Suspected Colorado gunman joked about school shootings, friend says – CNN

From the article:

One of the suspects in the deadly Colorado school shooting is a bully who joked about shootings and threatened other students for years, a former friend said.

Source: Suspected Colorado gunman joked about school shootings, friend says – CNN

It’s not really shocking that the main instigator in the shooting was a young man that traded in violent threats and bullying. If you look back to the Columbine shooting, it’s much the same, despite the mythology of it all.

In fact, if you want a really good break down, Ask a Mortician does one of the best I’ve seen. She breaks it down in under under 14 minutes, how the mythology is so incredibly off base to what really happened.

Having another school shooting isn’t shocking in this country because there will always be violent young men, and we give them far too much access to guns. It’s that simple. Guns expedite the process of murder.

The shooting takes an unusual twist in that the second boy in the shooting was transgender. 

In all the usual news sources, this has become something of a sensationalistic point. Conservative hate-sites are just boiling over with this tidbit of news. In reality, transgender men have similar crime patterns as cis men.

As a transgender man, it’s sad to see someone going through what I have choose to become a fucking murderer. I know it’s going to end up used as a sensationalistic talking point by those that want to attack transgender people. It’s even possible that this might poke a hole in the invisible curtain that hides transgender men from view, culturally. It’s not exactly the kind of representation I was hoping for.

In all, I don’t have a lot of empathy towards anyone that engages in violence, even someone from my own community.

I am so tired of these events happening, and out lawmakers putting up their hands to give “thoughts and prayers” and not actually fixing the issue.

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20 Years After Columbine, Fed’s Background Checks Haven’t Stopped Mass Shootings : NPR

From the article:

And in the two decades since, the federal government says it has conducted more than hundreds of millions of background checks. With critical shortcomings in the system, though, mass shootings continue happening in the U.S.

“The weakness of the NICS system is talked about mostly in the wake of a tragic shooting, which happens more often than not,” says Stephen Morris, a former FBI assistant director for the Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which oversees NICS.

Source: 20 Years After Columbine, Fed’s Background Checks Haven’t Stopped Mass Shootings : NPR

This seems about right. The system that does these checks has been denied funding, and research to be more effective.

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Secrecy, Self-Dealing, and Greed at the N.R.A. | The New Yorker

From the article:

Marc Owens, who served for ten years as the head of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees tax-exempt enterprises, recently reviewed these records. “The litany of red flags is just extraordinary,” he said. “The materials reflect one of the broadest arrays of likely transgressions that I’ve ever seen. There is a tremendous range of what appears to be the misuse of assets for the benefit of certain venders and people in control.” Owens added, “Those facts, if confirmed, could lead to the revocation of the N.R.A.’s tax-exempt status”—without which the organization could likely not survive.

Source: Secrecy, Self-Dealing, and Greed at the N.R.A. | The New Yorker

Well, this is not shocking that this is an organization that fans the flames of fear that the government will try to take guns, and uses it to raise funds that the leadership then loots for their own.

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Gun Control Law Passed: Pittsburgh Restricts Use Of Assault-Style Weapons : NPR

From the article:

The mayor signed a set of gun control bills that were introduced after the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue last October. Supporters faced immediate opposition from gun rights advocates.

Source: Gun Control Law Passed: Pittsburgh Restricts Use Of Assault-Style Weapons : NPR

This is noteworthy because it will send the entire kit and caboodle to court again. Pittsburg tried this 20 years ago and the judge said only state capitals can regulate guns. They set this up knowing they were going up against the NRA and it’s cash funded court challenges.

I hope they win.

After the Parkland shooting, NRA official reached out to Sandy Hook denier to discuss possibility that it was an anti-gun conspiracy / Boing Boing

From the article:

After the Parkland shooting, NRA official reached out to Sandy Hook denier to discuss possibility that it was an anti-gun conspiracy

Source: After the Parkland shooting, NRA official reached out to Sandy Hook denier to discuss possibility that it was an anti-gun conspiracy / Boing Boing

This is just unethical. Oh my god. The NRA is a horror show.

How to sell a massacre: NRA’s playbook revealed | Australia News | Al Jazeera

From the article:

Three-year undercover sting reveals how US’ National Rifle Association handles public opinion after deadly gun attacks.

The NRA’s playbook on mass shootings came to light during the course of a three-year undercover sting by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit. Rodger Muller, an Australian undercover reporter who infiltrated the gun lobbies in the US and Australia, used a hidden camera to record a series of meetings between representatives of the NRA and One Nation in Washington, DC in September last year.

The secretly filmed footage provides a rare inside view of how the NRA deliberates over mass shootings and seeks to manipulate media coverage to push its pro-gun agenda.

Source: How to sell a massacre: NRA’s playbook revealed | Australia News | Al Jazeera

This is pretty horrible, but not surprising. It’s clear that they spend a lot of time on the media and trying to manipulate coverage of anything remotely gun related.

It’s bad enough we have these nut jobs here, but it looks like America is also big on exporting that shit.

Another Parkland Survivor Takes His Own Life

From the article:

A Coral Springs police spokesman told the newspaper that the student, a juvenile, was a sophomore at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and died on Saturday night. His name and age have not been released.

Ryan Petty, the father of 14-year-old freshman Alaina Petty, who was killed in the Parkland shooting, told the Herald that the student died Saturday of a gunshot wound.

Source: Another Parkland Survivor Takes His Own Life

I am so very sorry for the families, and the victims. This kind of thing does not go away after the dust settles, tragedies like Parkland stay with people long after the camera’s stop hounding them.

Teachers Should NOT Be Shot at With Plastic Pellets During Active-Shooter Trainings, But Apparently It Must Be Said

From the article:

While New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday that the country would ban semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles in response to the horrific mass shootings at two mosques in the country, this week we learned how one elementary school in Monticello, Indiana responded to our country’s mass shooting problem: by holding an active-shooter training exercise that ended up injuring teachers after they were shot in the back by plastic pellets.

Source: Teachers Should NOT Be Shot at With Plastic Pellets During Active-Shooter Trainings, But Apparently It Must Be Said

The White County Sheriff’s department literally shot pellet guns at the teachers in a training exercise. They made them face a wall, and sprayed them at close enough range with pellet guns to bruise and break the skin.

What the ever loving fuck was wrong with them? I really feel when it comes to guns America is becoming a weird parody of itself.

Republicans Wear Pearls to Mock Mothers for Gun Control | The Mary Sue

From the article:

In the wake of near-constant mass killings and school shootings, many Americans are supporting gun control reform. Groups like Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety have campaigned tirelessly to close loopholes in current gun laws and enact more common sense gun safety regulations. Even teens are speaking up and making their voices heard, as we’ve seen from the remarkable students of Stoneman Douglas High School.

These earnest pleas for gun control and safety have been met with scorn and derision by the NRA, Fox News, and Republicans.

Republicans continue to cruelly mock gun violence survivors, and this case seems particularly egregious and vicious. Today in the New Hampshire State House, several Republican state reps sported pearl necklaces during a meeting at the House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.

The pearls were intended to mock the mother of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization of women devoted to gun control reform. Because ladies are always clutching their pearls, right fellas?

Source: Republicans Wear Pearls to Mock Mothers for Gun Control | The Mary Sue

Just who thinks up this shit, and thinks wearing pearls to mock women that have lost children is a good idea? I mean, even if you are opposed to any gun control laws at all, why would you think that was a good idea? Are these people complete morons? Talk about callous and cruel.

Arrested Coast Guard Officer Allegedly Planned Attack ‘On A Scale Rarely Seen’ : NPR

From the article:

Christopher Paul Hasson, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, allegedly wanted to “kill every last person on earth” in a crusade to establish a “white homeland.” He is being held without bond.

Source: Arrested Coast Guard Officer Allegedly Planned Attack ‘On A Scale Rarely Seen’ : NPR

I was sitting on this hoping for more information, but it doesn’t look like we are getting more yet.

His list of targets:

In addition to Pelosi, Hasson was allegedly considering some type of violent assault on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand and Richard Blumenthal, along with U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters and former House member, Beto O’Rourke. The spreadsheet list also included MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough, as well as Don Lemon and Van Jones from CNN.

He is a fascist Nazi. That isn’t hyperbole. He literally sought out information on these movements.

He also took Tramadol. A lot of it.

I have been hearing for over a decade that racist nazi/alt-right/old skinheads/etc have been going into the military. This guy joined the Marines in 1988 and stayed until 1993. Then he joined the National Guard for 2 years.

It defies belief that nobody in the armed forces knew this guy was a virulent violent racist in all that time, with his long and storied history with the white racist movements he was a part of.

At least they caught this one.