National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

Nelslus please be gentle with yourself.

[Deuce]

It's so incredibly simplistic to think that guns are the main source of this problem...
Sure, tightening gun laws will help - but that is not the root of the problem. If someone gives me 12 guns, I won't shoot anyone with them...

Has anyone actually realized that, in the several recent mass shootings, the shooter was a young male? This includes the recent mall shooting in Denmark (which also shows that the problem is not exclusive to the USA, though it is concentrated there more than in other countries).

These kids are sometimes bullied... sometimes see a hopeless future... sometimes have parents who abuse or neglect them... They have all been described as quiet, 'loner' types... a 'little strange', etc.

With the change in society and in relationships and in interactive communication that I've seen over the past quarter century, I firmly believe that the increased dependence on technology is largely responsible for these young people feeling alienated and outcast.
Over the past 25 years, people have cultivated relationships with machines and gadgets and various devices more and more... and less and less directly with fellow human beings. As a result, people's social skills have deteriorated. People feel more lonely because they have less direct interaction with other people than they had before 'technology' took over everything. Now, virtually all 'communication' is done through the filter of some machine or gadget, rather than face to face. Even with the telephone, at least one can hear voice inflections, etc. But people prefer the generic type of E mails, text messages, and various 'social media' platforms... and nothing of a profound nature is expressed there.
And so people are left to deal with their (expletive) on their own - because their 'friends' exist mostly in the virtual world, and don't really give a damn about them, and 'communicate' only hollow, superficial fluff anyway...

That, and, as I've mentioned many times, the fact that as long as these mass killings are sensationalized all over the media, it will act as encouragement for the emotionally unbalanced people out there (who are definitely growing in number mostly because of what I mentioned above) to go out and mimic these things because they are so full of hurt and anger and need to express it - and by doing a mass killing, they are assured, because of the media attention, that millions of people worldwide will know they exist - which is what they want/need the most - someone to acknowledge their existence.

Maybe if we paid more attention to each other, and communicated on a more profound level (like actually meaning it when we ask someone 'How are you doing?', and being attentive to the answer)... maybe then, fewer young people would feel hopeless, hurt, and angry enough to do these things.

[ti-amie]

The GOP, panicked at this man's association with its MAGA cult, and desperate to find someone or something to blame is now blaming SSRI's for what happened. The pushback has been swift and hard.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Scene from Philadelphia last night.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

There are war veterans who are saying the weapon used was an AK-47 based on the sound of it.

https://twitter.com/RonShields18/status ... L4ARvFb5Jg

[ponchi101]

The GOP, panicked at this man's association with its MAGA cult, and desperate to find someone or something to blame is now blaming SSRI's for what happened. The pushback has been swift and hard.

That is where I would disagree. The pushback, certainly, comes from people already in the know that guns are the issue here. But their cult members will remain steadfastly attached to their tune: it was SSRI's, it was lack of access to SSRI's, it was the fake news, it was the real news, it was the tooth fairy, it was the violence in movies.
You read Boebert's comments: these people will clinch to that narrative with relish. Remember that their rationale is impenetrable.

[dryrunguy]

Has there been any speculation at all that perhaps these attacks were coordinated? That's a lot of shootings in one day. Even the locations seem a bit... unrandom.

EDIT: After a little digging, all of these appear to be completely separate events. In a way, that's even more revolting.

[ponchi101]

Why non-random? MA, MI, VI, CA and IL. Do you see a pattern? Serious question.
And again. Easier to go shoot somebody on a 4th of July, with everybody out there in the middle of summer, than trying to shoot them on January 4th, with everybody at home, escaping the cold.
The tragedy of how frequent these attacks take place: if you get 5 attacks in Norway in one day, you can bet your life it was coordinated. 5 attacks in the USA in one day simply means a statistical variation, well within a normal Gaussian distribution.

[dryrunguy]

Why non-random? MA, MI, VI, CA and IL. Do you see a pattern? Serious question.
And again. Easier to go shoot somebody on a 4th of July, with everybody out there in the middle of summer, than trying to shoot them on January 4th, with everybody at home, escaping the cold.
The tragedy of how frequent these attacks take place: if you get 5 attacks in Norway in one day, you can bet your life it was coordinated. 5 attacks in the USA in one day simply means a statistical variation, well within a normal Gaussian distribution.

Yeah, I just edited my post. One or two of these events were actually unrelated events in the same city that just happened to occur on the fourth of July. One shooting was actually on July 3. So yes, they are appear to NOT be connected. In a way, that's even worse.

[ponchi101]

Agree. Especially your last 6 words.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Remember that the uncle, who lives in the same house, said he never saw anything alarming about CrimoIII behavior.

[ponchi101]

I know these will be unpopular words but, you just can't go around arresting people preemptively. Most likely, 90% of all those arrests would result in the person being released almost immediately, and then, the potential for abuse, especially against minorities, can grow quickly.
Last. Your laws, especially now with this SCOT-GOP-US, allow for possession of fire arms. All of these AR-15's are there legally. Imagine the possibility for errors on (let's assume) a law abiding citizen that owns guns and, while doing research, does a Google search for "Mein Kampf".
All these measures are just tip-toeing around the issue. There is simply no reason for a civilian, in the USA or anywhere, to own an AR-15, an AK-47, or any of these WMD. Everything else is just an aspirin to treat a cancer.