The Essence Of Stoopid

TPM:

The man allegedly behind the largest mass shooting in American history purchased his weapons from a gun dealer and shooting range whose owner has in the past posted anti-Muslim and anti-President Obama comments on Facebook, the New York Daily News reported.

ATF Agent Sal van Susteren confirmed to the New York Daily News that accused Orlando shooter Omar Mateen purchased the weapons he used in the weekend's massacre at St. Lucie Shooting Center, not far from Mateen's apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida.

The New York Daily News reported that the store's owner, Ed Henson, an ex-NYPD officer, had posted on Facebook in December a meme that said, "F--- Islam, F--- Allah. F--- Muhammad. F--- the Koran. F--- people who support terrorism,” as well as a comment in November calling for Obama to be "handcuffed, removed from Office and charged with Treason and then publicly executed!"

No, Mr Henson, fuck you.

You helped amp up the atmosphere of hatred and paranoia, which you knew would make it that much easier for you to sell guns and ammo to weak-minded individuals who don't quite fully understand the deathly shitty game you're playing.

This is on you and The NRA and all the other smarmy little grub worms in the Ammosexual Community who've created a dank and noxious underworld at the nexus of Religion and Politics and Unfettered Free Market Capitalism.

Sorry not sorry if you feel I'm singling you out unfairly, Mr Henson - there's a group of 50 dead Americans who all probably felt the same way when Mr Mateen was killing them; for reasons you contributed to; with a gun you sold to him.  Maybe you could keep that in mind next time you sell guns to somebody who just might be as big an asshole as you are.  

You wrote, "Fuck people who support terrorism" - so yeah - fuck you, Mr Henson.

Today's Eternal Sadness

I got away from posting things like this for a while, but I keep having to come back to it.

News from Milwaukee:

A mother driving down a Milwaukee highway was shot and killed by her toddler son in the backseat when he got his hands on a gun, police said.

Patrice Price, 26, was driving a car belonging to her security guard boyfriend when the two-year-old accidentally fired a weapon that had been left in the vehicle, her father Andre Price told WISN.

She was pronounced dead on scene Tuesday on Highway 175, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

TODDLERS SHOT ONE VICTIM PER WEEK IN 2015

We gotta figure out how to stop being stoopid about this.

Today's Eternal Sadness

hat tip = Nick (that's my Mookie) Nacho

From NBC News:

A gun-store owner and his son were killed in a shootout with two customers after an argument over a $25 firearm repair fee, police told NBC station WDSU.

The patrons were also taken to hospital with serious injuries following Saturday's incident at the store near Picayune, Mississippi, which is 130 miles south of Jackson.

The only thing that stops a law-abiding citizen with a gun - I can't make the joke work, even for me.  

And I can't get cute with, "Well, as long as they're killing each other, I'll call that an improvement".

Fuck that, and fuck me for thinking it.

We've been trying hard to tell you for a long time.  It's up to you now, ammosexuals.  Those were your guys.  Get off your ass and do something about it.  Step up or step aside.

A Year Of Eternal Sadness

Here’s my 2015 year in review.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

2015 started in the early hours of January 1st when 5 people were shot on a New Year’s Eve party bus in Memphis.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

The next day, another mass shooting (defined as at least 4 people shot, including the shooter) in Savannah Georgia.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

Two days later, 2 dead, 1 injured in Dallas, and 2 dead, 4 injured in Roanoke, VA.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

2 days later, 1 dead, 3 injured in Miami. Next day, 1 dead, 3 injured in Chattanooga.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

--and--

All this data is compiled by https://t.co/KEvaS5kOvN and the redditors at @rGunsAreCool, which tracked 372 shootings & counting in 2015

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2015

and on and on and on

A Tweet And A Quote

Racism doesn't usually look like someone shouting slurs, it's looks like people eagerly looking for a reason why a black kid deserved to die

— Lou Schumaker (@LouSchu) December 24, 2014

Today's Tweet

Ohio is an open carry state, and the cops say they thought Rice was an adult, so what law, exactly, was he breaking?

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) December 28, 2015

Chris Hayes has fallen way off - along with practically all of MSNBC - but hey, even a blind hog roots up an acorn once in a while.

Nuthin' New

9 dead church-goers.  This makes 14 times the shit got real enough for Obama to address the nation about gun violence.  Over 100,000 gun-related deaths and injuries every year in USAmerica Inc.  And we can't do one fucking thing about it?

What worries me most right now - given the color of the most prominently shown victims' skin lately - is that somebody must already be saying, "Nothing changes until rich white people start dying in large enough numbers".

The conventional wisdom is that Reagan signed gun control legislation when he recognized  the need to placate his white majority Californians who were freaking out because the Black Panthers were walking around "their own" neighborhoods with weapons, and a few had decided to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights with a little open-carry demonstration in Sacramento.  (Some of those good times from the 60s everybody seems so selectively nostalgic for)

Like the man said, history doesn't actually repeat itself, but it sure enough rhymes like a motherfucker.

Today's Eternal Sadness

Another day, another 1.64 dead children.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A 3-year-old boy picked up an unattended gun inside a home and it went off, shooting a 1-year-old boy in the head and killing him Sunday afternoon, police said.

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said investigators are trying to determine where the gun came from.

Emergency workers said the 1-year-old was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

Full details about the shooting on the city's east side weren't released, but Williams said at least one adult was home when it happened.

"It's a sad day for Cleveland," he told reporters outside the home. "This fascination that we have with handguns, not just in this city but in this country, has to stop. This is a senseless loss of life."

Cleveland.com (http://bit.ly/1I5oHQ6) reports that the boy's mother could be heard screaming on the back porch after learning her son had died.Neighbors told the news website the mother lived in the house with at least three small children.

"They were really nice," next-door neighbor Larry Simpson said of the family. "It's a shame this had to happen."

It was absolutely not something that "had to happen", Mr Simpson.  And statements like that are a good indication of the kind of unconsciously malicious and deliberately ignorant viewpoint that makes these "accidents" inevitable.

A Cop's Eye View

I copied this whole post at Democratic Underground.  The author says he asked his nephew about Darren Wilson killing Mike Brown. Take it or leave it according to your own bent.

Not only is he a 29 year cop, he is the third highest ranking officer in the county that he works in. I asked him about this. Being the Republican that he is, I expected him to jump to Darin Wilson's defense. He had this to say.

He would not say it was a racial thing because he doesn't know. He did say he read all of the reports and the grand jury testimony.

1- He said at very least Wilson is completely incompetent. That you never get out of the car by yourself if you know there is going to be a physical confrontation with an unarmed person. Especially if you were in Wilson's words, "afraid" of the guy.

2- He said Wilson should have let Brown go, followed him as far as he could in the car as he called for back up. If he had to, arrest him later.

3- He had no business firing once Brown was down on the ground. He fired four shots too many even if you believe his story.

4- It is unheard of to leave the guy laying in the street for four and a half hours.

5- If all of this was in accordance to Wilson's training, an idiot trained him.

6- Brown's family will get a huge settlement from Ferguson because if this goes to civil trail it will cost them many millions more.

What my nephew thinks happened is that Wilson got into an argument with the guy, got out of his car to whip his ass. Quickly realized he bit off more than he could chew, so he shot the guy.

Take it for what it's worth.

Perspective

Today's Eternal Sadness

Another white neighborhood, another white cop, and another dead black guy.

Addicting Info:

At this time there is no evidence to suggest that this was anything more than a terrible accident. However, once again it raises questions about racial attitudes in America. Jonathan Ferrell was black. From the information and photos available on the Bradfield Farms HOA’s website the community appears to be a middle class, mostly white neighborhood. Based on reports there is no evidence that Ferrell attempted to enter the residence of the woman who called police, or that he attempted to accost her in any way, yet apparently she did not try to communicate with him, even through a locked door. Instead she hit her “panic alarm” and called police. Just as George Zimmerman decided that Trayvon Martin was out of place in the community where he was killed, could both the woman and the police officers have assumed that Ferrell was “up to no good” because he was “out-of-place?”

As the Trayvon Martin case proved, the media created myth of the criminal young black man is alive and well in supposedly “post-racial” America. While we will never know for sure, there is a good chance that had Jonathan Ferrell been white, he would still be alive.

Today's Eternal Sadness

From Tampa Bay Times:

TAMPA — A 3-year-old boy who found a gun in a backpack and shot himself died Tuesday night, authorities said, a local addition to this month's spate of child shootings nationwide.

The kid found the gun in a backpack - in his bedroom.  Would this be a different story if he'd not had access to the gun?  Would it be a story at all?

We have to start making that cognitive connection - having a gun around the house increases the likelihood of something really shitty happening just because you have a gun around the house.  And we have to make that connection beyond the obvious bit about "well, it's the uncle's fault" or "the parents shoulda taught their kid better".

Warning labels are required on 5-gallon buckets for fuck sake.  We can't figure out something to do about guns?

hat tip = Democratic Underground

Access Is An Important Thing

I'm always going on about infrastructure.  I'm a Keynesian after all, and I know the thing that gets us pulled out of the big dumper is when we spend a lot of money on some big fuckin' thing or another - dams or highways or parks or whatever.  Because we have to have access - to capital and to markets and to raw materials and all the stuff that makes it possible for the stuff we wanna sell to get to everybody else who's busy trying to sell stuff.

When I'm thinking about these things, it starts to make some sense to me that an inability to come to terms with our idolization of firearms means that Guns now comprise the basic infrastructure for Crime and War and Suicide and way too many other self-destructive behaviors.

At about the 3:40 mark, Hayes tells us about a guy who survived jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, saying, "I still see my hands coming off the railing...I instantly realized that everything in my life that I thought was unfixable was totally fixable - except for having just jumped."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We put up all kinds of nets and cables and plexiglass thingies on bridges and other Suicide Infrastructure trying to make it a little harder to gain access to the means of our self-ushered departure - why can't we figure out something to do about the guns that make for 20,000 Dead Americans every year?

Everything is totally fixable except for having just pulled that fucking trigger.

Today's Eternal Sadness

And I guess I'm wondering where the 2nd Amendment Meatsitcks are.  Why aren't they jumping up and down screaming about protecting that woman's rights?  If she can be charged with all that criminal stuff just because some stupid little kid was messin' where he didn't belong, then what hope do the rest of us have to protect ourselves from an intrusive gubmint?  What about the personal responsibility of that kid!?!

But wait - I almost forgot - the response is always tailored.  So this one will be spoken in soft reverential tones.  Something like, "That woman's a sinner and God has punished her for straying from the path of the righteous - but that precious little boy is another fallen hero; a martyr to the cause of Freedom, and we mustn't use this tragic and isolated incident for political purposes - we must keep silent during this time of prayer and reflection blah blah fucking maudlin blah."

hat tip = Addicting Info

Dead Americans

Between 2000 and 2010:

via: bls/gunpolicy.org

Today's Dead Kids

Posted: Mar 31, 2013 4:07 PM EDT Updated: Mar 31, 2013 4:07 PM EDTBy Associated Press

MIAMI - (AP) - A four-year-girl is dead after being shot while sitting in a car, and detectives are investigating whether another young child fired the gun.
Miami-Dade Police report Rahquel Carr was shot in the upper body Saturday at about 6:10 p.m. She was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital where she died.

Det. Roy Rutland says the girl was waiting in a white Mercedes-Benz with at least two other children when she was shot. All the children are believed to have been under age 10.

Rutland says the handgun was located and fired from within the car. An adult was standing nearby outside.

The Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney is reviewing the case to determine if charges will be filed.

--and--

Posted: Mar 31, 2013 7:43 PM EDTUpdated: Mar 31, 2013 7:43 PM EDT
By WKRG Staff

PRICHARD, Ala - Breaking news out of Prichard tonight where authorities say a toddler was shot and killed on South Fairford Drive.

The child, a 4-year old boy, accidentally shot himself in the chest.

His parents rushed him to USA Children's and Women's Hospital where he died.

We're told the boy and his parents had just come from Easter Services at church and were visiting with family when the accident happened.

News 5 will continue to follow this story and will pass along updates as they are made available.

You could say these 2 incidents probably aren't prevented by Background Checks and a Ban on Semi-Autos and Hi-Capacity Ammo Clips.

But incidents like these can be prevented by making guns less accessible, so maybe just making people go thru a little more hassle to get a gun makes this shit a little less likely to happen.  Ya gotta start somewhere.

1,384,171

1,384,171 is the number of Americans who have been killed by guns in the last 43 years.

One million-three-hundred-eighty-four-thousand-one-hundred-seventy-one.

Since 1775 (237 years), having fought dozens of battles, skirmishes and outright wars; putting many millions of American uniformed people in harm's way - the estimates look like this:

CONFLICT - TIME SPAN - DEAD AMERICANS
War of Independence (1775-1783) 25,000
Quasi-War (1798-1800 ) 20
Barbary Wars (1801-1815) 35
War of 1812 (1812-1815) 20,000
1st Seminole War (1817-1818) 30
2nd Seminole War (1835-1842 ) 1,500
Mexican-American War (1846-1848) 3,283
3rd Seminole War (1855-1858) 26
Civil War (1861-1865) 623,026
Indian Wars (1865-1898) 919
Spanish-American War (1898) 2,446
Philippine War (1898-1902) 4,196
Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901) 37
Mexican Revolution (1914-1919) 35
Haiti Occupation (1915-1934) 146
World War 1 (1917-1918) 116,708
World War 2 (1941-1945) 407,316
Korean War (1950-1953) 36,914
Vietnam War (1964-1973) 58,169
El Salvador (1980-1992) 20
Beirut (1982-1984) 266
Persian Gulf Support (1987-1988) 39
Invasion of Grenada (1983) 19
Invasion of Panama (1989) 40
Persian Gulf War (1991) 269
Somalia (1992-1993) 43
Bosnia (1995) 12
Afghanistan / Iraq (2002-2012) 6,616

For a grand total of 1,317,130

In just 43 years we've killed 67,041 more Americans than all of our "enemies" have managed to kill in 237 years of armed conflict.  Who looks at this and then says to himself, "So, yeah - I guess what we need is a lot more opportunity for Americans to kill each other"?