Re: USA Gun Violence & Police Brutality Thread

[McLewis]

Just to clarify a few things

McLewis, excessive police spending is not on my books. That’s a conservative view point and I don’t align myself with that. Overall, cops should be held to much higher standards, irregardless of pay, and if they have a problem with it, perhaps they should see the families of minorities and the like that have been persecuted for centuries in this country as well as the police brutality which is impossible to ignore

It has to be more than that though. Police should not be able to determine their own budgets. Their unions should not have outsized influence in local politics. These things drive money into their coffers rather than where it will actually do good: in the neighborhoods that need it. The level of autonomy PDs have must be reduced if any meaningful progress is to occur. Training and holding them to higher standards are simply too passive.

Minimization is also a helluva a drug as well.

We Americans are fabulous at minimizing anything we truly don't want to think critically about. Anything we find inconvenient or disruptive to our worldview, we reduce into insignificance and obscurity.

We've deemed gun violence as something that's just going to happen.

Thats not only you. People get desesintized to this kind of stuff if they're being fed propaganda. They begin to accept it as a ordinary/normal state of affairs

This is more of of a "when" and not an "if". The propaganda has been around for several decades.

Minimization is also a helluva a drug as well.

We Americans are fabulous at minimizing anything we truly don't want to think critically about. Anything we find inconvenient or disruptive to our worldview, we reduce into insignificance and obscurity.

We've deemed gun violence as something that's just going to happen. Something that can't be stopped for any myriad of reasons. Something that's just out of our collective control. It's defeatist, callous and borderline nihilistic. Most importantly, it's a choice. And we make it every day without blinking.

We've just become extremely desensitized  to the point where any effort to reverse it is seen as sensationalist or an over-exaggeration. It's surreal honestly.

dude i don't disagree with you that the US needs to find better solutions to their gun problem...
all im saying is, you're exaggerating by saying travellers should fear visiting the States

If you truly believe it's perfectly safe for people to come here...that our police forces are capable of protecting them, I don't know what else to say other than I disagree vehemently with you. I'm not saying coming here will lead to certain death. I'm saying coming here isn't exactly a guarantee of safety, as that doctor in Atlanta just found out. He probably thought it was safe too...

[El Gunner]

i never said it was perfectly safe, don't you get it? there's violence and crime and misfortune everywhere in the world

[McLewis]

The difference between what you're saying and what I'm saying is that I believe we could be doing far more to prevent all of those things, yet we have chosen not to because we believe it's just "bound to happen".

[McLewis]

POLICE SHOOTING PROTESTS: There are growing calls to charge the officer who fatally shot 22-year-old Amir Locke during a no-knock raid. @Perezreports is in Minneapolis where hundreds of activists took to the streets to peacefully protest. https://t.co/9vxlbMQBwG pic.twitter.com/bauRpMESvX

— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) February 8, 2022

A few days behind on this, but it looks like what happened to Breonna Taylor has happened again....this time in Minneapolis, the same city where George Floyd was killed. Unlike Taylor's death, we have actual bodycam footage here.

The victim's name is Amir Locke. His name was not on the warrant and he was a licensed gun owner with a legal fire arm. He never had a chance to defend himself.

Silence from conservatives and the NRA.

The 2nd Amendment was never meant for the rest of us. Just for them.

[VivaStPauli]

Silence from conservatives and the NRA.

The NRA is a white supremacist organisation, has been since its inception. I do not know why this is not publicly condemned, or even public knowledge.

[McLewis]

Silence from conservatives and the NRA.

The NRA is a white supremacist organisation, has been since its inception. I do not know why this is not publicly condemned, or even public knowledge.

It's constantly and public condemned, just like the NRA is. It doesn't really move the needle at all and hasn't in almost 30 years.

When Columbine was happening, the NRA were on a conference call figuring out how to spin to deflect blame. And that was white kids shooting up mostly white kids. There was never going to be any support for them when a black man dies wrapped up in blankets on a couch, reaching for his legally purchased firearm to protect himself from unknown intruders who quietly broke in for unknown purposes.

[FennecFox7]

Conservatives should be ashamed. For all the whining they do about “not caring about race”, it’s all bullshit. They care just as much as the left, except instead of having (possibly) misguided good hearted intentions, they are flat out racist.

People ask me in Texas why I don’t vote R. Here it is. That’s the reason. They are racist scumbags and they never, ever tell you. When they were calling Obama a Kenyan Muslim and calling Arabs and terrorists, crickets. When you question them about it, oh yeah, “it’s not a big deal” fuck outta here.

The absolutely hilarious thing is now they’re riding the anti COVID wave to try to get centrists and libertarian minded people from both camps to their side. They are fucking weasels. Lol.

[Arquitecto]

Not a fan of Liberals but Conservatives are arguably worse as weasels (or snakes) is the apt way to describe them as they undercut their comrades under the table and generally are boring old pseudo-philosophers holding onto an obsolete time.

You'd never hear me saying this in my early twenties but years later Ive seen things for what they are and as annoying as the left can be I have no love for the Tea Party.

[Thimmy]

I leaned firmly towards liberalism when I was a teenager, but these days I genuinely think both liberals and conservatives can be obnoxious snakes in different ways. I can't be the only one who's witnessed woke people stab their like-minded for the sake of elevating their own virtue signalling status. Both sides have more than their fair share of pseudo philosophers, as well.

I've met great people who identify themselves as both liberals and conservatives, and I think they would get along just fine, but it's clear to me that those people are a lot more grounded than the people who represent both sides in public discourse. I get the impression that a lot of people believe that they become better people, the more they distance themselves from the opposite side of the political spectrum, and that's always going to be a recipe for disaster.

[McLewis]

Last week, my 2 year old son found this in the bedroom closet of our @Airbnb rental.

We asked for the gun to be removed but they never came to take it.

We sent in a picture to Airbnb to alert them, but so far they're"still investigating." pic.twitter.com/7nhB7Js50u

— Matt Rivera (@rivera) February 21, 2022

I don't know where this took place, but it would not surprise me if it occurred in a state with lax gun laws. Here's the top comment:

Ffs- this is a single shot air rifle with a breach load and break barrel charging handle. IF it had a pellet in it and was charged it’s dangerous. If there is no pellet in it or near it it’s only as dangerous as a bat. Stop clutching pearls. Learn gun safety.

— Chris Mayo (@ThisisMayo) February 21, 2022

This is what we're up against. This guy thinks the overall (I get the immediacy of the situation) onus for securing a gun left unsecured is on the person who found it in another person's house and NOT on the actual owner of the house and gun, who should've secured it themselves in the first place.

[El Gunner]

well yea that does look like an air rifle, and i don't see how Chris Mayo said anything wrong... in fact your response to his response seems a bit too dramatic to me

[McLewis]

A gunman killed 15 people – 14 of them children – at a Texas elementary school, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, marking the deadliest school shooting in the state's history: https://t.co/MmkS8m0gz1 pic.twitter.com/0TtxjS69de

— El Paso Times (@elpasotimes) May 24, 2022

I never thought I'd never see news of another mass shooting at an elementary school in my lifetime. I literally thought Sandy Hook was it. How naive is that?

My fiance's daughter is 10, same age as many of these kids that were killed. I love her like she's my own. I can't imagine losing her in this way. Those parents.....

[McLewis]

And a reminder: You don't need a permit to carry a gun in Texas either openly or concealed. There are no background checks in private gun sales there either. That means any adult in Texas can sell their guns to other adults providing they're not felons and that they are residents of the state. That's it. That's all it requires.

Pathetic.

[McLewis]

Update: Death toll is now 21. 18 children, 3 adults.

[BarrileteCosmico]

Copying my post from the racism thread.

@myesyats you're wrong, it's not possible. This is a country that watched an entire elementary school get gunned down and did NOTHING.

I'm well aware that it would make everything worse at a macro level, but when there's people literally gunning you down for existing what else are you to do?

Another predictable massacre.

Once more, this country will do nothing, the GOP will attempt to arm teachers as their solution, the dems will attempt to pass laws that have no chance of passing so they can virtue signal and energize their base prior to the election. No one will work to move the needle at least a little in the right direction. I hope they surprise me, but have lost faith in this item.

[FennecFox7]

Agreed BC. Whatever the solution is, this can’t keep happening. You know what? Ban gun sales of automatics. Do psych exams. Fuck being on the left or right. I’m as libertarian as they come but the gun issue is out of control and I’m willing to listen to liberals and progressives on how to fix this. Arming teachers is ridiculous, they’re there to teach. We need ideas. And fast.

[BarcaLearning]

It basically became too much of a norm almost too long ago already, I wonder whats the total count of these types of shootings over the yrs, n yet nothing will be done about it...

[Hapless_Hans]

America doesn't value their people's lives. Only the $.

It's not going to get better, it is only going to get worse.

[Myesyats]

also this wtf

A vehicle involved in a car crash in Los Angeles gets looted on the street. When the driver attempts to drive away, he hits another car and is then dragged into the street by the looters. pic.twitter.com/b9kCVTNEvg

— Andy Ngô  (@MrAndyNgo) May 25, 2022

[McLewis]

I'm 100% done with Republicans, Conservatives and the right-wing in general. I want no civil discourse with them. I want no compromise with them. I want no understanding with them. There can be none of that with them when they knowingly obstruct any attempt to stop these massacres from happening. They fight with everything in them to protect children before they're born only to allow them to be torn apart by weapons of war. Not only is that nonsensical. It is pure malevolence. . They can dress this up anyway they want, but their actions speak so much louder. Just look at the tweets from all of the Republicans. These are the same ones who take thousands and millions from the NRA, who have actively suppressed any attempt at tougher gun measures in this country. That type of malfeasance is unworthy of civil discourse.

They have made it clear that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of anyone (including children) in order to keep weapons of war that they don't need. This is not about need. It's about want. They want these guns because the 2A says they can have them. That's it. The "government tyranny" bullshit is a cover. It's gaslighting. It's manipulation. It's a smokescreen so that they can stockpile weapons for the fuck of it. All because they can.

They believe that arming teachers would prevent these shootings from happening. There were people at the school armed with guns. They couldn't stop this guy. The police couldn't stop this guy. It took 1 hour for better armed units to stop him. 1 hour the shooter had to commit obcene amounts of carnage on kids. I've been sitting with that all morning. It's a damning indictment on law enforcement considering how much money is pumped into police departments every year. Uvalde is a very small town so their police force are likely unequipped for something like this, but that should make the need to prevent 18 year olds (who are legally too young to drink) from purchasing guns and body armor all the more. And yet these fucking ghouls in the GOP double-down and make it easier. No background checks on private sales, no psych exams, no permits, no training. It would be surreal if it wasn't so goddamn stupid.

[Harmonica]

I think the best solution is to arm everybody, including the children.

[Warrior]

Arming teachers, what a joke. My mom is a teacher, the thought of her holding a weapon is so absurd my mind can barely process. How disconnected from reality guntards can be.

And yeah for the sake of "liberty" they are willing to have +10000% school shootings in the country. Gun restriction is not a miracle solution but it helps a lot. I don't know how those NRA guntards can look at themselves in the mirror.

[BarrileteCosmico]

I guarantee if you put a gun in every classroom school shootings will go up 100x. It's not a solution, it's a distraction.

@mclewis it's this talk of never compromising that will ensure this keeps happening. An attempt of meeting some of the more reasonable ones half-ways through is the best we can hope for at this stage. Whatever deal they can come up with before the elections will be better than after dems lose. And should a miracle happen and the dems win then they can pass a bill with what they really want.

Same thing goes for all the other deals they tried, and failed, to pass because they let good be the enemy of perfect.

[RealGunner]

At this point, not even elementary school shooting shocks anyone anymore. Sandy Hook was not an one off but basically an invitation to anyone out there that you can shoot up schools if you really want to and there is nothing that is going to change. Will this incident change anything? You know the answer to that yourself and if you read the reaction from conservatives in America, not a single one of them have spoken out against the reason this happens nor how gun law is broken. And they are roughly 50% of the American population if not more.

I mean USA is the only country in the world where this happens. The last school shooting in the UK was nearly 30 years ago and when that happened, gun laws were passed literally days after and there hasn't been a single incident since then. But America is an entirely different story. It's an epitome of a failed first world country. Where people treat these amendments written 100 of years ago as gospel and are not willing to change and never will.

If America is serious about preventing these shootings then there has to be a cultural reset which is unlikely and improbable. So just wait out till the next one.

[El Gunner]

the societal structure and moral standards of America are well and truly cooked, i think we can agree on that. It's basically just a corporate conglomeration masquerading as a democratic country.

[Myesyats]

A cultural/mindset change will take generations and isn’t even guaranteed to succeed tbh. Especially with such resistance from conservative media etc.

Passing a few bills on gun control or assault rifle ban seems way easier and within reach.

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