Shooting at Texas church

You could go to Walmart on a weeknight and get gunned down.

You could go to church on Sunday afternoon and get gunned down.

This is America in 2017.

Sad state of affairs. Where can you feel safe?

 

Heck of a week. Monday with Sayfullo. Sunday with Devin.

Sayfullo means "sword of Allah" ... Devin means "bard" or "poet"

 

It's not just the amount of guns available in America — which even NRA folks would admit is off the charts compared to other countries.

The amount of hatred is off the charts, too. I don't say this lightly.

Nothing has ever been permanently solved with violence. But a whole lot has been destroyed by it.

 

Seconded. All in favor?

 

I.

Just wonder what acronym he will choose for his next handle. Maybe IAAFI.

 

Axios has this list of 18 worst mass shootings. 10 have occurred since 2007, including the five worst. Until Virginia Tech in 2007, the three worst had been in 1966, 1984 and 1991.

The deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history

So...has something fundamentally changed past 10 years? These have always been part of American life but they weren't always this consistent or deadly. Are there just more of these weapons easily available (I have no idea, asking people who cover this or simply have more knowledge)? Does the drastic change in media account for part of this? I was a kid for the 1984 McDonalds and 1991 Texas cafeteria one and remember seeing them on the nightly news, for probably three or four minutes. Today of course it's constant, everywhere, all the time. We've talked about this here many times -- probably after every one of these -- and I have to believe the coverage does inspire more of these. But like Mod says with the guns, there's no going back with the media coverage. If newspapers or cable TV would go with the no-notoriety there'd still be social media and a billion sites. I don't know if the coverage inspires these people to want to be known, or simply let's them know, hey, this can be done. And gives them numbers to....shoot for.

At the same time, as they become more frequent, as has also been mentioned here, it becomes easier to move on, unfortunately. In a month or two this one will be largely forgotten, until the next one and we figure out if Sutherland Springs remains at No. 5 on this awful list or has been bumped down by the newest atrocity.

I don't fear mass shootings, though, although perhaps I should. When I was talking to my mom after the terrorist attack last week, she said her heart always drops when she hears something happened like that in NYC. I told her what I always do. The chances of a terrorist attack happening in NYC are outrageously low (though obviously higher than back in my hometown). The chances of one happening at a place I frequent are even lower. The odds that one happens at the exact moment I'm in that particular area are infinitesimally low. Similar thing with a mass shooting. It's just that the odds seemingly aren't quite what they were 11 years ago.

 

It isn't a coincidence that so many of these shootings follow a similar MO. These people study previous efforts, what to wear, what to carry. I imagine studying previous shootings is easier with the Internet than it would be asking a librarian for assistance in finding the info.

 

About once a year, someone darkens the door of our church and you can tell right off they're too intense, too challenging, too pushy in a Sunday school class. And after about 3-4 months, they tend to burn out and find some other church to pester.

But each time it happens, you know, I just wonder, if that's the ill adjusted nut who does what this guy did.

I'm always kind of surprised it doesn't happen in more churches, because church is where a lot of "functional" mentally ill people end up, sooner or later.

 

This is an insightful post. Thanks.

 

If he's willing to go meta, I'm guessing DIAF. Or Dr. Moonlight.

 

This comes pretty close to summing up where I’m at with this. We actually have way, way less violent crime in this country than we did 25 years ago. It’s close to a 50-year low. But we have these mass shootings more and more and it’s scary.

But I don’t really understand what’s different. 24-hour news and social media? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem like that can be all of it. We’re more divided politically, but that seems like a more recent development. Guns are an issue, but they’ve always been. I really don’t get why it’s changed.