America in Meltdown

[vmax]

The following L.A Times Editorial on gun violence in America is stunning........shocking.

Quote

The story is distinctly American. Eight people killed and at least five others wounded in a mass shooting at a FedEx work site near the Indianapolis airport.

Again.

Since the beginning of the year — that was 106 days ago — there have been at least 147 mass shootings in these United States, in which 176 people died and 579 people were wounded. Five of them took place in Indianapolis, with a total of 18 killed and 15 people wounded.

Those are just the big ones — incidents in which at least four people were wounded.

Of course, the vast majority of people killed and maimed by guns in this country aren’t victims of mass shootings. They die by the ones, twos and threes. Those deaths add up fast — so far this year, 5,408 people killed by someone else with a gun, and an estimated 6,996 people who shot themselves to death.

That’s more than 12,000 gunshot deaths, or 117 per day.

In just the 72 hours that ended Friday morning, the Gun Violence Archive recorded 297 shooting incidents, with 113 people dead and 196 people wounded.

That’s a lot of numbers. That’s a lot of dead bodies. That’s a lot of people scarred and traumatized by just a fraction of the more than 300 million firearms that are in private hands here in the United States.

Because, as the National Rifle Assn. and 2nd Amendment hard-liners tell us, a more armed America is a safer America.

Sure it is.

One of the first steps in devising public policy is to understand the nature of the problem at hand. When it comes to gun violence, the problem is easy access to a firearm.

Yes, people pull the trigger. The reasons they pull the trigger are myriad — moved to violence by a mental crisis, by anger, by scheming calculation, by a thirst for retribution.

Those are all very human factors. Universal, in fact.

But access to personal arsenals is not. That is distinctly American.

So, too, it seems, is an inability to do something about it.

........................Mass killing in Indianapolis is a distinctly American story - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

 

Along with the gun violence is the marked increase in domestic violence, the attempted Coup on January 6th, suicides, civil unrest, drug abuse and a surging population with depression and other mental health ailments.

It feels like a significant minority of Americans are "Cracking"....falling apart.....unable to cope.

Can the effects of phyical isolation of the past year due to the virus be a major cause for this Increase? Like "it was one thing too many"....a tipping point.

 

[Spen]

We could stop this.....if we were a better country. Maybe someday.

[tsylvester]

The truly sad part is that people read what they want to see, not what is really there; media.

Yes, this article did a fairly good job of separating the gun violence, but they missed by including all of it under one head line grabbing statement; mass shootings.

"Shoot", pardon the pun, a vast, vast majority of the mass shootings, the gun violence is done by shhh, GANGS! Just look at Chicago for the perdect example, it is "nothing" for them to have 50 people shot over a weekend, to have a mass shooting of 5 or more at a "child's birthday party. Tell me, why is that, gang related mass shooting, not having flags at half staff, headlines in every news agency?

Yet when they talk about gun violence, mass shootings, those 50 people are included, those 5+ people killed at a gang birthday party are included.

Gun laws? Maine has the loosest gun laws in the nation for the most part, how many shootings, mass killings happen there? Chicago/Illinois has some of the strictest..

I'm not sure what the answer is, gun laws are tight, strict for the most part, if a person wants to kill a lot of people, they will find a way, gun or no gun, the B word is easy to find out how to make them on the web, get supplies at your local groccery store...

 

But for the love of all people, filter out those shot/killed with illegal guns by gangs, from those killed/shot with legal guns done out of "desperation".....

[papasmurfbell]

The problem is its the united states.  There is unfettered travel from state to state,  A straw purchase in arizona and that gun is in say chicago within the weak.  That kind of thing has to stop.  

[GrubberRaven]

People can't solve problems without violence.

[papasmurfbell]

When you have authorities that leap to violence what do you expect?

[vmax]

27 minutes ago, GrubberRaven said:

People can't solve problems without violence.

Some of this...certainly not all...stems from a learned behavioral response from TV and the movies. For a long time it's been almost like it's not a good movie unless somebody....or lots of people get killed.

Have a conflict with somebody?

Shoot them. Go Rambo. Problem solved.

Pissed off?

Flip out and grab a gun! There's always one near you.

Then there's drug killings, revenge killings, killings for money, killings for passion, killings from despair and depression and killings because of mental and emotional breakdown.

IMO you can only do one thing with a gun. Kill. Once you pull the trigger, you can't take it back. There's no redo. A whole host of bad events start flowing. Why put yourself in such a position?

If I choose to carry one, then I have to enter into a state of mind that's not too loving or peaceful as I go about my day. "OK...I'm armed. Now I need to be careful this doesn't accidentally go off. I need to be careful my kids don't get it. How do I lock it up. Where do I stash the ammo? Now as I walk around, I look for somebody who might draw a weapon on me. How will I shoot them first?"

Sounds like a fun way to live out my day. Everybody needs a little more stress. Everybody needs to live a moral dilemma all day. I mean...393 million firearms say's that I'm in the minority of Americans who choose to live this way.

I do like skeet shooting. Just no humans or animals please.

Quote

According to the Small Arms Survey of 2017, the United States had a population size of around 326,474,000 people. There were about 393 million firearms in the United States, meaning that there were far more guns than there are people. Additionally, given that not every person in the U.S. owns a gun, many people own multiple or many. This fact still rings true, with the only major difference being that the United States population and the number of guns in the nation have grown in size.

The US leads the world with the most heavily armed civilian population. Obviously. If that's not good enough, we've also got the bomb. 

My conclusion? A gun does not make me a "Bad Ass Man."

To me....The "Baddest man or woman" is the one who crawled out of bed this morning, exhausted, to go to a poor paying job, beneath their skill level, a job the are unhappy in...and yet they do it to support their family. Because they believe in being self supporting and because they love their family.

 

[GrubberRaven]

What I mean more specifically is that, there is no compromise anymore.  Its a I'm right and you're wrong way of thinking. I'm not anti-cop or anti-gun (granted anything beyond a rifle/shotgun used for hunting is overkill).

I just don't think the way people communicate allows much room for compromise.  People can't accept being flawed or wrong and if they're hurt, then by God, they're going to hurt you back.  

[GrubberRaven]

 

[tsylvester]

2 hours ago, GrubberRaven said:

What I mean more specifically is that, there is no compromise anymore.  Its a I'm right and you're wrong way of thinking. I'm not anti-cop or anti-gun (granted anything beyond a rifle/shotgun used for hunting is overkill).

I just don't think the way people communicate allows much room for compromise.  People can't accept being flawed or wrong and if they're hurt, then by God, they're going to hurt you back.  

Right on man! To coin a phrase back in time when we all got along, agreed to disagree.

This was back before we had commercials where our food walked and talked amd people ate, even when food ate it each other. Oh wait, farmers amd their families have been doing that for centuries.

We can blame tv, movies, video games for giving people ideas, for desensitizing kids, people to voilence. Remember scared straight, wonder how well that worked out for those kids, I know they tried to revive that show...

I do think the media plays some roll, the shows that promise to fix our problems, the ones telling us how we "should feel" how "wrong" thinking or believing something is; sorry, this is America; we are free to think and feel as we want, that is one major reason our ancestors came to this country, built this country. This includes, sadly, being a rascist, a fascist, what ever, it's your right.

What isn't your right is to keep me from thinking, being different. Funny, those shows, the media, are actually being anti-American.

 

[vmax]

This state of affairs won't stop in our lifetimes. 

[papasmurfbell]

4 hours ago, GrubberRaven said:

What I mean more specifically is that, there is no compromise anymore.  Its a I'm right and you're wrong way of thinking. I'm not anti-cop or anti-gun (granted anything beyond a rifle/shotgun used for hunting is overkill).

I just don't think the way people communicate allows much room for compromise.  People can't accept being flawed or wrong and if they're hurt, then by God, they're going to hurt you back.  

Its not compromise that is the issue.  It is corporate bribes/contributions to politicians,  They are paid to not get along.

[papasmurfbell]

We got a conviction so thats good.  The thing is you could see the everyone in Min was willing to throw Chauvin under the bus.  I cannot think of an excessive force case where so many cops testify against the perpetrator.  It is a one off in my eyes.

[Spen]

We care more about out perceived rights, ignoring key words of course, than we do our citizens and children. That's obvious.

Other countries have similar or worse movies and TV and do not have the gun violence we do here.  Stricter gun laws and penalties are absolutely part of the solution.

It's a largely competitive unhappy society often pitted against each other given the means to hurt many people quickly. I hope it gets better in my lifetime but I doubt it. We're not good enough or well informed enough (see known non factors like TV/ video games brought up instead of real contributors) to change things right now. 

[Spen]

[Spen]

Another reason:

 

[vmax]

Good posts Spen.

It's getting crazier every day. Here's one of many for today.

Quote

%7BSheriff’s deputy fatally shoots North Carolina father of 10: report

A 31-year-old Massachusetts man who reportedly made bomb threats was shot and killed by police early Wednesday morning.

Law enforcement located Gouvonvong by tracking his cell phone and found him on Grafton Street, where he appeared to be holding an assault rifle, wearing body armor and donning a backpack with "wires coming out of it," NBC Boston reported. Gouvonvong also had a handgun and multiple rounds of ammunition.....Massachusetts Man Killed by Police Wearing Body Armor With 'Wires', Threatened Bomb Would Go Off (msn.com)

[Spen]

18 hours ago, vmax said:

Good posts Spen.

It's getting crazier every day. Here's one of many for today.

Good meme. Fear can be a big part of hate. And the link between the two can be exploited. Look at Republicans recently with immigration, "socialism", and gun control measures.

[papasmurfbell]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3251520

[vmax]

7 hours ago, papasmurfbell said:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3251520

Good find.

Also...

The "Us vs Them" senario, with "Them" being the bad guys, has been around forever in all levels of society. "If They get in control we're fucked!"

What about everybody working together for the common good. How radical is that!

[Spen]

19 hours ago, vmax said:

Good find.

Also...

The "Us vs Them" senario, with "Them" being the bad guys, has been around forever in all levels of society. "If They get in control we're fucked!"

What about everybody working together for the common good. How radical is that!

Newt and his cronies ended that.

[vmax]

17 hours ago, Spen said:

Newt and his cronies ended that.

I hear that the Republicans will not show up for Biden's address to Congress. Critical issues that face our country will be presented. Existential issues. America's path into the future to address these issues will be presented. A path that all of them must come together on now or it's over.

Who do they serve? America, us or Trump?

Eternal shame on all their names and legacies for not seizing the moment. 

They abandoned the American people and the world.  Turned their back on us for their personal petty bullshit.

[Spen]

4 hours ago, vmax said:

I hear that the Republicans will not show up for Biden's address to Congress. Critical issues that face our country will be presented. Existential issues. America's path into the future to address these issues will be presented. A path that all of them must come together on now or it's over.

Who do they serve? America, us or Trump?

Eternal shame on all their names and legacies for not seizing the moment. 

They abandoned the American people and the world.  Turned their back on us for their personal petty bullshit.

If they don't the people should hold it against them,  not against the democrats. I won't hold my breath though. If the democrats showed up for trump, who used national emergencies to talk about TV ratings, than the Republicans should show up for Biden.

When this country ends, and why would anyone doubt that it will, Newt deserves a ton of blame. Completely partisan politics, embracing conspiracy theories he knew weren't true, name calling, governing by inaction......no Newt no Trump. 

[vmax]

It's their job to show up at the office like it or not.

[papasmurfbell]

Have you seen the congressional attendance record?