56 years ago that hero climbed that tower in Texas

[ROB]

56 years ago that hero climbed that tower in Texas and stopped a gunman.

What a legend.

Really showed the way forward.

[ReptilianKittenEater]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muo5o2xeq0w

Awesome movie, this seen touches on Charles Whitman.

[seektravelinfo]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5116410/

The Tower is an excellent documentary about the Austin, TX clock tower massacre.

Within the past two weeks there have been two mass shootings in America and nary a peep on the BFC about it, just the same old “good guy with a gun” blah blah blah. The brave and savvy man who killed Charles Whitman was a trained law enforcement officer and he was doing his job.

[Kurt]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5116410/

The Tower is an excellent documentary about the Austin, TX clock tower massacre.

Within the past two weeks there have been two mass shootings in America and nary a peep on the BFC about it, just the same old “good guy with a gun” blah blah blah. The brave and savvy man who killed Charles Whitman was a trained law enforcement officer and he was doing his job.

America does not give a shit about mass death.

We have a staggeringly high incarceration rate, which is basically people put out of commission for a long time...kind of like death but it costs more money and we do not give a shit about that either.
COVID-19 and 1 million dead? Don't care.
So a few kids here and there is nothing to us.
Not happy about that, but that is the way that it is.
However if you want to get Americans to crap themselves, make Taco Bell less accessible due to lack of employees or make it so that there are less Uber drivers due to the price of gas or less services, since we officially switched to a "Service Economy" under Clinton we expect "service" and if we do not get it we feel cheated because we live in a violent place (except for NYC) with high taxes and we are pretty much on our own for health care and other critical services when we cannot get a fucking Taco at 11pm we lose our shit.
Last week I was discussing the idea of a General Strike for the Roe V. Wade thing with some friends. One of them works in advertising and Television and he said that their greatest fear is either no one serving up the ads or no one viewing them. Combine that with a chunk of people not buying stuff or working (the Right always accuses the Left of not wanting to work which for some dumb reason is never challenged) and make it even harder to get a fucking Taco, stuff would get done.
What would get done?
Dunno, Maybe Red Flag laws.
Obviously Red Flag laws can be abused, but we have repealed them before seeing the extent.
A friend of mine in High School was someone I was convinced was gonna shoot up someplace. He was angry and unstable. Now he is just a slightly weird guy living a normal life. The Red Flag law would have gotten his vast cache of guns removed and they would have noticed that he made kill lists on his Apple II computer while sitting on a coffin that was drapped with a swastika flag. ...but you know what? Too fucking bad. He would have gotten a slap for being a weirdo with guns and kill lists.
We have no idea how close he came or what brought him back from whatever edge he was on, In those days if a kid smoked weed or was rumored to smoke week the cops would be called to have a "scared straight" talk with them, but no one gave a shit if a well armed kid made kill lists in Nazi / Death fetish bedroom. ...Now we care but still cannot do anything about it.

[seektravelinfo]

It’s pretty much a given now that any one of us could catch a bullet while picking up light bulbs at Home Depot, or shopping for groceries, or attending a concert or ball game, while pumping gas, enjoying a street festival, riding the subway, worshipping in a church or a mosque or a synagogue …. anywhere. It’s a given that some of our children and grandchildren will be gunned down in their school classrooms.

This is not the pursuit of happiness.

It’s too easy to get guns and there are too fucking many of them.

[Kurt]

Beto O'Rourke was declared to be "Out of Line" today.

As much as I dislike MTG and Lauren Boebert (sp?) I think the example they set for heckling a president at the State of the Union speech is a good one.

Even though I hate them.

Beto did the right thing too.

[Tarkan]

It’s pretty much a given now that any one of us could catch a bullet while picking up light bulbs at Home Depot, or shopping for groceries, or attending a concert or ball game, while pumping gas, enjoying a street festival, riding the subway, worshipping in a church or a mosque or a synagogue …. anywhere. It’s a given that some of our children and grandchildren will be gunned down in their school classrooms.

This is not the pursuit of happiness.

It’s too easy to get guns and there are too fucking many of them.

The white homicide rate pre-Covid was 1.7 per 100k. Post George Floyd and Covid and it’s around 2.0 per 100k. So, the average white person is about 6.5x more likely to die in an automobile accident than catch a bullet. A white female is about 40% as likely as a white male to be the victim of homicide. Drunk drivers are twice as likely to kill the average white person as someone armed with a gun. Heart disease kills 200 per 100k.

Most cops never even fire their guns in anger but you are worried about getting gunned down. Seems a bit irrational, no?

[Kurt]

It’s pretty much a given now that any one of us could catch a bullet while picking up light bulbs at Home Depot, or shopping for groceries, or attending a concert or ball game, while pumping gas, enjoying a street festival, riding the subway, worshipping in a church or a mosque or a synagogue …. anywhere. It’s a given that some of our children and grandchildren will be gunned down in their school classrooms.

This is not the pursuit of happiness.

It’s too easy to get guns and there are too fucking many of them.

The white homicide rate pre-Covid was 1.7 per 100k. Post George Floyd and Covid and it’s around 2.0 per 100k. So, the average white person is about 6.5x more likely to die in an automobile accident than catch a bullet. A white female is about 40% as likely as a white male to be the victim of homicide. Drunk drivers are twice as likely to kill the average white person as someone armed with a gun. Heart disease kills 200 per 100k.

Most cops never even fire their guns in anger but you are worried about getting gunned down. Seems a bit irrational, no?

How many times have you been shot, shot at or had a gun pulled on you in the USA?

I have been shot at once (Waterloo Iowa, 1989) and had a gun pulled on me three times. One by a criminal robbing me and twice by property owners who thought i had tresspassed earlier.

Anyone around 54 years old who does not live in the USA how many times have you been shot, shot at or had a gun pulled on yiu?

[ROB]

Automobiles: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Drunk Drivers: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Heart Disease: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.

This isn't hard.

[Kurt]

Automobiles: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Drunk Drivers: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Heart Disease: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.

This isn't hard.

How many times have you been shot, shot at or had a gun pulled on you in Oz?

[seektravelinfo]

Beto O'Rourke was declared to be "Out of Line" today.

As much as I dislike MTG and Lauren Boebert (sp?) I think the example they set for heckling a president at the State of the Union speech is a good one.

Even though I hate them.

Beto did the right thing too.

Well, I think it’s very bad form for a member of the U.S. Congress to heckle the President during a State of the Union address, like was done to Obama and like what those creepy women did to Biden.
Besides, they were just posturing and grandstanding. Nobody did anything about it.

Beto only interrupted a press conference. He made the point. He got thrown out.

[Tarkan]

Automobiles: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Drunk Drivers: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Heart Disease: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.

This isn't hard.

What makes you think guns aren't actively managed by society, laws, and organizations. I guarantee you we have more gun control laws on the books than we have heart disease laws.

[Tarkan]

It’s pretty much a given now that any one of us could catch a bullet while picking up light bulbs at Home Depot, or shopping for groceries, or attending a concert or ball game, while pumping gas, enjoying a street festival, riding the subway, worshipping in a church or a mosque or a synagogue …. anywhere. It’s a given that some of our children and grandchildren will be gunned down in their school classrooms.

This is not the pursuit of happiness.

It’s too easy to get guns and there are too fucking many of them.

The white homicide rate pre-Covid was 1.7 per 100k. Post George Floyd and Covid and it’s around 2.0 per 100k. So, the average white person is about 6.5x more likely to die in an automobile accident than catch a bullet. A white female is about 40% as likely as a white male to be the victim of homicide. Drunk drivers are twice as likely to kill the average white person as someone armed with a gun. Heart disease kills 200 per 100k.

Most cops never even fire their guns in anger but you are worried about getting gunned down. Seems a bit irrational, no?

How many times have you been shot, shot at or had a gun pulled on you in the USA?

I have been shot at once (Waterloo Iowa, 1989) and had a gun pulled on me three times. One by a criminal robbing me and twice by property owners who thought i had tresspassed earlier.

Anyone around 54 years old who does not live in the USA how many times have you been shot, shot at or had a gun pulled on yiu?

I'm 48 and the only time I have had a gun pulled on me was by cops when I was 18, and not all my misspent youth and adulthood was spent in the gentrified suburbs. I think your experience may be atypical.

[ROB]

Automobiles: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Drunk Drivers: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.
Heart Disease: Potential threat actively managed by society, laws and orgs.

This isn't hard.

What makes you think guns aren't actively managed by society, laws, and organizations. I guarantee you we have more gun control laws on the books than we have heart disease laws.

"actively managed"

Yet your senate won't even allow a vote on background checks.

When was the last time they wouldn't vote on heart disease laws?

[ROB]

And let's face it, there is a LOT more support in the US for background checks than there is for the NRA's position.

Your position is that it's just to get your own way by exploiting a loophole in the democratic system.