21 Comments
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Greg's avatar

The 2nd amendment has been abused to our detriment by cynical fascists who understand that the more fear and terror a population is experiencing, the easier they are to cow and control.

That's all there is too it.

I say this as a person who owns quite a few firearms (locked in a safe, ammunition locked in a *different* safe) - but I've been trained in their use.

"It would not surprise me if this person hasn’t ventured into the woods or the “hoods.”

Another edit... Edit for clarity - I'm not calling bullshit on Mr Robinson - I'm calling it on this specific comment that some dumbass made.

BULLSHIT. You're never safer from violence than when you're in the woods. I've fished for salmon in Alaska with a Grizz not more than 50 yds away. I never felt threatened. It's fucking dumbass bullshit to think you need a gun in the woods. And you are correct sir, I promise you that asshole who made that comment doesn't know the "woods" from his own ass.

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SethTriggs's avatar

I bet you the guy that's being referenced does a lot of that cosplay certain kinds of dude do about guns. I would not be surprised if there's one or more Punisher decals on his ride. And definitely if anyone's selling "tactical" branded gear (that undoubtedly would be useless in an actual tactical situation) he's on ALL their mailing lists.

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Greg's avatar

LMAO - Yeah, you know the type.

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BoboBodkin's avatar

Christian school…gotta ask, were the 10 commandments posted?

even with church and state combined someone still felt a murderous rampage was necessary…?

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Alexandra Barcus's avatar

An interesting but very disturbing development.

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Open Letters by Mersault's avatar

https://substack.com/home/post/p-153266893

Another Day, Another Massacre: How Republican Voters Trap Themselves in a Cycle of Violence, Neglect, and Suffering

By backing leaders who serve lobbyists and profits over lives, Republican voters ensure their own cycle of bloodshed, poverty, and decay

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Sherry's avatar

Hod, this year has turned into a muddled mess of despair. Pretty soon we’ll all be in a circular firing squad and gun nuts will celebrate. Highlighting the constant barrage of bullets at schools only seems to to make us more inured to this violence with zero solutions because common sense and cause and effect means nothing. We really are heading towards idiocracy.

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Linda1961 is woke and proud's avatar

You are wrong, Rep. Swalwell, we are not better than this, because it keeps happening, and we never do the things that will keep it from happening. Face the fact, that this is who we are - a nation that worships guns.

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Kay-El's avatar

Agreed. I’m as sick of hearing “we’re better than this” as I am of “thoughts and prayers”. If that was actually the case, we’d have sensible nationwide policies and Trump would never have been elected a first time let alone a second.

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MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

My 14-year-old granddaughter will start high school next year. Rather than send her to the public school for which she is zoned — one where two years ago, police shot and killed an unarmed Black male student in one of the restrooms — her parents, who are longtime public-school enthusiasts, are sending her to a private, church-affiliated homeschool group. I, a heathen socialist, could not be more relieved.

In other granddaughter-related news, her dad, my son-in-law, is training her how to shoot his AK-47. She’s a “good shot,” I’m told, and she says “it’s fun.” I have no words, but once again, I admit to a certain smidgen of relief.

We are not open-carry redneck know-nothings. We are social liberals, living in modern-day American reality. That my baby girl would attend high school at a Christian homeschooling co-op and learn how to shoot an assault rifle at age 14 were not ever on my Grammy Bingo card. Yet here we are.

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Linda1961 is woke and proud's avatar

Your granddaughter's parents had to make a tough decision, but it's good that she's in a homeschooling co-op. The parents I know who are homeschooling have done the same, it gives them support, and their kids get to meet with other students at least once a week.

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Sherry's avatar

That breaks my heart for you except for the little warm fuzzy that your granddaughter knows how to be a good guy with a gun.

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MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

Thanks, Sherry. I guess that’s where we’re at in this country these days.

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Inforia's avatar

Republicans: Life begins at conception, but ends at the second amendment. No exceptions. But let’s blame the trans first is the new amended mantra.

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Brando's avatar

Hate to admit it but this is what Americans collectively decided they are okay with. They know that a certain number of innocent people are going to get gunned down every year, and it could be them or a loved one, and either they figure they like their odds or they figure nothing can stop it.

We are one fucked up culture.

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SethTriggs's avatar

Well, in America the important thing is: Are the guns okay?

After all in this society guns are remote controls for life. And looks like this student definitely brought the 9mm to the "hoods."

Oh yeah that also reminds me: the 'hoods' thing is because very many of these people who stockpile enormous caches of weapons are looking...itching...for the day where they can go into cities and legally hunt Black people en masse.

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Crip Dyke's avatar

>> People like Gayle Trotter insist we need them as defense against the “monsters” she claims are just outside our door, <<

First comment: "criminals as monsters" is a trope that has hurt women especially but many people generally over hundreds if not thousands of years. The always-present corollary is that we can tell who is a threat because they appear monstrous as a result of their looks or their anti-social attitudes. This allows the rich, white abusers to get away with horrific crimes (particularly but not only against their own family members) because juries have historically been averse to convicting someone of a monstrous crime unless they **look like** they are monstrous themselves. While there have been some improvements over the last 40 years, to the extent that those improvements are not down to challenging the monster myth, they're largely due to DNA analysis after a crime has been committed. Thus it's completely unhelpful in figuring out who is a threat before they start killing.

>> but as the body count continues the rise, the only victims are ourselves. <<

Yep. A callback to the obvious and oft-repeated stats about the presence of legal guns (even when purchased with a supposedly good motive) within a home increasing the risk of someone in the home dying of gun violence, not narrowly escaping gun violence through self defense. This has held so perfectly true for so long, we must at least consider the possibility that the presence of many legal guns within a nation only increases the likelihood that residents of that nation will die in gun violence.

It's downright evil that Republicans won't let the NIH study this.

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SethTriggs's avatar

That is incredibly deep. I never thought about that too about the monster thing. Reminds me of phrenology.

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vorpal's avatar

I've bumped heads with phrenologists before...

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ames's avatar

'The only victims are ourselves'. America's epitaph.

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babaganusz's avatar

Unfortunately that's not even cute, because we aren't victims of the weapons we send to [e.g.] Netanyahu.

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