Comments

2
"When the next mass shooting happens, I will devote a post to the name and genealogy of this god."

I'll check back next week.
3
TLDR.

Your hot take is luke warm these days Charles.

Might be time to hang up that scarf and call it quits.
4
Genius, CM. I shouldn't say I look forward to the next installment. I'll simply await.
5
As evidenced in 130 scientific studies over a 60 year span, the countries with gun regulation experience lessened gun violence:

Largest Study to Date Finds Powerful Evidence That Gun Control Actually Works

https://www.sciencealert.com/studies-sho…

Which is also true in the United States, where you're less likely to be shot in Democratic states, because:

The States With The Most Gun Laws See The Fewest Gun-Related Deaths

And more likely to catch a bullet in Republican states, because:

STUDY: States With Loose Gun Laws Have Higher Rates Of Gun Violence

"the 10 states with the weakest gun laws collectively have a level of gun violence that is more than twice as high — 104 percent higher — than the 10 states with the strongest gun laws."

And in US cities: many Red state cities more violence than Blue state:

Despite the myths and lies told by the NRA and gun nutters, statistically, both Republican states and cities are awash with the blood from their lax gun control, in comparison to the sensibly regulated Democratic areas.
The truth — and lies — about Chicago's gun laws

This also true on the Federal level:

Under the Assault Rifle ban, during the Clinton Administration, the number of mass shootings declined.

When the Bush administration allowed the ban to lapse, mass shootings skyrocketed.

The lesson: get more Democrats elected across country.

6
cosign this whole theory. i think i know who this god is- he is white manhood. we love him, and we think his anger and need for blood restitution are warranted, given how he has been criticized and asked to share. we sympathize, we get it. he is a god after all, he is america. the lives he takes are sacrifices, but he takes them directly. he is too angry to wait for an altar or his priests.
7
From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of schoolchildren.
8
(although I guess Thomas Jefferson is the prophet, not the deity)
9
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
10
Guns are for supporting fragile masculinity. Each massacre is a fragile manchild lashing out to demonstrate his strength, protest against the forces oppressing him, and revenge all the acts of emasculation he has experienced. These militia and the NRA are churches worshiping this agro-power. Without guns america becomes a weak, sissy nation. The defenders of gun culture in congress share this view of america which is why they cannot imagine restricting guns. They would be emasculating the nation, in their eyes. You have another manchild in the white house and these ideas were explicit in his campaign. It is transparent to those of us watching from afar.
11
@3
You didn't read it; you inform us you didn't read it; you still comment on it, and your comment has absolutely nothing to do with the content.

You can do you, but please leave the rest of us out of it (i.e. stfu)
12
This is cute, a worthy effort, but there's no here here. Sorry Charles.
14
The US must look historically bizarre from the outside these days.

15
Chas is absolutely goddamn right. And I am too tired to care any more. They ain't my kids and whatever phony deity their parents howl at ain't mine neither. We have decided as a country that mowing down children in schools with excellent WMD is acceptable every day life. Any weeping from parents, politicians, priests are crocodile tears from willing participants. They have collectively decided that they condone this, ostensibly because drunk uncle Joe likes to spray his backyard with lead to keep kids off his lawn.

The only realistic reaction to a USA school massacre is "darn, I didn't think it would be MY kid. What are the odds?"

Note please that our constitution NOWHERE says that any citizen has a right to a gun of any sort. The Framers were not advertising for gun manufacturers, the gun lobby, or any other homicidal product hawkers. They wrote EXPLICITLY, in very plain language, that states have a right to organize a militia to deal with outside threats - to defend against threats to sovereignty. If the the 2nd amendment meant that every citizen should carry WMD it would have been written that way. In no definition is the word 'militia' interpreted as a lone gunman.
16
I have read comments from wingnuts that the 2nd amendment was put there so citizens can 'protect themselves from the tyranny of out of control gubmint!' Exactly how one would fire a gun at 'tyranny' is not explained, nor is how a bullet could negatively affect 'tyranny' since it has no physical manifestation. That none of the words they spout in their defense appear in Amendment 2 is also not explained.

Perhaps a g-man shows up at your door and asks, "Do you own a gun?" If you say yes, he says "Okay then, no tyranny for you! I'll go next door. Good work citizen!"

Get your local wingnut troll to read the exact text of Amendment 2 and then ask him to parse it intelligently. You will have a pretty good laugh until you realize that willful stupidity in uhmerica is more dire than you think.
17
They need to start showing the carnage. Show the dead children's bodies. Show the damage being murdered by these high powered weapons does. They should have done this with Sandy Hook. Showing the graphic carnage will do two things: get rid of every crazy truther who says these mass shootings aren't happening AND make AmeriKKKa face what they believe is acceptable. All we see are smiling faces of victims after the fact. Start showing the ripped apart bodies and the blood and gore and horrific devastation caused to human bodies by these weapons. Period. They did it for the Vietnam war. Before that they did it for the graphic lynchings. It is time for AmeriKKKa to face it. Have to look at it and deal with it. Traumatizing? Too bad. If we as a country believe murder weapons' rights trump people's rights to live without being gunned down, then we should have to look at the carnage, in graphic detail EVERY TIME.
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@17
We had to kill the children to save them :'(
20
@5: Thank you.
@14: Agreed.
@18: That makes absolutely no sense at all, or was that your point?
@19: Just crawl back into your slime hole and STFU already.
21
Like we desperately need a militia nation of Adam Lanzas and Nikolas Cruzes( for those who missed the tragic shooting at Parkland High School in Florida). This wildly escalating criminal insanity MUST be stopped. If not soon, another bloody civil war and / or the end of the world is in the inevitable future. Jesus---is that what the neofascist gun nut whackos all want??
HURRY, Mueller and federal investigators, while there is still time!
22
Well, for starters. This isn't Botswana. Your assessment is completely dependent on a specific cultural interpretation. The factors behind US mass shootings are likely very different, and go beyond simply the availability of guns.

Guns have always been easily available in the US, but non-crime-related mass shootings are a fairly recent cultural phenomenon. From 1900 until 1970, the number of mass shootings in the US per decade was always in the single digits, and most were related to criminal activities.

Starting in 1970, the number of mass shootings per decade suddenly doubled and then rose in each decade thereafter. We also start to see then random mass shootings. Taking away the more recent mass shootings related to domestic terrorism, there seems to have been some major change is US socio-cultural values that began in the late 60s and 70s leading us to where we are today.

Honestly, I don't think it can be blamed on the 60s-70s Hippie movement or counterculture, because at the time it gave so much value, or at least lip service, to love, peace, non-violence, and brotherhood. But, could these mass shootings have begun as a reaction to those "new" prevailing social values that might have been seen as being feminine or "anti-male" by young men who felt themselves outsiders to that culture (just posing a "what if" here since many mass shootings are committed by younger males)?

But really, determining when and how the factors behind mass shootings in the US developed is up to sociologists and historians to tackle, and so far they haven't done so in any high-profile way. If any major studies have been done, to date they've not received wide circulation or media attention. But, I have a sinking feeling that none have been done or are underway.

23
Yes, there is a deep psychological and spiritual aspect to this grisly ritual. I have not figured it out yet but I like your creative thoughts.

The reactions and media coverage are so scripted. "Beautiful all-American children killed, crazy creepy outcast is the killer." Stranger alert! Patriotic thoughts & prayers called for!

It also feels addictive in some way. "OMG we had an another one. But THIS time we'll fix it!" But, we never fix it. Insanity, denial, amnesia.

24
BTW Nickolas Cruz is now a star (for about 10 minutes) because he just beat the American high-school body-count record.

Another gunslinger will soon appear to beat Cruz's record.

Perhaps it's the god of mainstream media fame we're talking about.

Please wait...

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