Yahoo! News has obtained an FBI study scheduled for release next week that shows what many of us have suspected has been happening: mass shootings are on the rise. The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University, for purposes of this report, define mass shootings “as incidents where a gunman opens fire in a public place with the motivation of killing many, at least one of whom is ‘unrelated’ to the gunman.” They did not include bank robberies, drug deals, gang violence, or any crimes where shooting is a byproduct. The information will be used to shape police response to reports of an active shooting. Of course, if guns weren’t so easily available, there would be fewer mass shootings to which to respond.
Since 2008, mass shootings have tripled from about five per year to about sixteen. If that doesn’t scare you, it should. It means that about every three weeks, someone, somewhere in the US, for some reason, is going to take a gun and open fire on a bunch of strangers who did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Have you ever known a mass shooter? Probably not, which means the next one is also likely to be a stranger to you, and you to him. So if we don’t do something about the prevalence of mass shootings, you could be one of the next victims.
“According to the new study, patrol officers, who are usually the first on the scene, had to use force to stop the gunman in nearly a third of the attacks.” This may seem wrong, at first blush, if you are familiar with the Mother Jones report that showed that no “good guy with a gun stopped the bad guy with a gun.” But there is no inconsistency. The standards for which shootings got chosen for the two studies were different.
There is no reason we have to put up with this. Every time one of these events occurs, the NRA is quick to say that it would be disrespectful to the victims to “politicize” their deaths to discuss the subject, and so we don’t. This is hypocrisy, of course, because politicizing the shootings is exactly what they’re doing when they say we shouldn’t discuss it. And since the next shooting is usually less than a month away, and the calls for silencing the debate once again being spewed from pro-gun media, the discussion ends up never taking place. And more people die needlessly. The Second Amendment needs to be repealed or completely re-written to be clearer. Nobody would deny that you have no constitutional right to own a thermonuclear weapon, so we must all agree that the 2nd Amendment, like all other constitutional rights, has limits. The discussion on what those limits are can wait no longer. Don’t you agree? Or do you enjoy watching small children die?
This is our daily open thread. Feel free to discuss mass shootings, brain dead NRA officials, or anything else you wish to discuss.
TheZoo 
Al Qaeda-linked forces capture town of Fallujah in Iraq.
Looks like we’re gonna have to burn some Dixie Chicks records. Again.
Send in McCain, Powell, Palin, BabyBoyBush, evil incarnate/theDick, Ashcroft…
and the
fduck guys…also, too brave Teddyboy.
They should be the first in line — and don’t forget Graham.
Graham: Billy? Franklin? Lindsey? Crackers? . . . oh. Ummm. Never mind. 😯
Hmmmm, all of them except crackers!
All of them are crackers.
The Second Amendment needs to be repealed or completely re-written to be clearer
Amen amen amen. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun” is to repeal the second amendment, and then to confiscate EVERY LAST GUN and destroy them all, totally and completely.
That will never happen, of course, so instead we shall, as a nation, continue on our slow march to the grave. The sole virtue of guns and violence is that the victims won’t have to watch the final consequences of stupidity, and of greed.
frugal writes the truth!
I agree that the 2nd amendment is a problem, but changing the bill of rights is not going to happen in the foreseeable future. If the Newtown tragedy wasn’t enough to stir action I don’t know what else will. A hundred more Newtowns?
Something must be done, certainly – but what and how?
The world shakes their head, laughing at us — we deprive people of basic health care, we don’t pay decent wages to the working poor, we insist on carrying guns into JCPenny stores, churches and bars, saying it is our “right,” and we deny climate change that occurs before our eyes, as we disparage science in favor of the Bible, which was written 2000 years ago by semi-literate scribes who translated mythical folklore.
I view all of that as symptomatic of the impending death of a nation. History is replete with examples of nations and of cultures that die when fear of everything, plus the insatiable lust for money and/or power, take over as the sole driving force. We’re on that threshold, if not already beyond it.
Actually the Bible isn;t 2,000 years old, it’s closer to 1,650 years old. It was first put together by Emperor Constantine, after he converted to Christianity. When King James came along, it got even more distorted. One thing is certain, the Bible was not written 2,000 years ago, and the authors credited with each book was not around when the Bible was first put together.
Emily Dickinson spilled the beans:
The Bible is an antique Volume
Written by faded men
At the suggestion of Holy Spectres . . .
Agreed on Constantine. But the first accounts were written beginning about 70 years after the crucifixion (which was a purely political event) — and no scribe ever knew Jesus personally — and certainly his words were never recorded — it’s all fabricated.
I read “The Zealot” and found it quite captivating, but Aslan was largely criticized for his work — the fundamentalists deem it blasphemy. OReilly wrote a somewhat similar book (actually ghost-written) yet somehow his book was not condemned by the self-righteous know-it-alls. Perhaps because Bill-O is one of them.
CNN headline gives HuffPo some competition:
Minus 50 wind chill could be felt
LOL
Bryan Fischer: ‘Evolutionists’ Should be Disqualified From Holding Political Office
Ummm, whadya mean “We”, bubba?
‘Suggest’ all you want Ficshfuck, you don’t make the rules!
For those on the Twitter, his handle is @BryanJFischer. 😉
From the Canadian Department of Yuckamoondo:
Scientists Find 7,300-Mile Mercury Contamination ‘Bullseye’ Around Canadian Tar Sands
From the Chinese Department of Yuckamoondo:
China Says 8 Million Acres Of Farmland Now Too Polluted For Food
From the Amurkkkan Department of Yuckamoondo:
Home Depot Founder: Pope Francis’ Criticism Of Capitalism Will Scare Away Rich People
The beat goes on.
‘…Scare Away Rich People’
How much can we pay Pope Frank to move to the US?
Speaking of Pope Frank:
Pope: Church Must Not Turn Priests Into ‘little monsters’
Is Rick Santorum a priest? He’s certainly a ‘little monster’!
When “well-regulated” militias systematically invade “gated communities” killing every man, woman and child there, then we will see movement towards sensible gun regulations. or, make that “authoritarian” gun regulations. The 2nd Amendment won’t get in the way of the rich protecting themselves.
2013 gun sales in Virginia set a new record – 480K. That only includes sales where a background check was performed, so it excludes private sales. I couldn’t find any data that specified how many were sales of new vs used guns, but if only half were new, that’s a bunch of guns.
Undoubtedly they’re all parcel to Virginia’s “well regulated militia” first mentioned by James Madison.
Newtown was great for business…… 😦
GOP congressman whose politics are anti-gay has himself been outed as gay. It’s a Schock, I know.
http://gawker.com/cbs-journalist-shatters-gop-congressmans-glass-closet-1494550684
Marie Antoinette is looking longingly at Schock…
DK
Soooo, Obama’s really from Uganda…?
Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.
Melissa Harris-Perry, defender of racial equality and fairness for all.
It sucks when people don’t live up to the stereotypes we’ve assigned to them, eh?
Guess who got fired.
According to commenters, this video is a fake. The real video has the same anchor apologizing.
Oh Internet, why do you lie to me so much?
The internet lies? Is that even legal!!?? 😯
0 degrees? How can it be 0 degrees on Tuesday? This is the f’ing south dammit. I put up with bubba and those camo duck fools and folk waiving a traitorous flag and steaming 99 degree summers in exchange for it never ever ever being 0 freaking degrees. I want a refund, or a do-over, or something.
I have a Tuesday morning low of 6 degrees on my forecast. I was going to start a wood fire on Thursday, but decided to save the wood for Sunday night/Monday early.
Yeah, I’m saving my supply of wood as well, and praying my very very round hog doesn’t farrow.
The predicted high here in Minnesota, for Sunday and Monday, is less than -15 degrees with lows of around -25 and high winds that will result in wind chill approaching -50. So, of course, the local stupid trolls are citing these low temps as “proof global warming is a hoax”.
Meanwhile Australia is having a record-breaking heat wave. Tell them it’s called global warming for a reason.
Math is the language of science. The deniers don’t speak it.
That’s the really maddening part. They keep whining that the “computer models might be wrong” when all one needs to understand the problem is as simple as reading a whole bunch of thermometers. Once one has enough thermometers to discount aberrant readings the implication is inescapable.
That has also been the theme of those who comment on our local weather blogs. I hope all of them have to work outside on Tuesday. Seriously though, won’t -50 wind chill start freezing your face off in about 10 minutes? I reckon I shouldn’t whine about my weather.
Yeah. Anything below -20 or so is dangerous no matter what precautions one takes. When I was young and foolish enough to still go ice fishing in brutal weather we would smear Vaseline on the bits of skin that we couldn’t cover with a ski mask. That would give us enough time to get the fish shack set up but it wasn’t pleasant!
They refuse to use or learn the meaning of the words climate change.
The deniers won’t believe that extreme weather is a sign of global climate change. They only look out their own windows and think they know it all.
I’m watching the Star Trek TOS episode with Joan Collins. Hard to believe she is the same woman as the one on Dynasty.
You should see joan Collins in the movie “The Stud.” Not the same woman as either. 🙂
I’ve seen that, too. I like the Joan from the sixties.
AZ may not survive:
Steven Seagal says he may run for Ariz. governor
…actor told KNXV-TV that he is considering a shot at the state’s highest office and has had a talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.