SON OF A~!

[Red is Dead]

As a Brit looking in on this atrocious situation. 

I get the 2nd amendment...I really do. If it makes you feel safe to arm yourself, the more power to you.

YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE SECOND FUCKING AMENDMENT AS AN EXCUSE/REASON TO HIDE BEHIND WHEN SOMEONE BUYS AN AUTOMATIC FUCKING RIFLE. There is NO NEED ON THIS GREEN EARTH to buy an automatic rifle when a handun is perfectly legitimate for personal safety.

Jesus christ.

[offspring515]

This fight was lost after Sandy Hook.  A classroom of children reduced to pulp and all we had was thoughts and prayers.

Enough people here value the right to own a weapon of mass destruction over the right for a child to sit in school and not be massacred. The choice has been made.

Flak jackets for kids, for all of us as daily wear seems like the next step.  These selfish cunts have decided we are going  to live in the wild west now, and the rest of us are too powerless/cowardly to stop it.  And of course all of our horrible politicians suck the NRA's cock, so there's no hope of change there. 

  In a few days we'll all forget this one, not because we don't care but more as an act of mental preservation.  Next one is probably just around the corner and we can debate this all again  while nothing changes.  Just more names and faces of victims added to the ledger.

Sorry for rambling.

[Jamal]

Man, Orlando has hit me so hard. I've had to stay away from social media for a minute because I don't have the time or patience for Internet Trolls right now. This could have easily been me and my friends. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

And while we'll never know why this piece of human garbage did what he did, I'm gonna go ahead and say "internalized self-loathing of who he really was" may be a good jumping off point.

Gunman Omar Mateen visited gay nightclub a dozen times before shooting, witness says

[Ryan]

His ex-wife and others claim he was gay. He also had accounts on gay dating sites and such. Yeah, this is more than just terrorism crap.

[The Natural]

On 10/06/2016 at 0:50 AM, Michael Sweetser said:

Thanks a bunch, @The Natural, I really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

On 11/06/2016 at 3:49 AM, Ryan said:

I concur with John for everyone.

This.

On 12/06/2016 at 0:49 AM, Brian Fowler said:

She's was released from the hospital today, thankfully. Staying at her boyfriend's dad's house.

Good to hear!

On 12/06/2016 at 3:53 PM, Dolfan in NYC said:

The worst mass shooting in American history just happened last night. 

50 dead, 53 injured at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando (where I was last week).  Omar Mateen waited until last call (2am) and began shooting. 

This sounds like radicalization, but now it sounds like it could have been the most horrific hate crime ever committed. I cannot fucking believe this.  

Fuck you Omar Mateen. Fuck you. 

I’m angry and saddened at the worst mass shooting in US history. 49 dead and 53 injured in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. LOVE NOT HATE. My thoughts go out to those affected in this distressing time xxxxxx

I’d like to think that this changes things. I doubt that sadly.

LGBT.

17 hours ago, offspring515 said:

This fight was lost after Sandy Hook.  A classroom of children reduced to pulp and all we had was thoughts and prayers.

Enough people here value the right to own a weapon of mass destruction over the right for a child to sit in school and not be massacred. The choice has been made.

Flak jackets for kids, for all of us as daily wear seems like the next step.  These selfish cunts have decided we are going  to live in the wild west now, and the rest of us are too powerless/cowardly to stop it.  And of course all of our horrible politicians suck the NRA's cock, so there's no hope of change there. 

  In a few days we'll all forget this one, not because we don't care but more as an act of mental preservation.  Next one is probably just around the corner and we can debate this all again  while nothing changes.  Just more names and faces of victims added to the ledger.

Sorry for rambling.

You shouldn't say sorry as that isn't a ramble, that's a well thought out post.

[Technico Support]

On 6/13/2016 at 8:20 AM, offspring515 said:

This fight was lost after Sandy Hook.  A classroom of children reduced to pulp and all we had was thoughts and prayers.

Enough people here value the right to own a weapon of mass destruction over the right for a child to sit in school and not be massacred. The choice has been made.

 

Exactly.  At least right-wing poster boy "Joe the Plumber" had the balls to say exactly what these awful people are all thinking when, after Sandy Hook, he said "your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights."   Sorry, my Republican friends, but when you count guys like this among your brethren, maybe you should rethink where you stand in the overall scheme of things.

The battle for any kind of sensible gun control has long past been lost.  Now we just get to sit back and count how many innocent lives get the honor of paying for your freedom. 

This would be funny if it weren't so fucking sad, every single time.

[AxB]

The thing about amendments, right, is that - by definition - they can be amended. 

[Cristobal]

They can be, but it is exceedingly difficult. You need a large super-majority of the political establishment to agree ro do so. In our current two party system, it roughly equates to needing either two-thirds of both parties, or 100% of one and a 50/50 split on the other. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

The Grateful Dead were never an openly political band, at least from the stage. They quietly gave money to lots of causes and did benefits, but never talked from the stage to the crowds about things. They'd let certain songs convey. But I guess with old age and faced with how horrible this is, Bobby Weir decided to just say what what was on his mind at Bonaroo.

 

[Ryan]

I know basically nothing about the GD, but I already like this guy.

[Gonzo]

Apparently Mateen's wife "tried to talk him out of the attack."

She apparently couldn't be bothered to give law enforcement a heads-up that her boo was going to walk into a night club and shoot a bunch of people.

I'm no law expert or anything, but this seems like 49 counts of conspiracy to commit murder and 53 more counts of conspiracy to attempt to commit murder (or whatever the proper phraseology is).

[Technico Support]

7 hours ago, Cristobal said:

They can be, but it is exceedingly difficult. You need a large super-majority of the political establishment to agree ro do so. In our current two party system, it roughly equates to needing either two-thirds of both parties, or 100% of one and a 50/50 split on the other. 

Yep, never gonna happen, man.  The politicians who are in the NRA's pocket will never change and the ones that aren't don't have the stomach for this kind of fight, especially since their opponents would make hay from it come election time.  We're in a situation that's not going to change.

[Pete]

Uh, when did Bob Weir morph into Jerry Garcia?

[(BP)]

 

[Dewar]

Someone stole my stapler at work. I am having "Office Space" flashbacks this morning...

[Pete]

Chris Murphy (D-CT) has been filibustering Congress for almost two hours. That's the good stuff.

[Jiji]

This is wonderful. The broader message is really great.

[Kuetsar]

6 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Yep, never gonna happen, man.  The politicians who are in the NRA's pocket will never change and the ones that aren't don't have the stomach for this kind of fight, especially since their opponents would make hay from it come election time.  We're in a situation that's not going to change.

Until the Democrats take back Congress and have enough numbers to be relatively imune to the NRA. IF Trump freefalls the way it looks like he might, the potential for Hillary to have a landslide, taking both houses with her. Not trying to get too political here, just saying the possbilty does exist. We had an assualt riffle weapons ban before, hopefully sometime soon we could have one again  . Fuck the NRA.

[Pete]

[Jiji]

Delayed... Better than their previous stance but still.

[Ryan]

They'll reverse stance in a week when Ted Nugent yells something racist at them.

[Robert C]

My only uncle left the NRA because they were too liberal.  Family gatherings sure are fun.

[jstout]

It bothered me to the core that I was much more bothered by Draymond Green getting suspended than the shootings because the shootings are just another side effect of living in America.

I mean, no president is gonna march the military into people's houses confiscating guns, let's be real with ourselves. And there's already so many guns out there that you're not putting that genie back in the bottle. And if you tighten gun shop buying, they'll buy somewhere else. It's like trying to illegalize drugs. If someone wants to do drugs bad enough or buy a gun bad enough, there'll be a way.

There could be a mass, 50-person shooting every day in America and nothing will ever change. Ever.

 

[jumbojustice]

54 minutes ago, jstout said:

I mean, no president is gonna march the military into people's houses confiscating guns, let's be real with ourselves. And there's already so many guns out there that you're not putting that genie back in the bottle. And if you tighten gun shop buying, they'll buy somewhere else. It's like trying to illegalize drugs. If someone wants to do drugs bad enough or buy a gun bad enough, there'll be a way.

I agree it's by no means an easy problem to solve. But I suppose the counter argument to what you said would be that there are tons of examples of countries where buying a gun is more difficult and where gun control is stricter, and these countries tend to have a lot less gun violence and mass shootings. Whereas drug prohibition seems to fail wherever it is tried. So I don't know if that analogy is totally apt.

There are obviously cultural factors relating to views on guns that make America a special case, but in principal it's hard to see why America shouldn't be able to get to where almost every other country is, if the political will was there. It wouldn't happen over night though, that's for sure.