Here We Go Again

[chris_gerrib]

Here we go again - lone wolf white dude gets a collection of guns and decides to hose down a crowd. Given that he was shooting from 400 meters away (per here) any security measure that didn't involve counter-sniper teams at full alert would be useless.

We'll hear a lot about "thoughts and prayers" and how attacks like these are unavoidable, but "thoughts and prayers" aren't very helpful and attacks like these are in fact avoidable. The harder it is to get high-capacity semi-auto weapons, the harder these attacks are. And yes, I'm aware that this appears to have been done with a full-auto weapon. It's a lot easier to hide a full-auto weapon in a forest of cosmetically identical semi-autos.

Comments

Sceptically

[malobukov]

The New York Times already proposed a list of new gun control measures. The only problem is, not a single one of them would have made a difference in this case.

Re: Sceptically

[chris_gerrib]

yet as we are the only country on Earth to have this problem at this level, clearly we're doing something wrong or not doing something right.

Re: Sceptically

[malobukov]

Other countries such as France or Norway had their share of mass shootings, despite having much more strict gun laws.

It is also worth mentioning that the worst mass killings, both in the US (Happy Land fire) and internationally (Daegu subway fire in South Korea) were perpetrated with common household items rather than guns.

Re: Sceptically

[chris_gerrib]

No, actually they haven't had their share. They've had far fewer per capita then the US.

Let’s count

[malobukov]

According to the FBI, 486 people were killed in the US by active shooters between 2000 and 2013. That’s 1.5 per million people.

In Norway, 77 people were killed during the same period, or 15 per million.

Re: Let’s count

[chris_gerrib]

You are cherry-picking statistics. Mass shootings are on the rise, as are the number of casualties. This report notes that, in the 2 years of 2014-2015, "92 people were killed and another 139 wounded in active shooter incidents."

You are also (deliberately and in bad faith, I might add) using Norway (1 attack) during the entire period and not discussing France.

Let’s do France then

[malobukov]

In November 2015 Paris attacks alone, 130 people were killed. That’s about 2 per million.

Even if you add 92 dead to 486, it still comes up to 1.8 per million in the US, but now over 15 years.

Every death is a tragedy, but it’s important not to be blinded by emotions and impartially look at what the numbers are saying.

Re: Let’s do France then

[chris_gerrib]

And what was the number in 2014? In 2013? In 2012? Again, sir, you're cherry-picking. You're picking one incident which may be the highest mass death toll in decades vs. what's an average year in the US.

Re: Let’s do France then

[malobukov]

Try a longer period. Add Charlie Hebdo and other cases. You will see the same pattern. Don’t trust me, run the numbers yourself. I used to live in a country with constitution that had neither first nor second amendment. I came to the US not because you were doing something wrong, but because we are doing something right.