Because the post I just put up on the Newtown shooting is so troubling and disturbing, I am setting up this separate thread so people can discuss the shooting without having to deal with or think about MRAs.
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We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
I’m going to have to be the token foreigner who doesn’t understand why this country is so in love with guns here. I don’t see any good reason why guns that aren’t designed for hunting should be available to anyone other than cops.
Cassandra – the US is a deeply violent society and always has been. Add in large corporations who make a lot of money off of scaring the shit out of people through their paid lobbying organization, they will spend whatever it takes to ensure the laws don’t change substantially while snowing a large number of people who think this is about constitutional rights when it’s really about profits.
@Cassandra, I share your bewilderment. Grew up in the UK…never saw a gun in my life, never even had a thought about owning guns cross my thoughts. I went to Italy when I was 12 and saw the police armed with guns at the airport and nearly freaked out.
I mean, I personally dislike the idea of hunting for sport rather than for food, but I can see a logical argument for making hunting rifles available to the general public. But why does anyone who’s not in law enforcement need to be able to buy guns designed purely to kill people?
It is because there is such a reverence for the Constitution that it makes it impossible to talk about anything listed in it sensibly by the right wing.
Senator Franken once summed it up best (although he was talking about love for country but it applies here.) “you have to love your country like an adult loves somebody, not like a child loves its Mommy. And right-wing Republicans tend to love America like a child loves its Mommy, where everything Mommy does is okay. But adult love means you’re not in denial, and you want the loved one to be the best they can be.”
They view it also as taking away their toys. No one wants to take away their toys, they just do not want the right wing to avoid hurting themselves with the toy.
Okay that last sentence looks weird when I tried to fix the nouns.
No one wants to take away the right wing’s toys. They just want to have the right wing not hurt themselves (or anyone else) with that toy.
@ BigMomma
I really feel uncomfortable seeing police walk around with their guns quite openly visible, but I’m willing to accept that as a cultural thing, in the same way that you see soldiers with rifles all the time in some Middle Eastern countries. I grew up seeing armed soldiers all the time in Libya and you just kind of get used to it. But why does a civilian need a Glock?
Theatlantic mentions that Japan had 2 firearm deaths in 2006. A commendation on pz’s site mentions that if you put the coffins of the firearm dead last year in the us end to end it would take nearly and hour to drive past them at 60mph.
And for all those that say this is a mental health issue only, explain to me why women are not shooting up the schools or malls?
Sorry about the spelling, I’m so fucking angry and sad and horrified.
@falconer A virtual cinnamon latte, please. Going out tomorrow to get the Christmas tree & thinking of all those bereft parents.
It seems like Christmas has a higher than average incidence of stuff like this (as well as suicide). It’s one of the reasons that I’m sort of ambivalent about this time of year – always bracing for something bad to happen.
BigMomma, I think this is the Bill Hicks piece you mean?
My heart hurts so much right now.
Ooh, sorry, I didn’t know a huge gun was going to show up.
The principal looks like she was an awesome educator. :*(
I’ve got nothing…I think I’m going to go play my violin until my fingers hurt, or maybe just sit here watching my fish.
Tea and warm thoughts to anyone who needs/wants them.
The only thing I can think to do is cry. Then write poetry.
I’m going to repeat something a good friend wrote to me on a card once during a really bad time – at times like this you need love, hugs, and chocolate fudge cake.
@clairedammit, yes it was that routine, my tablet couldn’t play it.
@Cassandra, I think it was mostly shock at seeing a gun at all, I’d simply never seen one.
What I just can’t get over, if it’s true, is that he killed his mother at their home and then drove to her workplace and killed all of those people. It hasn’t been confirmed that the body found in his home is his mother, but I just cannot get over this. WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?! These little kids who didn’t even get the chance to experience life, and for absolutely no reason. It makes me cry. And then it makes me so angry I don’t know what to do.
Fuck guns and their apologists. Fuck the normalisation of weaponry being carried around. Fuck the fact that cops on passenger trains of all things here now carry Glock pistols as a matter of course when there’s absolutely no situation when it would be sensible to fire one of the things. Fuck the fact that the prevalence of guns in law enforcement makes tasering people seem like a sensible option.
Fuck the discourse which leads people to believe this is something that needs to be carefully thought over with respect to the people who believe that they should totally be allowed to have an assault rifle. What’s the “freedom” here? Certainly not the freedom to go outside without fear of being shot.
I did like another Onion take on the issue.
Help yourselves! The thing about a virtual open coffee bar is we’ve got everything, and everything’s free.
Cassandra, I think part of the issue is that the EVERYONE CARRYING lot take it as given that unlawful persons will continue to have access to firearms, no matter what the law says, and so the gun-grabbing government is leaving them vulnerable to attack. I still don’t know how they have convinced themselves that everyone packing heat won’t turn into one big clusterfuck when the shooting starts; they think somehow everyone has the clairvoyance to be able to tell the black hats from the white hats.
I’d better stop there. I’ve re-written this post five times, each time with a different explanation. It’s complex and it sucks and we’re paralysed on the issue and people get hurt and I’m not curled up in a corner crying, is there something wrong with me?
Blech.
One problem I don’t think I’ve considered is how to get the guns off the gun-lobbyists if controls do get tightened. 🙁
Don’t even know what to say. This is awful. Awful. I’m just so sorry. I wish I could tell the people involved/affected how sorry I am. Really want to hug my niece and nephew – will have to wait til xmas, but oh are they getting a serious long hug. Will hug busband instead, for now. Plus cats.
@MorkaisChosen
They often advocate prying the guns from their cold, dead hands, but that hardly seems desirable.
lowquacks: Normally I’d be enjoying that comment, but right now… Seems a touch inappropriate. I’unno.