Amy Schumer & other celebrities tweet about the Lafayette shooting at a late screening of Trainwreck. This story is so awful. [Uproxx]
Here’s more on what happened in Lafayette last night. [Buzzfeed]
Jon Hamm & Jennifer Westfeldt are still happening? Maybe. [LaineyGossip]
Scottish Fold Kitten in a tutu! OMG. [Dlisted]
Kim Kardashian tweets about Sandra Bland. [Wonderwall]
Tamra Judge talks marriage, business and everything else. [Reality Tea]
Jaime King named her son Leo Thames. [Celebrity Baby Scoop]
I hate Sofia Vergara’s jeans. [Popoholic]
What’s up with Lake Bell’s bellbottoms? [Go Fug Yourself]
Wyatt Cenac talks about Jon Stewart’s racial-humor problems. [Pajiba]
Taye Diggs in leather hot pants. [A Socialite Life]
We didn’t even get into all the Meek Mill drama. [Starcasm]
My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana.
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) July 24, 2015
LMAO on the Pants Edition, here on CB.
This made me giggle despite the sad news.
That is actually a Scottish Kilt kitten, not a Scottish Fold kitten (sorry to be a cat nerd).
Very cute but I’m not sure how I feel about Muchkins being bred with Folds. Seems like that would be a great way to increase the risk for musculoskeletal issues. Plus to me, part of what makes Scottish Folds so cute is their body type-squat with fat arms, legs, and tail and HUGE paws. Why ruin that?
Eh.
Never apologize for being a cat nerd.
Thank you for making me feel less ashamed.
Not sure how I feel about Munchkins being bred period.
*sits at Cat Nerd table with Kitten*
Mimif, i was worried about you and the wild fires!
OMG my long lost wifey has returned. Sadly, it’s too late to save our marriage.
Don’t worry, we’ll still wear our wedding rings in public.
You know, for the sake of the Kiddos….
Oh, and I agree–Munchkins and Teacup Anythings make me nervous.
I moved to the Pacific Northwest! (Which oddly enough is going through a drought but not like down there.) Did you know Alaska has more wildfires burning right now than Cali? What the ever living tequila is happening to our poor green and blue orb?
*throws Nuva-Ring at Kitten*
Ah, you live in the land of wonderful wild berries.
“throws Nuva-Ring at Kitten* ”
BWAHAHAHA!!!
😀
https://instagram.com/p/5iJMAEC3q_/
May I say that your adorable kitty (who’s a dead ringer for *my* adorable kitty) has excellent taste in cherries! Rainiers are the best. I can eat myself sick with them.
I never had a salmon berry. Nice photo.
@bluhare Black Cats and Rainier everything 4eva!
@Kiddo, salmon berries taste a bit like the inside of Kit Harrington’s skinny jeans. They sure are pretty tho.
I’m concerned that you know what the inside of Kit Harrington’s skinny jeans taste like.
cat nerds unite!
cheez-its and comet sophies for everyone!
(though it IS national tequila day, so maybe we should substitute.)
Oh really? Margaritas!!!
We need more cat nerds. (Proud human of a Maine coon who believes herself to be a golden retriever)
I agree!! Can i join your cat nerd club? I have tons of tequila and a couple of saucy siamese siblings that pretty much own me. I need others.. it’s so lonely in my cat club for one…
This is often my response to breeders. Just because you CAN breed it, doesn’t mean you should.
My thoughts and prayers go to the families of the victims. Been praying to often and it is only July.
The movies at one time was a place to go and turn off your brain for a couple of hours and emerge yourself in a fanasty. Now not only do you fear going, you might to wear a bulletproof vest if you do.Damn.
The patrons are sitting ducks really, all sitting there taken unawares by some kook. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of what’s to come. More and more gun violence is going to occur in America. It’s basically a free for all now, guns everywhere. I was also shocked to see that there’s no laws whatsoever to prevent guns on drones. The world is a scary place these days.
A guy in California died recently. They have found over 1000 guns in his home, and there are going to be more in two storage spaces that they have yet to inventory.
Why is the discussion always about gun control and not about mental healthcare? This man should not have had access to a gun but I bet he had it illegally in the first place. So there was probably already a law in place that he broke. Everything I’ve read states police and family members were aware of his mental health issues. He was also denied a concealed carry permit in 2006 because of his arrest record and his mental health issues. There are lots of ways crazy people could kill someone. Knives, ice picks, hammers. Even a car could be used to take out a lot of people very quickly. This problem won’t go away simply by removing guns.
You really think someone is going to take out 10-15 people with a hammer? Really?
I was being a little facetious with the hammer comment. Just pointing out that many things that are legal and not considered dangerous can be deadly in the hands of crazy people. Sorry if I didn’t articulate that well enough 😉
BOTH issues are important. Mental health care was eviscerated by Reagan , so I doubt conservatives sincerely want to discuss the issue. The fact is, the NRA worked very hard and spent a ton of lobbying and political ad money to get things that the VAST majority of Americans agree on, like comprehensive back ground checks, from being passed by our congress.
Cars can take out people quickly. They are lethal. That is why we have tons of regulations on them. We have age limits. You have to be licensed to drive one. You have to have insurance on it in case your car kills someone else. All sorts of regulations rightly apply to cars that should also apply to gun ownership.
@ SnarkySnark
Because guns are more dangerous than hammers and most other legal objects. Guns are made as weapons, not tools.
Those in government who oppose gun control also tend to be the same ones opposed to spending money on health care of any sort.
Dear America,
It’s the guns.
From,
The rest of the world
Um, Tiffany, there are tons of gun laws and regulations. Also, there are age restrictions on gun ownership. Crazy people do not care about laws. Criminals do not care about laws.
@Anne_000: You got me there. If something is meant to be used as a tool it cannot kill anyone. Only weapons can hurt people.
Clearly the laws and regulations that we have aren’t enough. Number of laws doesn’t reflect the quality of the laws. Mentally unwell people are getting access to guns, which wouldn’t be happening if the laws were strong enough. Why is the NRA so afraid of comprehensive back ground checks?
The honest truth is that “illegal guns” were “legal guns” at some point in their journey. They were legally sold at a gun show to someone who was avoiding background checks. They were stolen from a home where the owner originally bought it legally, etc. The regulations we put on legal owners, will impact the options available to illegal owners.
Guns are so prolific in our society, that we have little ability at this time to keep them out of the hands of the mentally unwell. That is a HUGE problem.
SnarkySnarkers,
you’re kiddling me, right? Why is the discussion always about guns, and never about mental health? What discussions are you reading? EVERY TIME I read about such incidents on FB, all of the “gun advocates” yell “crazies will be crazy”. It’s their go-to defense. I feel quite the opposite way: it’s always about mental health, never about guns.
@ Snarkysnark
Clearly, you don’t understand or pretend not to understand my statement that the only reason guns are made is to be weapons. .
Of course tools can be used to kill, but they’re not made exclusively to be a killing weapon guns as are.
So real question, if we ban all guns, who, if anyone should be allowed to have them? Government? Police?
From my foreigner perspective I see it that way – mental health issues are very important to discuss and take care of, but guns give those sick people more opportunities to act on their craziness. If someone is driven to kill other people no matter what – they will find a way. But there are also many murders of opportunity, committed by people who wouldn’t normally act on their homicidal tendencies for many reasons, but murdered someone on a whim because the gun was there. Or those who killed “only” one or two people instead of 30, because they had to use other, less effective tools. I live in a country where guns are illegal for most people and we had exactly 0 mass murders of any kind in the past many years, while there are numerous shootings in the USA every single year. There were murders here – recently a husband killed his wife and in-laws, two teenagers murdered their parents and a teenage boy murdered his grandma. They wanted to do it and they did – with knives and axes and they were all clearly mentally ill, but what if they had an access to a gun? One of the teenagers even made a video before the murders, in which he stated that killing someone was his dream and that he wished he had an automatic weapon. It’s plausible that instead of releasing their anger by killing their family members, they’d organize a mass shooting. So yes, gun control is an equally important topic to discuss in the moments like this as the mental health.
Snarky, that’s a straw man. No one is saying ban all guns.
@Odesa, seriously, yes.
I just read on the BBC news website the shooter had been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital by his family in 2008 and he was still able to legally buy a gun. Americas gun laws are as crazy as this man was. How can people still act surprised when another shooting like this occurs?
Mental health and access to treatment is of course the other half of this argument but removing the immediate threat isn’t even.considered an option.
Snarky the gun was legal, he bought it at a store.
Why NOT ban all guns? We did it in Australia 15 years ago and haven’t had a single mass shooting since. (Gun-related homicides and suicides also drastically decreased.) How did we pull off this mystical feat? The conservative government in power at the time enacted a ‘gun buy-back’ scheme in response to a dreadful massacre, people handed their guns back in for a cash sum, and that was it. Bam. And it was all done and dusted in just a few months.
So it CAN be done. Successfully. And quickly.
(PS, Have you guys seen this Australian stand-up comic talking about US gun control from an Aussie perspective? It’s insightful, hilarious, and bang on the money (although there’s a but of swearing, so NSFW!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZFLk5L70MQ )
Also, you know what’s a total BS argument? “Don’t politicize a tragedy.” If these (ongoing, continual, recurring) tragedies are not allowed to be catalysts for making the world a better place, then WTF will? If we can’t use them to spawn change, are we letting the victims die in vain? The time of a tragedy is EXACTLY when we should be talking about how to ensure that this never happens again, for the good of everyone…
I love Jim Jeffries. And I agree with him on his stance on guns and religion.
@ odesa: thank you.
I couldn’t believe how well he nailed that whole thing. Like seriously, demolished.
Gun control is not the answer, because you simply remove innocent civilian’s rights to defend themselves, and the crazies are going to get their hands on them anyway.
Watch the above video with Jim Jefferies, he explains it better than we ever could.
If your country wasn’t flooded with guns the crazies wouldn’t be able to get them! Americas gun culture is horrible
I can’t even articulate how tired I am of public shootings in this country. I tend to keep my politics to myself, especially in public forums like this, but what does it take to get some gun control in the United States of America? It has become so common place, do we even get shocked anymore? Can anyone say they’re really surprised when they wake up in the morning and see this on the front page of a newspaper anymore? Babies and teachers being massacred in their school with military grade weapons wasn’t enough to bring about change, people being shot to death in church wasn’t enough either. What is it going to take? We have a serious problem and it so badly needs to be solved. It makes me feel physically ill at this point because it just seems so hopeless.
No way! The answer is definitely more guns. Let’s all start packing when we go to the movies. Then if someone shoots at us, we can shoot back. Yay.
Kidding, but I feel you so much on the futility front. Heart is so heavy right now.
Yup, we are all just going to shoot it out — like in the Wild West or a Mad Max film. Last one standing wins.
So, I guess the lesson is: only venture out in public if you are prepared for a fire fight. Leave your kids at home, or arm them, too, I guess.
But the weird thing is that crime rates in countries don’t seem largely related to the number of guns in the country. When you overlay the number of guns in a country and the intentional homicide rates, they don’t match.
Example: The most heavily armed country in Western Europe is Switzerland. It’s considered a “heavy” gun country (the rate is slightly over half of the US, but for Europe, it’s considered pretty gun heavy). It also has an intentional homicide rate of less than 1 homicide per 100,000 people (0.6, to be exact). (The US has a rate of 4.3 homicides per 100,000 people).
The country with the gun ownership rate closest to the US is Serbia, which has a rate slightly less than the US. Their intentional homicide rate is 1.2 – almost a quarter of the US, and it’s got almost as many guns as we do. This pattern seems to constantly repeat itself down the list.
This isn’t to critique you, but just to point out that the US seems to really be the exception to the rule. Other nations seem to love weapons just as much but keep their homicide rates down. Personally, that makes me think that it has far less to do with guns and more to do with how they socialize healthcare (easier mental health system), their expansive anti-poverty safety nets, and just generally taking better care of their people. I’m not saying the guns aren’t an issue, but I don’t like the intense focus on guns when I think it’s a far more complex issue.
Right. What kind of a f*cking existence is that?
@ Sam- I think the extreme aversion to guns comes as a response to the gun-nuts. That’s not unusual when it comes to American politics though–you take to the far opposite end of the issue just to counteract the extremism on the other side. It’s reactionary and a distraction and personally, I favor a more civilized debate, but it is what it is.
The Switzerland comparison is a notorious red herring in the gun control debate BTW: http://www.businessinsider.com/switzerlands-gun-laws-are-a-red-herring-2012-12
Guns are more available in the United States than anywhere else. Forty-two per cent of US households have guns, 90 guns per 100 persons in the US. I thought I had read that Yemen was second to us. YEMEN FFS!–a poverty-stricken, war-torn country.
It needs to be repeated that states with higher levels of household gun ownership have higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide.
Those are the stats that make my head spin. WTF do so many people in this country need so many damn guns?
For that reason, I take issue with powerful lobbying groups like the NRA and GOA who spend tens of millions of dollars a year preventing the enactment of laws aimed at reducing gun violence.
Sure, gun control laws probably won’t solve an incredibly complex problem, but what will they harm exactly?
What’s the downside?
No, I think the answer is to start a campaign to LEGALLY arm all the minority populations of America. Can you imagine Hispanics, Blacks, etc., walking in groups, armed to the teeth and waving their gun permits whilst walking down Main St. in Butt Fvck, West Virginia? All of a sudden, we have a gun problem….
Kitten: That article you posted dodges my point. You initially made a point about “moar guns.” I was pointing out that argument is slightly facetious. My point was that sheer VOLUME of weapons does not link invariably to higher crime, as Michelle was suggesting downthread. While the population is smaller, the ratio (which is the important part) is fairly close to the US. And the nation closest to the US, Serbia, has almost the same volume of weapons but a homicide rate almost a quarter of our own. And Serbia is a former communist nation emerging from civil war – now that is telling (Yemen is number 3 on the list now).
I tend to attribute America’s issues with guns to American culture. America is a rugged individualist nation, as opposed to most others, which display at least some degree of collectivism. Guns are seen as a profound expression of individual power. And America has always had an issue with a deeply ingrained, profound distrust of the government, which doesn’t exist in most other places. And let’s not forget that America is a deeply stratified society with profound poverty that it largely refuses to address – that drives it too.
To me, the gun debate is simplistic. I have no clue what motivated this shooter, although the preliminary reports do seem to suggest some degree of mental health issues. Frankly, if that is the case, I wish we had laws that could have caught him in the mental health net that would have at least prevented him from obtaining a gun legally (although, like you pointed out below, illegal weapons are plentiful). I truly wonder if anything could have been done to prevent this, short of just living in a different culture.
Sam- we also have to look at who has what kind of guns and why. Switzerland has a lot of guns because citizens are required to be in the militia and store their arms at home. That’s very different from the rather chaotic proliferation of hand guns here in the U.S. I’ve heard police officers say that a major source of guns for criminals is actually theft from homes that have them. Many of us know someone who has been accidentally shot by a person at home with a gun, so that’s another danger. A child up the street from me accidentally shot and killed his brother, and a friend almost killed his father when the guy forgot his key. When kids take a family gun for play or when volatile people carry one, arguments that would have ended in a bloody nose may turn fatal.
So the situation in the U.S. is hard to compare with other countries. It’s not just about gun laws but also about the overwhelming number of guns, legal and illegal, especially in urban areas where the chances of tragedy become multiplied. Lack of access to treatment for mental health issues is certainly also involved. On the one hand, I understand why people feel vulnerable and think a gun will keep them safer. But the statistics don’t really prove that point. We need to work more on non-fatal methods of self-defense.
KITTEN this is exactly what the ammosexuals think! If Big Buddy, I mean Rambo, had been there with his AK47, he would obviously have taken out ONLY the shooter – just in time to save everyone!
Please everybody note that gov Bobby Jindal is vehemently anti-gun control of any sort. His “thoughts and prayers” are really going to do a lot to prevent future massacres.
@sam – in Switzerland there are guns because everyone has to do military service. However, the ammo is locked up elsewhere. So yes, there are indeed guns, but the ammunition is government controled. So no, not comparable in the least
As a native Louisianian, with ties and family to Lafayette and the surrounding area, this was a shock. Not because “things like this don’t happen here,” because crazy stuff happens all over. Hell, Mickey Schunick was in the news forever, because some sick asshole killed and hid her. He was also mentally ill. That’s the common thread in killings that aren’t strictly about self defense. Rational, sane people don’t just kill people because it’s Tuesday, raining, or their dog told them to. I don’t think gun control, good, effective gun control, will ever happen in this country, because a good number of the people in charge are clinging to their right to bear arms as if it’s literally being sucked from their marrow. I’m not anti-gun, at least not in the sense that if a person is not mentally ill/trained in proper usage/not a criminal, it’s ok to own a gun. Otherwise, no effing way. It saddens me that I’ve seen people I know near this senseless tragedy talking about getting a gun, because of the evil in the world, and how unsafe it is. The world has always sucked; that’s not new. The fact that we now have a much better understanding of mental disorders than people in the 18th century did, but the care we actually afford people who require it isn’t THAT much better than it was three centuries ago, is outrageous. More guns isn’t the answer; better control of mental illness might be.
Sam I genuinely think there’s a certain fetishisation to owning a gun in America that just doesn’t happen anywhere else. There’s also a powerful gun lobby and a news cycle that is determined to feed on paranoia and fear, I’m sure that all contributes.
I’m 100% with you, Michelle. I was beside myself with rage in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, now I am just numb. The knee jerk reactions in the comments of the news articles I’ve read are pathetically predictable…”of course liberals (or anti-gun fanatics) blame the object and not the person.” Or my favorite: “If people had been allowed to be armed in the theater the whole thing would have been diffused.” Yeah, right.
I’m utterly at a loss. Because a rational conversation on gun control is not possible here in the US.
Funny (but not funny) that I posted a satirical response before you and I hadn’t even read any comments from the gun nuts yet. So predictable. Same tired rhetoric every damn time.
Yes I’m sure MOAR GUNZ! is the answer. Because really, wouldn’t you feel safer in a crowded movie theater knowing that you’re surrounded by strangers with guns???
Sorry. I don’t mean to politicize a tragedy.
It’s just hard to stay silent when you’re sharing a country with people who have such vastly differing ideas about gun control.
“Sorry. I don’t mean to politicize a tragedy.”
I fully understand where you’re coming from, and it has to be politicized because politics are the very reason the issue doesn’t get solved. At the end of the day, the NRA has their hands in our politicians’ pockets and they’re given too much of a say because of this. No one can justify why anyone would be anti-background check, or why it is legal to own military grade firearms. I can’t stomach the argument that the second amendment protects people’s right to bear arms because the second amendment was written during a time when our country was still in the process of being founded and the possibility was real that the average man would have to fight for the very soil he stands on. The second amendment is antiquated and serves no place in our current society and it should’ve been altered or done away with a long time ago. Because it wasn’t and weapons were considered to be a basic right in our country, they’ve fallen into the wrong hands and it created an enormous problem that there is no clear solution for.
Michael Bloomberg made many valid and important points after the Sandy Hook massacre when he called for gun control. The US is the only country in the world that makes it so easy to get guns, and we are the only country in the world that actually has this problem. It is absolutely inexcusable. The way our politicians choose to sit on their hands drives me bonkers.
Ditto on all of this. As sad as I was last night I was also numb because I know this still won’t make a difference. And I don’t know what will. There’s an Onion headline that sums this gun problem up perfectly: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”
http://www.theonion.com/article/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-36131
For nothing to have been done following the Shady Hook massacre, there is no hope that the US will ever join the ranks of responsible advanced countries & legislate against gun ownership. It was very moving to see President Obama on the BBC yesterday bemoan his inability to change this horrible fact of American life. More guns = more massacres & random murders, not less. It is perverted logic to believe that arming the entire population to the teeth will make the US safer
Armed patrons in the theater would do little good in prevent these kinds of attacks. The gunman always has the element of surprise on his side. He’d be able to kill several people before anyone else could even draw their weapon. This is a ridiculous argument.
@Tristan, isn’t that devastating? We’re expected to just accept that this is what our lives and our society have come to and in order to deal with it, we’re all supposed to arm ourselves and keep the gun culture going. It’ll only continue and get worse, and the ridiculous solution of using guns to combat guns instead of implementing some gun control is an absolute disgrace. I remember when the news about Columbine broke and the whole country was rocked by it. Who would’ve guessed it would’ve started a trend in our country and only gotten progressively worse as time went on? I’m sorry for the future generations who’ll have to get to know this kind of violence as a part of every day life if things do not change.
I share everyone’s sentiments here. American gun culture feels like a ouroboros–just a terrible self-perpetuating cycle.
After the heartbreak of Sandy Hook I got into an argument with a brother in law. I love him, and knew he had some guns, but when I found out he had a fully automatic weapon similar to that used at Sandy Hook I lost it. I was so angry and told him that our sons would not be visiting there as long as he owned that gun; a gun created with the purpose of mowing down people. He ended up selling it, but I would have been happier if the heinous thing had been destroyed. And the only man I know who had a carry permit, and sooooo much training, ended up accidentally shooting his wife. Luckily she survived, but that was the end of his macho man gun toting days.
If a shooter knows that that the people in the theater are not sitting ducks (i.e. able to shoot back at him) he would be much less likely to vent his mental disorder in this fashion, don’t you think?
If the US had better gun control and background check he wouldn’t had a gun to shoot with, don’t you think?
I understand he could still found a way to get a gun illegally, but at least make it harder for unstable people legally buy guns.
Sabrine: not to mention more innocents could potentially be caught in crossfire.
Crumpet: he killed himself anyway so would that have stopped him? He wanted his blaze of glory regardless.
I hate everything about it, especially conceal and carry laws. I visited my parents in Texas a few months back and their idea of that was to keep a huge gun strapped to their back while shopping at the grocery store. For real?! “We can defend ourselves and others…” yeah, that’s exactly what we need – trigger-happy idiots who are all too willing to open fire at anything that they think is a threat.
@Christine – this argument is probably one of ones that makes me the angriest. These idiots (no offense) fail to recognize that people get injured/killed when TRAINED professionals begin shooting – imagine what would happen when a bunch of weekend warriors begin shooting. It’s just another symptom of our self centered society – everyone thinks that they can either be a hero or better yet not follow rules at all.
BTW – why I am not surprised that the killer was an active Tea Party member!
Is it naivety or sheer stupidity that leads people to think that you solve the gun problem with more guns?
Who are these people who have such blind trust in their fellow man? Hell, I just came back from a walk in downtown Boston and people can’t even walk and text at the same time. People don’t even know how to drive a car. You REALLY trust these strangers to instantly take down a shooter with one shot?
Beyond that, I don’t need the rando guy who’s “having a bad day” and angrily muttering to himself to have a f*cking Glock in his belt, you know?
DOES NOT MAKE ME FEEL SAFER.
“We have a serious problem and it so badly needs to be solved. It makes me feel physically ill at this point because it just seems so hopeless.”
I’m there with you. It is so heart breaking that this keeps happening over and over and over and over and over and yet NOTHING GETS DONE!!!
My soul was changed after the lack of action after Sandy Hook. I look at my government and my fellow citizens in a different light. How easily we allow the team sport of politics to get in the way of what is right.
I fully agree, Tiffany. I began to look at things a lot differently after Sandy Hook as well. Forgive me for this statement because I know it’s so brutal, but they say that the bullets Adam Lanza used were so large that they left actual large holes in the children. How in the world do we justify that nothing was changed after that? President Obama says he is disappointed that he hasn’t been able to bring about change in the gun laws in our country and that he intends to rail hard in his last months in office to get something started. My hopes are so high.
It’s so baffling because it leads to so many other questions. WHY does this happen so much? Can we really still blame this on people being mentally ill? Do we really have this many mentally ill people in our society? I realize that this is another prominent issue in our country that goes ignored, but is that really what this is? Are these copycat offenses? I just can’t bring myself to understand it, any of it, and I’m so so so so tired of these tragic, gut wrenching stories.
“Babies and teachers being massacred in their school with military grade weapons wasn’t enough to bring about change”
that’s the crux of it, right there. if THAT didn’t prompt gun advocates to realize that, just maybe, we need to re-think the whole gun control thing, then NOTHING will.
I actually saw a FB post after those Marines in TN got shot that was saying that ALL veterans should be allowed/required to carry guns once they’re back in the US to help stop this kind of thing.
yeah, because no veteran EVER came back from combat with mental health issues that might make toting a gun around a bad idea…
people are dumb.
@doofus – your comment immediately brought Chris Kyle to mind. A former Navy SEAL trying to help others who suffered from PTSD by using guns as a way to bond. He ends up getting shot and killed in cold blood by a veteran suffering from PTSD. Again, to use Adam Lanza as an example, his mother was having difficulty bonding with him so she decides to use guns as a means to build a stronger relationship because he likes to spend all of his time locked up in his room playing shooting video games. The huge problem here that politicians and gun nuts don’t want to deal with is that they’ve allowed guns to be considered this American thing, a pivotal part of American culture, and a basic right of being an American citizen. Guns are apparently such a large part of American culture that Americans even use them as a way to bond with each other! Apparently the US has always had an obsession with violence, it’s just that it’s completely and utterly out of control now. They can’t defend it or hide behind the 2nd amendment anymore.
@Doofus. Good GOD people are nuts.
I’m honestly not sure if gun laws are really the answer. Most guns used in mass shootings are purchased legally, so laws that target illegal buyers won’t help. Most of them are purchased over a period of time, so laws like the one-a-month simply wouldn’t help. Most aren’t even done with military-grade weapons, so that won’t help.
Honestly, and I say this as a person with a mental health issue, I’d like to see much stronger mental health laws. Take Sandy Hook, for example – Adam Lanza was identified as profoundly mentally disturbed very early in life. But because he was never a direct threat to himself or anyone else, there was no legal way to confine him to prevent harm. The worst case was Virginia Tech. That was an individual who was identified as deeply disturbed, fascinated by violence, and multiple therapists came to believe it was not a matter of if he would kill, but a matter of when. But because mental health laws are so poor in the US, he stayed free.
I’m sympathetic to arguments for gun control, but to me, I’d prefer to see rational arguments about HOW these laws would actually reduce mass casualty incidents. I think mental health laws, like the now-defunct (sadly) Kendra’s law in NY have a better track record of success, but I’m open to all possibilities. But what gun laws in particular are you actually thinking about, instead of a vague idea about “gun control?”
@Sam, I completely agree and I believe that mental health and the gun control issue go hand-in-hand. Background checks would help keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable, but before that, we need to be able to pay more attention to those that are mentally ill and care for them in order to even know that they’re unwell to begin with. These problems need to be dealt with simultaneously. Often times in these instances the shooter has been found to suffer from a mental illness of some kind that was left unchecked or untreated because we stigmatize mental health issues in this country and still treat them like the elephant in the room. Both issues need significant attention from our lawmakers, but they’re too busy worrying about lining their pockets with NRA money to care how many civilians end up dead in the process.
Where the signals get crossed for me and this whole thing becomes almost too much to comprehend is when it begins to look like these might just be copycat offenses. Why did the Louisiana shooter choose the movie theater in the same way James Holmes did in Colorado? There is always an inspiration in these cases. Dylan and Eric brought this to the mainstream when they orchestrated and executed the Columbine High School massacre, for a while there school shootings were the standard. Now people are branching out to all sorts of other public places. Is it ALL mental health? Who can be sure anymore? I don’t believe Dylann Roof, the person who shot the parishioners in Columbia, South Carolina church was mentally unwell. He was a racist, hateful person which can also be a sign of a mental health issue, but I don’t believe that is the case in this situation. Guns need to be removed from the general population. Anyone can get them, mentally unwell or not, and no one is using them for any good.
I see what you’re saying, Sam, but what do you propose should have been done in the case of Lanza and the VA Tech guy, though? Both were clearly disturbed, but like you wrote, they hadn’t at that point presented any actual threat to themselves or others, so therapists’ hands were tied. So when you write that due to poor mental health laws in the US, “he stayed free,” what do you mean exactly? That he should have been locked up? Institutionalized? I’m totally with you, but I just don’t see anything happening on that end either; we try to restrict guns and people cry that their rights are being trampled on, but if we try to instate laws regarding somehow restricting/removing from society those who have been deemed credible dangers (“when, not if” when it comes to actually harming others) then that has a great propensity to be abused as well. It just seems so hopeless.
Yes, Sam, the gun control issue is incredibly complex. After Sandy Hook, I read so much about it because I wanted to be well-informed in my opinion and I came away thinking that gun control probably won’t help as much as I previously thought.
To add to that, if people want to get a gun, they will find a way to get a gun–whether they obtain it legally, steal it, or buy a “hot gun” from an illegal gun dealer. Gun trafficking is a huge and highly-lucrative underground business in this country. ATF officials say that only about 8% of the US’s 124,000 retail gun dealers sell the majority of handguns that are used in crimes.
I’m not sure what the answer is really.
I blame lanza’s mother. From everything I read, it sounded like she was in deep denial and isolated him, and knowing his issues she still let him have guns
@Wooley, I blame Lanza’s mother as well. She knew her son had a problem and violent tendencies and stupidly chose to use GUNS as a way to try to bond with her. She is absolutely to blame for what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary and her own death as well.
Sam, your comments to this thread have been absolutely stellar. I too think the knee jerk response of ‘moar gun control’ is not the answer to this problem, as you have demonstrated by the example of other countries. And I also agree that the lack of health care for mental illness is very likely a major player for the situation in the US.
To me mental health is a red herring, a distraction from that fact that nobody, whether diagnosed with a mental illness or not, needs an arsenal at their home for any reason. Even if Lanza had been deemed a proper threat there was nothing stopping his mother from buying guns and THAT’S where the issue is.
Well said, Michelle. Frankly, I’m sick of people saying the killing of Americans isn’t a political issue. It is. If terrorism from the Middle East is a political issue, so is gun violence. Both are intended to strike terror into the hearts of people and both are anathema to American society.
The lack of action (or should I say: the pushback to deny any action) after Sandy Hook still makes me ill.
I agree with you – but I also feel like this wall-to-wall media coverage of every shooting in a country of 320 million people is starting to inspire copycatters. Maybe the media need to dial it back a little too.
Mass shootings in schools and theatres always receive national attention, but there is also a problem with everyday shootings that are relegated to the local news. Turn on the local news in any major US city and you are sure to see a story about a delivery boy or convenience store owner being shot to death, a carjacking involving a gun, gang violence, and other robberies where the victim was killed by a gun. This is an everyday problem in the USA, not just when it happens on a massive scale in a public arena, although those are become increasingly commonplace as well.
A diverse population with racial and religious tension and numerous inequalities among different ethnicities, no national health care to treat the mentally ill, and enough guns to get into the hands of every citizen in America means disasters like this will happen frequently. America is swimming in guns. You will not see anything like this in any other developed nation in the world. It’s sickening.
Over 20 first graders slaughtered in their school by a crazy with a gun, and we have had ZERO changes. The NRA owns Congress and our state legislatures. It is disgusting and immoral. That crazy may have killed a few people with a knife or sword, but never as many as he did.
America – it’s my country and it’s nuts.
Had to start another post to say that my thoughts are with the families, victims and people of Lafayette. ♥
(didn’t want to mix that in with my cat nonsense)
@kitten, Never apologize for your kitty love. I’ve had my Bengal in a love grip all morning. I agree with everything you and the other amazing ladies have said regarding gun control. I’m tired and frustrated with this bullish*t. If children getting gunned down doesn’t change minds then what will?
I have a baby Bengal is my IG feed now and holy crap, she is a beauty. Gorgeous, gorgeous cats.
Co-sign
+1 well said, Kiddoccio
I missed your trollishness, my little berry.
Wait there was another shooting? What? Americans, please, gun control is a good thing! How many people have to die?
I feel really angry and frustrated…did you know that the majority of guns used by criminals in Mexico and Canada were illegally smuggled in from the states? There’s so many guns in America there’s nothing Canada and Mexico can do to keep them all out even though Canada and Mexico don’t have the US’s lax gun laws. If the USA wasn’t so gun-crazy, Canada and Mexico would be so much safer. It’s really unfair that they have to suffer from criminals with guns because of the actions of another country.
We live very close to Lafeyette. A friend of mine once lived next door to the 21 year old girl who was killed. So sad and senseless. Prayers to the families.
I live really close to Lafayette as well and that is a theater my husband and I frequent often (we actually were there Tuesday watching Trainwreck). I am just shattered that this happened in our community. I graduated from High school with one of the teachers from New Iberia. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone. You never think it will happen in your area until it does.
There was also a stabbing in OK where two teens stabbed and killed 5 members of their family in their home. Normally safe nice neighborhood. This also happened yesterday or the day before. Violence is a problem in the usa but it’s not just guns unfortunately.
Guns allow people to kill in large numbers from a distance. Knife violence, while horrific, doesn’t have the capability to inflict as much damage with as much speed as a firearm.
Guns are killing machines. That is their purpose.
But can’t that argument be made about other things? To be honest, most blades out there are designed for killing. Other than the knifes you keep in your kitchen, they are generally killing instruments (let’s exclude outdoor uses such as axes).
(I just always find this argument weird due to my husband and myself being big martial arts enthusiasts who own a pretty solid collection of “killing blades” – katana, rampuri, etc.). And there have been mass fatality events perpetrated with them – but they almost exclusively happen in Asia, where guns are restricted but these “killing blades” are relatively plentiful. The difference is that, to me, killing with a gun takes little skill – it’s point and shoot. Swordsman require a little more skill.
Exactly.
Blades can kill…but you have to be in much closer proximity. You can’t fire off 30 blades in mere seconds and hit people from long distances, like you can with bullets. Guns have a unique lethal quality because they can shoot many bullets very rapidly and can kill people from very long distances. For most blades, you have to be at arms length to cause harm.
@ Sam
Maybe it’s because it’s easier to get away from a knife-wielding potential killer than it would be to run away from a gun man who’s shooting several bullets per seconds?
Also, there’s a shorter distance in which a flying knife can travel versus someone with a high-powered rifle with a scope.
So you remove the guns and the blades and they start using poison gas and bombs. People will always (sadly) find a way to hurt massive amounts of people from a distance.
Don’t forget to ban cooking utensils as inn Boston Marathon
Crumpet people might try to find a way but they certainly don’t succeed with the frequency and devastating effect that gun rampages do. Find another non-war torn country where bomb and gas attacks are the norm, I imagine it would be difficult.
I agree completely with this. Our society is becoming increasingly more violent. I grew up around guns my entire life and have a great respect for them but until mental illness is treated properly in this country, how easily they are available makes me nervous. I have a cousin with schizophrenia who knocked out my aunt when he last went off his meds but she wouldn’t press charges so he could be committed and we all know for a fact he’s got at least one gun in his house (because Texas). My aunt swears he’s fine now but I refuse to go near him since then.
I look at the Charleston shooter, where his friend said he hid the guy’s gun after he started making crazy talk about shooting up a college but then gave it back to him once he sobered up. People making crazy talk about killing people need to be reported and taken seriously by the police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3132627/Charleston-killer-planned-shoot-college-campus-instead-church-claims-black-drinking-buddy-says-homeboys.html
I hear you. I’m originally from Newark, NJ and there are people being shot and killed in multiples literally on a daily basis. Often times, little kids caught in the cross fire. This country has a violence problem. I wish our politicians could find it in themselves to care enough to come together and fix it. We really can’t go on like this anymore.
And Sunday night not far from me a man was purposely run over by an irate driver. He fell, hit his head and died the next day. Reports said the two had words over either a parking spot or the speed the killer had been traveling down the street prior to the incident. And yes, it is a very good neighborhood which I grew up in. Guns, knives or cars, people are just out of their minds. Look around you when you’re out and about. Everyone is just so pissed off about something. For someone to kill someone on purpose with their car over something stupid and then just drive off speaks volumes about today’s society.
My prayers are with the victims and their families. What an absolutely horrific event.
Trainwreck is a movie that is proudly lead by a woman who speaks loudly about women’s issues. The two victims that died were women. I can’t help but think back to the shootings in Santa Barbara and wonder if there is something similar going on here.
Yeah, I’m noticing that too. It seems like the majority of these massacres are done by men specifically looking to murder women. These are hate crimes, not just mentally ill men randomly killing people.
Wow! That is profound and I had not thought about it. This guy has a history of violence against his own family, his daughter and wife. I bet you are right on the mark with this. So sad.
Yes, there is a connection. I believe he targeted women at a movie led by an opinionated and independent woman.
He also owned a confederate flag. More information on this POS here: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/louisiana-gunman-was-a-confederate-flag-flying-tea-party-kook-who-hated-obama-and-admired-hitler/
Yeah, this is giving me shades of the Montreal massacre. That was a man who intentionally targeted women because he felt like he was being passed over in favor of them. Given the info coming out now about the shooter here, it’s seeming more and more like this was a crime targeted at women. I wonder if we will hear the term “hate crime” used at all in this case?
Ugh. Yes, the Elliot Roger shootings. That manefesto was a rabbit of hole reading that chilled me to the core.
I was wondering about that, too. Both of the people murdered were women – one in her twenties, the other in her early thirties. It’s weird that more isn’t being made of that fact.
It certainly seems like they were targeted for just being female….
I agree. Trainwreck is a movie whose target audience is young, independent women. He could’ve gone into any other film but chose this one. It’s interesting to speculate the many reasons why this is not being highlighted in the press: to make sure movies in general (not just “chick flicks”) are made to feel unsafe? To keep women from protesting the general misogyny in the culture? If the gun control argument is your thing, think of what an ugly NRA meeting it would be if the female members and/or loved ones came to the conclusion that the NRA was really just promoting a way to kill off uppity women.
Scary and heartbreaking, like every effing shooting this year.
Yes it absolutely was. The guy had been featured on local tv for a while years ago and was a well known misogynist, racist, anti-Semite and right winger. There’s more about him here: http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2015/07/24/angry-misogynist-murders-women-at-showing-of-film-by-feminist-comedian-police-worry-we-may-not-find-a-motive/
The article above is kind of depressing because if I read correctly police are reluctant to deem this attack as an act of violence targeted towards women.
To all of y’all requesting more gun control: what exactly do you propose? The rub with this is any major gun control law is skating closely to infringing on a constitutional right. I’m a libertarian/fiscal-conservative & I too, find these crimes horrific. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what exactly can be done regarding guns as opposed to specifically looking at the mental illness side of this coin.
The USA has come a long way since our founding, with both good & bad outcomes. You cannot demand full acceptance of one right(abortion/4th amendment) while actively seeking to infringe on another(the right to bear arms) without stepping back & asking “why is this right worth more than that right?”
We, as responsible, informed American citizens must acknowledge the good and the bad, even in the midst of tragedies such as this.
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
We had no standing army at the time, so citizen-soldiers were needed to protect the states and country in case of invasion, foreign or domestic, or other forms of oppression requiring defense by citizenry militias.
Gun control does not limit your right to be in a well regulated, armed militia.
Preventing elementary school kids from bringing automatic assault rifles to school does not infringe upon the 2nd amendment. Neither does making sure adults who should not have guns get guns or making sure that guns are purchased in a systematic, responsible manner .
^^^
THIS!!!
…who should not have guns get guns…” should be “…who should not have guns do not get guns…”
Being well regulated is a part of the right. Regulations, therefore, do not infringe on the right.
Comprehensive background checks would be a great place to start. Changing the laws re: buying at gun shows, etc. You know you have an issue when radical terrorists are encouraging people to buy guns in America through gun shows because of the lax regulations.
^^^
THIS TOO!
Exactly,
The link between mass killings and domestic violence exists in over 50% of mass shootings in America. Domestic violence is a great place to start, instead of blanket gun control regulations.
…but flaws in gun control regulations allow those who have committed domestic violence to have access to guns. Gun show loopholes allow such people to buy guns, even if they have a DV related arrest on their record.
Well said Andrea.
I think in the land of the free, people should be free to restrict themselves in what they say on the internet and in public whether anonymously or not. Otherwise it’s too easy for nasty things to spread and lead to a general devaluation of human life with one thing leading to another. And just disillusionment. I think it was smart of previous generations of people to keep their mouths shut about certain things and to have manners.
Very sad. As usual, this individual had domestic violence issues.
Gun control and mental health are important discussions, but an even better place to start is to advocate for more attention to domestic violence. It is the least punished crime in America and, much like fire-starting or pet torturing, usually indicates an unstable person who will escalate their violence after practicing on the people closest to them.
As a foreigner from a country with 0 mass murders, I have ceased to understand why Americans bother to keep feeling sad. It’s an amendment, not a permanent. Just give a gun to every child, teacher, nurse, priest…everyone already if that’s the defense you’re going to take.
Don’t get me wrong. You are a great country and there are many great American contributors. This ain’t great though.
Gun control regulations work very well in Germany. But each to its own, I guess.
The problem is, it’s not just to their own. Because everyone in America wants to own guns, there is nothing Canada and Mexico can do to stop the guns from coming into their countries. The majority of guns used by criminals in Mexico and Canada obtained their guns illegally from the US and the guns seized from crimes almost always trace back to US orgin. IT’s really unfair that their gun crazy ways have to inflict issues on other countries that don’t have their insane laws regarding guns.
It’s not guns, it’s people. Cakes are easily accessible and not everyone is morbidly obese or has diabetes from eating all the cakes.
Nicely flippant considering the subject matter.
Just like it’s not drugs it’s people, right? So by your argument, it should be perfectly legal to leave piles of meth and cocaine around because hey, drugs don’t kill people, people using drugs kill people.
I will never understand why Americans are so obsessed with owning guns.
I’ll never understand why Americans are so resistant to changing their gun laws.
Humans are violent. Our entire history demonstrates that, why make it easier to kill each other?