School shooting in the US

[BKK]

Gun violence is violence committed with firearms, such as handguns, shotguns, or semi-automatic rifles. More than 600 people are estimated to die every day from gun violence with two-thirds of gun-related deaths, including suicides, occurring in just six countries (in descending order): Brazil, the USA, Venezuela, Mexico, India and Colombia

https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/arms-control/gun-violence/

 

[BKK]

We talk about school shooters but there are so many women shot everyday by the men they are meant to be able to trust and love.

the whole situation is tragic. 

one must ask will this lead to more people voting for Trump? Are people now running out to buy more guns and ammunition? 

if their wife over cooks the Sunday roast will they turn the gun on her? Themselves? Their kids? 

The USA positions its self as a world leader and authoritarian. 

it’s heart breaking and tragic that its citizens must live in fear from those whom they are meant to trust or be responsible for as a teacher 

[BKK]

And then the drugs addiction:

Around 105,400 people died in the 12-month period ending February 29, 2024, at a rate of 288 deaths per day. That is 31.4 deaths per 100,000 US residents, using the population at the midpoint of that period

mixed with a gun culture. 

[LunaFreya]

Remember today’s school shooters would have seen others all their lives and perhaps seen them as people to emulate. 
 

This is what happens when you don’t look after your kids, or you’re too paranoid or tired to look after them properly 

[onetrick]

Has anybody seen bully? Every time I read about gun violence in the US with children committing suicide, I think of poor Ty in that movie. And the girl who was bullied so much and brought a gun to school (Ja'meya?).

Every time I watch it with my students they are horrified at the difference in culture is the US, with not just gun violence, but the bullying and difference in values that leads to the use of them.

Some sobering viewing if anyone is interested.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

2 hours ago, LunaFreya said:

Remember today’s school shooters would have seen others all their lives and perhaps seen them as people to emulate. 
 

This is what happens when you don’t look after your kids, or you’re too paranoid or tired to look after them properly 

Well, also when guns are made a " norm" and are basically made out to be toys to be played with. Yes, not all families who hunt will have a " shooter" in their ranks, but when guns are made out to be harmless, are gifts at Christmas and shown off in the Family Christmas portrait, you reduce the respect of the danger of them. Of course then, you take a gun at school to show your friends ( that happened with a 7 year old this week in the US. Took mom's gun to school) and yes, you can see that using a gun would give you " respect" or notoriety so "let's go shot who I dislike and make them pay".

[MerryMadigralMadge]

Not a school shooting, but just another white man who decided to shoot at cars on an interstate in Kentucky. Injuries include those from car crashes in the resulting panic. 
 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/09/07/us/kentucky-interstate-75-shooting

There was another shooting at traffic spree in Seattle last week, with people still in hospital with serious injuries. 

“The shootings follow a recent increase in gun-related incidents on roadways in King County, which includes Seattle, according to CNN affiliate KING.

There were 577 calls reporting a roadway crime involving a gun – including the brandishing of a firearm – between February 2023 and February 2024, KING reported, citing data from the Washington State Patrol. It’s a 70% increase from the number of incidents reported between March 2019 and March 2020, the outlet said.”

[MerryMadigralMadge]

That’s freeways closed for hours, people in hospital with life changing injuries and trauma, cost to taxpayers for their health care, time out of the workforce in a country with minimal sick leave entitlements, stress and trauma for police and medical staff etc. 

I saw a trend somewhere last year on SM, where US doctors/nurses etc, were asking their fellow colleagues in other countries, how often they saw a gunshot wound, and so many non-American medicos were responding with never, a few, or never in a minor, or only a few accidental farming related etc. Depressing. 

[purplekitty]

1 hour ago, MerryMadigralMadge said:

 

 

I saw a trend somewhere last year on SM, where US doctors/nurses etc, were asking their fellow colleagues in other countries, how often they saw a gunshot wound, and so many non-American medicos were responding with never, a few, or never in a minor, or only a few accidental farming related etc. Depressing. 

That comes up fairly often.

There are many Aus. responses that they have never seen a gunshot wound.

The 'never' is considered unbelievable.

Non-medical,pro-gun people in those gun threads seem to think other countries are lying.

They can't envisage that people don't have guns and their related trauma.

Or we live in an authoritarian gulag.

The insular nature and education of many Americans is an enormous handicap.

 

[Crombek]

8 minutes ago, purplekitty said:

Or we live in an authoritarian gulag.

 

I've noticed a marked increase in this since covid. Any attempt by an Australian to say that we are happy to have gun control results in many comments 'yeah but you allowed the government to take away all your freedoms and lock you up for years so you've got no idea what's good for you'.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

9 minutes ago, Crombek said:

I've noticed a marked increase in this since covid. Any attempt by an Australian to say that we are happy to have gun control results in many comments 'yeah but you allowed the government to take away all your freedoms and lock you up for years so you've got no idea what's good for you'.

Or we are a communist state by stealth. 

[Paddlepop]

21 minutes ago, Crombek said:

I've noticed a marked increase in this since covid. Any attempt by an Australian to say that we are happy to have gun control results in many comments 'yeah but you allowed the government to take away all your freedoms and lock you up for years so you've got no idea what's good for you'.

There’s so much of this in the comments of the Ozzy Man video that @Jenflea mentioned. The difference in attitude between Australians and Americans is stark. 

 

[MerryMadigralMadge]

Comes down to how you define freedom. 
 

Is it an individual concept, or a universal concept - is it freedom based on what I can do, or freedom based on what my society can do for everyone. 
 

Eg freedom to me is the ability for all around me to live safely in our community, and that necessitates restrictions on what I can or cannot do - from the mundane can’t mow before 8am, through to can’t own a gun.
 

However, I see this American individual freedom concept creeping into discussions about the US cars that are increasing in number here. Those cars are too big, cause more deaths and injuries of pedestrians etc, but in any comment about them, there are Australians going off in their right to own any damn car they like. 

[MerryMadigralMadge]

3 hours ago, MerryMadigralMadge said:

Not a school shooting, but just another white man who decided to shoot at cars on an interstate in Kentucky. Injuries include those from car crashes in the resulting panic. 
 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/09/07/us/kentucky-interstate-75-shooting

There was another shooting at traffic spree in Seattle last week, with people still in hospital with serious injuries. 

“The shootings follow a recent increase in gun-related incidents on roadways in King County, which includes Seattle, according to CNN affiliate KING.

 

There were 577 calls reporting a roadway crime involving a gun – including the brandishing of a firearm – between February 2023 and February 2024, KING reported, citing data from the Washington State Patrol. It’s a 70% increase from the number of incidents reported between March 2019 and March 2020, the outlet said.”

Loosest gun laws in the country - no background checks required

[BKK]

The right to own guns is so ingrained into the American way of life and thinking that I don’t believe that this will ever change.

look at the faces of Sandy Hook. If something was going to change it would have been then.

those kids had far more rights to go to school and be safe than a person has to own a high powered gun.

[LunaFreya]

Just a reminder that most Americans feel just as powerless about this situation. It's very sad, but the gun lobby is so powerful that none can touch them

[egg]

26 minutes ago, LunaFreya said:

Just a reminder that most Americans feel just as powerless about this situation. It's very sad, but the gun lobby is so powerful that none can touch them

This is bullshit.  A large number of Americans don't vote, and of those that do many vote for politicians supported by the gun lobby.  Taken as a WHOLE the American people value their guns more than they value their kids. 

[LunaFreya]

7 minutes ago, egg said:

This is bullshit.  A large number of Americans don't vote, and of those that do many vote for politicians supported by the gun lobby.  Taken as a WHOLE the American people value their guns more than they value their kids. 

I beg to differ . I know many Americans, work with them and see them when they visit here and talk to them online. Most of them are appalled by this but don't see the situation changing so instead they choose to move to a different country.

[egg]

3 minutes ago, LunaFreya said:

I beg to differ . I know many Americans, work with them and see them when they visit here and talk to them online. Most of them are appalled by this but don't see the situation changing so instead they choose to move to a different country.

Yes - but that's not MOST Americans.  That's some, that you know, who have taken action.  MOST Americans are too disengaged to vote on this.  Or they feel deeply that something should be done, but then they look at who will give them the biggest tax break or whatever.

If EVERY American who really cares about this makes it their No. 1 voting issue until proper gun control gets passed then it would happen.  Most Americans don't vote primarily on gun control.

 

[LunaFreya]

1 hour ago, egg said:

If EVERY American who really cares about this makes it their No. 1 voting issue until proper gun control gets passed then it would happen.  Most Americans don't vote primarily on gun control.

Yes, but what matters is voters in key areas that have fucked up electoral maps and voting laws. And gun lobbyists and PACs giving money to politicians. It's not just voters

[egg]

1 hour ago, LunaFreya said:

Yes, but what matters is voters in key areas that have fucked up electoral maps and voting laws. And gun lobbyists and PACs giving money to politicians. It's not just voters

Yes - I agree with you there!

[MerryMadigralMadge]

A teenager shot in the face, by a gun owner who is in the local town council, there’s a law actually called Make my Day, all the facts in this are mind boggling. 
 

That kind of siege mentality that leads you actually shot at a car on a public road, not on your property, no thought process that it could be anything else but a threat…. and that he wasn’t charged with attempted murder etc, and is out on a $5000 bond. 
 

i don’t know how people come back from this kind of thought process. 
 

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/colorado/news/conifer-teen-shot-face-seeking-permission-photos/
 

Investigators say the teens shared that they were in their Audi parked along the road writing a note to the homeowners to ask for permission when a pickup driven by Metz pulled up at an angle, blocking their departure.

"In the process of writing that note, a truck pulled up next to them. An adult male got out, pointed a gun at the windshield of their car and fired the gun," said Kelley. 

That person is identified by the Sheriff's Office as Metz. Investigators found the note the teens were writing in a school binder. They say Metz said nothing before firing. 

"There was no conversation," said Kelley.

 

[LunaFreya]

Fucking hell, America. I bet the teenagers were black