mass shootings

Dubious Records

Fandango21 Comments

Mass Killings Incidents in the U.S. Sets New Record

With just three weeks left in the year, the U.S. has had 38 incidents of mass killings, a new record. Mass killing incidents are defined as incidents where four or more people are shot dead, not including the shooter. That brought deaths from mass killings in 2023 to a total of 197, not counting the shooters — yet another record.

While mass killings broke a record in 2023, the country witnessed “only” 630 mass shootings, defined as involving a minimum of four victims, either injured or killed. So where a new record for mass killings has been set, it’s unlikely the record for mass shootings will surpass the 647 mass shootings last year (with 690 in 2021 being the highest). I suppose one might call that good news that through 339 days so far this year, there have been “only” 1.9 mass shootings a day in America.

Courts are overturning gun control laws

Yet with all of these mass killings and mass shootings happening each year, conservative federal judges are, remarkably, overturning gun control laws.

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia ruled last week that a 10-year-old Maryland law requiring people to undergo training and background checks before purchasing handguns is unconstitutional. Following last year’s Supreme Court decision that firearms regulations must be supported by “historical tradition,” a growing number of judges — especially those appointed by Republican presidents — have adopted a skeptical view of gun rules.

On the same day as the Maryland decision, Judge Robert Raschio of rural southeast Oregon ruled that a ballot measure adopted by voters last year, imposing new permit requirements and banning high-capacity magazines, violated the state constitution. Mass shootings “rank very low in frequency,” Raschio wrote, and are “sensationalized by the media.”

Okay, if almost two mass shootings a day in this country are considered to “rank very low in frequency,” what frequency of mass shootings would it take for Judge Raschio to acknowledge that they are occurring way too frequently?

Thursday Inspiration — Blowing in the Wind

Fandango10 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to respond by either using the word “wind” or by going with anything else that we think fits. I decided to go with the word “wind,” and in particular, Bob Dylan’s song, “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Why? Well, back at the beginning of October of 2017, I was still reeling after a day of reading about and watching the news coverage on TV regarding the horrific and senseless mass shooting of concert attendees in Las Vegas. And now, six years later, I am still reeling from the horrific and senseless mass shooting last week in Lewiston, Maine.

I think about all of the mass shootings in America that have occurred prior to and since Las Vegas, and I’m reminded that we, as a nation, have done nothing to stem the tide of such senseless gun violence other than to offer our thoughts and prayers, which accomplishes nothing.

I’m also reminded of Bob Dylan’s song, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” especially the verse that goes, “Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see.”

How many times can we experience these mass shootings in our country and pretend that there is nothing we can do to address them? How long are we going to stick our collective heads in the sand like we are a nation of ostriches?

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Yes, ‘n’ how many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Yes, ‘n’ how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Image credit: Bing Image Creator.

Bits and Pieces — September 27, 2023

Fandango10 Comments

Just a few bits and pieces that I thought I might share with you today.

America’s Pot of Gold

Americans spent some $30 billion on legal marijuana last year. By comparison, $28 billion was spent on craft beer, $20 billion on chocolate, and $7 billion on ice cream.

And if you add chocolate and ice cream to what was spent on marijuana, Americans spent $57 billion getting high and pigging out on chocolate and ice cream!

I want to point out that Marijuana is fully legalized for recreational use in 20 states plus Washington, DC. But in 18 states it’s only allowed for medical use, and it remains illegal in 12 states.

Imagine the spend on cannabis if it were fully legalized in all states.

Breaking New Records

By the end of August, the U.S. had recorded its 500th mass shooting of the year. Mass shootings are defined by most agencies as four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time. Some trackers exclude the perpetrators in those numbers. According to Axios, as of September 24, the number of mass shootings was 511. Until 2020, the country had never recorded 500 mass shootings in a year.

Seems that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and American gun manufactures are striving to break 2021’s record of 691 mass shooting in America.

Gun-wielding Robots

The NRA used to say that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Well that is so 20th century. Now we have to add robots to the list of things, other than hubs, of course, that kill people.

But don’t worry. Your lawmakers are all over this. In fact, Massachusetts may become the first state to regulate gun-wielding robots. A proposed bill from state representative Lindsay Sabadosa and state senator Michael Moore, both Democrats, would ban the sale and use of armed robots and drones, with exemptions for the military and law enforcement. “Things are really changing,” said Sabadosa. “It was important to get something on the books as soon as possible.”

Photo credit: Chris Moore (AP)

More Senseless Deaths

Fandango34 Comments

Another day, another mass shooting at a school in the United States. Six dead, including three nine-year old children. It marks the 13th school shooting in the United States so far in 2023.

Yesterday it was in Nashville. Where will it be today? Tomorrow? Next week? It’s anybody’s guess. But you know it will happen. You know that there will be more children who will die needlessly in this country.

At least 57 people have died in 38 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this month alone, with another 133 injured. And in the first three months of 2023, there have been 130 mass shootings. Incredibly, there have been more mass shootings in the United States than there have been days this year.

Politicians are, as usual, sending out their thoughts and prayers to the people of Nashville. I think it was Albert Einstein who was alleged to have said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. This reality of doing little more than sending out thoughts and prayers is absolutely insane.

I am mad as hell at the spineless GOP legislators who refuse to do anything about these mass shootings. Instead of proactively addressing the problem of the proliferation of guns in our nation, many red states politicians are, instead, loosening up the regulations and allowing open carry of loaded guns in more places with no permits required. WTF?

If Americans really want to make America great again, we need to start taking names and kicking asses. We need to vote NRA puppets out of office and replace them with legislators who support enacting stricter gun control laws, such as universal background checks and bans on assault weapons, in order to make it more difficult, not less difficult, for people to obtain guns and use them to commit violence.

Illustration by Golden Cosmos.

Just What America Needs

Fandango58 Comments

The Supreme Court today struck down a New York law that placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home, saying it was at odds with the Second Amendment. Despite a spate of mass shootings in America, the court’s conservative justices prevailed in a 6 to 3 decision (strictly along party lines) that struck down a New York law requiring a special need for carrying a weapon and puts at risk similar laws in Maryland, California, New Jersey, Hawaii and Massachusetts. The ruling is likely to make it easier to carry guns in some of the nation’s biggest cities.

Enacted more than a century ago, New York’s law requires those who want to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense to show a specific need for doing so.

The court’s dissenting liberals said the majority had distorted history and ignored the court’s precedents. President Biden and Democratic officials called the ruling tone-deaf and ill-timed in the wake of recent mass killings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Tex.

Of course, the National Rifle Association, which helped challenge the New York law and has longed for such a decision clarifying the constitutional right to “bear arms,” called the decision a “watershed win.”

“New Yorkers will soon be able to defend themselves outside of their homes without first having to prove that they have a sufficient ‘need’ to exercise their fundamental rights,” Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. The ruling, he said, “opens the door to rightly change the law” in the half dozen other states “that still don’t recognize the right to carry a firearm for personal protection.”

Great. Just what America needs, more guns on the streets.