LEWISTON, ME—In the hours following a violent rampage in Maine in which a lone attacker killed at least 16 individuals and injured numerous others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Wednesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from …
That’s the real American tragedy, that we’ve been beaten into believing that “nothing can be done to prevent this.” Something COULD be done, it just won’t be. I’m sure as we learn more about this reprehensible idiot who caused this sick misery, we’ll come to find out there were all kinds of red flags on his social media posts and his emails and his past arrest records and yet nobody bothered to take them seriously, or cared enough about him to connect him with psychotherapy and medication. Sad. Because the truth is, this kind of thing is always ENTIRELY preventable - if only Americans were smarter about gun control and less obsessed with violence as some sort of solution (which it never is). A sad country indeed.
He was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. He’s talked about hearing voices. He’s threatened to shoot up a National Guard station. He and his associates are well-known local right-wing militia gun nuts that “people knew to stay away from.” None of that was sufficient to restrict his access to firearms.
If this is true, then I think it’s safe to say that these shootings aren’t being taken seriously by our government on purpose. I don’t know what the purpose is, but it sure feels like it.
Some of those who work forces are the same that burn crosses.
The best thing about Rage songs is that they’re still relevant after 30 years.
The worst thing about Rage songs is that they’re still relevant after 30 years.
Criminals On Patrol
Criminals On Patrol
The GOP benefits from these attacks in my view, especially when they’re in power. It makes it impossible for the news to cover the reprehensible things they do when mass murders happen every week.
:(
If you’re terrified of being shot you won’t mind having armed police everywhere.
But that’s why I’m terrified of being shot
The only way to assuage your fear of being shot is to arm more people.
To arm more police people, that is. Not ordinary people. Most people in the world have some degree of mental instability, and humans are too quick-tempered and unable to control their impulses. I do not want such people armed with guns at all.
did you drop this? “/s”
I think you’ve got this reversed
So true!!
The only way to assuage your fear of arming more people is to be shot.
ah, now we’re talking
Ok, so I’m not crazy.
Well that sounds alarming, but in Mexico they do have armed police everywhere and the citizens actually feel safer. I don’t wish for a dystopian “big brother” world either, but with so many mental people abusing their gun rights and killing others, that is looking more and more like a not so implausible possibility. Frankly, I’d rather have police armed and everywhere than most lay people running around, pulling a gun every time someone looks at them funny or gives the them wrong order at McDonalds.
That feels true when goverment’s response is simply, “give your hopes and prayers.” That all sounds good, but does nothing to solve the problem - the next mass shooting is just days away, and possibly will even make this halloween one of the deadliest in history.
I know, and I knew this kind of background would emerge for him. All of these things SHOULD have been enough to restrict his access to firearms. But, on top of all this, he was living in a family “compound” (according to one neighbor) with family members who were known “gun nuts.” (his words not mine). It seems like he as an accident just waiting to happen, and no one cared enough to intervene.
I don’t even really care about guns. I don’t like them and wish there were far fewer of them, but if reducing the number and availability of guns is off the table, there’s still plenty of room to work – and if this political conversation had even one shred of honesty, we’d be working even with that constraint.
Even in gun policy, there’s so much reform we could make to reduce danger that doesn’t impact someone’s ability to own a gun. For example, universal registration, repeal the Dickey amendment and fund research, impose strict liability to gun owners for crimes committed with their guns.
And most people seem to support red flag laws and universal background checks, but for some reason we can’t expand those either?
Not to mention that it is a simple matter of fact that the US can and does ban all kinds of arms. And, aside from a tiny lunatic fringe, no one really thinks it is an issue. You can’t just have and bring with you a fighter jet, a tank. You can’t open carry explosive ordinance. You can’t go to a gun show and buy chemical WMDs or bio-weapons. You can’t drive around with a full machine gun mounted to the flatbed of your 3-ton pickup. We have rules that are uncontentious, and the idea that maybe some types of modern guns should be in the same category is fiddling with a line in the sand.
And guns are only a small part of the picture. We need poverty intervention and social welfare. We need consent-based policing and the better training that comes with it. We need to fix our urban design so people have better third places and are less isolated from one another. Yet if you try to do anything like this, the same people that fetishize guns will absolutely refuse to even think about it and will indeed try to roll back what does exist to make the problems worse.
At the end, it’s a very two-sided debate. One side wants to test and try changes to make things maybe even just a bit better. The other refuses to do anything and would like for it to even be a bit worse.
Thank you. “Ban guns” is a knee jerk reaction that clearly doesn’t get anywhere. Red flag laws sound nice, and I think mental health is a huge common factor in these shootings, but they lower the standard for taking away a constitutional right. Imagine if you could remove any right just as easily by shortcutting due process. I’m reminded of the false “me too” accusations that destroyed lives on several occasions. By the time it gets walked back the damage is done.
The justice system has systems in place for people who are dangers to themselves and others, but the burden of proof is higher. It can be changed to act quickly but it needs more people working those cases to meet that burden of proof.
But yeah I agree that in the meantime removing people from isolation is huge. People need to see that there is more than what the algorithm serves you and that the extreme fringes are just that. They don’t represent millions of people just living their lives in more reasonable parts of the political spectrum.
“if only Americans were smarter” we can just leave it at that. This fucking country is full of idiots who will never do any good in this world because they’re too stupid to even know where to start
And it’s also a country full of corruption. Make no mistake, American poltiicians are EVERY BIT as corrupt as any third-world politician has ever been. The NRA lines their pockets with money soaked in the brains and blood of children, so of course they look the other way whenever this kind of shooting happens. They get paid millions a year to look the other way. And if I’m honest, I’d probably do so also. I’m only human, and very corruptable.