Another school shooting!

[Narrock]

http://news.yahoo.com/police-teen-gunma ... 25815.html

Omg Omg Omg BAN GUNS NOW!!! THAT WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM!!!

[Tikker]

.

[Durothil Skyreaver]

http://news.yahoo.com/police-teen-gunman-oregon-likely-killed-self-204925815.html

Omg Omg Omg BAN GUNS NOW!!! THAT WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM!!!

Probably wouldn't hurt.

[Ganzo]

http://news.yahoo.com/police-teen-gunman-oregon-likely-killed-self-204925815.html

Omg Omg Omg BAN GUNS NOW!!! THAT WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM!!!

Probably wouldn't hurt.

Knives too while we at it, and then whatever else people will find to use as a weapon.

Or as another option figure out what it is that causes people to lose it and go on killing sprees. Not going to do that though since we always go after the symptoms not the cause.

[brinstar]

america is insane with hatred and fear of the Other: race, socioeconomic class, education, locality, faith, sexuality, gender, any combination or even all of them at once. it doesn't matter which Other we're referring to, because it boils down to the same mentality: They are not like Us. We must be protected from Them. That which makes us Us must be Preserved at all Costs.

we've got this deeply-ingrained and all-encompassing narrative of individual independence/agency and unchecked prosperity that we hold sacrosanct to our national identity, but as time marches on, that narrative has grown starkly at odds with our increasingly interdependent global society and its dwindling energy supply. as a result, those most attuned/sensitive to dissonance and tension are snapping under the weight of endless pallets' worth of evidence that illuminates the yawning gap between narrative and reality

a tumor is a symptom of cancer, not the other way around. we are violent and gun-obsessed because we as a nation are going insane, not the other way around. no matter how well-intentioned, gun control measures aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of crazy people will not work - but not for the reason you think. the explanation we're gleefully bombarded with is that "crazy people will still find ways to get their hands on firearms", but that is irrelevant. the real reason it won't work is that we set the "crazy" bar far too high

the gun manufacturers and their army of lobbyists and all the card-carrying NRA cunts out there want us to believe that everyone needs their own private arsenal for protection against the crazies. on the other side of the aisle, mainstream liberals keep telling us that the gun nuts ARE the crazies. so they all shout for a while, nothing gets done, everyone comes together to slash funding for mental health before turning our brains off and watching football - then a week later another bunch of kids get mowed down by another broken white guy (and let's be clear, it's pretty much always always a white guy) and the cycle starts all over again. as is usually the case, both sides miss the big picture (willfully or otherwise), which is that it's actually our collective insanity driving the gun violence epidemic, not the reverse

lest you think i've gone soft or flip-flopped, let me assure you: none of this is to say we shouldn't try. so what if stricter background checks and national registries and longer waiting periods mean gun-hungry crazies have to try harder to get their preciouses? so the fuck what? boo fucking hoo. they'll still get them in the end, i have no doubt, because they think they need them to survive - and in the end, nothing will have been accomplished at all. but i say that as long as there's no correct answer, then fuck it: i'm gonna choose the wrong answer that creates extra hurdles and hoops to jump through over the one that doesn't. every fucking time. because if those obstacles serve to prevent even ONE mass shooting, then fuck every single whiner who complains about the hassle, fuck them all right in their stupid paranoid faces

[Menelvir]

hatred and fear of the Other

Those fuckers chill me right to the bone

Westeros needs AK-47s with dragonglass bullets... problem solved.

Oh, Other, not Others, shit... sorry about that.

[leah]

america is insane with hatred and fear of the Other: race, socioeconomic class, education, locality, faith, sexuality, gender, any combination or even all of them at once. it doesn't matter which Other we're referring to, because it boils down to the same mentality: They are not like Us. We must be protected from Them. That which makes us Us must be Preserved at all Costs.

we've got this deeply-ingrained and all-encompassing narrative of individual independence/agency and unchecked prosperity that we hold sacrosanct to our national identity, but as time marches on, that narrative has grown starkly at odds with our increasingly interdependent global society and its dwindling energy supply. as a result, those most attuned/sensitive to dissonance and tension are snapping under the weight of endless pallets' worth of evidence that illuminates the yawning gap between narrative and reality

a tumor is a symptom of cancer, not the other way around. we are violent and gun-obsessed because we as a nation are going insane, not the other way around. no matter how well-intentioned, gun control measures aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of crazy people will not work - but not for the reason you think. the explanation we're gleefully bombarded with is that "crazy people will still find ways to get their hands on firearms", but that is irrelevant. the real reason it won't work is that we set the "crazy" bar far too high

the gun manufacturers and their army of lobbyists and all the card-carrying NRA cunts out there want us to believe that everyone needs their own private arsenal for protection against the crazies. on the other side of the aisle, mainstream liberals keep telling us that the gun nuts ARE the crazies. so they all shout for a while, nothing gets done, everyone comes together to slash funding for mental health before turning our brains off and watching football - then a week later another bunch of kids get mowed down by another broken white guy (and let's be clear, it's pretty much always always a white guy) and the cycle starts all over again. as is usually the case, both sides miss the big picture (willfully or otherwise), which is that it's actually our collective insanity driving the gun violence epidemic, not the reverse

lest you think i've gone soft or flip-flopped, let me assure you: none of this is to say we shouldn't try. so what if stricter background checks and national registries and longer waiting periods mean gun-hungry crazies have to try harder to get their preciouses? so the fuck what? boo fucking hoo. they'll still get them in the end, i have no doubt, because they think they need them to survive - and in the end, nothing will have been accomplished at all. but i say that as long as there's no correct answer, then fuck it: i'm gonna choose the wrong answer that creates extra hurdles and hoops to jump through over the one that doesn't. every fucking time. because if those obstacles serve to prevent even ONE mass shooting, then fuck every single whiner who complains about the hassle, fuck them all right in their stupid paranoid faces

[Zanchief]

Ganzo, what you’re saying isn’t entirely wrong, but the problem is the symptom and the cause are embroiled together in this case. The gun mentality in the US is scary crazy, and protecting guns, having people collecting them, having them in movies, linking them directly to your constitution in a way that ensures their circulation, is part of the problem. Not only because, yes a gun is a more effective killing tool than a knife or a car or whatever argument people are using, but because having children grow up with guns, looking at guns, watching movies with guns, seems to make some of them a bit gun crazy.

We aren’t talking about people killing people. That happens. That will happen with anything form a nuclear bomb to a rock. What we’re talking about is people going on a mass killing spree. Rare do people use other tools of destruction to do this. We don’t really see mass stabbings in a mall, or school lead pipings. I think this goes beyond just the efficacy of guns. This speaks to the foundation of gun culture, and that is where gun control could work. If there are simply less around, less people going to gun shows, and going to the range with their kids and shit, maybe less people will get off on the mass murdering sprees.

[Ganzo]

Ganzo, what you’re saying isn’t entirely wrong, but the problem is the symptom and the cause are embroiled together in this case. The gun mentality in the US is scary crazy, and protecting guns, having people collecting them, having them in movies, linking them directly to your constitution in a way that ensures their circulation, is part of the problem. Not only because, yes a gun is a more effective killing tool than a knife or a car or whatever argument people are using, but because having children grow up with guns, looking at guns, watching movies with guns, seems to make some of them a bit gun crazy.

We aren’t talking about people killing people. That happens. That will happen with anything form a nuclear bomb to a rock. What we’re talking about is people going on a mass killing spree. Rare do people use other tools of destruction to do this. We don’t really see mass stabbings in a mall, or school lead pipings. I think this goes beyond just the efficacy of guns. This speaks to the foundation of gun culture, and that is where gun control could work. If there are simply less around, less people going to gun shows, and going to the range with their kids and shit, maybe less people will get off on the mass murdering sprees.

My whole issue with this is that the Gun Control is always something that overshadows the real problem and is almost used as a distraction and a political tool

[Zanchief]

Isn't the right to blame for not look at the real issues too though? Do you really think those advocating looser gun laws want to hear that some 19 year old kid who shoots up a theatre is mentally unstable and may not be as responsible for his actions as we think? Aren't they the same people with a black and white sense of justice?

[Jay]

Ganzo, what you’re saying isn’t entirely wrong, but the problem is the symptom and the cause are embroiled together in this case. The gun mentality in the US is scary crazy, and protecting guns, having people collecting them, having them in movies, linking them directly to your constitution in a way that ensures their circulation, is part of the problem. Not only because, yes a gun is a more effective killing tool than a knife or a car or whatever argument people are using, but because having children grow up with guns, looking at guns, watching movies with guns, seems to make some of them a bit gun crazy.

We aren’t talking about people killing people. That happens. That will happen with anything form a nuclear bomb to a rock. What we’re talking about is people going on a mass killing spree. Rare do people use other tools of destruction to do this. We don’t really see mass stabbings in a mall, or school lead pipings. I think this goes beyond just the efficacy of guns. This speaks to the foundation of gun culture, and that is where gun control could work. If there are simply less around, less people going to gun shows, and going to the range with their kids and shit, maybe less people will get off on the mass murdering sprees.

Great post.

I feel like a lot of people are so concerned with the "end game" of Obama taking their guns away or the mentally unstable having unfettered access to an assortment of weaponry that we're forgetting to look towards the middle, the grey. I respect the right to bear arms under very certain circumstances and I respect the right for someone to be able to defend their home but what possible good can come from not tightening requirements (mental health, background, aptitude) to own a gun and limiting concealable firearms?

[Jay]

Sorry for the double post but also if we're gonna have a gun talk like we do every year, can we avoid the pointless sarcasm?

I'm so tired of the whole "OMG WE SHOULD TAKE PENCILS AWAY THEY CAN BE WEAPONIZED BLAH BLAH" "OH I GUESS WE CAN'T GET GUNS ILLEGALLY AMIRITE?"

It's an evolving topic and I actually like the honest responses from both sides.

[Harrison]

I think a lot of new and enlightening discussions are about to be had that won't be direct attacks on a person.

I await this brand new discussion. I'm excited to have my mind changed by the perfect solution to a wide ranging complication that I'm sure everyone has now, that they didn't have last year, too.

[leah]

or we could just keep being sarcastic and not actually contribute anything.