Mass Shooting Allen, TX Outlet Mall - May 6, 2023

You keep using drunk driving as an example but you act as if there are no laws in place to protect others from being harmed. Hell, you can buy a gun at 18 but can’t drink a beer until you’re 21. If police suspect you may be driving drunk you can get pulled and tested to see if you’re fit to continue. No tests are needed for gun ownership. No, bars don’t close at 8, but last call is well before closing time to give the patrons time think sober up or think about wether or not they’re fit to drive. Why not longer waiting periods for gun purchase. Perhaps if these mass shooters had more time to think about it, theyd change their minds. I’m not sure that analogy is the slam dunk you think it is .

 

I generally support assisted suicide for terminal conditions, but I think it should be highly regulated and require a court order or some serious oversight.

I also think Americans (those enrolling into Medicaid or Medicare or maybe we do it when you register to vote or get a license) should be required to have a Living Will. Not to dictate what's in it but to make one's wishes known. I think most people would choose not to have their end of life extended by extraordinary means if there's little chance of recovery or prospect for good quality of life. But many of us (myself included) procrastinate and wind up putting doctors and family members in difficult spots.

 

If anything, we need to be looking to rapidly increase legal immigration. Trump 100% lied when he said he would increase legal immigration. He choked off legal immigration at every opportunity as well. There is probably some catch up that needs to be done (esp with lowering birth rates)

These are people who would have been be in the workforce today and acting as a counterbalance to wage inflation. Haven’t seen it quantified, but the effect would have been non-zero (esp in industries where they have been short of labor or have been resorting more to illegal labor).

 

Not totally accurate but comparing the recent shooter profiles...if you're a white, GenZ/millennial male and have a shitload of social media accounts, no guns for you...leave us oldsters alone!

 

They tried raising the minimum age to 21, I had mixed feelings about that (considering one could be 18 to serve in the military), but as alot of school shooters have tended to be <21 it would have staved off at least a few of these shootings. Some states have bizarrely gone the other direction even while pushing open carry and weakening background checks. It’s sociopathy.

As this guy was apparently a bit older, a higher age wouldn’t have done anything to him. The background check would literally need to screen his social media. Think conservatives would be on board with that? Nope. Even mentally ill shit is “free speech”.

 

Yes, not accurate. There are enumerable white, genZ males that have multiple social media accounts that are non-threats to society. Weird you didn't mention the white supremacy or hate speech in your stereotype, isn't it?

 

Spot on, one of those damn inconvenient truths.

 

There’s not a single stroke move that will eliminate any of this.

And I see very few folks advocating to take away all the guns from 350m people.

What I see as plausible is some combination of the following, most if not all of which seem reasonable (to me, anyway) and not afoul of the USC:

1. Background checks/ registration with no gun show loopholes. 5 day waiting period (may allow some cooling off). Bring back the meat of the Brady Act.

2. Permitted carry only. With a permit that expires if no gun is purchased w/in a period of time from issuance.

3. Eliminate funding restrictions on gun violence research. Let’s get real data and have an honest debate about it.

4. Mental health provisions disallowing someone with previously diagnosed mental illness from buying a gun.

5. Felony restrictions on gun purchases, and a lifetime ban on purchasing guns if you’ve been convicted of a gun crime.

6. Possibly a timed license to buy ammunition that expires if it isn’t used (I know at NJ does this now, without a time limit, as my brother who owns 9 guns told me).

7. Smart gun technology. My gun. My fingerprint unlocks it. Doesn’t work for yours. Sell the gun. Re-register someone else’s fingerprint. Works for phones, should work similarly for guns. Gun theft would go down overnight, as would car break ins. 40 cars broken into on one street in midtown Atlanta one night last weekend. All on the front passenger window. Closest to the glove box. Where guns are kept.

8. Bring back some form of an assault weapons ban. I certainly don’t want my neighbors teen kid sitting there monkeying with his AR 15 while the 3 year olds across the street are drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.

I’m mostly spitballing here but I don’t think any of these infringe on someone’s basic constitutional right to own guns. Some of these may overlap with others a bit.

We’ve conditioned so many other liberties in the Bill of Rights-free speech is curbed by libel and defamation laws, among other things, certain assembly in public spaces require a permit, the definition of what is an “unlawful” search has been narrowed greatly the past 50 years and legal searches are now as permissive as they’ve ever been, forfeiture laws allow property seizure with zero due process, and the right to vote isn’t unconditional at all. Pulling the lever has varying requirements everywhere. Never mind that the Patriot Act allows the guv to essentially spy on any one of us.

Why is it that only the 2A is sacrosanct with respect to any reasonable limitations? Has to be more than just a slippery slope mentality, as the same thing can be said about restrictions on free speech, free assembly, voting rights, due process and a right to basic privacy.

And while we are doing all this, simultaneously have a real national conversation on mental health, create a database for law enforcement to access, expand virtual health care for mental health, recruit mental health providers who look like more like the patients needing service so there is greater comfort with a patient having the conversation, reform insurance to cover more mental health treatment, etc. Again, more spitballing.

As Wayne Gretzky said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Well, that’s what’s happened here.

All of this is heavy lifting that will take years of patience to implement, which we are simply not good at. Can’t see the immediate result on Twitter so we’re not interested in trying because there’s a RE-election ahead. We’d rather just say “hey, we have this problem so we are going to send everyone a a stimulus check” and buy their vote.

 

Very solid thoughts here, but I think this one is going to have be narrowed, such as tying it to the equivalent of being Baker Acted and maybe with a time limitation. Particularly if access to mental health care is expanded, I think most people could probably be diagnosed as on the continuum for some disorder. We definitely don't want to discourage people from seeking treatment out of fear that they will start losing rights. We also generally don't want to further stigmatize mental health treatment. I think that's a bit of a challenging balance.

 

Like I said I was spitballing, not writing legislation. Let’s put it on the table and figure it out.

 

I have no idea what Elon Musk has said about immigration. And surely you’re not asserting population growths are identical. The US is in unprecedented low population growth rates at under 1% and if it weren’t for immigration would be even lower than it is. We’re not negative, yet, but with declining births trends we will be without immigration.

 

Thank you for the information.

However I believe the immigration crises will continue to explode on the US boarder.

I would like to believe the country will still be accepting of immigrants and have jobs for them. I am not unsympathetic to their plight.

But I happen to believe that there is a saturation point and we are approaching it.

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ― Voltaire

 

Massaging the shooter narrative

 

It's like the most effed up multi-level marketing scheme off all time.

 

Not sure if I’m supposed to laugh. Okay, I laughed because it’s funny but I feel wrong. Damn you.

 

Gotta laugh, cause at this point I dunno what else to do.

 

I was part of the board members on gun control last year. I believe I said 25yrs to be the age to buy semiauto rifles and guns. We just had a mass shooting at the Northside Hospital in Atlanta. The shooter was a 24 year old recently discharged Coastie trying to get hooked up with Ativan from the VA which denied him. His venture to the hospital was a no with the result being one dead and 3 wounded. No one knows where he got the handgun. I lieu of age restrictions I would be favorable to a ban with the rest of us grandfathered with no transfers under any circumstances.
The Atlanta area has become free fire zone with handguns being the primary culprit. They found a young mother dead with gsw in her car on I-285 yesterday. I live Rome. We are some what less susceptible to gunfire. I go to Marietta for my dogs eye treatment. I carry and keep head on a swivel. I travel on 41 rather than 75.

Its time to act. Enough.

 

Have you seen the polls on gun safety state politicians are happy to ignore? They don’t care about the opinions of constituents. The only opinions they care about are those of the NRA and gun manufacturers, so it doesn’t matter how many mass shootings happen, their response will always be the same.

 

There was a shootout between two cars at 3AM last night in Sandy Springs on Heards Ferry Road about a mile from our house. 4-6 shooters rapid firing at each other. Luckily none of the several people I know who ran to look out their windows and see what all the noise was took a stray bullet.