Is it me or is a pattern forming?
Madman loner walks into a crowded place and shoots loads of people
The press immediately speculate about his (or her, theoretically, although I can't think of any occasions when a woman has done this).
Gun Nuts offer "Hopes and Prayers" while vehemently denying that easily available weapons make things like this more likely. Sometimes the NRA organises a press conference in the town where the shooting occurred.
Trump tweets promising to arm more people.
Trump tweets a generic "mmm, Violence is bad, mkay?" tweet.
Trump blames the media, and "fake news".
Gun Nuts will attack the victims if they dare protest about the thing that made them a victim.
People who want guns banned use it as evidence that guns are bad.
After a couple of weeks, people go back to doing what they were doing before the shooting.
Now, I've deliberately kept party references out of this (apart from Trump) because I can accept that while it seems a lot of Republicans are gun nuts, not all are. Similarly I don't doubt that some Democrats are gun nuts, and I think the gun problem in America is too important to reduce it to party politics.
I do believe America has a problem with guns. It's gone beyond just defending people defending themselves, their families, and their homes against an oppressive government (which is essentially what the 2nd Amendment is intended to facilitate). It's grown into a multi billion dollar industry that feeds off scaring Americans into believing they are aren't safe unless they are armed.
The trouble it, multi billion dollar industries tend to get what they want, and can be very difficult to fight.
I hope that, at some point, we get an American government which does do what I think is the sensible thing and look at guns critically. What I mean by critically is not an outright ban (which is what some left wingers do seem to be calling for and what right wingers seem to think all left wingers are calling for). There are situations and careers where a person needs to be armed (farming, for instance). Even where people do need guns, they don't necessarily need access to the full range of types and accessories they currently have.
The funny thing is, a right wing friend of mine (also a rabid Trumpite) likes to crow about the amount of knife crime we have in this country, or at least did until I reminded him it's a lot easier to go into a room with a semi automatic (or even fully automatic) gun and kill a lot of people than it is to go into a room with a knife and kill a lot of people. I also reminded him about the monthly mass shootings in the US.
---------- Post added at 14:31 ---------- Previous post was at 14:28 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by ianch99
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Of course he won't. It doesn't mesh with his general narrative that islam is bad.
He hasn't at the time I posted this.
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