Chances are you're really not up to date on America's amazing national legacy - mass shootings. Well, good news. Help is on the way.
The good folks at the Washington Post have compiled a neat compendium of mass shootings in America over the past 50 years.
It's a virtual museum of mass murder over the last half-century, a tribute to the staunch defenders of America's 2nd Amendment.
So, if slaughter porn is your thing, be sure to check out the links above and fill your boots.
Here's a slightly different take on mass shootings, Miami-style. It's when a horde of cops simultaneously open fire on a drunk driver stopped by a curb.
116 rounds in total. The driver, dead. Four bystanders also caught cop bullets. One of the cops who added eight bullets to the melee just made sergeant. Well done, Miami.
Any time one goes out in public they get afflicted by what's known as "S.W.M. syndrome" ("Sharing With Morons").
ReplyDeleteThis phenomenon isn't just limited to being out in public. It can happen anywhere one has to share facilities with others. Take, for example, the laundry room in one's apartment building. Available to all tenants. Hence, plenty of potential S.W.M. there as well.
It's one of the prices one pays for being part of the human race I guess.
So ... stay away from Miami?
ReplyDelete116 rounds at a stopped car? I'm not sure Bonnie & Clyde drew much more. I've seen this elsewhere. One officer opens fire and the rest for some reason join in as though someone declared a shooting party. We had a situation in Toronto that went to trial. The officer's counsel called a witness, an instructor, who said that officers are trained to keep firing until they've emptied their weapon. The cop might have a dozen rounds in his/her sidearm. It sounds like reckless overkill.
I used to hunt and target shoot, and I can't think of any reason why civilians should have access to semi-automatic weapons. And I include police among civilians - your video illustrates why. Civilians should be limited to bolt-, lever-, break- and pump-action long arms, and to revolvers. No high-capacity magazines allowed, i.e. over 10 rounds.
ReplyDeleteAustralia got this right after their 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting led Parliament to tighten up gun laws. They offered a one-year buy-back for weapons made illegal by the new laws, and have had a few amnesties since. Most importantly, for a country that had regular mass-shooting before 1996, they haven't had a single mass-shooting since.
The US is a lost cause, but Canada should follow Australia's lead.
Cap
The US is a lost cause, but Canada should follow Australia's lead.
ReplyDeleteYes we should.
It's time for the world to show it's revulsion of the USA.
TB
Solidarity. Once one shot is fired, then it will very likely turn into a shooting gallery. It doesn't have rise to the level of gunplay. If one guy puts the boots to you, every member of the brotherhood within charging distance will rush over and find an opening to add his number nines to the occasion. Anybody who stands back is a potential rat.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered whether, in view of the fact that not all guns were drawn, the guys present at the Toronto incident were too shocked to take part or were just too calm prior to the barrage to forget about the possibility of cameras. Wasn't the guy rushing in with the Taser after the suspect was blown away a nice added touch?
The citizens are simply behaving in the same way their country has for the last 60 years or so. The US government has set the example. Arm to the teeth then go our and kill. The US is still at it in the middle east.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYes, the US is still at it in the Middle East, a trap very much of its own making. Do you recall when Dick Cheney assured his countrymen that the US would be in and out of Iraq in six months and Iraqi oil would cover the costs? 14 years later war still rages in Iraq and surrounds, civil war with the Kurds seems possible, Washington seems hell bent on starting another war of choice, this time with Iran. The Saudis and the Gulf states continue to pull America's chain. Since 9/11 the US has spent a staggering $5 trillion dollars on its military adventures in that region. Good for the defence industry but terrible for the American public. Imagine the alternative uses that could have been funded with that five trillion dollars?
This year Trump presented Congress with the biggest defence spending budget ever. Congress decided to toss in an extra $40 billion, just because. Think of it as a "swamp draining" appropriation. And now Trump wants massive tax cuts that he really can't fund without throwing scores of millions of the most vulnerable Americans off the healthcare rolls. And the Gullibillies, Trump's base, slurp it up. He's playing them for suckers, perhaps the one skill he's established during his private sector career.