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We now go live to the official reaction of the American Fascist Party:
mtg seems to be really lovin this part. Are we sure she's not like 3% demon from hell?
Wow, come on, who would really think that?
3% is far too low.
This shooting in particular shows major society-level failures. The parents were victims of the opiate crisis. Society failed to treat that problem at an appropriate level when it first cropped up and they failed to claw back the profits pharmaceutical companies made off creating addicts. We failed to fund school mental health services that could have helped a child who everyone knew was struggling. Society failed to recognize and address the domestic violence situation, failed to intervene when the child was being raised by addicts, and failed to remove guns from such a volatile situation. There are so many levels on which any significant intervention could have prevented this chain of events.
This kid was already reported for threatening a school school shooting last year and the investigation stopped after they asked him if he did that and he said no. It's a fucking joke.
Country that insists we have a "mental health crisis" providing absolutely zero mental health care to people who are clearly showing all the symptoms of said crisis.
Country that says "nothing can be done to stop this" did nothing to try to stop this.
This is the real takeaway. The Republicans want to do nothing, and the dems want a quick fix in gun control. Neither addresses the root of the problem. The world as a whole needs to invest more in social services, education, and public health. It should be where the majority of money goes really.
I've heard plenty of arguments from Dems for mental health care at various levels. Those things need to be funded, and who do you think keeps trying to defund government agencies and services for social/mental health issues? Usually not the Dems. The Dems have plenty of faults, including their lack of spines (in at least some cases), but the lack of funding for social services is not usually one of them.
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
Walz's response to this is in very stark contrast to his rival Vance here. Vance gave a shockingly tone-deaf, "It's a fact of life" response that spits in the face of the victims and their families. It shows a fundamental lack of empathy that borders on cruelty (which might be the point).
Thots 'n Pears can only go so far, in this case not far at all.
Rich weird guy which I bet has his kids in private schools.
Feels like that bulletproof glass is infringing on my 2nd Amendment Rights.
What this says to me is "I am rich enough to deal with the reality of mass shootings. Get fucked plebs. This is your problem, not mine."
Whoa buddy, too soon. Now is not the time to talk policy. Trans kids are playing soccer.
It's those damned books fault. Better ban them all to be safe
I have an idea... shoots books
Problem solved.
I used to be lukewarm on the issue of gun control, ya know.. "Yes, it's a tragedy.. but, we've got a second amendment, just increase security in schools or something."
But... eventually it got to the point where I realized I felt nothing hearing about the dead kids and the constant shootings. I was just completely numb to it, and that's when I realized "Oh shit..."
When I found that the death of children wasn't something that even made me flinch anymore, I realized.... That even if we have to destroy every gun in the West, something has to be done.
"They'll just use knives"
And when you can kill as many people with a knife in as short of a time as an AR-15, that's when I'll give a shit about knives.
PS: I totally call it the Assault Rifle 15. I know it's the "Arma Rite 15" or whatever, but it pisses conservatives off when I get it wrong intentionally.
Knives are easier to defend. That's why the gun was made. If it didn't make warfare cheaper and quicker, they would have stayed with knives and swords.
It's really fun to call it an "assault weapon". That pops them off to an astonishing degree.
we’ve got a second amendment
Which very clearly states itself as being relevant to citizen militias, and somehow says nothing about a fundamental right to murder children in large numbers.
I'm torn on this issue. I want the sort of gun control that you're describing, but I really don't know if it would be constitutional, and defying the constitution is a slippery slope that could cause more harm than even gun violence. The problem in my view is the second amendment itself - it's vague, outdated, and in desperate need of clarification. The fact that it deals with possession of technology but hasn't been updated in 250 years is insane.
I'm with anyone calling for gun control, but we really ought to be demanding constitutional revision to address this issue.
I don't know if anyone needed a harmless (slightly dark) laugh on the subject, but I recently played an indie PnC game called "3 Minutes to Midnight" with a joke around this. You open a wall medical kit, and there are sheets of paper inside, which read "Thoughts and prayers".
easy: strict gun control. look at Europe.
Sadly that won't happen because Americans are special - and I say 'special' in that Midwestern-US, 'bless their heart' way
The US government tries to pass (or enforce) any meaningful gun legislation, a third of the country stamps their feet and tells 'NO!' and the gov't backs down. Rinse & repeat
shiiiii it doesnt even get to us s'more like 2/3 of the country asks for (x) regulation, the govt starts making noises about regulating (x), a bunch of political ads come out to convince public (x) regulation is bad, contributions come from the (x) companies to the politicians regulating (x), business (x) is added to the commitee deciding rules for (x), regulation is watered down or outright defeated.
at almost no point in the process is the public will treated as anything other than a problem to solve.
basically the only way to get restrictions would be for several states to adopt a Black Panther Esque political party that has significant adoption and policing
Yeah but people always bring up the talking point "but over in Europe only the criminals have guns now! How can they defend themselves?"
However I really have to wonder... Where do criminals get those guns? 🤔
no better indicator that prayer doesn't work then the fact that there's a new school shooting almost every day after republicans do a new thoughts and prayers.
I don't think they believe it works.
I think they just believe that shootings are bound to happen, because why else would they be happening on such a regular basis?
It's the constant deflection of responsibility, from our choices as a society, to some indeterminate outside force.
Poverty and increasing cost of living? It's all those darn immigrants.
Your job not paying you enough? Must be overseas industry.
They don't think their prayers will prevent a school shooting, they just don't think there's other options to prevent it that will actually work without "taking away their freedom" (-to own a gun that's more likely to harm them than protect them)
Survivor bias. Republicans think “thoughts and prayers” are protecting their own kids. They don’t give a shit about other kids they don’t know.
Worse, they don't actually think it works. They just care about the NRA's blood money more than the lives of your children. THEIR children are in private schools with procedures in place to prevent this from happening.
I think everyone sick of being in this time loop of the same result happening over and over. Action is the only solution.
But the action is "ban guns" and the American populace does not want that.
I'm sure Fox News is already spinning it out of context as "Tim Walz is sick and tired of prayer and is planning on banning public & private prayer!"
Gray, 14, used a riffle to kill the victims in the hallway outside his algebra class. He will be tried as an adult. His [sic]
I hate the terrible proofreading/editing of online articles.
somebody pray for this man.
/s for the fellow tone deaf people out there.
In the meantime, Trump is shrieking to his MAGA idiots about the completely fake "danger" of letting your kids go to school and returning home with a sex change operation
I have relatives that I shit you not fear this and believe it is 100% real. It's so extremely fucking stupid
Any sane parent would worry about their kid getting killed a lot more than about them suddenly transitioning to another gender even if both of those were real things that actually happen.
They would rather tier kids have a good clean Christian death (being shot by someone mentally ill while attending school) than live a corrupted life (of not using the pronouns we gave them).
God, if only that's how it worked when I was a kid.
I was totally that guy who was "just kidding" and "just thinking aloud" about what it'd be like to be a girl.. but.. like "Not really, cause I'm totally a straight dude. I just wanna grab my own tiddies."
Now I'm a woman, and I just grabbed my own tiddies for fun.
Look how far you've let this charade go, republicans... You know you have quiet moments where you are fully aware that you're just trapped in this irrational hate machine. This is literally a child named after a gun shooting other children to death. And you still just sit there, hiding in your full cowardice and not admitting outwardly that you chose the wrong path. You're a fucking disgrace.
There is literally no way to do less.... Than hopes and prayers
It is a total abdication of responsibility for fixing a problem
These sicko republicans, they have no idea what the second amendment means, which means they are messing this up for all of us. I’ve always believed in a strong 2nd amendment which means I want a legal tank with ammo in a secure location in my back yard. These republifucker weirdos don’t even know what the second amendment means. If I have to park my tank downtown so be it, but I want to have a tank with ammo in a secure location, same should go for these assault rifles, etc. we need a well regulated militia which means we don’t get to keep weapons unlocked in our homes willy nilly
Oh Tim, there's nothing that can be done!
Now where did I put my AR-14 tie pin so I can stand in solidarity with the real victims...