapons for 328 million people. This is not a coincidence, nor is it a market-related issue: it is rather a matter of “tradition” and constitutional guarantee established with the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791. This law reassures the inhabitants of the newly independent territories that their Federal Government would not be able, one day, to abuse its authority over them, and they are guaranteed the right to bear arms.

    Two hundred and fifty years later, the Second Amendment is still ingrained in all aspects of American life.

    Gabriele Galimberti has travelled to every corner of the United States – from New York City to Honolulu – to meet proud gun owners and photograph them and their weapons.
    He has photographed people and guns in their homes and neighbourhoods, even in places where no one would expect to find such arsenals.

    These often disturbing portraits, together with the accompanying stories based on interviews, provide an unexpected and uncommon view of what the institution of the Second Amendment really represents today.


    The intent is to intimidate others, you lay out all your weapons around your property to show how protected it is. I’m wondering how many gun safes they have to secure that arsenal. Paranoia. Sick.

    drummerboy said:

    The tweet below contains images from Galimberti's Ameriguns project.

    ====================================================

    Gabriele Galimberti

      // The Ameriguns

      Half of all the firearms in the world that are owned by private citizens for non-military purposes are in the United States of America. The overall number, indeed, exceeds the Country’s population: 400 million weapons for 328 million people. This is not a coincidence, nor is it a market-related issue: it is rather a matter of “tradition” and constitutional guarantee established with the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791. This law reassures the inhabitants of the newly independent territories that their Federal Government would not be able, one day, to abuse its authority over them, and they are guaranteed the right to bear arms.

      Two hundred and fifty years later, the Second Amendment is still ingrained in all aspects of American life.

      Gabriele Galimberti has travelled to every corner of the United States – from New York City to Honolulu – to meet proud gun owners and photograph them and their weapons.
      He has photographed people and guns in their homes and neighbourhoods, even in places where no one would expect to find such arsenals.

      These often disturbing portraits, together with the accompanying stories based on interviews, provide an unexpected and uncommon view of what the institution of the Second Amendment really represents today.


      Jaytee said:

      drummerboy said:

      The tweet below contains images from Galimberti's Ameriguns project.

      ====================================================

      Gabriele Galimberti

        // The Ameriguns

        Half of all the firearms in the world that are owned by private citizens for non-military purposes are in the United States of America. The overall number, indeed, exceeds the Country’s population: 400 million weapons for 328 million people. This is not a coincidence, nor is it a market-related issue: it is rather a matter of “tradition” and constitutional guarantee established with the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791. This law reassures the inhabitants of the newly independent territories that their Federal Government would not be able, one day, to abuse its authority over them, and they are guaranteed the right to bear arms.

        Two hundred and fifty years later, the Second Amendment is still ingrained in all aspects of American life.

        Gabriele Galimberti has travelled to every corner of the United States – from New York City to Honolulu – to meet proud gun owners and photograph them and their weapons.
        He has photographed people and guns in their homes and neighbourhoods, even in places where no one would expect to find such arsenals.

        These often disturbing portraits, together with the accompanying stories based on interviews, provide an unexpected and uncommon view of what the institution of the Second Amendment really represents today.

        The intent is to intimidate others, you lay out all your weapons around your property to show how protected it is. I’m wondering how many gun safes they have to secure that arsenal. Paranoia. Sick.

        The laying out of the rifles was done for the photo project that these are part of. If you haven't done so, check out the twitter thread. There are more photos along these lines.

        Regardless, yeah, sick.


        In order to add a comment – you must Join this community – Click here to do so.