Reset the “days without mass shooting incident” clock.
This is madness:
COLLEGE STATION – Multiple people, including at least one officer, were reported injured in a shooting near the Texas A&M University campus Monday afternoon.
Police said the suspect, who was taken into custody, was firing shots from a house near the campus across from football stadium Kyle Field. The identity and conditions of those injured are not yet known.
KBTX reports that the shooter, was using automatic weapons and firing shots from a house near Fidelity and Highland streets. They are also reporting multiple casualties, including members of law enforcement.
So that happened — only seven days after the last mass shooting, which itself was a mere two weeks after the mass shooting before that.
Can we talk about gun control yet?
No? NRA won’t allow it?
Alrighty then.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
yam
Guns don’t kill people…
FormerSwingVoter
THIS! IS! AMERICA!
Brachiator
WTF is going on? This is nuts.
Yutsano
See here now, if only everyone at that shooting had been propetly armed and Second Amendment and blah blah blah.
(Not that kind of blah. The other one.)
peach flavored shampoo
Sorry for being ig’nant, but what’s an “active” shooter? Are there inactive ones, or are they just called “dead”?
shoutingattherain
Long, hot summer.
A moocher
Your nation is falling apart, that’s what’s happening. Too many poors doing too much meth, while the brains of the rich are deep-frying is nice wholesome money. That coupled with 30 years of poisonous republican lies passing as the only acceptable, even the only utterable, truth and Bob’s your uncle.
The Dangerman
If the weapons were automatic, there are already controls.
Before anyone thinks I’m against gun control, I’m entirely FOR it. Unfortunately, in 2012, any mention of gun control in any form is a stone cold loser. How that changes is beyond me.
Bulworth
Surely it’s time for another vote to repeal Obamacare, restrict abortion in some new innovative way, and fear-monger about teh gay.
Ben Franklin
Tales from the Mythical GunRoundup—
Gun control? I question the timing.
eyelessgame
Yay! Another brave patriot defending our freedoms and exercising his Second Amendment rights! Hooray!
Dennis SGMM
@Bulworth:
You forgot to mention renaming the Pacific the Ronald Reagan Memorial Ocean.
Punchy
Was he shooting, or just exercising his 2nd Amendy rights?
Edit: eyelessgame beats me by a nose….
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Sad thought: The NRA won’t give a shit about any of these shootings… until someone shoots up their local NRA office.
(And no, not suggesting that. Though after years of their bullshit, I wouldn’t cry if it happened. Sorry).
scav
So long as he could carry it, who are we to argue with the vision of the founders as interpreted by and realized by Scalia’s militia?
SatanicPanic
We’ve now had three in the last few months. I feel like I shouldn’t be shocked anymore but I am.
Yutsano
@Bulworth: Or sue Eric Holder to release irrelevant documents to pursue your vendetta against THAT ONE. Can’t link but yeah, that happened.
Cargo
every american will shoot every other american, and the last two americans will stand atop two enormous mounds of guns and bodies.
they will shoot each other, and be finally truly free.
sharl
Another round of tax cuts would solve this problem, if indeed it is a problem, beyond the failure of everyone to arm themselves.
WOLVERINES!
Geoduck
From initial reports, it sounds like the guy was barricaded inside his/a house shooting at surrounding cops, and not storming into some public place guns blazing. Still nasty, of course.
cathyx
@Cargo: And then go to the other continents and do it there, spreading freedom to own a gun everywhere.
Maude
Oh, those poor people. They were going about their business on an ordinary summer day and then this.
JPL
One policeman is dead and still no idea on the other injuries.
It’s sad.
Ridnik Chrome
@SatanicPanic: Actually four. There was one in Seattle in June.
Comrade Dread
Ugh… Zod damn it.
quannlace
But the right gun-toting hero could still have found out where he was and saved the day by shooting the gun out of his hand.
hildebrand
Reading the linked article, shots came from inside the home of someone who received an eviction notice.
To me this really is the heart of the problem – people settling disputes or venting their frustrations with high-powered weapons. This has nothing to do with a lone nut, or an out and out terrorist – the everyday danger of firearms is that somebody who has a shitty day decides to lash out with lethal force. In this case, it sounds like a police officer was killed. Dead, because they happened to be in the vicinity of someone losing their head and having easy access to guns.
Perhaps we should start thinking about the volatile mix of human impulses and the ability to inflict mortal wounds. Perhaps we should recognize that human beings are not going to be able curb said violent impulses, and therefore we should attend to the one thing that we can actually change. Hmm, wonder what that could be?
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Geoduck:
Yeah, the more news that comes out on this, the less it’s like Aurora and more like a
drug busteviction notice gone horribly wrong.But bad
drug bustsevictions don’t gin up massive outrage, so let’s go ahead and fan those flames as hard as we can.Jesus. Congrats, ABL. Keep this up and you could be a HuffPo regular.
Edit: posted without reading the linked article, either. Bad me, no cookie.
Dennis SGMM
How does it figure that the other side wants everyone armed and yet they hate on the Taliban for feeling the same way?
chopper
this looks like a job for tax cuts.
Face
And to think that several states, TX included I believe, are trying their damnest to allow young, emotionally immature college students to go to class strapped.
RedKitten
If only those cops had been armed, this wouldn’t have happened.
Wait…
Walker
Another thing that no one is discussing is the epidemic of mental illness among college students these days. It has become such an issue that “mental state” is one of the major things we look for in college essays (I have served on application committees at my uni).
mechwarrior online
@hildebrand:
Except people curb said violent impulses all the time in other countries with access to firearms, that people go crazy here says more about Americans than it does guns.
And since many of the people that want “reasonable” solutions actually want bans and realizing they can’t get that are using “reasonable” solutions as a buffer which could turn into a stepping stone… nope, no talking about gun control, and anybody who does should rightly be called out for dancing in the blood of the victims and politicians who humor them rightly savaged in public.
scav
@Walker: Shouldn’t that be “epidemic of mental illness among college age students” if you’re looking in application essays? Or, are you screening post-grads?
Trakker
Angry sad and/or depressed people have always committed suicide, but now that they can own an arsenal with 30-round clips they can do it, plus take out a dozen innocent people at the same time just to get back at society, or their co-workers, their boss, or their spouse and kids.
The Dangerman
@Walker:
It’s beyond college students; it’s a universal these days. Function of the economy coupled with cuts to programs to mitigate these things amongst other factors.
Aurora will be interesting before the last chapter is written on that sad episode; Dude was breaking enough for the red flags to go up on campus, but no action taken after he withdrew. The information was out there, but not enough was done. Sad, sad, sad….
Hungry Joe
Comments on local TV station’s site are about what you’d expect: We need more guns so that people can defend themselves against nuts like this guy; don’t let the liberals use this as an excuse to confiscate your guns.
More and more I’m feeling that gun control is a lost cause for at least a generation. The NRA and its partners in slaughter have electrified it, turned it into a third rail for any politician that dares take hold of it. We’ll just have to live — or, more accurately, die — with the status quo until … I don’t know when.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Face:
Which has dick all to do with this case; classes aren’t in session, this didn’t happen on campus, this wasn’t a “mass shooting” in the sense that ABL obviously wants everyone to take it, blah blah blah fishcakes. This wasn’t Charles Whitman shooting people from the UT Tower, this was a guy who didn’t want to be evicted from his home and took matters too far, killing a constable and wounding other LEOs.
I know ABL isn’t a journalist, but Jesus, at least represent the linked article correctly.
SatanicPanic
@mechwarrior online:
Saying that we Americans are less trustworthy with our guns is an argument for stronger limits on guns.
Wag
@peach flavored shampoo:
Inactive shooters are members of the NRA who have continued to take their medications.
Schlemizel
The correct title should be:
NRA Opens New Field Office In College Station, Texas
But I have given up, they win. There is nothing we can do now to reduce the number of these or their severity.
Kristin
Obviously, discussing ways to avoid these incidents from occurring in the future is only exploiting the tragedy and its victims for political gain.
MikeJake
@hildebrand: I wouldn’t say he just “happened” to be there. He was evicting the shooter.
Call me crazy, but I think there’s something positive to the fact that the downtrodden in America don’t have to just stay silent and take it.
RoonieRoo
Thanks for scaring me and making me panic ABL! Maybe you should actually READ the article you are linking to before you post hysterical and WRONG headlines.
Maybe put a little thought into the idea of a mass shooting near A&M might actually affect BJ readers with loved ones that live and work on that campus.
Thank you so damn much for that nice jolt of adrenaline from fear for my family due to your need to be the first to hysterical, screaming headlines.
Villago Delenda Est
This shit will not stop until someone goes into NRA HQ and slaughters every living thing in there with a firearm.
Dracula
I have a strong feeling “Mass shooting” will need to be toned down to “1 cop injured” by day’s end. This has all the ingredients of an over-sell by a clueless but craving-attention CNN.
Jewish Steel
NYT:
Editorializing street names.
Walker
@scav:
Yes, when we filter them. But part of the issue is that medication has allowed many people to attend college that would never have made it that far before. And colleges are not lways prepared to handle them.
whidby
America has been talking about gun control for decades.
You just don’t like what’s being said.
roc
@peach flavored shampoo:
An active shooter is one who is, ya know, *actively* shooting at people. As opposed to having been subdued, or hidden, or fled, etc.
Gregory
The vexing thing is, the right wing works all the time to move the Overton window by painting even the mildest of their political opposents as radical, yet there’s nary a peep about the NRA’s genuinely radical, not to mention dishonest, rhetoric.
Sure, Obama (or Biden, or whoever…) isn’t going to propose any gun control legislation. But why not say “Thanks to the NRA, we can’t even discuss common sense laws to keep mass casualty firearms out of the hands of criminals.”
Kane
I always find it interesting how an individual can live a relatively normal life, and then a single, solitary decision can forever alter their life and the lives of those around them.
Chris
@mechwarrior online:
Ladies and gentlemen, the root of the problem.
Yes, the one-worlder conspiracy is vewwy, VEWWY concerned about getting its hands on your shotgun, in fact the success of their entire plan hinges on it.
lonesomerobot
@Chris: we’ve seen this troll before – has a straw fetish.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Dracula:
One constable is confirmed dead, several injured. But yeah, this wasn’t a “mass shooting” in the way ABL intends for us to read “mass shooting”. This guy (AFAICT) wasn’t out looking for people to shoot; he was resisting being evicted.
hildebrand
@MikeJake:
So it is okay to simply pop off anyone who happens to piss you off, especially if they are some form of ‘authority’?
Todd
@Trakker:
I find myself saddened that these guys never find their way to the homes of Villagers, Limbaugh, Hannity, Adelson or the Kochs to demonstrate their frustration and rage.
Maude
@MikeJake:
You can try to evict the next downtrodden soul and if you get shot, well it’s social justice.
Dennis SGMM
I own a number of firearms and if gun control meant going back to single shot, black powder muzzle loaders I’d be all in favor of it even though it meant I’d have to hand in my guns.
Mass shootings used to be bizarre anomalies and they seem to be almost common now. People are not going to stop going of the deep end, providing them with the means to take a flock of innocents along with them is unconscionable.
scav
@Walker: Was mostly trying to clear up it is was a general population phenomena or something that seemed to happen post-enrollment. Sounds general population, with problems that arise in a college setting. Not as though a lot of employers would be any better able to handle the attendant problems (except they’re less expected to be in loco parentis).
Chris
@Dennis SGMM:
As society goes down the shitter, more and more people have the incentive to. As an alternative to gun control, we could stop sending society down the shitter but – not, that’d be socialism too. :(
gbear
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Yea, just 3-4 dead or injured is just peanuts: a day in the life. How many victims does it take to be a mass shooting? Half a dozen?
RaflW
As a friend pointed out last night at dinner, we talked about bridge design, maintenance practices, static load calculations and all sorts of things after the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis killed 13 people.
Yes, T’Paw and some others tried to use the ‘don’t politicize a tragedy’ to fend off some examinations of how GOP budgets and a Lt. Gov/Transp Commissioner in the same job may have contributed, but mostly we had a sane, rational conversation about how when a bunch of people die in one indecent, we pause to look at ways to try and not repeat the tragedy.
People spent a couple years looking for the black boxes for the Air France flight from Rio that went down in the Atlantic. Because, y’know, we can learn from it.
But as soon as it’s about guns, there isn’t a conversation to be had. Not one. Just total denial and silencing behaviors. And cowardice from Dem pols. Utter, bed-wetting cowardice.
At this point it’s way beyond the NRA. Most of American right wing Christianists are also gun-rights nuts. And their pastors are right along with ’em.
e.a.f.
There have been 3 of these shootings in close order. I do not expect that to change. People are under terrible stress in the U.S.A. & it is usually manafested in this manner. The lack of mental health care with the poliferation of guns, what else can be expected.
I do not expect to hear from the N.R.A. They represent those in the arms business. For them this is just another good sale.
When the consitituion was written guns were far simpler & were not repeating at hundreds of bullets per minute. There should be no need to have automatic weapons such as those being used in these shootings. As to the argument guns make you safer, didn’t in this case, no one got a shot off to stop the shooters in any of these cases. You need to be very good at shooting to do that & most people aren’t.
Yes guns kill people. Without the gun the person couldn’t have killed the others. It may have taken a person to pull the trigger but if there were no triggers, no deaths.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@hildebrand:
This is not in any way excusing what has happened, but we Murkians do have a rich history of repeatedly fucking certain groups of people over under the color of law enforcement, to the point where they feel violent resistance is not only justified but required.
Since we know dick-all about the circumstances, I can’t say that played into this case.
I do know that if the Dominionists start embracing their inner blackshirt and coming after us atheist/liberal/what have you’s, I for damned sure am not going quietly.
David Hunt
@Geoduck:
I work three miles from that spot. If the address is accurate, then your speculation about the event probably is too. The spot is about 100 yards from the street that marks the beginning of the Campus, [George Bush Drive (it’s named after pappa Bush form when we were kissing his ass to get his Presidential Library)], What is at that nearest point is the football teams practice field which is fenced off in obscured to deter scouting by rival teams. It was a good half mile from anyplace that students would have congregated in any numbers in the open. The guy might have been a student, but the info I’m seeing is that this didn’t happen on campus. That area has a variety of lowing income housing and I expect a bunch of students live there, but it wasn’t actually on campus. Thank FSM for that small favor in a bad situation.
ETA: My ability to eyeball distances suck, but the point I was making was this was not some loon going around campus shooting people. It looks like a “garden variety” horrible tragedy.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@whidby:
Some of us are getting really fed up with being ruled by the worst among us.
(Just in case you were wondering).
lonesomerobot
fwiw, and all above snark noted, this shooting is the counter-argument to the NRA point of view on gun control.
An armed officer, presumably with adequate training, going into a situation that could have been anticipated to be antagonistic, and it turns deadly. The only positives that could come of this are if the shooter got his gun at a gun show and/or was using high capacity clips.
And there is no “someone could have been packing” nonsense the 2nd amendment, no-I’m-not-compensating-for-anything crowd can offer.
OK, back to reality.
Of course I realize it will mean nothing and we’ll still be where we were yesterday, last week and two weeks ago.
GUBMINT TAKIN MAH GUNS!
Lee
So the shooter killed a armed and trained LEO, injured another armed and trained LEO and Joe-Bob six shooter is going to fare better…how?
Gretchen
@Walker: I’d like to hear more about this.
e.a.f.
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Just a note, they have already come after you. Just read some of the new legislation which has been passed since 9/11. People just haven’t noticed it. Americans have very little freedom left, given all of these changes. You just have the illusion of freedom because you have guns.
You are not free if you have to worry about your mortgage, you ability to provide food for your family, have to worry about illness because of a lack of medical plans. What you are free to do in the U.S.A. is die from lack of medical care, live on the streets because you can’t afford a home, suffer from malnutrition due to a lack of food security, etc. Thats what you are free to have. Control over your own life, not so much especially since the Supreme Court says its o.k. to do those body searchs regardless of what you were pulled in for, including a traffic violation.
scott (the other one)
Emphatically not wishing for this to happen, but just asking: if it were conservative politicians / causes / events that were being targeted by left-leaning individuals — rather than random events, like Aurora, by disturbed individuals or left-leaning pols like Giffords, by disturbed individuals, or the Sikh killer by a white supremacist — would anything change?
Grumpy Code Monkey
@gbear:
Depends. Are the victims LEO’s shot in the line of duty by people resisting arrest or eviction? Civilians caught in the crossfire between LEO’s and shooters barricaded in their house?
Or are they people sitting in a theater or a classroom, or standing outside a public building, or walking on a campus quad, when someone deliberately and out of the blue starts mowing them down?
To me, the latter is what counts as a “mass shooting”, because the intent is to shoot as many people as possible, whereas the former is a bad day on the job for a cop, regardless of the body count. “Mass shooting” implies a very specific intent.
“Mass shooting” means someone went out of their way to shoot and kill people. That’s not what happened here, based on the news reports.
Does that clear things up for you?
Grumpy Code Monkey
@e.a.f.:
Linkage, please.
Maude
@e.a.f.:
You forgot to put OT in front of your comment.
dogwood
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
I read “mass shooting” as a guy expended a shit-load of rounds and killed or injured several people. That seems to be what happened. What would you call it?
peach flavored shampoo
So why use that adjective? If the school is going to issue an alert, they’re not doing it for someone already in custody or dead. Absent sensationalism, what reason do they have to require that description when issuing an alert?
Woudn’t “white male” or “black woman” be much more useful adjectives to use in a pithy, short worded warning?
lonesomerobot
@Grumpy Code Monkey: a mass shooting is a mass shooting — i.e., multiple people were shot. The difference you’re quibbling over is whether it’s premeditated or not, or whether the shooter wasn’t so lazy as to expect the victims to come to him. Even this may have been premeditated to the extent that the shooter knew there was going to be an eviction notice served and was waiting to ambush the officers.
whidby
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: Yes, democracy sucks sometimes.
I just don’t understand the complaint that “we can’t even talk about gun control in this country.”
We have been talking about it for decades. Is there anyone in America who doesn’t have an opinion about this? It’s like saying, “We can’t even talk about abortion in America.”
LanceThruster
@peach flavored shampoo:
I actually think the description is somewhat apt in that it conveys the information that the danger is still present.
Southern Beale
We are an uncivilized country. That’s all that can be said.
I fear all of these mass shootings have reset us to a “new normal.” Media will be in full Paul Ryan Infatuation Mode, won’t bother to check where this loon got his guns, motives, etc. The conversation has ended.
Christ.
Chris
@scott (the other one):
No. They’d use it as an excuse to crack down hard on left-wingers, or Muslims, or whatever other demographic they could tie to it. They would never use it as an excuse to inconvenience True Conservative Patriots.
“The law for me but not for thee” is what conservatism has always been about.
hildebrand
@Grumpy Code Monkey: And I am with you on that sentiment, but I think we need to be very careful before sliding down this particular slippery slope.
More importantly, you are right, we don’t know what happened. We have no context, so anything said is pure speculation. Thus, we should wait before going all guns blazing in what we say about this incident (metaphor intended).
Of course, the guns blazing thing is a part of the larger problem – to get back to something I said upthread, if we recognize that our society is so damned edgy (even if such edginess is justifiable), providing such easy access to incredibly overpowered weapons is not going to help us solve our overarching problems. In fact, as we have noticed as of late (again), such weapons exacerbate our problems, including our overall tetchy-ness.
Here is where the point really comes home for me – I will be stepping back into the classroom in two weeks, and once again the fear that animates my dreamland is that one of my students will lose it and decide to take it out on the nearest, most accessible authority figure – me. Or even worse, will decide to take it out on my students. I want to protect them and me, and since I would rather not have the OK Corral reenacted in my classroom, arming either the students or myself isn’t an option.
I want to get to the root of the problems that my students have – but that takes time, and I won’t have the time to help solve those problems if a student decides to use a gun to make their point. The ability to so easily buy a gun makes the task nearly impossible. Take the gun out of the mix and I will at least have the chance to steer a troubled kid to a professional who can truly help them deal with their problems. But with the gun…
KG
@peach flavored shampoo: it’s the difference between “there is someone shooting at people as we speak” and “there was someone shooting at people earlier”. The first would be an active shooter, the second would not.
PurpleGirl
I clicked one of the links and according to one College Station area TV channel, the shooter is dead, one police officer and one civilian are dead, several other police officers and civilians were shot and are in area hospitals (ERs and surgery).
So we still need a sorting out of the actions by government officials to fully know what happened.
Shawn in ShowMe
@dogwood:
What, you’ve never been on the lookout for a “passive” shooter, hiding right in our midst? Obviously you lack X-Ray vision.
Litlebritdifrnt
OT but Orange Julius has jumped the shark, in a big way
lonesomerobot
@KG: no, no, no. An active shooter is one who gets exercise on a regular basis and has a relatively full social life.
LanceThruster
@Lee:
By being an unidentified counter-threat? I am all for addressing the problem, but am unsure what steps would protect the population at large.
I’m not gung ho on the whole concealed carry push to solve it, but how often do these rampages occur at a gun show? Seems the perps are cowards who like going into “safe” zones.
Our campus has a “no weapons” policy to the point that the Department of Public Safety officer (campus cops) told me that a Swiss Army keychain knife was considered a ‘weapon.’
Schlemizel
@dogwood: I’d call that just another day in this 2nd amendment heaven here on earth we call America.
But you know some people’s guns get their fee-fees hurt when you say bad things about them. Then they get all droopy & not hard and shiny like they should be. SO don’t call it a mass shooting if it was only 6 cops/bystanders and the guy may not have run around to make it happen.
karen
There was also this one at a mosque:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/13/chicago-area-mosque-shot-with-rifle-after-rep-walsh-warns-of-radical-islam/
Dennis SGMM
@Litlebritdifrnt:
That’s the damnedest statement I’ve heard all month.
trollhattan
@PurpleGirl:
Ugh, very sad.
Also, too, as I understand it “active shooter” is a law enforcemet term of art for an incident where violence is occurring and that has not been declared over. We receive annual active shooter training at my workplace, presented by officers. Peculiarly, “shooter” isn’t limited to firearms, so there’s no “active stabber” training.
KG
@Litlebritdifrnt: ok, reading that, it looks like whoever wrote the release fucked it up. I get Boehner’s basic point, but it’s not really on Obama that Senate Dems didn’t act on the House bill, is it? Especially when Boehner admits that Obama was at least willing to consider the House bill?
scav
@hildebrand: I’d be a little more sympathetic to grumpy’s particular let’s not make assumptions argument if he hadn’t then speedily assumed the shooter was a heroic innocent defending himself against the evil evil banks and their we don’t count them in mass-shooting body-counts law enforcement officers. Probably the usual middle of argument hyperbole. [ETA: by which I mean, shits get evicted too, and sometimes with cause.]
Speaking of entirely OT we should have seen this coming. Guess who’s got a book to sell? Guard
Ash Can
Attention concern trolls! Charles Johnson at LGF used the exact same wording in his title on this subject as ABL did, and in the 200+ comment thread that followed, no one, but NO ONE, has eviscerated him for it. Get over there and DO YOUR JOBS, people! Come on! Move! Move!
Calouste
@Lee:
Joe Bob six-shooter is rather delusional about his own shooting skills.
elmo
@e.a.f.:
Except that “automatic weapons” ARE heavily, heavily restricted, and are NOT being used in these shootings for the most part. Today’s report indicated automatic weapon fire, but I suspect we’ll find out by the end of the day that it was semi-automatic fire, just as it was in Aurora and the Sikh temple.
From a “dangerous weapon” perspective, there is little difference between a semi-automatic weapon (one shot per trigger pull, brass casing ejected) and a revolver (one shot per trigger pull, brass casing remains in chamber). The main difference is capacity: most semi-autos have 10-round magazines that are very easy to eject and replace, whereas most revolvers are 6-shot weapons that you need a speedloader and a little skill to rapidly reload.
But fully-automatic weapons? Those are exceptionally rare as the weapon of choice in any crime, because they’re difficult to get, difficult to conceal, and difficult to fire effectively. Simply put, there’s no reason to use a fully automatic weapon in almost all cases.
The Other Bob
You may now also speak of the Sikh Temple shooting, but not today’s shooting.
The rules require that we be one shooting beyond the previous before we can speak of it, otherwise we are seeking to use the shooting as part of a political agenda.
/snark
KG
@LanceThruster: that was some of the logic behind the concealed carry push in the 90s, the argument went that criminals would be less likely to attack victims they perceived as “helpless” if there was a chance they were armed – Col. Colt’s equalizer and all that. It’s been a very long time since I looked at the studies, but I think there was some evidence (and I honestly don’t know how good it was even in the 90s when I was looking at it), that suggested crime rates dropped following the passage of concealed carry laws.
But those also ignore the current problem, which isn’t so much the mugger trying to get your wallet or car keys after a night at a bar, as it is the mentally unstable person who had weapons and snapped (for whatever reason).
Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (formerly Horrendo Slapp, Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I can’t believe people in this thread are even bringing up gun control. What the fuck is wrong with you people? This is a day of tragedy, a day of mourning, and it besmears the memories of those who died to exploit this carnage for crass political purposes to enable your un-American, liberal homosexual, anti-gun agenda. It’s never appropriate or respectful to talk or even think about ways to avoid mass shootings after a after a mass shooting happens. It’s only long after the shooting is over, when everybody has forgotten about it, and there’s no chance of ever doing anything about it that it’s acceptable to talk about this kind of thing. You people make me sick. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
lonesomerobot
@scav: and to be released on 9/11. Just wow.
Chris
@Southern Beale:
I’d like to agree, except I’m really not sure what a “civilized country” would look like. The “developed world” is full of stuff that shows that our uncivilized, primitive instincts are at best just lurking beneath the surface.
Anton Sirius
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Go fuck yourself. Seriously. Fling your semantic monkey shit and go grind your pathetic excuse for an axe somewhere else.
hep kitty
@Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (formerly Horrendo Slapp, Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): What’s worse is it’s only a matter of time before Obama uses this as a political tipping point, and finally starts taking away all the white people’s guns FOR REELZ this time! Just like he promised!
Grumpy Code Monkey
@dogwood:
A very bad day on the job for Brazos County LEOs.
This guy wasn’t shooting people for the sake of shooting people. He didn’t wake up one day, strap on his body armor, grab his AK and a half-dozen magazines and go out looking for unarmed victims who are virtually guaranteed to not shoot back. He was shooting in response to the enforcement of an eviction notice by armed Brazos County constables, and civilians got caught in the crossfire.
I can’t make the distinction any clearer than that.
This was a law enforcement operation gone horribly wrong, which happens from time to time. This was not a “mass shooting” in the Charles Whitman/Jared Loughner/James Holmes sense, and I resent ABL and others for trying to make it sound like it was.
Jesus Christ, there are so many knees jerking around in this thread it’s a wonder anyone can still walk. Yes, we need to implement real gun control measures. Yes, it’s too goddamned easy for people who shouldn’t be let anywhere near a weapon to get guns and ammo. Yes, I think CCLs are stupid and don’t solve the problem they’re meant to solve. Yes, I think the root of gun violence in America is that there too goddamned many guns. Yes, I think “an armed society is a polite society” is a stupid statement and misses the fucking point. Yes, I think as a country we’re too goddamned paranoid for our own good, and arming ourselves just makes the problem worse.
But for fuck’s sake, can’t we say those things without misrepresenting incidents like this? Not every massive exchange of gunfire qualifies as a “mass shooting”.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Anton Sirius:
After you.
LanceThruster
@KG:
Yeah, the only studies I remember hearing about was by John Lott who was found to have falsified data, if I recall correctly.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Ash Can:
If Charles is calling this a “mass shooting”, then he deserves to be bitched at too.
LanceThruster
I still find it interesting that body armor is also outlawed (supposedly “soft” armor is OK in some states). In the hands of a law-abiding citizen, it is completely defensive, but is seen as adding an extra edge to the gun nut wanting to go on the offensive.
Strange days indeed.
LanceThruster
When can we close the barn door now that the cows have run off?
Shawn in ShowMe
@whidby:
If the argument about gun control was between citizens, I believe we would have won the argument a long time ago. It’s the propaganda of the gun industry that has been deceiving a lot of decent people.
The gun industry isn’t interested in having a discussion in the town square about victims of assault rifles, semiautomatic handguns, and high-capacity magazines, they only want to engage in straw man arguments about “freedom”. Using the NRA’s arguments, we should allow the sale of military tanks at local car dealerships, amirite?
There was a time in this country when couldn’t talk about cigarette control either and finally the voices of the victims overwhelmed the corporations. I wonder how high the body count will have to go before the tide turns on this issue.
Luke V
@peach flavored shampoo:
As an employee of A&M, let me clear this up: Code Maroon is primarily for our campus e-mails and campus radio. They’ve expanded to social media over time. Basically, a local robbery or a gunman or an explosion in the chemistry lab or a construction accident or a light snow leads to all of us getting an e-mail from Code Maroon. Maroon and white are the school colors. Out of context, I see where this sounds like some kind of university version of terror alerts or some shit like that, but it’s not the same thing. It’s simply a courtesy system from the university, which will usually send along recommendations from the authorities.
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Thanks for being a voice of reason here, GCM. This is getting national coverage because 1)It happened near a campus, 2) It’s so near the other shootings and 3) College Station is white as rice. I’m sure events similar to these will play out in New Orleans or DC sometime soon and you’re not going to hear much talk of “mass shootings.”
Corpsicle
I can’t find any info on what kind of gun he used.
Can people on the left please stop using the term “Automatic Weapon” if they have no idea what it means? It is hard enough bridging the gap between us and gun enthusiasts. The difference between semi-automatic and automatic is fucking huge and not at all difficult to understand for anyone with an IQ above room temperature. (F & C, but not K)
It’s like using the terms “Solar System”, “Galaxy” and “Universe” interchangeably when talking about NASA funding.
I don’t necessarily mean ABL, maybe she is quoting a news article somewhere, but it happens all the time and makes our side of the argument look clueless.
Ruckus
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Cigarettes are not in the Constitution! /gun nut
As someone up thread pointed out we don’t live in a sane country. Otherwise corporations wouldn’t be people, we would long ago gotten proper health care for all, science might just be able to be understood rather than replaced by idiotic beliefs and having and using guns would not be a fetish.
Luke V
@Corpsicle:
The police officer that did the press conference specifically said “semi-automatic” but didn’t specify on the weapon.
Ruckus
Notice that always the discussion is turned to a matter of semantics, not of substance.
We can never talk about the real problem because we are always arguing about what kind of weapons are used and how many deaths is a mass shooting and were the guns legal and PEOPLE, get your terms right!
Guy used a fucking gun for it’s intended purpose, he killed people.
That’s the fucking discussion.
elmo
@Corpsicle:
Pet peeve of mine as well. See my post at 100, above.
Corpsicle
@Ruckus: Believe it or not, but is is possible to have an argument of substance and get the semantics right at the same time.
bootsy
How could this happen in the NRA’s home country?
Just think how many lives would be saved if everyone who was shot at pulled out at least two of the five guns they were carrying and started shooting at what they thought was the source!
Corpsicle
@elmo: Sorry, I missed your post, you said it better.
whidby
Corpsicle – exactly right.
People complain “We can’t even talk about guns” but fail to learn the very simple terminology necessary for that discussion.
Anton Sirius
@Ruckus:
The discussion I’d like to have is:
“The NRA has become a cancer on American politics nearly as malignant as Grover Norquist.”
Ruckus
@Corpsicle:
Not when all the voices are yelling about the semantics. It’s like rich lowery on press the meat, yell until the show is over and no one gets to hear the other side.
The semantics don’t fucking matter. Automatic, semi-automatic, 10 round mag, 100 round mag. It’s all bullshit. It’s deception. It’s about changing and obfuscating the discussion.
He used a gun to kill people.
That’s the fucking discussion. Everything else is bullshit.
Origuy
KBTX in College Station reported that automatic weapons were used. There’s been no indication from police whether that was true.
The latest report is that the shooter, one Brazos County constable, and a male civilian are dead. A female civilian and three other officers have been injured.
whidby
Ruckus – okay so I take it your proposal is to eliminate private ownership of every type of “gun” with no exceptions for any purpose. Right?
bk
EVERY early news report that I read about this used “shooting near Texas A&M” and “multiple casualties” as a hook. I don’t get the whining here.
Corpsicle
@Ruckus: “Not when all the voices are yelling about the semantics”
As far as I can tell it took a hundred posts before anyone mentioned the semantics.
Ruckus
@Anton Sirius:
Yes.
Once again in a sane country we could discuss issues. We don’t discuss issues, we discuss semantics. It wasn’t sex. It’s OK it’s not an automatic gun. It’s OK he used 30 round clips, not the 100 round clips. He only killed 3 or 4 people not 6 or more.
The fucking discussion is about people killing people. It can be about guns, grover norquist, health care, medicare/medicaid, romney/ryan. They are the same discussion, they are about death, Not liberty, not freedom.
Death inflected on others.
That’s the fucking discussion.
Ruckus
@Corpsicle:
Thank you for making my point.
Shawn in ShowMe
@whidby:
This is the other straw man that’s invariably employed: “What, you don’t want us to have ANY guns?”
I understand the outrage from Ruckus here (I lost my cousin to a garden-variety handgun) but the consensus view on the left has been consistent for years now: The semi-automatics have to go. The assault rifles get thrown in there too for PR purposes but statistically they’re a nothingburger.
Villago Delenda Est
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Well, you know, according to the wingtards, we who are not of them believe that Obama is a messiah, so naturally, a messiah is one of those types who causes the rain to fall and the grass to grow, so, there you go, it’s his fault that rain is not falling and grass is not growing.
Martin
Top 10 differences between white terrorists and other terrorists
From that other Cole fellow.
whidby
Shawn,
Maybe you should directly your comment toward Ruckus, not me.
Ruckus
@whidby:
Sorry.
I see I left out the all or nothing argument.
Without the discussion of why we need all the guns, with no control and absent any discussion about the death and destruction caused by them, sure why not. As long as most gun advocates seem not willing to discuss controls of any kind or to make any compromises what so ever, sure I’ll go for complete control.
Now if that discussion is started from those points we might be able to find ground that works. Get back to me when this happens.
Corpsicle
@Ruckus: Look dude, we are probably on the same side of the gun control discussion.
Semantics don’t matter if by “discussion” you mean a mutual wankfest in your own echo chamber. Unfortunately the gun enthusiasts vote, so you have to reach at least some of them. Displaying a complete ignorance of the subject will not help convince those folks that you are right.
And seriously, you’re arguing against using accurate terms in a discussion? Really?
Villago Delenda Est
@Corpsicle:
People are dead.
But we’ll spend time talking semantics.
Yup, very productive.
LanceThruster
@Corpsicle:
It is true that the imprecise nature does not help the discussion. The CA ban on “assault” weapons was largely directed at foreign manufacturers and guns/weapons that “looked” dangerous.
My Ruger Mini-14 is no different in firepower to an M-16 but one looks military and one looks like a ranch rifle. Neither is available to public as fully automatic and high capacity magazines easily and legally obtained (last time I checked). I legally purchased a drum magazine (100 rd) for my SKS but it jammed rather easily.
I do not hunt and I enjoy historical and military curios. The SKS is manufactured by “my people” and even has the old Soviet Union emblem on it. The state would have forced me to sell it back to them for less than I paid at Big 5 if it had three or more characteristics (folding bayonet, flash suppressor, detachable magazine, and/or pistol grip).
I would never buy non-functioning or replica piece with maybe the exception of a Thompsom sub-machine gun or a Liberator pistol. I’d love to own a WWII M-1 Garand for it’s historical value but it’s out of my price range.
I despise how the NRA has poisoned the debate, but I also feel for the Brits that were forced to destroy their own historical pieces to comply with the gun restrictions there.
whidby
Ruckus –
There are quite a few controls already in effect, so I am not sure why you believe that gun advocates seem not willing to discuss controls of any kind.
For example, here in California,
-I cannot purchase an “assault weapon”,
-can’t buy more than 1 handgun per month,
-have to pass a test to get a handgun purchasing license,
-have to demonstrate safe handling of a handgun,
-have to either buy trigger lock or show proof of gunsafe ownership,
-have to undergo a background check
-can’t directly buy or sell firearms to someone – have to go through a FFL
– can’t buy “machine guns” without special stamps
-have to swear that I am not an “illegal user of drugs” (including MJ) before purchasing a gun [my favorite law]
and so forth.
Look, I take it that you are upset by this.
But trying to position yourself as someone who just wants a discussion while asserting that your perceived opponents reject every type of control does not move the discussion forward.
Ruckus
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Thing is all the people I know who died from guns were engaged in warfare.
Just for those who think I am an anti gun nut, I have hunted and eaten what I shot. I have target shot a lot and enjoyed it, a long time ago. I have owned rifles, shotguns and pistols. I got paid to carry a sidearm in a previous life. And I have been shot at.
The problem is we can not have any realistic discussion in this country about guns, or many other issues that are in desperate need of discussion and debate.
Corpsicle
@Villago Delenda Est: Seriously WTF? Have you guys heard the expression “walk and chew gum at the same time”?
It’s amazing how binary some people are.
If you spend a lot of political will getting automatic weapons banned, then find out they were banned all the time, the semantics will suddenly matter a lot.
LanceThruster
I’d like to see a discussion of how govt tyranny could be ended/prevented with the possession of small arms. Reich Wingers would justify their killing of enablers of immorality and fetus (“baby”) killing.
Would left wingers/progressives/greens want to declare open season on corporate gangsters/fraudsters/robber barons/toxic poisoners/violaters of the Bill of Rights and their govt enablers?
Then what? What would the battle lines look like?
How cut and dried would the oppression have to be before the public might expect the military to side with them as with certain eastern bloc countries before the fall of the Soviet Union?
We’d all be drowning in the blood of a 2nd Revolutionary/Civil War, nu?
dogwood
Whatever you call it – “mass shooting” or as Grumpy says “A very bad day on the job for Brazos County LEOs.”- people are dead and the gun folks rush to their keyboards to talk about their gun expertise. I’ve never understood the reason why so many have to give a detailed rundown of all the guns they own every time this shit goes down. Gun porn I guess.
Ruckus
@whidby:
So those controls were passed with realistic public discussion?
Those controls are effective? Lance pointed out that 2 guns that have the same firepower, one is banned in CA and one is not, based on looks, not on what they are capable of.
Once again we are talking about semantics, what kind of gun, what does it look like. We have to get to the base argument, guns are tools for killing. How much killing power is necessary? You can buy one handgun a month in CA. So in one year you can purchase 12 handguns. How much ammo? How many clips, what size. And what the hell do you need that much firepower for? Ask Soonergrunt how many guns and rounds he carried in a war zone. Then tell me you need ten/twelve/a hundred times that much firepower.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Ruckus:
This is not a matter of mere semantics. This is a matter of motive.
This guy shot at armed constables who were trying to evict him from his home. He was reacting to a situation.
Loughner, Holmes, and Page went out of their way to shoot unarmed people who wouldn’t shoot back. They were being proactive.
I see very clear, very broad differences between what happened College Station and what happened in those other cases, and I think that difference matters when talking about gun control.
I don’t like the idea of people walking around strapped, but neither do I like the idea of restricting what I can keep in my home (up to a reasonable limit, anyway). I have my paternal grandfather’s .38 service revolver from his days as a sheriff’s deputy, and a .22 hunting rifle from my maternal grandfather.
I only shoot at paper targets, and those very rarely. I haven’t touched them in years. I treat them as keepsakes more than weapons. And yet, I suspect there are people in this thread who would demand I give those up, because ALL GUNS ARE BAD, PERIOD, END OF STORY, EVERYTHING ELSE IS FUCKING SEMANTICS.
Well, pardon the fuck out of me for trying to see more than just two colors here. Pardon the fuck out of me for wanting to distinguish between different kinds of gun violence. Pardon the fuck out of me for wanting to respond to criminals shooting at cops differently from criminals shooting at regular people. Pardon the fuck out of me for wanting to have events like these reported on accurately, without resorting to lizard-brain button-pushing.
You want honest debates about gun control, fine, but that requires everyone to be honest, and calling this incident a “mass shooting” and trying to equate it with what Loughner/Holmes/Page did is anything but honest. This guy didn’t go on a killing spree for the hell of it, and yes, THAT FUCKING MATTERS.
whidby
Ruckus
There was quite a bit of debate and contention – I don’t know if that counts as a realistic public discussion.
I don’t think so. I suspect that they have resulted in a tiny reduction in gun crime – mainly the ones the encourage safe storage.
But this begs the question, if these many different types of gun laws haven’t reduced gun crime, why do you think additional ones will?
That’s true and its an oft-cited example of how incredibly stoopid many gun laws are.
That depends on what do you want to kill. If you are using it for hunting game, you get one set of answers. If you want to shoot lots of people, you get another set of answers.
I do a bit of competitive shooting and it’s not uncommon for me to go through hundreds of rounds in a weekend. I know people who shoot tens of thousands of rounds a year. Now, shooting that much may not be your cup of tea, but there are many people who do it and who bristle when people start talking about limiting ammunition purchases.
Corpsicle
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Non-Aristotelian Logic FTW!
LanceThruster
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
I often think of my firearms ownership akin to a boy given his first pocket knife. What it instilled in me was the sense of responsibility to own something potentially dangerous (almost always to myself).
Knowing the law of legal/safe/proper handling of such is done specifically not to have my right of ownership abridged/negated by my own actions.
Someone on these multiple suicide missions seemed not concerned with the consequences. Must they be the ones who determine the rights of those who do think in terms of consequences?
Would any/all/most of us feel morte inclined to forfeit or 2nd Amendment rights if we coud be assured of the sanctioning of those trying to deprive us of other rights? The supporters and implimenters of the Patriot Act are treasonous in my humble opinion, but that and $7.50 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
The well-regulated militia clause seems to indicate a support for “modern” firearms whose use is intended for national defense (not in the sense of sending National Guard troops on imperialist adventures).
By all means, lets have a discussion, but not the myopic ones that the NRA or ban advocates insist on having.
dogwood
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
What makes this guy any different than Loughner and Holmes? He’s mad about being evicted so he unloads on the police and anyone else in the vicinity. Loughner had an obsession with Gabby Giffords, so he targeted her and the people he assumed were her supporters. Holmes was a guy who thought he was smarter than everyone else. When he couldn’t cut it in grad school, he executed an elaborate mass murder plot to prove just how clever he was. These are all people who appear crazy by society’s standards, but they all appear to have motives for what they do, even if we don’t accept those motives.
LanceThruster
@whidby:
Had I the disposable income, I might buy lots when the price is low like John Denver buying and storing gasoline in an underground tank on his farm.
I had a friend’s Krag 1899 carbine with side box feed for the rounds for awhile (circa Spanish American war) and the rounds were over $2.00 each (and took a hell of time to find even those).
Firing a bolt action rifle gave me a lot of respect for those who used them, and an appreciation for the engineering involved in automatics.
If born in the US, Kalashnikov might have been Bill Gates rich.
Keith G
@Corpsicle:
There are times when ABL has that effect.
The local press in Houston (an hour from A&M) is being reserved, pointing out that not much is known. Still, their basic tenor seems to indicate a domestic scene gone bad and not a crazed killer stalking a neighborhood.
The type of fire arm mentioned…. only the term “rifle” was used.
Brachiator
Romney makes it all clear: Romney: Gun laws are not the answer
Of course, he waffles on what the answer might be.
elmo
The distinction between “automatic” and “semi-automatic” firearms is real, it’s significant, and it’s not just a matter of semantics. If proponents of reasonable regulation can’t get that simple distinction right, they’re going to lose every time, because automatic firearms are already all but banned.
If we’re going to talk about what should be the law, it’s kind of important to understand what already is the law. The National Firearms Act of 1934 (note the date, a long fucking time ago) effectively banned civilian ownership of fully automatic firearms. There is an incredibly onerous and expensive licensing process, which almost nobody goes through.
So by conflating “automatic” and “semi-automatic” firearms, our side gives the NRA an immediate head start in any public debate. Let’s repeat this slowly: automatic weapons are already effectively banned. If your proposal is to outlaw automatic weapons, you’re almost eighty years too late.
Semi-automatic weapons are not the same thing. They do not spray bullets with a single trigger pull. They do, however, have a much higher carrying capacity and ease of reloading. That’s what the argument about them should focus on, and if it gets sidetracked into how awful “automatic” weapons are, you’re losing the argument.
Now you may all feel free to call me a terrible person for knowing about both firearms and the law, and for caring about both accurate and effective advocacy. Surely I’m history’s greatest monster for pointing out that automatic weapons are already banned.
Shawn in ShowMe
@LanceThruster:
In Jefferson’s time, civilians and soldiers were bringing muskets to a musket fight. No rocket launchers, no tanks, no drones. Thanks to the military industrial complex, the citizenry lost the ability to fight the power a loooooong time ago.
Leveling the playing field between a potentially tyrannical government and the people would require the dissolution of the military industrial complex, which will happen about the same time online porn goes extinct.
whidby
@elmo: You obviously don’t care about protecting our children ! ! !
LanceThruster
@Shawn in ShowMe:
So true, and despite Posse Comitatus, it matters not if the crowd control weapons are in the hand of the local hired guns or the feds or the military. Expect whatever crowd control weapons used in Israel against Palestinians to be used here (and more). That seems to be the police state our LEO and military seem to be emulating.
Sonic disrupters, heat beam weapons, water cannons, etc., make the disparity much like the introduction of the Gatling gun against those without.
LanceThruster
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Whaa? Did you hear something?
If they hate us for our freedoms…they can stop. We’ve just about run out.
Ferd of the Nort
I call them gun-powder-addicts.
Ever talk to drug users?
Ever talk to rabid gun owners?
Ever ask them to go cold turkey?
There is always an excuse.
General Stuck
LOL, once again a thread full of idiots being idiots on an ABL thread. “Mass Shooting” does not imply motive, political, personal, or otherwise. It just means some nut shot a bunch of people, and I think that is what happened here. Isn’t it?
General Stuck
ergo – Multiple people shot = Mass shooting. duh
Ruckus
@whidby:
But this begs the question, if these many different types of gun laws haven’t reduced gun crime, why do you think additional ones will?
I don’t but if ineffective gun control laws are the best we can do because we never have a realistic discussion about the underlying problem of death and firepower then laws are useless. How many of the mass shootings are done with legally obtained guns? Seems to me almost all of them.
So one question should be do we want to allow mass shootings because we refuse to have realistic discussions about guns, gun control, a well regulated militia, and the fact that we live in the 21st century not the 18th, in a country of 300 million people?
Ben Franklin
General Sticky Nickels said
LOL, once again a thread full of idiots being idiots on an ABL thread
To which you add your inanities.
Ruckus
@elmo:
Hahahahaha
I have a friend who has a Federal Firearms License. He has attended large meets where everyone shoots fully automatic weapons, from Thompsons, BARs, to 50 calibers and more. There are lots of fully auto weapons out in the public, don’t kid yourself otherwise.
TS
So much for safety nets – how sad that being evicted becomes a death notice for the evictor and the evictee – which just maybe will cause some realistic thoughts about removing safety nets and letting people starve to death.
General Stuck
@Ben Franklin:
You sir, are one odd duck.
Ben Franklin
@General Stuck:
I hate explaining jokes to maroons, especially when they are the brunt of it.
General Stuck
@Ben Franklin:
Dude, you’re about as funny as dick cancer. Why would someone hang around a blog, just to deliver lame and half baked insults, that no one understands. But you keep right on doing it. Kind of pathetic.
edit – anyways, take the last word, if you want. Your comments are creepy
Ben Franklin
@General Stuck:
You are hilarious, however. I look forward to reading your future entries.
whidby
@Ruckus: Okay, the floor is yours – kick off this “realistic discussion”.
Ruckus
@whidby:
If you haven’t noticed I already did.
But here goes again.
The discussion is about death at the hands of others using a tool whose only purpose is to cause that death.
It is about the ineffective gun control laws that we have in this country.
It is about living in the 21st century with 300 million of your neighbors.
It is about not being afraid that anyone may kill you at any time. Easily. At some distance or not. With little effort.
It is about maturity. Understanding it. Getting some.
It is about our country acting like we just stopped the great invasion because our military can’t.
OK that’s off the top of my head.
clayton
@Keith G: Yeah, we here in Texas don’t want to be like Colorado or Wisconsin.
Here in Texas, we tell the news like it is. No ABL involved. That’s why the Gov. sat next to a guy wearing a “Beat Perry” hat over there in FLA when he made a statement.
Yeah, it’s all ABL. Not you or your problem with black women.
clayton
@whidby: I can kick it off.
Given there are collectors. Sorry for you that your investment is worthless in a new society. It’s the way that sort of thing goes. Ask anyone who holds onto something for too long. (Free market!)
Given there is something like the tobacco feel to this, the more shootings we have because the gun lobby has over-reached, figure in a similar response.
Look for the movie about the insider coming soon. And the gun and ammo industry will be taxed out of existence, except for the old timers. Taxes on gun and ammo are the next growth area.
It’s a wingers worst nightmare all over again.
And to Keith G. Suck on one of those local reporters. If you really live here you know how the news works.
valency
@The Dangerman:
If the weapons were automatic, there are already controls.
“Automatic” encompasses legal semi-auto weapons in journalistic parlance.
And the 1930s-era prohibition on full-auto weapons is pretty tokenistic. You can put out almost the same volume of fire with a semi-auto rifle and it will usually be better aimed. Current Marine US corps doctrine eschews full auto or burst-limiter mode in favour of rapid aimed semi-auto fire in nearly all situations.
valency
@The Dangerman:
If the weapons were automatic, there are already controls.
“Automatic” encompasses legal semi-auto weapons in journalistic parlance.
And the 1930s-era prohibition on full-auto weapons is pretty tokenistic. You can put out almost the same volume of fire with a semi-auto rifle and it will usually be better aimed. Current US Marine corps doctrine eschews full auto or burst-limiter mode in favour of rapid aimed semi-auto fire in nearly all situations.
Barney
This is not “seven days after the last mass shooting”. On Thursday night, a ‘dissatisfied patron’ shot and killed 3 people, and injured another, in a strip club in Dothan, Alabama. He was captured alive early next morning.
I have the feeling that the deaths of people who work at, or visit, a strip club are not taken so seriously by the media, though. And maybe not by the general public either.
opium4themasses
I live in College Station and attend the Unitarian Universalist Church not 3 blocks from the shooting yesterday. We lost one of our members, an innocent bystander named Christopher Northcliffe. We will be having a gathering at the church this evening at 6:30. More info at uucbv.org.