274 Days, 294 Mass Shootings

October 5, 2015 4:00pm by


Source: Wonkblog

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  1. wally commented on Oct 5

    “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”
    –Dan Hodges

    • Livermore Shimervore commented on Oct 5

      Had the Sandy Hook crime scene photos been leaked the debate on gun control would have blown wide open. But much like a nation-building war in which the body bags of soldiers are not shown on the news anymore, the bloodshed we don’t see is the bloodshed we don’t protest about anymore.
      Do you recall a single protest march after Sandy Hook? I don’t.

  2. RC commented on Oct 5

    @wally,
    Exactly. Partisan extremism has reached such extremes that people have become so heartless than dying 5 year old kids also doesnt move them.

    Compared to Sandy Hook, this latest one (until there is another one by the time I am done typing this email) is really minor.

    Why cant we just triple the price of Ammo?? That way people can keep their guns and hopefully have a little less mass shooting?? Basically the strategy used against smoking ….

  3. RW commented on Oct 5

    Understanding the Country’s Choice on Guns

    …no amount of massacres or scales of body counts or simply annual numbers of people killed by firearms matter. The ability to have unfettered access to guns is an absolute. This is confirmed by a substantial amount of public opinion research that shows not only that pro-gun sentiment has increased since the Newton Massacre in 2012 but that by many measures it has crossed a historic threshold where ‘gun rights’ has become the dominant US position.

    According to Pew, the number of people who say it’s more important to protect ‘gun rights’ than control gun ownership finally became the majority opinion after Newtown. …But the full picture only becomes clear when you look at the internals of these polls. …[polling data plots by political party] …

    NB: Just another face of the new normal; looks pretty much like the old normal frankly only with the bandages ripped off.

    • RW commented on Oct 5

      NB: Gun violence is the only American epidemic we are legislatively required to accept
      Only gun violence is subjected to federal laws …requiring government to not even examine why these things are happening. If private planes were crashing into American public classrooms at the rate of one a week. you can damn well bet that the cable news networks would pee their tailored pants in alarm, and presidential contenders would be beside themselves with public fury demanding that something be done, and there would be select committees and all of the usual pomp that important men surround themselves with when they want to be seen as giving a damn. We would shut down the airports. We would demand inspections of each and every plane. We would, in short, do something. ….

  4. RC commented on Oct 5

    And oh BTW, this problem will NOT and cannot be addressed by better mental health facility. The argument – “provide better access to mental health” – is basically a cop out. No amount of access to mental health can trump the danger of instant access to military style weaponry along with cheap ammunition!!!

    May be after Obama is out of office some of the nuts in Congress will relax their position. Anything Gun control related happening while Obama is in office is impossible.

    • wally commented on Oct 5

      I’d ask they NRA: do you think guns should be owned by persons known to have mental problems? If the answer is “no” (which it, unbelievably, might not be) I’d then ask: what legal procedure is acceptable for removing guns from the possession of somebody who is found to be mentally ill?

      Is there some common ground on that absolutely minimal level or is this whole thing at the eyeball-to-eyeball dispute level that slavery once descended to?

  5. TLH commented on Oct 5

    Chicago reached 59 murders and 362 gunshot victims in September. Let us get the illegal guns off the streets.

    • Iamthe50percent commented on Oct 5

      Supreme Court told Chicago they couldn’t do that. Maybe we can try to control the maniacs that turn the streets into a shooting gallery. Just a thought, definitely not politically correct.

  6. goldfever54 commented on Oct 5

    In this day and age why can’t we design a gun that will only work with the owner, such as a finger print chip. We have it for our phones why not a gun. While this wouldn’t have impacted the shooting in Oregon it would have helped in many other shootings.
    This would not infringe on gun owners rights but protect their weapons against unauthorized use.

    • Whammer commented on Oct 6

      We certainly could. It wouldn’t solve the “installed base” problem, of course. But it would also meet strong industry resistance, in the same way that air bags, etc., met strong resistance from the auto manufacturers.

      Based on the history of industry resistance, I would say “eff ’em”, you’re doing it!

  7. RC commented on Oct 5

    With all due respect (sorry no respect) this – “Chicago has a lot of murders” – is another cop out. I dont care if a bunch of thugs shoot each other and there are 59 murders or whatever the number may be.

    Just because there is at least one illegal weapon available, infinite number of legal weapons should be added in the society along with cheap and lethal ammunition. This is most stupid and brain dead argument ever.

    All I want is that innocent little 5 year old kids are not slaughtered in their schools and our young people in Colleges are not murdered in a place of learning. And I know that this is NOT too much to ask.

  8. cjb commented on Oct 6

    Last week a gun runner was convicted in Chicago. He went to out of state gun shows, purchased guns, then brought them back to Chicago to sell to gangs on the street. He got three years. I don’t believe he had any financial assets confiscated. That is a pathetically light sentence for that crime. You can’t get illegal guns off the street if the laws allow for a slap on the wrist for supplying them.

  9. JohnathanStein commented on Oct 6

    This won’t end until they arrest the M.D.’s and prosecute drug makers for these SSRI-fueled incidents.

    Judging by the numbers, it’s surprising there aren’t more of them.

    • Iamthe50percent commented on Oct 6

      First reasonable suggestion that I’ve heard. Everyone is saying either that guns exert some strange mind control that forces their owners to kill or that more people carrying more weapons is the answer. I’ve always felt that murderers are their own cause and blaming the gun is a cop out. There are deeply warped people out there.

  10. Alex commented on Oct 6

    First impression looking at that calendar… Ban weekends and cut shootings by a third!

    Seriously, this is insanely bad and getting worse. A quick look on the internet shows over 10,000 gun related deaths in 2015 so far. If we lost this many people in a series of terrorist attacks, we might (I don’t know…) spend trillions and invade foreign lands killing 100s of thousands. But since we are doing this to ourselves, nothing done!?

    Why can’t we work together to fix this problem? To me, that is almost as disappointing as the number of horrible incidents. I can reluctantly accept hand-guns. But assault rifles? Why?! How come we don’t have a licensing process for weapons that involves safety training and a thorough background check? Why is this such a controversial idea?

  11. Bjørn commented on Oct 6

    If you want to influence the politicians get details (data) published regarding each individual gun related crime.
    Here is some details provided by news media (next to each event).
    The identity of the shooter is absent in the majority of these crimes. There is apparently no followup data published.

    All of you are data driven. How do you come to decisions and find solutions without data??

    http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015#cite_note-257

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