I expected the shooter to have been a white nationalist or a BLM activist--or certainly a home grown Islamic terrorist. No. (ISL, like the nerdy kid at your high school who claimed he had a Canadian girlfriend, claimed responsibility for this old white guy's behavior.) It was a millionaire white senior citizen--who lived in a retirement community--who killed almost 60 people and hospitalized almost 600.
If there were a political or social cause, the massacre at Mandalay Bay would be less terrible. It would've been about something. Instead, as of this writing, it was about a white millionaire with no political ideology killing a bunch of people because he could. A whale of a gambler with no particular grudge against the city of Las Vegas or the country music industry. He left behind no manifesto, no social media writings--and his family thought he was a harmless businessman with an interest in hunting. No, it was not a terrorist attack. (If every murder is a terrorist attack, then no murder is a terrorist attack. Hate crimes are closer to the definition of a terrorist attack.) It is a different kind of disturbing than a terrorist attack.
Banning bump stocks would not have stopped Virginia Tech, Newtown, Columbine or literally any other crime ever. (VT and Newton were done entirely with handguns.) Maybe Congress will thus muster the courage to do that.
Showing posts with label mass shooting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mass shooting. Show all posts
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
The Steve Scalise attempted assassination...
This was the one thing to take people's attention away from the Congressional Russian investigation of the Trump administration. Now only if government officials had the authority to take guns away from people--nah, never mind.
The shooter was apparently a small business owner targeting Republican Congressmen. Really, it's like if someone had tried to assassinate Nancy Pelosi with gay porn.
Shockingly, the attempted assassin had formerly felt the Bern, and was an active Bernie Sanders supporter. Again, the insane gunman was NOT a supporter of Donald Trump. We are all surprised. If this were a Trump supporter, leftwingers would be all over it. That this nut was a Sanders supporters, the left will say we shouldn't act too hasty in assigning judgement. Time will tell how bad things get with a Republican controlled Congress. This ended up being closer to a suicide by cop as an act of terrorism.
Citizen engagement is a wonderful thing. Still, perhaps we all need to calm the hell down with the "fascism" allegations, and better articulate what we are resisting.
The shooter was apparently a small business owner targeting Republican Congressmen. Really, it's like if someone had tried to assassinate Nancy Pelosi with gay porn.
Shockingly, the attempted assassin had formerly felt the Bern, and was an active Bernie Sanders supporter. Again, the insane gunman was NOT a supporter of Donald Trump. We are all surprised. If this were a Trump supporter, leftwingers would be all over it. That this nut was a Sanders supporters, the left will say we shouldn't act too hasty in assigning judgement. Time will tell how bad things get with a Republican controlled Congress. This ended up being closer to a suicide by cop as an act of terrorism.
Citizen engagement is a wonderful thing. Still, perhaps we all need to calm the hell down with the "fascism" allegations, and better articulate what we are resisting.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
HorrOrlando
Very few people approved of what the folks at Pulse were doing with their personal lives, but they were all God's children, as flawed as any of His others. Extra-judicious killing is wrong. To my leftwing friends: A soldier is someone who tries to avoid civilian causalities, terrorists prefer civilian causalities. They seek out soft targets, and might plant secondary bombs to murder first responders. (Oh, and to my rightwing friends, "homicide bomber" is not a thing. It is redundant. There are only suicide bombers and bombers.)
Rightwingers want this to be an act of terrorism; leftwingers want this to be a hate crime. (See what these bathroom bills are doing to America?) In 2002, a different Muslim shot-up the terminal at LAX. America has so many mass-shootings that their motives blend together. An entirely different Muslim shot-up Ft. Hood--with rightwingers calling it Islamic terrorism and leftwingers calling it a workplace shooting. A Native American Nazi boy shot up his community. Hate crimes used to be simpler than this. Of course, we all know who did this: a scumbag.
Donald Trump, who a few days prior to this shooting addressed the NRA where he proudly boasted how much his family loves guns. He sent out a self-congratulating tweet, and he pushed for more control on Muslim migrants. Of course, the shooter was an American. He was a native-born American. He could've ran for office--any office, with the only limiter being his relatively youthful age. Again Trump has espoused a view that is not merely racist, which is an opinion, but factually wrong.
You have to think ISIS is going to regret taking credit for this attack. ISIS seems intent on taking credit for attacks in which the terrorist group didn't participate in, which makes them oddly far worse than al-Qaeda. A lot of Americans were killed, and that's good enough for the group. Still, the shooter apparently did a lot of research on the local homosexual culture. I mean, a lot of research.
Banning AR-15s are like banning trans folks from choosing which restroom that they want to use. (Assault weapons are used in less than 2% of murders in America; Americans have a better chance of being assaulted by a trans person than murdered with an assault weapon.) These are symbolic measures meant to appease voters, and shouldn't be taken seriously as a threat to anyone's Constitutional rights, whether real or imaginary. They are meant to make the voters feel more comfortable--same reason why I don't sniff white women on the elevator. Social conservatives want to tell trans folks: no. No, we will not have men in the ladies' room. This is wrong. The police agencies of North Carolina don't care to enforce this law--and they have said they're not interested in enforcing it. It's the equivalent of jaywalking, where you have to be particularly blazon about it to be cited. Bathroom bills will not mean that trans men will have to go out back; bathroom bills will force trans men to complete their business and leave without having to make conversation with the women there. Assault weapon bans will allow murderers to use ANY OTHER GUN AVAILABLE to murder. Social liberals want to show that they are making efforts to end murder. Just as the feds are interfering with the locals' desire to regulate, locals will try to interfere with the fed's right to regulate.
The inescapable fact is that American Muslims have a better chance of being murdered by someone in the LBGT community, then a gay American has of being murdered by a Muslim. Women get murdered by their husbands. Children get murdered by their families. Honor killings and Sharia aren't a problem in our nation. The knock-out game isn't a thing.
Banning assault weapons would not protect a poor black kid or a poor Latino--or any kid in the rough side of town, regardless of race or political ideology. You can't pocket an assault rifle; you can't throw it away when you're done with it. The ban would not have plausibly affected the shooting in Orlando. You have a constitutional right to own a gun, not fly in an airplane. However it has been more than ten years since 9/11, it is time to re-evaluate how many freedoms people suspected of being terrorists should have. In the words of comedian Lewis Black: "It's a watchlist! We are watching the terrorists buy guns!"
A long essay that I wrote related to serial murder.
A short review. C'mon! It's 99 cents!
Rightwingers want this to be an act of terrorism; leftwingers want this to be a hate crime. (See what these bathroom bills are doing to America?) In 2002, a different Muslim shot-up the terminal at LAX. America has so many mass-shootings that their motives blend together. An entirely different Muslim shot-up Ft. Hood--with rightwingers calling it Islamic terrorism and leftwingers calling it a workplace shooting. A Native American Nazi boy shot up his community. Hate crimes used to be simpler than this. Of course, we all know who did this: a scumbag.
Donald Trump, who a few days prior to this shooting addressed the NRA where he proudly boasted how much his family loves guns. He sent out a self-congratulating tweet, and he pushed for more control on Muslim migrants. Of course, the shooter was an American. He was a native-born American. He could've ran for office--any office, with the only limiter being his relatively youthful age. Again Trump has espoused a view that is not merely racist, which is an opinion, but factually wrong.
You have to think ISIS is going to regret taking credit for this attack. ISIS seems intent on taking credit for attacks in which the terrorist group didn't participate in, which makes them oddly far worse than al-Qaeda. A lot of Americans were killed, and that's good enough for the group. Still, the shooter apparently did a lot of research on the local homosexual culture. I mean, a lot of research.
Banning AR-15s are like banning trans folks from choosing which restroom that they want to use. (Assault weapons are used in less than 2% of murders in America; Americans have a better chance of being assaulted by a trans person than murdered with an assault weapon.) These are symbolic measures meant to appease voters, and shouldn't be taken seriously as a threat to anyone's Constitutional rights, whether real or imaginary. They are meant to make the voters feel more comfortable--same reason why I don't sniff white women on the elevator. Social conservatives want to tell trans folks: no. No, we will not have men in the ladies' room. This is wrong. The police agencies of North Carolina don't care to enforce this law--and they have said they're not interested in enforcing it. It's the equivalent of jaywalking, where you have to be particularly blazon about it to be cited. Bathroom bills will not mean that trans men will have to go out back; bathroom bills will force trans men to complete their business and leave without having to make conversation with the women there. Assault weapon bans will allow murderers to use ANY OTHER GUN AVAILABLE to murder. Social liberals want to show that they are making efforts to end murder. Just as the feds are interfering with the locals' desire to regulate, locals will try to interfere with the fed's right to regulate.
The inescapable fact is that American Muslims have a better chance of being murdered by someone in the LBGT community, then a gay American has of being murdered by a Muslim. Women get murdered by their husbands. Children get murdered by their families. Honor killings and Sharia aren't a problem in our nation. The knock-out game isn't a thing.
Banning assault weapons would not protect a poor black kid or a poor Latino--or any kid in the rough side of town, regardless of race or political ideology. You can't pocket an assault rifle; you can't throw it away when you're done with it. The ban would not have plausibly affected the shooting in Orlando. You have a constitutional right to own a gun, not fly in an airplane. However it has been more than ten years since 9/11, it is time to re-evaluate how many freedoms people suspected of being terrorists should have. In the words of comedian Lewis Black: "It's a watchlist! We are watching the terrorists buy guns!"
A long essay that I wrote related to serial murder.
A short review. C'mon! It's 99 cents!
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