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Why Americans are too “stupid” to be allowed access to guns

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Author Topic: Why Americans are too “stupid” to be allowed access to guns  (Read 3135 times)
Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: February 07, 2016, 11:36:01 am »


Yep....an 11-year-old American kid who has learnt from American gun culture that you can solve any problem with a gun....



from The Washington Post....

11-year-old charged with murdering 8-year-old
after argument about puppies


By ELAHE IZADI | 4:44PM - Monday, October 05, 2015


(click on the above image to view the original post on Twitter)

AN ARGUMENT between two children over puppies turned tragic Saturday when an 11-year-old boy killed his 8-year-old neighbor with a shotgun, according to authorities in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

The 11-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder in the girl's death, Jefferson County Sheriff Bud McCoig told The Washington Post. Authorities aren't releasing the names of either child, but Latasha Dyer told ABC affiliate WATE that her daughter, McKayla, was killed.

“She was a precious little girl,” Dyer said through tears in an on-air interview with WATE. “She was a mommy's girl. No matter how bad of a mood you were in, she could always make you smile.”

Each of the children had a puppy, the sheriff said. The 11-year-old “wanted to see the 8-year-old's, and she said no, and then he went and retrieved a gun,” McCoig said.

The boy fired the 12-gauge shotgun from inside of his house, striking the girl as she stood in her yard, according to the sheriff. The gun, which was stored in a closet without locks, belonged to the boy's father, McCoig said.

When first responders and police arrived on the scene Saturday night, they found the girl “lying on the ground with a gunshot to the chest,” McCoig said. She was taken to an area hospital, where she died from her injuries.

On Monday, a judge ordered the boy to be held in a juvenile facility pending his next court hearing, on October 28th; the case could later be transferred to adult court, McCoig said.

Saturday's killing, which came just two days after a mass school shooting in rural Oregon, has rocked the small community of White Pine, Tennessee. Both children attended White Pine School, which teaches students from kindergarten through eighth grade, principal Bill Walker said.

“We remember her smile and her beautiful face,” Walker told reporters on Monday. “Our normal has changed.”

Dyer told Knoxville's WATE TV that she had previously approached the school principal about the 11-year-old bullying her daughter.

“When we first moved White Pine, the little boy was bullying McKayla. He was making fun of her, calling her names, just being mean to her,” Dyer said Sunday. “I had to go to the principal about him, and then he quit for awhile. And then all of a sudden yesterday, he shot her.”

Walker declined to confirm to reporters on Monday that Dyer talked to him about bullying, citing the ongoing investigation.

Counselors were at the school to support students and staff in the aftermath of the shooting.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with those involved from both families,” Walker said, according to WATE. “It's not just the school that's hurting; it's the whole community.”

McCoig said the killing has taken a toll on his investigators. “We only get through it by the grace of God,” he said.


• Elahe Izadi is a general assignment national reporter for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Young people are far more likely to die by guns than in cars

 • Where in America do gun owners live?

 • How often do children in the U.S. unintentionally shoot and kill people? We don't know.

 • In 30 states, a child can still legally own a rifle or shotgun

 • Opinion: The access children have to guns is alarming


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/10/05/11-year-old-charged-with-murdering-8-year-old-after-arguing-about-puppies



Notice how God gets mentioned in a quote in the last sentence of that article?

Americans....and guns....and killing....and God.

Kinda sums Americans up, eh?




from The Washington Post....

11-year-old boy convicted of killing 8-year-old girl

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 8:30PM EST - Friday, February 05, 2016

Shooting victim McKayla Dyer.
Shooting victim McKayla Dyer.

WHITE PINE, TENNESSEE — An 11-year-old boy in Tennessee has been found guilty of murdering an 8-year-old girl after she and her sister refused to let him see their puppies.

WATE-TV reports that Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge Dennis “Will” Roach II this week found the boy guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to state custody until he turns 19. The Associated Press does not generally identify juveniles accused of crimes.

In his order, which WATE posted online, Roach said the state should use all reasonable resources to determine why the boy shot the girl, and he should be treated and rehabilitated so this never happens again.

“A child who commits first-degree murder cannot be willy-nilly turned loose into society,” Roach wrote.

The boy is currently in detention and being evaluated as to where he should be placed, said Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Children’s Services. “Like any other child who comes into custody, he would need a thorough assessment and evaluation to determine the best placement,” Johnson said. “At this time, it would likely be at an intensive treatment program at one of our private providers.” The boy has five siblings — three brothers and two sisters — who have been placed with relatives and the state, Johnson said.

The boy and 8-year-old McKayla Dyer lived in the same mobile home park in White Pine, Tennessee, about 40 miles outside of Knoxville. McKayla, her 11-year-old sister and another girl, also 11, were playing outside and talking to the boy while he was sitting at his bedroom window on October 3rd, 2015. He asked the sisters to go get their puppies, the judge's order says, and when they refused he went and got a 12-gauge shotgun and a BB gun and told the girls he had guns. According to the judge's description of the events, McKayla laughed at him and responded that the guns weren't real.

The boy “then made certain the gun was loaded, cocked the hammer on the gun and shot the victim just above the heart at a downward trajectory,” the judge wrote.

The girl fell backward, “quickly lost consciousness, and was later confirmed dead,” the judge wrote, adding that three witnesses saw McKayla within one minute after she was shot.

“The mother of the child knelt on the ground and picked her up, placing her child in her arms as she passed away.”

The boy had been trained in firearm safety and had hunted with his father and grandfather, the judge noted.


__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • 11-year-old charged with murdering 8-year-old after argument about puppies


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/11-year-old-boy-convicted-of-killing-8-year-old-girl/2016/02/05/79ab7eac-cc6f-11e5-b9ab-26591104bb19_story.html
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reality
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« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2016, 12:22:34 pm »

...speaking of kids with lethal weapons... Shocked......time for regime change😉


North Korea fires long-range rocket seen as covert missile test
 
North Korea says this is a peaceful satellite launch.

North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the US mainland.

The launch, which South Korean officials confirmed about two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning, follows North Korea's widely-disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb.

It will be considered a further provocation by Washington and its allies and likely draw more sanctions and condemnation from the United Nations.

Rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North's ultimate goal of a nuclear armed long-range missile arsenal. North Korea says its nuclear and missile programs are necessary to defend itself against what it calls decades of US hostility.

Leader Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North's four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket tests since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. North Korea says its rocket launches are satellite missions, but the US, South Korea and others say they are a covert test of ballistic missile technology.

The UN Security Council prohibits North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity.

The Jan 6 nuclear test has led to another push in the UN to tighten sanctions. North Korea in 2013 also did a nuclear test and then unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast, including threats to fire nuclear missiles at the US and Seoul.

The Korean border is the world's most heavily armed and the rivals' navies occasionally trade gunfire near a disputed boundary in the Yellow Sea.

North Korea has spent decades trying to develop operational nuclear weapons.

It is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles. But it has yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile, or missiles that can reliably deliver their bombs to faraway targets.

Still, the North's nuclear tests and steadily improving long-range rocket launches push its nuclear aims further along.

North Korea has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation.

 - AP
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2016, 12:30:17 pm »


Hahaha.....notice how whenever reality has his mind disturbed by REAL reality (as opposed to the lack of reality world he inhabits), he immediately carries out a diversionary tactic, such as attempting to change the topic to North Korea (which is about as opposite to the USA as you could get, apart from the fact they are both police states)....just like his hero John Key and the Nats and their “change the flag as a diversionary tactic wankfest!”

Talk about being the group's clown....

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Crusader
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« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2016, 12:48:42 pm »

Shifted due to racist title
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2016, 01:11:15 pm »

Shifted due to racist title


Americans........are a nationality........not a race.

Now if you had said “Shifted due to nationalitist title” then you would be correct.

If I had used the title Why Niggers are too “stupid” to be allowed access to guns then THAT would have been racist.

Perhaps I might repost the thread and give it the title Why WHITE Americans are too “stupid” to be allowed access to guns, then you really WILL have something to whinge about.

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Crusader
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« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2016, 01:14:04 pm »

Ir doesn't matter. If you want to generalise whether it be against an entire race or nation then expext this action. Now get back in your box.
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Im2Sexy4MyPants
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« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2016, 01:52:57 pm »


life can be tough in the trailer park

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Are you sick of the bullshit from the sewer stream media spewed out from the usual Ken and Barby dickless talking point look a likes.

If you want to know what's going on in the real world...
And the many things that will personally effect you.
Go to
http://www.infowars.com/

AND WAKE THE F_ _K UP
Alicat
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« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2016, 03:24:04 pm »

Thanks Crusader. You have the backing of the other Moderators on this.
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reality
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« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2016, 11:38:40 pm »

"Thanks Crusader. You have the backing of the other Moderators on this."

...yes you have my backing too....hes been doing it all day ref Wink
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2017, 12:59:31 pm »


from the Los Angeles Times....

The gun lobby's latest scheme: make it easier to commit crimes quietly

“The SHARE Act would gut the existing regulatory system, making
gun silencers readily available without a background check.”


By PETER AMBLER | 4:00AM PDT - Wednesday, September 27, 2017

If passed, the SHARE Act would make silencers readily available without a background check through unlicensed sales at gun shows and on the internet.
If passed, the SHARE Act would make silencers readily available without a background check through unlicensed sales at gun shows and on the internet.

IN February 2013, Americans watched in horror as a disgruntled former Los Angeles police officer, Christopher Dorner, terrorized Southern California. Over nine days, Dorner killed four people and wounded three others during a mass manhunt.

As police investigated, they wondered why nearby residents weren't reporting the shots. It turned out that, in an effort to conceal his murders, Dorner was using a silencer, which distorts the sound of gunfire and masks the muzzle flash of a gun. (Silencers do not completely silence gunfire, as some Hollywood movies would have you believe.) In expert hands, say SEAL Team Six, silencers have been used to help covertly take down the likes of Osama bin Laden. But in the hands of criminals, like Christopher Dorner, they pose a serious threat to law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Now Congress is trying to sneak a measure into an unrelated bill that would make it easier for criminals to obtain this special equipment. The bill, the Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act, which will soon be voted on in the House of Representatives, would roll back an 80-year-old law that carefully regulates the sale of silencers.

Shortly after 1930, when 307 law enforcement officers were killed in a single year, Congress passed the National Firearms Act to help regulate some of our nation's most dangerous weapons, including machine guns and sawed-off shotguns. The bill also required gun owners to register their silencers, which has helped keep them in the hands of law-abiding gun owners and out of criminal activity.

The process for purchasing a silencer is relatively simple. Today, gun owners with a clean criminal record can get a silencer with less paperwork than buying a refrigerator, according to the makers of silencers.

If passed, the SHARE Act would gut the existing regulatory system, making silencers readily available without a background check through unlicensed sales at gun shows and on the Internet.

The SHARE Act would also make it harder for civilians and law enforcement to locate active shooters. Silencers degrade the effectiveness of gunshot detection technology that cities including San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego have deployed to reduce violence. When bullets start flying, seconds count. That's why it's so important for bystanders and law enforcement to be able to determine where they are coming from. This bill will only make it harder.

Perhaps even worse, the SHARE Act includes language that would allow the transfer of silencers across state lines and their sale to individuals as young as 18. Dealers would not have to report multiple purchases to law enforcement, even though multiple-sale reports are the primary intelligence tool that federal law enforcement uses to identify firearms trafficking organizations.

There are only two groups who will benefit from the deregulation of silencers: those who wish to inflict harm on our communities, and the corporate gun lobby, which stands to make a fortune.

Now that President Obama is no longer in office and gun sales have plummeted, gun lobbyists have been forced to look for new ways to generate revenue. With the average silencer costing about $1,000, it's not hard to see their motives. They've even teamed up with Donald Trump Jr. in the hopes that more silencers will help get “little kids into the game”. Yes, he actually said that. This bill isn't about public safety or sportsmanship; it's about profit.

The bill isn't just bad policy, it's bad politics, too. A new poll of 2018 voters in California swing districts found that an overwhelming majority — 76%, including 65% of Trump voters — are opposed to deregulating silencers. They are joined by law enforcement officials and gun-safety advocates across the country who believe that deregulating silencers would hurt public safety.

Although there's far more gun violence than Americans on either side of the aisle would like, the fate of this bill will be decided by Republicans in places like California. (Republicans in red states will vote in lockstep.) Seven Golden State Republicans currently represent districts won by Hillary Clinton. Voters in those districts don't share the extreme views of the gun lobby's leaders. They simply want reasonable policy that makes California communities safer.

In politics, elected officials are often faced with decisions that require them to choose between political expediency and the public interest. This is not one of those times. When it comes to deregulating silencers, the smart thing politically is to do the right thing.


• Peter Ambler is executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ambler-gun-silencers-20170927-story.html
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Donald
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« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2017, 01:20:42 pm »

Yes...I agree....guns laws in NZ need to relaxed😉
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2017, 01:36:00 pm »


Does that include allowing criminals access to silencers as is about to occur in America?
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Donald
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« Reply #12 on: September 28, 2017, 01:48:11 pm »

Yes...of course...if they have already paid their debt to society for all their previous convictions....it's human rights🙄
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« Reply #13 on: September 28, 2017, 03:08:58 pm »

Don't want to disturb the neighbours when fending off feral P/Ice/Meth crazed home invaders perhaps?
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #14 on: September 28, 2017, 03:09:08 pm »


Ah, so if a former criminal uses a silencer to hide the sound of firing a bullet into your missus' brain, then it will be alright, because they will have already paid their debt to society for all their previous convictions (human rights, you know), so it will be a fresh crime with no criminal history to be taken into account when they purchased the silencer.

Thank you for clarifying that situation so well.
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aDjUsToR
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« Reply #15 on: September 28, 2017, 03:16:57 pm »

Think you'll find Donald was being sarcastic. Hence the rolled eyes.
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #16 on: September 28, 2017, 03:31:50 pm »


Nah, he was just being his usual STUPID self.

Haven't you yet worked out that Reality/Donald is a clown and an idiot? (as well as being a WANKER)
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« Reply #17 on: September 28, 2017, 03:41:38 pm »

Ktj...."Ah, so if a former criminal uses a silencer to hide the sound of firing a bullet into your missus' brain, then it will be alright..."

...well that would depend....which missus😜

...but no....but if it was your brain.....well where do I sign😉
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #18 on: November 07, 2017, 06:49:42 pm »


from The Washington Post....

The indefensible Republican response to the Texas mass shooting

Those 35,000 or so deaths a year? Just the price they tell us we have to pay for our national gun fetish.

By PAUL WALDMAN | 1:31PM EST - Monday, November 06, 2017

Donald J. Trump addressing the National Rifle Association during the election campaign in 2016. — Photograph: John Sommers II/Reuters.
Donald J. Trump addressing the National Rifle Association during the election campaign in 2016. — Photograph: John Sommers II/Reuters.

“THIS isn't a guns situation,” said President Trump, when he was asked to comment on the latest in our long string of mass shootings, this one in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

As predictable as the rising of the sun, Republican politicians who have fought so hard against even the most basic measures to limit the bloodshed went to their Twitter accounts and the television cameras to send out their thoughts and prayers, and insist that the last thing we should be doing right now is talking about guns. Or, heaven forfend, “politicizing” the issue in this tragic moment.

That's what we've come to expect from them. But it's time we demand something more. We know they aren't going to do anything, not even get behind measures such as universal background checks that have the support of 9 in 10 Americans. So at the very least, we should insist that they be honest about what they believe.

And what they believe is this: The unceasing, relentless, mind-numbing carnage that we in the United States experience because of our gun fetish? Not just the mass shootings — which make up a tiny portion of all those killed with guns — but the day-in, day-out death toll? The pile of bodies, the broken families, the misery and death and despair? Our fellow citizens getting murdered in church, at concerts, at the movies, in nightclubs, in malls, in school? Gun advocates, a group that includes almost every elected Republican, simply do not think it's a problem.

Let me be clear on what I mean by this. Surely many Republicans are personally horrified by mass shootings and even by daily gun carnage. And sometimes Republicans do offer various readings of this problem that might point to solutions — some genuinely do see this as a mental health problem, for instance. But even in these cases, Republicans do not propose serious solutions to the problem as they've identified it.

Presumably there's some number of gun deaths that would lead them to propose genuine and meaningful solutions — maybe 500,000 a year, or 1 million, or 10 million — but whatever that level is, 35,000 just isn't high enough for them.

Just watch Texas Governor Greg Abbott explain that “killing is illegal,” then go on to note that there are also incidents in which people kill with trucks and knives, and such murders happen even in places where there aren't many guns in private hands. This is an argument you hear repeated often: We see yet another mass shooting, and Republicans rush to point out that it's possible to kill people without guns. It's as though you turned on the light in your kitchen to find thousands of cockroaches covering the floor, and I said, “Look, I know a guy across town who once saw an ant in his basement. So there's really nothing you can do.”

Asked directly what to do about gun violence, Abbott said this:


Quote
“The important thing is that if you go back to early times of this world, to the times of yesterday and last week, evil exists in this world. I'm going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”

I'll translate for you. What does Abbott want to do about gun violence? Nothing. He wants to do nothing.

Republicans do frequently say they want to improve the mental health system. But there are people with mental illnesses in every country in the world, and yet we're unique among industrialized nations in our level of gun violence. And regardless, if they mean what they say, now that they have complete control of the government, Republicans must have been working hard on improvements to the mental health system, right? No, they haven't — other than trying to take away millions of people's health insurance and therefore their access to mental health care.

Actually, Trump did sign one law related to mental health. It revoked a regulation enacted under the Obama administration that made it more difficult for some people with mental illnesses to buy guns.

Let's make an analogy: Automobiles kill around the same number of people as guns, but since we collectively believe that modern life as we know it would be impossible without cars, we do everything we can think of to make them safer. We build them with technology intended to minimize the carnage: seat belts, air bags, anti-lock brakes, new features that alert you when you stray from your lane or your eyelids get heavy. We construct laws and physical systems — speed limits, pedestrian crosswalks, bike lanes — to make them safer. When a new facet of the problem emerges, like texting while driving, we pass laws and undertake public education campaigns to attempt to address it. We require everyone who has a car to register it with the government and prove they can operate it safely. And within a few years we will completely transform the way we use them because a safer option — self-driving cars — is rapidly being developed.

But the gun industry, the NRA and their allies in Congress have succeeded in ensuring that there will be no new measures of any kind at the federal level to increase gun safety. They even managed to keep the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from researching gun violence, which is what you do when you are determined that no one be allowed to treat it as a problem that might have solutions.

We should certainly try to understand why this particular mass shooting happened and what might have stopped it. According to early reports — and acknowledging that they might change as we get more information — the suspect's court-martial, sentence and discharge from the Air Force should have barred him from buying a gun, yet he was able to purchase the military-style rifle he used at a sporting goods store in San Antonio, checking a box on the form saying he had no disqualifying criminal history.

But even if a full understanding of what happened in Texas might point us to some holes in the background check system, I promise you that Republicans will resist any attempt to patch them. They might say they want to, but they'll only say it for a few days until the story fades. You might remember that after the Las Vegas shooting — which happened all of five weeks ago — a number of Republicans said that perhaps we should regulate “bump stocks,” the accessory the killer used to turn his semi-automatic rifles into functionally automatic rifles. There was even a piece of legislation introduced with a few Republican co-sponsors. And you know what happened to that? Nothing.

So perhaps whenever a Republican politician or gun advocate goes on television or radio to talk about this interview, they should be asked a simple question: “Do you believe that gun violence is a problem we need to address?” If they say “yes,” the next question should be, “What exactly do you want to do about it?” Let them prove that the answer is something more than “nothing.”


• Paul Waldman is a contributor to The Plum Line blog at The Washington Post, and a senior writer at The American Prospect.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Trump on Texas church shooting: ‘This is a mental health problem’

 • VIDEO: 9 talking points that are repeated after every mass shooting


https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/11/06/the-indefensible-republican-response-to-the-texas-mass-shooting
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« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2017, 08:55:35 am »

Hopefully Trump will ban gun sales to the deranged lefties thrashing about in the steets 😊
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« Reply #20 on: November 18, 2017, 01:18:36 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Man accidentally shoots himself and his wife at a church,
shortly after a discussion on shootings


An 81-year-old man accidentally shot himself and his wife at an East Tennessee church Thursday.

By MARWA ELTAGOURI | 7:00AM EST - Friday, November 17, 2017

An 81-year-old man accidentally shot himself and his elderly wife at an East Tennessee church on Thursday shortly after a discussion on gun safety and mass shootings.
An 81-year-old man accidentally shot himself and his elderly wife at an East Tennessee church on Thursday
shortly after a discussion on gun safety and mass shootings.


ABOUT 20 ELDERLY PEOPLE sat down for an early Thanksgiving meal Thursday at a church in East Tennessee, unaware that the pleasant afternoon would take a grim turn.

During their meal, they decided to discuss gun safety in light of recent mass shootings — an idea that came to them after a neighboring county's sheriff's department chose to hold similar seminars at its local churches, said Tellico Plains Police Chief Russ Parks.

“Well, I've got my gun on me,” an 81-year-old member of First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains said, according to Parks, whose department investigated the incident. He pulled out his holster, which held a .38-caliber Ruger handgun. He removed the magazine, cleared the chamber and showed the gun to the other parishioners. They talked about how to safely bring guns to church — and how sad it was that so many people nationwide had been killed in recent mass shootings. Earlier this month, a gunman killed 26 people when he opened fire with an assault-style gun during Sunday service at a small Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

The 81-year-old man put the magazine back into the gun and put the gun back in the holster, Parks said. Later, while people were cleaning up, a church member who had missed the demonstration asked to see the weapon.

Just as he was about to show it to the church member, the man accidentally pulled the trigger without realizing the gun was loaded.

A bullet fired across the palm of the 81-year-old's hand and toward his 80-year-old wife, who was sitting in a wheelchair next to him. It ripped through her lower left abdomen, out the right side of her abdomen, into her right forearm and out the backside of her forearm. The bullet then struck the wall and ricocheted, landing under the wife's wheelchair, Parks said.

Panic swept the church. Most people weren't aware of the second demonstration and — having just discussed mass shootings — assumed an active gunman entered the church.

“They had their backs to it,” Parks said. “Somebody hollers, ‘He's been shot! She's been shot! Call 911!’ So someone grabs their cellphone and calls 911, and says we've had somebody shot at church.”

What came next was a muddle of misinformation. The dispatcher answering the call shortly after 1 p.m. assumed someone had entered the church and was shooting. As a result, the local hospital and several local schools were put on lockdown, Parks said. Because of their old age, Parks said, the husband and wife were flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in critical condition.

About 45 minutes later, police realized someone had accidentally discharged a handgun. The hospital and school lockdowns were lifted, Parks said.

The husband and wife's conditions have been stabilized as of Thursday evening, Parks said. The couple's family has asked their names not yet be released.

No charges will be filed, Parks said.


• Marwa Eltagouri is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. She previously worked as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where she covered crime, immigration and neighborhood change.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • American toddlers are still shooting people on a weekly basis this year


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/11/17/a-man-accidentally-shot-himself-and-his-wife-at-a-church-shortly-after-a-discussion-on-shootings
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« Reply #21 on: November 18, 2017, 05:47:47 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Gird yourself for more gun rampages

And more hand-wringing, until action is taken

By COLBERT I. KING | 6:56PM EST - Friday, November 17, 2017

An ATF agent poses with homemade semiautomatic rifles. — Photograph: Jae C. Hong/Associated Press.
An ATF agent poses with homemade semiautomatic rifles. — Photograph: Jae C. Hong/Associated Press.

HERE WE GO AGAIN. Another shooting rampage. Another from-out-of-nowhere attack on the public. Another tale of carnage, bloodshed and indiscriminate killing.

This time it's a rural community in California. Last week it was a Baptist church in Texas. Before that, a country music concert in Las Vegas.

Three different states, same toxic ingredients — a crazed man and a gun.

And the reaction, sad to say, is also the same: “It could have been worse.” So let's give thanks to:


  • The quick-thinking officials at an elementary school in Northern California who, hearing gunfire, locked down the premises, preventing gunman Kevin J. Neal from getting inside the building. Neal killed five people, but none at the school.


  • The security guard at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino who first reported shots and warned two people in the hotel of the danger inside the suite from which bullets fired by Stephen Paddock rained down on concertgoers, killing 58 and wounding more than 500.

  • And the first responders: the California law-enforcement officers who tracked and fatally shot Neal on Tuesday; the Texas police who pursued and found Kelley dead in his car; the cops in Las Vegas who descended on Paddock's hotel suite.

Now let's return to our customary hand-wringing.

Oh dear, oh dear, we ask the skies above: How can we make all this bad stuff go away?

What, pray tell, can we do about these assailants who leave bloody trails in their wake? Do we, as President Trump, chalk up the murders to a “mental health problem” — that is, if the shooter isn't someone of a darker hue named Mohammed?

Motives, state of mind, family conditions? We plumb those questions, world without end.

But we dance around the one feature shared by these tragedies: guns.

Sure, we notice the destructive force of a gun when the deaths occur. Mass shootings have a way of concentrating the mind.

Spread out the bodies over a period of days and weeks, however, and the horror of guns almost goes unnoticed.

We reached 100 mostly gun-related homicides the other day in our nation's capital. That’s more deaths than those that occurred in the California, Texas and Nevada shootings combined.

The District's homicide toll is down 14 percent from the same time last year. Nothing to cheer about; plenty to mourn. A blasé city, however, did neither.

Guns.

On my desk is an October 26th D.C. police department news release about the arrests of Messan Djlbom, 20, of Silver Spring, Jason White, 31, of Northwest Washington, and Lonnell Hart, 44, no fixed address. The three were charged in connection with six armed robberies of establishments on Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania avenues NW since August. Two handguns were recovered.

Guns.

From Monday, October 30th, through to Monday, November 6th, D.C. detectives and officers recovered 38 firearms, ranging from handguns to shotguns.

That hardly exhausted the supply.

From November 6th to 13th, D.C. authorities recovered an additional 24 firearms, and in all of the city's four quadrants.

But it's not just the District of Columbia.

America is flooded with firearms. One estimate by the Congressional Research Service puts the figure at more than 300 million.

Here's an America First: We have more guns per capita than any other nation in the world. Yay. Take a bow.

Every day, 46 children and teens in our country are shot in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. But you probably heard all that.

You also may have heard that guns are used to save lives; that women use guns to stave off sexual abuse; that criminals don't want to mess with an armed victim.

Well and good.

But Devin Kelley and Kevin Neal shouldn't have gotten their hands on one. There was no good reason for Stephen Paddock to be toting enough firepower to take on Boko Haram. And young men in our communities shouldn't be allowed to rob, shoot or terrorize their neighbors at gunpoint.

But we know all that, too.

We come up short when it comes to doing something about it. The to-do list is there. What's lacking is the will on Capitol Hill.

The mentally ill shouldn't be allowed to buy guns. Private sales of guns and buying them at gun shows must be subject to background checks. We don't need assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. There should be a firm waiting period before guns can be bought legally. And, yes, we ought to have a federal database to track gun sales.

Until action is taken, gird yourselves for more rampages, and solemn utterances of “our thoughts and prayers are with” — pick a name.


• Colbert I. “Colby” King writes a column for The Washington Post — sometimes about D.C., sometimes about politics — that runs on Saturdays in the print edition. In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. King joined The Post's editorial board in 1990 and served as deputy editorial page editor from 2000 to 2007.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • The Washington Post: Guns in America

 • Colbert I. King: For the love of God, don’t bring guns to church

 • Greg Sargent: Trump's latest claim about the Texas shooting is disingenuous nonsense

 • David von Drehle: Both sides on gun rights need a change of heart

 • Eugene Robinson: The blood of innocents is on our hands

 • The Washington Post's View: Yes, President Trump, it's a guns situation


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gird-yourself-for-more-gun-rampages/2017/11/17/900f39d8-cb1c-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html
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« Reply #22 on: January 21, 2018, 01:57:13 pm »


from the print edition of the Los Angeles Times....

Still no motive for Vegas shooting

As sheriff reiterates there was only one shooter, Paddock's girlfriend says he was acting strangely.

By DAVID MONTERO | Saturday, January 20, 2018

This photo of Stephen Paddock's Mandalay Bay hotel room shows some of the 23 weapons police found after the October 1st shooting, which left 58 people dead. — Photograph: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
This photo of Stephen Paddock's Mandalay Bay hotel room shows some of the 23 weapons police found after the October 1st shooting, which left 58 people dead.
 — Photograph: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.


LAS VEGAS Stephen Paddock gambled large sums of money, kept child pornography on his computer and purchased more than 55 weapons in the year leading up to the largest mass shooting in modern American history.

On Friday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released an 81-page report that revealed fresh insights into the behaviors and patterns of Paddock prior to the night he opened fire from his 32nd floor room at Mandalay Bay on October 1st, killing 58 people. In all, 871 people were injured, with 422 suffering gunshot wounds.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo — holding his first news conference since mid-October — said he hoped the report would help answer some lingering questions that have given extended life to a variety of conspiracy theories that included the rumor of the massacre being tied to Islamic State or terrorism.

“There was one shooter in the 1st October massacre,” Lombardo said. “There was only one person responsible — and that was Stephen Paddock.”

Lombardo said, however, the report would not be able to answer the big question — why Paddock opened fire on the crowd of 22,000 at the concert that night.

He also said that, despite recent revelations through search warrants and affidavits unsealed last week by a federal judge that showed Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, was investigated heavily as a person of interest, the department wasn't looking to bring any charges against her related to the crime.

The FBI is still investigating the case and did not return a request for comment. Danley's lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

However, in a court hearing Tuesday, lawyers seeking to prevent the unsealing of search warrants in state court revealed that possible criminal charges could be filed related to the shooting within two months.

“As to any other people, the FBI has an ongoing case against an individual of federal interest,” Lombardo said.

Danley wasn't in the country at the time of the shooting and had been cooperating with authorities. However, she had told authorities that her fingerprints would be found on ammunition, as she helped him load weapons on occasion. Her casino players card was found in Paddock's room after the shooting.

In comments to investigators detailed in the report, Danley painted Paddock as growing “distant” to her over the previous year and said their relationship was no longer intimate. She also said she had noticed him behaving strangely during their stay at Mandalay Bay the month before the attack.

The report said she told investigators Paddock was constantly looking out the windows of the room, which overlooked the site where the Route 91 Harvest country music festival took place weeks later. She also told investigators he would move from window to window, as if studying the angles.

Lombardo said that because the shooting was unusual, he broke with typical protocol by choosing to release the preliminary investigative report. He said a final report would be released at a future date.

Four laptops were found in Paddock's rooms, along with three cellphones. The report showed Paddock had searched other websites that he might have also been looking to target. Searches included Fenway Park in Boston, “summer concerts 2017” and “biggest open air concert venues in USA”. Another query found on a laptop asked: “How crowded does Santa Monica Beach get?”

One laptop included “several hundred images” of child pornography on the hard drive. After the shooting, Paddock's brother, Bruce Paddock, was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

Guns, however, were a significant component of Paddock's life, according to the report.

In the 34 years prior to September 2016, Paddock had purchased 29 firearms. But in the following 11 months, he bought more than 55 firearms and more than 100 accessories, including scopes, cases, “bump stocks” and ammunition.

In the hotel room, police found 23 guns. Of those, a dozen had been fitted with a bump stock — a device used to simulate automatic firing that has been the subject of scrutiny by lawmakers in the wake of the shooting.

He fired more than 1,100 rounds from his room, and investigators found more than 4,000 rounds of unused ammunition. Authorities also found explosives and ammunition for AR-15 and AR-10 rifles.

While Lombardo said that Paddock's motive for the shooting remained unknown, he stood by statements he made earlier that the gunman had lost large sums of money prior to the shooting.

“That may have been a driving factor,” Lombardo said.

Paddock was a heavy gambler, often betting thousands of dollars a hand at video poker — his game of choice. He earned complimentary rooms at several casino properties on the Las Vegas Strip and in Reno, where he also had a residence.

The report also showed that investigators spoke with Paddock's doctor, who last saw him a year before the shooting. The doctor told investigators Paddock was “odd” and showed “little emotion”. The doctor told investigators he suspected Paddock might have bipolar disorder, but said Paddock didn't want to talk about it.

Paddock also refused anti-depressant prescriptions but did take prescribed drugs for anxiety. The doctor, according to the report, said Paddock appeared fearful of medications and often refused to take them. The report indicated Paddock was not abusing drugs.

Danley described Paddock to investigators as a “germaphobe,” and said he had strong reactions to smells. His ex-wife described him as intelligent and great with numbers, according to the report.

Lombardo said Las Vegas police had investigated 1,965 leads, reviewed 21,560 hours of video and obtained more than 251,000 images, including those acquired by the FBI. Investigators interviewed 43 people directly associated with Paddock, including family, gambling associates and acquaintances. The report also detailed 529 sightings of Paddock.

The last sighting came when police breached the door of his Mandalay Bay room and found him in a long-sleeve brown shirt, black pants, black gloves and gray shoes — dead.

He was on his back, arms at his sides and a rifle under his legs — surrounded by spent casings and a blood-spattered revolver by his head. Paddock left no suicide note. No manifesto.

Just questions.


__________________________________________________________________________

• David Montero is a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Las Vegas, primarily covering Nevada and the West. He previously worked at the Orange County Register, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News. He is a Southern California native and graduated from Cal State Fullerton.

http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=bc0b9466-ed6e-497d-8410-a35407a91541
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« Reply #23 on: March 20, 2018, 11:00:52 am »



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« Reply #24 on: February 22, 2019, 07:51:24 pm »


Click on this excellent cartoon from David Horsey to read what it is about…



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