Active shooter?

[pErvinalia]

At least 3 eye witnesses know of other shooters. Yet another coincidental drill... Valentine Day massacre?

Who are these extra people and how did they get away with it? Use words not videos.

And why are there always multiple (hidden) shooters? Why can't a mass shooting just be a maniac shooting people? Why does it always have to be a deep state conspiracy?

[pErvinalia]

Actually, we shouldn't be encouraging him..

[Brian Peacock]

I'm just wondering what about this shooting is of particular interest to Galaxian that wasn't of interests in the other seven US school shootings this year?

[pErvinalia]

Well the media are in on the conspiracy, so we only get coverage of the ones they want us to see. Duh.

[Brian Peacock]

I'd rather hear that from the monkey, not the organ grinder.

[pErvinalia]

[Forty Two]

The majority of Americans dont want hand guns banned:



While they want stricter laws. So a sort NYMBY reaction. "Leave my gun alone remove his". How do you square this circle?



http://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx

The last point and very important: How do you force people to hand in their guns especially with the NRA around?

The BBC reporter was filming outside the NRA headquarters when an idiot came out and told him not to film the building. These guys are so paranoid.

There is plenty that can be done, short of banning guns, that would work, if implemented effectively.

[Forty Two]

Jeff Sessions Just Tried to Blame Florida School Shooting on Gang Violence
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -violence/

AND
It is easier buy a gun than do many things in America, including: get birth control, purchase Sudafed, or acquire food stamps.

That's not accurate at all. Any 12 year old girl can get birth control. Sudafed just requires an ID, sometimes, and acquiring food stamps isn't the same as buying a product, since it's a need-based welfare program. One ought to have to establish "need" if one wants to collect a welfare benefit.

[Forty Two]

Driving to school today I heard on the radio that "As American as apple pie" should be replaced with "As American as mass shootings"

"Violence is as American as cherry pie" - H. Rap Brown.

The "18 school shootings" narrative is false. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no ... e30d1aae2b

[Brian Peacock]

Oh, that makes everything seem so much better.

[Forty Two]

High school columnist:
We can't ignore the issues of gun control that this tragedy raises. And so, I'm asking -- no, demanding -- we take action now.

Make a coherent proposal.

Why? Because at the end of the day, the students at my school felt one shared experience -- our politicians abandoned us by failing to keep guns out of schools.
But this time, my classmates and I are going to hold them to account. This time we are going to pressure them to take action. This time we are going to force them to spend more energy protecting human lives than unborn fetuses.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/opinions ... index.html

With all due respect - and I'm not against gun control - I've suggested earlier in this thread a variety of ways that we could meaningfully beef up the control of guns, and I am not one who opposes even reasonable restrictions on what arms one can own.

That being said - with all due respect -- that part about politicians failing us by failing to keep guns out of school -- the responsibility for keeping this asshat out of the school belongs with the administration of the school and the board of education, primarily. There should have been a single point of entry to the school, an ID check, and he would not have been allowed in since he had already been expelled and already been officially banned from the premises. The people primarily at fault are the State and County officials who failed to provide even a modicum of security at the school.

Obviously, we have a horrific, moving, upsetting incident. I still choke back tears when I see the clips of the high schoolers cowering and the shots popping mere feet away. Terrifying. Awful. Horrible.

I'm even willing to entertain proposals for banning weapons like the AR-15, and I'm sure many other Americans are. But, to solve this problem, we need to discuss a comprehensive solution.

What's not going to happen - what is just as bad as the right wingers who refuse to budge an inch on their "right" to carry machine guns and rocket launchers -- is the left's view that the solution must be the confiscation of 300,000,000 guns and the banning of the ability of decent Americans to own and use a useful tool. That is as nonproductive as the "pry from my cold dead hands" dickheads.

[Forty Two]

Let’s see, we could put cops and metal detectors in schools. Or we could slash school safety, if we are Trump:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/ ... ion-348968

School safety, school lunch...all state issues. Nothing to do with Trump.

They are state issues. School safety doesn't require the federal government. Cops are employed by the State and County and municipality, not the federal government. Metal detectors are easy to buy and install. This is not an issue that requires the federal government to handle.

[Forty Two]

If we can’t remove the mentally ill, then we are stuck temoving the guns.
CNN:
A little less than a year ago, on February 28, 2017, Trump signed a measure nixing a regulation aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of some severely mentally ill people. It's critical to note that it's not at all clear it would have applied to the shooters in Florida nor Las Vegas, and there's no reason to believe it would have stopped the massacre.

Another lie from CNN - Trump did not make it easier for the mentally ill to get guns. https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/15/no-t ... r-for-ment

[NineBerry]

If we can’t remove the mentally ill, then we are stuck temoving the guns.
CNN:
A little less than a year ago, on February 28, 2017, Trump signed a measure nixing a regulation aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of some severely mentally ill people. It's critical to note that it's not at all clear it would have applied to the shooters in Florida nor Las Vegas, and there's no reason to believe it would have stopped the massacre.

Another lie from CNN - Trump did not make it easier for the mentally ill to get guns. https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/15/no-t ... r-for-ment

The text you link to says something different. Trump did make it easier for some mentally ill people (Those on benefits) to get guns.

[Forty Two]

There seems to be what I can only call 'gun blindness' amongst even our more enlightened American friends here. 'Slippery slopes', 'not sure about thats' and all because in the background, hovering like some grinning skull waiting for blood is your unholy 'right to bear arms'.

Well fuck your right to bear arms. Since Sandy Hook more than 400 people have been shot in over 200 school shootings.

That stat is not accurate, not even close. It's overblown, and when people overblow such stats it detracts from their position. Yes, there is a problem in the US, but it's not the problem you've just described.

Fuck off with your excuses and your pathetic paranoia about your so called freedom. Tell that the the kids..oh you can't - they are dead!

There is clearly room for more to be done in the area of gun control, but the notion that freedom is not a value to cherish may be your position, but not everyone shares your view of it. While many folks may overplay that hand, too, it remains an valid interest to protect. Life doesn't mean much without liberty. Kids die in a lot of circumstances that liberty allows - letting them drive at 16, letting them go camping, letting them skydive, or letting them go swimming in swimming pools. Does "precious liberty" warrant allowing these activities? Kids are dead because we let them do this stuff. The point being, that "people will die" is not a helpful point. Of course they will.

And, my reaction to the shooting was much the same as yours. Even watching earlier today, I choked back tears. I feel terrible. And I agree, the ball was dropped - not just security at the school, and not just the failure of law enforcement to take action against Mr. Cruz's open threats, but also because we have not yet enacted adequate gun control laws. I agree with you, we need more.

But namecalling - "fuck yous" and all this stuff does not help. It just makes people hunker down into their foxholes.

You guys should take it as a message of concern and sympathy that the likes of me, who has never set foot in your country - and many like me - get so worked up about it. But fuck any of you who defend your 'right to bear arms' after so much carnage. There are no more excuses.

Indeed. But, the problem is politics on both sides. It seems that nobody can present a sensible, moderate step to head in the right direction. The Republicans tend to not support the Democrat proposals, but the Democrats don't support the Republican proposals. And, I've seen proposals submitted over and over again that on close inspection don't make sense - like, for example, the proposal that anyone put on the terrorism watch list can't get a gun, which has a ton of problems. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/th ... gun-sales/

I would suggest:

Close all loopholes regarding background checks for gun sales, including private sales, gifts, gun shows, and the like.
Require a background check (criminal and psych) for a permit to own a gun. I.e. don't base background checks on the purchase of the gun, base it on getting the permit to be allowed to own a gun.
Make it illegal to own a gun without a permit.
Register all guns.
Eventually get RFID chips in the guns to track them, at least on a going forward basis.
Make it mandatory to report any lost or stolen firearm.
Require mandatory gun safety, handling and carry training -- make that periodic (like annual or every couple of years), and let gun safety trainers report suspicious characters.

That sounds like a good start, and stuff we can do without violating anyone's right to bear arms.

But hey, I'm just paranoid, and I'm too attached to muh precious freedum, so I can just go fuck off.