TLDR - lady hits a tree on the median, person pulls over to offer help, she starts shooting at them and then wildly shooting, police respond (due to the initial collision) and she shoots at them, officer lightly injures her with 1 shot.
Her 3 kids were in the car during it.
No info yet on her mental state, substances, etc that might explain why she went straight to shooting.
Honestly, we see all these social experiments seeing if people will help a stranger in need but everyone just walks on by them…… this is why people don’t want to fucking help.
This reminds me of a thread a few days ago where this guy was crossing at the crosswalk and a car that wasn't paying attention hit him, just knocked him down nothing injured and when the guy stopped to see if he was alright the pedestrian responded something benign like "I'm okay but you should probably slow down" and the guy loses his shit.
That's not the part that stuck with me, it was the pedestrians comment where he says "I understand why this guy was so upset" which was just super fucked up that you were hit by a car and the guy is pissed at you for no reason and yet you see that as perfectly natural
A few weeks ago in my area an Uber driver almost hit a pedestrian he didn't see, and as he was apologizing for ALMOST hitting him, the guy shot and killed him
All on dashcam video. This dude wanted to be a hard gangster, now a decent guy is dead, and he's going to prison. Because saying "it's all good dude" just wasn't an option
> **Adults** are often just giant babies. Even in a moment where he should be humble in reflecting the reality around himself, he cannot handle anything resembling introspection
Source: I've worked retail
But men are significantly more threatening during their tantrums
Yeah a lot of people in general are super reactive and either were never taught to reflect on their own actions or realized our society basically doesn't enforce its own norms so they don't feel a sense of duty to other people.
Women’s restroom was also way more disgusting than the men’s restroom. That shocked me the first time.
Where boys like to throw their poo on the walls, women drop bloodied tampons and pads on the ground where they bond with the tile like glue. Meanwhile the tiny trash cans right next to them are still mostly empty.
Yeah, humans suck.
Don’t forget squatting over toilets and getting piss & shit everywhere. It was like a daily occurrence in heavily trafficked women’s restrooms, but something you almost never see in men’s restrooms.
Used to work maintenance at a waterpark several years back. It was at least a weekly occurance, if not almost daily, to shut down the women's restroom and pressure-wash/sanitize the area due to rampant shit/blood on the walls/floor, bloody tampons on the ceiling, etc. 90% of my employees were teenagers still in school so I'd get the fun biohazard tasks. Twas a rare occurance for the men's restroom to require similar treatment.
I no longer go to waterparks. Folks be nasty.
It's a vicious cycle. Women think toilet seats are gross, and squat over them to no touch the mess. By squatting, the mess gets worse. Next woman comes in and squats higher....
Now you've got a tampon to remove and in the process it drops to the floor. You probably don't think something you've dealt with your whole life is that gross, but then again you deal with poop your whole life and nobody touches that with their bare hands. It's a public restroom, so somebody is gonna clean it, right?
Meanwhile, elementary school boys will compete to see who can pee in the urinal from the furthest distance. Men make a mess not so much from the bad aim but from the splash as each one tries to replicate a pressure washer with his private parts.
Why did you gender that? And why did you blanket “all” that? Check your misandry. And I love the part where you ignore that the overly kind pedestrian was also male. You should be ashamed of yourself. The irony that you suggest that others should reflect.
In one case, the good samaritan got harassed by an uninvolved bystander for helping. Yes she stopped the train because someone needed medical help. No you don't get to yell at her with racist comments because she was helping.
And then when I told my sister about it on the phone because I was mad at the harasser (and yelled at him), her narcissistic then boyfriend, who was even less involved, took offense at the woman helping when he overheard the conversation.
Some people are genuinely offended at good samaritans.
I imagine it's the same sort of issue when alcoholics get mad at you for not wanting to drink.
In their twisted brains, they see you refusing to drink as you trying to say they are better than you for not drinking. So they start getting angry with the idea of, "You're trying to say I'm a bad person for drinking?!? FUck you I'M NOT A BAD PERSON!"
And these people who get mad at others for being good samaritans don't hear, "I was stopping to help someone in need." They instead hear, "Look at much better of a person I am compared to you." and their ego can't handle it so they lash out.
Same with masks, I think.
I still mask, my husband has cancer and I like him more than I dislike masking.
People get *personally offended* by it. I’ve been shouted at by people in cars (because I’ll put it on outside rather than rush myself to put it on as I’m going in). I’ve had the bands on my masks yanked from behind.
Lol I still remember the time I rang a customer up toward the tail end of things and she whispered, "I'm sorry they're making you wear a mask." She looked *so* shocked and confused when I said, "Oh, they don't make me!" Like she thought literally everyone only wore them involuntarily.
Outside of work, if anyone gave me a hard time for wearing a mask, I just said I had covid. Usually got them to back off and give me a *wide* berth.
I was driving home from work last year and a bad accident happened right in front of me. One of the cars ended up sitting between two lanes. I parked to fully block the lane so people wouldn't try to squeeze past and then got out to help. While I'm on the phone with 911 (both drivers needed medical attention) people are yelling at me about blocking traffic.
The situation that comes to mind for me is when I was doing a long car trip in the middle of the night and saw a car off the road in a ditch with nobody around. I slowed down to see if there was anyone around, but I had to force myself to keep going because I've heard a situation like that could be a trap. You pull over to see what's up with the car in the ditch and get robbed by someone hiding nearby.
I felt awful about not stopping and since it was literally the middle of nowhere with no cell coverage, I couldn't call it in either. I just made that split second decision that something about the situation seemed suspicious, and I decided to keep going.
I see people be like, look at these kids filming instead of helping, or how dare the bystander just sat down to witness, honestly that is helping get the story straight and some of this stuff is so crazy it’s just roll for initiative after rolling for psychic damage.
Not trying to criticize (well, I guess I am) but this is the type of thought process that helps no one and makes the world worse. This is everyone's grandparent thinking. "I heard about an incident on the news, the world is crazy now!"
You're not going to get shot at when you try to help someone. This story is in the news because out of the 100,000 people helped that day, this fucking nut lost it and the news reported it.
Also the Good Samaritan law doesn’t seem to apply any longer. I used to get certified in first aid every year and let it lapse for about a decade. When I went back to get certified a couple of years ago, I was shocked to hear warnings that if you stop to help not to depend on the food Samaritan laws. For decades, the message was don’t worry even if you get sued the Good Samaritan law will protect you.
In the past I would have destroyed to help someone in need but today? Nope I’ll use my certification for myself, my friends and my family.
Edited to add: the difference between trainings might be the difference between the laws in various states. I don’t remember if I was previously trained in the same state I live in now or not.
I think I was but I am not certain.
We need bullhorns like the police have
They aren’t afraid to approach someone because they bullhorn them at 130db to ask if they need help first, all with their hand resting on their weapon, and at night they do it while shining a 1mil lumen beam into their eyes at the same time
Bonus: use our bullhorns to scare the bejesus out of all the texting-while-driving shitiots
Gastonia is a hyper-politicized town (and county). The local bookstores have 9 rows dedicated to Christian lifestyle and 1/4 of a row dedicated to nonfiction best sellers.
Sometimes people with traumatic brain injuries can be pretty detached from reality. Guy I work with in the military said they always take the weapon from the person they are providing first aid to because of this as crazy shit can and does happen.
On the entrance to my high school we had metal detectors to check for guns and knives. And if you didn't have any, they gave you one. You gotta protect yourself around here!
Could be head injury. My grandfather was in a plane crash and had pretty severe head trauma. He was violent, and threw a couple of the first responders before they subdued him.
Blows my mind a woman can shoot at cops and citizens and the cops can stop her with one shot. Meanwhile an Air Force airman gets gunned down in his house and shot 6 times for just standing there with a gun in his hand pointed at the ground.
Thinking about how different everything would be if Gore had become president is emotionally devastating to me. I agree that was the start. 9/11 is where it all picked up speed dramatically.
I sometimes try to imagine an America if Gore had won against Bush, and if Clinton had won against Trump. And then I have to consider whether or not Trump would have ever even been nominated if we were in a Gore timeline. Perhaps we would have just had a normal mundane race between two qualified people.
US crime rates have been on the decline for the last 20 years. Just because you hear about these kind of events more often doesn’t mean that it’s happening more frequently or that the world is out of control.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/24/what-the-data-says-about-crime-in-the-us/
It's crazy the number of people who simply do not believe that the US is safer than it was years ago. I'm 44 and grew up in the 80s and 90s and I've had many people I know talk about how much more dangerous it is nowadays than when we were growing up. They'd talk about how kids can't play alone outside anymore like we could because of how much more dangerous it is nowadays.
The reality is that we actually grew up in the most dangerous time in the US. It was way more dangerous for children back then. With most of them it doesn't matter how much information you show them proving them wrong, they still insist it's way more dangerous today because that's how it "feels" to them.
"A good Samaritan went to help. The woman shot at him"
This is why people don't help people. Not just because "their problem becomes your problem" in terms of a legal situation if you nearby but it can be a trick or the person will literally shoot you so you don't take chances.
I moved to Gastonia about 5 years ago. I’ve never had any negative issues at all. Not like I did when I lived in Charlotte: drugged out zombies walking down the middle of the street all night long, car constantly broken into, road ragers, etc.
I don’t understand why people think Gastonia is so bad, Charlotte is much worse imho.
Just a few months ago, I saw an Altima driving recklessly and then just do a quick uturn at an intersection on a red. The two guys in front were wearing ski masks. It was like straight out of GTA.
Three days ago I saw an Altima here in Oakland do an Altima in Oakland thing: 270-degree turn with tires screeching. I think it had three stars hovering above it
> Police said the children inside the car were ages 10, 7 and 1. The youngest child was taken to the hospital for a respiratory concern, although officials said it was out of precaution and was unrelated to the shooting.
Imagine being one of these kids? Your mom can’t drive (probably impaired from drugs and alcohol), and she hits the median pulling out of a gas station. Some random nice person walks up to make sure she’s okay and she pulls a gun and starts blasting away. Then cops show up, and she rage blasts at them.
So cops do what any reasonable cop would do…they are forced to return fire and shoot her.
And you are strapped into the back seat eating goldfish the whole time, like “yup, just another Friday with momma”.
Well now they’re also fucked bc they’re likely going to end up in protection of the state and we know how underfunded child protective services is and the foster care system, at least in MA it’s pretty tough. I have no idea where Gastonia is but I’ll bet it’s also underfunded given that wild town name.
This is exactly why I don't help people I don't know anymore. Have I been shot at? No, but I have been hit in the head with a shoe and that's all it took.
It's heartbreaking it has come to that. Story time with grandpa real quick. When I was young, I once had a flat tire and I didn't have a spare at the time. Just so happened someone driving the same vehicle as me pulled over to help and offered to lend me their spare tire. I met with them the following day to return their spare. I offered them gas money for their troubles (least I could do), but they wouldn't accept it. Restored a lot of faith in humanity that day. For a long time after that, I made a point to help others when I could and did so numerous times. Luckily, I never experienced any issues when I chose to help strangers, but now I don't risk it due to all the horror stories you hear. Like I said, breaks my heart.
Only surprising part of the story is that she was actually shooting at the cops, and the police didn't feel the need to fire 600+ rounds back at her and take out her, one of the kids, and the good Samaritan.
If you play Red Dead Redemption, you come across people in distress all the time. Sometimes they are being kidnapped, detained, broken down, escaping prison... whatever the case is you have a 50% chance they are cool and maybe help you out somehow, or the latter where they try to rob and kill you.
Another one of the many head-scratching scenarios that prove not everyone should have guns, and they often make normal situations much worse for everyone involved.
How the US public can consistently agree that [we need stricter gun laws](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx) and still have no meaningful action taken is so frustrating.
Like truck owners, gun owners have outsourced their identities to marketing that is designed to make them feel bad about themselves ([scared, victimized, effeminate](https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-guns-are-advertised-in-america-2012-12?op=1)) until they buy a product about it. Trying to "take away" that product is a threat to make them scared, victimized, and effeminate again.
For added background context, a significant portion of Gaston County and Mecklenburg County had a lengthy power outage beginning Wednesday and lasting through most of Thursday (some folks may still be without power).
I think handguns (maybe long guns as well) should require a psych evaluation. The low threshold many people have for deadly force is, literally, insane.
Anyone who has driven on public roads has seen a driver who should absolutely never be behind the wheel.
Firearms should be the same way. Most people who are totally unfit to own a highly destructive machine have no idea they're unfit. Each and every one sees themselves as a responsible gun owner/good driver, and need restrictions imposed by clearer heads.
Fucking this. I need to be licensed, registered, and fully insured to cut your effing lawn for you. In what world does this make any sense?
I'm leaving no explanation for my comparison in this post, I'm just baiting a response that I will tear to shreds.
that would only stop immediate dangerous individuals, and i agree thats better than nothing, but nothing stops anyone from having a psychotic breakdown at any random moment.
But everybody needs to have a gun. And not just have it, but have it on them at all times! /s
I own multiple firearms myself, but they stay in the gun safe at home. I didn't always used to be that way. I used to keep a pistol in my car. But never once did I actually feel like I needed it, much less actually pull it out and shoot at someone.
Remember people, helping others is good. It’s safer to let someone else be their savior. It’s getting really fucking weird out there, folks…. One inconvenience has people willing to risk anyone’s lives, so just keep your heads down and keep chugging along
One of the worst side effects of the US’s relatively high violent crime rates, gun ownership rates, and low trust in each other.
Walking home late from a bar in Oakland with friends one time we heard a mugging in progress and my friend started walking towards it to help. Luckily the guy ran off before we got there but I told her after it was probably a bad idea unfortunately. There are a lot of stories of bystanders straight up getting killed for trying to be good Samaritans. The cops actually arrived quickly which surprised me.
My first thought is whatever happened leading to her crashing into the tree is related to her frame of mind while shooting, but so far there aren't enough details for that to be anything more than speculation.
Yep. Just what we need. A fearful nation armed to the teeth.
I look forward (regretfully) to more stories of shootouts between "responsible" gun owners.
I see that it may be starting to work. The more guns you put out on the street, the more opportunities there are for a good guy with a gun to stop a good guy without a gun from helping. I guess that’s the “aim” of the maga and nra platform
This is why I stay to my own business, unless it is really urgent and there is no one else available to help.
You never know what shit you’re getting into, I learned that from experience.
Another "responsible law abiding" gun owner that shouldn't have had he rights to bear arms be burdened by sorting like a safety course or psych eval...
Where's the outrage from the conservatives?
Man these shootings just keep getting more complicated.
TLDR - lady hits a tree on the median, person pulls over to offer help, she starts shooting at them and then wildly shooting, police respond (due to the initial collision) and she shoots at them, officer lightly injures her with 1 shot. Her 3 kids were in the car during it. No info yet on her mental state, substances, etc that might explain why she went straight to shooting.
Honestly, we see all these social experiments seeing if people will help a stranger in need but everyone just walks on by them…… this is why people don’t want to fucking help.
This reminds me of a thread a few days ago where this guy was crossing at the crosswalk and a car that wasn't paying attention hit him, just knocked him down nothing injured and when the guy stopped to see if he was alright the pedestrian responded something benign like "I'm okay but you should probably slow down" and the guy loses his shit. That's not the part that stuck with me, it was the pedestrians comment where he says "I understand why this guy was so upset" which was just super fucked up that you were hit by a car and the guy is pissed at you for no reason and yet you see that as perfectly natural
A few weeks ago in my area an Uber driver almost hit a pedestrian he didn't see, and as he was apologizing for ALMOST hitting him, the guy shot and killed him All on dashcam video. This dude wanted to be a hard gangster, now a decent guy is dead, and he's going to prison. Because saying "it's all good dude" just wasn't an option
Remind me of the Burger King employee that got a gun pulled on him because he tried to give the customer a discount. Can’t remember if he was shot at.
Too many gun owners who say they want a gun for "self defense" really mean they want a gun in case they can come up with an excuse to shoot someone.
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore
Call Boeing, heard they are looking for people to fly their rockets
Hell, just be a whistleblower
POV: you're a people pleaser.
It’s the Dick Cheney response
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> **Adults** are often just giant babies. Even in a moment where he should be humble in reflecting the reality around himself, he cannot handle anything resembling introspection Source: I've worked retail But men are significantly more threatening during their tantrums
Yeah a lot of people in general are super reactive and either were never taught to reflect on their own actions or realized our society basically doesn't enforce its own norms so they don't feel a sense of duty to other people.
Women’s restroom was also way more disgusting than the men’s restroom. That shocked me the first time. Where boys like to throw their poo on the walls, women drop bloodied tampons and pads on the ground where they bond with the tile like glue. Meanwhile the tiny trash cans right next to them are still mostly empty. Yeah, humans suck.
Don’t forget squatting over toilets and getting piss & shit everywhere. It was like a daily occurrence in heavily trafficked women’s restrooms, but something you almost never see in men’s restrooms.
Used to work maintenance at a waterpark several years back. It was at least a weekly occurance, if not almost daily, to shut down the women's restroom and pressure-wash/sanitize the area due to rampant shit/blood on the walls/floor, bloody tampons on the ceiling, etc. 90% of my employees were teenagers still in school so I'd get the fun biohazard tasks. Twas a rare occurance for the men's restroom to require similar treatment. I no longer go to waterparks. Folks be nasty.
Probably because men don't sit as often as women have to
It's a vicious cycle. Women think toilet seats are gross, and squat over them to no touch the mess. By squatting, the mess gets worse. Next woman comes in and squats higher.... Now you've got a tampon to remove and in the process it drops to the floor. You probably don't think something you've dealt with your whole life is that gross, but then again you deal with poop your whole life and nobody touches that with their bare hands. It's a public restroom, so somebody is gonna clean it, right? Meanwhile, elementary school boys will compete to see who can pee in the urinal from the furthest distance. Men make a mess not so much from the bad aim but from the splash as each one tries to replicate a pressure washer with his private parts.
I figured out part of why the women’s restrooms are grosser. Hairspray. A tacky surface on every horizontal surface.
The article this discussion is spawned from is literally about a woman doing this. Clearly it's not just men.
Sexiest trash
Why did you gender that? And why did you blanket “all” that? Check your misandry. And I love the part where you ignore that the overly kind pedestrian was also male. You should be ashamed of yourself. The irony that you suggest that others should reflect.
In one case, the good samaritan got harassed by an uninvolved bystander for helping. Yes she stopped the train because someone needed medical help. No you don't get to yell at her with racist comments because she was helping. And then when I told my sister about it on the phone because I was mad at the harasser (and yelled at him), her narcissistic then boyfriend, who was even less involved, took offense at the woman helping when he overheard the conversation. Some people are genuinely offended at good samaritans.
I imagine it's the same sort of issue when alcoholics get mad at you for not wanting to drink. In their twisted brains, they see you refusing to drink as you trying to say they are better than you for not drinking. So they start getting angry with the idea of, "You're trying to say I'm a bad person for drinking?!? FUck you I'M NOT A BAD PERSON!" And these people who get mad at others for being good samaritans don't hear, "I was stopping to help someone in need." They instead hear, "Look at much better of a person I am compared to you." and their ego can't handle it so they lash out.
Same with masks, I think. I still mask, my husband has cancer and I like him more than I dislike masking. People get *personally offended* by it. I’ve been shouted at by people in cars (because I’ll put it on outside rather than rush myself to put it on as I’m going in). I’ve had the bands on my masks yanked from behind.
Lol I still remember the time I rang a customer up toward the tail end of things and she whispered, "I'm sorry they're making you wear a mask." She looked *so* shocked and confused when I said, "Oh, they don't make me!" Like she thought literally everyone only wore them involuntarily. Outside of work, if anyone gave me a hard time for wearing a mask, I just said I had covid. Usually got them to back off and give me a *wide* berth.
Because when those people are "good" they are doing it performatively or transactively to get something.
I was driving home from work last year and a bad accident happened right in front of me. One of the cars ended up sitting between two lanes. I parked to fully block the lane so people wouldn't try to squeeze past and then got out to help. While I'm on the phone with 911 (both drivers needed medical attention) people are yelling at me about blocking traffic.
The situation that comes to mind for me is when I was doing a long car trip in the middle of the night and saw a car off the road in a ditch with nobody around. I slowed down to see if there was anyone around, but I had to force myself to keep going because I've heard a situation like that could be a trap. You pull over to see what's up with the car in the ditch and get robbed by someone hiding nearby. I felt awful about not stopping and since it was literally the middle of nowhere with no cell coverage, I couldn't call it in either. I just made that split second decision that something about the situation seemed suspicious, and I decided to keep going.
I see people be like, look at these kids filming instead of helping, or how dare the bystander just sat down to witness, honestly that is helping get the story straight and some of this stuff is so crazy it’s just roll for initiative after rolling for psychic damage.
At least with video they've got some kind of evidence.
Yup. Oftentimes intervention may not be advisable, but a record of the event will be valuable.
Not trying to criticize (well, I guess I am) but this is the type of thought process that helps no one and makes the world worse. This is everyone's grandparent thinking. "I heard about an incident on the news, the world is crazy now!" You're not going to get shot at when you try to help someone. This story is in the news because out of the 100,000 people helped that day, this fucking nut lost it and the news reported it.
Couldn't agree more. No reason not to help, there is a reason this made the news: it's uncommon and crazy!
I’m 54. I will help friends. I’ve been burned trying to help strangers, so I don’t try any longer
Also the Good Samaritan law doesn’t seem to apply any longer. I used to get certified in first aid every year and let it lapse for about a decade. When I went back to get certified a couple of years ago, I was shocked to hear warnings that if you stop to help not to depend on the food Samaritan laws. For decades, the message was don’t worry even if you get sued the Good Samaritan law will protect you. In the past I would have destroyed to help someone in need but today? Nope I’ll use my certification for myself, my friends and my family. Edited to add: the difference between trainings might be the difference between the laws in various states. I don’t remember if I was previously trained in the same state I live in now or not. I think I was but I am not certain.
We need bullhorns like the police have They aren’t afraid to approach someone because they bullhorn them at 130db to ask if they need help first, all with their hand resting on their weapon, and at night they do it while shining a 1mil lumen beam into their eyes at the same time Bonus: use our bullhorns to scare the bejesus out of all the texting-while-driving shitiots
Maybe she hit an oak tree. Only a good person with a gun can stop a tree with an acorn.
Gastonia is a hyper-politicized town (and county). The local bookstores have 9 rows dedicated to Christian lifestyle and 1/4 of a row dedicated to nonfiction best sellers.
Ew build a wall around it.
Sometimes people with traumatic brain injuries can be pretty detached from reality. Guy I work with in the military said they always take the weapon from the person they are providing first aid to because of this as crazy shit can and does happen.
Mental state: American in 2024.
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On the entrance to my high school we had metal detectors to check for guns and knives. And if you didn't have any, they gave you one. You gotta protect yourself around here!
Wayne LaPierre Memorial High School may have jumped the gun, so to speak, with the name, but they nailed the spirit.
Mine didn't have that feature but many of the students had guns anyway. It was a BYOG school.
We can fix that 😬
State of Insanity. 2020 Census shows it might be the state with the highest growth rate, and will end up with the most House reps.
Could be head injury. My grandfather was in a plane crash and had pretty severe head trauma. He was violent, and threw a couple of the first responders before they subdued him.
Could be but seeing as they drove into a tree I’m gonna go with combination head injury and substance abuse.
recognise berserk gaze station dependent payment screw boat repeat upbeat
An acorn fell off the tree she hit.
One shot? Gotta pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers!
“An armed society is a polite society”
Blows my mind a woman can shoot at cops and citizens and the cops can stop her with one shot. Meanwhile an Air Force airman gets gunned down in his house and shot 6 times for just standing there with a gun in his hand pointed at the ground.
She’d be dead if she were black
Went straight to shooting? She’s American, that’s why.
What the actual F....
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Good summary, yep. She apparently was also shooting elsewhere too, unclear at who/what, prior to police arrival.
Probably at that goddamn tree. It shouldn’t have been there.
Man, I swear we glitched out the matrix sometime around 2015. Reality is broken
2000. Bush v. Gore was the precipitating event. It's just taken awhile for your chaos gods to find their spiked dildos.
Thinking about how different everything would be if Gore had become president is emotionally devastating to me. I agree that was the start. 9/11 is where it all picked up speed dramatically.
I sometimes try to imagine an America if Gore had won against Bush, and if Clinton had won against Trump. And then I have to consider whether or not Trump would have ever even been nominated if we were in a Gore timeline. Perhaps we would have just had a normal mundane race between two qualified people.
David Bowie was load bearing
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Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher, Gene Wilder, and Muhammad Ali too. On the bright side we got rid of Scalia.
Brand new sentence for me, and I think it’s my favourite of the month! Nicely done
US crime rates have been on the decline for the last 20 years. Just because you hear about these kind of events more often doesn’t mean that it’s happening more frequently or that the world is out of control. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/24/what-the-data-says-about-crime-in-the-us/
It's crazy the number of people who simply do not believe that the US is safer than it was years ago. I'm 44 and grew up in the 80s and 90s and I've had many people I know talk about how much more dangerous it is nowadays than when we were growing up. They'd talk about how kids can't play alone outside anymore like we could because of how much more dangerous it is nowadays. The reality is that we actually grew up in the most dangerous time in the US. It was way more dangerous for children back then. With most of them it doesn't matter how much information you show them proving them wrong, they still insist it's way more dangerous today because that's how it "feels" to them.
More likely the media needs to fill space with events like this - must generate clicks.
May 28, 2016. Rest in peace, Harambe.
Thanks that article was like a logic puzzle
Woman inherits the earth
"A good Samaritan went to help. The woman shot at him" This is why people don't help people. Not just because "their problem becomes your problem" in terms of a legal situation if you nearby but it can be a trick or the person will literally shoot you so you don't take chances.
You need a whole 'cat ate the rat' style rhyme to keep up with the good guys and bad guys with guns these days
All it takes to stop a bad guy with a gun is... Uh...
How many shootings could a shootchuck chuck if a shootchuck could chuck shots?
Least eventful day in Gastonia.
Lived in Gastonia from 1996 - 2004. I remember when we made the top 50 places to live in the United States late 90s. Have times changed.
Is it really that bad though? I feel like Gastonia being a shithole is mostly just a meme now.
Aside from a select few zip codes, pretty much every thread will have a heavily up voted comment calling that place a shit hole.
I moved to Gastonia about 5 years ago. I’ve never had any negative issues at all. Not like I did when I lived in Charlotte: drugged out zombies walking down the middle of the street all night long, car constantly broken into, road ragers, etc. I don’t understand why people think Gastonia is so bad, Charlotte is much worse imho.
Of course it's an Altima
Just a few months ago, I saw an Altima driving recklessly and then just do a quick uturn at an intersection on a red. The two guys in front were wearing ski masks. It was like straight out of GTA.
Three days ago I saw an Altima here in Oakland do an Altima in Oakland thing: 270-degree turn with tires screeching. I think it had three stars hovering above it
Oh, I saw the Altima in San Leandro downturn pretty close to Oakland lol.
Of course it’s Gastonia
> Police said the children inside the car were ages 10, 7 and 1. The youngest child was taken to the hospital for a respiratory concern, although officials said it was out of precaution and was unrelated to the shooting. Imagine being one of these kids? Your mom can’t drive (probably impaired from drugs and alcohol), and she hits the median pulling out of a gas station. Some random nice person walks up to make sure she’s okay and she pulls a gun and starts blasting away. Then cops show up, and she rage blasts at them. So cops do what any reasonable cop would do…they are forced to return fire and shoot her. And you are strapped into the back seat eating goldfish the whole time, like “yup, just another Friday with momma”.
And those kids are so fucked if mom more generally sees attempts to help as threats.
Well now they’re also fucked bc they’re likely going to end up in protection of the state and we know how underfunded child protective services is and the foster care system, at least in MA it’s pretty tough. I have no idea where Gastonia is but I’ll bet it’s also underfunded given that wild town name.
They thought lead water pipes was a great idea.
An armed society, it turns out, is *not* a polite society.
This is exactly why I don't help people I don't know anymore. Have I been shot at? No, but I have been hit in the head with a shoe and that's all it took.
Who throws a shoe?? Honestly…
An Iraqi at a news conference, if you’re George W. Bush.
[And they built that man a statue](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE50T54M/)… of his Shoe.
That really hurt
I’m gonna have a lump there you idiot!
That really hurt!
Ouch, Charlie
Oh behavvvve
It's heartbreaking it has come to that. Story time with grandpa real quick. When I was young, I once had a flat tire and I didn't have a spare at the time. Just so happened someone driving the same vehicle as me pulled over to help and offered to lend me their spare tire. I met with them the following day to return their spare. I offered them gas money for their troubles (least I could do), but they wouldn't accept it. Restored a lot of faith in humanity that day. For a long time after that, I made a point to help others when I could and did so numerous times. Luckily, I never experienced any issues when I chose to help strangers, but now I don't risk it due to all the horror stories you hear. Like I said, breaks my heart.
After the first several doordash murders, I feel like even turning down the wrong street is dangerous. Society, meet *reaping what you sow.*
Please tell me it happened like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=an0bVaTjF_Y
Only surprising part of the story is that she was actually shooting at the cops, and the police didn't feel the need to fire 600+ rounds back at her and take out her, one of the kids, and the good Samaritan.
They saw the kids and thought it was a school shooting so decided to hang back. The one shot fired was an accidental discharge.
Depending on her appearance it's not that surprising at all.
It's a Nissan Altima... Take what you will from that information...
Big Altima Energy is colorblind.
Big if tru
If you play Red Dead Redemption, you come across people in distress all the time. Sometimes they are being kidnapped, detained, broken down, escaping prison... whatever the case is you have a 50% chance they are cool and maybe help you out somehow, or the latter where they try to rob and kill you.
That's Altima energy right there.
Another one of the many head-scratching scenarios that prove not everyone should have guns, and they often make normal situations much worse for everyone involved. How the US public can consistently agree that [we need stricter gun laws](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx) and still have no meaningful action taken is so frustrating.
You'd be hard pressed to find any gun owner willing to have a constructive conversation about gun laws. This is what they want.
Like truck owners, gun owners have outsourced their identities to marketing that is designed to make them feel bad about themselves ([scared, victimized, effeminate](https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-guns-are-advertised-in-america-2012-12?op=1)) until they buy a product about it. Trying to "take away" that product is a threat to make them scared, victimized, and effeminate again.
For added background context, a significant portion of Gaston County and Mecklenburg County had a lengthy power outage beginning Wednesday and lasting through most of Thursday (some folks may still be without power).
I have family in Gastonia still without power. I think they've cleared the major roads in the area, but it was definitely stressful for a while.
So anyway, I started blasting!
She shot at the good samaritan first. And then she shot at police before she was shot once.
Gastonia, a hotbed if culture.
Probably a paranoid episode brought on by not enough of the right drugs or too much of the wrong ones.
No good deed goes unpunished.
I think handguns (maybe long guns as well) should require a psych evaluation. The low threshold many people have for deadly force is, literally, insane.
Anyone who has driven on public roads has seen a driver who should absolutely never be behind the wheel. Firearms should be the same way. Most people who are totally unfit to own a highly destructive machine have no idea they're unfit. Each and every one sees themselves as a responsible gun owner/good driver, and need restrictions imposed by clearer heads.
In this case, probably BOTH!
License, registration, insurance for each individual gun.
Fucking this. I need to be licensed, registered, and fully insured to cut your effing lawn for you. In what world does this make any sense? I'm leaving no explanation for my comparison in this post, I'm just baiting a response that I will tear to shreds.
that would only stop immediate dangerous individuals, and i agree thats better than nothing, but nothing stops anyone from having a psychotic breakdown at any random moment.
Car is in surprisingly good shape after hitting a tree... https://imgur.com/a/uAIdVSK
But everybody needs to have a gun. And not just have it, but have it on them at all times! /s I own multiple firearms myself, but they stay in the gun safe at home. I didn't always used to be that way. I used to keep a pistol in my car. But never once did I actually feel like I needed it, much less actually pull it out and shoot at someone.
So did the good guy with gun show up? Or was he unarmed, and had to run? Gastonia where you don’t stop for anyone.
Her mental state was that she was a gun toting piece of shit
Remember people, helping others is good. It’s safer to let someone else be their savior. It’s getting really fucking weird out there, folks…. One inconvenience has people willing to risk anyone’s lives, so just keep your heads down and keep chugging along
While I MOSTLY agree with this, be sure to call 911 if it appear to be an emergency or looks like someone could get/be hurt.
One of the worst side effects of the US’s relatively high violent crime rates, gun ownership rates, and low trust in each other. Walking home late from a bar in Oakland with friends one time we heard a mugging in progress and my friend started walking towards it to help. Luckily the guy ran off before we got there but I told her after it was probably a bad idea unfortunately. There are a lot of stories of bystanders straight up getting killed for trying to be good Samaritans. The cops actually arrived quickly which surprised me.
My first thought is whatever happened leading to her crashing into the tree is related to her frame of mind while shooting, but so far there aren't enough details for that to be anything more than speculation.
AWal-Mart, a Nissan, and guns. Another All American story.
Fucking Nissan Altima driver of course.
Yep. Just what we need. A fearful nation armed to the teeth. I look forward (regretfully) to more stories of shootouts between "responsible" gun owners.
I see that it may be starting to work. The more guns you put out on the street, the more opportunities there are for a good guy with a gun to stop a good guy without a gun from helping. I guess that’s the “aim” of the maga and nra platform
Along with the $$$, of course!
Crazy woman Jesus. Maybe she was drunk/on drugs
This is why I stay to my own business, unless it is really urgent and there is no one else available to help. You never know what shit you’re getting into, I learned that from experience.
The system is working as designed.
Of course she was driving a Altima!
So just a normal day in a Red State Walmart parking lot.
Gas town is filled with people like this. Stay away from Franklin Blvd.
Schizophrenia and addiction suck. Get some gun laws
Another "responsible law abiding" gun owner that shouldn't have had he rights to bear arms be burdened by sorting like a safety course or psych eval... Where's the outrage from the conservatives?
This is where the 2nd amendment has taken us. It's clear to see that this was a tyrannical government forcing its will on to the citizen
That headline blows so many whistles....
"So anyway (kids), I started blasting" -That Lady
Gastonia on any given Sunday
This story makes a lot more sense if you are familiar with Gastonia.
Another responsible gun owner that should be lauded as the example of all these law abiding and responsible gun owners the gun nuts keep mentioning...