Another gunman, another elementary school
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Anonymous
We are 100% tolerating it. And will continue to do so. It will happen again, guaranteed. |
Anonymous
Possibly, but we have actual evidence that restricting the purchase of assault weapons reduces mass shootings because of the 1994-2004 assault weapons ban. WE KNOW THIS. We also know that the Uvalde shooter (Ramos) tried to obtain a weapon before he turned 18. He asked his sister to buy it for him and she refused. So he waited. And the revolting truth is that banning assault weapons and other legislation is not going to bring a total halt to mass shootings. The goal at this point is to reduce the number of fatalities. As to why we didn't have mass shootings all the time in the '80's, good question. Here's one article on it: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-01/mass-shooting-data-odessa-midland-increase I'd also recommend looking at how access has expanded, what types of guns are sold now vs. in the past, how much ammo capacity they have. I'd also say look at advertising and the federal liability shield against gun manufacturers. We all saw the sick twitter post with the Bible verse and a toddler handling a gun that was tweeted out by the manufacturer of the gun that killed the kids in Uvalde. We are a sick culture when that is acceptable. I've also been wanting to read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Gunfight-Against-Industry-Radicalized-America/dp/1541768736 |
Anonymous
They are the acid attacks capital of the world. |
Anonymous
OMG, you’re an idiot!! There are no mass casualties “acid attacks” in other countries! |
Anonymous
Because real life mass shootings at workplaces or schools just aren’t happening in their towns and cities every single day. For Americans, it’s been widely broadcast. Any child, teen or adult who watches television has seen mass shootings covered. In other countries it’s not relate-able. I’m bi-continental and fly back and forth between England and the States. My family in England does not see this as tangible as my American family does. It’s just not the same. Acid attacks are nothing there like gun mass shootings here. Americans have to consider that everywhere they go they are potentially a victim of a mass casualty shooting event. You can’t shop, go to church, go to school, go to work, live your life in your home without these events happening. |
Anonymous
I’m so tired of the “this didn’t happen before the 80s!” BS. Mass murders are part of human nature. Mass lynchings, Salem witch trials, mobs, etc have been around for hundreds of years. The first mass shooting on record in the US was in 1891 (which was a school shooting, btw). They probably occurred before then. What happened was that guns became deadlier and more readily available. Period. Weapons are developed for soldiers and then manufacturers sell to civilians to make more money. Gun control legislation began in the 1930s because people were using machine guns like the Tommy gun to conduct mass shootings. The did this by taxing them heavily, so most people could not afford them. The AR-15 was produced by one manufacturer, Colt, and they did not produce many. They even stopped production after the AR-15 was first used for a mass shooting. But the patent expired and other manufacturers picked it up and begun churning them out and heavily marketing them. Then the repeal of the assault weapons ban made them profitable again. Now you can pick one up and pay in installments, so you can get an AR-15 basically for free. This is not complicated. We need to stop pretending there was this halcyon era where mass murders did not occur. They have always occurred. There was no magical event other than people now have easy access to deadly weapons. That’s it. End of story. That first mass shooting at a school in 1891? Either zero or no one died (records are unclear) because it was a more primitive weapon. It was not a wartime weapon literally designed to kill as many humans as quickly as possible. We have records in hunter-gatherer cultures were the same weird, asocial, male murderers exist as they do in our culture. The difference is they have very primitive weapons like stone tools and so very few people are killed, if any. I can’t believe this is still even a discussion. Literally every other developed country has figured this out and we’re still over here throwing our hands up like a mysterious mind-altering event happened. No. There have always been killers, there will always be killers, it’s our responsibility to keep them from getting deadlier weapons. |
Anonymous
Zero or one person died* typo. Have not yet had my coffee |
Anonymous
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“Pay attention to what whispers, and you won’t have to when it starts screaming.”
Written by the mother of Uvalde victim Amerie Jo Garza. "The chicken soup in her thermos stayed hot all day while her body grew cold. She never had a chance to eat the baloney and cheese sandwich. I got up 10 minutes early to cut the crust off a sandwich that will never be eaten. Should I call and cancel her dental appointment next Wednesday? Will the office automatically know? Should I still take her brother to the appointment since I already took the day off work? Last time Carlos had one cavity and Amerie asked him what having a cavity feels like. She will never experience having a cavity. She will never experience having a cavity filled. The cavities in her body now are from bullets, and they can never be filled. What if she had asked to use the bathroom in the hall a few minutes prior to the gunman entering the room, locking the door, and slaughtering all inside? Was she one of the first kids in the room to die or one of the last? These are the things they don’t tell us. Which of her friends did she see die before her? Hannah? Emily? Both? Did their blood and brains splatter across her Girl Scout uniform? She just earned a Fire Safety patch. What if it got ruined? There are no patches for school shootings. Was she practicing writing GIRAFFE the moment he walked in her classroom, barricaded the door and opened fire? She keeps forgetting the silent “e” at the end. We studied this past weekend, and now she doesn’t need to take the spelling test on Friday. None of them will take the spelling test on Friday. There will be no spelling test on Friday. Because there is no one to give it. And no one to take it. These are the things I will never know: I will never know at what age she would have started her period. I will never know if she had wisdom teeth. (Or if they would have come in crooked.) I will never know who she spoke to last. Was it the teacher? Was it her table partner, George? She says George is always talking, even during silent reading. Did she even scream? She screamed the lyrics to We Don’t Talk About Bruno at 7:58 AM as she hopped out of my car in the circle drive. She always sings the Dolores part, her sister sings Mirabel and I’m Bruno. “And I wanted you to know that your bro loves you so Let it in, let it out, let it rain, let it snow, let it goooooo……..” Did the killer ever see Encanto? Could we have sat in the same row of seats, on the same day, munching popcorn? What if Amerie brushed past him in the aisle? Did she politely say, “Excuse me,” to the boy who would someday blow her eye sockets apart? Was he chomping on bubble gum as he destroyed them all? If so, what flavor? Cinnamon? Wintergreen? Was the radio on as he drove to massacre them? Or did he drive in silence? Was the sun in his eyes as he got out of the car in the parking lot? Did his pockets hold sunglasses or just ammunition? These are the things I will never know. There is laundry in the dryer that is Amerie’s. Clothes I never need to fold again. Clothes that are right now warmer than her body. How will I ever be able to take them out of the dryer and where will I put them if not back in her dresser? I can never wash clothes in that dryer again. It will stand silent; a tomb for her pajamas and knee socks. Her cousin’s graduation party is next month and I already signed her name in the card. Should I cross it out? That will be the last card I ever sign her name to. The dog will live longer than she will. The dog will be 12 next month and she will be eternally 10. What will the school do with her backpack? It was brand new this year and she attached her collection of keychains like cherished trophies to its zipper. A beaded 4 leaf clover she made on St. Patty’s Day. A red heart from a Walk-a-Thon. A neon ice cream cone from her friend’s birthday party. Now there will be no more keychains to attach. No more trophies. Surely they can’t throw it out? Would they throw them all out? 19 backpacks, full of stickered assignments and rainboots, all taken to the dumpster behind the school? Is there even a dumpster big enough to contain all that life? These are the things someone else knows: The moment the semiautomatic rifle was put into his hands--was “Bring Me a Higher Love” playing in the gun store? “Get off my Cloud” by the Rolling Stones? Maybe it was Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” Did the Outback Oasis salesperson hesitate as they slid him 375 rounds of ammunition? not my problem my kids are grown and out of school Or I don’t have kids, so I don’t have to worry about their skulls getting blown across the naptime mat  Or fingers crossed there’s a good guy with an equally powerful gun that will stop this gun if needed Did they sense any danger or were they more focused on picking that morning’s Raisin Bran out of their teeth? My Nana used to say, “Pay attention to what whispers, and you won’t have to when it starts screaming.” But now I know there is a more deafening sound than children screaming. More horrific even, than automatic rifles on a Tuesday morning. I beg the world: Pay attention to what’s screaming today, or be forced to endure the silence that follows." |
Anonymous
Hey "idiot" - where did I say "mass casualties acid attacks?" I did not. Thus, you are the idiot. I said acid attacks. Acid attacks aren't trivial either. |
Anonymous
Show me an acid attack that killed 21 elementary school students. |
Anonymous
Or an acid attack where the cops didn’t sit outside waiting until it was over because they were too afraid of the acid. The cops know exactly how deadly these guns are. |
Anonymous
Instead of using rhetoric to call cops cowards, why not focus on the commonsense fact that none of us is safe when anyone can buy assault weapons that are more deadly than what cops carry? It might be a more effective advocacy strategy. 1. Raise the age. 2. Require a background check, training and licensing (all of which should take time/months). 3. Ban the sale of assault weapons and bump stocks. It won’t prevent all future tragedies, but it’s a commonsense approach that most Americans support. Pretty sure the guy who shot up Philly last night just used a handgun. And he was over 18. |
Anonymous
F...c what you claim are your constitutional rights. You know who didn’t have their constitutional rights upheld? The children |
Anonymous
Testimony from the mother of one of the children killed from Uvalde. This could be any of us, if we don't act collectively to stem the gun violence in this country.
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Anonymous
The hearings on Uvalde make me want to vomit. These poor kids shot at like it's a warzone. And before someone moans that nothing can be done, a gun control bill has just passed the House would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle (which the 18 year old Uvalde shooter did legally) and prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds (meaning that at least some of these kids would have been alive if we had better gun control policies in place).
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