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You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / Monday Evening Open Thread: Welcome to America

Monday Evening Open Thread: Welcome to America

by Anne Laurie|  August 28, 20235:19 pm| 52 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Gun Issues, Open Threads, All Too Normal, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

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JUST IN: Pres. Biden calls for action "against this hate-fueled violence" in the wake of shooting at a Jacksonville Dollar General that killed three Black people. "We can't let hate prevail… silence is complicity and we're not going to remain silent." https://t.co/Q3X66W1KlT pic.twitter.com/0Dve89oUhB

— ABC News (@ABC) August 28, 2023

Meanwhile… because this reality is very badly scripted… another #activeshooter incident, this time at UNC Chapel Hill. Per the Associated Press:

An apparent shooting at the University of North Carolina’s flagship campus Monday led students and faculty to barricade themselves in dorm rooms, offices and classrooms for hours until the lockdown was lifted…

The school’s first alert was sent out just after 1 p.m. At 1:50 p.m., officials posted on X that the shelter-in-place order remained in effect and that it was “an ongoing situation.” About 40 minutes later, the school added a post saying: “Remain sheltered in place. This is an ongoing situation. Suspect at large.”

About two hours after the first alert went out, officers were still arriving in droves, with about 50 police vehicles at the scene and multiple helicopters circling over the school…

Shortly before 4 p.m., students and faculty started emerging from campus buildings, with the lockdown over.

The report of the shooting and subsequent lockdown paralyzed campus and parts of the surrounding town of Chapel Hill a week after classes began at the state’s flagship public university. The university has approximately 20,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 graduate students…

Oliver Katz, an exchange student from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, was working out at the campus gym with friends when he got the alert on his phone. Some students crowded into the locker rooms to get away from windows while others crouched in the corners and sat on the floor, he said. They stayed there for about three hours before they were evacuated by police.

“This never happens where I’m from,” Katz said, adding that before he decided to study at UNC, it crossed his mind that school shootings were much more common in the United States. “It was intense. But I was a little surprised that other people weren’t panicking that much.”…

Thankfully — is that the right word? — suspect in custody, and no reports of random victims yet.

Practically a false alarm, if you squint a little!

Every time #activeshooter trends pic.twitter.com/cEz6SVk5f3

— X  🇺🇸♋️ (@realXanderXjork) August 28, 2023

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Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 28, 2023 at 5:30 pm

    But I was a little surprised that other people weren’t panicking that much.”…

    Yeah, well, motherfucker, welcome to the United States. We train our kids from kindergarten not to panic during a mass shooting incident. Because we have to, because the fucking GOP and the NRA are just fine with dead kids, but to in any way regulate firearms is the most grievous crime of all.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    August 28, 2023 at 5:30 pm

    I was thinking it had been a minute since the last shooting that made national news.

    But I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    August 28, 2023 at 5:31 pm

    Wandered through the BBC News website and this doesn’t even make an appearance. America, y’all.

  4. 4.

    cain

    August 28, 2023 at 5:41 pm

    I’m convinced until right wing politiicans themselves experience a mass shooting in their safe spaces it is not going to change. They’ve managed to completely separate themselves from the experiences of mass shooting.

    It’s hard to argue more guns if they’ve come into a state house and they have to explain why they didn’t pull out a gun and defend themselves.

  5. 5.

    Jay

    August 28, 2023 at 5:46 pm

    @cain:

    Exhibit A

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_baseball_shooting

  6. 6.

    CindyH

    August 28, 2023 at 5:47 pm

    Faculty member killed – no details yet

  7. 7.

    Ben Cisco

    August 28, 2023 at 5:48 pm

    @cain: Jay beat me to it.

    Not even an event at an NRA event (although oddly enough, guns AREN’T ALLOWED THERE) would do it.

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    August 28, 2023 at 5:51 pm

    @cain: Castroites can invade Mar A Lago during a big fundraiser.

  9. 9.

    Ohio Mom

    August 28, 2023 at 5:51 pm

    @Jay: As I recall, Republicans have gotten a lot of mileage out of that shooting, since the victim was a Republican, obviously both-sides: See! It’s not just right-wingers taking aim!

  10. 10.

    cain

    August 28, 2023 at 5:51 pm

    @Jay: I remember that – but that wasn’t in their safe space. Coming into a state house or house where they are working and getting shot – that’s something altogether. The feeling of being vulnerable is going to hit home.

    Some like Majorie will probably start shooting… at democrats.

  11. 11.

    Jerszy

    August 28, 2023 at 5:57 pm

    I just checked in with my niece, who just became a freshman at UNC Chapel Hill, and in fact moved in to her dorm 4 days ago. Her and roommates are fine, but they’ve heard that a professor was killed. Awaiting the police press conference.

  12. 12.

    Shalimar

    August 28, 2023 at 5:58 pm

    @cain: It won’t matter.  Most of them sounded shaken in the days after they had to cower on January 6th.  They were over it within 2 weeks.

  13. 13.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2023 at 5:58 pm

    @CindyH: AP is reporting it

    CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A University of North Carolina faculty member was shot and killed in a campus building, an official said Monday.

    UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the shooting was in Caudill Laboratories, and there is no longer a threat to the public. A suspect has been arrested, the school said.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    August 28, 2023 at 6:00 pm

    It’s our own David Anderson at Chapel Hill?

  15. 15.

    Old School

    August 28, 2023 at 6:02 pm

    @Baud: He’s at Duke.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    August 28, 2023 at 6:03 pm

    @Old School:

    Thanks.

  17. 17.

    Jay

    August 28, 2023 at 6:05 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    well, they got a brief period of tots and pears, and then voted for everything the NRA wanted and against every attempt to regulate firearms.

     

     

    @cain:

    if there was a mass shooting, even of ReThugs at the Capitol, the House or any of the State buildings, the only ReThugs that would change their minds on gun control would be the dead ones, and they can’t vote or change their minds because their brains would be smeared on the marble floors.

    It would be just another round of tots and pears and pocketing the NRA rubles as fast as they could.

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    August 28, 2023 at 6:14 pm

    @Scout211: Pissed grad student I’ll bet.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 28, 2023 at 6:15 pm

    @Baud: there were several just in the last few days. One in Boston.

  20. 20.

    Annie

    August 28, 2023 at 6:16 pm

    A few years ago, I talked briefly to a young woman from Denmark — sitting next to me on a San Francisco Muni bus.  It was a couple of days after a mass shooting and she was desperately upset.  She was in San Francisco for a work assignment that was scheduled to last 4 months.  She told me she had already talked to her employer’s home office about returning to Copenhagen, saying “how do I know someone on this bus does not have a gun they will pull out and shoot people?”  I started to reassure her and realized there wasn’t much I could say that was (1) honest, and (2) would console her.

    and it’s awful to say this but I don’t recall which mass shooting she was reacting to.

  21. 21.

    The Thin Black Duke

    August 28, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    The worse thing that could have happened finally did: mass shootings in America have become normalized. The news treats it like a weather report: Hey, it happens, it’s unpredictable, what are you gonna do, am I right?

  22. 22.

    Yarrow

    August 28, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:  A little while ago I was talking about mass shootings in the US with a friend. They maintained they didn’t happen all that often. I said we have one almost every day. Totally didn’t believe me.

    To their credit they went and looked it up and a few days later told me I was right. They were shocked at how many there are. We only really hear about the dramatic ones or maybe school/university related ones.

  23. 23.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    August 28, 2023 at 6:22 pm

    @trollhattan: there was one at the U of AZ last year. Pissed off grad student. Also another one several years ago at the U of AZ. Also a student but I think it was an undergrad. I have to say my first thought here was a DV/DV adjacent situation.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    August 28, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    @Yarrow:

    So far in 2023, there is one mass shooting every day, sometimes as many as 9 mass shootings on a 2 day weekend.

  25. 25.

    phdesmond

    August 28, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    @Mai Naem mobileI:

    what does DV mean?

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    August 28, 2023 at 6:29 pm

    @phdesmond: After googling, I’m going to guess “diversity visa”?

  27. 27.

    Yarrow

    August 28, 2023 at 6:31 pm

    @phdesmond:  Probably domestic violence

    @Jay: I’m aware. I said “almost” because on rare occasion a day goes by without one. My friend completely didn’t believe me. They set out to prove me wrong, which is why they looked it up. Sadly, I was correct.

  28. 28.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    August 28, 2023 at 6:32 pm

    @cain: i don’t think even that would do it. It’s all about the gun industry and campaign donations. I understand the AK 47 types are $5K. That’s at least $1K profit a pop.  I honestly don’t know how these people afford these guns and they have multiple guns.  That’s an expensive hobby.

  29. 29.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    August 28, 2023 at 6:33 pm

    @phdesmond: domestic violence.

  30. 30.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2023 at 6:35 pm

    @trollhattan: Pissed grad student I’ll bet.

    Local news in Louisiana reporting that a former LSU student, now UNC grad student is the person of interest, now the suspect in custody.

    CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WAFB) – A faculty member is dead after a Monday afternoon shooting at the University of North Carolina’s flagship campus in Chapel Hill, television station WRAL reported.

    The station also reported that a “person of interest” in the shooting had been taken into custody. The station identified that person as Tailei Qi, who the station reported as a current UNC grad student and former student at LSU in Baton Rouge.

    “According to our records, Tailei Qi was last enrolled at LSU in Fall 2021 and graduated with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in December of 2021,” LSU Media Relations Coordinator Abbi Rocha Laymoun said. “He has not been affiliated with the university since,” Laymoun added.

  31. 31.

    Sure Lurkalot

    August 28, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    Wasn’t it at that shooting at a parade last summer where the kids knew what to do more than their parents did?

  32. 32.

    Jay

    August 28, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    @Mai Naem mobileI:

    Used, actual AK’s, not clones, go for between $500 and $1000.

    Prices vary on condition and country of manufacture, (quality).

    With the collapse of the Soviet Union and US gun laws, a huge number of Soviet, Warsaw Pact and other nations stocks were converted to semi-auto, and shipped to the US.

    Official Government sales of milled/converted AK’s (higher quality) were sold to US Importers at as much as $55 per gun.

  33. 33.

    phdesmond

    August 28, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    @Mai Naem mobileI:

    ah.  thank you.

  34. 34.

    Hoppie

    August 28, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    Well, there was a terrible (prolly US inspired) mass shooting in Norway, but narratives are, sort of, a thing.  When they happen in other countries, they change the gun laws. Duh.

  35. 35.

    MomSense

    August 28, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    Elected Republicans at every level of state and federal government, including SCOTUS and party leaders are completely chicken shit and will never vote against their supporters’ wishes.  Their voters have bought in to the Right wing “news”outlets and Gun lobby propaganda.  They also see guns as a means to enforce white supremacy and intimidate liberals.

  36. 36.

    Hoppie

    August 28, 2023 at 6:56 pm

    @Hoppie: ETA, my three-purple-heart dad was disabled (post-war) by a gun.  I hates them precious, I truly hates them.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    August 28, 2023 at 7:00 pm

    @Hoppie:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

    Jihadi attacks were his copy cat pattern, not US mass shootings.

  38. 38.

    Hoppie

    August 28, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    @Jay: Prolly is a get-out-of-free card, no?

  39. 39.

    AM in NC

    August 28, 2023 at 7:09 pm

    This was the first day of school for the students in our local public schools, and they were put into lockdown because of the GOP insistence on unfettered access to implements of death.

    Imagine being the parent of a kindergartner today. FIRST day of school!

    My 20 year old son was in lockdown at work for hours because his job is close to campus.

    The shooter killed a faculty member. Just tragic.

  40. 40.

    RaflW

    August 28, 2023 at 7:09 pm

    The freedom to live without this horror is so rarely contemplated. When I went to the Tammy Baldwing campaign event in 55-45 red-blue Walworth County yesterday, the possibility of a crazed anti-gay or just anti-dem gunman did at least occur to me.

    Didn’t change my plans or even change my behavior (I used to be better about scanning for exits and so forth when traveling or arriving in new places, a long-seated hangover of the Rome + Paris airport shootings of 1985. I wasn’t there, but flew over soon after as a college kid and while London was regularly on IRA bomb-awareness).

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    August 28, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @Jay:

    Yes, people exaggerate how much these guns cost.  I looked it up, and AR-15 clones are available for as little as $600 or so, with high-end models going for $2000 and up.  They could be an expensive hobby for someone buying multiple high-end models, but someone who just wants a gun they think will work for home protection can get started for not that much.  It’s also important to realize that guns can easily last a lifetime.  An AK or AR is designed to survive for thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of rounds.  Anyone who shoots that much will wind up spending more on ammunition than the gun.  A more casual owner, who only goes to the range once in a while, won’t come close to wearing a gun out.  If they buy one every year or two, they could amass quite an arsenal over a lifetime of collecting.

  42. 42.

    gene108

    August 28, 2023 at 7:13 pm

    @MomSense:

    Their voters have bought in to the Right wing “news”outlets and Gun lobby propaganda. They also see guns as a means to enforce white supremacy and intimidate liberals.

    The part of the gun lobby agenda that never gets discussed. Used to be white supremacists seemed like the one group with a serious interest in stockpiling guns and ammo, but sometimes the ran afoul of gun laws. Randy Weaver was under indictment for selling sawed off shotguns to white suptemacists.

    There’s an intersection between white supremacists and the gun lobby. I just don’t know how deep it goes.

    Over the last 30 years the biggest thing the gun lobby did was convince enough people that guns aren’t dangerous and can be taken anywhere to block any meaningful gun reform. This seems to be the biggest change in debating gun control from the 1980’s and 1990’s, when conceal carry laws were introduced, until now. The presumption that guns are inherently dangerous no longer exists across our culture.

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    August 28, 2023 at 7:22 pm

    @Shalimar: I think Republican members of Congress as so far gone, they wouldn’t change national gun laws even if several m.o.c.s were mowed down in the building. They’d just beef up security even more, and call for moar guns everywhere.

    The only way this changes is by sweeping election losses for the GOP. Which could happen, but will take time.

  44. 44.

    sab

    August 28, 2023 at 7:22 pm

    @Annie: About five years ago I saw a map of mass shootings in Ohio and there were about five around my little city. I thought “that can’t be right? I don’t remember that many? ” Then I looked it up and sure enough. I only remembered the ones where people I know knew people who died.

    There have been more since then, and we aren’t a violent city compared to others.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    August 28, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    @phdesmond: @zhena gogolia:

    I was gonna guess domestic violence.

    Have I mentioned lately how much I hate abbreviations?

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 28, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    @gene108: The presumption that guns are inherently dangerous no longer exists across our culture.

    One place that presumption still exists is in the military.  Go figure.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2023 at 7:34 pm

    @WaterGirl: I also sometimes suffer from AAD (that would be Acute Acronym Dysphoria). It’s not like this is Twitter, where one has to ration characters. I wish people would just type out the whole words, and use the acronyms from then on.

  48. 48.

    cain

    August 28, 2023 at 7:37 pm

    @RaflW: The GOP party will cough up meathead/jarheads to run for office – “with me, there will be no shooting me down if they come for me!” – that’s the level of bullshit we will have to put up with.

  49. 49.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    August 28, 2023 at 8:05 pm

    @Jay: i figured you could get some bargains but I didn’t know you could get them that cheap. The point is it’s still a big business that doesn’t want regulation.

  50. 50.

    Manyakitty

    August 28, 2023 at 10:57 pm

    @cain: didn’t even get Steve Scalise’s attention.

  51. 51.

    Paul in KY

    August 29, 2023 at 8:40 am

    @Roger Moore: I have a couple of weapons that are over 100 years old. They both shoot fine. They should last (if properly maintained) for another 500 years.

  52. 52.

    Paul in KY

    August 29, 2023 at 8:42 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: As you well know, when you go to the range, all the range officers are carrying sidearms. Those aren’t to look cool.

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