Guns (Yawn)

[seemslikeadream]

Trump wants to arm teachers.....teachers will not be able to buy insurance in case they accidentally kill a student ...who's gonna pay the victim ....not the federal government


700,000 teachers in America.....

what a fucking stupid idea....he is an idiot


weapons of war in the schools


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJnsMV3EZOI


Marco Rubio is a crisis actor hired by the NRA

[Burnt Hill]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a18568553/parkland-shooting-gun-reform/

The Country Is Broken. The Kids Are Alright.

The Parkland shooting may be a sea change moment after all.


BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
FEB 21, 2018


I’ve mentioned around the shebeen before that my father spent 35 years as a teacher and administrator in the public schools in Worcester, MA. (Heart of the Commonwealth, represent!) Originally, he planned to be a lawyer when he graduated from Holy Cross. But then there was a big government program called World War II and he joined up with a big government program called the U.S. Navy.

When he came back, he did one desultory semester in law school and then went and got his Masters in education. Years later, after he’d passed, my aunt told me that he’d once explained his career change to her. “After everything he saw in the war,” she told me, “he wanted to be around kids.”

I’ve thought a lot about that as I’ve watched the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, stand up against the worst imaginable horror, and thenstand up against the worst organized conservatism can throw at them. This should be a frenetic, happy time. There are sports playoffs and theater production and prom season is right around the corner. Kids should be excited about college acceptances and scholarship possibilities. They shouldn’t be going to this many funerals. They shouldn’t have to be the vanguard in the fight against this country’s insane attraction to its firearms. They didn’t volunteer to be victims, but they sure as hell volunteered to be warriors.



Outside of the indecent algae like Jim Hoft, much of the reaction to what the kids are doing from the “grown-ups” of the right has been utterly hilarious. Ben Shapiro, who literally has been wrapped in wingnut welfare swaddling since he was their age, has been tut-tutting the country about taking the emotional and immature reaction of these students too seriously. In National Review, Shapiro, who had a syndicated column when he was 17, had the brass-balled audacity to write,

“What, pray tell, did these students do to earn their claim to expertise?”

High-larious, I tells ya.

But the real high comedy has been to watch the conservative intelligentsia embark on a serious fool’s errand—namely, trying to battle with educated teenagers on social media. I mean, don’t any of these people have kids between the ages of 10 and 20? This is like the Redcoats marching back to Boston from Lexington and Concord. They’re taking fire from behind every tree and every stonewall, and they’re getting slaughtered on platforms they’ve probably never heard of.



I was initially skeptical about whether or not Parkland was going to matter any more in the long run than Columbine, Sandy Hook, or Las Vegas mattered. A lot of that has melted away. This may be a sea change in the issue. There’s a natural savvy at work here from kids who have spent the last few years creating communities on their laptops and phones. Now, instead of communities dedicated to TV shows, music, sports, fashion, and who’s zoomin’ who in fourth-period Bio, the communities being created are being created to design ongoing political action on an issue that literally was life and death a week ago.

This is how the anti-war movement, and the Civil Rights movement, got themselves going in the media Stone Age. It can happen faster now, and it can spread around the world, and these kids know that better than anyone else does.

THIS IS HOW THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, GOT THEMSELVES GOING IN THE MEDIA STONE AGE.

My father worked in what were then called “inner-city” schools. When he left the classroom—he actually taught fourth-period Bio—he became the vice-principal on whom disciplinary matters fell. He was notably tough, but he also was a realist. He had a running feud with one phys-ed teacher whose class was scheduled for the first thing in the morning. He kept sending kids who fell asleep down to my father’s office. The first thing my father asked them was whether or not they had had anything to eat that morning. If the answer was no, he’d give them some money and send them to a diner down the street. Then, he’d wait for the gym teacher to come down and yell at him. “Charlie,” he once told me, “You can’t teach a hungry child. It’s pointless.”

I don’t know how my father would have reacted to the kids from Florida. Mass murder wasn’t part of the curriculum in his day. I’m fairly sure he wouldn’t be down with walking out of class in protest. But I’m also fairly sure that, as they went out the door, he’d have slipped them a couple of bucks for lunch.

[stefano]

So now they want to make a million teachers pack heat.

[Burnt Hill]

That's what they want. But its not going to happen.

So now they want to make a million teachers pack heat.

[stefano]

God, one hopes not. Still...

Oh yeah? LOL...we are totally fucked up!

[Elvis]

Claude Independent School District in West Texas

claudeisdarmedandready.jpg

[Karmamatterz]

In case some of you missed the news about how vehicles and knives are used in attacks. Right here in the "heartland" of it all.

Knife-wielding man who wounded 11 in Ohio State University attack was a student

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow ... story.html

The man who drove a car into a crowd of students at Ohio State University on Monday and then attacked bystanders with a butcher knife, injuring at least 11, has been identified as a student at the university, and officials are investigating whether terrorism was a motive.
The attacker, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who authorities said was about 20 years old, was shot and killed by a university police officer who arrived and brought Artan down within a minute, officials said.
"This happened right before his eyes," campus Police Chief Craig Stone said of Officer Alan Horujko, 28, who had been in the area on another call. In a previous news conference, Stone said Artan had not "followed" the officer's commands and "the officer did what he had to do to end the threat."

[Karmamatterz]

Teachers or school admins carrying guns is old news in Ohio.

http://www.fox19.com/story/20516811/900 ... -to-school

http://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/ ... /93311920/

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/02/20/o ... l-shooting

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... ecord.html

[stefano]

In case some of you missed the news about how vehicles and knives are used in attacks.

I don't think anyone would argue that banning guns would end mass murder. It's not an argument I've seen on here, at any rate. I do agree with the pro-stronger regulation current on here, though, that making it harder to obtain machines of which the only purpose is to kill many people in a short space of time, will tend to lead to fewer people getting killed. Maybe just as many maniacs will think about mass murder (though I believe there's something about the killing machine itself that brings the thought into the world), but fewer will move to the act.

For purposes of comparison, here is a pretty rigorous study (at first glance) of the way in which the banning of certain kinds of lethal pesticides in Sri Lanka reduced the overall suicide rate. Suicide by pesticide came off 50%, while suicides by other means went up 2%, and all suicides together fell 21%. That is, some suicidal people were determined to kill themselves by any means, as you might put it, and did; but many more others dropped the idea when the easiest means was no longer at hand.

The way you use 'ban guns' is also tendentious in the extreme (and it cost a lot of bucks to wedge that frame into the discourse). No one's talking about banning guns or taking away your guns. The regulations under consideration are about controlling the trade in certain kinds of firearms that are designed specifically to shoot people and which are the ones that get used in these spree killings many times more frequently than any other.

[seemslikeadream]

the most powerful man on the planet has to have a note to remember to say

I hear you


the children say no guns in school to his face and he says guns of all teachers to their faces.....I guess he can't even remember to look at the note or can't fuckin' read


THE KIDS RUNNING FROM A GUNMAN NOW SEE A MICROPHONE BEFORE THEY SEE THEIR PARENTS

[Karmamatterz]

Such a respectable example of journalism. LOL

The Daily News is conflicted between being the National Enquirer and People Magazine.

Gotta commend them for being able to sell a few papers though.

Right, I forgot...Trump is the problem! It's not crazy mentally ill individuals, it's Trump!

[seemslikeadream]

trump does not think mentally ill individuals are the problem

and the NRA LOVES MONEY!!!!

SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN LOVE MONEY!!!

who makes more money from guns?

NAVY SEAL TRAINING FOR ALL TEACHERS IN THIS COUNRTY!!!

How long does it take to unlock a cabinet to get a gun out to shot somebody that is firing off an AR?



Empathy is so foreign to trump he wants it deported

[Karmamatterz]

I could give a shit what Trump thinks is the problem. He is not part of the solution. Or at least any solution that is remotely practical in the long run. Politicians showing empathy? You can't be serious. When they do it's a page out of their playbook, not genuine concern for the human condition.

In case you forgot, some of those sick fucks on Capitol Hill voted for Gulf War I. Then they followed up with all sorts of other killing actions. Where was their empathy?

[seemslikeadream]

you brought it up media money I guess you care about media money

Yes the war has come home and is being fought in our schools and making every child in this country have to endure active shooter drills




crying mothers are media gold

- NRA

5 million NRA members

United States of America/Population
323.1 million (2016)

Could they carry there guns into that CPAC convention?

True Colors
By David Kurtz | February 22, 2018 10:41 am
Watching the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre hold forth at CPAC–carried live on the news nets–is a good reminder that while it carefully crafts an image as a membership association of gun owners, the NRA is really a house organ of the Republican Party. What I’m saying isn’t new. The reporting documenting the NRA’s shift under LaPierre has been out there for years. But listen to his rhetoric. This isn’t about guns or gun rights.The Second Amendment argument, as anathema as it is to many people, is window dressing. It’s about using “guns” as a political cudgel, using “guns” to catalyze the resentments and grievances of conservatives, using “guns” as a bulwark against political threats to the Republican Party. Plain and simple.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog

CPAC's Carnival Barkers Have Arrived
Everyone from Sean Hannity to Sheriff David Clarke has descended on the 'conservative super bowl,' which kicks off Thursday.

BY JOHN HENDRICKSON
FEB 22, 2018



NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND—By 7 p.m., the mechanical bull at Cadillac Ranch had roared to life. Boneless wings were on happy hour, Smash Mouth was un-ironically on the juke. The room smelled of steak and beer and spinach-artichoke dip. Red lanyards dangled around the collars of going-out shirts. CPAC, “the Super Bowl of conservative politics,” was once again making its way into this pristine development just down the river from Washington. Of course there were MAGA hats.

National Harbor might best be described as a conservative wet dream. There’s an America! store sandwiched between a Harley-Davidson gift shop and a Build-A-Bear Workshop. There’s a big, beautiful Starbucks down the block, a Chipotle around the corner, and a Life Is Good store over on American Way. A bistro called Public House promises that it serves “comfortable food.”

Private security—not cops—are constantly roving and the trash cans appear to lack any actual trash. There’s a ferris wheel, a modest pier, a very small beach. There’s an entire store devoted to Peeps, the popular Easter candy. On an 80-degree February day like Wednesday, visitors can sunbathe in plastic Adirondack chairs while watching the Olympics in a public park that conveniently offers AstroTurf instead of grass.

“I LOVE MY COUNTRY, IT’S THE GOVERNMENT I’M AFRAID OF.”
A T-shirt on display in the front window of the America! store flashed a simple message: “I love my COUNTRY, it’s the GOVERNMENT I’m afraid of.” The 10-word mantra could have been a snippet from any recent monologue by Sean Hannity, whose Fox News show was broadcast live Wednesday night just up the street inside the sprawling Gaylord hotel—CPAC ground zero.

An hour before showtime, a stage manager asked the audience to text their friends and family to come down to Potomac Ballroom because they were trying to “fill up the crowd for TV.” Hannity’s superhero logo was splashed across dueling jumbotrons as Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” quietly played over the loudspeaker.

Hannity later told the assembled crowd that his program, Hannity, is the number-one show in cable news “by a mile.” On Wednesday night, it went head-to-head with a special CNN town hall about gun violence that quickly became a national trending topic. Hannity spent most of his hour-long broadcast praising Trump, attacking the liberal media, and resurfacing old Clinton scandals.

It’s hard to overstate Hannity’s present influence on the national discourse. Right now, he’s the closest thing Fox News has to a replacement for Bill O’Reilly, an alpha-jock carnival barker full of vaguely political one-liners. On Wednesday night, one of Hannity’s guests, the former Trump aide Dr. Sebastian Gorka, said, “If we didn’t have President Trump’s Twitter feed and Sean Hannity, Hillary Clinton would be president.”

Gorka, who took a selfie with the CPAC backdrop shortly before going on live TV, later posed the philosophical question, “If you didn’t believe in God, well, you had to change your mind on November the 7th, right?”

Grown men leapt over chairs while attempting to come away with one of several red-white-and-blue footballs that Hannity launched into the crowd during commercial breaks. Three attendees from East Connecticut State University screamed, “Sean! Sean! Sean!” but ultimately left the ballroom football-less. The students, who all claimed to be exactly 21, were on their way out to the bars.

“WHEN WE COME HERE, WE’RE ALL AROUND PEOPLE WHO MORE OR LESS FEEL THE SAME WAY WE DO."
“Being from New England, we cannot really go out and talk about certain things,” said Francisco Ricigliano, a college Republican. “Not because we’re going to get hurt or something, but because people will judge you, and you will lose respect from professors, from other students, administrators.

“When we come here, we’re all around people who more or less feel the same way we do. Just being able to freely talk about the things you believe in and not have someone stare you down or walk away from you? I think that’s absolutely amazing.”

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff David Clarke, one of Trump’s most public African-American supporters, held court at a high-top table in the Belvedere Lobby Bar. Clarke, who declined a request for an interview, ran the Milwaukee jail where an inmate died of “profound dehydration” after being denied water for a week. (Clarke’s former employees are now facing criminal charges.) Clarke is scheduled to deliver a speech on Friday morning entitled “Law and Border.”

CPAC officially kicks off Thursday morning with back-to-back speeches from NRA leader Wayne LaPierre and Vice President Mike Pence. Sen. Ted Cruz and millennial conservative icon Ben Shapiro will appear later in the day. At 4 p.m., the Center for Security Policy will sponsor an event entitled “Save the Persecuted Christians,” which will be followed by “Whither Freedom” at 5.

And for those looking to win over women, there’s a mid-afternoon activism boot camp called “How to Win Women.”
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a ... nity-cpac/

[Burnt Hill]

Well there you go - man has psychotic break - uses tools immediately available to him and hurts 11 people.
If he had a better killing tool he would have used that, most likely resulting in at least 11 dead, not injured.
People will use the tools at their disposal to commit the crimes they will commit.
So lets not have killing machines available to the general population, please.

Also sounds like he was of a darker skin tone so he was killed on sight - and will be labeled a terrorist - inflame the rhetoric causing more gun sales, and taking the focus off of mental health and firearm restrictions.

Okay nevermind that cynical last bit, I just realized this happened in 2016. The point remains.

In case some of you missed the news about how vehicles and knives are used in attacks. Right here in the "heartland" of it all.

Knife-wielding man who wounded 11 in Ohio State University attack was a student

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow ... story.html

The man who drove a car into a crowd of students at Ohio State University on Monday and then attacked bystanders with a butcher knife, injuring at least 11, has been identified as a student at the university, and officials are investigating whether terrorism was a motive.
The attacker, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who authorities said was about 20 years old, was shot and killed by a university police officer who arrived and brought Artan down within a minute, officials said.
"This happened right before his eyes," campus Police Chief Craig Stone said of Officer Alan Horujko, 28, who had been in the area on another call. In a previous news conference, Stone said Artan had not "followed" the officer's commands and "the officer did what he had to do to end the threat."