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meegbear

(25,438 posts)
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 07:06 AM Oct 2015

The Rude Pundit - Ten More

I can remember when the McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California, happened in 1984. I can remember that my family was on vacation when we heard that a man with a gun killed 21 people at the fast food restaurant, including kids, the worst mass shooting in the nation up to that point. We've topped it three times since. But I remember the utter shock, the abject horror I felt, thinking about those families, thinking about them helpless.

I can remember when a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, was shot up by one man, with a death toll of 23. That was in October 1991, and I heard about it on the news that night. It stuck with me because I had been to Killeen, and I had eaten at that Luby's, so I knew the space, knew what it was like to be there, could picture the different places where I could have hidden if I had been there.

I no longer remember where I am when I hear about the latest nightmare massacre in the United States. I am no longer shocked enough by their occurrence. And that makes me so sorrowful because that means I've become so numb to all of this that it barely registers beyond "Oh, what is it this time? What variation on the nightmare is it?"

The at-least ten people who were gunned down near Roseburg, Oregon, are victims of the shooter, yes. But this nation is filled to overflow with complicit criminals. At this point, if you are someone who doesn't believe in greater gun regulation you are an accomplice. No, let's go further: you are a murderer. If we're executing people who were in the room when someone was killed by another or planned someone's death, then anyone who opposes and works against tighter gun laws is guilty of murder in the same way, by facilitating it, by making it easier for the murder to occur, by creating the circumstances by which murder happens.

(Speaking of, if you want to make yourself sick to needing to vomit, read the alleged 4Chan posts by the shooter warning that something was going to happen, as well as the responses of others encouraging him to kill and then cheering when he did.)

We've given up so much in the United States to people who are wrong. Not just opinion wrong, but actually wrong. We know that stricter gun laws lead to fewer gun deaths. This is a fact. We know that states with loose gun laws have a higher rate of gun violence. This is a fact. These facts should make a rational society do something.

Instead, we're told that such facts don't matter. Instead, we've been forced to just suck it up after every massacre, whether it's children or college students or restaurant patrons, because of the cowardly inaction of our legislators. We're told that our guns will keep us safe. No, they won't. And you're a fool who will get yourself or somebody else killed if you believe that.

Like President Obama essentially said today, I'm just so tired of allowing the fools to even be allowed a place in our public discourse. If we don't treat the fools and cowards like fools and cowards, then we are damned to go through this again. And again. Repeat endlessly.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-bakers-dozen-more.html

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The Rude Pundit - Ten More (Original Post) meegbear Oct 2015 OP
Let's just keep doing the same thing, America. LuvNewcastle Oct 2015 #1
For sure sharing this on fb. Bohunk68 Oct 2015 #2
"We've given up so much in the United States to people who are wrong" phantom power Oct 2015 #3
Wow... San Ysidro... I had almost forgotten about that one. The_Commonist Oct 2015 #4
Tom Tomorrow - "Oh well, maybe next massacre." paparush Oct 2015 #5
K&R! stonecutter357 Oct 2015 #6
K & R mountain grammy Oct 2015 #7
Thank you for a well-written essay. You are spot on. Frustratedlady Oct 2015 #8
. riderinthestorm Oct 2015 #9
K&R dae Oct 2015 #10
Complicit. There's a keyword for the debate . . . Journeyman Oct 2015 #11

LuvNewcastle

(16,820 posts)
1. Let's just keep doing the same thing, America.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 07:51 AM
Oct 2015

Maybe we'll start getting different results all of a sudden.

Bohunk68

(1,364 posts)
2. For sure sharing this on fb.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:22 AM
Oct 2015

This is the first time that I have read one of Rude's messages that wasn't laced with self-righteous profanity. Not that that bothers the shit out of me, but it did bother some who I shared his stuff with. He's right on the fucking money.

phantom power

(25,966 posts)
3. "We've given up so much in the United States to people who are wrong"
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:49 AM
Oct 2015

If that doesn't sum up the last 40 years of conservative assault on our nation's character, I don't know what does.

The_Commonist

(2,518 posts)
4. Wow... San Ysidro... I had almost forgotten about that one.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:54 AM
Oct 2015

That was over 30 years ago. Sheesh.
That would've been one of the first of these kinds of mass shootings, certainly the first one I was aware of.
A buddy and I were in a band at the time, and wrote a song that began:

"Newspaper headlines trying to please
There's a massacre at Mickey D's..."

And we haven't done a god-damned thing about since that time.
This country is fucking sick...

Frustratedlady

(16,254 posts)
8. Thank you for a well-written essay. You are spot on.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 09:59 AM
Oct 2015

I'm so angry with congress and the NRA, at this point, I can't see straight. Not only do I mourn for the victims and their families, but I worry about my own family members...many being teachers. This madness must stop.

We are basically herding children into a shooting range and we have no idea where the next mass shooting will occur...we just know it will!

 

riderinthestorm

(23,272 posts)
9. .
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 10:01 AM
Oct 2015
At this point, if you are someone who doesn't believe in greater gun regulation you are an accomplice. No, let's go further: you are a murderer.


Agreed



Journeyman

(15,001 posts)
11. Complicit. There's a keyword for the debate . . .
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:47 PM
Oct 2015

They're not protecting rights, they're facilitating wrongs.

Port Arthur points the way for rectification. Somehow we have to find our way . . .

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