Another day another mass shooting

The stupid governor of Texas quoted “reap what you sow” on this one.

Let’s hope it holds true for him saying that.

Couple of things.

Firstly, I’m just profoundly saddened that a community that has sustained so much hurt and loss must now deal with the largest single mass hurt in US history. I am at a loss to adequately describe really anything. I feel for my child who is trans, about to graduate HS and enter this wide world and THIS is what lies beyond the threshold of our home. I feel for every single person in the LGBTQ+ community that SHOULD point to this like the Rodney King moment because while this may have been the biggest, it wasn’t a unique occurrence. We can go back to Matthew Shepherd and way, way before that. I feel for all those affected, the victims, family, friends, loved ones all. I wish it were possible to hug this all away, I really do.

Secondly, NOTHING will happen with gun control. Not like I wouldn’t like it to, but it’s an election year, so lots of talk and…nothing.

Thirdly, and this makes me SICK to say this, but this benefits Donald Trump. /wretch. It does. The guy called 911 and proclaimed allegiance to the head of ISIS prior to the shooting. So, while WE on this board may realize that ISIS as a functional entity has little to do with Islam and merely uses it as a construct for their extreme brand of fascism, the world writ large won’t make that parse as it continually doesn’t. Which means that the dumb “Muslims bad” meme promoted by Donald Trump just got a massive boost by a Muslim who just committed the largest mass killing in US History. Will it matter that he was US born? Nope. Will it matter that this was more a homophobic reaction to something he saw months earlier in Miami and the shooter used ISIS’ extremism to justify his hate crime? Nope. It’s gonna be branded Islamic Terrorism because that’s what the shooter wanted to call it, there’s a LOT OF MONEY is fighting it (which everyone in government is guilty of) and no one is going to want to parse the motives of a mass murderer, even if it means disadvantaging another group of Americans in the process.

Lastly, I keep trying to be positive and I’m struggling. (I just read that they found a strain of Super Bug at the Olympic Venue in Rio. Is there a better place to vector a Super Bug around the world faster?) Things like this mass shooting make me doubt in the worth of saving humanity.

It’s that Fifth Element moment…

bnw wrote:

From Trump people the shooter is another registered democrat.

Thanks. We needed more “Trump’s circle says stupid things about this” samples.

Btw on this:

zn wrote:

The stupid governor of Texas quoted “reap what you sow” on this one.

Actually it was the Lt. Governor.

I won’t go “crazy man” on everyone and blame all of Texas.

Texas Lt. Gov. Faces Backlash for Tweeting ‘A Man Reaps What He Sows’ Bible Verse After Mass Shooting at Orlando Gay Club

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-lt-gov-faces-backlash-173008312.html

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has faced a social media backlash for what some perceive as anti-gay commentary after Sunday’s mass shooting at an popular Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub .
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,” Patrick tweeted Sunday morning , hours after a mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse which left, at least 50 people dead and 53 injured . Officials have called the attack the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
Patrick posted the same verse to his Facebook page soon after. Both posts were deleted before noon. It was not immediately clear if Patrick was commenting on the Orlando shooting. Representatives from his office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Many users on both platforms read Patrick’s quotation as anti-gay, as that verse (and the one succeeding it) have frequently been quoted as evidence of Christianity’s intolerance of gays. “You’re such a poor example of Texas, and of Christianity. May those affected my this morning’s violence be protected from the thoughtless words of idiots like you,” one Facebook user commented on Patrick’s post.
Another wrote , “What a horrific post. Disgusting. But then, I guess you failed to remember that the entire book of Galatians was written to the CHURCH, and that Paul’s anger was to the bigotry and selfishness within the Christian church at Galatians. In other words – he was talking about people like you.

On Twitter, businessman and sometimes Shark Tank guest Chris Sacca responded , “You pervert Christianity in a way that would make Jesus cringe. Where is your compassion?”

@DanPatrick You pervert Christianity in a way that would make Jesus cringe. Where is your compassion?

— Chris Sacca (@sacca) June 12, 2016

Patrick, a Republican, opposed gay marriage and has spoken out against the White House’s requirement that students be allowed to use the school bathroom that matches their gender identity.
Authorities do yet know a motive for the shooting, and an FBI spokesperson said Sunday morning that this is an ongoing investigation and wouldn’t classify it as a terror or hate crime. The father of the reported suspect told NBC News that it “has nothing to do with religion,” and instead pointed toward his son’s recent anger at seeing two men kissing.

I dunno that i agree with Mack, that this would benefit Trump.

I suspect Trump has already won-over the “anti-Islam crowd.” I doubt
there’s anymore folks to be won over from that piece of the voting-pie.

The election now, is down to a small slice of the pie,
and i dont know exactly who those uncommitted folks are.
But i doubt they are the anti-islam, anti-immigration folks.
They are already wearing Trump buttons.

What do i know, though. I’m just a meteor guy.

I dont have anything intelligent to say about the actual crime, cept,
there will be more. Every year there will be more. No matter which Replicant
or Duplicat is President.

w
v

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,” Patrick tweeted Sunday morning , hours after a mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse which left, at least 50 people dead and 53 injured.

Then the Lt. Governor must be mourning the death of the hero that carried out god’s will by gunning down all those sodomites. Well, I suppose god will reward Mateen with a place by his side, next to his kid…possibly displacing Falwell.

TSRF wrote:

My heart goes out to all those directly affected.

America has a sickness, and one of the symptoms is that assault weapons are sold to the general public.

Seriously doubt it was an assault weapon. May have looked “scary” but not NFA Class 3.

zn wrote:

bnw wrote:

Nothing stupid about it since it is democrats that will try to use this to deny law abiding citizens their 2nd Amendment right.

Sigh.

Sigh when you can’t deny.

IMO, America is insane when it comes to guns. We’ve reached the point where the very idea that Americans might trade away their idea of unlimited consumer choice, take on a little bit of inconvenience, in exchange for saving thousands of lives each year, is simply unthinkable. We’ve reached the point where guns have become the one kind of product that defies all the rules of common sense. Hell, we took asthma inhalers off the shelf, because some kids were getting high from them, but we can’t make weapons of mass destruction illegal?

I think we need to do the following, and all of this would adhere to the 2nd:

Ban the sale, manufacture, trade, import, export, gifting or possession of all weapons with external ammo containers, and those containers. Limit legal guns to those with internal chambers only, with a max of six chambers. Limit those legal guns to those which must be loaded by hand, with your fingers, one bullet at a time — again, max of six bullet chambers.

Require licensing and registration for all guns/gun owners. Plus insurance.

Require smart guns.

Have a national gun buy-back program to get the now illegal guns off the streets. Then melt them down.

End the embargo against government studies on gun violence. In fact, require that the CDC and NIH study this in depth, and constantly. Treat gun violence as a public safety issue, and act accordingly.

End the embargo on asking potential victims of gun crimes if they have a gun in their house.

Make these laws, regs, etc. etc. national, and no state can override them.

The above would save countless lives, and at worst inconvenience some Americans. No one’s “rights” would be affected.

This is a very sore subject for me. I personally have gone through several of the Kubler Ross stages after Sandy Hook.

Worse, my daughter, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary and knew most of the adults who were butchered has had several anxiety attacks at school in Boston, imagining there were shooters in all the tall buildings around her. She was diagnosed with PTSD. She has always been a very open, caring, empathic kid, and was really ship wreaked after Sandy Hook. She seems better after a year plus of therapy, but I’m not sure we’ll ever be the same again.

To be clear, I consider any gun that will fire every time you pull the trigger and has a magazine of over 10 bullets an assault weapon. Why the fuck would any law abiding US citizen need something like that?

Compensation issues (i.e. little dick)??

TSRF wrote:

This is a very sore subject for me. I personally have gone through several of the Kubler Ross stages after Sandy Hook.

Worse, my daughter, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary and knew most of the adults who were butchered has had several anxiety attacks at school in Boston, imagining there were shooters in all the tall buildings around her. She was diagnosed with PTSD. She has always been a very open, caring, empathic kid, and was really ship wreaked after Sandy Hook. She seems better after a year plus of therapy, but I’m not sure we’ll ever be the same again.

To be clear, I consider any gun that will fire every time you pull the trigger and has a magazine of over 10 bullets an assault weapon. Why the fuck would any law abiding US citizen need something like that?

Compensation issues (i.e. little dick)??

You’re against semi-autos. Semi-autos are great. Much more fun to shoot. Much better for hunting, plinking or target practice. More issues in safe handling though. If you’ve ever had to hand load any mags without stripper clips you would know why a well functioning mag of more than 10 rounds is worth it. Even with stripper clips if you have to load enough of them it still is a pain. I like the tubular mags as long as they can hold more than 15 rounds.

bnw,

I’m saying ban all of them. Semi-automatic, assault weapons, whatever you might want to call them. Anything with any kind of detachable, external ammo container, of any kind, of any size. Ban ’em. Ban all accessories dealing with them.

The only allowable guns should be those with internal chambers only, and max that out at six. You should have to load your bullets by hand, one at a time, and no gun should be able to accommodate more than six at a time.

That, to me, is the best compromise. This ensures the ability of all citizens to own weapons for self-protection, hunting and target practice, but it doesn’t give them the ability to rapidly slaughter dozens or hundreds of their fellow Americans.

Throw in licensing and registration, which we do with cars. End the ban on gun violence research, which was a fascist form of suppression in the first place.

Force “smart gun” technology as soon as it’s technically doable.

100% gun checks, on everything, via the licensing system. No exceptions or loopholes. No gun show exceptions, etc.

The above will save thousands of lives each year, and it won’t cost anyone their “rights.” Again, no one ever had the right to unlimited firepower, quantity, consumer choice and so on.

So can this be the Rodney King moment when we finally acknowledge that there’s STILL real danger in simply being part of the LGBT+ community?

I don’t care how many episodes of Will & Grace are shown, how many seasons of Orange is the New Black are streaming on Netflix… it’s fucking dangerous to be part of the LGBTQPIA+ community.

What’s especially scary to me is that my trans child is trying to venture out into the world and this is the shit my child is still looking at. I can wear all the purple rainbow shirts I want, but they wouldn’t have stopped any of those bullets.

It’s enough. It’s enough. It’s enough.

Billy_T wrote:

bnw,

I’m saying ban all of them. Semi-automatic, assault weapons, whatever you might want to call them. Anything with any kind of detachable, external ammo container, of any kind, of any size. Ban ’em. Ban all accessories dealing with them.

The only allowable guns should be those with internal chambers only, and max that out at six. You should have to load your bullets by hand, one at a time, and no gun should be able to accommodate more than six at a time.

That, to me, is the best compromise. This ensures the ability of all citizens to own weapons for self-protection, hunting and target practice, but it doesn’t give them the ability to rapidly slaughter dozens or hundreds of their fellow Americans.

Throw in licensing and registration, which we do with cars. End the ban on gun violence research, which was a fascist form of suppression in the first place.

Force “smart gun” technology as soon as it’s technically doable.

100% gun checks, on everything, via the licensing system. No exceptions or loopholes. No gun show exceptions, etc.

The above will save thousands of lives each year, and it won’t cost anyone their “rights.” Again, no one ever had the right to unlimited firepower, quantity, consumer choice and so on.

Registration = Confiscation

An a-hole can commit mass murder with a suicide vest too. With a car. With a gas can. With chemical reactions producing toxic gases. With an airplane. With a drone aircraft. It is literally limitless and stems from a sick mind not a firearm of any kind.

Registration = Confiscation

An a-hole can commit mass murder with a suicide vest too. With a car. With a gas can. With chemical reactions producing toxic gases. With an airplane. With a drone aircraft. It is literally limitless and stems from a sick mind not a firearm of any kind.

We have to register our cars. Has that led to confiscation? No. It’s pure alarmist nonsense to try to equate registration with confiscation.

Our government exists to serve business. That is its Prime Directive. Gun sales are BIG business. It’s not going to confiscate guns and destroy that business. It’s nothing but paranoid delusion/Alex Jones conspiracy nonsense to suggest otherwise.

As for the rest. Logic tells us to do our best to minimize the chances of death. To radically improve the odds in the favor of our survival. Parents do their best to “child proof” their homes, for instance. Sure, you still have tragedies. But you have far fewer because smart people move the poison to some place their kids can’t find. We have speed limits not in order to create total perfection and the total absence of accidents and deaths due to speeding. We do it to reduce them to the degree possible.

Tell me, why wouldn’t you willingly trade in your easy access to high powered weaponry, in order to secure the lives of thousands? Why wouldn’t EVERY American make that all too minimal “sacrifice”? In exchange for a modified range of weaponry, and a little bit of extra paperwork, why wouldn’t you jump at this when it means saving lives? And it does. And your continued insistence that we can’t have common sense restrictions on guns means the continuation of tens of thousands of Americans dying because of guns. JUST because of guns.