Virginia Beach, Virginia. Yet another mass shooting .This is time with 11 dead.
As a non American, who I can do is watch in horror as this obscene, and largely preventable waste of life continues.
I guess I’m just crazy. I see a causal connection between the number and type of guns owned by US citizenry ,and the numbers of gun deaths.
Can’t wait to see the traditional fatuous response from the NRA, or one of its spokespeople, Donald Trump.
Yet I keep reading that around 70% of Americans want changes to existing gun laws. I truly can’t get my head around the contradiction. To me, the issue is about democracy, not simply the Second Amendment. Or have I missed something crucial?
How is it possible, that the NRA, an organisation of what, 3 million, has so much power in this matter?
The guy was armed with a .45 handgun which was bought legally. He was a long time employee of the city with a clean record. Apparently got along with everyone for years until now.
One minute you’re talking with your coworker about weekend plans, the next minute he shoots your ass dead. Craziness.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 150 mass shootings in the country since the start of the year, among a total of nearly 22,000 incidents of gun violence more broadly. To date, there have been 16,846 people killed or injured in shootings, including 1,332 children and teenagers.
These numbers speak to a crisis-ridden society rife with social inequality. They reveal as well the vast toll a quarter century of unending war has inflicted on American society. The conditions of life for broad sections of the population are sharply declining and, in the absence of a mass working class movement, such shootings are one of the many negative expressions of the overall social situation.
This killing also occurs a month after the 20th anniversary of the Columbine incident. As shown since then, the response of the political establishment to mass killings is to militarize the police and increase surveillance, initiatives that only intensify the repressive apparatus of the state.
My best friend, a veteran with long standing back pain and ptsd, but still working full time, was at his home with a couple of buddies, I assume drinking, as it was in the wee hrs of the morning, earlier this week. They were checking out a handgun that had a laser aim attached. The laser wasn’t working and as my friend was messing with it, it fell off. He leaned over to pick it up, while still holding the gun in his other hand. The gun went off and killed him.
My world is forever changed with his passing. He has owned lots and lots of guns, and should never have made the mistake of EVER pointing a gun at himself or anyone else. But he did make that mistake, at least for a moment, and now he is suddenly gone.