All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Username taken]

Didn't they have an armed guard at Parkland and the guy didn't even engage with the shooter...or am I misremembering things?

You're correct.

Putting more guns won't really help or prevent these sorts of tragedies.

It just leads to more escalation.

[kingaliencracker]

You are correct, just as in the Buffalo shooting there was a retired police officer that fired back but was unfortunately ineffective due to body armor. The answer is not more escalation of arms.

So is the answer then that only the government, police, and criminals are able to arm themselves? I'm not asking that sarcastically, I'm asking that legitimately.

And to counter your point...after 9/11 and the beefing up of homeland security, airport security has increased ten fold. It's a terrible experience going to an airport now, but it's safer.

[shooshoomanjoe]

So is the answer then that only the government, police, and criminals are able to arm themselves? I'm not asking that sarcastically, I'm asking that legitimately.

And to counter your point...after 9/11 and the beefing up of homeland security, airport security has increased ten fold. It's a terrible experience going to an airport now, but it's safer.

Arming people in stressful professions like teaching is one of the most terrible solutions republicans have cooked up.

[Twice-named]

So is the answer then that only the government, police, and criminals are able to arm themselves? I'm not asking that sarcastically, I'm asking that legitimately.

And to counter your point...after 9/11 and the beefing up of homeland security, airport security has increased ten fold. It's a terrible experience going to an airport now, but it's safer.

I think there are legitimate reasons for owning a gun and carrying it concealed. For example, a domestic violence victim with a restraining order.

I take issue with people who have tyranny fantasies blocking any and all legislation. And we’re not talking about a constitutional amendment to repeal the second amendment. We’re talking about universal background checks. Red flag laws. Ghost guns.

[Twice-named]

Arming people in stressful professions like teaching is one of the most terrible solutions republicans have cooked up.

Mark my words. If teachers start carrying in the classroom, one of them is bound to shoot a student. It’ll be rare but it’ll happen.

[kingaliencracker]

Arming people in stressful professions like teaching is one of the most terrible solutions republicans have cooked up.

I'm not supportive of teachers arming themselves, FYI.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Those morons point towards Ukraine as why we must have guns for everyone, when in fact it would look like Syria

As if weapons that can be bought down the street can fight off tanks, bombs and fighter jets.

[Panfoot]

So is the answer then that only the government, police, and criminals are able to arm themselves? I'm not asking that sarcastically, I'm asking that legitimately.

And to counter your point...after 9/11 and the beefing up of homeland security, airport security has increased ten fold. It's a terrible experience going to an airport now, but it's safer.

The solution is to get rid of guns gradually over time, ideally in a way similar to Australia, but given the size of the US and just generally how the government works here, this is something that would take years, maybe even decades to do. As for the TSA, well, there is a reason people refer to it as "security theater", it really hasn't made flying that much more safer, it just makes it "feel" like it is.

[Twice-named]

As if weapons that can be bought down the street can fight off tanks, bombs and fighter jets.

Exactly. It’s stupid. And these are the same people who support the government spending ever-increasing amounts of money on these things.

[Amadeus Arkham]

From the comic Superman: Birthright. I figure I post these here as they seem pretty relevant.





#Enough.

[kingaliencracker]

The solution is to get rid of guns gradually over time, ideally in a way similar to Australia, but given the size of the US and just generally how the government works here, this is something that would take years, maybe even decades to do. As for the TSA, well, there is a reason people refer to it as "security theater", it really hasn't made flying that much more safer, it just makes it "feel" like it is.

But in Australia, police, criminals, and government still have guns - just the people don't. Again, is that what people want?

I still believe in the principle behind the 2nd Amendment, which was to protect people from invading forces, other people who would harm them, and yes their own government. I would love to live in a utopian society where this wasn't necessary but relatively recent history (i.e. Nazis) tells me that there is still too much evil with people in power that exists for everyone in the US to just surrender their means to defend themselves. When something like today happens, it makes me doubt everything. But again, when the alternative is that we just blindly trust the government or police to protect us? It makes me very uneasy

[Twice-named]

But in Australia, police, criminals, and government still have guns - just the people don't. Again, is that what people want?

I still believe in the principle behind the 2nd Amendment, which was to protect people from invading forces, other people who would harm them, and yes their own government. I would love to live in a utopian society where this wasn't necessary but relatively recent history (i.e. Nazis) tells me that there is still too much evil with people in power that exists for everyone in the US to just surrender their means to defend themselves. When something like today happens, it makes me doubt everything. But again, when the alternative is that we just blindly trust the government or police to protect us? It makes me very uneasy

We need appropriate approaches to the different parts of the problem. Approaches to illegal gun possession based on the factors enabling it. Approaches to mass shootings based on the factors enabling it. There are legitimate reasons for owning a gun and even carrying it concealed. Domestic violence victims with restraining orders, for example. Efforts to deal with criminals having guns and mass shootings shouldn’t infringe upon legitimate reasons for owning a gun.

The biggest obstacle to addressing gun violence is this idea that owning handguns and AR-15s is going to stop a tyrannical federal government. It’s not. Not when the military has the hardware and capabilities it has. The only way owning guns is going to deter tyranny is if the U.S. drastically reduces its capabilities, which it won’t and can’t because of the vulnerable position it would place us in vis-a-vis our adversaries.

[Panfoot]

But in Australia, police, criminals, and government still have guns - just the people don't. Again, is that what people want?

I still believe in the principle behind the 2nd Amendment, which was to protect people from invading forces, other people who would harm them, and yes their own government. I would love to live in a utopian society where this wasn't necessary but relatively recent history (i.e. Nazis) tells me that there is still too much evil with people in power that exists for everyone in the US to just surrender their means to defend themselves. When something like today happens, it makes me doubt everything. But again, when the alternative is that we just blindly trust the government or police to protect us? It makes me very uneasy

They don't have these problems in Australia now since they got rid of guns, we are the only country where this still happens, it really comes down to want all these guns? Then time to get comfortable with kids getting murdered, because adding more guns certainly hasn't and will not help. There is zero threat of the US being invaded, times have changed quite a bit since the 2nd Amendment was written, and we've seen countless cases of "good guys with guns" gone horribly wrong to see how that idea is generally more fantasy than reality.

[babyblob]

Even if the 2nd amendment was for our citizens defending against an invading army that is out dated. it is because of the military tech that has evolved over the years.

If an enemy power can get a foot hold in this country against what many class as the strongest army in the world. If this invader lets say makes it from the east or west coast to the mid west are a handful of weekend warrior "Muh Freedoms" Guys going to push them back? If we are at the point someone like these have to take up arms and save us from an invader we are beyond boned.

I am not saying out law every gun. Melt down every gun. That is just not possible in America. But have some common sense. The average guy does not need an assault riffle. Those should be in the hands of the military and special trained police.

Universal back round checks, Red Flag Laws, in Ohio they just passed a law that people dont need a concealed carry permit to carry a gun. Also dont have to inform the police you have that gun if stopped. Have to wait for the police to ask. That should not be a thing. People arrested for violent crimes like Domestic Abuse should have the guns taken away until it plays out through the courts.

Crazy people like me should not have any kind of weapon. Take out me being a Felon. Even if I was not I should in no way be able to get my hands on a gun because of my massive and some times violent mental health problems.

I put this up the day after the Buffalo shooting. I know 3 places, 2 of them being legit gun sales places I can get a gun with in an hour. Sadly as a felon I know other felons. I know whjere to go for things if I really wanted them. I am not just talking little hand guns. And as much as I wish that were not the case it sadly is. In one of the gun shops I was told by a worker. "Well you are a felon. I am sure you know someone who can buy a gun who is not. He even told me what the person has to do to get a gun. I reported them. Nothing came of it.

It is a huge problem.

[GindyPosts]

I'm tired.

I'm just tired.

It's never going to stop.

I legit thought I saw it all many years ago when I discovered a whole family gunned down 16 years ago because some guy thought the father of the family owed him money mere blocks from where I lived and time just froze any time we went by that house. For years that was the record in Indianapolis until a crazed man shot up the FedEx facility just two years ago, bringing untold agony to our Sikh population.

But the thing was... back in 2006, when I was some dumbass teenager who was posting on the old forum without a lick of common sense, there was a little worm in my brain, somewhere buried deep in the recesses, that thought one day we could reign in gun violence after enough was enough.

And yet. It keeps happening. Like, every fucking year. Every fucking month. Every fucking week! You can't turn on the news without possibly hearing the story of someone murdering or injuring at least 4 or more individuals, which is the American definition of a mass shooting. Not even a week ago, we had some clown murder a dozen African Americans in Buffalo. And there will be potentially another shooting somewhere next week. And another. And the cycle never ends.

Only today has it finally broken me that... nothing will ever change. Nothing will ever get better. We will fight harder to keep the system the way it is than make it better thanks to fanatical gun yahoos who, many moons ago, went berserk in Cincinnati and demanded the country go this way, and we have jackasses on TV TODAY insisting that the only solution to these problems is the tired old "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun" bullshit, and how the **** is it going to work?! We going to eventually demand that children learn to use firearms and protect themselves in the event a "bad guy" shows up?!!

And politicians know this. They know the system they helped create is horrible and breeds nothing but hatred and misery and death. But they wanted to be in power, and know that the groups that got them in power demand they vote this way; otherwise, they will be run out of office and replaced with people who will think the way they tell them to think, and we know how much worse those people can be (and giving some of the fucking assholes we have already, I just have to point to people like Majorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert to tell you that it's not a stretch).

So, I think that worm finally died today. I wish I could say we would have solved the enigma of America's gun violence epidemic, yet the solution will elude us. We will just do the same stuff over and over again, while gun nuts screech at the idea of even basic, competent legislation that would aim to merely reduce the number of firearms and regulate what is in circulation, so that way, the gun you have is the gun that belongs to you and only you is somehow a violation of the Second Amendment cuz that would encroach on their backwoods, libertarian anti-government militia force.

I'm tired, guys.