Oh wow.

[luzribeiro]

If you think that mansplaining about "not assault weapons" and "assault weapons" in light of today's events in Las Vegas is going to be helpful in discussing the huge gun violence problem the USA has, you are the problem.

50+ dead, 400+ taken to hospitals.

Save us all the wisdom you need to share about the bullshit you believe.

This is how these guys handle everything - by dragging us out into the weeds of the mansplains rather than actually addressing the issues.

Don't be a dick.

Comments

[kiaa]

I'm just gonna put this here.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W9LkhCs6ib4/Vhi6mB06y9I/AAAAAAAAIn0/4KoXL5iNehE/s1600/imrs.php.jpg

But sure, guns don't kill people. People* kill people.

* especially American people do

[garote]

Whoah. What's the deal with Chile?

[fridi]

Yep, this would have never happened if guns were banned in the US like they are in Paris....wait...nevermind.

[asthfghl]

A 64-year old white guy who loves guns was able to stack his hotel room with tons of them without anyone doing squat about it. Look, LOOK how surprised I am!

[policraticus]

What was "anyone" supposed to do? He didn't bring them in full view, obviously. The were probably disassembled, packed in a generic suitcase, and brought in one at a time over a long period. If he kept them that way, how would anyone even know? How could they know? Housekeeping changes the towels, they make the bed, they empty the wastepaper basket. They don't search your luggage. If the housekeeper had walked into the room and found a dozen rifles laying around the room and thousands or rounds of ammo, I guarantee you they would have reported it. They likely already have policies that require staff to report suspicious or illegal evidence found in rooms.

I suspect in the future, places like Mandalay Bay will have metal detectors and bag searches, but in the world before this massacre, that wasn't considered necessary. In hindsight, was that stupid? In hindsight, everything that could have prevented a tragedy looks stupid.

It wasn't love of guns that did this. It was hatred of people.

[asthfghl]

Let me "unpack" this story of yours. So he brought tons of weapon parts... into a hotel.
Then unpacked tons of guns. In an actual hotel room. And kept them there for days.

In a hotel room.

In an actual fucking hotel.

And no one could've known.

What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck.

[fridi]

No, it was the absolute absence of control that did this. But you keep telling yourself whatever story makes you feel like the "winner" of the argument. That totally helps.

[kiaa]

"In hindsight, everything that could have prevented a tragedy looks stupid"

Hello, the rest of the developed world would like to have a word*.

* if you're willing to listen, that is.

[garote]

If he was Chinese, someone would have known?
If he was in his 30’s, someone would have known?
If he was a she, someone would have known?

[asthfghl]

What does "someone would have known" mean? Everyone learns and then "knows" everything as soon as it happens. This is the 21st century.

[abomvubuso]

Bill O'Reilly: Las Vegas shooting 'the price of freedom'
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/353503-bill-oreilly-las-vegas-shooting-the-price-of-freedom

Um, nope Bill. You're the price of freedom. This isn't freedom, it's NRA making coin.

[policraticus]

So, we are supposed to make laws based only on feelings, on emotions?

Is that how I am supposed to be reading this?

Good to know.

[luzribeiro]

You? You're not supposed to do anything. You will not do anything. You'll just keep mansplaining how everything is all right and no problem exists at all.

The problem is yours, by the way. Not mine.

But good luck being a rational, systematically murdered society.

You know, you do it all for freedom. Amirite?

[policraticus]

But good luck being a rational, systematically murdered society.

US murder rates have been on a steady decline since 1980. Violent crime in the US has similarly declined over the past thirty years to near record lows.

Don't worry, we are still a violent culture. Always have been. But we have been becoming less and less violent even as the ownership of guns, and the power of those guns, has increased dramatically, almost out of all proportion. How do we reconcile this?

[kiaa]

"Obama is coming for your guns, people!" - NRA, throughout the entire 8 years of Obama's presidency.

You don't get to lecture anybody on feelings and emotions.

[airiefairie]

Doing nothing is cowardice, like Stephen Colbert said last night. Doing something takes courage.

How about you do something that makes sense, without necessarily using irrational feelings and emotions as an incentive? Is that possible at all? Or is the fact that every such incident causes emotions going to forever stall the process of coming up with better solutions to the problem? When is the appropriate time to talk about these things impartially? Because these incidents are not too far apart, they keep coming rather frequently.

Do you think the current situation is acceptable?

[policraticus]

Don't just stand there! Do something! Anything!!

Well, I am sure Colbert is sincere, but what exactly should we do? Let's see the plan that will make mass shootings a thing of the past, then I will let you know if doing nothing is cowardice, or prudence. There are already a lot of laws on the books regulating the sale and ownership of firearms in the US, most of them are quite sensible and I don't think very many gun owners begrudge them for a minute. But gun owners aren't fooled. The laws we follow aren't written with us in mind. But the targets of these laws, don't follow laws. By definition.

[luzribeiro]

"Gun violence in the U.S. isn't actually a problem, once you compare overall violent crime in the U.S. with other comparable nations, on a per-capita basis."

This is not true at all.

[halialkers]

Isn't that why Republicans want to send gay people back into the closet and abortions back to coat hangers and illegal operations in alleys? It sure ain't scientific logic there buckaroo.

[halialkers]

What I wonder is how long he built that arsenal and why he built all that 'just' to shoot up a country music concert. You don't have that many guns in a hotel room to shoot up one group of people. How much worse was his original plan? Why did he do this? How will the media assign this to be the latest one-off lone wolf when there's enough of them to field a couple of baseball teams at this point?

[kiaa]

I see the usual folk doing the usual mansplaining, exactly like you predicted.

[luzribeiro]

I'm totally shocked. Totally.