…But yeah, I am. Guns are a huge f**king problem.
Two officers are in stable condition, with one in surgery, and the suspect is dead following a shooting Saturday at a Walmart in suburban Phoenix, authorities said.
Bell was found shot dead with another woman, Sacorya Renee Reed, at a home in the 2600 block of Ridgecrest Drive, The Flint Journal reported.
A one-year-old child, who was unharmed, was also found in the home and turned over to child protective services, but police did not confirm whether the child was Bell’s….
The case is slated to continue, with a representative to be appointed to represent Bell’s child.
A man who shot and killed five people during two separate shootings as part of a domestic dispute in Georgia was found dead in his home early Saturday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said…
The daughter of Georgia man suspected of shooting five people to death before killing himself says her father was a “ticking time bomb.”
Lauren Hawes told The Associated Press Saturday that she and her 1-year-old daughter hid in a neighbor’s house while her father, Wayne Anthony Hawes, went on a shooting rampage that killed five people, including her grandmother and cousin.
And, not that it’s a competition, perhaps ghastliest of all, Ohio:
All the victims were shot in the head, “execution-style,” and none of the deaths appear to be suicides, he said. DeWine said it appears the killings took place overnight while the victims were in bed, with one woman killed with her “four-day-old right there.”
These are just four reports of four wretched events — crimes — over the last couple of days, all gleaned from a single news site (Talking Points Memo). As such, they’re just the gun miseries from Friday and today that rose to some kind of web prominence. There are, certainly, many, many more lurking below that threshold of media attention.
All of these crimes, all of this woe, were done in their own contexts, their own sequence of events. The guns didn’t decide to shoot themselves — I get that.
But the litany, the daily butcher’s bill, tells another story, alongside the too-common and too-comfortable one of “people kill people.” People kill a lot fewer people when it’s harder to do. Firearms make it easy.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Image: Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The Actor, before 1861.
Major Major Major Major
:(
All too ‘normal’ here.
NorthLeft12
Was going to try and write something sarcastic/witty, but really…I got nothing. This shite happens in Canada too, but not anywhere near the frequency. I know people up here can be smug about it and credit the character of Canadians in general, but honestly its all about the effing availability of guns.
trollhattan
Homegrown terrorism, with a large political-industrial complex 100% dedicated to ensuring it continues and grows. No Arabic or Persian manes associated, so business as usual, gentleman.
redshirt
But at least we know we’re free….
Roger Moore
The recent one that got me was this one: Alaska Man Fatally Shot While Filming People Firing Guns At Makeshift Range. So a group of people were shooting off their guns with no order or structure, and the natural result is that somebody was shot for being downrange from somebody else at the wrong time. What kind of culture thinks this is normal, or that the regular death toll from this kind of thing is acceptable?
SiubhanDuinne
In three of those four cases, there were small children on the premises or very nearby. Totally apart from the needless and tragic deaths, what kind of emotional trauma might this mean for them in years to come? They may be so young that they won’t remember the specific events, but they’re damn sure going to feel the effects for a lifetime.
Mai.naem.mobile
There’s a 15 yr old kid who got killed in Phoenix when he put his XBox on OfferUp(local ebay like website.) The kid met the guy who was supposedly interested in buying the Xbox in his driveway where the guy robbed him,shot him dead and drove off. The cops have arrested the guy but the guy claims to remember nothing because he was high. BTW,the guy looks pretty young in the mugshot.
Mnemosyne
The police in the Flint story say they already have a suspect in custody, which probably means it was “just” another domestic murder (happens every day, nothing to see here, certainly not terrorism of any kind!), but I have to admit, my first thought was that it might be political.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan: Sadly, this. Merchants of Death cannot be interfered with.
redshirt
Let’s get right to the source of this problem: The modern Republican party.
If they were somehow remotely sane, we could have common sense gun laws and regulations.
But no. Extremism for all.
Chip Daniels
I think it was the Onion that got it best- “No Way To Prevent Mass Shootings, Says Only Nation Where It Is A Problem”
Tom Levenson
@efgoldman: Didn’t even catch those. Can’t keep up. As I said, the matter speaks for itself.
Chip Daniels
@Mnemosyne:
Ordinarily, such a coincidence would be grounds for suspicion of political murder.
But in 21st century America, dying by gun violence is so common that it is hardly a “coincidence” that anyone turns up dead.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
As if there weren’t enough reasons to stay the hell away from Oklahoma, you can now just buy a gun without any kind of permit and simply open carry it around anywhere. What could possibly go wrong?
Gimlet
It’s how Americans learn geography, one mass murder at a time.
? Martin
All of those incidents could have happened from a ninja armed with a particularly sharp carrot. Next libtards will want to ban carrots.
Tom Levenson
@? Martin: First they came for our carrots. Then the kale….
ETA: Where the parsnips there snip I.
? Martin
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: They were being one-upped by Iowa that passed a law allowing gun permits to be issued to blind people. Can’t abide by that.
redshirt
Guns in bars is my favorite new law. Was that Tennessee?
aimai
@Roger Moore: How soon we forget the 11 year old girl, permanently traumatized by “accidentally” shooting the driving instructor at the play lot where her parents thought it was a good idea to let her shoot some kind of massive automatic gun. Or the little boy who lost control of his gun at the gun range when his father thought it was a good idea for him to shoot a machine gun. In both cases the guns were too powerful for an 11 or a 7 year old and began “climbing” up and back and ended up killing someone standing nearby. In the 7 year old’s case he killed himself.
Gun ranges are very dangerous.
aimai
@efgoldman: I know, ef. I actually have a list of colleges, by state, in my head for my 17 year old. Every time I hear of one of these horrific gun crazy incidents I just draw a line through them. They might be great schools but I really worry about sending my child into some of these states.
Ruckus
Want some even more sobering news? A story in the Guardian about a Kentucky man. Read it, it isn’t what you think at all.
M. Bouffant
Slate:
? Martin
@redshirt: Lots of states – Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, Texas.
Hmm, there might be a pattern there…
Technocrat
This is why I hate the bullshit argument that “scissors can kill people too. You gonna ban scissors??”.
Yeah, if scissors kill as efficiently as guns, then it should be no problem restricting guns. Just buy a pair of scissors, problem solved.
ETA: That Chinese Space Marine is the bomb
Ruckus
@aimai:
It’s hard not to forget, when it’s one after another. Not sure if one becomes immune or just numb.
Gin & Tonic
@Tom Levenson: I’m OK with the Feds banning kale, frankly.
NCSteve
@Gin & Tonic: And parsnips too. Bleh. Only eat either of them at gunpoint.
Tom Levenson
@Gin & Tonic: Stop calling me Frank (Lee).
redshirt
OT, but loved this bit from the Spectator: Obama driving British right wing crazy.
? Martin
@Ruckus: 59 gun fatalities in the last 72 hours per his database.
Gimlet
Rally at Stone Mountain Georgia by allied white supremacist groups. Police reportedly engaging the counter-protesters not the supremacists.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/hundreds-of-protesters-expected-for-competing-rallies-at-stone-mountain/237417863
Organized and supported by various members of the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation sects and other openly white supremacists, Rock Stone Mountain’s mission statement called for a peaceful protest, but a group called “All Out Atlanta” has formed to stop them.
The group, describing themselves as anti-racists, vow to stop the march and say they will shut down the Klan, Neo-Nazis, and white supremacist efforts at the park.
Counter-protesters first faced off with police on a park road, where Channel 2’s Audrey Washington reports chants of “Black Lives Matter” and “Hey hey, ho ho, the KKK has got to go.” Eight counter-protesters had been arrested by late morning for refusing to take their masks off, authorities said.
At least one was seen spraying a Georgia State Patrol officer with pepper spray.
gf120581
@Gimlet: So basically the average Trump rally?
Gimlet
@gf120581:
Not sure without a casualty report.
Ruckus
@? Martin:
And one might expect this to make some difference. But NO, we’ve got to have our guns. Look, it’s obvious that people are getting shot all the time. We have to stop that by shooting more people.
You want to know what isn’t being taught in our schools? Logic. In any way shape or form. In fact I’d say the thing being taught is illogical thought. Not math for sure, because A+B=C therefore X=more guns doesn’t seem to be correct.
Davis X Machina
They’re not ‘mass shootings’ – they’re ‘prompt freedom excursions’. If
bmoak
@Gimlet:
By-the-by, Dave Neiwert has been doing an outstanding series of articles on his long semi-defunct blog Orcinus in “honor” of Confederate History Month.
SiubhanDuinne
@NCSteve:
Ooh, you linked the two main themes of this post. Nicely done!
redshirt
I love that painting. Is that what the Japanese originally thought about guns?
Gian
@? Martin:
Did you see Ray Charles in the Blues Brothers?
he was a great shot
? Martin
@Gian: Touche.
NobodySpecial
@redshirt: Guns had been around in Japan for about 600 years when that painting was made, more or less. It’s just a representation of a Chinese teppo, it looks like.
aimai
@NobodySpecial: Yes, when in Japan everything looks like Shunga.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for the laugh out loud in an otherwise sad, sobering thread.
NorthLeft12
@Mnemosyne: Yes “domestic” murders. I get so pissed off when I hear about another manly man who kills his ex because she dared to try and leave him/defy him……. whatever. What kind of sick society passes on this kind of mind set?
chromeagnomen
@? Martin: the average is around 4 per hour.
Brachiator
@NorthLeft12: I saw a story which suggested that although gun homicide rates are lower in Canada, handgun related suicides there are among the highest in the world.
gene108
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
The real insidious thing about this sort of law is it moves the goal posts as to what constitutes “gun grabbing”, by none gun-nuts. If you wanted to return to the gun laws of 2006, for example, people would cry about how the right to open carry, without a permit, has been taken away and the next step is outright gun confiscation.
I wish the non-gun humpers voted with regularity.
And we could vote in non-gun humping politicians.
Then we could repeal the 2nd Amendment.
Anything less will not suffice. There is no reasoning with gun-humpers now.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Insane. This is the second time today I’ve heard about a kid dying from choking on a marshmallow. Do they make them differently these days so that they’re more of a choking hazard than they were in our young days? I swear I’d never come across this phenomenon until today, but apparently it’s a Thing. (My FB friend who posted the earlier story said she’s been trying to get the warning out to parents for years.)
Smiling Mortician
@redshirt: Somehow related: the favorite new strain of weed at my local cannabis shop is called Obama. It’s smooth, tasty, mellow, with zero paranoia.
Brachiator
@redshirt: RE: Spectator story. Loved this, especially how Obama is driving the British right wing crazy.
You also learn from this piece that “jumped-up” is Brit speak for uppity.
redshirt
@NobodySpecial: Thanks. Also looks like an Arnold ancestor.
redshirt
@Smiling Mortician: Heh. Can you imagine Romney ever having a strain named after him? And if so, would you want to smoke it?
gene108
@Ruckus:
From your link:
That was Newt’s plan, when he forbade the CDC from collecting data on gun use, back in 1995. The lack of data on gun use is a deliberate goal of the Republican Party.
redshirt
@Brachiator: Learn something every day! I couldn’t believe the mayor of London’s comments. Is he a fucking birther?!?
Villago Delenda Est
@aimai: There are reasons (John, Omni, and Raven, among others, can back me up on this) why there are very specific and inflexible protocols on any gun range under military control about the handling of weapons, ammunition, and the positioning of individuals on said gun range. Safety is of paramount importance…it’s very easy for things to go wrong, and fatally wrong, on any range with live ammunition. This is what I found so appalling about the incident with the little girl…the instructor, WHO WAS ALLEGEDLY A PROFESSIONAL AND SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER, allowed this to go forward. A child does not have the upper body strength to control a weapon like an Uzi with no prior experience. It will come as a total surprise to the child.
These very deadly tools are treated like toys by ammosexuals.
? Martin
@SiubhanDuinne:
Always been a problem, never been reported. Used to be the case that kids died with such frequency that it was just the cost of doing business, steadily that’s been changing such that every fatality is being reported in a ‘hey, should we be putting up with this?’ manner.
Now if only rapes would get the same treatment. Bothers me to no end that at universities rapes are not always treated as crimes and too often lumped into the category of soft behavioral problems like having contraband in the dorms.
PurpleGirl
@Roger Moore: While my friends were still living in Westchester Cty, I went target shooting with them at the Blue Mountain Preserve — a county operated range for county residents. They had rules posted in a bunch of places and range wardens at several places on the shooting line. You could load 10 rounds at a time and when the warden called out to stop you had to stop shooting. If you broke the rules, I think you lost your rights to use the range but my friend was quite stern in explaining the rules to me and he didn’t say what happened if you broke them. Anyway on the days we went shooting, everyone was obeying the rules.
Iowa Old Lady
@Villago Delenda Est: Or part of their cosplay.
Brachiator
@redshirt:Th Lord Mayor of London is worse than a birther. He said that because Obama is half Kenyan, he has an ancestral hatred of the British empire.
BTW, Churchill was half American. And the upper class fascists who hated Churchill the most also claimed he was “half Negro.”. British racism among the upper class is twisted and deep.
? Martin
@redshirt:
No, but it serves as evidence that even when you leave the US, clouded by the Civil War and Jim Crow, and head over to England that a perfectly anodyne message delivered by a black person will more than likely be met by the white folks with hysteria.
redshirt
@? Martin: I hope Obama shakes up the British electorate to vote “no” for Brexit. He has that affect.
redshirt
@Brachiator: It was shocking to me as to be fair, even our racist birthers have toned it way down since 2012.
Anoniminous
Pew Research’s Public’s Policy Priorities for 2015.
Gun Control doesn’t make the list.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
Looking through their incidents gives me the idea that this stuff is not at all random. For example, in their data set, more children (0-11 years old) died in gun accidents in Alaska than in California and New York combined. There’s something deeply wrong there; why aren’t people in Alaska keeping their guns away from their kids?
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I still don’t get why “anti-colonialist” is supposed to be a smear when applied to Americans. We’re the OG anti-colonialists!
redshirt
@Roger Moore: Alaskans don’t care about their children, obviously.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Because ammosexuals think firearms are toys.
It’s that simple.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
It was not a perfectly anodyne message. He was making a comment related to a hotly contested political issue, and that always has the potential to provoke offense. It’s especially bad when it’s an issue like Brexit, where one side has lost its tether to reality; anyone pointing that out is likely to get a very angry response.
redshirt
@Mnemosyne: No kidding. I feel like that used to be a point of pride.
Jeffro
OT but hey did you know, American businesses are fully aware of the 1%’s “…need for constant validation…”?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/business/economy/velvet-rope-economy.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Not just catering to them, but validating that these fine folks are gosh darn good enough…they DESERVE their own ship-within-a-ship and separate (faster) room service, for instance.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: Shit. Terrorism is #1? This country is truly fucked, The terrorists have won.
redshirt
@Roger Moore: It may not have been an “anodyne” message but it was perfectly true and reasonable to say. Especially from the President of the USA.
redshirt
@Villago Delenda Est: Right? Some hick in East Bumfuck, USA is super concerned about terrorism, as if that’s an issue that would ever affect him personally.
Fear sells, and the rubes are buying.
LibraryGuy
@bmoak: David does such an amazing job. I’ve always loved Orcinus.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
True and reasonable won’t protect you when one side in the issue has based their arguments on lies and unreason. In that case, they tend to get very angry when they’re called on it.
redshirt
@Roger Moore: May be. Then Obama is working his same magic in England as here – speaking truth in the face of insanity.
Smiling Mortician
@redshirt: Just tried to imagine what it would be like. Can’t, thank dog.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
My impression is that Brexit is being sold with approximately the same pack of lies that were used to sell Scottish Independence: we’ll be able to keep all the best parts of being a member of the larger country while not having to put up with the parts we don’t like. When the whole premise is based on something that dishonest, anyone pointing out that the emperor has no clothes is going to get a lot of anger directed their way. Admittedly, the form of the anger directed at Obama tells you a lot about the hangups of the people angry at him, but that’s not the real source.
PhoenixRising
On the Piketon, Ohio front, the entire family reunion list got an all-clear on FB from the cousin who is married to the cousin of that family…because that’s how the Appalachian part of Ohio works:
“It’s not Becca, you all be safe.”
I think I’ve been banned for replying, ‘And be sure to secure your weapons and ammo… like Grandpa always did.’
Only time my daddy ever saw his grandfather load his gun outside of hunting season was the day the coal company sent out surveyors, while the old man (49, 13 children) was at work building a wall in town. This must have been about 1949; my dad was sent to tell an uncle big enough to ride a horse into town to get paw-paw, because his grandmother knew that they owned mineral rights on their 80 acres.
Guns are tools.
gene108
@redshirt:
Rather the rubes are afraid, and people are giving those people what they want.
I remember the 2004 election, when the issue of security was very big and the people most worried, and most passionately, supporting Bush, Jr. were in rural or suburban areas.
The folks in the places that got attacked – NYC and DC – were overwhelmingly for Kerry and had a much more rational view towards the danger they faced.
I don’t know what makes the folks in rural and suburban places such scaredy cats, but they are. Their fear of people is what allows conceal carry permits to be a thing.
Sloane Ranger
@Brachiator: just to be pedantic Boris Johnson is the Mayor of London. The Lord Mayor is someone completely different. It’s a British thing.
Amaranthine RBG
Yes those four anecdotes are powerful examples of how gun murders have been skyrocketing in this country over the past few decades.
redshirt
@gene108: It’s spelled F-O-X-N-E-W-S.
redshirt
@Amaranthine RBG: What are you saying? Besides seemingly mocking an anti-gun violence post?
Miss Bianca
@Sloane Ranger: Are they? I never knew that, and I consider myself at least mildly hep. So, what function does the Lord Mayor perform?
Sloane Ranger
@Roger Moore: Yes. Obama’s crime was saying that the UK would not get a fast tracked trade deal with the US contrary to what the Brexiters have been assuring us.
It’s no coincidence that another Brexiter has commented that Obama is a lame duck and so can be ignored.
Miss Bianca
@Sloane Ranger: Not unlike our Congress. Right-wingers – half a world away, but using the same playbook.
Mnemosyne
@redshirt:
He’s saying he’s mad because mommy is threatening to take away his
peni$guns if he won’t play responsibly with them.Sloane Ranger
@Miss Bianca: London actually has two administrative centres. The historic City of London which is the financial district and which has a Lord Mayor and the rest of London, which consists of the old Royal area of Westminster and various surrounding villages that were added in as London grew. Boris Johnson is Mayor of this.
There have been various attempts to bring them together but the City won’t wear it and, as they are as filthy rich, their wishes have prevailed.
You might also be interested to know that the City of London has a separate police force to the one for the rest of the Metropolis.
Amaranthine RBG
@redshirt: I’m saying enough is enough. Gun violence in this country just keeps getting worse every year and it’s time to do something about it. That’s what I am saying.
SiubhanDuinne
@? Martin:
I had no idea. But I suppose any small object, including any smallish bit of food, might choke and even kill someone if swallowed wrong (didn’t Dubya almost die from having a pretzel go down the wrong throat?) When does it become an issue of policy? I guess my question is, are we talking about something inherent in marshmallows to single them out, or should the emphasis be on training people to chew thoroughly and never to swallow bits of food that might get lodged in a windpipe? At least from my FB friend, I’m picking up a lot of anti-marshmallow bias, and I’m just not sure it’s the marshmallows’ fault.
redshirt
@Amaranthine RBG: Agreed. That didn’t really come across in your first post though.
Unfortunately, the Republicans will make this extremely difficult to achieve, and no, Bernie’s revolution won’t just magically make it happen either. It’s going to take a long, dedicated fight to at first stopping new crazy laws, then repealing or reversing other crazy laws, and finally implementing sane laws. It’s daunting.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Young parents in particular don’t always seem to realize that they may need to cut certain foods (like hot dogs or marshmallows) into manageable bites before giving them to toddlers and small children. But I’m guessing it’s also a certain Puritanism of well, you shouldn’t be giving your kids a big chunk of refined sugar anyway!
Miss Bianca
@Sloane Ranger: Now that I *was* vaguely aware of – the two police forces, that is, but I had no idea why. So, “the City” is the original City of London, and the rest of “London” is the accretion of outlying towns and suburbs, then?
Cannot resist asking you about your nym – if you are announcing your affiliations truly, aren’t you committing a kind of class traitordom hanging out with the radical raff and taff here on BJ? ; )
Darkrose
@Smiling Mortician: Are you in CA? Because I need to find this.
redshirt
@Darkrose: Speaking of a weed named after Obama, has he been referenced in any songs?
Sloane Ranger
@Miss Bianca: Yes, that’s right. As for my nym I originally adopted it as a kind of tribute to Arvin Sloan on Alias. Yes I am that sick!
Miss Bianca
@Sloane Ranger: Oh, goodness! i’m afraid that reference sailed right over my head, not being at all familiar with “Alias”. A quick Wikipedia search has left me not much enlightened, but curious. : ) I’m afraid the image in *my* head was much more like this.
ETA: Do you live in London, then? I was there this time last year and I had such a lovely time I’m feeling a little wistful for it right now…
Brachiator
@Sloane Ranger: Yeah, I knew Johnson’s actual title. Sometimes I just post stupid. It’s like posting City of London instead of just London when the difference won’t matter to most people.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne: You can’t be black and an anti colonialist. Dinesh D’Souza and others actually tried to work this same angle in op-ed pieces about Obama.
Using an old political reference, they tried to Mau Mau Obama.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: Obama’s Kenyan ancestry is Luo not Kikuyu.
Sloane Ranger
@Miss Bianca: No but I used to work there until I took early retirement. I can currently bore to Olympic standard on the history of London as I recently researched it for a presentation to my University of the Third Age Social History Group.
I’m glad you had a great time in London. I know I’m biased but I think it’s the best city in the world. It has everything, history,architexture, culture, food. And atmosphere.
redshirt
@Sloane Ranger: Weather’s a negative in the score. Agreed though, it’s one of the world’s great cities.
Miss Bianca
@Sloane Ranger: Yes, I have to agree. And for a theater buff…oh, there’s nothing like it. “The Beaux’ Strategem” was playing somewhere – the Court? – and I was so sorry to miss it, as I’m a Restoration and Georgian comedy buff, but had a limited budget and we were to check out some of the circus performance festivals…with any hope we’ll make it back as performers one year and spend some serious time there!
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes. Obama Sr was also Phi Beta Kappa.
Amaranthine RBG
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: That’s outrageous. I sure hope there aren’t any other States that permit open carry.
Tom
@Sloane Ranger: My wife and I spent our 20th anniversary in London. If we had an unlimited budget I think we’d move there.
JimL
NRA employees are well paid to maintain the Second Amendment right of serial killers to own guns.
H.Holloway
In my own area, last year there was a woman who put her gun in a holster in her bra. Well, it went off. Just last Tuesday a beloved reporter and radio personality, full of life, was slain by her husband. He than shot himself. The man has four children. So hell, yes, guns are a REAL BIG problem