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Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The willow is too close to the house.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Bark louder, little dog.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

All hail the time of the bunny!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

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You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / No Exit

No Exit

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Shifty-eyed Frenchman Wayne LaPierre was on Capitol Hill today, using his pie-hole to spray lies and obfuscations in defense of guns ‘n ammo makers’ profits much as a prepper might fantasize about using a drum magazine-fitted assault rifle to spray bullets at imaginary urban hordes to protect his bunker.

While LaPierre was lying and obfuscating, yet another nutbag went on yet another shooting rampage, which Captain Mark Kelly, husband of Gabby Giffords, pointed out to the committee. Early report:

Three people were shot and wounded Wednesday, one of them with life-threatening injuries, when a gunman opened fire at a Phoenix office complex, authorities said.

One of the three victims sustained “extremely critical” injuries, while the two others were less severely wounded, police said, correcting their earlier report that all three had been critically injured.

Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said the gunman was not in custody and that authorities were seeking an “older white male.” Police said shell casings at the scene indicated that at least two weapons were used.

Witnesses told KNPX that they heard nine or 10 shots total. A woman who works in the building told the station that she immediately began running down the hallway.

“We didn’t know where to hide, because all of our offices are all windows,” she said.

I know just how that woman felt: 20 years ago, another disgruntled white man showed up at an office building where I used to work with a gun he’d purchased legally. He shot and killed several people. Everyone in the building, me included, ran away like scared little bunnies and hid. It turns out that’s a natural human reaction. Even for concealed carry permit holders!

Chances are, they’ll find the Phoenix shooter dead after he kills himself with one of his legally purchased guns. That’s what the guy who shot up my office building did.

It was kind of a shock when I thought back on it after this latest incident and realized it’s been 20 years since that happened. So little has changed.

[X-posted at Rumproast]

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    pseudonymous in nc

    One office rampage in Phoenix; one survivalist nutjob shooting up a school bus in bumfuck Alamaba. And that’s only the high-profile stuff from Today In Whacked-Out Gun-Crazy America.

    Polite society, my bum.

  3. 3.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    If you are on Twitter you should follow @GunDeaths which gathers reports of all gun deaths in the US every day. They have partnered with Slate to keep a running total. I believe that the total so far is 1,400 gun deaths in the US since Sandy Hook.

  4. 4.

    Phoenix_rising

    @Litlebritdifrnt: In fairness, as was said at the time of the NRA press conference Dec. 21, aka ‘When Wayne Pierre Popped Up to Predict 6 More Decades of Needless Slaughter’: it’s a hell of a job to try to time these things to coincide with an absence of needless gun deaths somewhere in Our Great Nation.

    The years since the shooting at 1 California haven’t been kind to me, but I’ve appreciated the hell out of each day of them…

  5. 5.

    yam

    In a shooting like this, the body has a way of taking in bullets and shutting the whole thing down, so nobody dies from getting shot.

  8. 8.

    Raven

    No one has said much about the 69 year old Nam vet in Atlanta that killed a kid who pulled in his driveway by accident.

  9. 9.

    trollhattan

    @Randy P:
    It’s pretty clear one compelling reason the NRA fought closer scrutiny of mental health patients back in ’07 was the fact that Waynehole would be caught up in any new scrutiny.

    He’s at fulltime self-parody, yet everybody gives him an invite and rapt attention. Why? Heck, I don’t invite two-thirds of my in-laws to my house because I know how it would go.

  13. 13.

    Lurking Canadian

    Has this kind of thing always happened once every few days, or is the problem getting worse? Seriously, “nut shoots up workplace” should notbe “dog bites man”.

  14. 14.

    mouse tolliver

    I’ve been trying to track down some reliable carjacking statistics. Because if — as the gun nuts tell us — video games are the problem, there should’ve been a massive spike in auto theft due to the popularity of the Grand Theft Auto series. There should also be a spike in “insane stunt” wreckless driving incidents and construction site demolitions carried out by perpetrators using remote control helicopters.

  16. 16.

    Boots Day

    Megan McArdle is wondering why everyone in that Phoenix office building didn’t rush the shooter. A bunch of people would be dead, but… Wait, what’s the upside again?

  17. 17.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Gabby Giffords is my hero today. She was amazing.

    Betty – just shocking about your shooting experience, how awful.

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately how being on the right side of history is a frustrating process. We see so clearly how things should be and how we know they will be, but it seems to take so fucking long to get there.

    We’ll get there, but not until more people die. People will look back at Newtown and wonder how we could be so cold and ignorant to not see what needed to be done.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Boots Day:

    The upside is that the rights of the firearm obsessed will continue to trump the rights of the non-firearm obsessed.

  19. 19.

    PurpleGirl

    @Lurking Canadian: Many of these stories probably would have been local news items; but since Sandy Hook and the new round of gun control/safety talk there is more interest in any and all occurrences of gun violence.

  21. 21.

    D.H.

    @mouse tolliver: To piggyback off your comment, funny thing about blaming the VIDYA GAEMS! for links to violence: thousands of people in several countries around the world get to play Modern War Honorable Medal Valorous Shooter Guys 6: Shoot All The Guys Again or whatever the latest military FPS is called, just like we do in America. Yet somehow, you rarely hear of some disgruntled kid in those countries suddenly going on a mass shooting rampage, let alone blaming it on video games. Those video game companies must be pretty sneaky.

  23. 23.

    aimai

    @Raven:

    I was disgusted with the way the original article kept referring to the kid as an “immigrant.” What did his immigration status have to do with anything? Wasn’t it enough of a red flag to the readers that they kept naming him by his hispanic namey name name so he would sound more foreign.

  26. 26.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Clearly these shootings are all the work of liberal infiltrators trying to make honest, law-abiding gun owners look bad.

    /Tea Party

  29. 29.

    Randy P

    You know how 27% keeps coming up in poll after poll? Well, there was an interesting poll in the WaPo today on Obama’s approval rating (highest in 3 years).

    Among the interesting details: the number who “strongly disapprove” of Obama was… wait for it… 26%.

    I looked at that number and said “Huh. Are they finally dying off?” Note possible collaborating evidence that Obama’s numbers are way up in the 65+ group.

  30. 30.

    TS

    @aimai:

    I was disgusted with the way the original article kept referring to the kid as an “immigrant.” What did his immigration status have to do with anything? Wasn’t it enough of a red flag to the readers that they kept naming him by his hispanic namey name name so he would sound more foreign.

    Very important to the defense lawyer who will state that his man was driven to it by images from Vietnam – or he was just “standing his ground” – perfectly acceptable to shoot someone who turns their car in your driveway.

    If the Sat Nav part of the story is true – no doubt that will be the problem – sue them to next Christmas – but don’t blame the gun or the shooter.

  33. 33.

    Anne Laurie

    @WaterGirl: The surviving young brown Hispanic-surnamed kids said the driver pulled up in the shooter’s driveway because the GPS system gave them bad instructions to the house they were looking for. Half-crazed old men with guns don’t kill people, faulty navigation systems kill people (/snark).

  35. 35.

    Ruckus

    @cathyx:
    Not a bad start.

    However…
    What will you do about all those men who lack adequate reproductive organs and have been trying to replace them with guns and/or jacked up trucks? What will they do now?

  39. 39.

    Susan K of the tech support

    @aimai: heh. Prolly should keep talking about the shooting aggressor as the Missionary. We can call his shooting The New Missionary Position!

    Just think of the great scriptures this shooter is demonstrating. He’s spreading the love of God, via bullets.

    “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.”

    Or, to put it in today’s terms: “For I was lost and confused, and you shot and murdered Me.”

    Murdering a lost stranger in the holy name of Jesus.

  40. 40.

    Susan K of the tech support

    Someone’s driving my lord, Kumbayah…
    O Lord Kumbayah

    Someone’s lost my lord, Kumbayah….
    O Lord Kumbayah

    Someone’s shooting my lord, Kumbayah…
    O Lord Kumbayah

    Someone’s dead my lord, Kumbaya…
    O Lord Kumbayah

    /just like I learned it in Sunday School

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    I work a few miles away from that building, and I live south of there, but a bunch of my coworkers were freaking out because their kids’ schools were on lockdown. Quite a few people I know got stuck at work today. I suppose we should all be thrilled when this happens because this is how we can celebrate our FREEDUMB.

  44. 44.

    mai naem

    I’ve been in that building in Phoenix. I used to deal with a title company that was in there. They moved a couple of buildings down a few years ago. I also have friends who work in the building. It’s one of those buildings with tons of glass. Furthermore, the offices are huge with “pit area” set ups with cubicles where somebody could come in and mow down a ton of people real quick. You would not be going down a hallway going from one door to the next. I’d never thought about it before but I have to believe architects and landlords have to be rethinking office set ups because of the guns.

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @cathyx:
    I hate harleys more than golf.

    If I need jewelry with wheels, that costs too much I’m going to get something that actually works like a motorcycle should, like a Ducati. Or something that isn’t jewelry at all, but works amazing, a Yamaha R1.
    Maybe I should explain, I don’t need guns, or a loud bike, or a jacked up truck to atone for anything. I’m OK the way mom and dad made me.

  49. 49.

    Suzanne

    @mai naem:

    You would not be going down a hallway going from one door to the next. I’d never thought about it before but I have to believe architects and landlords have to be rethinking office set ups because of the guns.

    Nope. Open office is only going to become more of a thing. Owners and tenants love being ale to cram more people in the same amount of space.

  50. 50.

    The Bobs

    I don’t understand why the NRA has yet to propose eliminating the TSA and all air passenger screening and just make it mandatory to arm the crew and the passengers. It’s got to be safer, right?

  51. 51.

    brantl

    This is very small of me, but there is a scientific side of me that keeps expecting someone to walk into a WalMart, buy one of those assault style guns and the ammunition, walk out in the parking lot (if he goes that far) to load up, and come back in and shoot the place up. It’s sort of a “If you build it, they will come.” expectation, and I can’t help but keep having it.

  54. 54.

    Denali

    First time ever mod.

    How about this,
    @Cathyx,

    I say give men a choice -your gun(s) or your (fill in the blank). Keeps things simple.

Comments are closed.