Here we go again…

  • RQG@lemmy.world
    1148·
    1 year ago

    As an outsider it seems absolutely weird that the US as a country seems to have accepted people getting shot by other regular people daily as normal.

    • sadie_sorceress@sh.itjust.works
      234·
      1 year ago

      My kids’ school recently had an active shooter drill like we used to do fire drills when I was a kid. They said they all had hiding spots to go to and they thought it was pretty scary. They’re in elementary school. It’s definitely not normal that instead of doing something about the guns we have to teach kids to hide from gunmen because that’s just a legit possibility now.

      • jaschen@lemm.ee
        2·
        1 year ago

        My friend’s daughter is in elementary school and an active shooter came into the school. Nobody died, but later he bought her a bulletproof backpack designed for AR-15 rounds (223). But the backpack was so heavy she couldn’t carry books in it. So instead he opted for handgun rounds protection, which isn’t ideal but it’s something.

    • gizmonicus@sh.itjust.works
      171·
      1 year ago

      As an American, I think the moment I said “which one” when asked if I had heard about the mass shooting in wherever it was I can’t even remember now, that was when I realized how fucked our gun policies are.

  • Jollyllama@lemmy.world
    741·
    1 year ago

    The guys was committed for two weeks and had threatened to shoot up a national guard base. They had the information to act on and take away his guns and they didn’t because they didn’t need to. This is even more fucked because it was probably avoidable.

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
      434·
      1 year ago

      There are no red flag laws in Maine. There was no legal way to take his guns even if they thought that was necessary. Also, the christofacist supreme court is set to strike down laws that prevent people convicted domestic violence from owning guns, which will chip away at the legality of red flag laws everywhere. Happy Thursday everyone!

  • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    593·
    1 year ago

    Every iteration of gun control, with few exceptions, carves out exceptions for LEOs and Military. If you want this to stop a good start would be making these guys have to follow the laws the rest of us do, because if you campaign for more of the same from your lawmakers, I guarantee there will still be exceptions for the people who protect the rich.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
      29·
      1 year ago

      Exceptions for active military can work because they are subject to the far more strict ucmj. Cops are a real problem though, they kill 1000 or so people every year with minimal consequence.

        • BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world
          7·
          1 year ago

          Not so fun fact cops were invented to prevent people like us from stealing crates in the harbor 200 years ago. They used to be just upper class people who patrolled the port. They didn’t always exist, so it’s just as possible for them to cease to exist. A society without goons in blue is possible. Cops protect the owners of the country. edit: Why can’t we commoners set up our own force to protect us the regular people?

          • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
            21·
            1 year ago

            Before police though, we had feuds and the city would just randomly hang whomever the townspeople pinned the crimes on.

            We also didn’t have a professional firefighting force back in the day. Times change.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      184·
      1 year ago

      What’s unsurprising is how strictly gun control is implemented on US military bases and navy ships.

      If you live in barracks on-base and own a personal gun, if often has to be stored in the base’s firearm storage. The only people who can walk around armed are MPs or people on their way to/from authorized training. Even if you have a concealed carry permit for the state the base is in, you can’t conceal carry in the base. If you’re on your way to the base’s firing range and stop to get gas at the base’s gas station, you can’t leave your gun in your car while you go into the convenience store at the gas station unless your car is locked in your trunk. Often even a paintball gun has to be stored in the base armory.

      Keep in mind these aren’t rules for random civilians. These are the rules for people who have already had to pass extensive firearms training courses.

      It’s pretty insane that random untrained civilians have far fewer restrictions on guns than members of the military on a military base.

      • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        33·
        1 year ago

        I understand why it seems strange that the Military has stricter regulations on weapons than civilians but honestly thats a good thing to me. Not saying the level of rules on civilians is fine the way it is, however soldiers are quite literally tools of and representative of the US government, what they do, the US government does, or at the very least is accountable for. Often times what they are doing they are doing to citizens (or soldiers) of other countries as well. A random US citizen doesn’t represent the government, but an active soldier is very much representetive of theirs. From the governments POV its like self preservation.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          8·
          1 year ago

          Aside from all that, it’s just sane to lock down weapons.

          The military knows how dangerous they are, so they don’t let people on military bases just wander around with them. They’re carefully controlled. It’s just insanity that outside the walls the rules are less strict.

          • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            42·
            1 year ago

            The lack of laws around weapon storage are wild. As a part of gun culture I can tell you in the US the gun culture around you is going to determine how safe the area is from guns, and in no small part due to storage habbits that somehow come down to the culture rather than the law. When I see divisions between red and blue state gun crime, it makes intament sense to me having seen how gun culture is in each place. Even the conservatives in liberal areas are generally more careful with weapons than the conservatives in area where they are the majority. Advertising is another problem that imo is a massive contribution to the negative aspects of US gun culture. Not many outside of the culture would see this but if you go to a web site that sells gun accessories and buy something, just wait for the bonkers catalogue they send you in the mail later. For me it looked like a mall ninjas paradise, with just enough inflammatory marketing to not be punished for it, and if we can’t reign that in as well I fear all we will be doing is chnging what type of gun the next shooting will be done with.

      • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        Extensive firearms training is a bit of a stretch. Yes combat jobs get plenty of range time, but many only get a basic refreshers as needed (before deployment)

        But yes military bases are pretty strict compared to outside the fence

  • Fraylor@lemm.ee
    5812·
    1 year ago

    Fuck Reagan. He created this shithole of a situation and ruined this country. I’m happy he died of Alzheimers and simply pray he was terrified and miserable in the last moments of his life.

  • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    217·
    1 year ago

    Hmmm, so all of those “well regulated militia means the national guard, the only people who should have guns are the cops and the national guard because they’re the only ones responsible enough” people are going to finally admit that cops and weekend warriors aren’t actually all that special and the training they recieve doesn’t make them good people it only makes them more effective should they decide to be bad people?

    • charles@lemmy.worldEnglish
      142·
      1 year ago

      People who say that actually want a complete and total ban on guns, but acknowledge the constitution says what it says and amendments are literally impossible in today’s political climate.

      Also, one could argue a “well regulated” militia wouldn’t send guns home with its members. It could be kept at a central facility.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        51·
        1 year ago

        I know they do, I was actually specifically calling that out, as they always say “nuh uh” when you point out that they do in fact want a total ban on self defense.

        One could argue anything, doesn’t make them actually correct. “The militia” is defined “as all able bodied males age 17-45,” not as “the national guard, which is a military branch not a militia.” As such, this argument says to me that “all able bodied males age 17-45” should be able to own guns and nobody else, no women, nobody in a wheelchair or with anything that would disqualify one medically from service like colorblindness, etc. Of course, that is ridiculous, but that’s why I prefer the “actually knows english” approach to that particular argument.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
          44·
          1 year ago

          It’s still not necessary to qualify it that way. “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” stands on its own with the preceding sentence explaining Why.

          Regardless of semantics, the Supreme Court has confirmed individual rights to bear arms in triplicate and that matter is settled.

    • Treczoks@lemm.ee
      82·
      1 year ago

      Maybe you should differ between those people in active service and ex-soldiers with PTSD and mental issues that makes them hear voices…

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        6·
        1 year ago

        Maybe they should differ. I think that anyone who hasn’t proven themselves a danger to others should be able to own one, even people with PTSD which shouldn’t be stigmatized simply because some people with it do violent things. Most people with PTSD do not.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          Unfortunately a fact that few are willing to recognize is that if you have been homeless in the US for more than 4 weeks there is a very high (like high 90s percent) chance that you have PTSD. It’s not just the military, though us vets certainly have it as well. I’ll also wager that anyone that has spent any amount of time in our jails also has PTSD. The point I’m making is that despite the common person thinking that PTSD is just exclusive to the military, it is in fact, not.

          I haven’t actually looked into it, but I would wager that globally we have better than 6 billion people walking around with some form of PTSD.

          • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            2·
            1 year ago

            That and survivors of rape, assault (sexual or otherwise,) b&e, the list of potential causes is a mile long. I’d wager your wager is not at all unreasonable.

      • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
        25·
        1 year ago

        Why? No one, zero people, who join the military or the police, do so without the intention of using force over others. These aren’t good people, I’m not going to concern myself with what category of shitty to put them under.

  • Surp@lemmy.world
    152·
    1 year ago

    My Aunt and Uncle live there. I heard the news at around 11pm. Called her up to make sure they were ok. They are scared in there home with doors locked.

  • Treczoks@lemm.ee
    187·
    1 year ago

    Excerpt from the US version of the Prayer of the Lord: “… and give us today our daily bread mass shooting …”

  • Jeff@lemm.eeEnglish
    62·
    1 year ago

    This timeline is a bad one. We need father time to make the old in power fade away so we can attempt to fix what the worst generation has broken.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      51·
      1 year ago

      As disturbing as these mass shootings are, they’re still very rare. The vast majority of Americans will never be in a mass shooting, let alone tourists who only visit occasionally.

      It’s telling that most American police officers go their entire career without shooting their guns except at the firing range.

      But, it is a sign of US dysfunction that the problem is so obvious but there’s zero chance of the problem being solved any time soon.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
        62·
        1 year ago

        I mean, not that rare. I remember back in college I knew 5 different people who were in a mass school shooting as a kid - all from different states.

        Just this week there have been 5 mass shootings.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          1 year ago

          So, you know some people who were in a mass shooting, but they lived. If they know some people who died in a mass shooting that’s two degrees of separation between you and a mass shooting death.

          As for the mass shootings this week, they include a convenience store robbery, something that seems to be a murder-suicide where someone killed their family, a shootout over a stolen car, shots at a house party. And, in only 2 of those cases (the 5 dead in a house, and the rampage in Maine) were more than 1 person killed. These all technically qualify as mass shootings, but the rampage in Maine is the only kind we really think of as being a typical mass shooting.

          It’s far too many. There’s no question about that. It’s also absurd how much more frequent it is in the US compared to other places. On the other hand, the US has a population of 330 million people. So, while the odds of dying in a mass shooting are higher in the US than any other developed country in the world, it’s hardly a warzone. The vast majority of people in the US will not be in a mass shooting ever. Most people will never be shot in their lives. And tourists shouldn’t avoid the US out of a fear of being involved in a mass shooting. Yes, it’s much more likely in the US than in say Japan. But, the overall odds are low.

      • Cyclohexane@lemmy.mlM
        21·
        1 year ago

        There are still a lot of gun homocides. Mass shootings are only part of the story.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          1 year ago

          A lot compared to other countries, but not so many that a tourist would have to worry about it, especially if they stick to touristey areas.

          If someone decided to go into certain neighbourhoods in certain cities, especially while looking like a tourist, they could get in trouble. But, not visiting the US because you’re afraid of getting shot is like not being willing to swim anywhere in the Atlantic ocean because you’re afraid of being bitten by a shark. In both cases, the danger is minimal unless you ignore the warning signs.

    • Rambi@lemm.ee
      4·
      1 year ago

      It was in the news in the UK a few years ago that a doctor visited the US to see some of his family that lived there, and while he was asleep in bed a stray bullet hit him and he died. Obviously I’m sure these things are unlikely but it’s still kind of scary. That and I find the idea of walking around and having deranged psychos all around me potentially having a gun and them being able to pull it out and end my life at any moment kind of… unpleasant.

        • Rambi@lemm.ee
          2·
          1 year ago

          Okay I guess. I personally like just being able to live my life without almost getting shot every couple of hours. I have a friend who basically sounds exactly like you and lives in Texas, he also told me that he hears gunshots around him like multiple times a day. Forgive me but that doesn’t sound particularly appealing.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          1 year ago

          Isn’t having a crazy powerful military enough? The Spanish and French aren’t about to set fires in the US anymore.

    • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
      67·
      1 year ago

      Eh, it’s safer now than it was 30 years ago, your odds of actually running into anyone with a gun are extremely low.

  • tym@lemmy.world
    78·
    1 year ago

    This motherfucker is slowly making his way toward my home and children. Last sighting is 35 min away or so.

    I don’t have a gun and I regret that choice right now. I wouldn’t wish this feeling of helplessness and terror on anyone.

    This is always a mental health issue at its core.

    Humor me and pick up a copy of Susan Faludis book “stiffed”

    This is the 90s all over again. Fuck.

      • tym@lemmy.world
        42·
        1 year ago

        Lewiston Maine. The (formerly) safest state in the union.

        Dudes Twitter likes were Trump Jr, tucker Carlson and all kinds of other MAGAt fodder. Also one of two retweets mentioned mass murder.

      • Woht24@lemmy.world
        53·
        1 year ago

        You think the police will come and take care of you because you feel scared when there’s an active shooter on the loose?

        Ridiculous.

          • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Yup. I used to be a vol firefighter. If your response time for any emergency service is under 5min you’re very lucky. But often even that isn’t enough. You need the tools and skills to do what you can until help arrives. Fire prevention, medical and self/fam defense. Until they get there it is up to you, and many people don’t realize that.