Another day, another mass shooting [NOT 24/5/22]

Michael Bluth from Arrested Development with quote "I don't know what I expected"
I really don't know what I expected

Welp I didn’t know what I was going to write about for tonight’s NOT. Then I saw the WaPo alert about this school shooting in Texas at the same time of day I was watching the high schoolers walk home and I really don’t have anything else to think about right now.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/texas-elementary-school-shooting-05-24-22/index.html

Of course the racist dickweeds on my local news facebook page are commenting things like “the shooter was running from boarder control!” (typo intentional) or “he was an illegal immigrant” etc etc.

Anyways, as of 5pm CST, death count is 14 elementary school kids, 1 teacher, the shooter’s grandmother, and the shooter are dead.

MSNBC said the Buffalo shooting had previously been the deadliest mass shooting of this year. I guess we only needed a few days to smash that record for 2022.

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46 Comments

    • i was going to say you were early..but hey it made the news here too…thats pretty rare

      i mean shit…what do you want me to say?

      i’m across the pond looking in

      apparently this shit is just normal to yous and nothing to do with guns

      tbh…i got bored of saying all that shit about 1300 mass shootings ago

      if you dont care..why should i?

      (and no i dont mean you personally)

      (does kind of remind me of a funny thing tho….9/11…america lost its fucking shit…ruined airtravel forever….and invaded a country that probably wasnt to blame..and this shit happens at home and you do nothing)

      i mean….its hard to not shrug

      • I would specify republicans don’t care. They’re the party preventing any legislation anything close to the rational gun control that other nations uses.

        But yes, it’s the same way that I was like well of course republicans don’t care about baby formula shortage or how many more kids could die whenever they hold back benefits that would help families in poverty. Because they already don’t care if kids get murdered in schools, why would they care about anything else.

        • …the part that really fucks with me though is that even allowing for the piss poor tribal instincts of the too-far-gone-to-see-it contingent of republican voters…this shit…very much in common with the baby formula thing…is misery that right the way up the party hierarchy they haven’t just courted but actively pursued things at every turn to exacerbate the likelihood of

          …I feel like there’s probably a word for that…but maybe only in german or something?

          • I had to use an online German translator site to jog my memory but there may be a German word for this. To intentionally bring misery = absichtlich Elend [or Unglück] bringen, so theoretically there could be a political party devoted to this, in which case it would be Die Absichtlichelendbringender/n Partei.

            • Japanese, not German this time, Cousin Matty!😉💖

              Warugi would be a great fit, here are some definitions;

              https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/japanese-word-5b391f945c72d2eccc9656b23def4b87f2957ebf.html

              https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2017/07/21/expressing-bad-intentions-in-japanese-and-%e3%80%8c%e6%82%aa%e6%b0%97%e3%80%8d-warugi/

              (I’ve typically found that if the word i need doesn’t exist in English, and there isn’t a perfect one in German, either, I can usually find what I need in Japanese😉😁💖)

               

              • I should have considered Japanese. I have a friend who worked for a company that grew by leaps and bounds and expanded internationally. She was employee #10, I think. They had offices around the globe and wanted some of the originals to go to the new offices to help out to make sure that people in these various far-off lands got what they were trying to do. She got Tokyo. She became preternaturally fluent in Japanese, never having studied it, and used to tell me all kinds of Japanese terms she picked up, and yours is a prime example. I can’t now remember any real-life examples, but they were very technical, as if there was a verb to express the presentation of a gift to a family member who is related by marriage, not by blood.

                Also, like the Germans, they’re great adopters of foreign terms, so we would play a game where she would pronounce a word adopted from English and I would have to guess what it was. There’s something about the Japanese language where they insert vowel sounds to break up multi-syllabic words, I remember that, and again no real-life examples spring to mind, but it would be like if the word for bloodhound were something like blood-a-hoond-u.

                I find all of this fascinating. My university offered a major in linguistics and I should have gone for it.

      • The Supreme Court, because it has little else to do, will soon bring a case that could strike down some gun control laws, I think refers to something about concealed carry. That means you can have a gun stashed somewhere on your person, which is now illegal in New York. Naturally, New Yorkers (and I think residents of many big cities) are kind of appalled that the decision will probably be decided to strike down local laws forbidding this.

        The problem is, I think concealed carry is only OK if the gun is legal, meaning registered to you, I think. In Texas guns must be pretty easy to get legally. In New York, almost impossible. If you could somehow round up 10oo New Yorkers with a gun, I bet 999 would be illegal, and the sole legal one would be in the possession of a retired police officer who testified in various drug gang cases and is allowed to keep his service weapon for their protection. Seriously, that’s how difficult it is.

        But that’s legally, though. The people in New York who have guns tend not to focus too much on such niceties, so personally I don’t know how this law will really change anything here. I think this is really geared more toward the gun-loving states where people legally possess all kinds of firearms and are pissed off that they can’t bring them into the grocery store or the dentist appointment with them. I may be completely wrong but that’s how I understand it.

      • Invaded *a* country that had nothing to do with it?!?

        TWO countries, Farscy, two.

        Rather than going after the Saudis who funded 9-11, we invaded both Iraq *and* Afghanistan….

        Just to eveeeentually find Bin Laden living in “a million dollar compound” in Pakistan.

        🙃

        • my bad lol

          but yeah….that was a hell of a response to a one off

          could get a lot of shit done if yous found even half the enthusiasm to react to school shootings

          • We definitely could!!

            Buuuuuut that would imply that my fellow Americans outside of Deadsplinter are willing to learn from the experiences of nations like Australia, Canada, & the UK, and, wellllll….

            We can’t have those countries “who don’t even speak real English” telling us what to do…

            Or something.🙃😕🥴

  1. I have some words …. FUCK THE 2ND AMMENDMENT.

    • Good words!  I’ve got a few more.  Fuck the NRA & every fucking Rethug!  I have a niece that is an elementary teacher pretty close to that school.  I was freaking out when I saw the news.

  2. 10 yrs since Sandy hook, and we’ve learned nothing.

      • Oh, I don’t think anyone is arguing that it isn’t worse now than it was.

  3. I remember fire drills, earthquake drills, and tornado drills. I didn’t have to worry about things aside from that. Tornados felt like the scariest thing in the bunch, but you have sirens and bad weather warnings.

    I really can’t imagine being like a 7 yr old and having to do active shooter drills.

    • My daughters grew up having to do them & now they hate guns.  I hope that is the most common effect but with how much the news will glorify it, I assume it will just inspire the next one to kill more people.

      • And you know, we actually had a fire in the school when I was in 7th grade. Before the fire alarms even started going off, a teacher across the hall started yelling “go go get out of here go” and we thought she was being sassy with the class clown until we saw those 8th graders go running out of the room. Our teacher looked out the hallway, and then told us to go out like a fire drill, and then a moment later the fire alarm started.

        A fluorescent light fixture had exploded and the ceiling caught fire. All we had to do was get out of the school with nothing blocking us and get to the parking lot and line up.

        There wasn’t any existential fear that we wouldn’t make it safely out of the building. There was nothing trying to kill us on the way out. We didn’t really worry it would happen again, the school brought in electricians to check the rest of the lights. It was just a freak accident.

        That’s entirely different than what kids nowadays have to mentally deal with at school.

    • Columbine was in 1999. There are people who are approaching thirty who started doing them in kindergarten, my nieces and nephews among them, and continued doing them through college. I feel like I lived during a golden age where our elementary school had a fallout shelter and we were shown where it was but that was pro forma, the “duck and cover” era had ended, and even by the time I graduated college school shooting were not on anyone’s radar.

      • I was in high school in 1999 and the mentality after Columbine was that it was a horrible tragedy but wouldn’t happen at our school because we were an all girls school and that sort of thing was a boy problem.

        Which like… I can’t think of a school shooter that was female so maybe the nuns were on to something? I am sure there’s been plenty of girls who have taken guns to school and shot a person, but not like the mass shooting that we’re looking at today.

    • We do them in my ECSE program.

      3 & 4 year olds.

      Luckily in our program, it’s not really something most of the *kids* notice–it’s mostly just to build the muscle-memory of those of us who are adults–so that WE know what to do, to try & keep as many kids safe/alive as we can.

      But I WILL tell you, that after having missed some things–like removing the magnet that covers our door latch on the door frame, which allows the door to be closed-but-not-locked, during my first drill…. and realizing that we would have ALL been dead in that room, in the event of an actual shooter, I now look at EVERY classroom, bathroom, gym, cafeteria, etc I go into, at ANY site I’m sent to, and assess the safest places/corners/angles, if I had to keep any of my kids or myself safe.😕

  4. Only the gun manufacturers have gotten richer thanks to the misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment.

    • …there’s been some conspicuously well padded campaign coffers along the way…not the least of which turned out to be russian money filtered through the NRA as I recall

  5. …don’t even know where to start, really…killed his grandmother, then went out into the world & it seems had already encountered law enforcement before the school entered into things…not sure quite what parts are speculation at that point but at least some versions would appear to have had the shooting start before things got to the school…either way it would appear that those good guys with guns weren’t enough to prevent this

    …& that at least one GOP shill has already dusted off the “but if the teacher had been armed…” talking point

    …so…I’m not sure speechless is the word…but I’m pretty sure I lack the words to fully express how very fucking far from ok I find all this?

    • 2 cops got fucking shot. Trained professionals.

      Random teacher trying their best with a pistol while also terrified for the safety of their students doesn’t stand a chance.

      • …it’s just a terrible argument any way you look at it…& yet the part where they wheel it out all the same is dismally predictable

        …it’s got to a point…or I suppose long ago passed the point might be more accurate…where the degree of batshit insane a proposal is upon even the slightest reflection bears literally zero weight in the calculation as to whether it makes political sense as a means by which to signal you’re the opposite of pro common sense on the subject of gun control

        …pretty sure I read somewhere that upwards of 20 states have partially or completely done away with requiring permits (in at least some cases including for concealed carry) & a number have been ratcheting down the minimum age at which you can own various sorts of firearms…making the likes of this most recently deceased 18yr old mass shooter eligible to get tooled up

        …apparently estimates are that there’s now more than 1 gun per capita in the US…& supposedly between the late 60s & (I think) 2017 more people died because they got shot just generally around & about in the US than the sum total of all deaths of americans in wars from the one for independence clear through to today

        …& despite the part where these kinds of god-forsaken tragedies feel like the worst thing about all that…I think statistically speaking the majority of that death toll is comprised of suicides

        …I guess it’s no wonder russia thought the NRA was a perfect avenue through which to pursue its interests…by 2016 that may have been the institution with a claim to having waged a more lethal war on the US population than any foreign power has ever achieved

        • Oh Missouri is one of those states.

          They were so busy masturbating to the 2nd Amendment and getting rid of anything between Murricans and guns that they passed legislation a few years ago doing away with licensing requirements for concealed carry, etc.

          And then the sheriffs and police departments were like hey so now felons can legally buy guns and ahh did you mean for that to happen because this is probably not ideal?

          • This is the thing about right wing bullshit.  They are perfectly happy to attack any of their erstwhile allies the minute those allies start complaining about the unintended consequences of said bullshit.  Whether it’s law enforcement and gun laws (or the lack thereof), or huge corporations and civil rights laws, Republicans waste zero time turning on the very same groups that support them.

        • Exactly (regarding war waged via the NRA in support of what becomes self-terrorism. And yet another so very heartbreaking tragedy. We are a terrible country; I vote, I am politically active, and I am powerless…every other 1st world country deals with gun control.

  6. How are we supposed to go about with our lives? How do we sit down for dinner without thinking about all the empty seats at the table tonight? How do we lay our heads down on our pillows without thinking of the babies who won’t be waking up in the morning? How do we shop for groceries, sit in movie theaters, restaurants and offices, concert halls, places of worship, and schools without fearing for our lives?

    I’m sick with grief, anger, and bitterness.

    • I gave up hope years ago.  None of this will change, except to get worse.  All I can do is get up, breathe in and out, and do what’s in front of me.  It’s the only way I’ve been able to avoid being paralyzed with all this bullshit.

  7. So, there was a shooting on the Q train into Manhattan on Sunday. Nutcase pulls a gun and shoots a 48 yr old man in the chest who was just on his way to brunch in the city. Only today did the nutcase turn himself in. The two were complete strangers and had no interaction at all.

     

    Whether you’re on a subway, or in class in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, you are not safe in this country.

  8. I want to open a gun nut range where gun nuts can show how manly they are by dueling with each other.  Let’s make this problem solve itself.  If you think you are so badass with a gun, prove it!  I’ll even offer big cash prizes!

    • Also, we are now up to 18 dead children according to my local news.

  9. I can’t any more with this shit.  It hurts my head so much I can’t think of anything to say that would be worthwhile.  I love you all and will see you tomorrow.

    • We all love you as well Luigi. And always thank you for sharing your dear animals with us.

  10. My oldest son was 6 months old when Columbine happened. I remember watching the news with a friend who also had a young baby and both of us in absolute shock. We were both 18. I have been terrified of school shootings for the entirety of my adult life… I can’t even imagine how these poor kids feel who have to live with the reality of it their entire lives. And I’m trying not to think about the pain that the parents and survivors will be experiencing for the rest of their lives, because if I think too much about it, I will just break down.

    I have words. I have a lot of them, mostly for the fuckers that keep letting this happen. The problem is, they’re all buried under the lump in my throat.

  11. Show me one coach in any other sport with courage enough to say this?  NFL?  No fucking way!  Baseball?  GTFO!

    https://mobile.twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1529244556251779072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529244556251779072%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fsports%2Flebron-james-sports-world-reacts-after-elementary-school-mass-shooting-in-texas-224255854.html

    • For the folks who aren’t hoops fans, Kerr was born & largely raised in Lebanon–his dad was a scholar.

      When Steve was 18, and playing basketball at Arizona, (a position made possible, by his dad reaching out to staff there), Mr. Kerr (Steve’s dad) was the president of American University Beirut… He was murdered (shot in the back of the head, outside his office), by members of an pro-Iran group called Islamic Holy War.

      This article gets onto ot, and it REALLY good;

      https://www.latimes.com/sports/nba/la-sp-steve-kerr-dwyre-20150602-column.html

      Also, FWIW, Kerr was a HELL of a great basketball player, his stat lines are WILD. IIRC, he only had something like 20 starts, in 1000 or so games played? But he has FIVE championship rings from his time with the Bulls & Spurs… AND the man is a vocal advocate of not just gun safety, he’s an actual ally for LGBTQIA issues and BIPOC folks.  He’s a GOOD man.

  12. Not Sheldon but one of his relatives that I snorkeled with. I think I’ll take Sheldon for a walk today and chew grass. Yeah, both of us.

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