(This is my bi-weekly Salon column.) There have been 607 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, the most authoritative source. It defines a mass shooting as an event when at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. That we even have such a thing as a “Gun Violence Archive” is a black mark against this country which can never be erased. We are the only country in the world with more guns than people, the only country in the world with an excess of 30,000 gun deaths each year, the only country in the world with mass killings like the one that happened earlier this year in Uvalde, Texas, when a teenage gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers at the Robb Elementary School, wounding 17 others.
I live in a suburb of Rochester, NY, which is a smaller city plagued by gun violence. It has gotten so bad here, and recently a 12 year old child was shot to death, which was the last straw for all of us, I think. The governor has asked the Justice Dept. for assistance in getting the situation under control. People are getting gunned down every night.
It's the simplest of logic, that when there are guns in people's hands, there will be death by gunfire. And the more guns, the worse it gets. The idiots on the Supreme Court ruled last summer that New York's restrictive gun laws were unconstitutional. Politically motivated misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment is causing deaths all over the country, but conservatives are just fine with that.
Far, far too many gun deaths in this country. In my state, 80% of firearms deaths are suicides. We just passed one ballot measure (already challenged in court) that will restrict transfer of firearms and magazine capacity. I give it a snowball’s chance in hell of being upheld.
I’ve had the opportunity to be professionally involved in a mass school shooting, murder-suicides, homicides, suicides, menacings, hunting accidents, and homicide of a police officer (who was a dear friend and fellow negotiator.) What I know is this: we have got to do something, or next Thanksgiving (or a not distant future one) will see that “empty seat at Thanksgiving” figure top 1,000.
And as usual, the NRA and its bought members of Congress will wring their hands and say that is a societal problem and now isn’t the time to politicize theses tragedies, etc., etc., and the carnage will continue unabated. Death and destruction continues to be the American way of life in the domestic sphere with its worship of guns, guns, guns, and more guns.
I'm am so tired of those Republicans sending us their hearts and prayers. Since they're responsible for all the guns on the streets, the least they can do is to keep their hearts and prayers to themselves.
I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere; and I’m not starting now! But I will keep my wits about me and make it my business to know access points for exits in say my local Walmart. I’m not going to let fear drive my life.
Obviously the problem is that people go to parties, schools, grocery stores, clubs, bars and randomly walk the streets. We should ban those so people can keep their guns. In a NY Times article republished the other day the conclusion was that Sandy Hook was the end of the gun debate, because “Americans decided it was acceptable to kill children.”
One wingnut I know (who admits he owns an AR-15 that he assembled himself) continues to insist that the media has it all wrong, because, according to FBI stats, thousands more people are killed each year by knife wounds and ordinary crime-on-crime shootings. We're hysterical, he suggests, over a few hundred deaths. Of course, he wants to keep his semi-automatic weapon, and his handguns. He refuses to acknowledge that we're all feeling a lot less safe walking into a shopping mall, a movie theatre, or god forbid, a school.
What alarms me more than anything are the number of people who carry a gun with themselves all the time, as if it’s a necessary part of daily life. And I live in a relatively safe area. I never have and never will understand this mindset.
In the club, Q shooting, there would’ve been a lot more deaths and wounded were not for the unarmed, former Army major who went into combat mode and took down the shooter. So why do we not hear more sane politicians and the media calling out the absolute bullshit response by the GOP to mass shootings which has ranged from the idiocy of arm the teachers to more guns make us safer. That’s what’s wrong here. The myth continues and will persist .
Half the country and half our representatives don't care. They would rather live with these statistics than give up their guns or at the very least increase gun controls. They claim to be proud Americans who respect the Constitution. What's the answer?
Excellent recitation of the mayhem in our country. It’s easy to become numb to what this body count represents. I don’t see how we can put this in our rear view mirror and be happy about anything.
The one in Virginia Beach hit home for me. Not only because a close friend lives there (and I was terrified that she was in it,) but that I work in Walgreens, and such a thing is a possibility that lurks near the top of my mind every day I work.
The circumstances of that shooting are particularly unsettling, because the shooter was management and the victims were his staff.
The shooting took place in a secure location (nearly every single breakroom in any big store is, designed to be a haven of safety during an 'incident') and nobody knew this was going to happen.
Today, of all days, I was required to take some computer based learning required by corporate and one of the modules was that of what to do with an active shooter scenario. The immaculate timing was perfect. No escaping reality for me!
Now, I know only a few people who would understand the terror this kind of situation brings, (Lucien, who is very much aware of what guns, gunfire and violence looks like very well) and it is terrifying to think that someday I or someone I know could be in that kind of situation by no fault of their own.
It is one of the main reasons I put in for my retirement the other day, effective 12/31/22.
It's too damn dangerous out there and the only reason we have it is because the NRA owns a gutless Congress, and most state legislatures. This should not even be happening, but gun nuts and people who have no business taking sides in this debate have decreed it must be so.
The ongoing slaughter is the only one in the world where even the Onion has a standard template that states, "No way to prevent this" Says Only Nation Where This Happens".
Because we allow it to, and we're all gutless wonders. Every single one of us-for allowing it to continue and kill more innocent people.
Is there a cure? I think so, but it would require brains and bravery to take on the gun nuts, the 2nd Amendment nuts and those who think that it only happens to someone else.
We fought a couple of wars, and think we have the best political system in the world.
No, we don't, when we allow ourselves to be blown away by people who hear voices every single week.
Thoughts, the annual mass shootings and the localized accounts you detailed for the month of November do not coincide with the “right’s” contention that all the violence in the country resides in blue majority democratic cities and towns. Just something I noticed. Also, it’s almost as if the US needs an international body - Amnesty International? - to help us sort ourselves. I know that’s nonsensical thinking when the response to school shootings has historically been for gun owners to rush out and buy more. But what IS the answer? (Rhetorical.)
I live in a suburb of Rochester, NY, which is a smaller city plagued by gun violence. It has gotten so bad here, and recently a 12 year old child was shot to death, which was the last straw for all of us, I think. The governor has asked the Justice Dept. for assistance in getting the situation under control. People are getting gunned down every night.
It's the simplest of logic, that when there are guns in people's hands, there will be death by gunfire. And the more guns, the worse it gets. The idiots on the Supreme Court ruled last summer that New York's restrictive gun laws were unconstitutional. Politically motivated misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment is causing deaths all over the country, but conservatives are just fine with that.
Far, far too many gun deaths in this country. In my state, 80% of firearms deaths are suicides. We just passed one ballot measure (already challenged in court) that will restrict transfer of firearms and magazine capacity. I give it a snowball’s chance in hell of being upheld.
I’ve had the opportunity to be professionally involved in a mass school shooting, murder-suicides, homicides, suicides, menacings, hunting accidents, and homicide of a police officer (who was a dear friend and fellow negotiator.) What I know is this: we have got to do something, or next Thanksgiving (or a not distant future one) will see that “empty seat at Thanksgiving” figure top 1,000.
And as usual, the NRA and its bought members of Congress will wring their hands and say that is a societal problem and now isn’t the time to politicize theses tragedies, etc., etc., and the carnage will continue unabated. Death and destruction continues to be the American way of life in the domestic sphere with its worship of guns, guns, guns, and more guns.
I'm am so tired of those Republicans sending us their hearts and prayers. Since they're responsible for all the guns on the streets, the least they can do is to keep their hearts and prayers to themselves.
I’ve never been afraid to go anywhere; and I’m not starting now! But I will keep my wits about me and make it my business to know access points for exits in say my local Walmart. I’m not going to let fear drive my life.
Obviously the problem is that people go to parties, schools, grocery stores, clubs, bars and randomly walk the streets. We should ban those so people can keep their guns. In a NY Times article republished the other day the conclusion was that Sandy Hook was the end of the gun debate, because “Americans decided it was acceptable to kill children.”
"We have met the enemy, and he is us."
~ Pogo
One wingnut I know (who admits he owns an AR-15 that he assembled himself) continues to insist that the media has it all wrong, because, according to FBI stats, thousands more people are killed each year by knife wounds and ordinary crime-on-crime shootings. We're hysterical, he suggests, over a few hundred deaths. Of course, he wants to keep his semi-automatic weapon, and his handguns. He refuses to acknowledge that we're all feeling a lot less safe walking into a shopping mall, a movie theatre, or god forbid, a school.
What alarms me more than anything are the number of people who carry a gun with themselves all the time, as if it’s a necessary part of daily life. And I live in a relatively safe area. I never have and never will understand this mindset.
In the club, Q shooting, there would’ve been a lot more deaths and wounded were not for the unarmed, former Army major who went into combat mode and took down the shooter. So why do we not hear more sane politicians and the media calling out the absolute bullshit response by the GOP to mass shootings which has ranged from the idiocy of arm the teachers to more guns make us safer. That’s what’s wrong here. The myth continues and will persist .
Half the country and half our representatives don't care. They would rather live with these statistics than give up their guns or at the very least increase gun controls. They claim to be proud Americans who respect the Constitution. What's the answer?
The body count is mind boggling.
Excellent recitation of the mayhem in our country. It’s easy to become numb to what this body count represents. I don’t see how we can put this in our rear view mirror and be happy about anything.
No it does not. I tend to cry a little every time I hear about one. So tragic and horrible.
The one in Virginia Beach hit home for me. Not only because a close friend lives there (and I was terrified that she was in it,) but that I work in Walgreens, and such a thing is a possibility that lurks near the top of my mind every day I work.
The circumstances of that shooting are particularly unsettling, because the shooter was management and the victims were his staff.
The shooting took place in a secure location (nearly every single breakroom in any big store is, designed to be a haven of safety during an 'incident') and nobody knew this was going to happen.
Today, of all days, I was required to take some computer based learning required by corporate and one of the modules was that of what to do with an active shooter scenario. The immaculate timing was perfect. No escaping reality for me!
Now, I know only a few people who would understand the terror this kind of situation brings, (Lucien, who is very much aware of what guns, gunfire and violence looks like very well) and it is terrifying to think that someday I or someone I know could be in that kind of situation by no fault of their own.
It is one of the main reasons I put in for my retirement the other day, effective 12/31/22.
It's too damn dangerous out there and the only reason we have it is because the NRA owns a gutless Congress, and most state legislatures. This should not even be happening, but gun nuts and people who have no business taking sides in this debate have decreed it must be so.
The ongoing slaughter is the only one in the world where even the Onion has a standard template that states, "No way to prevent this" Says Only Nation Where This Happens".
Because we allow it to, and we're all gutless wonders. Every single one of us-for allowing it to continue and kill more innocent people.
Is there a cure? I think so, but it would require brains and bravery to take on the gun nuts, the 2nd Amendment nuts and those who think that it only happens to someone else.
We fought a couple of wars, and think we have the best political system in the world.
No, we don't, when we allow ourselves to be blown away by people who hear voices every single week.
Thoughts, the annual mass shootings and the localized accounts you detailed for the month of November do not coincide with the “right’s” contention that all the violence in the country resides in blue majority democratic cities and towns. Just something I noticed. Also, it’s almost as if the US needs an international body - Amnesty International? - to help us sort ourselves. I know that’s nonsensical thinking when the response to school shootings has historically been for gun owners to rush out and buy more. But what IS the answer? (Rhetorical.)