The STAGE48 post dump

I just heard about the shooting at a high school in Florida, 17 dead. My sister also showed me a video from one of the students posting live during the event. Honestly at this point I don't know what to think of my country if they continuously let multiple mass shootings happen, especially at schools.

 

missing skier in NY found in CA 6 days later


if the video does not show watch the video here


if the video does not show watch the video here

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/14/skier-lost-in-new-york-doesnt-know-how-got-to-california.html

 

First off... right up front, above the spoiler... the text editor on this site sucks steaming moose cock. /rant

On to the story...

Spoiler

With the past 100 miles or so soaked in the dread of storms locomotive-ly barreling behind us... the shock upon setting foot on the Rez was understandable: it was overcast, but not storm conditions, completely calm. The coiling, somersaulting rippled grey valkyries seethed a dozen or so miles away... but here was a literal port in the storms. The rasp of my boss' Volvo's tires on the dirt road faded as he sped off West... and suddenly, I was alone.

I amazed at the solitude and isolation of living on the bottom of a primordial Triassic seafloor -- there was nothing but the crunch of gravel under my feet and the whispering breeze, for hundreds of yards... walking slowly, almost reverently down the only road leading into this place. My mind, accustomed to the constant din of roadtripping, making the normal the static of a thousand mechanical things keeping us company... was straining to find somewhere to anchor to, and the rez simply couldn't provide it... unnerving.

A small cluster of dilapidated buildings where I was to call Tommy, sat waiting off in the distance... and my military-honed gait provided the only sounds to keep the silence inches from genuinely creeping me out. If someone wanted to be alone in these surreal Plains... it was far too easy, frighteningly so I'd have said...

It was a general store, the edge of the rez proper. As is stereotypical of rez life... it was shoddy, but full of activity. Skeletons of pickup trucks, broken pallettes, tree limbs, muddy garbage of all kinds, littered this outpost in the enveloping grassy sea, like a cue ball sitting in the middle of a king-sized bed. I'd never been on a reservation before... so stereotype and reality circled each other uneasily as I approached a man buying cigarettes.

I asked to if there was a pay phone nearby, and he called over a short woman who asked if I knew who I was calling. Mentioning Tommy's name, her standoffishness evaporated as she handed the phone over. A slab-sided '70s Chevy pickup with only 7 cylinders running, pulled up about ten minutes later. There were smells I'd not experienced before -- chewing tobacco... leather... a sweet smell I couldn't identify... deep-fried something. It was homey here, if not terribly friendly to those not connected to its inner society, I imagined...

Tommy beamed and shook my hand -- the same guy I knew years before when we both froze our asses off in Germany together. He took me to his double-wide where his sister and father lived. First thing to look forward to, he said... was deer steaks. Whitetail he'd shot and dressed himself on a hunt a few weeks ago. I'd never had venison... and he said people usually hate venison because it tastes too gamey. But the trick to venison that tastes clean and non-skunky as regular beef... was to bleed the deer properly, as soon as you get to it. He took some paper-wrapped chunks of something from his freezer, clinking into a cast iron pan, adding what must've been a half cup of cooking oil atop it. Wasn't he going to thaw that under water? Nah, always makes it like this, the cast iron'll 'figure it out', or something along those lines. But when the resulting seared, greasy steak was plopped between two pieces of bread and into my face... he was right -- no flavor like the smell of goat poop... just a clean, if very lean, beef-like flavor... juuust a touch of something in the background, to remind you this wasn't a 1000-lb animal fed corn all its life, but a 100-lb one fed on grass and sage and staying off a mountain lion's fangs and claws...

TBC...

 

Go listen to this:

http://deepelmdigital.com/album/bloom

It's also my ultimate dream to be able to make music like this.

 

I am done feeling sorry for that country.

In this very same page we have two user discussing buying guns as if they're buying new earphones.

It is beyond ridiculous how their right to have weapons is more important than the lives stolen by them.

But thoughts and prayers, right?

 

It's a complex issue. One I don't expect you to fully comprehend.

Yes, what happened is immensely tragic. And one of the numerous things I work to prevent by being active in MY political process. I prefer to act, instead of bitching about it on the internet.

That said, I am a proud and legal gun owner. I go armed when I go into the woods. Where there are bears, mountain lion, and wolves. All of which I have had to scare off with shots as they have stalked and tried to attack me. There is a VAST difference between the assholes who kill kids, and the folks like me who hunt for food and go plinking at the shooting range.

But keep your beliefs. Thoughts are free after all.

 

EDIT: ^ Seconded...

It's a complicated reality, @Trinu... but don't equate owning a weapon to killing with it. That sort of bumper-sticker, straw-man mentality is why the world's so polarized these days.

 

That's because the Republican Party here is owned by the NRA (and of course NRA loves when this shit happens, cause it means they get more richer).

and those cowards (Especially the Racist fucking idiot we have in office) uses that Bullshit respond (when we know perfectly well they don't give two shits about what happen, all those idiots can about is money)

and I don't blame ya, I live this country and I don't feel sorry for it. The US has become a joke.

 

It's not about the weapons, its the people.

It doesn't matter what the person was using to kill, but rather their intentions behind to kill.

And most of the the time, there is just simply no reason behind their actions at all.

Let's just say even if USA implement gun ambolishment act tomorrow, people who intends to kill others can always find other tools to do so via vehicle, self made bombs or just simply with their bare hands.

But yeah on the flip side, taking away the guns from people can definitely prevent the almost daily shooting incidents in the USA of recent years. If not they gotta increase the difficulty in owning a rifle via gun control policy such as people under 25 years old registering a gun licence have to go through a series of metal health check exams every 6 months or something.

But hey, I'm Canadian so it's just my personal opinion on this matter.

Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk

 

It's not complex. Ban guns. Problem (half) solved.

The whole narrative of "it's not the guns, it's the people" is stupid af.

There are crazy people EVERYWHERE in the world. But these shootings only happen regularly in the USA.

I am 29 years old and the only time I've ever seen a weapon, apart from police ones, was when I went hunting with my uncle... when I was 8.
And I never want to see one again.

Americans have guns so ingrained into their minds that they just can't fathom the concept of living without them.

And tragedies like this show that they care a lot more about that imagery than keeping people alive.

Did anything change after Las Vegas? Nah.
And nothing will change after this.

Yes, but the NRA can't make people buy guns.

Wasn't one of the attacks against Hillary "she's taking your guns away!"?

That says a lot about the society itself.
And sorry, but American society is sick.

 

Banning guns straight up like you said is solving half of the problem. And a weapon just doesn't allow itself to shoot a human being LOL there's obviously something wrong with the people who is pulling the trigger. So what? You don't offer a solution to the other half of the problem which seems to be the root of the problem?

Sure just ban guns. Sounds like a moral justice thing to do, whats next ban cars?



Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk

 

Spoiler: The LONG definition of 'complex issue'...

Here is the basic Conservative and gun lobby argument (not the really batshit, tinfoil-hat ones -- which my community is soaked to its core with, unfortunately) for not instituting gun control -- it's a Liberal agenda to bypass the 2nd Amendment and pass laws that'll deprive responsible gun owners of the means by which they can defend themselves from criminals like... conveniently, all the shooters in the vast sea of civvie shootings in the last 20 yrs.

Here's the basic argument from the Liberal side -- every month it seems, someone shoots up a church, a school, a mall, a restaurant, a nightclub. It's found that many of these shooters have had very violent pasts... and attempts to take action have been hampered by claims that 1) either 2nd Amendment rights will be violated 2) their civil rights to weapons access are violated 3) neither but no one takes their behavior seriously... until they explode onto the evening news. All that's needed is common-sense, stricter background checks to prevent the mentally-unstable and recidivist criminals with ties to violent organizations, from legal access to firearms.

I have serious problems with both sides -- and have to say I'm split between the two, as sick as that makes me feel.

The retort to both sides, are 'well, do you want the headlines constantly flooded with mass killings vs. take a little bit of flippance away from legal gun ownership?' -- a logical fallacy known as the strawman argument... and 'if we give up a little, where does it end?'... a logical fallacy known as slippery slope... though both do have historical precedence in providing basis for totalitarian regimes, including in the present day (look at the Phillipines)...

Look. I can't stand the painted racist, sexist patholgical buffoon in the White House -- he's a disgrace, beyond words. But the reality of his election was, there were enough forces in play to successfully oppose the Democratic candidate (whom I thought was the wrong one to be nominated, tbh), that they made it happen... by legal and arguably, illegal means (we'll see).

That said -- as an ex-US soldier, who was professionally trained and paid, to safely and responsibly operate, maintain, and use in deadly conflict, weapons much more deadly than a 9mm pistol in the theatre of combat... if Liberal legislation seeks to ban all firearms from civilian use, I feel a likely result could be, there are going to be a lot more criminals out there than there are LEOs to enforce it. So will the military have to intervene, '60s-style? Although, there were no .50BMG or 20mm civilian rifles in existence during Kent State... but there are now. Firearm owners will fight for their right to bear them -- to ridiculous ends if necessary. And that, unfortunately or not, includes me. Why should I have to be deprived, for the iniquities of these lowlifes?

I am not at ALL opposed however, to laws checking for certain historical markers in a potential owner's history, like being a felon, mental instability resulting in violence, etc. A stricter vetting process is not at all a bad thing, IF it will actually reduce these monthly massacres in US incidents. Hey, check me out more stringently -- I have nothing to hide. But the problem the Right have with this, is a sound one -- there's no way to prove it'll actually save lives -- so why try? And what business does the Fed have in looking at my mental history? Matters that *must* be aired in the court system -- topped by a SC with a decidedly GOP bias, and a Legislative Branch still dominated in both Houses by GOP -- meaning the gun lobby. Am I an NRA member? Not since long before Sandy Hook -- and their response to that basically made them persona non grata, until the shootings stop.

Hope that helped. Do hjr1891 or I, deserve to have our guns taken away? Fuck no... not as long as I can vote. Do we deserve more stringent background checks for common sense reasons? Depends -- will it prevent more kids from being killed in their seats? Do more BG checks deserve to become law through due process of law? Absolutely. Does the ATF deserve to ban bump stocks? Depends -- will it save lives?

That, @Trinu ... is why I live where I live, and you live where you live. Stay where you are, enjoy life. I certainly will here, despite what you or anyone else think. The above should put to bed, any oversimplified pish about 'just ban guns'.

 

I think we can all agree, Guns like these should be banned to ALL Civilians. No Civilian should even have access to these (It's sad how easy you can get these kind of guns).

 

Ut-oh... @hjr1891 , I'm gonna tag you in on this one...

 

Don't be ridiculous.

Cars have a purpose: transport.
Guns? Their main purpose is to hurt and/kill.

I have nothing against people who hunt having an adequate weapon for that activity, but the way Americans buy guns in a supermarket like they buy milk?

Background checks are important, of course. But you never know when a person is going to snap and go on a spree.
And how many people have mental issues but have never been diagnosed? Background checks can only do so much.

But why do you need them?

I've heard the whole "I have a gun to defend myself" argument before.
Really, how many times have you used your gun to defend yourself against another person?
And aren't there other means? Learn self-defense. Mace them. Whatever.
Guns really don't solve that.

EDIT:

Since we are all into Japanese idols: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38365729 (from last year, but still relevant)

 

You are still not offering a solution that can be discussed to solve the other half of the problem. Everyone knows guns were made to kill and that's not the point. At the end of the day it's about the people who are using them. It's not like once they hold a rifle on their hand they have to oblige to kill something or someone right. So I find it even more ridiculous you don't think the people is the real problem here. Treating the symptoms and not trying to address the cause of the symptom is ever so easy...but it is a start nevertheless I cannot disagree.

And whatever I don't live in USA anyways. My condolences still go the victims of this tragic event.



Sent from my VTR-L09 using Tapatalk

 

The US had comprehensive gun control laws, that banned weapon configurations such as this.....

Back in the 1980s and 1990s. It was called the Brady Bill. You know what happened? Gun violence climbed to unseen heights. When that bill was allowed to sunset (expire), gun violence dropped. CDC and FBI stats are pretty clear on this. The take away from that is it is not the weapons, but the society.

Banning did not work then, and there is no real evidence it would work now.

The fix is in healing the hate, the mental illnesses, in not glorifying the perpetrators of these heinous acts as our media soo loves to do. And in holding the makers of these weapons more culpable when their products fall into the wrong hands. At least, that is where we should start, imo.

A better educated populace would most likely help, as well. At least, it could not hurt.

In case you missed my earlier post......

And I won't even go into the bear I had to put down, in my backyard, last year.

Just because you have never had need of a weapon, does not mean others have no need for them.

 

I did not miss it, as I wrote:

Of course, a gun is not going to fire itself.
But the fact that a gun can be put easily in the hand of a person? That should not be possible.

What is the solution?
Educate people on the matter. Treat mental illnesses. Teach them that there are other ways.
And so on.

But yeah, with the buffoon in office, none of that is happening.

But then again, there's crazy people everywhere, and yet, this happens all the time in the USA:



From: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/...ath-rates-the-us-is-in-a-different-world.html

Why?
Because guns are so easily bought.

 

Happy Chinese New Year if you're Chinese!