Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

That in a gun ridden country, you cannot have soft targets, schools with gun free zones are exactly that. They have to be protected, in highly gun cultured country.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

The solution would be to gate off school campuses and have airport-style security checks on entry, plus armed guards on the perimeter. Increasing the circulation of firearms within a vulnerable area is insane.

In fact they should definitely make schools behave like airports, it might finally make America realise what a sick culture it's become.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

And who has a hold over the NRA? The manufacturers? And maybe...
FBI ‘investigating whether Russian money went to NRA’s campaign to help elect Donald Trump’

---------- Post added at 11:15 ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 ----------

I certainly think that's more sensible than arming teachers but would you not just relocate the problem to McDonalds, cinemas etc and not prevent it?

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

Why am I not surprised ? It always comes back to the Russians, their divide and conquer campaign is working brilliantly both here and in the US.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

Almost like Junker and Barnier. Is there a problem? More Europe!

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

Of course that’s what would happen. To be frank, if arming teachers had a deterrent effect that, too, would result in disaffected loners targeting their classmates in McDonalds or the cinema instead.

The solution is to spend the next generation progressively rolling back gun ownership in the USA. The problem with enacting such a solution is that the debate has been very effectively framed by the likes of the NRA as an issue of personal freedom and the very definition of what it means to be American. The protesters need to re-take control of the national identity before they can effectively influence the gun ownership policies that flow from it.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

You really didn't highlight anything at all

It strikes me as odd, what next, taking away firemans hoses and giving them flamethrowers

I think they have a chance of achieving something this time, looks to me like enough people have finally stood up and said enough is enough, a majority of NRA membership I understand feels the same to but are being dragged by the nose by their leadership, be interesting to see what happens there in terms of policy or who actually remains in charge of the organisation, who I'd imagine hope this just runs out if steam and goes away till the next atrocity

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

The answer would be to put machine guns on the roof tops at all education facilities, in the passage ways of the said education facilities with machine guns implanted in the walls so they can be activated if an intruder shows up with a guns. Arm every American citizen from the age of 10 upwards with AR-50's, hand guns, hand grenades, daggers, flame throwers 24/7/365. Welcome to United States of America or should I say United States of the NRA.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

Yes I did and you haven't even bothered to justify why I haven't, but hey ho, not that you can because what I said was correct. More Whites were executed in 2017 and 2016.... 2015... 2013.... 2012...2011...than blacks and Hispanics, only 2014 was the exception.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

I didn't bother because it's so obvious, first of all you only chose to highlight 2 years which could have been aberrations, then you didn't bother to use it as percentages of population convicted of murder, nor did you bother to look at the severity of crime to see if the death penalty is given for crimes of a similar nature between the races.

Mr K's real salient point isn't in question though, if you're poor and commit the same crime as someone with money you have a far greater chance of getting the death penalty than the other guy. I've posted on here before about trials where the defence attorney fell asleep during evidence or was drunk during trials seeking a death sentence

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

I did not need to use percentages because I used actual total figures, percentages is irrelevant.

More White people have been executed than blacks over the last 8 years.

That is not what is being talked about, the assertion was more blacks are being executed than whites and that somehow, there is a racist affirmation being placed in the justice system. The statistics speak for themselves on the wikipedia pages.

In 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012 and 2011. More Whites were executed as per the death penalty, I do not need percentages or fractions, the numbers speak for themselves.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

Are those absolute numbers or as a percentage of population?

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

Absolute numbers, last year, 23 people executed.

13 White. 8 Black. 2 Hispanics.

If we really want percentages...

56% of Whites executed.

35% Blacks.

9% Hispanics. All in 2017 and they were all males who were executed.

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

And according to the US Census, the USA is 73% White, 13% Black/African American.

So if you correlate total population against executions, there would be 3/4 of 23 would be White (around 16), and 1/7 would be Black/African-American (around 3 or 4).

Re: Florida Shooting: 17 Students Shot dead in another Mass Shooting in the U.S
 

The distinction is important because the different racial groups aren’t of equal size in the general population. If the %age of executions of males of each racial group are broadly in line with that group’s representation in the population then fine, but if one group is over-represented, that may indicate an imbalance in the system.

According to those stats, just over a third (35%) of males executed last year were black. Yet the Afro-Caribbean population of the USA is 12.5%. That tends to suggest that black men are seriously over-represented on death row. Meanwhile the white population is around 72% but the white population of death row is 56%, which is a significant under-representation.

It might be that black men commit more serious crime. There could be sociological reasons for that, due to long term inequality and deprivation meaning a disproportionately high number of young black men are exposed to the environment that is likely to push them towards criminality. Or it might be that the criminal justice system is biased in some way. Juries may be more likely to convict, courts may be more likely to pass the death sentence. Whatever the reason, there’s clearly a problem.