DAMMIT!!! 🤬

Posted on by under guns, History, Law and justice, Personal, Political commentary, Rants, Social commentary

Wednesday, 1:30 a.m.

1:30 this morning, I had just finished my music post and was getting ready to put it on the schedule for the usual time, 11:00 a.m.  Suddenly my phone went mad with a knock-knock here and a knock-knock there.  Being nearly deaf, my notification sound is a sharp knock, which I can hear much better than any tone.  Usually, it is silent at 1:30 in the morning, so I knew something was up.  Sure enough … three notifications from The Guardian, The Washington Post, and the New York Times informing me that a gunman had shot and killed multiple people in a Wal-Mart store in Virginia.

GODDAMMIT PEOPLE!!!!  Two days before Thanksgiving and people cannot even go buy a damned turkey or some sweet potatoes without getting killed???  We the People … our damned lives are less important to the members of Congress we pay to protect us than the profits of the damned gun industry?

As I pound the keyboard, hitting as many wrong keys as right ones, my loving cat Oliver, sensing my distress, hops onto my lap and using his paw, gently pulls my left hand away from the keyboard.  Whoever called them ‘dumb animals’ was dead wrong … they’re a hell of a lot smarter than we humans are.

Having spent a few minutes patting Oliver and chatting with him, my tears have dried and I am now somewhat calmer … at least I’m hitting the right keys now!  By the time I resume this post later today, hopefully there will be some details, but already … barely 3 hours after the massacre, Wal-Mart management is sending useless ‘thoughts and prayers’ just as most of our elected officials who cannot be bothered to take guns out of the hands of lunatics will be doing by this afternoon.  The latest from the BBC is that they think it may have been the store manager who opened fire, but … don’t worry, folks, for a Wal-Mart corporate executive said that the company is “shocked by this tragic event.”

On that note, I shall switch gears, pat Oliver a bit longer, have a piece of cheese, try for some sleep (it is now 2:45 a.m.), and return to this story later this morning.

Wednesday afternoon

Well, details remain sketchy but apparently it was the night manager who did the shooting.  He was in the break room with a number of employees planning for today’s deluge of last-minute Thanksgiving shoppers, and just as the meeting was about to break up, the manager pulled out a pistol and opened fire.  Six people were killed and either 4 or 5 were taken to nearby hospitals with injuries.  Given that there were some 20+ employees in that break room and the store was crowded with shoppers, it’s a small wonder that there weren’t more killed.  The gunman then turned the gun on himself and was dead when police arrived.  The name of the shooter (murderer) has not been released and the FBI is involved in the investigation.

Mass shootings … as commonplace as syrup on pancakes.  Someday perhaps we will have lawmakers who see it as their duty to craft restrictive gun laws with teeth, but as long as the gun industry is allowed to put lots of money into the pockets of these men and women, essentially buying their votes against ANY gun restrictions, these shootings will continue to escalate.  People claim the biggest reason for gun ownership is self-defense, but it is rare that a gun is used for self-defense.  The night manager at Wal-Mart certainly wasn’t ‘defending’ himself, nor was the murderer at Club Q last weekend, nor was the man who killed three University of Virginia football players ten days ago.  More often than not, guns are used to murder people for any or no reason, but not self-defense.

In some states today, it is as easy to buy a gun as it is to buy a pack of bananas.  When does it stop?  Does it stop when some crazed gunman kills a large number of members of Congress, or perhaps the President?  I know you’re all tired of hearing me rant about guns, and I’m tired of writing about guns, but until something is done, I WILL KEEP WRITING ABOUT IT!!!

57 thoughts on “DAMMIT!!! 🤬”

  1. Forgive me for butting in as an outsider, but part of the problem is the culture of ‘freedom’. in the US. Even people who are appalled by the mass shootings still won’t address the gun problem because of this ingrained misunderstanding about what freedom actually means. It isn’t the right to do whatever you damn-well please. It’s the right to LIFE, a right that’s routinely ignored because it might infringe on some maniac’s right to ‘bear arms’.
    I’m sorry but…this is insane.

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    • No need to apologize, my friend. As I often say, those outside the U.S. see our situation more clearly than we do … like that old saying, “Can’t see the forest for the trees.”

      You have just said the exact same thing that David said a few nights ago … that we have too much of the wrong type of freedom. In my book, every ‘right’ an individual or group has, must necessarily be accompanied by a corresponding responsibility, and that is what the people of this nation fail to understand. The framers of the Constitution never intended everyone to freely own and carry a gun, especially of the type that can mow down a crowd within a minute! Freedom of speech has run amok with people taking no responsibility for being truthful, and believing that it is their right to stir up an insurrection or incite violence. I fully agree with you … it is INSANE! And not likely to get any better as long as we have the sort of lawmakers and judiciary we have today. Sigh.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. A bit off topic but just as troubling. Kari Lake refuse to concede as more Arizona counties refuse to certify results following a scandal-filled election.
    Republicans in Arizona want to overturn the results and hold new elections! I doubt that would ever happen but it should get interesting as Lake’s voters scream disenfranchisement.

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    • 7 mass shootings this week already. Sigh. 80% of the people are in favour of more restrictive gun laws, but the people who represent us in government are paid millions of dollars to keep that from happening. Apparently their own wealth is more important than our lives.

      Liked by 3 people

        • Occasionally, like after the Parkland, Florida school shooting that killed 17 students, there are protests, but they are quickly quelled and mocked by the politicians. Our representatives know what we want, for we write letters to them, we call them, we publish our opinions in newspapers … but they don’t care. That oath they took is just a string of words to them that means nothing.

          Liked by 2 people

      • I’m convinced that the powers that be, don’t care one hoot about anyone middle class or lower no matter, the race, gender or ethnicity. Their hidden desire is for a lot of us to just die off. Hence no gun regulations, expensive and restricted healthcare, very little mental health care, lessening of aid to the poor, promoting unhealthy eating habits with the monopolies of fast food, not much help for drug addiction etc. it will all work, in their mind’s desire to eliminate a certain type and percentage of that population demographic.

        And all this at bottom line, makes them even richer. It’s a slow process and they’re just warming up.

        The oddity though, is the abortion objection, because it would sure help their cause. Maybe they’re counting on back alley or that they’ll starve anyway.

        Liked by 2 people

        • Well, the problem with that theory is that if we all die off, there will be nobody left to run their factories, sell their products, build their homes and businesses, grow their food, etc. So no, I don’t think they want us all to die off, but I think you’re right that they don’t give a damn if we live in poverty or not, if we have to work 2 or even 3 jobs just to feed our families.

          If I were George Orwell or Aldous Huxley, I might think that their goal is to force more children to be born to be manipulated, molded into perfect little slaves who would be educated along the lines of DeSantis’ education view where there was no slavery, was no genocide, no Jim Crow, and taught that “white man good, all others bad.” But, I’m not yet convinced that we are entering a dystopian period, though some days it surely does seem like it.

          Liked by 1 person

          • As jobs become more automated, they will need less of us and less people also means less of a need for services. I dont mean all of us, but just a major reduction, especially among the poor and minorities

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            • The thing about robotics and other forms of technology is that it may do away with some jobs, but it creates others. You need, first of all people to develop both software and hardware, then people to maintain and update it, etc. More highly-skilled positions, which is why education is even more important than ever before. And, which also explains why the wealthy, like Betsy DeVos, would like to do away with public schools that give EVERY child an equal opportunity to learn, and have the children of the wealthy go to exclusive private schools such that 25 years from now, the only people qualified for the best paying jobs, and for government positions will be the children of the rich and famous! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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      • We’re not really in any position to criticise, given the mess our country is in, but the way your country allows and actively encourages gun ownership, and how it seems to be ingrained in your culture, is inexplicable to us.

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            • There are many legitimate reasons for owning and using a gun, and in Aotearoa New Zealand these are recognised. However, owning or possessing a gun for the purpose of self defence in not a legitimate reason In fact if it is thought to be a reason for owning a gun, then a gun owner’s licence will be refused.

              Liked by 4 people

              • Guns are made for one thing and one thing only: to kill. I know from our previous discussions that gun laws in New Zealand are far more stringent than any we have in the U.S. Here, what few laws we do have are in danger of being repealed to create even more madness. Sigh.

                Liked by 1 person

              • There may be many there, but fewer here. Farmers are allowed them to protect animals from predators, and I think there are some licensed gun clubs, but almost all uses were banned in the 80s after Dunblane and Hungerford.

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                • Almost all guns here are used for hunting – some for “recreational” hunting, but I think most are used in pest control or instances where pest control and recreational hunting are combined such as in hunting deer or chamois.

                  Before the arrival of humans in the 13th century, Aotearoa was devoid of mammals, and both fauna and flora evolved differently from elsewhere. Fauna evolved with few predators, and those few were airborne, relying on sight to find prey. Low levels of predation resulted in low reproductive rates and defenses that are ineffective against mammals that use the sense of smell and hearing to locate prey.

                  Especially over the last 2 centuries invaders such rats, stoats, rabbits, possums, mice, not to mention humans, have had a devastating effect on flora and fauna, and to a somewhat lesser extent so have deer, goats, pigs, cats and dogs. Almost all endemic animal species, be they birds, reptiles or invertebrates are under threat. Shooting, along with trapping and poisoning are used to keep the invading mammals under control, and hopefully eliminate them by 2050.

                  Liked by 3 people

                  • I think we have some of the strictest controls in the world, though licences are permitted for rifles and we have had a couple of mass shootings by licence holders, so the system isn’t infallible. Interesting history over there, thanks for the info 😊

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    • No, my friend, when people put their ‘right’ to murder above the right of others to survive, then we cannot call ourselves a ‘civilised’ country. Throughout the years I’ve thought some of the more horrific incidents, such as the murder of 20 children ages 6-7 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, or 17 killed and another 17 injured at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school would spur Congress to get off its collective rear ends and DO SOMETHING. But no, the money from the gun industry is apparently more valuable than the lives of our children.

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  7. What will it take? Will it be the death of some outspoken gun supporter by a crazed shooter before people realize that guns are for killing … and NOT a political tool?

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    • I just don’t know, Nan. The vast majority of people in this country support more restrictive gun laws, but we’re apparently no match for the gun manufacturers who can afford to line the pockets of the members of Congress. It will, obviously, take a disaster on a monumental scale. Sigh.

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      • As you probably know, Oregon passed Measure 114 related to gun purchases. And right on cue, the gun crazed populace streamed into the local gun shops. They’re all screaming about their “Second Amendment” rights, but the measure doesn’t stop anyone from buying a gun. It just “requires a permit to purchase firearms and prohibits magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.” It also puts some restrictions on buying guns at gun shows and requires proof of completion of any firearms training course or class.

        But the NRA and its supporters have totally convinced these idjits that ANY kind of gun restriction is violating their 2nd Amendment rights. People’s lives be damned.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Yes, I saw and I am still shaking my head at the utter lunacy of people who object to even being required to have a permit!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I understand that an ’emergency motion’ has been filed to try to keep the measure from taking effect. Isn’t it funny that the very same people who are demanding unlimited and unrestricted guns are also among the ones that call themselves “pro life”??? Oh, the irony! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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    • Nothing will change because it’s also about the manufacture of war weapons; tanks, missles and other large equipment used for war. It’s all tied together and makes millions for these companies. They can buy just about any politician, especially republicans.

      Liked by 3 people

  8. Guns are the reason I stopped crossing the border in 2016. I can’t even imagine being a parent in America and sending kids off to school, wondering if they’ll be coming home or in a body bag. It’s disgusting to watch on the news shooting after shooting. I couldn’t imagine strolling through a Walmart and someone is strutting along with their AK 15. Better off on this side of the border. So very sad Jill. As long as greed exists your retrumplicon party will continue to support your NRA instead of human life. 😦 Hugs xx

    Liked by 3 people

    • I don’t blame you one bit for that! Like you, if I had school-age children, I think I would opt to homeschool rather than put them in the line of fire. This nation has lost its collective sanity when it comes to two things: guns and free speech. You’re right … greed is the basic problem when it comes to guns. What, I often wonder, will it take to wake up our lawmakers? A year or so ago, I read a statistic that some 80% of adults in this country are for stricter gun laws … but our legislators refuse to listen to us. Sigh. Hugs to you, dear friend! xx

      Liked by 2 people

  9. I have words, Jill, but none of them are printable. It is the worst case of cowardice in my opinion to murder people then commit suicide. As for the gun advocates like Boebert, Greene, Goetz, Abbott, De Santis, Kemp, Scott, Palin and on and on and on… if there was a devil they are doing its work.

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    • I hear you, my friend! I did a fair bit of cursing in this piece, something I typically try to avoid, but sometimes you just have to say it. You know that eventually it will be decided that he had ‘mental health’ issues, and perhaps he did, but that doesn’t excuse what he did. If you let every Tom, Dick and Harry own a gun, then people are going to die. Period. Sigh.

      Liked by 2 people

  10. By coincidence, I have digital subscriptions to those same three newspapers — plus Le Monde digital and the Frankfurter Rundschau on paper with home delivery.

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    • Many thanks for sharing it, Ben!!! This is one topic that … just keeps calling out for attention, for people to WAKE UP! They talk about 2nd Amendment ‘rights’, but in my book, one person’s rights end when they step on another’s rights. Is Person A’s right to own and use a gun more important than Persons’ B, C, D, E, F, G, H rights to life?

      Liked by 2 people

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