AndyS
AndyS's Journal14 -- the number of school shootings since March
14 — the number of school shootings since March, when many districts returned to in-person classes. That’s the most in that period since at least 1999, though the three killed and eight injured was fewer than the 33 people who died in the same timeframe in 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/06/24/school-shootings-2021-increase/
More escalation. Kids going back to school . . . with guns.
Guns make everything better! Domestic violence, road rage, job disputes and schools.
An NRA past president gives a commencement speech
It's only 2 minutes, watch the whole thing . . .Is there a link between the sheer number of guns available and gun violence.
This is a chart of gun deaths from 1968 to 2017:
Note the sharp spike in murders that begins in 2014. That trend continues today with the CDC reporting a murder rate of 5.8/100k in 2019 and increases over that in 2020* and 2021* (numbers not finalized as of this post).
What happened in 2014? No pandemic, no major influx of drugs or gangs, economy booming and inflation down while employment up. What changed?
Below is a graph of guns manufactured from 1986 through 2018:
Here is a chart of imports of guns from 1986 to 2018:
Notice the spike in manufacturing and imports that began after 2010 and spiked in 2014? The supply of guns is directly correlated to the increase in gun violence. There is no way to ignore this.
Shootings in U.S. are up -- and experts fear it will get worse
Through the first five months of 2021, gunfire killed more than 8,100 people in the United States, about 54 lives lost per day, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization. That’s 14 more deaths per day than the average toll during the same period of the previous six years.
https://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/ODN/HoustonChronicle/Default.aspx (pay wall)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/14/2021-gun-violence/ (no pay wall)
There is much more worth reading in the article but the bottom line is that IT REALLY IS THE GUNS.
MORE GUNS = MORE SHOOTINGS. There's no way to deny it.
At the same time other crimes, violent and non violent, are down and remain at near all time lows. It's only gun violence that is up.
The NRA was once the good guy.
The National Revolver Association, which was part of the NRA, proposed requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Other aspects of the NRA’s legislation: adding five years prison time if a gun was used in a crime, prohibiting the sale of a gun to a non-citizen, imposing a one-day waiting period before a purchaser could take possession of a gun, and opening records of gun sales to police. Nine states adopted the legislation.
I have told gunners for years that they are the ones best suited to write gun laws. Of course it fell on hostile ears. We will have sensible gun laws, laws the will reduce the number and kind of guns in circulation to a small fraction of what we have today. Perhaps not in my lifetime, but it will come and the gunners aren't going to be happy.
That's what happens when those who love a thing let others regulate it for them.
A History of the NRA
https://hickoryrecord.com/news/history-of-the-nra/collection_772d86f7-a01a-586a-abc8-930bcaa6d4f3.html#1
A short easy read and well worth the few minutes to better know who we are dealing with.
13 injured in mass shooting on Austin's Sixth Street
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/13-injured-in-mass-shooting-on-Austin-s-Sixth-16243242.phpMy fingers are numb from typing details and excerpts on these things.
It's a woman's rights issue.
It's not just a mass shooting issue, a gun control issue or a gun rights issue, it's also a woman's rights issue.
60% if mass shooters have a history of domestic abuse.
About 5 million women are victims of domestic abuse every year.
A woman is 500% more likely to die if an abuser has access to a gun.
On average 57 women die each month by a gun in a domestic partner's hands.
Not all states report domestic violence convictions to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Guns make EVERYTHING better! Shall we discuss road rage next?
It's a woman's rights issue.
It's not just a mass shooting issue, a gun control issue or a gun rights issue, it's also a woman's rights issue.
60% if mass shooters have a history of domestic abuse.
About 5 million women are victims of domestic abuse every year.
A woman is 500% more likely to die if an abuser has access to a gun.
On average 57 women die each month by a gun in a domestic partner's hands.
Not all states report domestic violence convictions to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Guns make EVERYTHING better! Shall we discuss road rage next?
If we all made a noise, could we drown out the sound of gunfire?
There were two mass shootings in Florida, one in Virginia Beach and 32 dead in Chicago over the Memorial day weekend. Ft Worth, Arlington and Houston, Texas missed the count to qualify as a MASS shooting by one each to. All in three days and that doesn't count the mundane everyday misery of gun violence all across the country from small town to major metropolis. Mundane everyday misery and gun violence should never appear in one sentence yet it does every damn day.
Ask any gunner how this can be and they deflect to mental health, poverty, over crowding, video games, drugs, gangs and unicorns. Everything but GUNS.
Is that true? I personally don't think so. It's guns.
In the United States of America there are (+/-) 15,000 McDonald's, 6,000 Starbucks and 36,000 pizza chain restaurants.
There are also, in the United States of America, 80,000 licensed gun dealers according to the BATF&E (ATF).
That's LICENSED dealers, not the folks selling guns out of their car trunks or over the internet which is an additional 40% over and above the 'official' gun sellers.
It really is the GUNS.
Who is supposed to oversee the operation of all these gun sellers? The ATF which hasn't had a budget increase or staffing increase in a decade or a confirmed director in six years.
Even at that there were 2000 dealers cited by ATF agents over two years, many multiple times. Almost none of them lost their Federal Firearms License. Seems the watchdog is owned by the fox and us chickens are on our own.
No one thing will stem the bloodshed but fixing the enforcement system which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun industry would be a good start.
President Biden has a nominee to head the ATF, David Chapman, who is pending approval by the Senate. Gunners hate him.
Perhaps if we all made a noise we could drown out the sound of gunfire.
'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
That was the Onion headline. Turns out that's true. Unless of course any of this mattered:
What the fuck is wrong with us?
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Gender: MaleHometown: Pelican Bay, TX 76020
Home country: United States
Current location: home
Member since: Thu Jan 20, 2005, 02:07 PM
Number of posts: 14,559