Fourth of July overshadowed by 16 mass shootings across US
Fifteen people were killed and 94 injured across 13 states as well as Washington DC
Just absolutely mind boggling how frequently this happens and literally nothing is being done about it. What a sick country.
They ARE doing something about it.
Financing the whole thing!
"They ARE doing something about it. Financing the whole thing!".
No they are not. You seem also out of control, buddy.
It's all a mix of the second ammendment, their interpretation & execution of that law, a dominant military and guns lobby system (Billionaire$); people loving their guns, no access to good (mental) health care, which allthogether is holding their country hostage, imho.
So yeah, its all out of control. And nothing has changed, except that it's getting worse.
add.(mental) healthcare
Which is, sadly, working very well.
And somehow some people are going to use this as reasoning that they need more guns to defend themselves.
For all its foibles and peculiarities, the US’ apparently almost fetishistic relationship with guns is far and away the hardest for me to understand as an outside observer.
Trust me, I live here and I don’t get it either. And when you ask people they’ll tell you they have guns because other people have guns so they need it for protection. So you guys all have guns because you’re scared other people have guns?? Great recipe.
Play by the rules of the game you're playing.
Not the rules of the game you want to play.
If only the crazies have guns, they're going to start acting a lot crazier. Does it magically make everything safer to have your own? Obviously not. Statistically you're more likely to shoot yourself.
But until we pass actual gun control, it's hard to judge someone for having a gun.
That's what my wife says. I want to sell our gun and she's anti-gun too. But she doesn't want to get rid of our gun until guns are banned.
The fireworks on the 4th of July are to represent the firearms and cannons citizens owned and used in rebellion towards a tyrannical government.
That concept is written into our constition or declaration of being a country, and passed down into our myths and celebrations.
Just look at the guns these zealots buy. Big and black. Combine that with the typical racialized sexual insecurities of the white male conservative American, which as a group is becoming more and more incel because no woman in this day and age wants anything to do with them.
Isn't that just how you celebrate out there? I thought The Purge was a documentry.
Meanwhile, over 500 people have been killed by police in 2023 so far, and yet we never hear the president comment on that. Maybe we should be disarming the police?
The president again parrots "assault rifle" and magazine capacity bans, which only pushes actual reform further out of reach. We lack a centralized database of ownership, private sale registration but we are able to keep a computer database of prescription medications so a kid doesn't get his Adderall a day early. We register cars regardless of type of sale and require a license to drive but firearms are freely sold by private sale with no requirements to register or license the user. We suspend driving privileges for nonpayment of debts, but you are expected to be honest about being a fugitive when filling out ffl forms. If we don't treat firearms at least as seriously as cars, why does the magazine capacity matter? Why do people who can't define the term assault rifle calling for reforms based on nuanced features of firearms.
This cycle just repeats. Someone tries to ban magazine size or something they know nothing about and any chance of meaningful reform is over. I would gladly submit to more stringent background checks, registration, and proof of competency. But when the conversation starts out with banning scary black rifles or magazines over 10 rounds I know nothing will change. These suggestions are worthless and make gun owners unwilling to engage.
Imagine we wanted to cut down on traffic crashes so the suggestion is made by someone who does drive to limit fuel tank size or ban "sports cars". Of course no one can define sports car, and gas tanks don't make people drive recklessly, but the person proposing the law doesn't know anything about cars. Car enthusiasts would roll their eyes and consider the attempt a joke. But instead we have speed limits, vehicle registration, driver license requirements, and safety standards that actually make cars safer. You can own a Porsche, but if you break the law your registration will be used to find you and your driver's license in jeopardy.
Americans aren't going to give up guns. But there is hope that current technology could better regulate ownership and usage. Unfortunately idiotic hollow statements about magazine size and the assault rifle boogy man make those who could facilitate change look foolish.
"Fifteen people were killed and 94 injured across 13 states as well as Washington DC".
These massshootings are so out of control..
Always have been
It seems like common sense to make guns have the same requirements as cars. You need to pass a short course and get a license. I don't understand what is unclear about the 2nd amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Right there, in the text: "Well regulated".
Well regulated, as in well maintained. Additionally, it is a conditional clause providing the context for its existence. Taking this legal approach has never worked in court. The Constitution was written to be changed for a reason but we are afraid to or it is opposed.
Part of it is the wording is "(justification for the amendment) (actual limitation on the governments power)" so the reason the government shall not infringed on the right to bear arms is because that supports the creation of well regulated militias necessary to secure a free state.
And you can, it seems, I mean if you want to, you can amend it...
"We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!"
Holy fucking shit what a ridiculous country.
America needs gun violence so that when its military does violence, the people are numb to it.
Absolutely out of control.
This is why we chose to stay home on holidays. I feel bad that my kids are missing out, but I would rather have them miss some fireworks than risk becoming a statistic.
You are paranoid and ruining your children's childhood for no reason at all. Learn statistics, and incorporate that into your daily life. Hint if you drive a car you are endangering your children way more.
Interesting, you’re telling me to learn statistics, and then you skipped over the leading cause of death for children in the United States.
Try incorporating empathy in your life, and understand it’s not about you. If you don’t have the same concern as others, you don’t have to resort to insults; you can accept that someone else feels differently without trying to hurt them.
Every time I ask this question:
What lae do you propose, that didn't already exist, wouldn't violate the Bill of Rights, and wouldn't cause a civil war?
Most of the time I either get answers that include laws that exist that the government doesn't enforce, or a "fuck the constitution, let's have a civil war!"
For example the army is supposed to report people discharged distribution to the NCIS. They don't.
The ATF is supposed to follow up when a banned individual tries to buy a gun. They don't.
The ATF is supposed to check on people when gun dealers report them for attempted straw purchases. They don't.
Know someone who had illegal weapons? Call the police and see what they do. Here's a hint: nothing
So, does anyone have one?
Most crime, including mass shootings, are an outgrowth of material conditions in a given society. You can’t resolve those material conditions with reactive policies like you’ve outlined below, you have to act proactively. You want less white disaffected individuals shooting people, then work to bring those people into the fold. Ban right wing media that pushes entirely false narratives. Give everyone an irreducible minimum that gives them space to exist without constant coercion from society to self-enslave. Drop 70+% off the military budget and put ALL of it into social programs. Welfare, public housing, community centers, public works programs, etc. There’s infinite ways to resolve this, not a single one of them involves reactive policy.
Ah lots of statements not backed in fact here. Mr Monkey is an accelerationist. Bye now.
Just a part of the 4th of July experience really
You already know who are the problem. The USA is cloaca maxima
As American as apple pie, seems horribly fitting
Way more Americam than apple pie. Apple pie isn't American at all. The Americas didn't even have apples, initially.
Ah yes, land of da free
Ah yes, land of da free
The only 'mass shooting' was the Philly one. Intellectually stunted and politically blinded morons are trying to change the definition by lumping in gang bangers doing drive bys and shooting up house parties. If you Individually dig through the gunviolencearchive.org sources, the overwhelming majority of them have an African American teenager with a handgun set out to settle a personal vendetta; yet somehow that scenario is - by gunviolence.orgs own statistical criteria - categorized the same exact way as a deranged psychopath with an AR-15 randomly shooting up a mall (which even once is way too fucking common, but not as statistically prominent as the site is trying to mislead the public to believe).
It's not a gun problem, it's a cultural one.
Why can't it be both? Especially when guns are so interwoven into the culture.
So it's not a mass shooting if the person is black and the crime is personal? What led you to come with that criteria? I tend to think "A mass shooting is a violent crime in which an attacker kills or injures multiple individuals simultaneously using a firearm." is a pretty fair definition. You know "mass" as in several individuals involved and "shooting" as in a firearm was involved. Keep it up with the mental gymnastics though.
People love to point the fingers at the tool used to do evil things. Instead of addressing why the evil thing is happening.
Banning and restricting guns is a band aid solution that harms the general populace more than it benefits.
Bad actors that want to inflict harm are not concerned with using something legal to get the job done. There will always be inventive whackos out there that will find ways to hurt people. Guns or no guns.
The Swiss have almost the same firearm to people ratio as America ( at least compared to the rest of the world ) and under have far fewer of the same issues. I think this is largely because of cultural differences and availability for healthcare.
Free dumb
Ha!
Guardian needs to speak for itself - I had a great fourth!