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 …
Well that’s a huge problem in my view. You SHOULD care INCREDIBLY about the horrific proliferation of guns.
What scares me most today is that people have this blinder on that keeps them from being able to see guns as the atrocious, and utterly ugly death-dealing devices they truly are. Sure, people can inadvertently kill someone with a car by misusing it while high or not paying attention - people can use bats, chairs, cleavers, knives and other inanimate objects. But there’s a huge difference. Those things aren’t MADE to be lethal weapons. A gun however has only ONE purpose, to create a lethal wound to cause death. It IS MADE TO BE LETHAL WEAPON. PERIOD.
And that should terrify you - but for some reason (and this really is horrifying) it doesn’t. And that really is horrific to contemplate. Guns are not just a small part of the picture. This culture of gun worship and loving the way guns kill and maim things - it’s really the most perverse sort of filth imaginable, it should horrify the LIVING SHIT out of you and all decent people!! ALL DECENT PEOPLE!!
Yes some very mentally disturbed people do fetishize guns, which to me is like fetishizing child rape or necrophilia, only I’d rather have those two than people slobbering over a love of guns - because those two things are fixable. A fixation on guns seems to be only fixable by extreme measures such as shock treatment or incarceration of the individual for life.
We DO need to expand and support red flag laws. But even more so, we need to revolt against the corrupted filth pedalled by the NRA and its folllowers and show gun nuts for the crazy, sick, wanting to kill mentality, the horrid and debilitating illness, that it truly is. There are NO two sides to this debate. You DO NOT get to have it both ways – LOVE GUNS and then be shocked when kids and people on the street get mowed down “just for fun.”
Anyone who loves guns has no right to feel bad about these mass shootings!! The blood of all these kids is on THEIR hands forever.
Comparing it to cars just makes it even more obvious. You need a license to drive one. If your eyesight is too bad, they won’t let you drivr. Your doctor can advise against you driving for many reasons and your license gets revoked.
Also you need insurance which I think would be great for any gun owner anywhere.
I agree with you on that completely. It just makes sense - which is why it will probably never happen.
Also, y’know, cars kill and maim a crazy amount of people and we should be trying to get rid of as many of them too.
I agree, but at the very least, cars aren’t designed with the specific purpose of killing people.
I agree. Let’s put more money into public transport!
The only reason I did is because people always reply, “well cars are deadly too and nobody is trying to ban THEM.” And my point is, cars are not designed to be deadly, in fact, they’re designed with safety features specifically to avoid that happening. Yes they get misused by people who are drunk or going too fast and not paying attention - so why would you give someone who could carelessly turn a non-deadly object into a deadly one, access to a GUN???
I agree, you can take someone’s car away for several reasons, but don’t you dare take their murder devices.
I appreciate the feedback - good point!!
Honestly in this last one I think the proper authorities really dropped the ball. As soon as this guy went into a mental facility he should have been flagged for having guns and steps should have been taken to restrict his access to them. You’re using a very broad brush to paint all gun owners one way when it’s absolutely not the case. Some people take self defense extremely seriously. Look out at human history. Look out at the natural world. Killing is a serious constant in life. If you want to see what people are capable of when one group of people have guns and another doesn’t, look at Israel v Gaza. Look at slavery. Small groups of people can control large groups of people solely for having guns. So coming back to self defense, the gun is the greatest equalizer, unfortunately. I believe in having smart, efficient, and effective gun laws, but at the end of the day I only put 100% faith in myself for protecting myself.
I think everyone I’ve talked to who carries a gun hopes to never have to use it in a life or death situation. I love guns and hate people who use them to kill.
The passive voice in the second sentence is very telling. Who should have flagged him? Who should have taken steps to restrict his access to guns? Who had access to that information in order to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and take action? Our society and government doesn’t have a proactive mechanism to so. It is explicitly not the duty of the police. Our system is reactive; some private citizen could have petitioned a court of law, but who has the time, money, and interest to do it?
Yeah that’s the problem with our current system. My nephew has spent time in juvenile facilities for bringing weapons to school. He’s been in trouble for SWATing people and also for stalking a girl. He’s struggled with homelessness after burning bridges with every family member he has, mostly due to him not taking his medication to help with his mental health. He’s been known to sell or trade his medication for drugs.
At one point, he mentioned that he was thinking about getting a gun. In my mind, he hits every red flag I can think of for a person who should NOT be allowed to have a gun. So I looked into what it would take for me to get him flagged or put on some sort of “do not sell to” list. You’d think with his history, that’d be a fairly straightforward process right?
Nope. It’s damn near impossible. I have to go to court and swear an affidavit that says he’s an immediate risk to committing harm. Then I have to continue to do so once every few months, indefinitely. People always ask, “Why didn’t someone prevent this from happening?” The answer is really simple. Since owning a gun is a constitutional right, the systems in place to prevent someone from having a gun are extremely difficult to successfully navigate. I wish that just once, the family of a mass shooter was interviewed afterwards and told the media as such. Maybe that would make a difference? I doubt it.
That’s the problem I have with red flag laws. They simply shortcut the due process when really that system itself can and should be improved.
My worry is that false positives will lead to innocent people having rights taken. I know many are lucky enough to not give a shit about guns but what if it was any other right? Press, religion, etc. If people are getting constitutional rights taken I don’t want it to be on a whim, especially if that shit is permanant. Even if it gets walked back it can cause a lot of harm, like false “me too” accusations from a few years ago.
Good points, and I think there were many people along the way who could have flagged him and made sure he was monitored, especially since the guy had spent six weeks in a mental facility, and was living in a compound of gun hoarders, and had family who knew he was going through mental problems.
It sounds like the whole community knew, given the reports that everybody in town knew to avoid the guy. It’s just our society and legal system makes it everybody’s responsibility to deal with it, and near-impossible to actually do anything useful, which in practice means it’s nobody’s responsibility. Kind of like climate change, or car crashes.
I mean, there are states that will deny someone a firearms license if they have been to a mental facility within a certain period of time. Even after that amount of time is up, you have to take a psych eval before being able to reapply for the license. So, the way I see it, what I’m saying isn’t too far off from being implemented.
Yeah, it’s not impossible, nor necessarily all that difficult. States just need to make it somebody’s job, and set up a system that funnels them the information about troubled people, and gives them the resources and authority to act on it.
I guess it’s easier to legislate guns away.
This was well written thanks