I just read this in an article about the recent shootings in Raleigh, North Carolina:
In a country where gun violence never stops, where gunmen have killed elementary school children in their classrooms; where people have died en masse at concerts and nightclubs and movie theaters; where the names of places like Newtown and Aurora and Columbine and Uvalde conjure memories of the horrors that happened there, Raleigh joined a dreaded club.
The shootings in east Raleigh are the 531st mass shooting in America in 2022, according to gunviolencearchive.org, a website that tracks mass shootings in which at least four people are shot “in a single incident.” Five-hundred and thirty-two people died in those 531 shootings, according to the website, and 2,221 people were injured.
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Before Thursday, the neighborhood had been like any other place where people never thought something like this might happen. Now it is transformed, like the supermarket in Buffalo or elementary school in Uvalde or the church in Charleston. It happened here. And if it could happen here, where will it happen next?
By early Friday morning, Raleigh wasn’t even the country’s most recent mass shooting. Six people had been shot in Alabama and four more in New Bern, No. Carolina.
I have nothing more to add …
Nan's Notebook 
The 2nd amendment has been misinterpreted (just like the translators of the bible books) to suit a purpose. The lawyers representing the NRA were clever.
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And we have scum who said they’re actors and his fan base sent death threats and one hour after Jones’s conviction, his organization raised $185,000. Plus he still has his radio or podcast show and is a free man, no doubt hiding most of his money well before this happened.
And the NRA has the republicans by the cajonés.
And we have a good old boy, my free-dumb to kill, redneck bullies in every single state.
What’s not to love about America!
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Mary, I don’t care that much about Jones and the people like him. They’ve been around literally forever. What I do care about is that we have a media that has become so cynical, so money hungry, that they are more than willing to give him and people like him a public forum to transmit his garbage. And we have a society that lets the media get away with it.
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Exactly and all instead of focusing on the good things Biden has done.
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C’mon, Mary. You know and I know … that kind of stuff doesn’t sell … and bottom line is … what? You guessed it! $$$$$
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How Americans put up with this total stupidity I will never know. When will you reach your limit!
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God, Bible and guns. With those three they can’t reach any limits
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There is no god, the bible is a book of epic historical fiction, and guns should be banned. There will come a time when the deceptions are disbelieved.
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and the gun nutters are just fine with all of it – at this stage nothing will help.
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Guns don’t kill people, Nan. So nothing will be done about the guns.
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Ahhh yes. That’s a familiar saying here in the states. And true enough, if all the guns were simply laying safely in their gun safes and/or other secure locations, then there would be no problem. Right? I mean, after all, they are inanimate objects. But somehow, the folks that own these guns just can’t seem to resist the temptation to pick one up and use it for its designed purpose. And unfortunately —sigh— innocent people often get in the way.
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According to that statistic Americans are terribly bad shooters.
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Rautakyy, I’ve been out to shooting ranges and yeah, most of the wanna-be “good guys with a gun” as the NRA calls them, couldn’t hit the side of a barn. I’ve watched some of these people and it was seriously scary. They don’t so much aim as use a gun as a firehose spraying bullets down range. I’m a hunter, or was, and a marksman. The last time I went out to a range to sight in my rifle, I fired a total of about 5 rounds to make sure the rifle was working properly and would hit what I was aiming at. Most of the others at the range? They were out there with their AR-15s and high capacity magazines spraying bullets downrange everywhere, using them more like a firehose than a weapon. The guys with handguns were even more scary.
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That fits the picture. It would be interresting to learn more statistics though. How many of these mass shootings were actually stopped by the glorified “good guy” with a gun, if any? Not by the police, on or off duty officers, but by random gun toting citizens. Also, if any such incident did happen, was that person trained to use the gun in any way, and/or did they have some sane reason to carry that firearm, like being a hunter, or a reservist and on their way to the firing range, to hunt, or to train. Or was it just a lucky shot by.an accidental bystander.
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The statistics are out there. Sort of. It looks like less than 1% of “good guys with a gun” actually stopped a real crime of any sort according to one study I saw. Another from the University of Texas said the number of GGWAGs who sotp an active shooter situation was less than 3%. Meanwhile other studies indicate that the “good guy with a gun” (GGWAG) is four times more likely to get shot himself.
Basically all of the credible statistics that I’ve seen indicates that carrying a firearm actually increases the chances of you being shot and/or assaulted.
One also needs to take into consideration the fact that when the police arrive at an active shooting situation and they find someone standing there pointing a gun at someone, there is a very good chance the person with the gun in hand is going to get shot, possibly without warning, by the police, whether he’s a GGWAG or the criminal.
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I was recently told about a lady who is too scared to go into certain parts of the town she lives in without a gun. I do not know where in the US this is, or wether it is a common phenomenon, but it was presented to me as the most natural solution to the problem. I was left wondering how is this supposed to help? Exept on an emotional level, perhaps. What are the chances for her to pull out the gun, if she is assaulted and what does she, or anybody, think is going to happen next? Is she the type of person to gun down in cold blood a possible assailant behaving threateningly and what counts as threatening? Gender? Skin tone? Someone approaching her? Foul language? Some combination of these? Because, if the would be assailant already has their gun out, it is too late for her. What are these people expecting it is like to use their gun, if the assumed need arises? Some sort of gun fight at the OK Corrall? Everyone standing at the street at high noon hands ready to pull, if and when the baddies make their move, the heroes, housewives and GGWAGs saving the day by being faster at the draw? Or what?
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rautakyy, I’ve heard the same thing and I have the same questions you do. If she does run into a situation where her safety is in danger the chances of that firearm being in her possession somehow preventing her from being harmed are pretty close to zero. There is also an excellent chance that if she does draw that weapon she’s more likely to shoot an innocent bystander than the criminal, or have it taken away from her and used against her. Even firearms kepti n the home for protection are far more likely to end up being used to accidentally harm an occupant of the home than a criminal.
I’ve owned firearms. I still do. Mine are kept locked up in a gun safe, unloaded, with trigger locks installed because I know how dangerous they are. I’ve been trained in their use. I’m actually a very good marksman with both a rifle and a pistol. And I would never carry one unless I was out hunting or at a shooting range because I know that A) the chances of my ever being in a situation where I might need a gun to protect myself are about the same as my winning a billion dollar lottery, and B) if I ever were in that kind of a situation my having that firearm in my possession actually increases the chances of my ending up shot or dead.
We are at the point now in this country where the leading cause of death for children is firearms.
Let me repeat that. The biggest cause of death for children in the United States is being shot to death.
This is utterly insane. And that we, as a society, tolerate this is beyond insane.
Sorry about the rant. I’ll get off my soapbox now.
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My other-half is also very well trained and adept at firearms … and enjoys target shooting. And he also has (most of) his guns in his gun safe. Unfortunately, unlike you, he does feel a need to “carry” and has a gun at his bedside. We have discussed the issue many, many times in the past, but since it’s a no-win for me, the topic is no longer on the agenda.
I do wonder, however, what’s in the makeup of people that feel this need to carry a firearm. Actually, I sometimes think for some it’s more the politics-of-the-day that’s in play. Ya’ think?
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Why some people feel a need to carry a firearm doesn’t have a simple answer. With some people it helps them deal with a sense of insecurity. For others it gives them a feeling of power and superiority. Some may indeed feel safer. For others it gives them a sense of belonging to a group which, in turn, gives them a feeling of community and comradeship. Ultimately most of the reasons have nothing really to do with protecting oneself.
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Nan, I hope you do not mind me saying this, but to me as a Finn, someone carrying a gun for protection and sleeping with it, sounds like they were scared out of their witts.
If it is politically motivated, it sounds even worse. Because, what sort of world and social morals is being promoted by this behaviour?
Then again, I have previously said, that if I lived in the US, I might carry a gun. There are more than plenty about, any moron you meet might have one. The locals seem to have little, if any trust in the police to protect them, because why else would sane people carry guns? When abroad one has to rely on the judgement of the locals especially about local dangers. Right? I am a good shot and well trained in the safe use and storage of guns. Maybe my choise of a gun would be a muzzle loading flintlock musket, so as to keep it perfectly in line with the letter and spirit of your constitution, but then I would have to join some well regulated militia too… Know any?
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Perhaps, it is not out of fear, or to promote a political agenda, rather a cultural question of identity and any politics involved are thus identity politics.
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I am a pretty good shot myself. These days I am involved in firearms and blades through my hobby as a historical re-enactor. I am annoyed because irresponsible use of guns makes all gun users and owners look like morons. I was trained in safe gun conduct and protocols in the military (I served in recon). Most Finnish guys serve. We have laws that demand a gun owner must be trained and have a good reason to own a gun. Most guns here are for hunting.Self protection is not seen as an adequate reason. But the situation in other countries affect the attitudes here too.
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Maybe it is time to stop glorifying firearms in films?
I realise it is a long haul and to be honest I wouldn’t know exactly how to get the ball rolling, but it might a way to draw attention to the fact there should be no tolerance of gun violence.
Shrug
I guess any ideas, as unrealistic as they might seem, are better than no ideas at all.
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Ark, I agree completely. And just about everything you see in movies and television concerning guns is a, if you’ll excuse the vulgarity, a great, steaming pile of shit anyway. Everything. The “wild west” that these people worship with their image of everyone riding around with a pistol strapped to their leg and ‘slapping leather’ to shoot bad guys? Complete BS. There are, as far as I know, only two situations where the classic gunfight with two guys drawing pistols started shooting at each other. Only two.
Most of the bad guys preferred to use shotguns or rifles. Billy the Kid did carry a pistol but he preferred to use a Winchester rifle. They were more accurate, more reliable.
A lot of towns out in the old west actually had very strict gun control laws. Dodge City? The very first law the city passed when it became a city was a law prohibiting carrying firearms in the city limits. A lot of other town had similar laws.
Modern depictions of firearms in the entertainment media are even worse, really. You fire something like .40 calibre pistol in a small room and every single person in that room is going to end up with serious hearing damage. It isn’t these little ‘pop pop’ noises they dub in the sound track. Guns are ear shatteringly, ear bleeding loud. If you fire a gun inside of a car, every person in that car will end up partly or entirely deaf for an extended period of time, even permanently hearing impaired.
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In days past, it was suggested certain industries would not survive without tobacco sponsorship/advertising.
That didn’t turn out to be true.
I’m guessing the film industry would survive without guns.
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It is curious, though. That in a country with more private small arms than people, the style in wich guns are generally portayed on film is totally unplausible, like characters cocking their self loading guns again and again before actually shooting at anything just for the drama of doing it at an exiting moment. Dodging bullets and hitting impossible targets at impossible ranges, while holding their guns really awkwardly, not to mention shooting endlessly without loading at some point. And the baddies shooting aimlessly at the skies, while running towards the hero standing up and dropping the baddies like flies – from the hip, no less! One would think, that gun owners in the audience at least would lose their suspension of disbelief totally.
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Trump like zombies would never have disbelief of BS, if they saw the hero do something unbelievable on a movie with a lovely gun it really did happen because they saw it, just as they are told that guns protect citizens and mass killings are fake, so it must be true.
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Very true and the amount of heros that carry on the fight wounded by a high velocity projectile without a care, when the hero would really be in shock, bleeding to death and calling for their mama.
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What can one say?
“Yippee ki yea Fother mucker”
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awww. you guys. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was based on HISTORY i tell yah!
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😔
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Maybe your title should have been, “Are you or one of yours next?”
To your point, it will happen to someone again soon. Coming to store, theater, school, concert, restaurant, or bar near you soon.
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