Fandango’s Provocative Question #166

Fandango
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

It happened again. Yesterday, another mass shooting in the United States occurred just ten days after ten people were shot and killed in a supermarket in Buffalo. As of when I’m writing this, 18 students and a teacher were killed in a mass shooting at a school in the small Texas city of Uvalde. An 18-year-old Uvalde resident entered the school with a handgun and a rifle. Inside the school, according to Texas’ pro-gun governor, Greg Abbott, the teenage gunman “shot and killed — horrifically, incomprehensibly” more than 18 children and a teacher.

The gunman, who legally bought the weapons used in the attack shortly after his 18th birthday on May 16, was shot and killed by officers responding to the scene. Abbott added, “It is being reported that the subject shot his grandmother right before he went into the school.”

This massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States so far this year. The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization, counted at least 215 such shootings, defined as one in which four or more people were killed or injured, through mid-May. Today is the 145th day of the year, meaning that there has been an average of almost 1.5 mass shootings a day in America this year! Ponder that for a moment.

I am so pissed that I can hardly contain my anger and frustration. State governments all across the nation are passing laws making it easier for people to get guns, allowing both open carry and concealed carry. They are liberalizing or eliminating background checks. Gun sales in the United States are at an all-time high. Gun deaths are soaring. And our elected officials — particularly the Republicans — are sitting around with their thumbs up their asses offering their thoughts and prayer.

President Biden spoke about this heinous mass shooting in Texas, saying…

“As a nation we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? How many scores of little children, who witnessed what happened, must see their friends die as if they’re in a battlefield?

I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage. For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry.”

My provocative question this week is similar to what I asked last week after the Buffalo mass killings. I am looking for your reactions and thoughts about this kind of gun violence that is endemic in the United States.

Do you feel that President Biden’s plea to take action and to do something to stem the rising tide of gun violence in America have any impact? Or will lawmakers at both the federal and state levels do nothing more than offer their useless “thoughts and prayers,” which is all they ever do?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

57 thoughts on “Fandango’s Provocative Question #166”

  1. Nope, Not Pam May 25, 2022 / 3:21 am

    I don’t like your chances of change.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. donmatthewspoetry May 25, 2022 / 3:53 am

    A monumental change in American attitude is needed. I can’t see it happening. Sadly…………

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Sadje May 25, 2022 / 5:03 am

    Until and unless the people in charge of making laws stop being influenced by the gun makers, there’s no chance of a change happening.

    Liked by 2 people

      • rugby843 May 25, 2022 / 11:41 am

        I just saw part of governor Abbot’s Press conference and all of those people standing behind him decided that Beto O’Rourke with his spot on questions should not be able to speak. They escorted him out of the place. That is a good example of how the Texas governor’s group and their ignorant spokes people standing behind him, screaming and yelling are the type of people that you have running that state. It is truly sickening.

        Sent from my iPhone

        >

        Liked by 1 person

          • rugby843 May 25, 2022 / 1:55 pm

            I just read that the store owner sold this 18-year-old boy a gun and a huge amount of rounds for it and then the next day the kid came back to buy another gun. Now am I crazy or should that not have been reported to the police? Is it the greed the money wanted by the store owner or is it another ignorant person who owns a gun store? I think we need to look into his background. Or am I right. Money again and ignore the consequences.

            Liked by 1 person

            • Fandango May 25, 2022 / 8:40 pm

              It is money and greed that cause people to not consider the consequences of their actions…or not care about the consequences.

              Liked by 1 person

  6. Lolsy's Library May 25, 2022 / 5:16 am

    I once got called xenophobic for saying that America’s arrogance will be it’s downfall. America needs a leader, like Martin Luther King Jr. It was good to see people call out people like Cruz and Romney with how much money they’ve made and how much money they’ve given to the NRA.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Fandango May 25, 2022 / 11:38 am

      It should be just this event. It should be the cumulative effect of all the mass shootings in America. But that won’t happen. Lawmakers will wrong their hands, offer their thoughts and prayers, and continue to make guns readily available and easily obtained.

      Liked by 1 person

          • Mister Bump UK May 25, 2022 / 1:14 pm

            But as we have discussed previously, if you want gun control you have to start by reforming political funding.

            Liked by 1 person

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  12. Marleen May 25, 2022 / 7:47 am

    June of 2017: Understanding the U.S. Constitution

    I haven’t listed, yet, to what Biden said. I very much appreciated what Senator Chris Murphy (local to Sandyhook) said: “What are we doing?”

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marleen May 25, 2022 / 10:00 am

      I have a few suggestions. One is to change the age of legal gun-buying to twenty. I first thought twenty-one, but I know the age of voting was changed to eighteen when eighteen-year-olds had been drafted to war. Therefore, I would also change the age of military service to twenty or older. This, additionally, helps to address the fact that the racist mass murderer in Buffalo had signs, before he was eighteen, of violent trouble or ideation. If these age markers were changed, the years prior to legal purchasing would not be protected as to information in terms of an individual being a minor. Bonus: I do not like that recruiters come into high schools! (Side note: in the Bible, the age fir a young man to be considered an appropriate candidate for fighting on behalf of the nation was twenty or twenty-one [and voluntarily]).

      Liked by 1 person

      • Marleen May 25, 2022 / 11:35 am

        I would still keep the voting age at eighteen.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Fandango May 25, 2022 / 8:35 pm

        Many of the red states are actually lowering the minimum age to purchase guns and are no longer requiring licences or registrations. Your suggestions are good, but unlikely to be put into practice.

        Like

        • Marleen May 26, 2022 / 8:25 am

          I know they even market to actual children.

          Liked by 1 person

          • Marleen May 26, 2022 / 8:46 am

            Oh, jeez. It occurred to me…

            I wonder if they see it as a benefit that children get shot to “rationalize” the younger sales.

            Liked by 1 person

  13. Marleen May 25, 2022 / 7:53 am

    🙄 listened, I haven’t listened, yet…

    I also haven’t read this article, but I’m sure it will show Murphy said more than the one line, plus repeated the one line.

    Liked by 1 person

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  16. rugby843 May 25, 2022 / 9:53 am

    I wish it would change of course. Do I think it will? No. I live in a state where guns are prevalent, people display them, they’re proud of them, they are refusing to give up their rights to have them—they don’t even need a license to carry one here; however you need a license to go fishing! Now how does that make sense? I think it comes down to money and it seems like everything horrible does, like the old saying money is the root of all evil. That sounds old, biblical, it sounds trite but really what is supporting this gun lobby? Money!

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

    Liked by 1 person

    • Fandango May 25, 2022 / 7:33 pm

      Unfortunately, you’re right about everything you wrote in your comment. And that’s why, no matter how many times there are tragedies like this, things will never change.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. tiredhamster May 25, 2022 / 7:00 pm

    No, I don’t see how Biden’s plea could have any impact. Biden could do something, but instead he’s just going to offer some words and move on. Democrats are more than willing to blame Republicans and gun lobbies; yes, the GOP and the NRA are partly to blame, but Democrats can at least attempt change, but they don’t want to; they instead shrug and say, “well, we can do something, but Republicans…oh well…” Just as long as Republicans exist, the Democrats will always have an convenient reason not to act.

    If our politicians were ever going to do anything about mass shootings, they would have done so by now. Well, I could see more money being funneled into police forces and on-school security because of this. That is the American solution: just throw more money at security and law enforcement, regardless of the efficacy.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Fandango May 25, 2022 / 10:10 pm

      The Democrats have a very small majority in the House and there’s a virtual tie in the Senate. House Democrats have passed a bill to strengthen gun control laws, but McConnell and the GOP senators won’t considerate. And States with Republican governors and with Republican-controlled state houses are passing laws making it easier for people to get guns. I think the Democrats would take definitive action on gun violence but they are being stymied by Republicans (and by the NRA).

      Like

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  20. Michael B. Fishman May 26, 2022 / 12:00 pm

    My answer to your two questions:

    “Do you feel that President Biden’s plea to take action and to do something to stem the rising tide of gun violence in America have any impact?”

    The president’s plea will do nothing at all and will have zero impact. When politicians like Mitt Romney are making $13+ million in NRA donations there’s no way they’re going to give up that money over something as meaningless (to them) as human lives.

    “Or will lawmakers at both the federal and state levels do nothing more than offer their useless “thoughts and prayers,” which is all they ever do?”

    When you say lawmakers I think this applies less to Democrats (except for Jaren Golden, a representative from Maine who voted against H.R. 8) than Republicans (except for the 8 who voted for H.R. 8), and my belief is that they will do absolutely nothing.

    The #1 goal of a elected politician is to stay elected so they’re votes are only about what will get them votes. They’ll never do anything more than offer thoughts and prayers. I blogged about this a little bit yesterday and the most disturbing thought to me is that the Robb Elementary school shooting was the 27th school shooting this year. If we have average a school shooting a week and the nation isn’t outraged then it never will be. This is the status quo and this is life.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Fandango May 26, 2022 / 2:57 pm

      You’re right. We have become desensitized to gun shootings because they happen every fucking day in the U.S.

      Like

  21. Marilyn Armstrong May 26, 2022 / 7:27 pm

    Until we change our election laws and stop selling elections to the highest bidders, nothing will change. Eventually, there won’t be anything LEFT to change. Post up after midnight.

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. Carol anne May 26, 2022 / 10:26 pm

    I dont think joe bydens words have much impact. They just fall on deaf ears. Its so sad. So tragic. Xx

    Liked by 1 person

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