About an hour ago Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida went into lockdown. The reason was a reported shooter on site. The suspect, a white male, has now been apprehended.
Shooter is now in custody. Scene is still active. #stonemanshooting
— Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018
UPDATE: Authorities have taken a subject into police custody in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School pic.twitter.com/zhtXPDAjhE
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) February 14, 2018
From WSVN Channel 7 News:
PARKLAND, FLA. (WSVN) – The Broward Sheriff’s Office has confirmed they have a suspect in custody in connection to a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that may have injured as many as 20 people.
MSNBC is also reporting that the shooter pulled the fire alarm to drive people into the hallways and increase the potential targets. It is unclear right now just how many people were injured or killed, though the local emergency responders were placed on MC (mass casualty) level 3, which means expect 20 or more casualties.
So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital. #StonemanShooting
— Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018
From NBC:
Authorities were responding to an active shooter at a Florida high school on Wednesday afternoon. The situation still was not secured, more than an hour after it began.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., told MSNBC just before 4 p.m. that “there were a number of fatalities,” citing Broward County officials, and that the shooter was not in custody, although authorities believed they knew who he was.
“This is a really bad day,” Nelson said.
Earlier, the sheriff’s office tweeted that “there are reports of victims,” but did not say how many people were injured. Broward County Public Schools said on Twitter that the sound of gunfire broke out shortly before school was dismissed for the day, and that it received reports of “possible multiple injuries.”
The high school went on immediate lockdown, Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told NBC Miami. She did not have details on casualties or who the shooter was.
“It’s sad. It’s sad that these tragedies happen in our country,” she said. “Many of the students have been in touch with their parents. We have, many many parents out here.”
A parent of a student told the station that her son was hiding inside a closet at the school with classmates, and that teachers had told them not to leave the building.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/963878055969198080
My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts & prayers.
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 14, 2018
As have Governor Scott:
I’ve spoken with @BrowardSheriff Scott Israel, @browardschools Superintendent Robert Runcie and FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen regarding Stoneman Douglas High School. We’ll continue to receive updates from law enforcement.
— Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) February 14, 2018
And Senator Nelson and Senator Rubio:
Praying for everyone at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Just spoke with Broward Undersheriff to ensure they have everything they need. And just spoke to FBI to make sure all federal resources are being made available to help. Will continue to monitor closely.
— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) February 14, 2018
We are monitoring the horrible unfolding situation in Broward County, Florida with reports of a shooting at a local high school. #Sayfie
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 14, 2018
This will, of course, be a fast moving information environment. Details are likely to change over the next 24 to 72 hours as they interrogate the suspect and more information is released to the news media.
Stay frosty!
Open thread.
Trentrunner
“Thoughts and prayers” rings from sea to shining sea.
And perforated 8-year-olds litter the hallways.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Thots n prars!
Brachiator
I don’t even know what can be said. This keeps happening and the gun lobby keeps pushing back against anything that might possibly help.
FlyingToaster
@Trentrunner: It’s a HS. 14 year olds.
FFS, can’t we use this to drive the [R]s out of office?
Evinfuilt
The NRA is unloading their full magazine of Thoughts & Prayers.
BGinCHI
GOP really needs that sweet NRA cash, laundered from Russia, so expect a lot of faux-prayers bullshit.
Disgusting.
Adam L Silverman
A tweet from inside the building during the lockdown:
PaulWartenberg
OH F-CK I lived down that way, years ago, mostly between Tamarac and Coconut Creek, and still… oh God.
The goddamn National Body Count Association will once again declare this is “the price we pay” for gun ownership. BUT WHY ARE INNOCENT KIDS AND FAMILIES WHO WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH GUNS BE THE ONES ACTUALLY PAYING IN THEIR BLOOD?
ET
Another day, another mass shooting, Another time Republican politicians only offering prayers because to do otherwise would be politicizing a tragedy (which isn’t what they did with 9/11 )
Rinse. Repeat.
I can only feel bad so much for so long when this happens again, again, and again.
Adam L Silverman
And site security had to shoot someone trying to illegally drive into the NSA parking lot this morning:
Trentrunner
@FlyingToaster: Wait a week.
PaulWartenberg
When I moved to Bartow five years ago, my downstairs neighbor’s daughter got expelled from Bartow High for accidentally exploding a soda can in science lab.
All because of this shit right now, because of GUNS and not soda cans.
TS
Other than thoughts and prayers and what is needed is more guns in schools – will anything be said or done to change the rule by gun.
TenguPhule
Funny how all the white armed maniacs survive to be taken into custody but the black unarmed ones are killed for “being a threat to the officer’s life”
TenguPhule
@Evinfuilt:
Towards Remmington. I’m so cynical I’m gonna predict that this tragedy is going to be used as a fundraiser/advertisement to drum up sales and support to try and get it out of bankruptcy.
lamh36
Well at the very least…I kinda appreciate Rick Scott not issuing the “prayers and thoughts” line immediately…the jackass.
also saw the Chump’s tweet and what stuck out to me was the “in an American School” bit he just HAD to add…smh…maybe it’s just me, but I’d like to think there’s no need to add tha bit…ugh.
I’ve said it before (and it’s sad I’ve got to say it again) but I hate when the media gets family members on the phone during one of these things…it’s reeks of a ratings grab that I tend to hate.
Case in point:
ETA: (check out adam’s comment w/the tweet)@Adam L Silverman:
Course the reporters circles like vultures…
I know they are just doing their jobs, but ugh…I hate the feeding frenzy.
PaulWartenberg
How
MANY
SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
HAVE THERE BEEN
JUST THIS YEAR?
Once every other day, wasn’t it?
We’re not even halfway through February of 2018.
The Second Amendment is alive and kicking.
The First Amendment is dead, bleeding in our schools and movie theaters and shopping malls and churches and workplaces and concert stages.
Adam L Silverman
@PaulWartenberg: High school students are an untapped market during a time of slumping gun sales.
TenguPhule
@ET:
Shooter was white, otherwise it would be used to pound for the travel bans and deportations.
d58826
OH good Der Fuhrer has spoken to Gov. Crook of Fla. I’m sure they are checking on their gun maker stock portfolios.
TenguPhule
@FlyingToaster:
No, because white voters as a group are dumber then tree stumps.
Ridnik Chrome
“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Happens Regularly” — The Onion
TenguPhule
@TS:
More guns will be demanded in schools by the NRA and Republicans.
No, I’m not kidding.
Gator90
This is in Broward County, and my wife and kids teach and attend school in Miami-Dade. These things are always tragic and horrible, but this one cuts pretty close to home.
Is the USA the only country where “school shooting” is even a phrase? I think so. Wonder why that is.
JPL
The local CBS in Miami is saying at least 7 dead and 14 injured.
tobie
Jesus…how many people have to die in schools, at malls, in movie theaters, at concerts, at farmers markets, in night clubs, etc. before we do anything at all?
d58826
Nicholle Wallace has a guest on talking about the ‘silver lining’ in all of this. The ‘silver lining’ is how well we have adapted to active shooters in the school. The police, school admins, teachers, kids all have the drill down so that no one panics unnecessarily while all of the gun fire is going on.
JPL
@PaulWartenberg: As of February 1 there had been 12 shootings.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Meanwhile, I expect some White House or GOP spokes-hole to “caution against using this event for political purposes.”
efgoldman
MOAR GUNZ! MOAR GUNZ! MOAR GUNS!
Fuck, this almost isn’t news any more.
And in case it isn’t depressing enough, check out this story from CBS:
Miss Bianca
@PaulWartenberg:
Well, you know, that soda can might have HURT somebody.
JPL
@d58826: What did she say?
lamh36
No press briefing…Sarah Sanders telling reporters, this is the ONLY story they are focussing on or answering questions bout right now
Call me a cynic…but yep..this is exactly what’s going on….
Adam L Silverman
@TS: There will be a discussion on the firearm blogs about both the need to mandatorily arm the faculty and staff, which will devolve in the comments to a vicious fight over the appropriate caliber.
d58826
@tobie: well all of the right people are offering thoughts and prayers. And it’s good for gun sales. Helps fill empty beds in hospitals. So it seems like a win win situation for the 1%
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Brachiator:
I don’t know if it would help, but maybe NRA headquarters should have an active shooter event just see what it feels like to be under fire. And I’m sure most of them haven’t been in combat conditions or had training for that kind of thing.
Betty Cracker
Kay had a really great idea in the last thread — citizens could raise money to match the NRA bribes and BUY sensible gun safety laws. Hell, we’ve tried everything else. It might work. Next time I’m at a town hall with my wingnut asshole rep, I am going to ask that question: “What’s your price? We’ll raise it to protect our kids.”
d58826
@JPL: They were talking about the ‘silver lining’ in how we have adapted to this situation.
TenguPhule
@lamh36:
Not even Bush II was able to get away with the shit these people are.
Examples need to be made or it will get worse.
Trentrunner
@Betty Cracker: It’s not the NRA’s money.
It’s the NRA’s voters.
Miss Bianca
@d58826: “You know what the silver lining to this concentration camp stuff is? The longer we do it, the better everyone gets at it!”
efgoldman
@FlyingToaster:
Much as I agree with you, Newtown and Las Vegas and everything in between didn’t do it. But you’re right, winning both branches and the WH is the only way it MIGHT happen.
Ruviana
@d58826: This is analogous to the silver lining in nuclear war….
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: I wish I thought that was just funny.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
No it wouldn’t.
They have deeper pockets then we do. And unlike us, their faithful are willing to give up EVERYTHING if it means protecting their guns.
d58826
@Miss Bianca: yep that was the ‘silver lining’ they were discussing.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Betty Cracker:
“I have no price. I think more and deadlier guns is the answer.”
A lot of them seem to be true believers to me.
Lapassionara
I think of my grandchildren and just cry for the future they face. Schools are going to have to institute screening procedures at all doorways. I don’t see any other way.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@efgoldman: Hell, the R softball team being shot at didn’t do it.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
They’ve got a serious pain in the ass security perimeter to get through to get at the soft center of power.
You’re not the first one to have ever thought about it, you know.
TS
@TenguPhule:
And if anyone ever wondered why home schooling is becoming the next big item in US education – as a parent I cannot imagine sending a child to school each day wondering whether he/she will come home. – maybe this is the NRA/GOP plan to lower the cost of education.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Because all of them survived.
Miss Bianca
@d58826: “Man, those prisoners just jump into their own graves! They’ve really got the program down! It’s like the guards don’t even have to threaten them anymore!”
efgoldman
@TS:
Time to make sure all the kids are strapped from kindergarten up.TenguPhule
@d58826:
Please note that the necessary level of panic when someone is shooting at you should be damn near total.
Bruce K
Thoughts and prayers are acceptable from those without the power to do more. Those who wield power have a responsibility to do more, and if all they’re willing to offer is thoughts and prayers, then may they burn in hell, and that right soon.
Betty Cracker
@Trentrunner: That’s not entirely correct — after Newtown, more than 90% of all Americans and almost 75% of NRA members said they supported commonsense measures like background checks for ALL gun purchases, and yet congress did nothing. That’s because their donors didn’t want any new laws. [Link]
Adam L Silverman
TenguPhule
@tobie:
All of em, Katie. /s
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
Oh I don’t know. A team with heavy duty army surplus gear and some hijacked vehicles from the local National Guard armory/base should do.
Not seriously advocating this by the way. I just think it’s bullshit that such privlidged people don’t get to experience the fear that innocent children go through in these shootings.
JPL
@d58826: I would have hoped that someone would say there is no silver lining.
TS
@d58826:
A country in decline when there is a “silver lining” for your children being killed at school.
Adam L Silverman
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Just wondering:
When the people on these blogs mention issuing guns to high school faculty and staff, do they mention things like firearms safety training, the cost of insuring against any gun-related boo-boos, and the effect on school budgets?
JPL
I am sure that the family members of the injured and dead and talking about the silver lining.
Mike in NC
True story: in our little town a gun shop recently opened in a former bank branch with a drive-through window. Can you just pull up and order a Glock like a Big Mac? (No, but Republicans will do their best to make that happen.)
efgoldman
@tobie:
You can’t count that high
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
“This can be solved with more firepower!”
lamh36
Mnemosyne
More blood for Moloch, our true god.
efgoldman
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
Kkkeyboard Kkkomandos all
Gator90
@Amir Khalid: “the effect on school budgets”
That’s a feature, not a bug. Public schools are just left-wing indoctrination centers anyway. Starve the beast!
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Amir Khalid:
Of course not. They also never take into account nothingburgers like bullets going through walls and killing students or the fact that even police officers or trained soldiers don’t hit their mark most of the time let alone schoolteachers.
These people advocating for such measures have never been in a gunfight in their lives. Even in the movies they’re terrifying.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Dear MSNBC– please stop talking to traumatized fifteen year olds who haven’t yet processed what they’ve been through, and especially please stop encouraging them to repeat any gossip from the cafeteria
Trentrunner
@Betty Cracker:
No, it’s their voters. We can outspend them, easily, actually.
We can’t out-motivate the NRA’s insane voters where it counts. At least yet.
Maybe it’ll take a slaughter at a daycare center?
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: I don’t think that actually needed sarc tags.
Mnemosyne
@d58826:
I may have been watching the same broadcast, because I think their “expert” said something like that. We can’t be bothered to try and stop mass murder, but we can make sure that people exit the building in an orderly fashion after a mass murder — we rule!
TenguPhule
@Trentrunner:
Was this supposed to be sarcasm?
lamh36
So there were “good guys” with guns, and still…so…
what’s that argument from the NRA again…
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: It didn’t.
raven
Firecrackers my ass, that was some intense fire.
TenguPhule
@lamh36:
NRA: “Obviously the good guys weren’t heavily armed enough!”
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@lamh36:
They also go on about “law-abiding citizens” (what is this, a western? Am I trapped in an episode of Bonanza?). Hey, guess what NRA? Everybody’s a law-abiding citizen…until they’re not.
CindyH
@d58826: WTF??? She should be fired – utterly disgusting.
oatler.
Cadet Bonespurs just tweeted “Prayers and condolences”.
Miss Bianca
@TenguPhule: @lamh36: “Obviously, there weren’t *enough* good guys with guns!”
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
No, you are trapped on Earth 666, the Darkest Timeline.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Reuters is reporting that the FBI is investigating whether the driver made a wrong turn….
Horrible about the school shooting. They always are. :-(
There have been 6 other mass shootings so far in February.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@TS:
Not to belittle the real and ongoing tragedy, this concern has no basis in statistics. In 2017 there were 15 people killed in school shootings in the USA, out of a school-aged population of well over 50 million. Your child is much more likely to die of other causes.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
Crippling injuries, PTSD, and mental breakdowns on the other hand…..
Mike in NC
Looks like we can guess the topic of Megan McArdle’s first column for the Washington Post.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Because some of us could probably use the laugh right now.
lamh36
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
No, the Darkest Timeline is the one where Jim Jones became POTUS.
d58826
@Adam L Silverman: number is up to 18 for the year.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
As the ACA so eloquently showed, policies that Republicans support in theory, when you ask them about it all by itself, they will vote fanatically to oppose. Like basically everything else in our political system, when Democrats take control there will be progress. Republicans are locked in ‘burn the house down with me inside it’ race panic. It sucks, but there it is. I desperately hope the voting shifts stay as dramatic as they have been so far when we hit November.
Gator90
@Gin & Tonic: I try to use statistics to talk my wife out of her fear of flying. It doesn’t work in that context either.
Kay
@lamh36:
“allowed”. He knows all he has to do is get a gun and he makes the rules. So that’s what he did.
He’s right too- gun nuts dictate what the rest of us do.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Oh, dear God. LMAO. How can something *so wrong* feel *so right*?
TenguPhule
There is literally no grift too small for Trump’s people to dip their wicks into.
Citizen Alan
@TenguPhule:
Shhh! It’s racist to say anything bad about white voters. The Bernie humpers have been here all day to tell us so.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
No, that one actually has a happy ending.
Spoiler: He dies horribly fairly early on.
Brachiator
The Daily Mail and other news sites are saying that there is footage from a student’s cell phone. I have not linked or looked at anything.
Gin & Tonic
@Gator90: US motor vehicle deaths in 2017: ~37,000. US commercial aviation deaths in 2017: 0. The most dangerous part of your trip is the drive to the airport.
Kay
It’s impossible for schools. If they write safety rules they have to enforce them consistently and equitably which I knows seems ludicrous to outsiders, but, well, you try it. I’m on a school committee and we all know that none of this will “keep them safe”- there’s the strange sense of going thru the motions and hoping lightening doesn’t strike.
It’s yet another societal problem we dumped on public schools and said “here- you fix it”.
They’re just schools. They’re not magic fix it shops.They can’t cure everything that’s wrong with the country.
Gravenstone
@TenguPhule: Anti-white animus thread is two doors down, apparently. Please move to the appropriate area.
Mnemosyne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I especially love how he tries to recover in the comments by claiming that this is all dumb and boring.
No, Vern, your getting dragged for saying stupid shit will never be boring to the rest of us. ?????
tobie
@TenguPhule: I hate to say it but I think Shulkin may be a holdover from the Obama administration. What he did was petty and stupid. Dollar-wise I don’t know how it lines up next to Pruitt’s, Price’s, Mnuchin’s and Zinke’s first-class travel. I imagine it’s a pittance compared to the profligate spending on the pubic dime of those four.
Corner Stone
@CindyH:
What D5 posted is a little unfair to Nicolle Wallace. Her guest, Clint Watts, who is a former long time FBI Special Agent did make a statement (para) that the, “silver lining was security, awareness and response” to these incidents is much better so the potential for fewer deaths has increased. You can take that as heartless or insensitive if you like. I found it to be a professional response and estimate to a situation that no one wants to find themselves or their loved ones in.
However, Nicolle waited for him to finish his assessment and then (para) said, “Let’s take a step back here. Why are we even in the situation we have to accept this? What can we do to stop this from happening?”
That’s a para, as I said, about an hour ago on her show. But the gist of her response is pretty accurate, IMO.
Gravenstone
@TenguPhule: In response the the Newtown tragedy, the school district adjacent to the one I graduated from voted to allow their custodial and maintenance staff to carry weapons. Yeah, that’ll solve everything…
Corner Stone
@tobie: Getting your underling to falsify statements should be a jailable offense.
scav
You want bleak? My brain stumbled into the image of a NRA Valentine: a schoolkid’s heart turned into a doily.
TenguPhule
Captain Obvious strikes back at the FTFNYT
MomSense
@Trentrunner:
And how much of the NRA money is Russian money?
TenguPhule
@tobie:
Nope. Nominated by Trump, February 2017.
lamh36
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
OT: I never asked how your trip to Japan was that was forever ago now.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@Brachiator: I’ve seen cell phone footage from inside a classroom — it sounds like the shooter is right outside the room, but I didn’t see anyone wounded, so I don’t think the shooter got into that room. But still, it’s pretty harrowing to watch.
I can understand people not wanting to see it, but I think it should be required viewing, at least for gun nuts. Because it doesn’t look or sound like the action movie they think we all live in.
Mnemosyne
@Citizen Alan:
And it’s super racist for white voters to say that about other white voters. Apparently white people dissing white people is the worst form of racism ever.
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
R.I.P., Irony.
Kay
@Brachiator:
Maybe that will help. Maybe if you could put the draft dodger in chief IN a school shooting situation with a video they would take it seriously.
He likes tv. Make him watch it. Let him SEE how scared they are, in their SCHOOL.
lamh36
@Brachiator: I’ve only seen a video where kids are huddled and you can hear the gunshots
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
I think he had a lower-level job at the VA under the Obama administration. But as Secretary, he was Trump’s choice.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
You did ask but my response probably got lost among all the other disasters taking place last November.
It was nice, but all the pics I sent in for posting either got eated by FYWP or are in queue with Alain behind everyone else.
Lovely place, wish I was still there.
lamh36
I don’t know bout this…weren’t some lawmakers shown the actual footage from the Sandy Hook shooting?
trollhattan
Holy crap y’all, I thought we put the wood to the WaPo McMegan hiring but I just read Paste Mag’s in-depth takedown, which BTW sources the invaluable Susan of Texas.
I need a smoke.
Mike in NC
Trump administration needs to establish a Triage Office just to keep on top of each new breaking scandal. Are we up to 4 or 5 a day now?
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Trump: FAPFAPFAPFAP -Orangasm!
lamh36
Feeling some kinda way bout all these folks talking about “this is a good city…things like this don’t happen here”…
What I hear is…”this ain’t Chicago…” (or even NOLA, cause we get that tag as well, esp in parts of LA)
And I feel some kinda way…I’ll admit, I’m a bit sensitive on the subject, though…
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC:
Depends on if we count repeating ones as new.
tobie
@TenguPhule: Yes, Shulkin had to be nominated again when Trump assumed the presidency (cursed be the day) but he had first been appointed to the VA by Obama. What he did was wrong and stupid but also small beans compared to others in the administration.
JPL
@TenguPhule: Appointed Under Secretary of the VA by Obama, and he is the most qualified of Trump’s appointments for that position. That means he’ll be gone tomorrow.
Kay
This misunderstands it though. Outside of home, school is where children live. It’s where they spend the vast majority of their time. If they’re not safe there then they’re not safe. Period.
AnotherBruce
@d58826:
In the first 43 days of 2018 America experienced:
18 school shootings
29 mass shootings
1,796 total gun deaths
3,099 total injuries
That’s 114 gun injuries/fatalities a day. There’s a mass shooter coming to your area soon.
TenguPhule
@tobie:
The corruption is spreading.
tobie
@Corner Stone: I agree with you.
Gravenstone
@lamh36: What, you expect them to be able to multitask?!?!
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
What were the people like?
lamh36
p.a.
Wash rinse… still bloodstains. Wash rinse… still bloodstains. Wash rinse…
Felanius Kootea
Jacob Zuma stepped down as president of South Africa today following pressure from his party amid allegations of massive corruption. I pray the Republicans will be able to do the same when Mueller shows what Trump has been up to.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
They were Japanese. So very polite, friendly when talked to and otherwise minding their own business.
Also hung out with a couple of guys from Great Britain at my economy hotel that I’d also met on my last trip there. Good fun. Apparently Pizza flavored crisps from Japan are a thing there now because its so hard to get them at home.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Obviously, the solution is to shut down the schools and homeschool everybody.
TenguPhule
@Matt McIrvin:
No, obviously the solution is that everyone at school must be required to purchase a gun.
chris
Scott put up a link to the Gun Violence Archive. Let me add the Mass Shooting Tracker.
MomSense
Every single day when parents drop their kids off at school they worry about this. Our kids practice lockdown drills. When your kid comes home after a lockdown drill explaining that they don’t have locks on the door so they hide in the closet and the teacher sits against the door-you want to smash things.
Anguish is the closest word tI can think of to describe what I am feeling.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
We had one here in LA on 2/1. It was accidental — a kid had a gun in her backpack, dropped the backpack, and the gun went off.
They’re still trying to find out WTF a 12-year-old had a gun in her backpack in the first place.
lgerard
Perhaps some parents might do what Emmett Tilll’s mother did, have an open casket and make people look at it.
trollhattan
@MomSense:
Exactly! Mine’s now in high school and I can’t help but feel personally assaulted with each of these. She had a literal, not drill active shooter lockdown in grade school when a guy was having a running gunbattle with the cops down the block. Shit is real.
TS
@Gin & Tonic:
That knowledge wouldn’t/doesn’t stop the fear of a child being killed in a school shooting.
trollhattan
@lgerard:
Some thought Matthew Brady’s photos of Civil War dead would help end war. Sadly, no, as illustrated by the six World Press Photo 2018 photo of the year finalists.
Gravenstone
@lamh36: Some lawmakers have experienced first hand what bullets do to the human body. Didn’t help a bit.
japa21
There will be a lot of handwringing, etc. There will be thoughts and prayers, etc. There will be suggestions made to attempt to control these shootings. And we will here that all that is needed is for the laws already on the books be enforced, or how putting new laws into effect won’t change anything or wouldn’t have stopped this shooter or that shooter. And there will be talk about mental health issues and the need for treatment even as money for such treatment is disappearing.
And there is, perhaps some truth to all of that. Because the biggest problem may well not be the easy availability of weapons of mass destruction, but rather the almost implicit understanding that using a gun is the appropriate way to handle disputes. That really is the linchpin to stand your ground laws. If you believe you are in danger, even if it just in danger of being yelled at, you have the right to kill someone.
And this belief is reinforced by the actions of police and other law enforcement authorities. And even more reinforced when said authorities are let off the hook by the “justice” system. In the same way that Trump has legitimized bigotry, bullying, nazism and misogyny, letting people who kill other people off the hook simply because they are LEOs sends a message to those who would be tempted to use violence.
IOW, until there is a change in the basic thinking about violence and the legitimacy of same, there really won’t be much of a change elsewhere.
Brachiator
@lgerard:
This only has an impact on people with souls.
lamh36
ABC reporting at least 15 dead, not seeing any on air verification of that number though…
https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/963910247860535296
Mary G
As Adam always says, a lot of the initial info will turn out to be wrong, but I’m seeing people twitting that the shooter was taken alive, which would be a first?
MomSense
@trollhattan:
And even for those of us who somehow manage to get through this without physical harm, what of the emotional cost? It’s at the point where I think all children are growing up with a sort of chronic, low level trauma that I think is very destructive.
Regnad Kcin
#showthebodies
Gator90
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, but my point is that reciting statistics to frightened people doesn’t work in terms of allaying their fears. My wife is still afraid of flying and I’m still afraid some crazy bastard is going to shoot up my kids’ school.
I’m also afraid of a nuclear exchange between hostile nuclear powers. Even though there’s never been one.
lamh36
CNN now saying 16 dead
Kay
You sure are. The adults are failing these children every single day.
US kids do “school shooter drills” all the time, though. They had a pop song they all liked that was about a school shooter. It’s just part of their lives.
They know the adults in power won’t do jack shit to help them. They figured that out.
TS
@tobie:
He is an Obama appointee – who apparently trump likes – which would perhaps be one of the few times Obama got it wrong. From the news item, the 3.5 days trip to Denmark – obviously with an add on trip to the tennis in London – cost $122,000 – which is something above a pittance – but he was given the tickets for free (by a friend who couldn’t recall his first name) – so that’s OK
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Kay:
Pumped Up Kicks?
J R in WV
In my book, The VA Secretary, his Chief of Staff and his wife are all busted for federal felonies and need to go directly to JAIL without collecting $200 (Monopoly game allusion) immediately. No side trips, no pleas for mercy, straight to jail.
Lose jobs, obviously, also. Repay cost of Air Fare, repay cost of IG investigation, repay cost of incarceration. Never get another good job, ever.
Work at McDees for $10/hr til retirement and Social Security for a pension. Ms VA secretary also too working at McDees and Social Sec for pension. Entitled pieces of excrement!
MomSense
@Kay:
Pumped up kicks.
trollhattan
@MomSense:
Yes. I think it manifests itself in how they respond to one another with perceived slights (badly compounded by the shortcomings of social media). They’re deeply cynical in general, but I can’t gauge whether it was any better when I was their age, to be honest.
Going from Obama to Trump snapped a lot of young minds sideways.
TS
@SiubhanDuinne:
From the WaPo article
trollhattan
Oh shit, here it comes.
(Please be third generation Cuban American….)
japa21
@trollhattan: He’s white, so it will just be a mental health issue. Any browner and it either would have been a thug, an undocumented immigrant or a terrorist.
JPL
@trollhattan: Maybe Ted knows him.
Amaranthine RBG
@Gin & Tonic:
Why do you hate children and want to see them all die a horrible death?
Kay
@MomSense:
Right. And adults were horrified. But this is all around them. Of course it’s in their culture now. They don’t have any choice but just to deal.
Oh, it just makes me sick. I said I wouldn’t talk about it anymore because Nothing Can Be Done but it makes me heart sick and hopeless every time.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
High school students are not an untapped resource. They have been getting shot at and dying on a pretty tight schedule. Not sure whose great idea this is, but we do know who it is that opposes any concept of even attempting a fix. Maybe they could do us all a favor and inspect the muzzle end of their weapon with their tongues while simultaneously seeing if the trigger works.
Brachiator
I salute the kid’s spirits. I hope that everyone and their families come through this OK.
Corner Stone
@TS:
Geithner, Arne Duncan, Summers, Bob Gates, Chuck Hagel….Comey. Personnel is policy and Obama got more than a few of these wrong. Or did he?
Ruckus
@tobie:
All of the darker hued ones and anyone that pisses off moron gun humpers.
Cheryl Rofer
Is it too soon to note that the Russians have been getting cozy with the NRA?
Random killings are consistent with the goal of generally disrupting American society.
Cheryl Rofer
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
No its not. Which won’t stop the NRA and GOP from complaining anyway.
Adria McDowell
@lamh36: Fuuuuuuck.
Even if somebody walked into a NICU and shot babies and nurses, this country will never address its addiction to guns.
Adria McDowell
@MomSense: And before Pumped Up Kicks was Jeremy- but Jeremy was before Columbine.
lamh36
@Adria McDowell: Sheriff official total 17
lamh36
In case we forget, for whenever the “mentally ill” excuse come up
MomSense
@Kay:
Heart sick, hopeless and furious. Anguish.
different-church-lady
Once again it is Too-Soon-To-Talk-About-Gun-Control O’Clock in America.
chopper
@different-church-lady:
hush, it’s also too soon to bring up that it’s too soon.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@different-church-lady: The thing is, since it’s always a day or two after the latest school shooting, it’s always Too Late to Talk About Gun Control O’clock in America. Great job, National Death Merchants Association!
(((CassandraLeo)))
On a less sarcastic note, as I said in the next thread, I literally used to live in Parkland. Not Coral Springs or one of the other local towns – Parkland itself, back when it was a sleepy little – subdivision, really, in the early ’90s. This one is hitting me harder than usual.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
Don’t worry, by tonight ARBG will be telling us we’re all being hysterical because there isn’t a mass shooting every single day, just every other day, so what are we all so upset about?
Mnemosyne
@(((CassandraLeo))):
One of my friends moved from metro Los Angeles to exurban/rural Washington state and one of her teenage neighbors went on a shooting rampage. So much for the safety of the rural life.
(Note: she is very liberal and Washington is a blue state. They moved up there for her husband’s job and to be closer to his family.)
(((CassandraLeo)))
@(((CassandraLeo))): Er. Too Soon. Though… it’s definitely too late for those who died today.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Mnemosyne: I don’t think anywhere in this country is completely safe from this kind of thing, and as long as Republicans remain electable, I expect this to continue. A certain portion of this country has decided this is the price the rest of us have to pay for their pen!s substitutes, and because of the constitutional bias towards land over people, there isn’t anything the rest of us can do about it. I have hope that a lot of things will change for the better, but I’ve just reached a level of complete cynicism on this issue. I don’t see any hope it will improve.
mike in dc
Unless someone shoots up a private prep school full of the children of billionaires, not much is likely to change in the next couple years. Maybe with Dems in control of both chambers and the WH, something could pass. Even then, the filibuster might have to be abolished for it to happen.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
“The silicon chip inside her head gets switched to overload
And nobody’s gonna make ’em go to school today, they’re gonna make them stay at home
And daddy don’t understand it, he always said she was good as gold
And he sees no reasons ’cause there are no reasons, what reasons do you need to be sure?”
someguy
@lamh36:
It’s always “things like that aren’t supposed to happen in a nice place like this”, and yet places like that are the *only* places things like this seem to happen. A uniquely (“nice-“) suburban problem. Are there any counterexamples among mass school shootings?
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: sometimes to th former, not that I’m aware of to the latter
opiejeanne
@Adria McDowell: and before that was I Hate Monday’s.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Those numbers (I’m going to assume they’re accurate, or close enough to make no never-mind) really make me just wild with grief and rage and frustration. I don’t care how many guns you own or how devoted to the 2nd Amendment you are or how long you’ve been an NRA member — how can anybody call themselves (their self?) a human being and be in the least okay with this kind of information? (Easily verifiable information — not interested in getting into it with the “fake news!” crowd.) My mind is boggled and my heart is sick.
Tazj
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, I know. I’m absolutely devastated and frightened for all of us in this country.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand the sick relationship some people have with guns and why they’re so reluctant to have any laws passed to restrict their usage. They just come across as so persecuted and victimized and it’s ridiculous. I live in NY and many people around me still have the Repeal the Safe Act signs on their lawns.
Of course I know why many lawmakers refuse to pass any legislation, they’re afraid of their constituents and the NRA.
@Marcorubio on reaction to FL shooting: People don’t know how this happened: who this person is, what motivated them…I think it’s important to know all that before you jump to conclusions that there’s some law we could have passed that could have prevented it.
We know how this happened, this person shouldn’t have had an AR-15 ,Marco.
Tehanu
My thoughts and prayers are for Wayne LaPierre and all his enablers up and down, from Dump down to the newest NRA member, to be publicly humiliated and pelted with garbage, to be imprisoned in some place worse than Guantanamo, to lose their jobs, their savings, their health, and their homes, along with all their family members who’ve agreed with or enabled them, to see all their other family members — the ones who don’t have guns and haven’t enabled them to have them — disavow and shun them, and after a lifetime of suffering, to die unmourned and be buried under lagoons of pigshit. Burning forever in hell would also be nice, but since we can’t count on that, I want them to suffer here, on Earth.
MoxieM
Welp, this right here is why I am, in sum total, relieved and (somewhat) glad that my kid has moved to a fairly safe European country. This place has turned out the lights.
Joeg
@Regnad Kcin: #showthebodies x1000
When nothing happened after Newtown pics of victims should have been released (only with parental approval). Horrific photos of madness sometimes moves what is thought to be immovable. Emmitt Till’s mother insisted on an open casket and pictures. It started to move the stone.
mad citizen
Thoughts and prayers are bullshit.
It’s only Wednesday, but I guess between this, Rob Porter investigation and the porn star payment, infrastructure week is yet again foiled? I wish they would stop having infrastructure week.
Corner Stone
@Joeg: I could not have looked at them.
Raven Onthill
Is this another white supremacist? Does anyone know?
It seems like a good time to link this again: Bang Bang Sanity.
Markk
@PaulWartenberg: be careful of that hospital in Bartow. Wouldn’t take my dog there fyi
SiubhanDuinne
@Tehanu:
Amen.
Markk
This has to end. AR-15s need to be banned nationwide. This is madness!
Joeg
@Corner Stone: that’s understandable – I would have to force myself. Not looking is what the NRA would hope for.
JGabriel
@lamh36:
CNN is now reporting 17 dead . There were still people in surgery when that number was released by the Broward County Sheriff’s office though, so the number of people killed could still go higher.
At least 17 families who will always remember Valentine’s Day as the day they lost someone they loved to senseless violence and lax US gun regulation.
matryohshka
Missouri is working on passing a bill that would allow university faculty members to carry guns on campus, because clearly the solution is more guns.
Mr Stagger Lee
@(((CassandraLeo))): Ammosexuals vote, and they, guided by the NRA goes after anyone who looks sideways at their precious, so we have to have the backs of any legislator who proposes gun safety.
@mike in dc: A congresswoman in Arizona gets shot along with other people nothing was done, Republican congressmen get shot while at a softball practice and they double down on the precious, nothing gets done. People are going have to lead but kicking out the Ammosexual enabling legislators.
jackmac
It was already a somber day in these parts with observances out at Northern Illinois University marking the 10th anniversary of a lecture hall shooting that claimed the lives of five students and injured many more. Then came today’s horrible news from Florida. It never ends, does it? The Second Amendment freaks should feel some sense of shame that allowing unfettered access to guns contributes to these dark days. But they don’t. Just another day in an America spinning out of control.