Posted on 08/05/2019 3:34:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
The latest round of tragic mass-shootings by scumbags-who-will-not-be-named-here – two of them in two days – predictably brings the latest calls to “do something.” Liberals, as usual, politicize such tragedies to call for America to “do something” about guns. Conservatives want to “do something” about violent video games, target hardening, and prayer in schools. And in potential hate-crime cases like the El Paso shooting (in this instance, the shooter’s alleged manifesto included anti-immigrant rhetoric that liberals like Judd Legum insist came “directly from Trump’s Twitter feed”) both sides want to “do something” about white supremacy.
After watching the heartbreaking coverage from El Paso Saturday evening, I certainly understand the sentiment. If only there were a panacea, a magic wand we could wave that would end this sort of thing for good. But sadly, until Jesus comes or the planet explodes, evil will always be with us and will continue to manifest itself in ways that make our hearts break.
But while we’re here, what “something” should we do? Do we listen to the libs and enact draconian gun control laws? Sure, we could tweak some things to try and keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people, but in general trying to take guns from the law-abiding will only serve to make criminals out of millions while doing nothing to keep guns away from actual criminals. Even if we somehow managed to do away with all those “scary” assault-style rifles – none of which are actual assault rifles – evil people would still do evil things with pistols, rifles, and shotguns. And after a few mass shootings with those, it wouldn’t be long before Eric Swalwell and his ilk would be calling to ban all guns, because “common sense gun control” is always a moving goalpost. Succeed in doing that, and evil people will commit heinous acts with knives ... You get the drift. Eventually, when the law-abiding population is entirely defenseless, people will still die, only more of them and one by one as the now-defenseless law abiding are preyed upon by evil people.
Conservatives have the “best” solutions, but those aren’t perfect either. Target hardening is an obvious answer for schools that everyone should get behind, but would it work for every public place? Probably not. A person bent on mayhem can always find the path of least resistance. For many, if not most, shooters those “paths of least resistance” are so-called “gun free zones,” so obviously they should be eliminated. Having an armed, carrying percentage of the populace certainly helps. The Ohio shooter managed to kill nine in a place where police were close and took him down fast, but imagine how much worse that could have been. The Sutherland Springs church shooter was shot by an armed citizen before he could escape to commit more mayhem, and that’s far from the only example.
Gaming companies should definitely look at voluntarily toning down some of their products, but plenty of people play video games and 99.999 percent of those don’t kill anyone because of it. More prayer and religion in general certainly can’t hurt, especially given that we were a more religious country decades ago and there weren’t nearly as many mass shootings.
Regarding the El Paso shooter in particular – as someone who has written extensively about mass immigration from the Third World being a negative thing on the whole for a lot of logical reasons but who also hasn’t had the slightest inclination to murder anyone or even to look crossly at a fellow human being who happens to be Hispanic, the fact that this piece of human filth managed – if that was indeed his manifesto – to string together a few barely coherent thoughts about immigration being bad angers me to my core. Not only did he take innocent lives, but he also damaged any cause he purported to champion.
Yet, should we blame Trump or anti-immigration folks for this loser’s actions? Only a fool would say yes. After all, James Hodgkinson, the Congressional baseball game shooter, was a Bernie Sanders supporter who said Donald Trump "destroyed democracy." Are anti-Trump Bernie supporters at fault for that one? The Dayton, Ohio gunman who killed nine on Sunday allegedly was a left-wing Antifa supporter, but as bad as Antifa is, should we blame them for his actions?
Yes, “white supremacy” is bad and should be countered, but anyone who thinks it’s (whatever “it” is) the root cause of such shootings should remember that, by their definition, virtually the entire country was “white supremacist” 60 years ago, yet rarely saw shootings like this. In the end, ideology – whatever it may be – is just an excuse for demented, evil people to do demented, evil things.
At any rate, if those aren’t the solution, then what is? There’s no panacea, but here’s something we COULD do that’s not mentioned enough. How about good old-fashioned deterrence? We could make the punishment for domestic terrorism so draconian, so dreaded, so severe that even those intending to go out in a blaze of glory would question whether or not to risk it because of the hell they’ll catch if they are caught alive.
Treat all mass shooters, regardless of the reason, as domestic terrorists. Then, treat all domestic terrorists like ISIS terrorists, revoke their citizenship, and ship their asses to Guantanamo Bay. And when they get there, no book reading or sitting around. From the crack of dawn until dusk, it’s chains and cracking rocks, interrupted only long enough to eat some moldy bread and gulp down some barely drinkable water.
But doesn’t the Constitution forbid “cruel and unusual punishment?” Indeed it does, but what constituted “cruel and unusual” back in 1776? They certainly didn’t have air conditioning, or electricity, or running, much less filtered water. Fine, we won’t beat them with canes, but bread and water and cracking rocks from sunup to sundown seems like something a prisoner in early America would have been subjected to without violating any statutes against the punishment being “cruel” or “unusual.” And besides, it’s Guantanamo and they aren’t citizens anymore anyway, right?
Oh, and stream that stuff on YouTube as a deterrent to anyone who thinks they might want to pull this garbage again. The ad revenue alone would pay the cost of upkeep and also help support the victims’ families. It’s a win-win.
If hell exists, it can’t be hot enough for evil like this. But in the meantime, we can be sure the mass shooters who survive and are caught get to experience hell on earth for every remaining day of their pathetic, miserable lives.
Another freeper pointed out one of the biggest “mass shooting” was in 1890 when 250 people were shot and killed by soldiers of the US Army. Which is why FMCDH.
I think the funny thing about the El Paso shooter is he was a libtard Antifa type who wanted to shoot brown people to prevent global warming. But he is the reason Democrats think we should be disarmed.
Cruise will likely receive the death penalty. The state prosecutor will be seeking it for the 20 murders, after the Feds get done with him.He announced this on Fox News.
FMCDH?
Meaning? and curious why you don’t just print the words?
If we could take guns out of the hands of Democrats, there would be no shootings.
“The Dayton, Ohio gunman who killed nine on Sunday allegedly was a left-wing Antifa supporter, but as bad as Antifa is, should we blame them for his actions?”
Yes, we should.
L
I can not beleive there is a freeper who needs FMCDH spelled out. I refuse to beleive it.
“From ...”
No clue what it means. I think he/she uses initials because he’s woke? You know, hip? Well, either that or in middle school...
Long-range, “do something”.
Acquaint ALL children of school age with the reality of firearms. Starting in the primary grades, instructions on how to AVOID being accidentally shot by an unsecured handgun they may happen upon. Also, allow the RETURN of fingerbang and toy guns, cap pistols and air rifles to the access of those in the early years of school, so guns do not retain an air of mystery that may be totally fascinating to the young mind. With the acceptance of these devices, it is also necessary to make sure the children have also been fully informed of the responsibilities of safe use and proper care of these devices, and rules of conduct while handling them, even in play. The idea here is to identify at a much earlier age those children who may either be totally afraid of the very idea of hand weapons, or so brazen that they far too quickly adopt the idea of using this kind of device in bullying tactics, which they would quickly reveal. The eternally timid should be given further instruction in means of avoidance, evasion, or how to escape once in a highly vulnerable situation. Also tattoo their Social Security number and name on some part of their anatomy, so the remains may be quickly identified, should they be so unfortunate. For the brazen bullies that WILL cause trouble later in life, counseling and/or psychiatric intervention at this stage may be a way to forecast or forestall future need for intervention, when the situation is much more serious.
For the remainder of the more normally-orientated children in middle school, familiarity with all types of side arms is much encouraged, with even some target practice with light-caliber sidearms, and by the time they are in high school, competitive range firing with specified skill levels as part of the school curriculum.
Guns become totally demystified, being a thing in which youth is in full contact with, and all the rules of care, feeding, grooming and proper use and storage have been instilled in the responsible youth, while identifying at a much earlier age those of whom should NEVER come into contact with weaponry of any kind.
Like I said, long-term, to first overcome the prejudices, and to make sure the NEXT generation is adequately prepared to be available for military training and careers in law enforcement, as well as common home defense. And to weed out the bad actors long before they may develop into a threat.
Of course, there would be some who would want to blow this proposal up into something sinister immediately, and I can only say, superstition is a dreadful taskmaster.
I could reduce this mass shooting and inner city gun crime by 90% instantly but nothing will be done.
So tell me why please cant we have a law that says any person who premeditates a crime with the use of a gun and shoots a person should not be shot by firing squad and youtube or liveleak it to the public.
It sure would reduce prison population, mostly because scumbags would think twice before committing any such crime.
second amendment supporters wont object as it does not infringe on the rights of the law abiding.
only liberals would object because its “cruel”, to them I say you have tried all sorts of laws to reduce gun crime and where they have the most laws they have the most crime so your ideas that criminals will obey any new laws is ridiculous.
So if the first shooter who is alive still was to be publicly executed within a week after a speedy trial of course I bet that would reduce the urge to copy cat that.
And I think any prison time anyone gets should be spent doing hard labor for the first half of their time and education and vocational rehab for the second half.
I’m with you Hatteras
Acronym Definition
FMCDH From My Cold Dead Hands
Means the same as “Molon labe” but in English.
I guess you guys have never heard of Charlton Heston?
Anyone catch USA Today’s page 3 claiming 249 mass shootings in 215 days? What bunk.
Te writer misses this entire point. Mass shootings are political statements made by leftists or by jihadists. Conservatives are never involved. On extremely rare occasions right wing zealots are guilty of mass shootings.
Conservatives by and large are guided by their religious faith. That faith is typically Christianity which is opposed to murder.
Jihadists are admonished by their faith leaders to murder. Leftists typically have no religious core to their lives. They do whatever they believe they need to do to advance their personal or political beliefs.
The current two killers are both motivated by Antifa. This is a violent left wing political group attempting to bring down our president and conservative culture by any means necessary.
If we want to end mass murders we must deligitamize left wing politics.
The America that did not have such crimes, implemented Justice as a deterrent.
For some reason, my Grandparent’s generation became filled with compassion for murderers, rapists and child-molesters.
I think it had something to do with the Masons, but I don’t know.
I’ve always thought that those who feel that way are secretly glad that they were not caught.
That’s exactly right. You’re referring to the massacre at the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation in December 1890. It was called “the Battle of Wounded Knee” in our history books for decades — until even the U.S. military realized how preposterous it was to call it a “battle” when most of the casualties were women and children. The government even gave out 20 Medals of Honor to the perpetrators of that war crime.
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