If only there was something we could do...

[bennymac]

[heckacali]

It could have had a much better quote for impact and truthiness..

" Ugh, how can these radical leftists allow THAT in a classroom!"

[riser4]

It could have had a much better quote for impact and truthiness..

" Ugh, how can these radical leftists allow THAT in a classroom!"

That was implied.

[basinbeater]

We need a cartoon of a mom telling the kid, don't worry about it, in a couple days everyone will have forgotten.

That's why the gun lobby wins. We are exhausted. There is money to be made, so they will keep working. We on the other hand are exhausted.

[boltonoutlaw]

From NYT:

This Is What the Mainstreaming of Militia Culture Looks Like

In addition to the horrifying security camera footage of the shooter who killed six people, including three children, at the Covenant School in Nashville last week, there emerged some less publicized but no less disconcerting images: photos, apparently obtained from social media, of assault-style weapons belonging to the shooter. These guns were emblazoned with adolescent slogans (“hellfire”) and decorated with stickers that might have appeared on the deck of a skateboard: the logo of the fashion house Stüssy, a blue-and-red illustration similar to work by the graphic artist known as Kaws, a maroon globe of uncertain provenance.

These weapons did not call to mind the .30-06 rifle I use for deer hunting in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or any other gun I have ever handled. At first I did not even register them as belonging to the same category of object. They reminded me of the guitar I owned as an angsty ninth-grader, with its Ralph Nader campaign sticker and the phrase “This machine kills fascists” written in permanent marker in imitation of Woody Guthrie. These guns were lethal weapons, yes. But much as my guitar was not only a musical instrument but also a medium for (dorky and clichéd) personal expression, the guns were acts of and occasions for speech.

Understanding the cultural appeal of AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles like those used in Nashville may not be as urgent a matter as the policy question concerning their availability. Indeed, though I generally support gun rights, I favor imposing restrictions on the manufacture and ownership of AR-15-style weapons. But the problem is deeper than the guns themselves — not just the existence of the evil people who pull the triggers but also the specific place these weapons occupy in American life and the logic by which their ownership seems justifiable to enthusiasts.

The AR-15 is situated at the intersection of a relatively innocent hobbyism and the sinister mainstreaming of features of the militia culture of the 1990s, even among people who lead law-abiding lives. The primary selling point of the AR-15 is that it can be endlessly modified, configured, reimagined. It can become louder or quieter, easier to carry, wield, fire and reload, or more lethal. It is meant to be combined with a seemingly endless array of customizable stocks and grips, blast mitigation devices, piston uppers and conversion kits. These components are themselves paired with a vast assortment of accessories — vests, helmets, straps and other gear unfailingly designated as “tactical.”

It is this adjective, and the ubiquity of references to “tacticians” in advertising copy, review sites and hobby forums, that suggests the baleful aspect of AR-15 culture. Who exactly is practicing these tactics, and where and for what purpose? What this “tactics” business signals is not so much a commitment to action (the overwhelming majority of those who own AR-15s are law-abiding) as a general frame of mind. To the would-be tactician, every place that humans inhabit — housing developments, apartment complexes, stores, strip malls, hotels, churches, hospitals and, yes, schools — is another opportunity to imagine oneself taking part in military-style maneuvers. Where would you go for cover if you were here? How would you hold this position? What weapons and gear would you use?

Such mental habits may be usefully cultivated in the training of U.S. Special Forces. But at a time of social atomization, racial unrest, increased crime rates and widespread drug abuse, it is harder to see the upside of instilling this paranoid attitude among millions of ordinary Americans who otherwise show no indication of moving to remote Montana and stocking ammo for the day the black helicopters arrive.

I am an enthusiastic if undistinguished hunter for whom the most enjoyable time of the year is the long Thanksgiving weekend, when I emerge from the deer blind only for the Michigan-Ohio State football game. My earliest memory of using a gun is at age 6, when I shot at and missed a cloud of bats flocked above an old barn on the edge of our property. But the world of bump stocks and blast mitigation devices is as remote from my experience as is hang gliding. For AR-15 enthusiasts, the gun is not a means to an end — a tool with which you hunt, a weapon with which you protect your family and property — but rather the end itself, a site of fantasy and meaning making.

I suspect that part of the reason for the rise of AR-15 fandom is the decline of other American hobby cultures: auto repair, darkroom photography, ham radio operation and the like. Automobiles have become hulking mobile computers that often can be repaired only by manufacturer-approved dealerships; anyone with a smartphone can now take high-quality pictures; no one needs limited-frequency radio bands anymore to talk with people on the other side of the world. Gun ownership is among the last preserves of community for those who might once have enjoyed the opportunities for the innocent pursuit of mastery and refinement afforded by those innocuous pastimes.

But for all the amateur tinkering, the reality is that these fetishized murder weapons, so often treated by their owners as if they were indistinguishable from model ships or Pokémon cards, have been used repeatedly in incidents like the recent one in Nashville. The pervasiveness of these guns — made possible by the end of the federal ban on assault weapons in 2004 — has led to the creation of social and cultural conditions in which such shootings have become a familiar fact of American life. In that sense, even “harmless” AR-15 fandom belongs somewhere on a continuum with our uncritical attitude toward violent video games, our blithe acceptance of the legalization of cannabis and online gambling and our casual indifference to the weakest and most vulnerable Americans.

In a Christmas card from December 2021, Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, a Republican whose district includes Nashville, commemorated the birth of Christ by posing alongside his family with their collection of assault rifles. That same month, Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, posted a photo on Twitter of his wife and children in front of their Christmas tree in which everyone was holding an assault weapon. My opposition to what the AR-15 represents is not a methodologically rigorous attempt to identify the primary cause of what social scientists call mass shootings. In some ways it is simply an expression of hope for a saner culture, a plea for something other than hypothetical terrorism to form the basis of our leisure time and family memories.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/o...ting-guns.html

[mcphee]

Great summary of the tactical fantasy land we find ourselves in. Although, mentioning “widespread drug abuse” as a generality then mentioning “blithe acceptance of legal cannabis” specifically is a bit suspect.

[::: :::]

Great summary of the tactical fantasy land we find ourselves in. Although, mentioning “widespread drug abuse” as a generality then mentioning “blithe acceptance of legal cannabis” specifically is a bit suspect.

I read that too and was going to emphasize that last line.

“In some ways it is simply an expression of hope for a saner culture, a plea for something other than hypothetical terrorism to form the basis of our leisure time and family memories.”

[CarlMega]

In some ways it is simply an expression of hope for a saner culture, a plea for something other than hypothetical terrorism to form the basis of our leisure time and family memories.

This part really lands. The celebration and glorification of tactical arms interwoven with family time holidays is surreal and bizarre. Sane people living in civilization should be mortified but it's at the point of cliche and barely raises an eyebrow. A once great nation filled with candy-ass versions of menancing Taliban; boredom and emptiness inventing oppression and persecution fantasies minus the burden of a legitimate threat.

[ex-powderbroker]

extrajudicial killings are now legal in texas and florida so we go that going for us. derp.

https://www.chron.com/news/local/art...g-17871230.php

[bennymac]

[MagnificentUnicorn]

From NYT:



Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/o...ting-guns.html

It’s like they’ve been reading Booby Stainless’ and Scotty B’s post.

[byates1]

Bit older news but epic nonetheless. These are but a few of the ppl we all coexist w everyday.

[basinbeater]

Same people that are responsible gun owners until they aren't. Same people who need to carry guns for protection in a scary world until they become the source of the scary world. Same people who are 2nd amendment voters.

I do place much of the blame of gun deaths on those people.

[SumJongGuy]

Same people that are responsible gun owners until they aren't. Same people who need to carry guns for protection in a scary world until they become the source of the scary world. Same people who are 2nd amendment voters.

I do place much of the blame of gun deaths on those people.

The guns they leave in their cars because they're afraid of being without a gun OFTEN fall in to the hands of the very people they are afraid of. They're creating and enhancing the scary punks with guns world they fear.

[byates1]

^ you've been on this specific rant for some time now. Where is this nationwide epidemic of guns in unlocked cars? Should be headlining all the news outlets.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Do you have access to the internet? Of course you do. A quick google search brings up many articles about guns stolen from cars as the largest source of stolen guns. Over half of stolen firearms in 2020 were stolen from cars

[byates1]

Huh.

[SumJongGuy]

^ you've been on this specific rant for some time now. Where is this nationwide epidemic of guns in unlocked cars? Should be headlining all the news outlets.

It is all over the news now. You just heard it from me first, like many things. Dipshits like you are causing these problems..

New York Times..

The Largest Source of Stolen Guns? Parked Cars.
The growing number of firearms kept in vehicles has become a new point of contention in the debates over regulating gun safty



In a country awash with guns, with more firearms than people, the parked car, or in many cases the parked pickup truck, has become a new flashpoint in the debates over how and whether to regulate gun safety.

There is little question about the scope of the problem. A report issued in May by the gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety analyzed FBI crime data in 271 American cities, large and small, from 2020 and found that guns stolen from vehicles have become the nation’s largest source of stolen firearms — with an estimated 40,000 guns stolen from cars in those cities alone....


In some cities, organized groups of young people have swept through neighborhoods and areas around sports arenas, looking for weapons left under car seats or in unlocked center consoles or glove compartments. Their work is occasionally made easier by motorists who advertise their right to bear arms with car window stickers promoting favored gun brands, or that declare “molon labe” — a defiant message from ancient Sparta, which roughly translates as “come and take them.”

Increasingly, thieves are doing just that. The Everytown researchers found that a decade ago, less than a quarter of all gun thefts were from cars; in 2020, over half of them were. The researchers say more study is needed to understand the shift, which has occurred as more states have adopted permitless carry laws and messages in gun-industry marketing have encouraged Americans to take their weapons with them for personal protection.......

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/25/u...rked-cars.html

And I'm going to keep saying it over and over in hopes that leaving a gun in your car becomes as illegal as a felon having a gun is..

[ex-powderbroker]

2k reported guns stolen from cars in nashville alone in 2022. poof. all gone without a trace. until they are used in crimes. The segment of Americans that think more guns keep us more safe are so fucking dumb and keep inflicting us with this nonsense.

speaking of which, there will be more firearms victims with this nonsense. same shit, more guns, more places, more problems.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna77934


but who’s counting?

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-02-23...des-every-year

[SkiBall]

At some point, maybe people get mad about all this. Apparently not there yet. When is TN’s next election?

[SumJongGuy]

They're not counting a LOT of them. Folks with CCW/CCW don't want to risk losing their permit to carry and buy pistols without the new background check by reporting to the cops that they left an unsecured firearm in an unlocked vehicle and it was stolen.. So they just shut the fuck up eat the loss, and go buy another gun to leave in their car. I actually know someone with a conceal permit who did exactly that..

[riser4]

They're not counting a LOT of them. Folks with CCW/CCW don't want to risk losing their permit to carry and buy pistols without the new background check by reporting to the cops that they left an unsecured firearm in an unlocked vehicle and it was stolen.. So they just shut the fuck up eat the loss, and go buy another gun to leave in their car. I actually know someone with a conceal permit who did exactly that..

You should turn them in.

[byates1]

^ha. Sjg is part of the problem. "People like him"

I'm outraged.

[Meadow Skipper]

At some point, maybe people get mad about all this. Apparently not there yet. When is TN’s next election?

Like election results matter to the people in charge in TN. If they don’t like the results, they just toss ‘em out.

I’ve been noticing in the news that the Good Guys With Guns have been getting outgunned in places like Wisconsin and Louisville.

[ex-powderbroker]

Like election results matter to the people in charge in TN. If they don’t like the results, they just toss ‘em out.

I’ve been noticing in the news that the Good Guys With Guns have been getting outgunned in places like Wisconsin and Louisville.

Election results don't matter because without 60+ pct in gerrymandered republican states you can't even get half of the reps.