What the fuck does it take?
Huh? How many times will a loosely-bolted-together near-human take an easily available weapon and large amounts of nearly-unregulated ammo to turn a random mostly-safe community space into a bloodbath of passers-by?
What the fuck does it take, Wayne LaPierre, you greedy intransigent gun-lobby whore? How many innocent people have to needlessly die?
You irredeemable fuck. The NRA was once a sportsman’s association, that encouraged gun education and responsible hunting. It has been genetically modified to defend unrestricted weapons at every level and in every corner of our society. And on with the body count… You paranoid pandering money-scrounging fuck. EVERY ONE of those deaths needs to be hung around your fucking neck, like Jacob Marley’s chains, you tuna-fried slitstroker.
Another mass shooting. One after the other after another. Michael Moore’s movie is mocked, while it is On With The Body Count.
Nutheads shoot shit up on nearly a weekly basis. Innocents die. And when someone with a public forum, like Bob Costas, comes out and says that as a country and a culture we need to start talking about and addressing our violent and gun-centric culture, he is shouted down. And on with the body count…
Fuck
There were TWO MASS SHOOTING EVENTS in Milwaukee this year. TWO. What the fuck does it take? WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT TAKE!?!?!??!
A teenager is shot for unapproved walking while carrying Skittles. An African American teenager is shot dead for having the temerity to be playing loud music in his vehicle. Neither of them was armed, and the shooters of both walked free. WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT TAKE???!?!?!
And on with the body count…
Congress and the State Legislatures keep on with making it easier to get guns, assault weaponry, carry them everywhere, concealed. Shoot wolves. And it goes On With The Body Count….
Fuck YOU, La Pierre. Fuck YOU Scott walker. Fuck YOU, every one of you motherfucking legislators that made these easy-gun laws a reality. FUCK YOU.
What does it take? WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT TAKE???!?!
…and on with the body count…..
Empire Of The Senseless 
A friend of the Empire has reminded me that they will not comment on political posts. I understand, kind of; but with things like this, well hell, how do you NOT respond as a human? The political impacts every fucking one of us in real ways, both obvious and subtle. This kind of shit affects every fucking one of this. Last summer, it was a fucknut shooting up a Sikh temple. Today, it was a fucknut shooting up a mall. a few years ago, it was a fucknut blowing up an entire building.
POLITICS AFFECTS EVERY ONE OF US, EVERY DAY. By saying you don’t talk about politics, you remove your voice. And even if I disagree with you, as a fucking liberal, I don’t want ANYBODY to not have a voice.
There’s a slow-motion civil war going on, the mentally ill against Joe and Jane Schmo, and all the while, the merchants of death egg it on, and the media doesn’t do a goddamn thing because death sells.
I would revise that to say Paranoia sells.
It sells guns. It sells ammo.
It sells Republicans. It sells racism.
It sells the idea that it is YOU (defined by any convenient metric) against all those OTHERS.
It sells the idea that THEY want your shit.
It sells the idea that FURRINERS hate us because we are too awesome and our strippers have big tits.
It sells the idea that whatever you do, no matter how meager or bleak, is the BEST because AMERICA FUCK YAH.
And from that standpoint, killing everybody else is just not much of a stretch.
Also, in honor of Fuck LaPierre, I am adding a category called, of course, “Body Count”
I earnestly hope I use it very little, but I suspect that will not be the case.
Christ, I am so sick of this shit. Right to my soul. Fuck you, LaPoopier. Fuck you, Prick Nugent. Fuck you every fucking gun fetishist.
GODDAMMIT.
Amazing, isn’t it , that I got so foul-mouthed without even going into Nugent territory?
And paleo, the thing is that both you and I come from, and are comfortable with, hunting culture….
Jesus, yeah. But you know that tomorrow all these goddam lunatics will be saying EVERYONE there should have been strapped.
Also, Dr. Drew on CNN should have that ‘high ratings’ smirk humiliated off his face.
I fucking HATE Dr. Drew. He’s a weasel. Of course, I LOATHE Dr. Oz….
Tell you what. Let’s inaugurate a “everybody in TV studios should be armed” initiative. Let’s see how far THAT goes over with the punditry….
You’re right about it it all, right down to the fucking truth. You could theoretically have a “second amendment” and still have some kind of rules that prevent seventeen year-olds from having incredibly lethal weapons in urban settings. But we’ve got lots of stupid.
So I’m gonna tell you my take. I carry a 4 inch .357 with custom hollow point loads and two Safariland speedloaders. 18 fast rounds that can, each one individually, kill an Elephant. I have an HK USP .45 ACP. I have a stainless 12 guage shotgun. I have an H&K G3 .308. Is this ideal? Of course not – I would LOVE to feel like I can disarm. The world doesn’t need us to have the capacity to kill large numbers of our cohort on a whim. Our approach to firearms here in the US is stupid almost beyond description. But as long as fourteen year-olds have high-cap nines and AKs, if you think I’m going to disarm you’re crazy. I’ll walk quietly away from the pop-pop-pop-pop of mass slaughter, but if you put me in a box I’ll kill you and and your friends.
We’ve fucked it up so ridiculously badly, and now we have to live in it….
Mikey, here’s the thing. Like I said to paleo up above, we live in a culture where hunting is pretty much a usual thing. And I have a fair number of in-laws who are of very conservative, reactionary, and racist attitudes. But I really feel little fear from them; they are skilled with their weapons.
My concern would be if they came down to Milwaukee, feeling that they needed to have a gun because BLACK PEOPLE and over reaction.
I have never met you and don’t fear you because you have no shovel; but if anything your online talk gives me the feeling that you are adequately skilled at sidearms, and their appropriate use. If anything, I suspect you would be more judicious in their use than our typical Officer Friendlys.
I have little desire to take away your weapons, hey, they make you, you. But at the same time, knowing what I do of your history, would you also be comfortable with an arsenal when your mind is a bit sideways?
For my own self, I have a bit of training in hand to hand, and if someone gets close enough, I feel I am closer to disarming them than they are to hurting me. And if that is not the case, I know enough horrible techniques to incapacitate if not kill someone who threatens me. I have never felt the need for firearms in service of protection, but of course YMMV.
But shooting up a mall or a temple, that’s kind of out of the definition of what we are talking about, don’t you think?
. I carry a 4 inch .357 with custom hollow point loads and two Safariland speedloaders. 18 fast rounds that can, each one individually, kill an Elephant.
Which Is why I KNOW better than to approach you from the front…
Please, it’s much too soon to be politicizing this w/ your agenda.
O, of course, please forgive me. And send Wayne La Pierre my regards.
The point is that we, as Americans, have done an awful job of trying to figure out where lethal weapons fit in our society. The sad thing is, without the weird tribal, ethnic and sectarian hatred, the guns don’t mean that much, and we could live in a world where a punch in the mouth is the way we register our dissatisfaction with the current status quo.
And I’d be supportive of any of those approaches. But the thing is, and it’s pretty simple. If it comes down to me and my peeps, I have one option. And as it turns out, for a complex set of reasons, I know how to deploy that option.
See, that’s the problem. We shouldn’t be reduced to deciding at what point we should kill people. We should understand that we need to TALK, not kill.
But I’m not in charge. Killing is what we do. And, whoopsie, oh well, I know how to do that…
mikey, there are times where you say very hard, very truthful things, That was one.
And even though I do not carry guns, I also know how to kill. And that is not something I am proud of, but am also able to unload as necessary….
And isn’t that what Costas said? Let’s TALK? And the enforced system said NO. And on goes the Body Count….
The point is that we, as Americans, have done an awful job of trying to figure out where lethal weapons fit in our society.
On the other hand, the manufacturers and marketers of lethal weapons have done a really good job of figuring out where they fit into your society, i.e. practically mandatory.
This was also pretty much the point of Michael Moore’s movie, which as ZRM noted is sadly often mocked. Mostly by people who haven’t watched it, I suspect. Canada has tons of hunters and tons of guns. And virtually zero mass shootings. Massive, over-the-top violence seems to be one of the first options in American society, be it “shock and awe” at the national/military level or gang violence or some unbalanced nutbag with a grudge and easy access to lethal weaponry.
And it is EASY. Perhaps the most appalling part of the whole thing for me– how easy it is. Drones kill from a distance. EASY. Semi-automatic weapons are readily available. EASY. Violent death should never be easy. Sometimes necessary, perhaps, but never, ever easy.
Excellent.
I hate this post. I hate the necessity of making this post. But I will not ignore the need to make this post….
The post does have to be made.
I aint happy about it, I am not only familiar with WI hunting culture, I was a happy part of it.
A couple folks in my deer hunting party were what I refer to as gun fetishists – never understood it, but okay.
I still could not imagine them doing something like this- they had pellet guns at 8, shotguns at 12, rifles at 14.
I have coworkers who, for some reason during the Blahbama administration, got carry permits and started stocking up on handguns and ammo, reading gun porn at work.
All this is largely apropo of very little, I’m hammered in Omaha NE watching CNN and fuming, and feeling a bit helpless, this happened in a mall in Omaha 2 yrs ago?, and I do not like humanity much right now. Fucking bullshit…
I’ll note that we blow up people all over the planet all year, often for nothing more than the equivalent of going out for Skittles.
We’re a far more fucked-up country than we like to think.
~
(late again)
Saw the news of this at the pub last night after work — I used to hang out at that mall as a teenager when my dad lived up there. This felt a little more personal because I’ve been to that place.
American “culture” is completely fucked up with regard to all violence, and I think gun/military violence is just the peak of that culture.
Also:
A friend of the Empire has reminded me that they will not comment on political posts.
What the actual fuck? That makes no sense whatsoever. What isn’t political?
Oh, and on a lighter note, the reports all talked about the shooter wearing “camo” gear — I’m sure that was super effective in the mall. That had me imagining what kind of camouflage one would want at a mall during xmas season. I’m thinking plaid pants, a really fucking ugly sweater and a necklace made out of lights would render you nearly invisible.
ll. That had me imagining what kind of camouflage one would want at a mall during xmas season.
Santa Suit. Obviously.
I thought of that, but then dozens of stupid breather kids might be attracted to you and give you away.
Apparently I would blend right in.
My favorite is the one that says “Zombie Santa says HO HO BRAAAAAIIIINNS”
Hmm. I thought it would have been “SexyZombieSanta”
I thought of that, but then dozens of stupid breather kids might be attracted to you and give you away.
ZOM NOM NOM.
That had me imagining what kind of camouflage one would want at a mall during xmas season.
Any season.
Piercings. Sneers. Hair spray. Texting. Skateboard. Backpack. Stickers.
Total blend in camo in any mall I’ve ever been in…
I had a gun put to my head once. It was an interesting few minutes. The detective asked me later, “Was it a pistol or a revolver?”
AS IF I WOULD KNOW.
All I knew was that it was a solid, weighty, black mass of death in his hand.
My friend asked me on the phone that night, “Does this want to make you get a gun?!”
Um. Absolutely not. Without a shadow of a doubt, no. What would it have been? Like a shootout at the Ok Corral right there on the sidewalk? Even if I would have had the chance to pull a gun on him after he put his to my head?
To the NRA idiots and many gun fetishists, a gun is a magic talisman. The thinking is that if you HAD a gun, BG, the dude never would have put one to your head. Nemmind that there was likely no possible way for you to pull it out, aim, and shoot before you got a bullet in the noggin; the feeling seems to be that the mere existence of your gun would be enough to protect you.
This is actually, literally true. It’s kind of funny – tactical firearms instructors, even the wingnuttiest of them (at least the real ones, not the stupid wannabes) will emphasize over and over that there are lots of confrontations when it is NOT appropriate to use your gun, and that the best survival tactic is to walk away from a fight. You don’t pull out your gun and wave it around to impress people or think it will intimidate the bad guys or make them run away. Like any tool, if it doesn’t give you a clear and immediate advantage in a situation, you don’t try to use it. The key, they preach, is situational awareness – know what’s going on in your surroundings, and if something bad is going to happen you can try to leave, and if it becomes necessary fight your way out – the goal is ALWAYS disengagement, not some kind of John Wayne heroism, which I think is a great big sammich. And if you do decide to deploy deadly force, do so immediately and decisively, without hesitation.
But then when these idiots talk on teevee or on the web they all think that, just like our undead host describes it, that there is no occasion when one shouldn’t just pull it out (the gun, that is) and start blasting. Run off a couple magazines worth of high velocity hollow points in the middle of town and everything will be alright, the world will thank you and women will want to touch your junk. The reason we don’t see more of that is, up until now, people with guns took the process seriously on the whole, and understood how they are to be used. Now that we’re seeing a whole bunch of semi-retarded idiots walking around with a .40 on their hip and a forty in their hand, with visions of them standing over the prostrate corpses of their vanquished foes with blondes with great big bazooms draped over their arms dancing in their heads. And that doesn’t even include the people who are having a bad day, or a bad marriage, or a bad life and the silicon chip inside their head gets switched to overload and they run through a mag or two in the fucking mall or movie theater.
The bottom line is that, when it comes to firearms, like politics, economics, and community, we’ve managed to totally fuck it all the way up…
Nothing quite like being in somebody’s sights, eh?
Many, many year ago, due to a seriously fucked up case of mistaken identity I was once surrounded by what seemed at the time like a thousand state troopers, all leveling their various weapons at me. Probably only really about ten of them, but that’s enough. That is not a pleasant feeling whatsoever. Not sure if I’d have felt better or worse if it was criminals aiming at me or not. Rather not find out.
I’m rather proud of myself that I managed to not do anything stupid to provoke any of them and surprisingly calmly talked myself out of that situation. Shortly after it was over I freaked RIGHT THE FUCK OUT, natch.
I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to be in the military and have people actually, y’know, shooting at me.
Last week, I was walking up to the sub shop on the corner for some lunch, when a troop of fully-armed marshals came pounding around the corner and running RIGHT THE FUCK AT ME.
Fully armed, vests, helmets, multiple weapons, the door-jack for the knock-knock motherfucker action. It was quite alarming. I saw one guy had an auto in hand and another strapped to his thigh. vest pocketses were bulging with pepper spray and clips.
My brain froze up and there was no time for a reaction and then…they ran right by me to the upstairs entrance door I had just walked by.
I was rattled enough that I couldn’t remember what i wanted to order for lunch.
Oh, and apparently Perp-dude got out. They seemed disappointed.
And then there is always Oprah’s advice when someone pulls a gun on you: RUN AWAY IN A ZIG ZAG PATTERN.
I guess it MIGHT work in some instances. Don’t want to have to find out.
SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!
That clip makes me crack up.
LOL. See? It worked!
ZRM, I freeze up like that if I look in my rearview mirror and see lights flashing behind me.
I must’ve been a fugitive in a former life.
Or a deer.
Oregon Beer Snob, That must’ve been freaking scary!!!!
I read you name at first: Oregon Bear Snob. 🙂
Indeed, it was scary. I am not at all snobbish about bears, although clearly baby polar bears are the cutest.