#42

Just read about the Geary Danley stuff as well. The internet is fucking toxic. :slightly_frowning_face:

#43

Yes that was it. Makes you lose faith in humanity.

#44

This is a flawed analogy, but the best way Iā€™ve ever heard American gun culture explained is by comparison to car culture.

You have these inherently dangerous machines that started off as purely functional things, around which a culture developed of owning/using them for their own sake. Of making them as powerful and as fancy as possible. Of showing that power off to other people. Of just straight up enjoying the machines, enjoying owning them, enjoying using them.

And the vast majority of car owners donā€™t drunk-drive, donā€™t excessively speed, donā€™t drive their vehicles in ways that harm people. Imagine if, every time someone died in a car accident, there were calls to ban cars. Thatā€™s how ā€˜gun peopleā€™ see the situation.

I know that the huge difference here is that guns were designed to maim and kill, so youā€™re comparing use to abuse, but as a way of trying to explain the mindset, i think itā€™s an interesting comparison.

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#46

itā€™s not a terrible analogy, but in this world every other developed country in the world has already banned or heavily restricted car ownership, with no real adverse affectsā€¦

edit: not every country as there are silly places like switzerland but meh

#47

I think thatā€™s maybe where the obsession with the second amendment comes in. Although Iā€™ve always found it incredible that people can talk about an AMENDMENT to a document as if debating it was completely out of the question

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#48
#49

Got a source for this, before I go repeating it elsewhere? I ask because according to Google today is day 275 of the year not 278.

#50

Errā€¦ Twitter? But I may have misread it.

In fact, just done a quick search, apparently itā€™s 273 mass shootings in 275 days. And a mass shooting may be 3+ deaths. Seems like the stats may vary a bit depending on who you ask.

#51

what exactly would it actually take for there to be federal gun laws - effective ones - in the US?

if the mass shooting of children wonā€™t do it ā€¦
What order of magnitude does it need to be for something to change?

Also, the framing of things as white = lone crazy vs black = gangster vs muslim = terrorist ā€¦this is one of the drivers that perpetuates inertia on gun laws isnā€™t it? I mean, it isnā€™t just idle racist labelling itā€™s active structurally racist policy; you can enact the war on terror against muslims, you can legislate harsh anti-gang penalties & cops can shoot black youths with impunity but heyā€¦you canā€™t legislate against lone crazies right? Just one of those every day thingsā€¦

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#52

When i heard about this i went online and the general tone of the tabloid press was along the lines of ā€˜man with Asian girlfriend goes on mass rampageā€™. The BBC at the time said words to the effect of ā€˜not terrorism, but police do want to speak to his Asian partnerā€™. The Mail, predictably, had four photos of her and at the time it was first published none of him. Obviously my main line of thought was this is an absolutely terrible, cowardly attack, but the coverage of it strikes me as irresponsible.

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#53

Highly doubt gun laws will ever change here and if they do it will be minor. We americans love to own our guns. Of course when anything like this happens, gun sales skyrocket as well. sigh

This is close to home, Vegas is just a few hours away from where I live and I have friends, family and coworkers who live there. My brother has co-workers that were at the show, theyā€™ve reported in safe.

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#54

very very guilty LOL at the description of the gunman by his brother:

He told reporters his brother was ā€œnot an avid gun guy at allā€ and had no military background.
ā€œHeā€™s a guy that lived in a house in Mesquite,ā€ Eric Paddock said, ā€œdrove down and gambled in Las Vegas. He did stuff, eat burritos.ā€

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#55

Yeah the number of pictures Iā€™ve seen of her is really weird

#56

itā€™s probably because the police put the photo out when they were looking for her, and so of course it immediately spreads and becomes the defining image of the moment, but also because sheā€™s a female POC obvs.

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#57

Definitely think we humanise criminals quicker when theyā€™re not of colour, and/or Muslim. Donā€™t think itā€™s true that it doesnā€™t happen in instances where they are, just that it seems to be mentioned much later, and to a lesser extent.

The images used are, talking more broadly about crimes generally, completely different as well a lot of the time. Mugshots are used less when the perpetrators are caucasian and not Islamic. Family photos used more. The narrative of ā€˜normal family guy tipped over the edgeā€™ is quite quickly pushed.

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#58

Couldnā€™t Trump, knowing heā€™s toast soon enough, start the conversation about changing the law/s? What does he have to lose? I mean aside from the support from his hardcore base which is possibly/probably a gun-happy bunch in general?

#59

Why would he start being liberal now?

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#60

Why would he do something sane and useful now?

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#61

iā€™m struggling to comprehend the scale of this, the number of people injured is justā€¦ yeah i dunno, no words really

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#63

Heā€™d have no supporters left.

Almost literally none.

1 Like