Better send in the National Guard. Right?
He continued, “It’s just senseless gun violence. What we are experiencing now is just a proliferation of guns being in circulation.”
No. Americans have always had shitloads of guns and kids used to bring their rifles and shotguns to school, racked in the rear window, in plain view. And gun laws were far more lax. Though I admit they’re looser in some ways, we didn’t have background checks or waiting periods when I was a young man. School shootings kicked off with Columbine and the rest have been copycats of copycats.
The country as a whole is mentally ill. Growing up in a time when it wasn’t like today, shit, it’s hard to explain. Someone will come along and say America’s has always been sick. Not like this. Nothing like this.
And it’s only going to get worse as we strip healthcare (even more), strip mine even the poorest among us, strip government functions and services, strip education, strip housing, strip healthy incomes, god, it goes on forever.
We pass through several times a year and Mississippi was always friendly to us. Not this last trip. I know damned well they were eyeballing my Filipino wife, probably thinking she’s Mexican. Almost everywhere we stopped we got the bare minimum of courtesy.
Hell, I’m on edge like never before in life. Not going to shoot random people, but there are articles of clothing I won’t wear in public because I don’t want to get in a self-defense situation with these MAGA animals. If a middle-aged white guy doesn’t feel safe in public, I can’t imagine how everyone else feels.
You’re right in that sense but the endless proliferation of guns is also not helping a single fucking thing either. More than one for every single man, woman, and child is absolutely absurd and not helping.
Well, you got nuts like me skewing the numbers. I have shitloads of guns by almost any metric. But a quarter don’t work, need my gunsmithing, the other quarter isn’t reliable enough for defense, another quarter is for shits and giggles. 5 are black powder, useless unless that first shot is a banger. Even among the working, reliable guns, most of the remainder are vintage or antique single-shot shotguns and the like. Get my drift?
I think people compare guns to cars on the road; More guns, more death. But some guys got 40 cars and it’s not like they can drive them all at once.
One gun law I can see working, and passing Constitutional muster in the courts, is some form of safe storage. Don’t know how that looks, devil and details, but no toddler or teenager should get their hands on a loose gun and the custodians should be sent to prison, no exceptions.
Anyway, my original point was that America doesn’t have a gun problem. America has a culture problem. Anti-gun people often comment about other first-world gun laws. Yeah, they’re more strict, but it’s not all that hard to get a gun, especially a long gun. Watched many videos on European gun shops and laws, eye opening.
Speaking of culture, reading the The Laundry Files really woke me. The protagonist, being a member of the British anti-magic version of the CIA*, is repelled when offered a hand gun. He’s not anti-gun, it’s just that the idea is alien to him. My American brain is screaming, “You’re going into almost certain violence, in America, and you’re turning down a pistol?!”
Again on culture, I am stunned at the take both gun nuts and gun haters have on the law. Both sides think self-defense laws are far looser than they really are. My right-wing, conceal carry instructor told us, “If you draw your gun, you intend to end whatever is happening with lethal force. If you didn’t intend lethal force, that’s called ‘brandishing’, a crime in itself. However justified you feel in the moment, no matter how justified you really were, be prepared to spend life in a concrete and steel box, or one made of pine, because that might be the outcome.” Some education could go a long way.
* Sounds dumb, great series. Gets a bit muddled around book 6 or 7.
I have family in Mississippi, god love them. They say completely racist shit, but think they aren’t racist because they act really nice to black people and know and work with a bunch. Overall they’re really nice people but Trumpy as hell and it sucks.
I so want to love Mississippi. Married a woman from there and dated two others. Mississippi women are the Swiss army knives of human beings. They can get their makeup game on, strap on a ball gown, and then hand-saw a 2x4 and shoot a pistol like Annie Oakley, in heels or combat boots, no matter, not afraid of a damned thing. All while carrying themselves with manners, class and style.
Been near tears thinking on the state of the state. Beautiful land and people, in so many ways, it’s a goddamned shame. Some of the finest people in the Union, boiled in racism and poverty, last in any metric but obesity.
Yeah man, yeah
This is an incredible comment and contribution. Thank you for sharing. This is how I feel as a white guy here now too.
And your comment is the nicest thing to happen to me all weekend. 😊
Aww, cheers to you, internet friend. Be well 😊
Getting ready to feel an intense wave of cringe as I read all the “This is what you voted for” comments, as though high schoolers have any political autonomy in this country - much less a fascist theocracy like Mississippi.
I will never understand how people can blame the electorate for a cabal of russian-backed fascists seizing power after convincing 29.5% of US adults to vote for them.
I grew up under Reagan. Can you imagine how I feel seeing the GOP kowtow to the fucking Russians?!
It’s pretty wild right? All that talk for decades about Russia, the nuclear drills, all those movies we grew up with where the Russians were the bad guys and then bam complete 180. I suppose it wasn’t quite so sudden but still. Information warfare has really worked well for them.
Not even shy about it! We had Congressmen visiting Moscow on the 4th of July!
Trump’s first term saw him disavow every domestic intelligence agency that said Russia had influenced the election. “Met with Putin. Great guy by the way. He says it’s all fake news. I believe him.”
And no translator notes allowed from that meeting! Certainly normal to compartmentalize that shit, but damn, no one in the government heard that discussion. My dumbass would want advisors reviewing what went on!
The kids getting shot aren’t part of the electorate.
No, they are not. I was agreeing with your scoffing at the “this is what you voted for” attitude.
I would like to know more about the Leland shooting. The local cops said it happened at a night club, they won’t say anything else, and they have no suspects.
