Gun Control Debate

[Frelga]

NEW: National Rifle Association acknowledges it receives foreign money, but says none went to election work.

Issue is that it also acknowledges moving $$ between its election work accounts and it other accounts.

https://t.co/xqI8j6XiGK

https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/978651276069232640

[RoseMorninStar]

One of the comments:
'"... but says none went to election work." Well, that settles it. If you can't trust a cabal of propagandists working for arms manufacturers to sell human misery and death, who CAN you trust?'

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

It is as if money is fungible. It's funny how that works.

I've pointed it out to people who say "but none of the government money Planned Parenthood gets goes to abortions, it only goes to other activities."

propagandists working ... to sell human misery and death

Who claimed they were a political party?

[Sunsilver]

Do propagandists have to be a political party, C.G.? They certainly know how to buy politicians!

Love this sign from the recent marches!

[Frelga]

YouTube headquarters. Shooter dead from apparently self-inflicted gunshot. Three or possibly four wounded, reports are still unclear.

I absolutely refuse to call it "another shooting" like it's another rainy day.

[Primula Baggins]

March 21st:

YouTube clamps down on gun videos, angering content creators

YouTube has changed its policies for videos that include content about firearms. The updated restrictions, which come amid nationwide calls for stricter gun control, are the latest in what appears to be a ramped-up effort to curtail dangerous or illegal content on the video hosting platform.

Videos that promote the sale of firearms and their accessories will be affected by the policy change, according to a statement from the company. As a result, instructional videos that teach viewers to make or install their own gun accessories could be in violation of YouTube's terms of service. Videos that link to sites that sell gun accessories may also violate the site's updated guidelines, as well.

News of the update went viral within pro–Second Amendment forums over the last 24 hours, with many balking at the new restrictions. YouTube said the latest guidelines have been in development for the last four months and will start in June.

I don't know that this has anything to do with that—at least, the fact that the shooter was a woman makes me wonder. But it happened, and it's been noticed.

[yovargas]

Let's hope that there is no connection and that it is just a coincidence. Let's hope.

[Frelga]

There is no hard data yet, and some reports suggest workplace or domestic violence motive (although they don't know, either). Still, heck of a coincidence.

[Griffon64]

Let's see ...

Non-Caucasian of any gender: terrorist

White male: lone wolf / troubled young man / mentally unstable individual

Female of any race, if unaccompanied by a male accomplice: domestic violence / spurned lover

Did I get the media / popular discourse stereotyping of gun violence right?

[RoseMorninStar]

There were 2 cases in Wisconsin recently involving bomb-making/chemicals that haven't made much news. Perhaps it's because it's a lot more common than we think or that there were no victims other than one of the bomb-makers himself. One was a white Christian male who had been home-schooled and went to a Christian university and was working at a food products company as a chemist. He blew himself up in his apartment (apparently by accident). He had weapons, ammunition, protective gear and white supremacist literature in his apartment. The building (which had 16 units) had to be burned because it was too dangerous for people to continue living there. The chemicals were so volatile that they couldn't be jostled. His pastor defends him but the evidence begs to differ. It sounds like it was a larger accident waiting to happen.

Evidently, such actions have to be considered politically motivated before they can be considered 'terrorism', but it seems that Benjamin Morrow (above) and the Austin bomber have more than a few things in common.

And another, who knows what he was up to but thankfully he was stopped before anything else could come of it.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

The youtube case, it sure is getting little coverage.

Female
Ethnic
Immigrant from a country "on the list"
Vegan
Muslim
Member of Peta
In a state with very strict gun control laws
In a gun free zone
With a handgun

Hard to blame the cis white christian male with an AR-15 acquired thanks to lax gun laws.

Yes, there are other organizations besides political parties that are merchants of death, but note this about the NRA. When critics of the Second Amendment point at the NRA and shout "evil!" they are really pointing at the organization's millions of members. As near as I can make out, not one NRA member has mown down students in any school or church in America. Instead, at least one civilian NRA member took out his AR-15 to bring down one such mass-murdering shooter.

[RoseMorninStar]

How would the public know if a shooter were an NRA member? The NRA sure isn't going to advertise that information and there are no public membership lists. Many of the shooters are dead, and, as they say, dead men (and women) tell no tales. Nikolas Cruz was a member of the marksmanship team/part of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps which received grants from the NRA. Does that prove he was a member? No, but it doesn't disprove it either.

According to this article Adam Lanza & his mother had NRA certificates.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Do you think that if there was a mass shooter who was a member of the NRA, that would not be in every single headline about the shooting?

It would be proclaimed as loudly as the Youtube shooter story is buried.

[RoseMorninStar]

I don't think the YouTube shooter story was buried. It was pretty big news here/on all of the major news outlets.

The Parkland murders, Austin bomber, and the Las Vegas murder cases (for examples) likely stayed in the news for an extended period of time because there were a lot of unknowns; motives, targets, were there accomplices that may still be at large, etc.. In all of those cases there were also multiple deaths. In the case of the YouTube shooter, the motives/targets, etc.. seem to be fairly evident and no deaths other than the suspect. Her family was cooperating with authorities and had contacted police prior to the shooting, etc.. Some details in the case of the Beaver Dam, WI bomber was kept quiet because police were searching for accomplices/motives, etc.. The suspect is the only one who died in that case as well.

As for NRA membership, how would that be known/proven unless proof/paperwork were found? The NRA isn't going to give that information out. There are no public lists.

It's a good thing the YouTube shooter didn't have an AR-15, things may have turned out differently.

[Inanna]

The YouTube shooter story was on the front page of WSJ & NYT; doesn’t sound like “buried” to me.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

For one day. Then as the facts started rolling out the story was very very quickly forgotten.

"OMG another shooter" fits the narrative. "And these are the details of the shooter" doesn't fit the narrative.

[RoseMorninStar]

I'm not sure what your point is C_G. This was all over the print and TV news media at the time of the shooting, and again this week as a tape of police officers questioning her prior to the shooting surfaced.

Evidently non-fatal shootings just don't make the cut the way they used to. Have we all become numb? According to the Gun Violence Archive there have been 4,072 gun related deaths so far in 2018. There have been 7,172 gun injuries. I think a big part of why this particular story hasn't made bigger headlines is because gun violence has become SO common and no one died. And probably because YouTube doesn't want more negative publicity.

[Frelga]

School district arms teachers with mini-baseball bats in wake of shootings

A Pennsylvania school district is arming hundreds of teachers with miniature baseball bats as a "last resort" in the wake of a recent school shooting that has revitalized the debate over school safety.

Each teacher in the school district will be given a small bat and receive training on how to respond to a potential school shooting, Erie News Now reported on Tuesday. The bat measures 16 inches long and appears to be made of plastic or another lightweight material, according to a video report.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

I'm not sure what your point is C_G. This was all over the print and TV news media at the time of the shooting, and again this week as a tape of police officers questioning her prior to the shooting surfaced.

Evidently non-fatal shootings just don't make the cut the way they used to. Have we all become numb? According to the Gun Violence Archive there have been 4,072 gun related deaths so far in 2018. There have been 7,172 gun injuries. I think a big part of why this particular story hasn't made bigger headlines is because gun violence has become SO common and no one died. And probably because YouTube doesn't want more negative publicity.

My point should be obvious but it isn't. This isn't about how non-fatals get less coverage.

The news broke, oh god another shooting. Uh, this is a woman, well, ok. Uh, she's also an immigrant. Better but that on page 10. Uh, she's also a muslim, better put that at the end of the article if we run it at all. She's also a vegan and a member of Peta, and she used a handgun instead of an AK and the did it in a state with really strict gun control, well, it's not a story now is it?

[yovargas]

Or maybe its because a non-fatal shooting isn't very big news regardless of who does it? If you are trying to suggest that if this same woman had managed to kill a large number of people, it would not have gotten much news coverage, I think that is an absolutely absurd viewpoint.