Senate Gun Control

11 dead, 6 injured in basically more or less my backyard.

Heartbroken. Absolutely heartbroken.

 

Just so senseless and it is preventable.

 

Death toll is at 12 now as apparently some died at the hospital.

I'm just in shock right now.

 

X-posted from the US Politics thread:

The names of the victims have been released.

All but one of the victims were city employees. The one that wasn't was a contractor at the public utilities building trying to get a permit.

 

Knowing people from this site that live all over has made these mass-shooting related news stories carry a lot more weight with me. I mean, I get that this is shallow, but it's just easy to become numb to "another shooting in a random place where some people died." But this kind of thing brings it home a lot more.

 

So the latest on the investigation into the shooting that happened on Friday, apparently the gunman emailed his resignation hours before he began his massacre. Still no motive given.

I'm sad, angry and everything in between right now.

 

From the Beeb: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48483618

"At the scene
Harry Low, BBC News, Virginia Beach

In the pouring Saturday morning rain, witnesses and well-wishers came together for what has become a customary vigil to remember those killed.

Jayme Rivera, who works in the same complex and had gone home for the day, said her heart sank when she heard news of the shooting. "It doesn't even seem real," she said. "It's a tragedy, a senseless act of evil."

What is striking is the reluctance among those here to talk about tighter gun controls, an issue which will continue to divide this country even after 2019's largest mass shooting has been forgotten.

"We too often look to our leaders for answers on this and the answers are what you see here," says Eric whose friend saw his co-workers killed. "It's got to be community." "

Really? The same community that refuses to consider how this could have been stopped? That prefers to just invoke 'senseless evil' instead? This was planned. It had rationality combined with utter contempt for morality, with a view that other lives were of no value. This is horrible true, but it is very, very comprehensible. It's not hard to follow the steps, the chain of reasoning - if anything it could be argued that the victims are owed this if the society they were part of values them.

"According to US tracking website Gun Violence Archive, the incident is the 150th mass shooting in the US so far in 2019 - and the deadliest.

The site defines a mass shooting as a gun attack in which at least four people are either killed or wounded.

It is the worst such shooting in the US since November 2018, when 12 people were killed at a bar and grill near Los Angeles, California."

Not even halfway through the year and the US has nearly managed a mass shooting a day!

 

Governor Northam has called for a special session of the General Assembly to try and address gun violence in the aftermath of the Virginia Beach shootings. An ultimately useless gesture since both houses of the GA are GOP controlled, but I guess it's better than nothing.

 

I'm guessing you would find a quite small percentage of deaths in the US are due to hunting riffles as well.

I personally tend to think that the Second Amendment is often viewed as a bit of an easy counter to criticism of government corruption as well, the idea of a population able to resist a potentially oppressive government that's arguably no longer the case given the massive resources of that government. In that situation. These days really pushing for greater governmental accountability/openness would be a far more effective way to go.

You could argue that plays especially well with Trump's appeal as well I spose.

 

NRATV shut down.

 

No, no, no - it's "purpose" is self-defense and standing up to government tyranny!

 

At least 3 dead and 12 injured at a food festival in Gilroy, California.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...g-at-california-garlic-festival-idUSKCN1UO030

 

It’s a violent world. I’ll keep the families of the victims in my thoughts.

 

A 6 year old among the victims. And when people ask me how I'm doing today I can't tell them Fing awful. Cause they'd ask why and politics are a bad topic especially at work. This is so wrong. We need to talk about this. There need to be stricter gun laws. You know but that's just my opinion, as a mother who wants a safer world for her children.

 

On a somewhat related note...

If anybody remembers the Jonesboro Arkansas mass school shooting (it predates Columbine by only months), one of the then - juvenile shooters was killed in a car crash this weekend.