UPDATE: Now there has been a second mass shooting in less than 24 hours, In Dayton Ohio, leaving nine dead. Shooter was wearing body armor.
Another mass shooter, this time in and around a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Reliable information is hard to come by at this early stage but we know that the shooting suspect is in custody and that there have been 20 fatalities.
The shooter left behind a manifesto, posted shortly before the shooting on 8chan. He said he was inspired by the Christchurch shooter, and declared that his attack was “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
Post your thoughts and any reliable information you have in the thread below. No trolls.
UPDATE: Updated with # of fatalities and a few changes in wording about the manifesto allegedly written by the shooter.
UPDATE 2: Updated with news of the Dayton shooting and to make clear that the el paso manifesto has been definitively tied to the alleged shooter.
The arguments from the NRAs and thoses “thoughs and prayer” shambling mounds that pass for politicians are completely nonsensical. From the other side of the Atlantic, it feel like the USA really, badly need an actual revolution.
I mean, Obama definitely showed that democrats won’t do anything about that. Republicans will continue to encourage it for political gains. What will be the way out that don’t involve a radical upheaval ?
I had a very jaded reaction to the latest shootings. First thing I thought was, ‘At least it wasn’t a school or place of worship this time.’
… So tired of this.
@Ohlmann
I live in America and I too would like a new government. I can’t say more, for fear of violating the comments policy, but I will note that I am pretty fed up with Pelosi not impeaching. She may not be as vile as Trump, but she is definitely playing into his hands.
Oh dear gods, no, not again.
It wasn’t a school or a place of worship this time because shootings have become so common in those places that there is security against it. On to the next soft targets.
Dayton is my hometown, spent the morning checking in. Still haven’t heard from some people, I hope they’re ok.
The attack was in what passes for our gallery/nightclub district, a street full of indie music and queer-friendly bars, only a few blocks long. It’s the same neighborhood that turned out so magnificently to repel the KKK rally a few months ago. This feels like… a retaliation.
@Weasel-Rah which is why I feared that someone else read the manifesto and decided to do a copycat shooting, thankfully not as successful.
Like I said, how many people will have to die before something is done about this? People have no right to complain about Muslim societies not doing anything about Jihadists if these people are our equivalent to them.
@Aleph
Not to mention that most American Muslims and Muslim organizations have repeatedly condemned jihad and ISIS, but Republicans refuse to condemn white supremacists, which are a much bigger threat than any Islamic terrorist group.
re:a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas…
I frequently hear white people, particularly ones who just moved here from the Midwest, complaining about this in Colorado. I then ask them if they are aware that Colorado used to be part of Mexico. Usually people are surprised, since for some reason we don’t teach this stuff. Most of the people they’re complaining about’s families have been in the same place since before the Mexican War.
re: blaming mental illness
Mental illness isn’t the problem, Governor. What we need are things that teach little white boys from an early age that the world isn’t there just to take care of them.
U.S. shootings are not a mental health crisis.
These shooters arent mentally ill people who were unable to get help and are under some sort of delusion.
They are neurotypical white men with a politicial agenda.
Funding mental health care will reduce suicides but wont do much for murders except to help some potential victims escape abusive households, since mentally ill people are more at risk of *being murdered*
Being angry enough to kill is not mentally healthy, but it isnt the behavior of mentally ill people, it is the behavior of entitled people.
@Yutolia
Exactly. Entitlement is the real issue, and blaming it on mental illness only reinforces the stigma around mental illness in general. Which is what conservatives want, to draw attention away from the real issue of radicalization of the right wing in America.
My reaction is like that of hearing about a cat bomb in Iraq, or some hospital getting shelled in Syria — oh that’s awful, but then, it happens so often they kind of blur together.
I lived in Squirrel Hill, so the Tree of Life massacre touched me. I’ve been to Gilroy on the way to some hiking. But without some personal connection I’m pretty much tuning the massacres out anymore.
I wish I knew what it would take for the American public to finally rise up and say no more to the system that allows so much violence and death.
Catalpa: shocking events need to be paired with decent political leaders for any good to come of them.
The US doesn’t really have that latter bit. It has a few decent legislators but none in leadership positions.
Basically nobody in politics has a plan to do diddly-squat about the gun industry. The most crazy Democratic proposals might reduce the death rate by a percent or two. And even then they would likely fall afoul of the courts as being too much.
It takes ripping out the whole fucking Rethuglican party – branch and root – and salting the fucking earth they grew from.
Bastards want to talk about “makers and takers”; fucking pass legislation ensuring that states can only get the same percentage of money from the Federal government that they put in through taxes. Start treating alt-right fuckstains like the terrorist organizations that they are – to include going up the chain and prosecuting the pieces of shit that support them, like their fucking families and other hate-driven organizations…then strip the little fucks of their citizenship and dump their asses in Russia. Make all elections – at every level – government funded, and make private political ads or activity a felony punishable by mandatory fines that start at 50% of your net worth – per fucking offense.
…gee; I’m beyond enraged and somehow I’m still not calling for anyone to be killed.
The radical Left sure does have a problem we desperately need to address….
Fucking monsters, every last Rethug in the country.
@numerobis
Because apparently it’s not radical to put children in cages but it is radical to repeal the 2nd amendment and make the NRA known for what it is: a terrorist group.
It’ll take a major change in politics for anything to change. Honestly, I think the only sensible thing to do is go the Australia route and ban all guns and do a buy back program. Gun deaths in Australia dropped dramatically after they did that in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre.
35 people died in the Port Arthur massacre, and Australia was motivated to fix the problem. More people than that have been killed in mass shootings in America since the start of August.
@Gaebolga
Republicans love to entertain some strange fantasy that the problem is coming from both sides. Left wing extremists killed nobody in years. Right wing extremists killed 30 people in 24 hours. As I mentioned earlier, they just want to spread blame.
@numerobis
That’s a depressing idea. Sandy Hook happened during the Obama administration and still nothing was done. So the Democrats will do nothing, and the Republicans will actively make things worse.
So if it’s up to the government, the only way the shootings will stop is if the entire system is changed.
Just finished watching part of a press conference re the El Paso shooting. Local and Federal law enforcement are treating this as a hate crime–and will pursue the death penalty (if I heard that correctly)–as well as domestic terrorism.
That’s something, I suppose, but it won’t bring back the 20 innocents murdered or un-injure the 26 in hospital now.
It also won’t stop the next loser POS wannabe.
Yesterday, as I went to bed, I said to my mum:
‘I bet the shooter in El Paso is white, male, and under 25.’
Today at breakfast my mum says: ’21 year old white guy’
There’s plenty disenfranchised, disaffected women of all ethnicities, men of colour, LGBTQIA+ people.
And they rarely if ever commit mass violence.
Entitled white men are the problem.
@Knitting Cat Lady
I had the same thought. It seems like the most privileged people in the world are the ones who commit the shootings.
ObSidJag: the death penalty for someone who wanted to die a martyr isn’t much of a punishment.
We need to start a class action suit against every gun manufacturer, every gun merchant and the NRA. That’s the only way to end this- make them pay every American who has had to put up with this shit- has had to live through this nightmare.
We are a nation suffering from PSTD. We live in fear and expect these shootings to happen. and the NRA and munitions sellers are the cause.
And;
IMPEACH THE MOTHERFUCKER ALREADY
@knitting cat lady:
You got that right. Women tend to be FAR less violent. And it is not just white men. Around the world, men of all races and colors are the ones committing the majority of violent acts. It seems to me that the only things we can do involve women refusing to serve men, in any capacity.
We will not have a peaceful, creative and loving world until the children are recognized and treated as the true center of all we do. If it becomes illegal to do anything that harms kids, including environmental mistreatment, we might have a shot at creating societies we all want to live in. Sadly, I believe that women have been so mistreated and oppressed for so long that it may be very, very difficult for us to stand together and take the world back for our kids.
Every time a governor, a senator, the President, or anyone else with governmental authority gives an inflammatory speech about immigrants, or Muslims or GSRM people this is what they’re trying to stir up.
@Hexum7
I’d support that lawsuit. I find it hard to put a price tag on all the lives ruined and lost by gun every year. Just drain them of all money they have and drive them out of business.
@numerobis:
Oh, I agree, it’s exactly what the waste of carbon and oxygen wants: to be martyred for the “cause.”
The same press conference mentioned how the shooter is cooperating with authorities.
Of fucking course he’s cooperating: this is exactly what he wants, to be able to spread his vile gospel. Mother fucker should be gagged.