What a prat.

[thewayne]

"I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away."
—Dr. Ben Carson

Three college shootings in one week, two on the same day. I think two of them won't be classed as mass casualty events because only one or two people were killed. In one event, apparently the conflict that triggered the shooting was over a girl.

I guess he's showing himself as a true Republican politician. I can't decide if Carson or Trump would be a more scary president.

Comments

[silveradept]

I suppose he could be right about a angle body. Except in many of these cases, it isn't one, and it never will be just one.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

In last night's debate Hillary stated that 90 people a day die of gun violence. Fact checking later revealed that only about 30 die from criminal acts, the rest presumably by suicide or accident I guess.

[silveradept]

That's still a lot of people just by guns every day. Clearly we still have room for improvement.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Why, can you not imagine the carnage and brutal repression that would inevitably follow restricting gun ownership?

(Or, indeed, require proof of some form of training?)

But that would be as ridiculous a concept as universal healthcare! And as we all know, that isn't an option anywhere else in the world, either.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that back in the '90s I was registered for a concealed weapons permit. I was working for the police dept at the time, and a detective that I knew taught the class. He also helped to write the Arizona law. The permit required fingerprinting, an FBI background check, a full day of classroom training as to when it is legal to shoot and what happens if you shoot someone, and ended with going to a range and demonstrating proficiency.

I don't have a problem with that methodology. But now, most states will hand you a piece of paper and off you go.

Case in point that may not have made the news over there: last week a woman in a Home Depot (DIY store) parking lot saw one or two men, shoplifters, running out of the store, pursued by store security.

She pulled out her gun and opened fire. In a parking lot. Fortunately her aim was as bad as her common sense and no one was injured.

They did not attack her, they did not threaten her. She was not endangered. Yet she opened fire.

And under Michigan law she probably won't be prosecuted.

I wonder if she could be sued in civil court for reckless endangerment?

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Actually, it looks like the authorities are taking a modicum of action, albeit pretty much just a slap on the wrist:

A 46-year-old Clarkston area woman accused of firing gunshots at two men who were driving away from a Home Depot after stealing merchandise has been charged with a misdemeanor.

Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez is accused of firing the shots Oct. 6 at Home Depot, 4150 Joslyn Road in Auburn Hills.

Duva-Rodriguez was arraigned in the early afternoon in Rochester Hills on the single charge of reckless use, handling or discharge of a firearm, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine.

Indeed, it's not the lethal weaponry that's really the issue - you'll find plenty of guns in Scandinavia and Switzerland, to name but a few other industrial nations. It's the AMERICA FUCK YEAH mentality of the NRA, promoting guns to the point of fetishism, rather than taking any role in being a strong advocate of training, safe handling, and storage.

(Link courtesy of SLU's "Politics, Religion, and Society" sub-forum - rather a good venue for sane discussion)