Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Monday, May 8, 2023

Our American Culture




Six year old William Cho is the only surviving member of his family after they visited the Allen, Texas, mall Saturday. 

According to a family friend, William's parents, Cindy and Kyu Cho, and his three-year-old brother, James, were three of the eight killed in the mass shooting.









Feds Eye Neo-Nazi Extremism in Texas Massacre by Ex-Guard 

 Mauricio Garcia, 33, reportedly posted and consumed neo-Nazi content online before his mall rampage. The gunman who murdered eight people and wounded seven others at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas, was identified Sunday as a 33-year-old former security guard named Mauricio Garcia whose social media accounts suggested an interest in neo-Nazi ideology.

 




2023 alone: 

14,500 people killed by guns in 126 days 

200 mass shootings in 126 days 

614 kids killed by guns in 126 days






"A new study published in Journal of the American Medical Association’s Surgery found that firearm deaths are more likely in small rural towns than in major urban cities, adding to research that contradicts common belief that Democratic blue areas have higher incidences of gun-related deaths than do Republican red districts. 

 Researchers from Children’s Hospital Philadelphia, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of California examined two decades of mortality rates and cause-of-death data from the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Vital Statistics System to compile the study. 

 A Third Way report found that between 2000 and 2020, Trump-voting states had 12% higher murder rates than did Biden-voting cities."



We have a murder problem in America — especially in red states 


 "And to top it off, the homicide rate in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) San Francisco was half that of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) Bakersfield, the largest city in Kern County and one with a Republican mayor — with overwhelming Trump support and not a whiff of flirtation with defund the police movements. 

In fact, the murder capital of California for six years running is sleepy Kern County, 130 miles from Los Angeles and 306 miles from San Francisco, the two California locales most often associated with the crime-is-out-of-control national headlines that have dominated U.S. crime and political coverage."

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Gov. Abbott says it's a mental health issue?

There are mentally ill people in every country on earth. But no other country has the guns available everywhere to anyone.

Addressing mental illness is a priority - but not for Republicans. They talk but do nothing.

This shooter- like so many - is radicalized by Republican hate filled ideology

The tool he used to slaughter was provided by Republicans making sure it was available.

We will have another massacre in another mall, school, church, concert, park. Where are the geniuses that claim these massacres are rare? Eh?

200 mass shootings in 126 days ain't rare by my count.

Deal With It said...

If mass shootings are so rare, why do I read about over 50 people being shot during a weekend in Chicago? Sometimes it is 80 people.

Ray Cranston said...

Hey Deal! You read about Chicago because it's been a primary target of right wing media since Obama, who is from Chicago. Chicago doesn't even rank in the top 25 cities in the US in shootings or gun violence deaths per capita, not even in the top 10 in the Midwest.

While it is true that assault weapons account for a very small percentage of overall gun deaths (a good argument to ban all semi-automatic weapons), they pose the most risk for the public at large via these random incidents with mass, severe casualties.

Most gun violence happens at home: suicides, family members at risk because someone thought a gun in the house would make everyone safer. They don't. People in households with gun are 4x more likely to be shot, 8x if women.

Shaw Kenawe said...

The leading cause of death for children in the US is firearms.

What kind of country tolerates this? What kind of country, where lots of people say it's "the greatest in the worldm" tolerates the massacre of its citizens --CHILDREN -- from guns and does not a damn thing about it?

I'll answer that: A stupid, venal, heartless country whose pols, Rs and Ds, have been captured by the NRA and gun manufacturers.

The 2nd Amendment is NOT sacrosanct. We can modify it. The founding fathers wrote the 2nd Amendment when MUSKETS were being used in war.

A MAJORITY of Americans want something done, but nothing gets done.

It's obvious that we will now have to live with weekly mass killings as a normal condition of life here in the good ole USofA.

It wasn't like this when I was growing up; when my children were growing up. But this is the country my grandchildren are growing up in.

This is what happens when a country has more firearms than people. Massacres happen.

We did this to ourselves.

We do not love or care to protect our own children. Thank the NRA and politicians for this.

Mike said...

Make it stop!

F.D. said...

That poor little boy. So sad and so senseless. This did not have to happen but it will continue to happen because the GOP pols care more about money from the NRA than human life.

Les Carpenter said...

It's time to ho hum. Again.

Why you ask? Because, the usual empty statements of condolences and sympathy will go out from the red cons, and then, nothing. Again.

And the death toll will rise. Collateral damage for that sacred right to guns, guns, guns.

I betcha that had mass shootings occured at the time of the signing the Constitution the 2'nd would have read differently. Folks back then were likely FAR more compasionate and family oriented than today's red cons who are in fact partly responsible for this growing human carnage.

The current reality will not change one iota until the ignorant red pols are replaced by intelligent, compassionate, caring politicians who, in truth, value life over guns.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Sent to me by a friend, Re: AR-15:

This is the most terrible rifle in the world. It's was not meant for hunting, as the bullet flies at such a velocity the skin cells explode. Once inside the body, its like a grenade going off as the round fragments. In Vietnam the first issue to the Marines jammed getting a lot of young men killed. Mine jammed when the NVA was probing our lines. With my job, I was able to carry an AK47 on my second tour in Vietnam. I hate the M16/AR15 to this day. We lost a lot of 18, and 19 year old Marines because of the enormous quantity of jammed M16s.

No civilian needs one as a shotgun suffices for home defense, and hunted meat is torn to shreads making it inedible. All of the BS excuses from companies, and the NRA, for selling the weapon is horse hockey. Face it... The rifle itself is for killing people, and it does so horribly that they won't show you the dead children, and adults slaughtered with this military weapon. The enemy was scared to death of the M16/AR15 because what would be a normal wound, meant probable to certain death.

Go ahead news media. Show the shredded bodies of the vast piles of dead victims slaughtered by this rifle. Go ahead politicians and cower at the right wing lunatics who carry them to intimidate... then reap the whirlwind, because this rifle is only killing Americans, not an enemy.


end

skudrunner said...

The number one killer of children is the automobile but that doesn't raise temperatures like guns do. To say it is not a mental health issue is just denying facts. To say we need AR's and AK's is insane because they serve no purpose other than killing and sport shooting which can be accomplished by other weapons. Garcia was discharged for mental health reasons yet nothing was done about it, why is that. Is it because mental health is not a problem?

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud, "The number one killer of children is the automobile..."

That's not true anymore.


Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the U.S. and Peer Countries

Editor’s Note: This brief was updated on March 29, 2023, to make clear that the international comparisons include children and teenagers.

Firearms recently became the number one cause of death for children and teens in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle deaths and those caused by other injuries.

The U.S. Is the Only Country Among Its Peers in Which Guns Are the Leading Cause of Death Among Children and Teens


That is a devastatingly shameful stat to be famous for.

And we don't care. The irony is that the Red States have taken it on themselves to stop girls and women from any sort of abortion, even to save the life of the mother, but those same states don't care that LIVING, BREATHING CHILDREN AND TEENS are being slaughtered every day by guns.

And we're the only advanced country where this happens.

It. Is. The. Guns.

I live in a country that doesn't give a damn about its children and teens and their deaths by firearms.


Shaw Kenawe said...

Mental health?

Republicans voted against legislation that expanded mental health services.


House passes package addressing mental health, 20 Republicans vote ‘no’

The Republicans are all in for GUNS and vote NO! on mental health legislation.

So, skud, what should we do with that?


Shaw Kenawe said...

Under Greg Abbotts leadership, Texas has banned more books than any state in America, while simultaneously suffering from an unprecedented epidemic of mass shootings.

At the same time, Abbott has cut hundreds of millions in mental health services, and refuses to enact any gun control, despite the vast majority being in favor of reasonable gun control.

Les Carpenter said...

It seems to me abbot is a prime candidate for intensive therefore therapy.

skudrunner said...

Why doesn't the federal government earmark more money for mental health. They seem to have an ample supply to fund rich people buying electric cars and give to the rich to pay off college tuition's. So why not advance mental health with more funding and take it from some of the programs designed to reward the rich which they claim to hate. Maybe the federalists can pass a law that make spending on mental health the same as give away's to the rich.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud Why don't you ask Gov. Abbott why he doesn't fund mental health legislation?

Also, why do the MAGAs in Congress continue to vote against doing so? they keep stating mass shootings are a mental health problem, then they vote against mental health legislation.



Grey One talks sass said...

skud, you sound exactly like Alex Jones and his merry band of insurrectionists. Scary really.

IF you'd been paying attention you'd have noticed that the Feds aka Congress tried to fund Mental Health and every GOP congresscritter, without exception, voted it down. Comment from you? Crickets.

IF you'd been paying attention skud or were observant in any way you'd recognize that those who have the money to pay their student loans do not qualify for debt relief. But please, don't let stereotyping get in the way of a good story, amirite?

Found in the interwebs, Lawn darts were banned, the Pinto was recalled but please tell me again that bans don't work. Also if bans (for the AR15) don't work, why are we banning books... you know... because banning things works/don't work... Laws of physics are breaking as we speak!

Other countries have mental health issues and yet they don't have the gun violence we do... so is mental health the issue the assault weapon apologists say it is? I say no but I'm sure skud will trot out an Alex Jones talking point. It is their way.

Grey One talks sass said...

Shaw, I'm seeing a trend where those who are first responders aren't holding back anymore. They are sharing the horror they feel as they pick up the pieces, sometimes literally.

As I understand the Art of War, the point of the assault weapon is to not only bring death but to bring it in such a horrific manner that it strikes fear into the heart of ones enemy. Also with all the collateral damage aka wounded humans, it ties up resources which could be used for fighting.

We The People have been at war for a very long time only the enemy is ourselves. Mental Health should be as easy to get as ammunition, but you know it isn't. The funding just isn't there.

Dave Miller said...

As it relates to funding mental health...

On the federal level, we can't do it because conservatives will not approve it. Plain and simple.

On the state level, conservatives again, do not want to open the door to government funding because of the implications for funding other health issues.

Simply put, conservatives and people who blame not guns but mental health challenges without explaining how to fund treatment for those challenges, have no answers and have no desire to end this crisis.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud, I believe you support the GOP. So can you explain your comments after reading these comments on dealing with mass shootings from GOP leaders and then the facts showing their inaction on anything to deal with solving SOME areas that cause the mass shootings, please?:

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL): “We need to consider an automatic death penalty for school shooters.” (Active shooters are very likely to be shot by the police or kill themselves.)


Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN): “We’re not going to fix it…I don’t see any real role that we could do other than mess things up.”


Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN): “Ultimately I think what this does is highlight some of the mental health issues, the mental health crisis we have in this country that needs to be the real conversation we’re having right now."


193 House Republicans voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provides over $2.35 billion to expand vital school mental health services and improve learning environments. This is the most significant gun violence prevention law passed in 30 years.


202 House Republicans voted against the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which helps keep guns out hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others. Senate Republicans have blocked background checks from even getting a vote.


201 House Republicans voted against a red flag bill that would create a federal procedure for law enforcement to intervene and prohibit people who are a danger to themselves or others from possessing a firearm. Tennessee does not have a state red flag or extreme risk protection order law.


210 House Republicans voted against the American Rescue Plan, which provided $12 billion to address mental health needs arising from the pandemic.


196 House Republicans voted against going after gun traffickers, which flood our communities with firearms used by criminals.


193 House Republicans voted against cracking down on the spread of ghost guns which are used by criminals and minors because they can be bought without a background check before President Biden took action to close that loophole through executive action.

So you see, a simple google would provide you with the facts that the GOP is unwilling to go against the NRA, and the GOP is willing (by voting against MENTAL HEALTH funding) to allow the continuing slaughter and massacre of Americans. Because they love the NRA and gun manufacturers' money more than the people they swore to protect and serve.

And yes, Democrats are included in this cowardly behavior, but the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of anti-American; pro-NRA and gun manufacturers are GOPers.

They disgust me.

skudrunner said...

Ms. Shaw, You are correct I do lean GOP on financial issues but I can think and therefore am an independent. I vote more republican in national elections and split in state and local. What may help is to propose clean bills without all the crap attached that does not pertain to the bill because naming a trail after someone should not be part of a bill. In the vase number of bills they are rejected because of reason.

The we are for individual freedoms unless they disagree with what we think. We are all for first amendment rights unless it is a conservative speaking at a university. Why is it that the left blocks the police from doing their job. Why is it the left is all for open borders and the lives lost because of it. Both parties have politicians who's only concern is staying in power so they can control the people to their way of thinking. Teach gender selection and CRT in school instead of history and math and blame a device instead of a person just shows how people follow political beliefs instead of reason.

Grey One talks sass said...

Wow skud. Quite the Gish Gallop of I'm a thinking person and here's the talking points I've been programed to think!

Perhaps defending your indefensible take on society isn't the statement you thought it would be.

I'm proud to be of the Left (being a left-handed writer but a right-handed cutter - the left handed scissors in school were soooo lame!). In fact when looking at the brain only those who are left handed are in their right mind (Bwahahahaaa - an oldy but a goody).

Sorry for the levity Shaw but the picture of that young boy, knowing he was only at the mall because the clothes he received for his birthday didn't fit correctly. And now he's an orphan, the last leaf on the branch of his family tree. The emotions bring me to my knees.

And then skud with his LETS BLAME THE GHAYSSS...

I gotta say this and if you, Shaw, don't publish I will understand.

A. CRT is not taught in grade school. No one has provided any evidence that it is.

B. NO ONE is teaching anyone 'gender selection'. Teachers are open about classmates family composition. Suzie having two dads and Billie having two moms is not a controversy, although you keep acting like it is skud. It's about how each student has a family but not all families are the same. Basic level compassion but yeah, teaching 'gender selection' because let's shame someone for what their family looks like.

C. Sidebar: I know a lot of LGBTQA+ humans. The vast majority knew as early as three years old that they weren't heterosexual. No body did anything to make them decide, they just knew in their heart who they were. So skud, since you've hinted at this topic forever, when were you taught to be a heterosexual? I ask because you seem think such a thing is changeable.

D. As a Progressive, a Liberal, and part of The Left I've had to work out being tolerant of those who would like to see me dead. Here's what I've discovered: Being tolerant isn't a moral stance, it's social. As humans we have the capability of great violence. To prevent anarchy we've agreed when in groups to tolerate our neighbors. We don't have to like or agree with them but we do have to tolerate them. When someone breaks the covenant by declaring a member of society not worthy of membership for the sole crime of not agreeing to their own personal beliefs it's not an issue of whose beliefs are correct, it's an issue of either we tolerate each other or it's game on and I get to mount grenade launchers onto my old vehicle. Hint - it's not The Left banning Drag Shows and books. And skud, before you say a word about Drag Queens grooming kids you'd better bring the evidence because I have over 100 pastors, youth pastors, and GOP elected officials who've been not only arrested but indicted. That's just this year.

I'm grey to the bone but for our social contract in regards to tolerance it's as black and white as it gets; totally binary.

Sorry for the detour but that little boy, he is in my heart. And the part that is hardest is I know this tragedy will be repeated again and again because people like skud believe guns aren't the problem (Narrators voice: IT'S THE GUNS)

skudrunner said...

Grey, Impressive rant

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud: "We are all for first amendment rights unless it is a conservative speaking at a university."

Please, skud, which political party governors are banning books, banning teachers from talking about their spouses? You DO know that, don't you?


skud: "Why is it that the left blocks the police from doing their job."

I wish you did a little research before coming here and posting incorrect statements. Really, it's rather lazy to do that.

"President Biden's Budget provides DOJ $4.9 billion in discretionary resources for State and local grants to enhance public safety, including $537 million for the COPS Hiring Program, and $30 billion in mandatory resources to fully fund President Biden’s Safer America Plan, a comprehensive blueprint to protect the safety of our communities through evidence-based strategies that promote effective and accountable crime prevention. As part of the Safer America plan, the Budget includes funding to put 100,000 additional police officers on the street for accountable community policing."

I'll accept your apology for your uninformed statement.


skud: "Why is it the left is all for open borders and the lives lost because of it."

Repeating a lie does not make it true. Again, you're being lazy by repeating far right talking points:


The GOP's myth of an 'open border'
The U.S. borders are guarded by a vast and well-funded national security agency that has grown far larger and more powerful in recent years.



skud: "Both parties have politicians who's only concern is staying in power so they can control the people to their way of thinking."

You've described Republican ex-President, Donald J. Trump. He sold his gullible cultists the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen so he could stay in power. Barack Obama didn't do that; George W. Bush didn't do that; William J. Clinton didn't do that.




skud: "Teach gender selection and CRT in school instead of history and math"


Pure far right talking point bullpuckey. And you know it.



skud: "and blame a device instead of a person just shows how people follow political"
beliefs instead of reason."


You just described yourself and your comment.

Les Carpenter said...

Impressive truth skud. Too bad you're clueless.