Mass Shootings/Gun Control Reform Thread

[ap215]

N.Y. Man, 25, Who Had Plans to Propose to His Girlfriend, Was Shot and Killed While in Puerto Rico for a Bad Bunny Concert

A New York man, who was visiting Puerto Rico to see Bad Bunny in concert with a group of friends, was shot and killed.

According to reports from the Associated Press and CBS News, 25-year-old Kevin Mares was in the coastal San Juan neighborhood of La Perla early on Sunday, Aug. 10, when a fight broke out between two other people.

https://people.com/ny-man-shot-and-kill ... t-11788252

[ap215]

Gunman died of self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting at Minneapolis Catholic school

Six children are being treated at Children’s Minnesota, a hospital spokesperson said, declining to release further details.

"Children’s Minnesota is aware of the recent tragic shooting in Minneapolis. Our teams are trained to respond in times of crisis, and are fully prepared to care for impacted children," the hospital said in a statement. "We will not share more details to respect the privacy of our patients and families."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/li ... rcna227498

[bradman]

Gunman died of self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting at Minneapolis Catholic school

Six children are being treated at Children’s Minnesota, a hospital spokesperson said, declining to release further details.

"Children’s Minnesota is aware of the recent tragic shooting in Minneapolis. Our teams are trained to respond in times of crisis, and are fully prepared to care for impacted children," the hospital said in a statement. "We will not share more details to respect the privacy of our patients and families."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/li ... rcna227498

Any other shooting and Donnie would send in the National Guard. But since it's only a mass shooter he asks for prayers.

[ZoWie]

We all know the cycle. The Nooz has done its part by going wall to wall. Politicians will all pop up in Minneapolis and give the same litany about thoughts and prayers. Nothing will change.

There's probably a way to at least reduce the body count, and we've done some of that, but you never hear about changing the law any more. It probably wouldn't work anyway. Guns you'd never use for hunting unless you are hunting humans are practically a religion in themselves.

[Number6]

And we'll here the usual conservative crap about "though"ts and prayers" and that it's too soon" to talk about gun control.

[ZoWie]

Already started.

[Motor City]

The U.S. keeps supplying selling weapons of war to its public and then acting like it cant understand why the public is waging war on each other. Similarities to what is happening to children in Gaza by supplying weapons of war to Israels right wing extremist government and then acting like they dont understand how to stop the atrocities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciat ... h_shooting


What we know about Minneapolis mass shooting suspect Robin Westman

....Officials believe the shooter used three legally purchased firearms − a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol − and fired from outside the building through the church's windows.....

[ZoWie]

This guy fits the profile perfectly. Went to the school, mother worked there, blamed the school for why he was a loser, and legally purchased an arsenal. Left a large amount of evidence online, including the inevitable manifesto about how he was gonna be the baddest guy who ever lived. Also posted a detailed floor plan of the church. Planned this for a long time. All there online. All over the data centers that we've been discussing. Should have waved that proverbial red flag, but it never works out that way. Nothing happened. Never does.

If the Nooz can find this stuff within hours after one of these annual shootings, it seems incomprehensible that the cops either don't know about it or can't do anything until a crime is committed. Either one is a social failing. Of course we can't talk about the real social failing behind this annual craziness or we'll be ostracized. How dare we attack the values that made America special? That alone is proof that this country is broken, and Donald Trump's oligarchy has no clue how to define the problem, let alone address it.

Our spiritual and legal authorities really are talking about thoughts and prayers. Again, that is how we fight the evil, by mindlessly throwing stock phrases at it. Were this ongoing madness not a total disaster for everything in this country, it would be getting ironic by now. An exercise in denial. Not just a river in Egypt, as we know.

[Motor City]

This guy fits the profile perfectly. Went to the school, mother worked there, blamed the school for why he was a loser, and legally purchased an arsenal. Left a large amount of evidence online, including the inevitable manifesto about how he was gonna be the baddest guy who ever lived. Also posted a detailed floor plan of the church. Planned this for a long time. All there online. All over the data centers that we've been discussing. Should have waved that proverbial red flag, but it never works out that way. Nothing happened. Never does.

If the Nooz can find this stuff within hours after one of these annual shootings, it seems incomprehensible that the cops either don't know about it or can't do anything until a crime is committed. Either one is a social failing. Of course we can't talk about the real social failing behind this annual craziness or we'll be ostracized. How dare we attack the values that made America special? That alone is proof that this country is broken, and Donald Trump's oligarchy has no clue how to define the problem, let alone address it.

Our spiritual and legal authorities really are talking about thoughts and prayers. Again, that is how we fight the evil, by mindlessly throwing stock phrases at it. Were this ongoing madness not a total disaster for everything in this country, it would be getting ironic by now. An exercise in denial. Not just a river in Egypt, as we know.

Yea its about inequality, after all what's more unequal than one guy walking around with weapons of war shooting lots of unsuspecting and vulnerable people just going about their daily lives. Everybody wants to be Godzilla walking around picking up busses and throwing them and stepping on buildings and tearing down power lines like trump and CEO's without a care for the people on the busses or in the buildings. Need less concentrated wealth and power and more political representation and justice to make peace in the society.

[ZoWie]

We do need to tone everything down considerably, but this guy's girl's rants seem to indicate that school shootings might be some new kind of online disease. His Her life's ambition, at least in his her very voluminous writings, was to be a school shooter. He She considered it an elite club, and wanted to meet previous shooters in the afterlife. (Being brought up Catholic, that would likely mean burning forever in hell, but of course one can not assume rationality in these cases.)

Just who you want walking into a store and buying three guns. It was completely legal. After he she passed his her waiting period he she just walked out with them, and presumably also with a large number of rounds. No red flags AT ALL. In fact one of the people involved said that he couldn't deny guns to someone who just looks a little off because that would be abuse of the law. In other words, the law protects "our right to keep and bear arms," not to mention our right to threaten violence online, but it does not protect us from the consequences when someone actually acts it out.

-----
Note: the shooter was a trans, therefore pronoun modification is in order. -Z

[Motor City]

We do need to tone everything down considerably, but this guy's girl's rants seem to indicate that school shootings might be some new kind of online disease. His Her life's ambition, at least in his her very voluminous writings, was to be a school shooter. He She considered it an elite club, and wanted to meet previous shooters in the afterlife. (Being brought up Catholic, that would likely mean burning forever in hell, but of course one can not assume rationality in these cases.)

Just who you want walking into a store and buying three guns. It was completely legal. After he she passed his her waiting period he she just walked out with them, and presumably also with a large number of rounds. No red flags AT ALL. In fact one of the people involved said that he couldn't deny guns to someone who just looks a little off because that would be abuse of the law. In other words, the law protects "our right to keep and bear arms," not to mention our right to threaten violence online, but it does not protect us from the consequences when someone actually acts it out.

-----
Note: the shooter was a trans, therefore pronoun modification is in order. -Z

Well I was just generalizing about mass shooters who are mostly male but point taken. I think they have it wrong about picking and choosing out of the public who should be able to purchase weapons of war and who shouldn't, because situations like this that happen all the time over and over and over again obviously not very good at it and with power like this human nature and bias.

There isn't supposed to be all this desperation, hopelessness and oppression concentrated at the levels America is currently experiencing. We know the religions warn against this in various ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG_qwFNuHtg

Deadly strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church

Just last month there was another incident that involved the catholic church being attacked.

[ZoWie]

I think, possibly in error, that the shooter started life as a male. There were obvious issues here, but I can't say anything definitive without spending a lot more time than I feel like wasting by reading someone's deranged net posts. The problem seems to have its roots in how many people are socialized in the US to be on their own and in conflict with a hostile environment, despite this no longer being the case in North America.

Other countries have started to have similar public crimes and socialization problems, but I suspect that this is due to Internet and global interaction. The problem is really one of frontier societies, which this one still seems to have some kind of fantasies about being. The North American experience comes dangerously close to Wagnerian/Nordic mythology as was fundamental in North Central Europe at one time.

One cannot help but learn a lot about mythology and social archetypes when writing for the movies, and we all know how the European archetype of the individual hero (Das Held) vs the hostile environment comes up again and again in our own culture. Somehow this lone-hero archetype gets sliced and diced into more of a bad imitation of Dirty Harry and the whole American "Gun That Won the West" groove-thang.

[Motor City]

I think, possibly in error, that the shooter started life as a male. There were obvious issues here, but I can't say anything definitive without spending a lot more time than I feel like wasting by reading someone's deranged net posts. The problem seems to have its roots in how many people are socialized in the US to be on their own and in conflict with a hostile environment, despite this no longer being the case in North America.

Other countries have started to have similar public crimes and socialization problems, but I suspect that this is due to Internet and global interaction. The problem is really one of frontier societies, which this one still seems to have some kind of fantasies about being. The North American experience comes dangerously close to Wagnerian/Nordic mythology as was fundamental in North Central Europe at one time.

One cannot help but learn a lot about mythology and social archetypes when writing for the movies, and we all know how the European archetype of the individual hero (Das Held) vs the hostile environment comes up again and again in our own culture. Somehow this lone-hero archetype gets sliced and diced into more of a bad imitation of Dirty Harry and the whole American "Gun That Won the West" groove-thang.

yea there is big focus on manifestos, extreme focus but not so much on the legally purchased weapons of war that give them backing and enforcement abilities. There is big focus on heroic acts by militarized police that are militarized because weapons of war are sold to a public that has many unheard and unresolved grievances and living in the highest inequality ever but not so much focus on the grievances or inequalities. Also there are big huge,massive delusions on both sides that of the mass shooters and the authorities that involve grandeur and hate and escalation, and some major selfishness that both want to grow ever larger and more extreme to thwart each other.

[ZoWie]

I'd like to see sensible gun laws, but that is a non-starter in the US. I do find it very telling that the only right that most Americans worry about losing is the right for anyone of age and lacking a criminal record to walk into a store, wait some number of days, and come back to take home their arsenal. Of course, if that got blocked by common-sense legislation, there's still always the Dark Web.

What always makes me especially dizzy is how Americans seem to think that our country only exists because of the heroic actions of people with guns. It doesn't seem to matter that economics attracted most immigrants, or that killing/relocating the people who already lived there was considered a form of divinely ordained progress. (Note that this kind of "progress" is still very much alive in Gaza, though for other reasons.) It's like a bad movie that needs an X rating, but because no one does the nasty Thing in it, it still gets a PG.

[Toonces]

You can now dismiss anyone arguing that they need guns to prevent tyranny, because the tyranny arrived, and they've been OK with it.

[ZoWie]

We also hear nothing about how the military personnel who are legally allowed to carry automatic rifles are being sent to American cities to guard federal buildings and pick up litter on the White House lawn. Once again we see how tyranny is essentially banal.

[ap215]

Police say they seized 23 guns from the home of a 13-year-old who appeared to idolize mass shooters

SEATTLE (AP) — A 13-year-old boy who police said appeared to be fixated on school shooters was arrested on charges of unlawful firearms possession and making a threat after they say they found social media posts about intentions to kill and seized 23 guns and ammunition from his home.

The boy pleaded not guilty to a total of five charges, four of them felonies, in juvenile court on Monday, and he was ordered to remain in detention.

https://apnews.com/article/arrest-juven ... 29507fc879

[Motor City]

Police say they seized 23 guns from the home of a 13-year-old who appeared to idolize mass shooters

SEATTLE (AP) — A 13-year-old boy who police said appeared to be fixated on school shooters was arrested on charges of unlawful firearms possession and making a threat after they say they found social media posts about intentions to kill and seized 23 guns and ammunition from his home.

The boy pleaded not guilty to a total of five charges, four of them felonies, in juvenile court on Monday, and he was ordered to remain in detention.

https://apnews.com/article/arrest-juven ... 29507fc879

Theres a lot of mass shooters in the United States, like nearly every day there is a mass shooting often even multiple mass shootings in a day, then there is the president who threatens on social media that he is going to wage war on the city of Chicago.

Maybe not the best influencing and tone set by public officials and public policies.

[ap215]

Charlie Kirk shot at Utah event, suspect in custody

Charlie Kirk was shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Wednesday.

Bystanders report seeing Kirk shot near his neck during a Q&A with students.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2025/09/10 ... kirk-shot/

[ap215]

Charlie Kirk Dies at 31 After Being Shot at Campus Appearance

Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder who helped mobilize the youth vote for Donald Trump, has died Wednesday after being shot during a college event in Utah, Trump announced on Truth Social. He was 31.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote on Wednesday afternoon. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

https://variety.com/2025/politics/news/ ... 236514498/

[ap215]

Shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado leaves several students hurt; suspect among those injured

Three students were critically wounded on Wednesday in a shooting at Evergreen High School in the Colorado foothills. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office says one of those students is the shooting suspect.

The shooting took place just after noon at the school located at 29300 Buffalo Park Road in Evergreen, which is 28 miles southwest of Denver.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/s ... etro-area/

[bradman]

Charlie Kirk Dies at 31 After Being Shot at Campus Appearance

Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder who helped mobilize the youth vote for Donald Trump, has died Wednesday after being shot during a college event in Utah, Trump announced on Truth Social. He was 31.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote on Wednesday afternoon. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

https://variety.com/2025/politics/news/ ... 236514498/

Easy part first.

Violence is not the answer and condemn anyone that uses such violence.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Kirk family.

Easy peasy.

And at this time i don't care about speaking ill of the dead so soon after death.

Mr. Kirk, they are trying to write you up as some kind of William F Buckley. Well............Sir........Buckley you were not. On the other hand, a modern day David Duke would be a better comparison.... Sir.

[ZoWie]

Shooting activists is wrong, regardless of their ideology.

There are a lot of reasons why this is true.

[Drak]

Violence isn’t the answer. However.

- Kirk believed gun violence against children was acceptable in order he have his 2nd Amendment rights

- He didn’t believe in empathy

- He believed gay people should be stoned to death

- He believed black people were too dumb to fly planes

- Said that MLK was a terrible person

- Believed civil rights should never have happened

- Believed American citizens should be allowed to whip foreigners

- Said that Paul Pelosi’s attacker should be released on bail, and the person paying for bail release would be a patriot

- Claimed Muslims only came to America to destroy it

- Said American Jews gave whites a bad reputation

- Believed Women should not have rights

- Wanted to invade Canada

Just some examples.

This guy was an evil man, through and through. The people outraged over the rest of us not caring about Kirk’s demise are the same people who love his white supremacist hate ideology, who couldn’t care less about children being murdered in schools, children being genocided in Gaza, the liberal legislator and her husband from Minnesota who were recently murdered by an ultra MAGA guy with a death list, Jan 6, and who made fun of Paul Pelosi having his brains bashed in with a hammer.

I don’t agree with violence or murder. But I also have absolutely no sympathy for Charlie Kirk.

[ZoWie]

I hope you don't really think that I advocate shooting activists who stir up the wrong ant nests. Along with being against the laws of God, humans, and common sense, it also just spreads the infection much faster. Look how fast the Nooz went into catastrophe mode as soon as Trump opened his yap on the subject.

I'm much more interested in the hundreds of nonviolent ways to help keep rabble rousers from making this country a pain in the ass to inhabit. It was silly enough when the people who attracted Nooz coverage told us that dropping acid solved all problems, but at least that didn't involve hurting other people. Now it does. Not just acting out with guns, but also this whole thing about getting rid of vaccines. The line between activism and rabble rousing has become a thin one, and it needs work.

The old saw about your right to swing ending at the other guy's face is a good place to start. If someone starts making speeches favoring physically hurting people, there's a problem.