Official Mass Shooter Thread

[arewethereyet]

I wasn't arguing that they are the same thing. Just that the numbers of deaths from mass shootings is probably not as high as people might imagine, so it does help with context to add number of deaths when mentioning number of mass shootings, because just bringing up the number of mass shootings can be misleading.

Republicans don't care (or believe in many cases) that millions of people are going to suffer from climate change. Those who hate open discussion and the spirit of free speech on the other hand, take one man firing a gun in a pizza parlor which results in zero deaths, and they say, "We need mass censorship now to prevent this from ever happening again." Um, no one died. Some can take an event where no one dies, and talk about it as if it were a 9/11 type event. A couple of people get shot here in Canada and it's treated like 9/11 just happened again.

There were 387 deaths from mass shootings in the US in 2018. On average there are 33,000 gun deaths in the US per year. 387 is a tiny number compared to gun deaths overall, so I don't necessarily think mass shootings should be the main focus. Nor should so called assault rifles be the main focus, as they cause a tiny fraction of the overall gun deaths in the US.

If I knew I was guaranteed to save 387 lives a year with stop and frisk policies, I wouldn't do it because a stop and frisk policy is wrong and the opposite of freedom. If I knew I was guaranteed to save 387 lives by forcing everyone to have cameras put into their homes to be randomly monitored by police, do I save the lives, or do I let them die because I value my own right to privacy in my own home? If I'm not doing anything wrong, what do I have to worry about with cameras in my home? Am I being selfish because I value privacy over human lives? Do I have blood on my hands?

You can't compare firearm violence to privacy rights. You lose your right to privacy when you commit an act of violence. What I am talking about is vetting at time of sale. When you go to take a driver's test, they are not invading your home to get a licence. The DMV doesn't put camera's in your home because you take a driver's test. 

We should have the ability to insure anyone buying a firearm isn't mentally ill, a domestic abuser, or alcoholic. That isn't a privacy issue, that is a public safety issue. Most firearm deaths start out with a legally purchaced firearm. Our vetting process sucks.  Yesterday's shooter bought his firearms legally even after last year, his mother called police because she was concerned about his mental health, they did a temporary hold on him and took a firearm from him. But our laws couldn't stop him from the firearms he bought for yesterday's shooting.

America has had more firearm deaths in the past 40 years than the soldiers who died in Iraq/Afghanistan and Nam combined.

Getting a driver's license simply means you are old enough and in some states have taken a driving course and you usually have to pass a written and/or practical exam.  They also do a pretty useless eye exam.  There is nothing in place to stop some mentally ill person from getting a license and driving it through the wall of the DMV.  It's simply an operators' license.  They don't check your criminal history or your mental history...you do the things required and they hand you a license.  After you pay for it, of course.

You want to restrict all alcoholics from being able to purchase a firearm?  You do realize that an alcoholic is always an alcoholic even in they no longer drink and haven't in decades?  So, that needs to be removed as an obstacle.  You don't seem to understand the difference between and alcoholic and a drunk.  

And, for the millionth time, while checking the mental health history and criminal history of a person is a good plan, it in no way in a sure indicator of future behavior.  There are many, many mental health issues that manifest at different times in life that aren't something that can be planned for.  Until someone shows symptoms they can't be assumed to be mentally ill or prone to mental illness.