<p>I don’t see what lax gun laws have to do with this. They just as easily could have ran him down with their car.</p>
<p>I guess that the Aussies are unaware that there are areas in the US that have the most restrictive gun laws and the highest number of gun crimes.</p>
<p>The idea that a criminal would follow the gun laws while ignoring the laws against murder"…</p>
<p>bookmama22-- re: “one of the sickest things”</p>
<p>Try this one where an Australian kid stabbed an Indian in the eye with a screwdriver.</p>
<p>[Sravan</a> Kumar, Indian student stabbed in eye with screwdriver, survives - What’s On Ningbo](<a href=“Loading...”>Loading...)</p>
<p>I guess Australia has lax screwdriver laws.</p>
<p>This story might be local but it isn’t big news in Oklahoma. Any time an innocent person is killed, it should be big news. But I think this tragedy is a bigger deal nationally than it is locally. From reading this forum I recognize that we are repeating errors similar to the Trayvon/Zimmerman case. Race, politics, gun control seems to be revolving topics that we use to split us apart. You know, we are doing this to ourselves here.</p>
<p>More people are murdered with hammers than long guns.</p>
<p>We need to tighten up our hammer laws too.</p>
<p>Frugaldoctor, I hear what you are saying. I would encourage people to get to know their neigbors and to read the US Constitution. We are being divided by politicians and hucksters because of our ignorance.</p>
<p>"We are being divided by politicians and hucksters because of our ignorance. "
-yes, which leads to a way we vote…but it is wayyyyy toooo late, we are at the point of NO return. I have an unfortunate background that allows me (and others like me) to see where we are…</p>
<p>Sadly, I’m afraid you are right.</p>
<p>Seriously, can we agree to assign numbers to repeat positions? </p>
<p>The divided by politicians/hucksters position was aired at post #742 of the Florida v. Zimmerman thread. The hammers/long guns position was aired at post #1464 of that thread. Can we agree to refer to them by those post numbers as a shorthand to avoid going over them again?</p>
<p>Has #742 always been a reality or is it just a recent occurrence? Is this ignorance shared by all Americans or are there some who are enlightened?</p>
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<p>I agree that “they” aren’t doing it to us. We do it to ourselves and claim we know “the truth” and blame anything that disturbs us on “them” and/or ignorance of “the truth.”</p>
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<p>I believe that had George Z been arrested after he killed TM we never would have even heard of him. The whole thing made the news - and was protested - precisely because he killed someone and then was NOT arrested. Does anyone doubt this? </p>
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<p>A white kid recently walked into a predominantly black school with 500 rounds of ammo and it appears the only reason he didn’t kill a bunch of kids is because a bookkeeper talked him down. And yet, go look at the stories about it and see if they mention anyone’s race.</p>
<p>I don’t doubt it. The outrage started because of the perception of a non-white shooter getting away with murdering a black teen.</p>
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Nobody has a cold-blooded murder in the family–until it happens. It’s happened to some pretty nice families.</p>
<p>Just to note: the rate of firearms deaths per capita in the United States is about 10 times that in Australia. How the rates of hammer deaths compare I don’t know.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The basic error is extrapolating from one case to many. Random murder is an extreme act. The people who do it come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including wealth and stable homes though skewed toward loveless and unstable homes where abuse was common. But plenty of people grow up in those same circumstances and nearly all of them don’t kill. They may become social workers or teachers or investment bankers.<a href=“Bolding%20mine.”>/quote</a></p>
<p>True. And mass murders are almost always committed by seemingly “average Americans” (ie., white males) from seemingly “good homes” until we find out details, like the fact that they have a history of mental illness, or exhibited disturbing anti-social tendencies in early childhood, or were fixated on playing a certain violent video game, or…And when this happens, it is largely accredited to the particulars of the shooter’s individual circumstances. It’s not an indictment of race/culture. </p>
<p>I always pray that shooters in stories like this particular one aren’t black because it inevitably becomes an indictment against all things black, whether it be “black culture” (that monolithic, scary/inferior/once again worthy of scorn beast), single black mothers, absentee black fathers, and the “problem of black folks” in general. And I can always count on some folks on the far right to play that riff with gusto. That has happened in this case, even though they’ve had to twist the facts into a pretzel in order to do so. This horrible murder was (thankfully), an outlier, not racially motivated and isn’t even the result of a common initiation ritual for gang membership, but that hasn’t stopped the boringly predictable cadre with an agenda from yodeling to the heavens the anti-black (though ever-so-carefully-couched-in-code-words-so-as-to-ensure-plausible-deniability) hit song. Lather, rinse, repeat.</p>
<p>BTW, my apologies to you, Raiders. It is quite true that I failed to identify who exactly said what in this thread concerning the anti-white statement made by one of the shooters. I failed to note the entire content of all you have posted in this thread, and fixated on the ensuing fallout of the “shooter made anti-white statement” comment. </p>
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<p>For the record, I do have a problem with this kid’s insensitive comments, and an even greater problem with his apparent total lack of a moral compass. I find individuals such as him scary in the extreme. He gets no pass from me on on any level. I just wish the political fodder of this case would be limited to that such is common to shootings like Columbine, and the recent mass theater massacre. That was the point (however poorly) I was trying to make.</p>
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<p>Right. The story didn’t even make the right-wing sources others here uphold as “real news.” It just doesn’t support the “truths” people want to believe. And the pro-gun crowd has no idea how to respond to this one. Because, you know, “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Oh, wait…</p>
<p>I’m pro-gun, and I am surprised at how little has been mentioned about the gun. Apparently, it is missing. I’ve already said I’d like to see whomever enabled the killer to get this gun be held responsible, and possibly the killer’s parents regardless. If the gun enabler, like the mother in the CT shooting case if she had lived, was prosecuted for allowing someone else to access to his/her guns, I think we’d see an increase in gun safety measures and fewer gun deaths.</p>
<p>^I agree, Bay.</p>
<p>Sally305 wrote: "The story didn’t even make the right-wing sources others here uphold as “real news.”</p>
<p>I don’t know what you are referring to, but it was covered by Fox News along with a pic of the suspect so you can figure out his race from that: [Georgia</a> school suspect had nearly 500 rounds, police said | Fox News](<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/21/georgia-school-suspect-had-nearly-500-rounds-police-said/]Georgia”>Georgia school suspect had nearly 500 rounds, police said | Fox News)</p>
<p>I don’t know what Sally is referring to, either. I read right wing sites from Luciane to NRO to breitbart and so on. The story was covered everywhere except the places like powerline that only do politics. Ms. Huff was given the proper title of hero on all of them.</p>
<p>The part of the story that didn’t get covered was the fact that it was a white male taking 500 rounds into a black school. Sorry I wasn’t more clear.</p>