Terrible. Terrible. A school is a place of learning. It should always be a safe space.
Politicians should please stop with the “thoughts and prayers.”
If they oppose sensible regulation of firearms, they should have the decency to shut up.
Any sociopath or psychopath can easily get a weapon of mass death.
The NRA is evil.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The supporters of the NRA who continue to remain silent about this issue, and those who argue for more guns everywhere, including concealed guns, are a huge part of this problem. You can bet that teachers were doing heroic work along with the first responders. Some of the students who had phones and the presence of mind to activate them helped in getting the word out. You can bet that lock-down rehearsals will be initiated in many schools if they have not already made that move.
That’s the RUSSIA-funded NRA. The connection between Russia and the NRA cannot be stated enough. The NRA laundered money from Russia which they spent electing Trump and Republicans to the tune of $50 million.
The Russians have gun control in Russia, so this isn’t about principle. This is about finding an organization so corrupt that they will gladly accept this blood money of which they get their cut. I hope when Mueller’s investigation is done, it is Wayne LaPierre who is in federal jail for his crimes of laundering money from Russia and taking his cut. (I believe he took $4 million last year thanks to all the good “fundraising” he did getting money from Russians who were mysteriously so “pro-gun” in America and yet not in their own country.
Wow that stinks nycpsp, & thanx for the heads-up, had no clue. I suppose Mueller’s investigation scope only covers 2016 election. What does it take to get an investigation into Russia-NRA connection?
Not sure why school “expelled” student because we do not expel students any more in our public schools. If a student becomes overaged and under credited and has not graduated high school yet, the student and family are offered alternative programs for students to pursue as an alternative to the high school diploma. Examples include transferring to a trade school or some other alternative academic program designed to help high school drop outs complete some sort of educational diploma or work program.
The press is stating that the students were expelled but in the US we just don’t throw kids into the street even if they have been academically or behaviorally deficient. So my question for the school is were they doing anything to help this kid achieve an alternative program? Were the counselors in the school helping the student and the family regarding placement into an alternative program?
I am a guidance counselor here in NYC public school system and in NYC we never just “expel” a student and push them to the street and say so long. We offer an array of alternative programs students can choose from if the traditional high school did not work out for them. So, maybe this might become an issue with the student becoming lost and confused and then ultimately destroying lives as well as his own.
You may know already, but in a later press-conf today, the student’s status was corrected to ‘transferred’ to another pub hs, & still currently a distr pubsch hisch stud when the shooting occurred.
I also noticed they stated that he stopped attending sch-mandated mental-health services last spring – which may correspond to when he was expelled from this school? Or may just reflect that he was 18 & so could walk? Not sure, as here in NJ (when my eldest had his 1st bipolar mania), even at 16 you had to be self-admitted & could walk when you wanted…
I agree, the NRA is vile and evil. The enablers of the NRA are just as bad, all these rationalizations for guns and yet more guns are nauseating beyond human belief. I am so sick of this dance of death after every mass shooting, it’s just too hideous and macabre. A sane nation would have banned these AR-15s and similar guns along with the extended magazines. By the way, there was a police officer assigned to this school but of course he can’t be everywhere. When is enough enough? Owning weapons of death are a constitutionally guaranteed right but health care? Not so much.
So take the guns away from law abiding citizens and they’re still not getting health care. Look where the government is spending your money.
An AR15 is a semi automatic rifle that is no different than any other semi automatic except it looks scary to some people.
And who needs semiautomatic rifles, unless they are in the military in combat? NO ONE.
Do hunters use AR-15’s? I’m guessing no, which puts the lie to NRA as the rep for US hunters. Clearly they are simply the mouthpiece for US gun mfrs.
I agree & assume the NRA is just a stand-in mouthpiece for the US gun-mfg lobby. Obviously they are not just a mouthpiece for their gun-owner membership, who poll in large numbers for background checks – but no traction in congress because NRA leadership does not promote them.
” Owning weapons of death are a constitutionally guaranteed right but health care?”
Mind boggling.
This psychopath was being radicalized and looking into making bombs. He could get whatever he wanted—illegally or legally. The school had just had an active shooter drill a couple weeks before. This man was not a NRA member, I would probably accurately assume The NRA only tries to safeguard our rights and teach safe gun handling which they could do more of, if it was not for fighting government regulators. Perhaps greater emphasis should be put on mental health and treatment. It is so easy to put blame on the NRA. I have had relatives living in Florida. Because of the sudden appearance of alligators/ crocodiles they have to be armed…even while sun bathing. It just depends on where you live. Try telling them that they cannot be armed!!
These shootings are horrific. We have to be super vigilant no matter where we are and be prepared to use defensive measures. It is a sign of the times we all hate.
It’s crap like this that is making me numb.
Mental health treatment?! Are you joking? The GOP and Trump are busily in the process of destroying the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. We will have more deranged people on the streets after the GOP undermines and under funds what health care we do have. The NRA stands in the way of any sane or sensible gun regulations. Do you really need an AR-15 to kill an alligator? A sane country would ban these weapons of mass destruction but we have the GOP and the NRA in the way of doing anything remotely sensible.
EXACTLY right!!!
Agreed
We need better and more effective screening for those that buy guns. Someone with a history of mental health and/or anger issues should be on the no gun list. People should not be able to go to a gun show and buy a weapon off the floor. It is a recipe for disaster.
The NRA is the lobbying group for gun manufacturers. Both should be held legally liable for the death & destruction they enable.
Wrong. So next because you bought a car, sue the manufacture if you get in a wreck or drive drunk?
Car companies get sued in product liability cases all the time. Even in cases when the driver was intoxicated!0
The Newtown families are suing gun manufacturers for product liability.
Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sacklers should be sued for the tens of thousands of deaths their product has caused.
This is already happening to Purdue.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/purdue-pharma-oxycontin-maker-backs-off-aggressive-marketing-amid-lawsuits/
If car manufacturers were being able to successfully lobby for limited or no safety features in their cars, OF COURSE I would consider them liable for car accidents. When the NRA vociferously lobbies for no kind of safety regulations for guns, OF COURSE I consider them liable for mass shootings.
Jcgrim,
I agree.
But unfortunately, until elected officials; on Capitol Hill are on the serious receiving end of these attacks, little will change.
Almost nothing will change unless there is enough organized solidarity on behalf of Americans. They are still, with great and growing success, learning how to do just that. It will take time to become actualized in that manner and to institutionalize and normalize the movement and actions that implement solidarity, protests, demonstrations, and the hawk-eyeing and pursuing of your politicians with accountability.
It will also take these same people to run more and more for office, which we see happening in at least trickles.
This is good news, in my mind, even as shooting will continue to happen. With continued tragedy, there is great hope and growth.
‘The sudden appearance of alligators and crocodiles?’
Crocs are almost extinct, and only live in salt water. Alligators are afraid of you, they don’t chase you down the street. How many have you shot? Where?
A really big (rare) alligator of over 15 feet or so might attack you thinking you were good to eat if you went swimming at night in his ‘gator hole’. If you did, I doubt that you would have your gun available.
I caught an alligator, once, when fishing at night in Lake Okeechobee. I though I had hooked a giant catfish, however he (or she) eventually tired. When I pulled it up to the side of the boat and saw what I had done, I felt heartsick. I cut the line, and I hope that alligator had enough strength left to recover.
I have a gun. I use it to protect my garden and orchard from animals that would eat my food. I don’t need it to ‘protect myself’. The NRA is promoting people shooting each other with that line, and I think it’s disgusting. Whether or not this Miami killer was an NRA member, he has been taught by the NRA that using a gun to kill another person is just fine.
When I was a kid, the NRA was a wildly different organization, one aimed at gun safety classes for young hunters. Now, it’s a terrorist organization promoting fear (definition of terrorist) and violence against human beings (not just alligators, also a protected animal, btw).
April,
The NRA is indefensible. It spends millions to prevent any limitations on gun purchasing. None. It is a sick, evil organization. Law enforcement doesn’t want civilians to have military semi-assault weapons. I agree with them.
Congress debated whether to bar people listed on the no-fly list because they possible terrorists from buying guns, the NRA defeated the effort.
Do you agree that people on the no-fly list should be able to purchase guns?
April,
The Russians are funding the NRA. Meanwhile they have strict gun control at home and the very same friends of Putin who give tens of millions to the NRA won’t spend a penny to fight for more guns in Russia.
So, by posting here you demonstrate that you are a pro-Russian who despises children so much that you are more than willing to sacrifice their lives so that mentally illl people can buy assault weapons designed to mow down dozens of children in a minute. I think you are probably a bot instead of an evil person who believes that the lives of dozens of school children are a small price to pay to make sure assault weapons are easy to obtain.
This is not even funny. But if you think this crock can help changing the gun laws then more power to you.
Diane, seriously, you need to stop her. This constant, constant accusation of everyone she disagrees with as a Russian agent is wrong and you know it. Please, for the sake of your own credibility. The fact that you continue to let her get away with this is reflecting badly on you.
And because I apparently need to say it, no, I don’t support the NRA. But the NRA can be perfectly evil without being a tool of the Russians. And someone can post in defense of the NRA without being a tool of the Russians, even if I disagree with them about the NRA.
Ekaterina sends her regards.
“reflecting badly on you”: once again, utter nonsense from our commentator. Oh the irony!
Whether or not the Russians colluded with our Dear Leader, there is a great deal of evidence that they are fomenting discontent to put the shredding of the American political fabric into hyperdrive. A recent congressional hearing of intelligence leaders made that clear. As does credible reporting: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html
Wow, that Putin dude really gets around…
The Russians fund the NRA? Cite your source, please.
April: Perhaps greater emphasis should be put on mental health and treatment.
…..
It was Trump who wanted the mentally ill to be able to purchase guns. THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY GUNS IN THIS COUNTRY AND NO CONTROL OVER WHO PURCHASES THEM. REGISTER THE GUNS AND destroy the illegal ones. The NRA works for gun manufacturers and works to keep profits high. Stop gun shows where anything can be purchased.
There is a gun shop about 20 minutes from my place. It is suppling a lot of the guns that are illegal in Chicago.
We keep the same stupid lack of laws and expect shootings to be less and less. Or, if you are an NRA person…arm everybody and we’ll all be safe. That is pure crap.
People are afraid of shootings because there are too many guns and they are too available to anyone at any time. Over 30,000 deaths occur each year in the US due to this easy availability. More guns means more killings.
Your relatives need an AR-15 to shoot those gators?
“It is so easy to put blame on the NRA.”
That’s primarily because the NRA is to blame for our lax gun laws.
markstextterminal: It doesn’t make any sense to have this many guns available on demand just for the purpose of killing others. Innocent children are being abused and nothing ever gets done. It is a travesty on our society that this sickness continues. And it will continue until something is done. Congress and our worthless president don’t care or ‘something’ would have been done years ago. The poor little kids of Sandy Hook didn’t even dent the demand for ever more guns to be sold and bought and stored for future killings. Doesn’t make any sense to me or anyone who cares about human life.
Yes, and a gun market that is awash in easily purchased inventory is the fault of the NRA and its lackeys in Congress. One of the basic freedoms in America, apparently a corollary of the Second Amendments, is the freedom to slaughter other people’s children.
And thanks, carolmalaysia.
markstextterminal: I’m sorry that once again this horror has occurred. Giving ‘mental health treatments’ is a cover for doing nothing to control the damage that comes from an abundance of guns that are meant to kill and destroy. Ours is a violent society. Look at the destruction the military is doing in 75 countries around the world. And Trump, in his ‘great intelligence’ mind set, wants ever more for the military while cutting funding for the State department. It’s much better to kill and destroy than to negotiate. Much better to hate and destroy than to show respect and help the world.
Oh please. Psychopath being radicalized – looking into bombs? Where are you getting that? The kid was a misfit, who got expelled for violent behavior/ transferred to another pubsch — was doing school-reqd mental-health therapy ’til he walked away from it last spring [when he was expelled/ transferred]… (& why was that OK? Cuz he was 18? But he was still in pubsch…) Meanwhile his widowed Mom died in Nov & he was left at loose ends… A walking time-bomb who because of FL wild-west gun-laws [land of concealed carry & stand-yr-ground] was allowed to legally buy an AR-15 (tho to young to legally buy a drink, or a pistol!)
If NRA is just about safe gun-handling, why do they block every gun-control measure? Their membership polls at 85% in favor of background checks, yet they lobby against even that. Your NRA is just a mouthpiece for US gun mfrs — another big$ corp campaign-coffer-stuffer. You go ahead & watch how much lobbying they put into the kind of background checks & data-crunching it would take to keep the mentally-treated from buying guns. You’ll find what they’re into is not ‘safe gun-handling’, it’s selling guns.
I am disgusted and despondent that this ongoing slaughter has become the new normal. I don’t object to thinking and praying when it is real, but these lawmakers who offer “thoughts and prayers” after they take money from the NRA are complicit in all this loss.
Agree with your sentiment. I would only replace the words “complicit in” with “responsible for.” They value an intentional misreading of the 2nd amendment over reality. This happens nowhere else in the world.
So true. I won’t vote for anyone who takes NRA money, ever.
It’s getting worse because of what’s going on in the country. Race relations are beyond Fkd up because of the insane nut job POTUS. People have lost faith in the government. We’re at record levels of debt.
The cards are stacked against the working class. Jobs have been sent overseas. The unemployment rate is high. The government doesn’t count people that have used all their unemployment up and consider them working. They don’t count all the people that have been forced to get jobs at one half or less than what they were before. And the POS’s in the WH are cutting at the middle and lower and helping the 1%ers.
We have wars going on all over the world for our private military complex. The idiots in the WH are bragging about a dollar and a half on a pay check for middle class. They are peeing on your shoes and telling you it’s raining.
Trump has golfed half the time he’s worked and has cost the taxpayers 3 million x 100 golf trips. Feds are not doing anything to shut him down.
When people lose hope they are very dangerous. When people have nothing to lose, they are the most dangerous enemy you can have. We’ve had guns since 1776 and the gun killings have actually gone down in the last few years as per the FBI stats. It’s not the guns, it’s not nut cases, it a lose of hope and a nut in the WH making it worse.
It is getting worse because the NRA is promoting guns and there are now more guns than ever before out there.
And the reason the NRA is doing this is because they are funded by Russian billionaires who hate America and love the idea that we have gun nuts taught by the NRA that guns will make them feel powerful as they mow down school children.
We have a President whose first actions included repealing legislation designed to keep assault weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill.
Putin’s billionaire Russian buddies form an organization called “right to bear arms” but they mean IN AMERICA and never say a word about the strict gun control in Russia?
Agree with most of what you say, except “We’ve had guns since 1776 and the gun killings have actually gone down in the last few years as per the FBI stats. It’s not the guns, it’s not nut cases, it a lose of hope and a nut in the WH making it worse.”
It’s not OK to relax cuz FBI sez overall natl stats are, gun killings [i.e. #’s killed by gun] are going down — when we’ve had 5 public-school shootings [not 18 per Everytown’s faux list] in the first 6 wks of this year.
Overall death-by-gun stats cover everything from domestic violence to drug-deals gone bad. But every school shooting sends shock-waves across all US schools, causes them to re-assess their safety measures & makes parents paranoid [could that misfit, or that one, be a potential ‘active shooter’?] and that creates a floating distrust which permeates the community, which often results in harmless kids who express anti-social emotions being brought on the carpet [& sometimes radicalized]– I saw it post-Columbine.
When you say, “It’s not the guns, it’s not nut cases, it a loss of hope and a nut in the WH making it worse”, I have to rejoin: yeh, there’s loss of hope & a nut-job in the WH making it worse, for sure… but don’t underestimate that effect as it trickles into the mainstream & on down into hs-age kids, where there are always a few who have been skewed by misfortune, perhaps amped by untreated mental-health issues. Add lax gun laws & limp/ absent mental-health treatment… A tinderbox.
I’m afraid Diane it will be worse with CBS nightly news reporting how to make a “ghost gun” and calling their report a news item (Tuesday). The report was an NRA ad. Worse nobody seems to care. And no politician or news network will take the NRA on. Sadly expect more school mass shootings! Please say more about this tragic future -all done for the greed and profit of gun makers and the NRA.
Sent from my iPhone
Just to counter that: I am so proud of CNN for refusing to mention the name or display the image of the shooter. They are now my go-to channel for this story.
re-blog of Mark Naison’s blog/post in this comment. ”
Of all the school shootings, the one that just took place in Broward County scares me the most.
Here’s why. Every school or sports program I have worked in has a kid like Nikolaus Cruz, a young man so angry and disturbed that even the toughest teacher or coach couldn’t handle him. In my days coaching baseball and basketball in Brooklyn, I took pride in taking boys and young men under my wing that no one else could handle, but there were occasionally kids who were too difficult even for me, and with great reluctance I had to throw them out of the program. In one instance, a young man I threw out came back with an ice pick and threatened to cut me up, but with help, I was able to handle that. But what if he came back with an automatic weapon. If he did, I and several other people would have been dead.
Basically, that’s what happened in Broward, A disturbed young man who was thrown out of his high school returned with automatic weapons and killed 17 students and teachers. And here’s my point. There are tens of thousands of Nikolaus Cruz’s all over this country. Given them easy access to automatic weapons and they are a massacre waiting to happen.
This isn’t a mental health problem–there is no therapy program that cure the rage inside every wounded, bitter young man. It isn’t an education program- there are some kids even the best trained, most compassionate, street smart teachers can’t reach.
It is an automatic weapons problem. You put automatic weapons in the hands of every adolescent loose cannon in small town and suburban America and you are setting yourself up for massacres of students and teachers.
No one in those communities wants to hear this.No program anyone has ever developed will defuse the rage in the Nikolaus Cruz’s of the world. You want your children to feel safe? Take the automatic weapons out of their hands
POSTED BY MARK NAISON AT 5:40 PM
Wow. Mark Naison says it all here. To paraphrase, I think he’s saying that even if this particular potential shooter [Nicolas Cruz] could have been helped by pubsch-mandated mental-health support — & even if FL had laws requiring him to continue mental-health support after he turned 18 [but was still a pubsch stud] (which might havehelped him during the terrible transition when his widowed Mom died & he had no family to fall back on)– even w/all that community support, he still was an angry kid looking to exact revenge on the family/ community that failed him– he would have been unable to strike back & kill 17 innocents– had it not been for FL laws allowing him, as an 18-y.o.– when he was still too young to legally purchase an alcoholic drink, or a pistol– to purchase a long-gun AR-15 & ammo magazines.
This does sum it up pretty well.
..
There is not a thing going to be done no matter how many die . So those familiar may remember what brought about our first National gun control laws . It was not children being threatened that motivated legislators .
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/
Yep, I’m with you. My feelings these days when it comes to gun violence are resignation and disgust. As I perused the list (thanks for posting), it struck me that the only outrage from gun nuts came from Orlando, when the shooter was falsely linked to ISIS, and San Bernardino, when it was about about Islamic immigrant bashing.
I am disgusted but not resigned. Gun control should be a major issue in 2018,along with the corporate assault on our schools.
Actually Greg when the Black Panthers showed up with riffles in the California legislature . Reagan in California quickly initiated gun control, followed by the first gun laws since the 30s on a National level in 1968 . Perhaps it was the assassination of Kennedy and King. Or perhaps it was a reaction to Seals and Newton.
I find it difficult to call Orlando an ISIS attack ,although the right sees nothing strange about a gay Islamic terrorist . Just another case of Americas National illness a gun with a nut job . Other countries either have cured mental illness(not) or cured access to guns.
The gun control response to the Black Panthers was the simple fact that an angry black man with a gun is a white man’s nightmare. Always has been.
Whether it is Trump and Russia, or common sense gun control measures it will not matter. They dare not give an inch, no matter what is right or wrong, or they lose control over who is charge of society.
and that’s what it is all about
Its about guns huh???
What about THIS ….yet ANOTHER “troubled, misunderstood” white boy/man WITH gun(s) terroize, shoots, murder and maim unarmed, defenseless children, women and men IN a school on American soil!
There are two things that are constants in these shootings white boys/men and guns!
Oh …is this not an act of terrorism?????
You are right, Gerald. It is domestic terrorists. Psychopaths and sociopaths and teens should not be allowed to buy AR15s.
Yet Pam Bondi, the Florida Attorney General, made it easier for teens to buy guns:
“Florida is fighting for teens to have easier access to handguns.
Last week Attorney General Pam Bondi joined 21 other states in backing the National Rifle Association’s bid to overturn a 45-year-old federal law prohibiting 18-to-20-year-olds from buying handguns and handgun ammunition from licensed firearms dealers.” – Huffington Post, September 11, 2013.
Yesterday, Bondi announced the state of Florida was going to pay for the victims’ funeral expenses and counseling.
I’m still shaking my head in disbelief.
Thank you for saying “and teens.” I might add “until age 25”, as that is the currently-accepted age for brain maturity. Why not a legislative limit: age 25 for buying any sort of lethal weapon? Auto-rental/ auto-insurance policies have long made it prohibitive for under-25 ‘s to rent/ insure vehicles, based on stats demonstrating that under-25’s have far more accidents?
I’m wondering if there aren’t hidden stats [hidden by NRA & their gun-mfg lobby] that might demonstrate that under-25’s commit the majority of lethal gun-accidents/ gun-killings?
I’m resigned to school shootings forever being a common American phenomenon. After twenty 6- & 7- year old children were shot and killed while huddling in their classrooms, with their teachers trying to protect them, we made a choice as a nation that guns were more important. We made a choice that collateral damage, including 20 dead kids, was a price we were willing to pay because it’s more important to have no, or few, restrictions on guns. No one’s life is more important than upholding the 2A without restrictions. Having a ton of AR-15s or AK-47s, or cop-killer bullets, is our God-given right, and no amount of dead children will change that.
An irony, of course, is that most of these 2A nuts are more than willing to gut the 1A.
And the call to arm classroom teachers starts in 5…4…3…
I am not resigned!! And I note that, with each successive school-shooting since then, Newtown is called out as the ground-zero, as in, if 21 K/1st-graders killed wasn”t enough to bring on gun-control laws, what the hell is?!
Don’t give up.
I haven’t heard the thoughtless ‘words and prayers’ yet from a useless Congress and worthless president who support the NRA. If they really cared about innocent lives something would be done to stop the mass killings which will continue to occur. What does it take for people to be fed up enough to demand decent gun control laws? Even the killing, over and over and over again, of beautiful innocent children doesn’t seem to matter.
The authorities said the AR-15 rifle that Mr. Cruz used in the attack was purchased legally. “No laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon,” said Peter J. Forcelli, the special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Miami.
President Trump is expected to address the nation at 11 a.m.
The details are just coming out. But a couple of things are already made public. The shooting occurred in a gun-free zone. The alleged shooter passed a background check, prior to legally purchasing the weapon allegedly used in the shooting.
Some (not all) people are calling for more gun-free zones in schools, and more background checks. Since neither of these deterred the alleged shooter, will some one explain to me (like I am two-year old), how gun-free zones and background checks will serve to deter future shootings?
In what I think is the mother of all ironies. This massacre occurred on Valentine’s Day. It was the Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago, which finally got the government to get off their butts, and do something to stop organized crime.
Does Florida have limits on access to guns? News to me. Does Florida have background checks? I’d like to hear from people who live in Florida, not Virginia.
Thank you, Diane. Florida! Land of concealed-carry for everyone, & OK to “Stand Your Ground” à la Trayvon Martin/ George Zimmerman. And, it turns out, land of OK for 18-y.o.’s to buy AR-15’s– tho’ they’re not old enough to buy a pistol, or a drink.
Sorry, Florida Governor Rick Scott passed a couple of legislations that would initiate regulation against gun safety measures:1) loosing background checks/license;2) banning doctors from discussing guns with patients. Florida state court struck down the bill as unconstitutional.
While the usual susoects – government, NRA laws, etc. -are no doubt decent culprits, it is, ultimately, the blackness of the heart/soul of the shooter that prompted him to kill. Guns, or laws, by themselves, won’t motivate the evil that was already there to begin with. Don’t blame a country or a legal princiole on this – or any other – shooting.
Amen. Sadly. Amen.
Right, guns don’t kill people; people kill people.
Frequently with easily available guns…
“it is, ultimately, the blackness of the heart/soul of the shooter that prompted him to kill. Guns, or laws, by themselves, won’t motivate the evil that was already there to begin with.”
Unadulterated BS. So easy to pass off motivation to “evil”– to “blackness of the heart/soul” & conclude nothing could have been done legislatively– how about making it impossible for an 18-y.o. to buy an AR-15? After all, in yr state, he was still too young to buy a pistol, let alone a drink?
What does “blackness of the heart/soul/ evil” even mean? Look at the kid: adopted, dad died when he was young — started having mental-health issues, was treated until last spring, then got expelled/ transferred to another sch [stopped going to therapist– how did sch let that happen? Maybe state laws let him ealk cuz he was 18?] — then widowed mom died of cancer 11/1/17, family didn’t take him in, just let him float w/o stable home.
This kid was a tinderbox. And your state let him buy an AR-15 – legally.
Somebody needs to start a 501(c)(3) and a PAC to counterbalance the NRA by providing deep-pocket financing to Republican candidates who are in favor of strict federal gun legislation and are willing to challenge NRA-aligned incumbents in primaries. I would donate a lot of money to an organization like that. Based on public opinion polls, I bet a lot of other people would to. And based on those same polls, I bet a lot of incumbents would get voted out.
Trump: “We are here for you — whatever you need, whatever we can do, to ease your pain,” Mr. Trump said, calling the deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland a “scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil.”
……….
“…whatever we can do to ease your pain”? Really? The US suffers from an epidemic of shooting deaths which are nearly non-existent elsewhere, except for countries that are at war. The gun homicide rate is 49 times higher here than in other rich countries according to a Health Affairs study.
Enough of the worthless condolences and warm thoughts. These teenagers in Florida died because they grew up in a country that didn’t care about their lives. Nothing will be done and nothing will change. We just wait until the next massacre occurs and sigh, “Oh, another one.”
the only New England senator who voted against bipartisan legislation Manchin/Toomey presented by Biden. was KellyAyotte. I’m not saying she is gone just because of that but she was voted out last November. I tried to make sure that people reading the NH newspapers would know she was the ONLY New England senator who took that path. She got extra advertising money from NRA because those of us on the MA/NH border were helping out in NH. And, that was extra money over and above the donations they originally gave her. But she is gone… it is not just that vote in November but a myriad of little things perhaps? Let’s not give up ; I am not resigned to the deaths of children. When an ideologue slaughtered children in Northern Europe it was termed “political assassination” because of his political views and the children he attacked ; we need to frame things and be precise and accurate in language and communicate to parents, citizens, voters, taxpayers, and the legislators. Keep the efforts going. There is a doctor from Sandy Hook who routinely comments on Daily Kos Radio — Greg Dworkin– I find him inspirational in thinking through the issues that we live with.
What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer
Americans advance a lot of theories for why they have so many more gun deaths than other countries do. The answer is lying in plain sight.
…But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings?
Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.
These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion.
The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns…
Senator Todd Young (R-IN) on the Las Vegas shootings: “We must offer our full support to the victims and their families as our nation mourns.” What a crock of sh**. He was paid $2,896,732 by the NRA. No wonder he supports guns for everyone.
……………………
From The New York Times:
The Congress Members Receiving the Most N.R.A. Funding
Thoughts and prayers and the N.R.A.: Here are the top career recipients of N.R.A. campaign money.
…Below are the top 10 career recipients of N.R.A. funding – through donations or spending to benefit the candidate – among both current House and Senate members, along with their statements about the Las Vegas massacre. These representatives have a lot to say about it. All the while, they refuse to do anything to avoid the next massacre.
The NRA bought Trump’s undying loyalty by giving him $21 million for his campaign. What business does a 19 year old have buying an AR-15 military weapon? It makes money for the gun manufacturers. Trump wanted mentally ill people to be able to purchase guns.
……………………
Trump Tweet: So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!
6:12 AM – Feb 15, 2018
HuffPost; “Trump’s tweet failed to acknowledge the role that Florida’s lax gun laws played in the shooting. Barring institutionalization, it’s extremely difficult to keep someone with a history of mental illness from buying a gun in Florida. The accused killer legally purchased the AR-15-style rifle used in the slaughter, his family’s attorney said.”
Why not admit that ‘Guns kill just as thoroughly as military artillery and are as dangerous as bombs dropped by drones’? Both are done by humans and the result is the same…death.
How can anyone be stupid enough to really believe that ‘Guns don’t kill people”? There is no usage for an AR-15 than to kill masses of people and it was legally obtained by a teenager due to terrible gun laws in Florida. This is a threat that can be eliminated by politicians when they begin to care more about innocent lives than the money they get from the NRA. Most don’t.