We are having some fun now. Mass shootings continue at a nice clip. Not all were “urban” (wink, wink), some were “real Americans” (wink, wink, wink). To borrow a phrase from the women’s movement, Americans need more guns like fish need bicycles. I know, an armed society is a polite society…reality, however, is not so much. Thank you gun lobby.
Mass shootings continue, including in rural Mississippi.
Published
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
I read about the shooting in Arkabulta, Mississippi right after we had been told mass shootings only happen in cities. “Country folk know how to handle guns.” I thought about posting something here but then I thought, “Nah… Mozart to penguins.”
The Opus/Happy Feet penguins already know Mozart. The others will spend the rest of their lives honking no matter how many times you play Eine kleine Nachtmusik for them.
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Thanks for the musical link. A nice respite from the hate and discontent brought to you by FOX and Friends while they laughed all the way to the bank. Discovery has suddenly turned the tables on the drek with mikes. Or is it Mike with Drek for ethics? (Someone is named Mike I’m sure).
NB: It could be dreck, but the meaning is SOS.
IMO
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I cheer myself up with the thought: “They got Alex Jones! Sooner or later, they’ll get FOX!” Karma can be slow, but it’s as sure as death.
Jesus said:
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
Luke 12:2-3
Despite what they claim, MAGATs don’t know much about the Bible. The Second Amendment isn’t in there so, killing people is frowned upon, even if you are country folk.
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Uh, who said mass shooting happen only in cities?
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If we don’t count the urban gangs, we are really a pretty safe country. Plus some comment about country folks grew up with guns and know how to handle them safely.
Not exact quotes, but you get the gist of what I think you have posited in the past.
The point is this was a small town of 300 or so. I man decided to off a bunch of people and he had guns. Obviously he had no business having guns, but so be it.
Many states now have permitless concealed carry (Constitutional carry, ironically) so anybody can walk into a shop, buy a gun and stick it in his pocket and settle scores.
Shameful.
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I have repeatedly pointed out that gang shooting make up a large part of what is counted as mass shootings, and that they are different in cause and remedy than the random shootings and workplace shootings.
Do you claim that is not accurate?
Are you at all interested in solving the problem or only in using the problem to advance your anti-gun agenda?
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No one Don. Certainly not you!
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First, it is a shame that USA Today has fallen on such hard times that it has to host massive amounts of spyware.
But more importantly, if the nation is to address “mass shootings” we have to have better ways of defining them.
4 or more shot is simply inadequate.
Random shootings are what we are most afraid of because we feel that any of us could be caught up in one. But the causes and prevention of these is not the same of others that meet the 4 or more criteria.
Gang shootings and workplace shootings are certainly terrible, but they are different in cause and mitigation.
We really can’t address these if we don’t differentiate.
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Apparently others are catching on to the deception
https://www.based-politics.com/2023/02/21/how-the-mainstream-media-misleads-the-public-about-the-frequency-of-mass-shootings/
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It’s hard to have a shooting without a gun, Don.
You can differentiate all you want. Nobody is going to take away any guns.
One death or one hundred. It doesn’t matter if you or your loved one are the ones shot. It doesn’t matter if it was 20 kids gunned down at school or your mother in a grocery store or just a depressed friend who had a gun handy and shot himself.
Define them, address them, differentiate them, do anything except remove the one thing that makes EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. possible.
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So, you want to lump them all together because a gun is involved.
OK. respiratory illnesses are caused by viruses. So, let’s limit ourselves to one vaccine for all of them. After all, they’re all the same, right?
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Not a valid analogy. Guns are not viruses. People do not go out and buy viruses. If they did and if there was a way to take every virus off the market, I’d say YES. Do it. Take every virus and every gun off the market!
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Well, you can’t do either.
Now, do you want to reduce mass killings or just use them to demonize people who don’t misuse them?
Lumping the different types as one just makes reducing any of them impossible.
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Wrong. We could do one. We won’t. But we could.
You pick out the people who won’t misuse them and we’ll let them have all the guns they want.
You pick out the school superintendent who won’t leave a gun in the school restroom for a student to find. You pick out the guy with no family members who will ever use his gun to commit suicide. You pick out the people who will never fire a gun in road rage. You pick out the guy whose gun will never get stolen by a murderer. You pick out the guy who will never accidentally discharge a gun into his face… or his kid’s face… or into a neighbor’s apartment. Yeah, you pick out all those “safe” gun owners.
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How is that relevant?
Do you want to improve the problems or just use it for political gain?
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“Do you want to improve the problems or just use it for political gain?”
You are trying every excuse while ignoring the obvious.
The gang shooter, the workplace shooter, the public, random shooter are not that different. All are at least sociopaths who slipped into psychopathy for a variety of reasons.
We have poorly funded social services and our mental health system is terrible. Our prisons are Third World. Our economic system has created a wealth gap that is also nearing Third World. And our justice system is based on income.
We have a gun culture unlike most in the world. It is a fourth branch. If we can’t resolve our differences as provided in the Constitution via legislative, executive or judicial routes we are to rely on guns. Guns elevated by myth, supported by law and encouraged by profit.
None of this is new. But a proliferation of guns to over 400 million, new laws that permit anyone without a modicum of training and just cursory, laughable screening to arm themselves with high powered weaponry has compounded the problem.
There is no solution in the short run. But if we acknowledge that guns are the problem, we might be able to address who has them. More importantly, who shouldn’t have them.
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Again, we have a system in place to make it harder for those who should not have guns to get them,
We just don’t use it.
Most random mass shootings are done with legally purchased guns. In nearly every case, there were previous disqualifying felonies that were not prosecuted or were plea bargained down to misdemeanors. But instead of using the NICS system as designed, all you can say is guns, guns, guns.
Gang shootings are usually done with straw purchased guns, bought for a disqualified person by a relative or other person without a record. Yet when firearms dealers report suspected straw purchases, less than 1 in 1000 are prosecuted. If we were sending straw purchasers to prison, that source would dry up. But again, guns, guns, guns and no action to address the problem.
You have said yourself that eliminating firearms is not possible in the US, and that is true. But instead of addressing the things that can be done, and done with existing law, you just whine about guns, which are not going away.
So, do you really want to address those problems or not?
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I have offered permitting requirements and
registration as a long term solution. You dismiss that out of hand.
I have offered local and thorough background checks. Dismissed.
The guns are already on the street by the millions. No need to straw purchase if you wanted to arm yourself.
You lobby has pushed and gotten Constitutional carry. How is that going to help in any way, shape or form? The demented person on SS mental disability, the untrained, the red flagged but not stopped because background checks are state or national, not local. All can load up on guns and have at it.
Fine you say, because a Hitler (or a Trump 🙄)might come along we should be fine with losing more Americans to bullets at home than the battlefields of history.
The 2nd Amendment is killing us instead of protecting us. But you are fine with that, too, so long as you get what you want.
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Do you want to FIX the problem or just impose your own personal preference on the rest of the country?
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“Now, do you want to reduce mass killings or just use them to demonize people who don’t misuse them?”
Victimhood again? Give us a break on that please.
Do driving laws demonize the safe, law abiding drivers?
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Standing up for rights is not victimhood.
Driving laws penalize those who misuse cars, they don’t try to deprive safe drivers of their cars.
We have laws against murder.
We have laws to keep guns out of the hands of felons,
2nd Amendment advocates are all for penalizing those who misuse firearms. It was the NRA that came up with the NICS system.
The system could work were it not for lack of prosecution of those who misuse firearms.
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“… they don’t try to deprive safe drivers of their cars.”
No, but they require registration, licensing, inspections, insurance and training. None of those are too onerous for drivers. In fact they protect the law abiding by keep those others off the road.
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There are no organized groups seeking to confiscate cars so registration for tax purposes is not a threat.
Australia and California have shown us that registration is a prelude to confiscation, so, nope.
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“Nope”.
And that is it. So long as you hold that position you offer nothing but empty platitudes.
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The goal of Alexander Torshin’s NRA is to put weapons of war into the hands of radicalized militia members. Groups like Sovereign Citizens and Proud Boys will be perfectly good little gun owners… until they aren’t. But, yeah, keep selling them innocent gun owners all the weapons they want.
You want to compromise? Start with automatic weapons that were designed for war. Not self defense. Not hunting. WAR! Stop selling those. Take them off the streets. Take them out of the militias. Take away all the guns that can fire 60 rounds per second. Then I’ll believe you are serious about wanting to stop mass killings.
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There are no automatic weapons in current production or import in the US.
Who are you to choose who can exercise a right and who can’t?
I was at the last lobby day in Richmond prior to COVID for the 2nd Amendment rally. It was interesting to see the Proud Boys and the Black Panthers discussing firearms and rights like long lost friends.
BTW, there are no shoulder held rifles that can fire 60 rounds per second.
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I can’t tell you what a comfort it is to know that the Proud Boys and the Black Panthers are lobbying for gun rights! You must sleep well at night knowing their weapons will never be taken away.
No “automatic weapons” currently in production or import? Then get that damn Tooth Fairy off the streets because somebody out there is still selling them.
And stop with the semantics. You know damn well what kind of weapons are used in mass shootings. It’s the kind of weapon that fires rapidly when you hold the trigger. Call it an assault weapon, call it an automatic weapon, play your childish games, but admit that you know what kind of weapon I’m talking about. It’s the kind of weapon no one needs for self-defense unless you are in a combat zone.
And don’t get me started on your bullshit “right” to own a gun. The Second Amendment was NEVER meant to give individual citizens the right to pack heat. It was meant to see that the Federal Government never took away a state’s right to form a militia… aka slave patrols in those days; the National Guard today.
“BTW, there are no shoulder held rifles that can fire 60 rounds per second.” Well, that’s another great comfort. I’ll feel so much better when someone points a double-barrel shotgun at me, knowing it can only fire one round before reloading.
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