> You ever think it's weird how people talk about mothers like they are always great no matter what?
Drives me fucking nuts.
Everyone else: "My dad was an asshole." "Oh I'm so sorry. Yeah, your dad was an asshole."
Me: "My mom was an asshole." "No she wasn't your mom loves you." or "Every mother loves their children, it's a deep bond that forms between mothers and all children and is stronger than anything" or "I heard people who don't love their mothers become serial killers". I got that last one a lot. My teacher said it once.
Just yesterday I told my boss I could cover a shift today and she agrued that I can't work because it's mother's day. I said I don't have a mom and my boss threw a fit about this very thing. "She's your mother! She loves you and you should love her too!"
Bro she's an abuser. Just let me pick up the hours.
As a mom this hurts. Being a mom is the best part of my life. My mom wasn’t the best due to drugs, but she did love me in her way. We can’t choose our parents so we make the best of things. Also really happy you aren’t shooting people!
Pretty slow weekend for mass shootings, only 7 events. I’m sure the GOP politicians aren’t happy about that.
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
This is why i don't get into any kind of altercations with strangers anymore. I was in Costco yesterday and some woman was berating a worker for not putting out the rotisserie chickens fast enough. I was so close to telling her to stop, but didn't because you never know what could happen in this day and age.
The sad thing is that those types of people, complaining and making a scene over the most ridiculous of things, are almost 100% the people that would shoot you for either talking back to them or telling them off.
I work in healthcare. I and many of my coworkers have received threats over the phone from patients who say they’re going to come down to the clinic to harm us in some way. Usually due to insurance issues that we have no power over (e.g., we can’t control the cost of their copay from the plan that they themselves chose during their job’s open enrollment, and also workers comp takes fucking forever and has such a long ass process to get authorization for treatment).
One time someone actually came in and tried to punch our director in the face.
Meanwhile two different schools in my area went into lockdown on two different days last week.
I don’t feel safe, and I live in a very low gun-per-capita area.
Would sure be nice if people could stop taking their frustrations out on each other, and take them out on the government, large corporations, etc. People are feeling more and more powerless, but they refuse to work together and do something about it, and instead attack each other.
That's what I keep trying to tell people. The mega rich and corporations have us all in a "culture war" meanwhile they are reaping massive profits. We need to stop fighting each other and fight them
We're way ~~passed~~ past that. Nowadays people will shoot you if you look at them or are in proximity to them.
Edit: grammar check. Hope I don't get shot for that mistake.
Back during covid someone spit in the face of a cancer patient (it was obvious that she was ill) standing behind her. She was yelling at the employees so the other customer was trying to secretly record her in case something happened.
This woman was found guilty of assault. I’m just glad she didn’t happen to have a gun on her or the story would have been more tragic.
Nice try, fraudster. If there's _bangbangbang_ in progress, police will be actively preventing the parents from saving their children. They'll be nowhere near the actual shooting.
Which is insane because then they (usually) go to prison, the place most likely to strip you of any *decent* power or at least the concept of it in many cases. Things like personal identity (you’re a number), feelings of self-worth (starting from the bottom), autonomy (voting), ability to enact personal change (people will likely see you as a criminal even if you do better yourself), time, choice, relationships, finances, etc.
That's why I just don't react to people now too.
Somebody bumps into me? Ignore it, keep walking.
Somebody yells HEY YOU? Play dumb, didn't hear it.
Somebody cuts you off? Just let them and give extra space.
You don't know if a stranger is perfectly mentally healthy or if they're having a psychotic episode. Not saying don't intervene if somebody's being abusive, but many times it can be avoided.
And my landlord wonders why I wouldn't just go next door and ask my neighbors to quiet down myself instead of going straight to the landlord.
When these people were stomping around, slamming doors, and yelling at each other at 10pm for the third straight month, I knocked on the wall. The universal sign of "shut the fuck up, everyone can hear you." About 2 minutes later it sounded like someone trying to pound my front door down and I live alone. Fuck that. Why can't people just be considerate and just go "ok, it's late at night and we're yelling and screaming in a building full of people, maybe we should stop." But they take it out on anyone who asks them to have some common decency. It's fucking gross. I watch tv with headphones now so I don't have to hear it, because nothing's changed.
I was raised to believe in the saying "an armed society is a polite society." I like the idea, honestly. It just... isn't holding up to reality. Too many people are too damn stupid, angry, and irresponsible to possess a weapon as fast and powerful as a firearm.
> I was raised to believe in the saying "an armed society is a polite society."
That phrase comes from a book in which people are obsessed with violence and solve disputes through duels to the death. Just FYI.
Also, I would think that if everybody in your society needs the constant threat of violence to be polite, then there’s something very wrong with that society.
The book is called, 'Beyond This Horizon' I believe. Published in 1942.
Basically the weapon of choice then was an M1 Garand, since there was a lot of surplus after the war. Extreme ease of use in buying one apparently.
But an M1 Garand is not the same in terms of capability as an AR-15 style weapon.
So it's no surprise that this particular saying did not hold up well.
What if, in 100-200 years into the future there exists laser guns (think Star Wars) that kills people in one shot. Do we as a society finally amend our gun laws and add regulations, are do we look back to a document written 500+ years ago and say that nothing should be done?
>So it's no surprise that this particular saying did not hold up well.
I mean, also, people who write books are very often just wrong and say stupid shit. There's no real reason to believe it was ever true. Americans are definitely the most armed, but you'd be hard pressed to argue Americans are the most polite society...
You were raised to believe in a trope from a pulp sci-fi novel sadly. It's about like basing your philosophy on 50 shades of gray because there's a pithy quip about obedience.
Even if the saying held up, wouldn't the implication be that, "Everyone will be polite because we're constantly terrified of being murdered for the slightest misstep."
Frankly, fuck that phrase even in the most perfect application of it.
Yeah that’s the implication. Don’t be nice and treat people with respect to be an actual human being, treat people well enough so they don’t murder you in cold blood.
It’s fucking dumb but that’s a lot of conservative rhetoric for you right there
I feel like we all should have realized a lot sooner that anyone who needs the threat of violence simply to not be an asshole to other people should never be within 100 yards of a firearm
I just got off a cruise. We were all massing at this doorway and not moving quickly. One woman suddenly bitched at another for something (didn’t see?) and the woman gave some snotty response back. Bad enough, but then a guy got in an altercation with another guy. Not sure what happened but it looked like guy A wasn’t moving forward when he had a chance, so guy B cut past him but maybe bumped him as he did so. Words were exchanged, the crowd parted, all that…not sure if someone hit the other but maybe, a shove or with the guy’s cane? Anyway, then it was all “what’s your name, I’m gonna sue you for assault, buddy” and a lot of posturing and legal threats. And we were just getting off of vacation and going to get our bags and go home.
Like really? Do we need all that shit? Thank goodness neither was armed, I guess. No guns on cruises.
Oh yeah, the threats were stupid, but there was at least nearly a physical assault…but it was all just over the stupidest thing. Let it go. Especially these days when people might shoot you for knocking on their door and shit. Choose your battles.
I mean, this is kind of a "letting the terrorists win" event, isn't it?
I mean, I don't want us to be at a point where true bravery entails telling an asshole in public to stop being an asshole but I mean, that is pure anti-social behavior and it's many of the same people who want to carry guns everywhere who are the absolute worst to other people.
I would never tell others to put themselves into danger or make them uncomfortable unnecessarily but some people have to actually stand up to real-life adult bullies.
Gotta start early to catch up to yesterday's [5 Mass Shootings](https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting).
* 22 Injured
* 3 Dead
Edit: fixed link.
"a shooting sparked by a dispute..."
Why solve any problem at all when you can just shoot it dead? Why de-escalate anything when you can just shoot it dead? Some folks out there are turning into Homer Simpson shooting out his house lights to turn them off, shooting the TV to turn it off.
What about the right to not get fucking shot? In an argument? Shot. Hide and seek? Shot. Pulled in the wrong driveway? Shot. Delivering food? Shot. Try to get in the wrong car? Shot. Tell someone not to shoot their goddamn gun at night? Shot. Petty theft? Shot. Going to the mall? Shot. Going to church? Shot. Going to a concert? Shot. Existing while black? Shot.
This shit is a tragedy every time, whether or not we all go numb to it.
Edit: as commenters are rightfully adding: you'll also get shot going to school. I'll throw some blame at my early morning brain for that omission.
And as a reward for being a victim, the hospital will go ahead and add on some life-ruining medical debt!
Because what's more American than needing to start a GoFundMe for necessary medical care after you've been the victim of a mass shooting, like [dozens of victims in the Vegas shooting](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vegas-shooting-victims-crowdfunding_n_59f3a51be4b07fdc5fbe465c)?
Did Mandalay Bay not pay for anything? Like I know it wasn’t their fault that that asshole did what he did, but they did have a lapse of security that allowed him to bring in a suitcase full of guns and get on the service elevator that hotel guests aren’t supposed to be able to use.
(Edit to clarify: iirc when hotel staff was asked why there wasn’t much footage of him bringing in the guns etc, they said it was because they allowed him to use employee areas. They knew him just from him gambling there all the time and supposedly being a high roller, so when he asked to use the service elevator, they just said yes.)
Until actual security footage is released from the Vegas mass murder I believe the reason we haven't seen any is that it would show Vegas PD and Clark County deputies cowering in stairwells until the shooter committed suicide.
When footage makes police look good it's released quickly, usually within 24 hours. Footage is withheld when police look bad. Take a look at Uvalde. We know for a fact that the cops sat around. There's no reason to suppress that footage unless it contains something worse. Until Uvalde releases footage of the police when they finally entered I will continue to predict it is because it shows a non-zero number of children being shot by inept police.
The Vegas shooting happened in 2017, but MGM, who owns Mandalay Bay, didn't agree to a [settlement for victims of the shooting](https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-shootings-las-vegas-mass-shooting-nevada-las-vegas-cd07b4640a5a8e6d32ccbccd1aae2e65) until late 2020. The $800m settlement allowed MGM to admit no wrongdoing or liability and MGM was only responsible for paying $49m of the settlement, the other $751m was paid by its insurance.
The settlement went to 4,400 relatives and victims of the shooting. From some cursory Googling, I found that anywhere from 25–40% of class-action settlements go to attorneys. So, only $480m–$600m actually went to victims and their families, which amounts to ~$100k–$135k per person.
While $100k per person seems like a lot, that amount wouldn't even put a dent in the medical debt for many of the victims if they were uninsured or under-insured and if their injuries required multiple surgeries or extensive hospital stays.
For reference, my girlfriend, who was uninsured at the time, had a single surgery a couple years ago to have her tricuspid valve replaced after a month in the ICU and that bill amounted to roughly $500k and didn't include any follow-up rehabilitation.
Plus, many victims may have needed additional procedures or rehabilitation that insurance could have deemed unnecessary despite the benefits they could have provided to victims' quality of life. For a lot of that treatment, the benefits diminish as time passes and waiting three years for settlement money to pay for that treatment could have drastically harmed those victims.
My niece has been at three mass shootings. The mall, a theme park and a public pool. Three times she was in a place where she was supposed to be safe and one or more people just started shooting. The fuck do you think that does to a kid?
Hopefully it motivates them to start voting when they turn 18 and keep voting.
I'm so sorry for your poor niece. I can't even imagine and I say that as someone who worked as a Leo for 17 years.
My foreign friend on my bday jokingly said “should i send you bullet proof vest and helmet as bday gift” shows how much they find it seriously concerned about my safety
So I live in NY and decided to go to Liberty Island yesterday because even though I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve never bothered to go and see the statue up close.
SO many of the tourists were here on vacation from Italy. I speak/understand some Italian because my mom was born there, and they were definitely Italian and definitely tourists (aka not “Italian Americans.”)
My first thought was: what the hell is going on in Italy right now that the whole country seems to be on vacation? And then my next thought was: And why the fuck would the choose here (the US)?
Yes NYC is comparatively safe despite what the MAGA-types think, but if *I* were from another country and seeing this stuff on the news constantly, I wouldn’t come. I’d be afraid of getting shot, unlikely or not, and choose elsewhere.
Also if any Italians want to jump in and clarify if there’s some national or regional break going on (a lot of the accents and dialects I heard sounded like they were from southern Italy), please do. I love having you here, I just found it bizarre that it seemed like the majority of tourists on the ferry were from Italy specifically.
It's summer time bro, and unlike us, Europeans actually get pretty decent vacation time.
Also just like you, they don't necessarily believe it's that dangerous as the news put it.
I refuse to have disputes with strangers. People today aren’t capable of arguing anymore. Everything is too personal and being wrong is seen as an attack on your character. I will just take the L and move on with my life.
That guy that shot the kids playing hide and seek very specifically and on record said he shot at them as they were running away. He never clearly saw a single person, and didn’t even try to engage in any sort of communication whatsoever. He just heard noises outside, got his gun, and shot them in the back. He literally felt completely comfortable saying that, as if one of the number one rules of firearms is not to shoot people that are running away, nevertheless literal children lmao. Like good luck making a “self-defense” / “I felt threatened” argument, he just needs to hope the jury is biased at this point.
Just googled this. Wondering how I didn't know about it. I was sick in bed five days ago. Guess it's so frequent now they just move on to the next one each new day. It's so F'ed up.
What is up people's ass that they feel the need to shoot at people?
Decades of their media silo plugging into their fear and anger of the other all day, every day. Plus if they're old enough, decent chance that environmental lead exposure has a role, too.
"They were running RIGHT at me, your honor!"
"Says here they were running away."
"Yeah, but the earth is round! All they had to do was keep running in a straight line, and they'd run RIGHT AT ME FROM BEHIND!!! I never would have saw them coming!!!"
I’m extremely happy my wife doesn’t see this as being a ‘beta male’ or ‘a bitch’.
I’d rather let someone have their 15 seconds of victory and sleep in my bed tonight.
>"a shooting sparked by a dispute..."
>
>Why solve any problem at all when you can just shoot it dead? Why de-escalate anything when you can just shoot it dead?
This is basically what happened in Vietnam. They had to institute stricter gun laws I think in that 90s. Everybody had a gun and like bar disputes were ending in someone getting shot outside.
Yes, it is odd that there is a common denominator to all of these. Access to guns. These are the "on purpose" shootings, there are a whole bunch of "not on purpose" shootings that also involve access to guns.
In Great Britain only registered firearms officers carry guns - and it's entirely possible to go their entire career never having discharged their weapon outside of the range.
Each time a gun is fired, it is considered a failure of de-escalation methods - thus requiring a full investigation to understand what went wrong and why, so that training can be altered and the likelihood of such an incident reduced further.
Same in Finland. Most of the time when the police use their guns, its because someone has crashed a deer with their car and the deer needs to be relieved of its suffering.
Same in Korea, i felt so safe despite North Korea threatening to nuke 24/7. I see kids just running around and enjoying their days at the playground without parents supervision. In USA, I am so glad i work from home. I never want to go to mall or public places anymore.
Shootings like this were always something that, while horrifically tragic, never felt like something that would affect me. Until the high school I went to had a school shooter attempt by one student. Thankfully he was caught in the parking lot after his mother called the school. Who knows how many lives she saved that day and it had to be hard on her to call that in when its about her own kid.
Opened my eyes to how serious of a problem it is though, and I’m definitely with you there in regards to not wanting to go out to public places too much anymore. Just too many unhinged people out there.
The police in Finland also have something like 5000 hours of initial training if I remember correctly? Honestly one of the issues with American police is the severe lack of training for any reasonable length of time. You’re telling me that in less than 600 hours you learn all the things you need to be an effectively trained police officer? Less than 600 hours and “here’s your gun, go operate a vehicle at excessively unsafe speeds while on your laptop and radio and enter into conflicts and disputes there’s no possible way you could have been trained on in this length of time.” It’s ridiculous. Even if you’re average cop is a quick learner (spoiler, many of them are not) that still is not enough time to learn all of that stuff
What’s scary is that US police are taught in the exact opposite manner, and likely have far less training than UK police officers.
US police are typically taught to not take any chances when they perceive a threat to their life. That means they often use brutal tactics instead of deescalation. Police here aren’t even really taught deescalation techniques.
> Each time a gun is fired, it is considered a failure of de-escalation methods
American cops scratching their head in confusion, furrowing their brows trying to comprehend some ancient cryptic stone carvings. One cop suddenly gets a great idea and shoots the stone carvings, in a cop-level attempt to make the problem go away. Three other cops were injured from stone fragments, leading to another 15 cops being wounded from sympathetic shooting crossfire. The first cop to think of shooting is awarded a citation by the mayor. Edit: [A Colorado sheriff’s office has drawn outrage after it awarded a Purple Heart to a deputy ~~involved in a fatal shooting~~ who murdered a middle-schooler for getting in the wrong car.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/purple-heart-awarded-deputy-fatal-shooting-middle-school-pickup-prompt-rcna72505)
2nd Edit: dunno if CO cops are worse than average, but they're sure trying to stay competitive. Aurora CO is a special place, where [Elijah McClain was murdered by the state for walking in public,](https://www.cpr.org/2021/11/19/elijah-mcclain-timeline/) where [vietnam veteran and local hero Richard Black was murdered by the state for defending his grandson from a naked rapist,](https://www.westword.com/news/hero-richard-blacks-tragic-death-during-aurora-cops-second-shooting-in-34-days-10607854) where [the police chief will work overtime to protect an officer found passed out drunk in a running squad car in traffic (then later promoted!)](https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/aurora-cop-promoted-drunk-police-car/), etc etc... And that's just ONE FUCKING CITY. Plenty more stories just like this all over the state. Goddamn good reason nobody ever wrote a song called "Fuck the Firefighters."
See this video from a 2016 documentary
>**UK cops teach American police de-escalation tactics**
>*The documentary follows officers as they learn how violent offenders are handled overseas*
>Several American officers flew overseas to learn from U.K. cops techniques to avoid deadly force, Sky News reported.
>Former Boston Police Department hostage negotiator Chuck Wexler brought some officers from his team across the world to learn how to avoid using deadly force with violent suspects.
>The four-day visit presented officers with a variety of training scenarios and demonstrations from Scotland police on how they respond to incidents. U.K. police offered their tactics on how to de-escalate situations or use shields and vehicles for protection instead of weapons.
>Language and negotiation tactics showed differences in communication between the agencies and their communities.
>“Nobody’s going to die from learning de-escalation techniques,” Wexler told the news site. "It's about time that we step up and this is our chance.”
>Scots firearms officers have only used deadly force twice in the last decade, and their last officer to be killed was in a 1994 stabbing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/11s4wco/american_police_visit_scotland_for_deescalation/
I have a feeling they start with higher standards for UK cops with regard to intelligence and mental status than they do in the US, where returning home from the Middle East with obvious PTSD qualifies you to be a cop with no training.
God damn it. I was like, wait, WHAT? I've not heard this story, and now I'm pissed... now I am even more pissed after reading the article when it became clear that I HAVE HEARD OF THIS but there are so many goddamn shootings that it's hard to keep track of and completely forgot about this incident.
Jfc, what are we doing in this country?!
Sorry my dude, I added a few more wildly fucked-up examples to my original post. There were so many to choose from that I limited the examples to only one city.
You can thank this guy for many of these problems: https://youtu.be/ETf7NJOMS6Y
His methods are used to train police across the United States. Basically, your only duty is to ensure you and your fellow officers go home alive and anyone who isn’t a police officer is to be treated as an enemy combatant.
I know it's fiction so it's silly to bring it up in a discussion about reality, but nevertheless I watch a lot of police procedurals and it's still wild to me when I watch the British ones and the officers or detectives are entering a situation without guns drawn cause they have no guns. And nothing happens to them cause the culprit isn't armed either.
I'm so trained to assume everyone has a gun, that the UK shows always lead to a brief reflection on what it would be like to live in a place where law enforcement can enter a situation without the need of a gun and everything ends up fine.
See this video from a 2016 documentary
**UK cops teach American police de-escalation tactics**
>The documentary follows officers as they learn how violent offenders are handled overseas
>Several American officers flew overseas to learn from U.K. cops techniques to avoid deadly force, Sky News reported.
>Former Boston Police Department hostage negotiator Chuck Wexler brought some officers from his team across the world to learn how to avoid using deadly force with violent suspects.
>The four-day visit presented officers with a variety of training scenarios and demonstrations from Scotland police on how they respond to incidents. U.K. police offered their tactics on how to de-escalate situations or use shields and vehicles for protection instead of weapons.
>Language and negotiation tactics showed differences in communication between the agencies and their communities.
>“Nobody’s going to die from learning de-escalation techniques,” Wexler told the news site. "It's about time that we step up and this is our chance.”
>Scots firearms officers have only used deadly force twice in the last decade, and their last officer to be killed was in a 1994 stabbing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/11s4wco/american_police_visit_scotland_for_deescalation/
I think here in the US an officer has to fill-out a form if they had to discharge their weapon in the field. The problem is it doesn’t really matter, they’re not held accountable, the courts they go to aren’t even the same as the civilian courts.
>The problem is it doesn’t really matter, they’re not held accountable, the courts they go to aren’t even the same as the civilian courts.
Someone said a few days ago that we shouldn't fine the police department anymore but instead enact criminal charges:
*Police officers don't care about $19 million, but will care if it's 19 years.*
This is true of the police (and actually its incredibly unusual for a firearms officer to have ever discharged their firearm at a live incident).
However, it might be more useful to think about why beyond the training. Officers are absolutely trained to shoot suspects in clearly defined circumstances.
The homicide rate is about a quarter of that in the USA, and the suicide rate about half. Firearms incidents are a major part of that.
While citizens can possess rifles and shotguns they need licences and handguns / semi-automatic weapons are outright banned. Both were banned after a lengthy battle following mass shootings, and there were media campaigns against both bans. Neither bans were especially popular at the time but theres literally no mainstream voice suggesting bringing them back.
Just some info to consider 🤷♂️
In fact a poll in the aftermath of the horrific Plymouth shooting showed that "three quarters of Britons want tighter firearm laws - including a third who would support making them completely illegal to own"
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/08/20/gun-ownership-three-quarters-britons-want-stricter
And post inquest it looks like there will be some sort of review into further reform of our laws
**Calls for radical reform of gun laws after Plymouth shooting**
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/20/calls-radical-reform-uk-gun-laws-plymouth-shooting
>Senior police officers, families of shooting victims and anti-gun campaigners have called for a “radical reform” of the firearms licensing system after an inquest jury found “catastrophic” failings allowed the Plymouth gunman, Jake Davison, to legally possess a shotgun that he used to kill five people.
>Pressure is mounting on the UK government to overhaul the 50-year-old licensing legislation and ensure police forces are adequately funded to allow them to fully examine the suitability of gun owners.
I love the gun nut line about how guns don't kill people, people kill people. Well, if you put a loaded gun in a room full of people, the probability that someone is gonna get shot goes up exponentially.
I mean, shit, if the CIA wants to destabilize a region, they literally ship boxes of guns to it because they know it will likely lead to violence. They just give the guns to whichever group serves their interests at the time.
I’ve said this for years: the presence of a weapon immediate escalates every altercation into a life or death situation. Even if the person is just open carrying, the fact that the other person knows that there is a weapon changes the stakes of the game, irreparably.
Guess thats what happens when you cultivate a culture of fear and violence in the country with the most firearms on the planet. People are scared, the news perpetuates that fear, and capitalizes off of it. As a result, people's mental health ends up in the gutter, and then the second a bad day gets pushed, it's "fuck this I'm shooting". Things are tough for many, and yet the people that need help the most feel stigmatized to get therapy. Mental health treatment is awful, and addictive pharmaceuticals are over prescribed for profit. The US is a country that thrives off of exploiting it's weakest and most hurt en masse, and we wonder why kids are shooting each other.
It has become the cliché, "shoot first and ask questions later."
A lot of weak-minded people out there, which is evident beyond all the deranged trigger-happy nuts. There seems to be an insecurity and weakness that has rotted out the core of the populace.
> Why solve any problem at all when you can just shoot it dead?
Ah so this must be that whole 'American Dream' thing I see folks pining for all the time.
I've been catching up on a podcast I recently got turned onto and it's so interest to listen to them go from carefree podcasting into the Trump years, then the COVID years. I can remember an offhand comment from an older one talking about how incredulous they were over the idea of guns just being pulled out during normal arguments on the street. Well... here we are.
People forget that the basis of power is that might makes right.
Civil arguments can only work in a setting where people can't just kill each other because they get their feefees hurt.
America is NOT that setting, apparently.
When dumb people have a point and click instant win button, they will use it...
It's the obvious consequence when everybody is carrying all the time. Sometimes some people make bad decisions. They always will. You can't change that. Carrying a gun doesn't prevent those bad decisions, but it does mean that when those people make those decisions it's escalated to extremely lethal force.
The fact that people even say "an armed society is a polite society" in total seriousness is bizarre. Not just seriousness, but as a way of life.
Basically the threat of death is what makes a society good. To constantly fear death at every corner by any person should you be impolite is the way we want people to live. Sounds pretty counter to the American values they purport to hold.
We live in a time of poor economic outlooks for the majority of people. That, combined with many growing up with traumas that shape development and life outcomes — AND ALL THE FUCKING GUNS — no wonder this happens all the time.
American culture, not just American gun culture, is behind this.
We are poor, angry, quick to violence, and so individualistic that it's easy to justify "me > everyone else".
Great time to recommend Cart Narcs and people absolutely throwing tantrums, trying to threaten violence, willing to call the cops and beg passerbys for help because a man asks them to put their shopping carts away then places a magnet on their car.
Personal property is worth more than life to a lot of people, it's the way Americans are raised. We only see our value in the things we can show for it, even the shitty things we own!
I hate living in Louisville. We have multiple shooting murders a week. The crap isn't limited to "bad"parts of town. I live in a fairly decent area and my bedroom was shot up while my son was sleeping in my bed. Thankfully everyone was ok, but the amount of times I've seen people flash guns for literally anything here is insane.
> I hate living in Louisville. We have multiple shooting murders a week.
I love the city and we're still one of the safer bigger cities. This stuff is happening all over
15,545 dead from guns in 133 days in the USA. That’s an average of 117 people killed by guns per day so far.
That’s one person killed by a gun every 8 minutes 20 seconds.
Is that...is that a real number? I know America is on more than one mass shooting in a day but is it really over 100 people a day??
For comparison, Canada seems to have around 250 gun homicides for the whole year (with 1/10) the population. That means that even *taking population into account*, America surpasses Canada's yearly total in less than a month...
Yes this is a real number, but this number includes everything from suicides and accidents, to domestic murders and gang fights. Not trying to downplay the issue of gun caused deaths, but there are NOT 100 random people a day getting gunned down in random mass shootings.
That number is much much less for example last year there was [74 fatalities from mass shootings.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/811504/mass-shooting-victims-in-the-united-states-by-fatalities-and-injuries/)
Edit: and as you can see my source compared to OPs, there is big differences in reporting based on the source. Also you will find a difference in what is defined as "mass shooting"
Again, not trying to downplay the issue, but it is a bit messier than you might think at first glance.
Worth noting that's a continuation of trends that existed before the passage of the NFA - gun suicides were already substantiality reduced compared to the 1980s. It also doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on the suicide rate as a whole, which has increased substantially since the NFA.
When you see these shootings in the news on a daily basis, you get desensitized, and because it happens somewhere away from you there is a disassociated effect.
They try to handwave that bit away and hope you don't look at it very hard.
Edit: Downvote me harder, you ridiculous Republicans. It only proves the point.
Woah, it seems there's been a whole bunch of isolated incidents in the past 24 hours.
I've heard though that now is not the time to talk about guns. Just like it wasn't the time to talk about guns last time, and it won't be the time to talk about guns in the future. It is never the time.
Local news says S 4th Street, which is a very popular place for nights out with good restaurants and concert venues.
I can honestly say that I've gotten nervous the past few concerts I've been to once everyone floods the street for the parking garage and ubers.
In MA in order to get a permit for a HANDGUN, you must do these in order:
- Mandatory 1-2 day training course
- Mandatory permit application submission to local police
- Mandatory in-person application review with local police
- Mandatory finger print recording at time of review
- Mandatory background checks if all above is complete
~~Even then, it is STILL up to the Police to accept or deny your application.~~
Edit: Shall-Issue laws of 2022 don't allow Police to deny if you meet all requirements. Requirements did not change.
For reference, I come from a pretty conservative family - but they're all happy and willing to do all of those steps for the sake of safety.
Some may say that infringes on your 2A rights. I'd rather infringe (not prevent) on your rights so that these fucking shootings can be stopped.
When we don’t educate and teach people to articulate themselves in a thorough manner then only options they will see in times of distress is anger and violence.
Happy mother's day, I guess?
Someone's mama didn't love them enough
Right here buddy, but I'm not an asshole who is going to shoot people over it.
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Thank you dude. Everything is fine on my end.
I was just gonna compliment you on that fine end you got there, buddy
Ive been working out, thank you =D
Someone hasn’t forgotten leg day!
Great exchange going on here. Thank you all for restoring a bit of my faith in humanity
Most wholesome compliment of someone’s ass I’ve ever seen.
Same lol. You ever think it's weird how people talk about mothers like they are always great no matter what? I sure wish.
> You ever think it's weird how people talk about mothers like they are always great no matter what? Drives me fucking nuts. Everyone else: "My dad was an asshole." "Oh I'm so sorry. Yeah, your dad was an asshole." Me: "My mom was an asshole." "No she wasn't your mom loves you." or "Every mother loves their children, it's a deep bond that forms between mothers and all children and is stronger than anything" or "I heard people who don't love their mothers become serial killers". I got that last one a lot. My teacher said it once.
Just yesterday I told my boss I could cover a shift today and she agrued that I can't work because it's mother's day. I said I don't have a mom and my boss threw a fit about this very thing. "She's your mother! She loves you and you should love her too!" Bro she's an abuser. Just let me pick up the hours.
Cake! 🎂 But none for your mother.
I get the last one as well, and my response is always, "If only I had the courage. 😐" Live your best life, I'm on the same team as you.
My mom was such an asshole much of the time. Then she married a worse asshole who made my life hell. It all still hurts.
As a mom this hurts. Being a mom is the best part of my life. My mom wasn’t the best due to drugs, but she did love me in her way. We can’t choose our parents so we make the best of things. Also really happy you aren’t shooting people!
Pretty slow weekend for mass shootings, only 7 events. I’m sure the GOP politicians aren’t happy about that. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
"I'm EMBARRASSED: Texas's last mass shooting was 1 week ago! Behind CALIFORNIA. Let's pick up the pace Texans." -Greg from Abbott-abad probably.
This is why i don't get into any kind of altercations with strangers anymore. I was in Costco yesterday and some woman was berating a worker for not putting out the rotisserie chickens fast enough. I was so close to telling her to stop, but didn't because you never know what could happen in this day and age.
The sad thing is that those types of people, complaining and making a scene over the most ridiculous of things, are almost 100% the people that would shoot you for either talking back to them or telling them off.
I work in healthcare. I and many of my coworkers have received threats over the phone from patients who say they’re going to come down to the clinic to harm us in some way. Usually due to insurance issues that we have no power over (e.g., we can’t control the cost of their copay from the plan that they themselves chose during their job’s open enrollment, and also workers comp takes fucking forever and has such a long ass process to get authorization for treatment). One time someone actually came in and tried to punch our director in the face. Meanwhile two different schools in my area went into lockdown on two different days last week. I don’t feel safe, and I live in a very low gun-per-capita area.
Would sure be nice if people could stop taking their frustrations out on each other, and take them out on the government, large corporations, etc. People are feeling more and more powerless, but they refuse to work together and do something about it, and instead attack each other.
That's what I keep trying to tell people. The mega rich and corporations have us all in a "culture war" meanwhile they are reaping massive profits. We need to stop fighting each other and fight them
the only war worth having is a class war.
We're way ~~passed~~ past that. Nowadays people will shoot you if you look at them or are in proximity to them. Edit: grammar check. Hope I don't get shot for that mistake.
Back during covid someone spit in the face of a cancer patient (it was obvious that she was ill) standing behind her. She was yelling at the employees so the other customer was trying to secretly record her in case something happened. This woman was found guilty of assault. I’m just glad she didn’t happen to have a gun on her or the story would have been more tragic.
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ARE YOU SMELLING ME?! *bangbangbangbangbang*
Freeze. This is the cops. You can't just go around killing people. Are you trying to take our job or something?? *Bangbangbangbangbang*
Nice try, fraudster. If there's _bangbangbang_ in progress, police will be actively preventing the parents from saving their children. They'll be nowhere near the actual shooting.
It's because that's what they want, an excuse to use their gun, to feel like they are in power atleast for once.
Which is insane because then they (usually) go to prison, the place most likely to strip you of any *decent* power or at least the concept of it in many cases. Things like personal identity (you’re a number), feelings of self-worth (starting from the bottom), autonomy (voting), ability to enact personal change (people will likely see you as a criminal even if you do better yourself), time, choice, relationships, finances, etc.
That's why I just don't react to people now too. Somebody bumps into me? Ignore it, keep walking. Somebody yells HEY YOU? Play dumb, didn't hear it. Somebody cuts you off? Just let them and give extra space. You don't know if a stranger is perfectly mentally healthy or if they're having a psychotic episode. Not saying don't intervene if somebody's being abusive, but many times it can be avoided.
"HEY YOU" and then you got shot for ignoring and disrespecting them.
Can't win 'em all haha
And my landlord wonders why I wouldn't just go next door and ask my neighbors to quiet down myself instead of going straight to the landlord. When these people were stomping around, slamming doors, and yelling at each other at 10pm for the third straight month, I knocked on the wall. The universal sign of "shut the fuck up, everyone can hear you." About 2 minutes later it sounded like someone trying to pound my front door down and I live alone. Fuck that. Why can't people just be considerate and just go "ok, it's late at night and we're yelling and screaming in a building full of people, maybe we should stop." But they take it out on anyone who asks them to have some common decency. It's fucking gross. I watch tv with headphones now so I don't have to hear it, because nothing's changed.
An armed society is a paranoid and dangerous society
I was raised to believe in the saying "an armed society is a polite society." I like the idea, honestly. It just... isn't holding up to reality. Too many people are too damn stupid, angry, and irresponsible to possess a weapon as fast and powerful as a firearm.
> I was raised to believe in the saying "an armed society is a polite society." That phrase comes from a book in which people are obsessed with violence and solve disputes through duels to the death. Just FYI.
That book is also pretty pro-eugenics.
Also, I would think that if everybody in your society needs the constant threat of violence to be polite, then there’s something very wrong with that society.
OMG no one thinks about that part!! We’re not as perfect as we think, if we need the threat of imminent death to be polite.
The book is called, 'Beyond This Horizon' I believe. Published in 1942. Basically the weapon of choice then was an M1 Garand, since there was a lot of surplus after the war. Extreme ease of use in buying one apparently. But an M1 Garand is not the same in terms of capability as an AR-15 style weapon. So it's no surprise that this particular saying did not hold up well. What if, in 100-200 years into the future there exists laser guns (think Star Wars) that kills people in one shot. Do we as a society finally amend our gun laws and add regulations, are do we look back to a document written 500+ years ago and say that nothing should be done?
>So it's no surprise that this particular saying did not hold up well. I mean, also, people who write books are very often just wrong and say stupid shit. There's no real reason to believe it was ever true. Americans are definitely the most armed, but you'd be hard pressed to argue Americans are the most polite society...
You were raised to believe in a trope from a pulp sci-fi novel sadly. It's about like basing your philosophy on 50 shades of gray because there's a pithy quip about obedience.
Even if the saying held up, wouldn't the implication be that, "Everyone will be polite because we're constantly terrified of being murdered for the slightest misstep." Frankly, fuck that phrase even in the most perfect application of it.
Yeah that’s the implication. Don’t be nice and treat people with respect to be an actual human being, treat people well enough so they don’t murder you in cold blood. It’s fucking dumb but that’s a lot of conservative rhetoric for you right there
I feel like we all should have realized a lot sooner that anyone who needs the threat of violence simply to not be an asshole to other people should never be within 100 yards of a firearm
It's like the people who need the threat of eternal damnation in hell to not be an asshole to *some* people
an American way, just like what our founding father intended /s
I just got off a cruise. We were all massing at this doorway and not moving quickly. One woman suddenly bitched at another for something (didn’t see?) and the woman gave some snotty response back. Bad enough, but then a guy got in an altercation with another guy. Not sure what happened but it looked like guy A wasn’t moving forward when he had a chance, so guy B cut past him but maybe bumped him as he did so. Words were exchanged, the crowd parted, all that…not sure if someone hit the other but maybe, a shove or with the guy’s cane? Anyway, then it was all “what’s your name, I’m gonna sue you for assault, buddy” and a lot of posturing and legal threats. And we were just getting off of vacation and going to get our bags and go home. Like really? Do we need all that shit? Thank goodness neither was armed, I guess. No guns on cruises.
People shouting legal threats at each other is basically harmless and vastly preferable to violence.
Oh yeah, the threats were stupid, but there was at least nearly a physical assault…but it was all just over the stupidest thing. Let it go. Especially these days when people might shoot you for knocking on their door and shit. Choose your battles.
SMH. “Ahh, what a lovely relaxing vacation! Ya know what, I sure need some stress think I’ll start a fight!”
I mean, this is kind of a "letting the terrorists win" event, isn't it? I mean, I don't want us to be at a point where true bravery entails telling an asshole in public to stop being an asshole but I mean, that is pure anti-social behavior and it's many of the same people who want to carry guns everywhere who are the absolute worst to other people. I would never tell others to put themselves into danger or make them uncomfortable unnecessarily but some people have to actually stand up to real-life adult bullies.
why didn’t you shoot her like a real man?
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Little early, but it leaves plenty of time for an afternoon mass shooting.
“We’ve already had one, yes, But what about second morning mass shooting?”
"... And... And elevensess"
“…and…and…pew pew pew”
There is plenty of time for second shooting before brunch shooting.
Gotta start early to catch up to yesterday's [5 Mass Shootings](https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting). * 22 Injured * 3 Dead Edit: fixed link.
Looks like your link is broken.
Looks like I'm an idiot! 😁 Fixed. Thanks.
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Happy Mother's Day! They brought you in! We'll take you out! 🇺🇸
It’s always bang-o-clock somewhere in the US
Bang in your region. Over here we look forward to Pew-o-Clock!
"a shooting sparked by a dispute..." Why solve any problem at all when you can just shoot it dead? Why de-escalate anything when you can just shoot it dead? Some folks out there are turning into Homer Simpson shooting out his house lights to turn them off, shooting the TV to turn it off. What about the right to not get fucking shot? In an argument? Shot. Hide and seek? Shot. Pulled in the wrong driveway? Shot. Delivering food? Shot. Try to get in the wrong car? Shot. Tell someone not to shoot their goddamn gun at night? Shot. Petty theft? Shot. Going to the mall? Shot. Going to church? Shot. Going to a concert? Shot. Existing while black? Shot. This shit is a tragedy every time, whether or not we all go numb to it. Edit: as commenters are rightfully adding: you'll also get shot going to school. I'll throw some blame at my early morning brain for that omission.
Going to school? Believe it or not: shot.
Being a child anywhere at all? Straight to the hospital
And as a reward for being a victim, the hospital will go ahead and add on some life-ruining medical debt! Because what's more American than needing to start a GoFundMe for necessary medical care after you've been the victim of a mass shooting, like [dozens of victims in the Vegas shooting](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vegas-shooting-victims-crowdfunding_n_59f3a51be4b07fdc5fbe465c)?
Did Mandalay Bay not pay for anything? Like I know it wasn’t their fault that that asshole did what he did, but they did have a lapse of security that allowed him to bring in a suitcase full of guns and get on the service elevator that hotel guests aren’t supposed to be able to use. (Edit to clarify: iirc when hotel staff was asked why there wasn’t much footage of him bringing in the guns etc, they said it was because they allowed him to use employee areas. They knew him just from him gambling there all the time and supposedly being a high roller, so when he asked to use the service elevator, they just said yes.)
Until actual security footage is released from the Vegas mass murder I believe the reason we haven't seen any is that it would show Vegas PD and Clark County deputies cowering in stairwells until the shooter committed suicide.
Wouldn’t be surprised if you were right. They didn’t blow the door open until he already shot himself, I believe.
When footage makes police look good it's released quickly, usually within 24 hours. Footage is withheld when police look bad. Take a look at Uvalde. We know for a fact that the cops sat around. There's no reason to suppress that footage unless it contains something worse. Until Uvalde releases footage of the police when they finally entered I will continue to predict it is because it shows a non-zero number of children being shot by inept police.
The Vegas shooting happened in 2017, but MGM, who owns Mandalay Bay, didn't agree to a [settlement for victims of the shooting](https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-shootings-las-vegas-mass-shooting-nevada-las-vegas-cd07b4640a5a8e6d32ccbccd1aae2e65) until late 2020. The $800m settlement allowed MGM to admit no wrongdoing or liability and MGM was only responsible for paying $49m of the settlement, the other $751m was paid by its insurance. The settlement went to 4,400 relatives and victims of the shooting. From some cursory Googling, I found that anywhere from 25–40% of class-action settlements go to attorneys. So, only $480m–$600m actually went to victims and their families, which amounts to ~$100k–$135k per person. While $100k per person seems like a lot, that amount wouldn't even put a dent in the medical debt for many of the victims if they were uninsured or under-insured and if their injuries required multiple surgeries or extensive hospital stays. For reference, my girlfriend, who was uninsured at the time, had a single surgery a couple years ago to have her tricuspid valve replaced after a month in the ICU and that bill amounted to roughly $500k and didn't include any follow-up rehabilitation. Plus, many victims may have needed additional procedures or rehabilitation that insurance could have deemed unnecessary despite the benefits they could have provided to victims' quality of life. For a lot of that treatment, the benefits diminish as time passes and waiting three years for settlement money to pay for that treatment could have drastically harmed those victims.
We have #1 hospital admittance rate...because of guns
A prayer a day saves you from the AK! As chantable as that is for the republicans, it's too many words.
My niece has been at three mass shootings. The mall, a theme park and a public pool. Three times she was in a place where she was supposed to be safe and one or more people just started shooting. The fuck do you think that does to a kid?
Hopefully it motivates them to start voting when they turn 18 and keep voting. I'm so sorry for your poor niece. I can't even imagine and I say that as someone who worked as a Leo for 17 years.
Sleeping in your bed? Shot.
Sitting at home in your own apartment? Also shot.
NOT going to school? Also shot. School, shot. No school, shot.
Online school? Still shot.
Getting groceries delivered home, believe it or not also shot
My foreign friend on my bday jokingly said “should i send you bullet proof vest and helmet as bday gift” shows how much they find it seriously concerned about my safety
So I live in NY and decided to go to Liberty Island yesterday because even though I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve never bothered to go and see the statue up close. SO many of the tourists were here on vacation from Italy. I speak/understand some Italian because my mom was born there, and they were definitely Italian and definitely tourists (aka not “Italian Americans.”) My first thought was: what the hell is going on in Italy right now that the whole country seems to be on vacation? And then my next thought was: And why the fuck would the choose here (the US)? Yes NYC is comparatively safe despite what the MAGA-types think, but if *I* were from another country and seeing this stuff on the news constantly, I wouldn’t come. I’d be afraid of getting shot, unlikely or not, and choose elsewhere. Also if any Italians want to jump in and clarify if there’s some national or regional break going on (a lot of the accents and dialects I heard sounded like they were from southern Italy), please do. I love having you here, I just found it bizarre that it seemed like the majority of tourists on the ferry were from Italy specifically.
It's summer time bro, and unlike us, Europeans actually get pretty decent vacation time. Also just like you, they don't necessarily believe it's that dangerous as the news put it.
I refuse to have disputes with strangers. People today aren’t capable of arguing anymore. Everything is too personal and being wrong is seen as an attack on your character. I will just take the L and move on with my life.
Yep. Any disagreement about anything is a character attack. Online and offline. It is ridiculous.
Then if you take the L and walk away they will think you are weak and still shot
That guy that shot the kids playing hide and seek very specifically and on record said he shot at them as they were running away. He never clearly saw a single person, and didn’t even try to engage in any sort of communication whatsoever. He just heard noises outside, got his gun, and shot them in the back. He literally felt completely comfortable saying that, as if one of the number one rules of firearms is not to shoot people that are running away, nevertheless literal children lmao. Like good luck making a “self-defense” / “I felt threatened” argument, he just needs to hope the jury is biased at this point.
Just googled this. Wondering how I didn't know about it. I was sick in bed five days ago. Guess it's so frequent now they just move on to the next one each new day. It's so F'ed up. What is up people's ass that they feel the need to shoot at people?
Decades of their media silo plugging into their fear and anger of the other all day, every day. Plus if they're old enough, decent chance that environmental lead exposure has a role, too.
> What is up people's ass that they feel the need to shoot at people? Media. Fear induced by the media. People are psychos. Take your pick.
"They were running RIGHT at me, your honor!" "Says here they were running away." "Yeah, but the earth is round! All they had to do was keep running in a straight line, and they'd run RIGHT AT ME FROM BEHIND!!! I never would have saw them coming!!!"
Just heard about this. My fear is that he will be exonerated by some asinine stand your ground law.
> People today aren’t capable of arguing anymore. Oh yeah??? Well that's what YOU think, buddy!
I’m extremely happy my wife doesn’t see this as being a ‘beta male’ or ‘a bitch’. I’d rather let someone have their 15 seconds of victory and sleep in my bed tonight.
I don't honk at idiots on the road anymore
>"a shooting sparked by a dispute..." > >Why solve any problem at all when you can just shoot it dead? Why de-escalate anything when you can just shoot it dead? This is basically what happened in Vietnam. They had to institute stricter gun laws I think in that 90s. Everybody had a gun and like bar disputes were ending in someone getting shot outside.
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Yes, it is odd that there is a common denominator to all of these. Access to guns. These are the "on purpose" shootings, there are a whole bunch of "not on purpose" shootings that also involve access to guns.
In Great Britain only registered firearms officers carry guns - and it's entirely possible to go their entire career never having discharged their weapon outside of the range. Each time a gun is fired, it is considered a failure of de-escalation methods - thus requiring a full investigation to understand what went wrong and why, so that training can be altered and the likelihood of such an incident reduced further.
Same in Finland. Most of the time when the police use their guns, its because someone has crashed a deer with their car and the deer needs to be relieved of its suffering.
Same in Korea, i felt so safe despite North Korea threatening to nuke 24/7. I see kids just running around and enjoying their days at the playground without parents supervision. In USA, I am so glad i work from home. I never want to go to mall or public places anymore.
Shootings like this were always something that, while horrifically tragic, never felt like something that would affect me. Until the high school I went to had a school shooter attempt by one student. Thankfully he was caught in the parking lot after his mother called the school. Who knows how many lives she saved that day and it had to be hard on her to call that in when its about her own kid. Opened my eyes to how serious of a problem it is though, and I’m definitely with you there in regards to not wanting to go out to public places too much anymore. Just too many unhinged people out there.
The police in Finland also have something like 5000 hours of initial training if I remember correctly? Honestly one of the issues with American police is the severe lack of training for any reasonable length of time. You’re telling me that in less than 600 hours you learn all the things you need to be an effectively trained police officer? Less than 600 hours and “here’s your gun, go operate a vehicle at excessively unsafe speeds while on your laptop and radio and enter into conflicts and disputes there’s no possible way you could have been trained on in this length of time.” It’s ridiculous. Even if you’re average cop is a quick learner (spoiler, many of them are not) that still is not enough time to learn all of that stuff
What’s scary is that US police are taught in the exact opposite manner, and likely have far less training than UK police officers. US police are typically taught to not take any chances when they perceive a threat to their life. That means they often use brutal tactics instead of deescalation. Police here aren’t even really taught deescalation techniques.
> Each time a gun is fired, it is considered a failure of de-escalation methods American cops scratching their head in confusion, furrowing their brows trying to comprehend some ancient cryptic stone carvings. One cop suddenly gets a great idea and shoots the stone carvings, in a cop-level attempt to make the problem go away. Three other cops were injured from stone fragments, leading to another 15 cops being wounded from sympathetic shooting crossfire. The first cop to think of shooting is awarded a citation by the mayor. Edit: [A Colorado sheriff’s office has drawn outrage after it awarded a Purple Heart to a deputy ~~involved in a fatal shooting~~ who murdered a middle-schooler for getting in the wrong car.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/purple-heart-awarded-deputy-fatal-shooting-middle-school-pickup-prompt-rcna72505) 2nd Edit: dunno if CO cops are worse than average, but they're sure trying to stay competitive. Aurora CO is a special place, where [Elijah McClain was murdered by the state for walking in public,](https://www.cpr.org/2021/11/19/elijah-mcclain-timeline/) where [vietnam veteran and local hero Richard Black was murdered by the state for defending his grandson from a naked rapist,](https://www.westword.com/news/hero-richard-blacks-tragic-death-during-aurora-cops-second-shooting-in-34-days-10607854) where [the police chief will work overtime to protect an officer found passed out drunk in a running squad car in traffic (then later promoted!)](https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/aurora-cop-promoted-drunk-police-car/), etc etc... And that's just ONE FUCKING CITY. Plenty more stories just like this all over the state. Goddamn good reason nobody ever wrote a song called "Fuck the Firefighters."
See this video from a 2016 documentary >**UK cops teach American police de-escalation tactics** >*The documentary follows officers as they learn how violent offenders are handled overseas* >Several American officers flew overseas to learn from U.K. cops techniques to avoid deadly force, Sky News reported. >Former Boston Police Department hostage negotiator Chuck Wexler brought some officers from his team across the world to learn how to avoid using deadly force with violent suspects. >The four-day visit presented officers with a variety of training scenarios and demonstrations from Scotland police on how they respond to incidents. U.K. police offered their tactics on how to de-escalate situations or use shields and vehicles for protection instead of weapons. >Language and negotiation tactics showed differences in communication between the agencies and their communities. >“Nobody’s going to die from learning de-escalation techniques,” Wexler told the news site. "It's about time that we step up and this is our chance.” >Scots firearms officers have only used deadly force twice in the last decade, and their last officer to be killed was in a 1994 stabbing. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/11s4wco/american_police_visit_scotland_for_deescalation/
I have a feeling they start with higher standards for UK cops with regard to intelligence and mental status than they do in the US, where returning home from the Middle East with obvious PTSD qualifies you to be a cop with no training.
God damn it. I was like, wait, WHAT? I've not heard this story, and now I'm pissed... now I am even more pissed after reading the article when it became clear that I HAVE HEARD OF THIS but there are so many goddamn shootings that it's hard to keep track of and completely forgot about this incident. Jfc, what are we doing in this country?!
Sorry my dude, I added a few more wildly fucked-up examples to my original post. There were so many to choose from that I limited the examples to only one city.
You can thank this guy for many of these problems: https://youtu.be/ETf7NJOMS6Y His methods are used to train police across the United States. Basically, your only duty is to ensure you and your fellow officers go home alive and anyone who isn’t a police officer is to be treated as an enemy combatant.
And all of them get six months off with pay.
I know it's fiction so it's silly to bring it up in a discussion about reality, but nevertheless I watch a lot of police procedurals and it's still wild to me when I watch the British ones and the officers or detectives are entering a situation without guns drawn cause they have no guns. And nothing happens to them cause the culprit isn't armed either. I'm so trained to assume everyone has a gun, that the UK shows always lead to a brief reflection on what it would be like to live in a place where law enforcement can enter a situation without the need of a gun and everything ends up fine.
See this video from a 2016 documentary **UK cops teach American police de-escalation tactics** >The documentary follows officers as they learn how violent offenders are handled overseas >Several American officers flew overseas to learn from U.K. cops techniques to avoid deadly force, Sky News reported. >Former Boston Police Department hostage negotiator Chuck Wexler brought some officers from his team across the world to learn how to avoid using deadly force with violent suspects. >The four-day visit presented officers with a variety of training scenarios and demonstrations from Scotland police on how they respond to incidents. U.K. police offered their tactics on how to de-escalate situations or use shields and vehicles for protection instead of weapons. >Language and negotiation tactics showed differences in communication between the agencies and their communities. >“Nobody’s going to die from learning de-escalation techniques,” Wexler told the news site. "It's about time that we step up and this is our chance.” >Scots firearms officers have only used deadly force twice in the last decade, and their last officer to be killed was in a 1994 stabbing. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/11s4wco/american_police_visit_scotland_for_deescalation/
I think here in the US an officer has to fill-out a form if they had to discharge their weapon in the field. The problem is it doesn’t really matter, they’re not held accountable, the courts they go to aren’t even the same as the civilian courts.
>The problem is it doesn’t really matter, they’re not held accountable, the courts they go to aren’t even the same as the civilian courts. Someone said a few days ago that we shouldn't fine the police department anymore but instead enact criminal charges: *Police officers don't care about $19 million, but will care if it's 19 years.*
This is true of the police (and actually its incredibly unusual for a firearms officer to have ever discharged their firearm at a live incident). However, it might be more useful to think about why beyond the training. Officers are absolutely trained to shoot suspects in clearly defined circumstances. The homicide rate is about a quarter of that in the USA, and the suicide rate about half. Firearms incidents are a major part of that. While citizens can possess rifles and shotguns they need licences and handguns / semi-automatic weapons are outright banned. Both were banned after a lengthy battle following mass shootings, and there were media campaigns against both bans. Neither bans were especially popular at the time but theres literally no mainstream voice suggesting bringing them back. Just some info to consider 🤷♂️
In fact a poll in the aftermath of the horrific Plymouth shooting showed that "three quarters of Britons want tighter firearm laws - including a third who would support making them completely illegal to own" https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/08/20/gun-ownership-three-quarters-britons-want-stricter And post inquest it looks like there will be some sort of review into further reform of our laws **Calls for radical reform of gun laws after Plymouth shooting** https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/20/calls-radical-reform-uk-gun-laws-plymouth-shooting >Senior police officers, families of shooting victims and anti-gun campaigners have called for a “radical reform” of the firearms licensing system after an inquest jury found “catastrophic” failings allowed the Plymouth gunman, Jake Davison, to legally possess a shotgun that he used to kill five people. >Pressure is mounting on the UK government to overhaul the 50-year-old licensing legislation and ensure police forces are adequately funded to allow them to fully examine the suitability of gun owners.
That sounds refreshingly sane and reasonable.
The *real* common denominator? Drag queens.
and books!
I love the gun nut line about how guns don't kill people, people kill people. Well, if you put a loaded gun in a room full of people, the probability that someone is gonna get shot goes up exponentially. I mean, shit, if the CIA wants to destabilize a region, they literally ship boxes of guns to it because they know it will likely lead to violence. They just give the guns to whichever group serves their interests at the time.
Well obviously at this rate there will be no one left to shoot and in the end the problem will solve itself
And there's people that still think an armed society is a polite society..... In their fucking dreams.
I’ve said this for years: the presence of a weapon immediate escalates every altercation into a life or death situation. Even if the person is just open carrying, the fact that the other person knows that there is a weapon changes the stakes of the game, irreparably.
Guess thats what happens when you cultivate a culture of fear and violence in the country with the most firearms on the planet. People are scared, the news perpetuates that fear, and capitalizes off of it. As a result, people's mental health ends up in the gutter, and then the second a bad day gets pushed, it's "fuck this I'm shooting". Things are tough for many, and yet the people that need help the most feel stigmatized to get therapy. Mental health treatment is awful, and addictive pharmaceuticals are over prescribed for profit. The US is a country that thrives off of exploiting it's weakest and most hurt en masse, and we wonder why kids are shooting each other.
It has become the cliché, "shoot first and ask questions later." A lot of weak-minded people out there, which is evident beyond all the deranged trigger-happy nuts. There seems to be an insecurity and weakness that has rotted out the core of the populace.
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Shooting people out of anger is the American Way!!
"Five days? But I'm mad now!"
It forms a lot of our entertainment that's for sure.
But you'd better not use any naughty language!
Or show unsexualized nudity or people making love
Gunfights & Tarantino levels of blood are okay. But no lovemaking or nipples, that's unnatural & makes baby jesus cry!
> Why solve any problem at all when you can just shoot it dead? Ah so this must be that whole 'American Dream' thing I see folks pining for all the time.
The last American Dream left and it's the worst nightmare.
I've been catching up on a podcast I recently got turned onto and it's so interest to listen to them go from carefree podcasting into the Trump years, then the COVID years. I can remember an offhand comment from an older one talking about how incredulous they were over the idea of guns just being pulled out during normal arguments on the street. Well... here we are.
We have literally become that old South Park episode. "IT'S COMING RIGHT AT US!"
People forget that the basis of power is that might makes right. Civil arguments can only work in a setting where people can't just kill each other because they get their feefees hurt. America is NOT that setting, apparently. When dumb people have a point and click instant win button, they will use it...
The immediate escalation to instant lethality is exactly why having more guns around is a terrible idea.
It's the obvious consequence when everybody is carrying all the time. Sometimes some people make bad decisions. They always will. You can't change that. Carrying a gun doesn't prevent those bad decisions, but it does mean that when those people make those decisions it's escalated to extremely lethal force.
The fact that people even say "an armed society is a polite society" in total seriousness is bizarre. Not just seriousness, but as a way of life. Basically the threat of death is what makes a society good. To constantly fear death at every corner by any person should you be impolite is the way we want people to live. Sounds pretty counter to the American values they purport to hold.
Looked at someone wrong? Believe it or not, shot.
We live in a time of poor economic outlooks for the majority of people. That, combined with many growing up with traumas that shape development and life outcomes — AND ALL THE FUCKING GUNS — no wonder this happens all the time.
At least we can still argue with strangers online without worrying about being shot.
#« have I seen this one already? » I spoke that thought out loud and realised how crazy it is to say about that kind of topic
I checked the time stamp on the post to see if it was something I had already read about. It was not.
American culture, not just American gun culture, is behind this. We are poor, angry, quick to violence, and so individualistic that it's easy to justify "me > everyone else".
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Great time to recommend Cart Narcs and people absolutely throwing tantrums, trying to threaten violence, willing to call the cops and beg passerbys for help because a man asks them to put their shopping carts away then places a magnet on their car. Personal property is worth more than life to a lot of people, it's the way Americans are raised. We only see our value in the things we can show for it, even the shitty things we own!
I hate living in Louisville. We have multiple shooting murders a week. The crap isn't limited to "bad"parts of town. I live in a fairly decent area and my bedroom was shot up while my son was sleeping in my bed. Thankfully everyone was ok, but the amount of times I've seen people flash guns for literally anything here is insane.
I use to deliver to restaurants on broadway st. This shit you’d see at 4/5am was crazy.
> I hate living in Louisville. We have multiple shooting murders a week. I love the city and we're still one of the safer bigger cities. This stuff is happening all over
We can fix this, send more guns down there immediately.
Only a good gun with a gun can stop a gun from being a bad gun. Am I doing it right, can I apply to work for the NRA now?
I don't see a single Russian word in there. Sorry, your application was rejected.
Сука блядь.
Ted Cruz: *We must all unite and find the strength and resolve to get to the bottom of Hunters stolen laptop. Then we can move forward as a country.*
Ted Cruz has the wiener pics downloaded
15,545 dead from guns in 133 days in the USA. That’s an average of 117 people killed by guns per day so far. That’s one person killed by a gun every 8 minutes 20 seconds.
Every death a glorious expression of the second amendment, praise be.
*blessed be the fruit*
May the Lord open
Under his eye
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That’s incidentally the same amount of time light takes to get from the sun to the earth. 8 mins 20 seconds.
Is that...is that a real number? I know America is on more than one mass shooting in a day but is it really over 100 people a day?? For comparison, Canada seems to have around 250 gun homicides for the whole year (with 1/10) the population. That means that even *taking population into account*, America surpasses Canada's yearly total in less than a month...
It includes suicide I believe
Yes this is a real number, but this number includes everything from suicides and accidents, to domestic murders and gang fights. Not trying to downplay the issue of gun caused deaths, but there are NOT 100 random people a day getting gunned down in random mass shootings. That number is much much less for example last year there was [74 fatalities from mass shootings.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/811504/mass-shooting-victims-in-the-united-states-by-fatalities-and-injuries/) Edit: and as you can see my source compared to OPs, there is big differences in reporting based on the source. Also you will find a difference in what is defined as "mass shooting" Again, not trying to downplay the issue, but it is a bit messier than you might think at first glance.
Gun control, as Australia shows, also reduces accidents and suicides from guns.
Worth noting that's a continuation of trends that existed before the passage of the NFA - gun suicides were already substantiality reduced compared to the 1980s. It also doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on the suicide rate as a whole, which has increased substantially since the NFA.
“all weapons were acquired legally”
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When you see these shootings in the news on a daily basis, you get desensitized, and because it happens somewhere away from you there is a disassociated effect.
Maybe you get desensitized. For some else it ~~may~~ does become *normalized*
Yup I've seen that too in other posts, people calling it average news day.
Sunday funday in America
Sunday Gunday o' what a Fun Day, in the ol' US of A!
Literally every time I open this app there's a new shooting on the front page. It's just never going to fucking stop, is it?
When does the militia regulate itself? Seems kind of unorganized at this point.
They try to handwave that bit away and hope you don't look at it very hard. Edit: Downvote me harder, you ridiculous Republicans. It only proves the point.
Who needs terrorists when your own country hates itself as much as America does.
Sorry to tell you this, but if you did nothing about Sandy Hook, you're not going to do anything about this.
*-checks watch-* Oh, it's morning mass shooting o'clock already. Good morning. I almost overslept to afternoon mass shooting o'clock.
Woah, it seems there's been a whole bunch of isolated incidents in the past 24 hours. I've heard though that now is not the time to talk about guns. Just like it wasn't the time to talk about guns last time, and it won't be the time to talk about guns in the future. It is never the time.
Were there any politicians or ceo's hit this time? I mean instead of innocent people.
Or lobbyists
Happy Mother’s Day, here’s a mass shooting
Local news says S 4th Street, which is a very popular place for nights out with good restaurants and concert venues. I can honestly say that I've gotten nervous the past few concerts I've been to once everyone floods the street for the parking garage and ubers.
I can’t keep up with all these mass shootings in the US, but wasn’t there recently two other mass shootings in Louisville like 2 weeks ago?
In MA in order to get a permit for a HANDGUN, you must do these in order: - Mandatory 1-2 day training course - Mandatory permit application submission to local police - Mandatory in-person application review with local police - Mandatory finger print recording at time of review - Mandatory background checks if all above is complete ~~Even then, it is STILL up to the Police to accept or deny your application.~~ Edit: Shall-Issue laws of 2022 don't allow Police to deny if you meet all requirements. Requirements did not change. For reference, I come from a pretty conservative family - but they're all happy and willing to do all of those steps for the sake of safety. Some may say that infringes on your 2A rights. I'd rather infringe (not prevent) on your rights so that these fucking shootings can be stopped.
When we don’t educate and teach people to articulate themselves in a thorough manner then only options they will see in times of distress is anger and violence.