# If there really any point to mass shooting threads in MPSIMS anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 10, 2023, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460 "2023-04-10T15:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/1 "2023-04-10T15:46:00Z")
I went to MPSIMS to see if there was a thread about the shooting in Louisville this morning and there wasn’t yet. I thought about starting one but what is the point? These things really have become the norm. Nothing is going to change and after a while our threads on shootings are all the same, like the Onion article that repeats itself over and over every time this happens. News updates are easily available elsewhere as we track the number of dead and this week’s motive. I guess I feel a sense of family and shared experience reading these threads, but the deep despair I feel that nothing will change is overwhelming. I feel like our gun society is like a terminal cancer diagnosis. It cannot be cured and every week we die a little more. Looking away and quietly hoping it is not us and not our city, our school, our grocery store, our bank, our friends, our family. What about it folks? Any reason at all to talk about this anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/2 "2023-04-10T16:11:55Z")
The only purpose I’d argue they serve is to check in on local folks who might be affected? ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/3 "2023-04-10T16:12:29Z")
It’s against the rules to say anything beyond “thoughts and prayers” so, no, probably no point. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/4 "2023-04-10T17:01:07Z")
Kentucky will have a news conference at 3, edt. Folks on twitter says the shooter was trans. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/5 "2023-04-10T17:06:47Z")
Isn’t there an omnibus thread somewhere? If there isn’t, there probably should be. Like the “x people died from covid this week” threads. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/6 "2023-04-10T18:00:45Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > What about it folks? Any reason at all to talk about this anymore? The usual follow-up “debates” & hand-wringing are indeed pointless as you say. As @Love_Rhombus said, the threads serve some value for any locals to share news they get that we can’t, and for them (but not the rest of us) to talk out their stresses because of this particular event close to their home and not yours or mine. My own take is that I’m past being emotionally involved. Drunks kill ~30K innocents per year using a car. Wackos kill a couple thousand using guns. Selfish ignorance kills WAG 60K/yr via spreading or catching unvaccinated COVID. Humanity collectively is stupid, violent, and not infrequently intoxicated. You aren’t; I’m not either. But enough people are, and they spread their messes everywhere for others to step in. Like the poor, idjits and their messes will always be with us. Therefore needless premature death will also always be with us. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Isn’t there an omnibus thread somewhere? If there isn’t, there probably should be. Like the “x people died from covid this week” threads. At one point the variously-named user @Paul_was_in_Saudi used to create and curate an annual “Mass Shootings of 20xx” thread. I don’t recall the title exactly, and I’m not 100% sure it was him. I do know it was one of the ex-pats. IIRC a couple years ago he caught a bunch of grief from a pile-on of people questioning his motives so he quit doing it. Up until that point I never had cause to suspect anything objectionable about his motives, nor did I think much of the pile on when it happened. Just now a search didn’t find what I wanted, but _if_ is/was **Paul** , his many names may be fooling my meager efforts. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/7 "2023-04-10T18:09:27Z")
Of course they do. (I’m hearing disgruntled ex-employee.) ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/8 "2023-04-10T18:15:20Z")
Does anyone have statistics? Sorry if its been posted before, but the percentage of shootings and how exponentially its grown? ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/9 "2023-04-10T18:17:01Z")
This story has some stats at the end: > **[Police: 4 killed in shooting at downtown Louisville bank](https://apnews.com/article/downtown-louisville-shooting-dc7b45a9c5d2b384a16d653864f8b735?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_01)** > > Louisville police say at least four people were killed and eight others hospitalized in a shooting at a bank building in downtown Louisville. Louisville Metro Police Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey told a news conference the suspected shooter was also... _The 15 mass shootings this year are the most during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009, when 16 had occurred by April 10, according to a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University._ _Going back to 2006, the first year for which data has been compiled, the years with the most mass killings were 2019 and 2022, with 45 and 42 mass killings recorded during the entire calendar year. The pace in 2009 slowed later in the year, with 32 mass killings recorded that year._ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/10 "2023-04-10T18:22:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > At one point the variously-named user @Paul_was_in_Saudi used to create and curate an annual “Mass Shootings of 20xx” thread. I don’t recall the title exactly, and I’m not 100% sure it was him. I do know it was one of the ex-pats. Current thread: > [@Mass Killings in the US (2023)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-killings-in-the-us-2023/977981): > > Mass killings in the United States, 2023 Four or more dead (Suicides Indicated by an asterisk) By a single killer (The killer is charged or would have been charged had he lived.) Minors cannot generally be held legally liable for a murder or homicide. Such cases are included here with an annotation. By any criminal means The editor aims to include all cases. This leads to a presumption to publish. I welcome corrections and additions. 4 January 2023 Enoch City UT, 8\* killed (shot) ([Family…](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/eight-people-found-dead-utah-home-rcna64363) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/11 "2023-04-10T18:22:40Z")
He starts one each year I believe: > [@Mass Killings in the US (2023)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-killings-in-the-us-2023/977981): > > Mass killings in the United States, 2023 Four or more dead (Suicides Indicated by an asterisk) By a single killer (The killer is charged or would have been charged had he lived.) Minors cannot generally be held legally liable for a murder or homicide. Such cases are included here with an annotation. By any criminal means The editor aims to include all cases. This leads to a presumption to publish. I welcome corrections and additions. 4 January 2023 Enoch City UT, 8\* killed (shot) ([Family…](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/eight-people-found-dead-utah-home-rcna64363) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/12 "2023-04-10T20:25:49Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I thought about starting one but what is the point? These things really have become the norm. Nothing is going to change and after a while our threads on shootings are all the same, like the Onion article that repeats itself over and over every time this happens. In my office today, it was noteworthy in the morning. By the afternoon, people had moved on to other trivial worries. So, yeah, unless you get into really big numbers (or capture something on video), mass shootings are basically non events in America these days. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/13 "2023-04-10T20:48:34Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > mass shootings are basically non events in America these days. Protests of mass shootings, on the other hand, … ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/14 "2023-04-10T21:03:33Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Humanity collectively is stupid, violent, and not infrequently intoxicated. You aren’t; I’m not either. But enough people are, and they spread their messes everywhere for others to step in. Like the poor, idjits and their messes will always be with us. Therefore needless premature death will also always be with us. We all know this about humanity and we still find it OK to allow that massive number of guns to spread throughout our communities with the inevitable results. I work in a grocery store where we had an employee attacked two weeks ago by a fortunately unarmed person with mental health issues. The employee in question suffered a deep cut on his face. Another time in the past week we had a suspected shoplifter that the security guard believed to be armed. They were allowed to steal rather than risk violent confrontation. This is day to day life and we cannot even have serious debate about how to stop it without open hostility between “sides” on the issue. The Onion is the most accurate reporting on the gun violence. Nothing will change, more will die. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/15 "2023-04-10T21:04:44Z")
What is this ‘MPSIMS’ of which you speak? It’s is a speed trap like Tuxedo, NY… yes? Designed to give posters tickets and warnings? I stay out of there… ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/16 "2023-04-10T21:33:00Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > This is day to day life and we cannot even have serious debate about how to stop it without open hostility between “sides” on the issue. The Onion is the most accurate reporting on the gun violence. Nothing will change, more will die. Yes. This is day to day life. And it is insane. But there’s no point in us here on SDMB wasting further electrons on it. Y’all can help yourself as much as you’re willing, but I won’t. Since you’re the OP it sounds like you won’t either. You’re frustrated, but you’re not in a head-banging mood any more. IMO: Until we’ve had a revolution and new constitution, and following the deaths of millions, not thousands, nothing _can_ change. Because the idjits who like things as they are now are simply too powerful. And growing more so by the day. The time to have stopped the “gun culture” was in 1945 when the veterans came back from the war. They could have agreed to a “well-regulated militia” that really was such a thing. We missed that train and now we have this monster of private clubs of thug-fetishists, most of whom were never subject to the military’s moderating influence about the limited actual utility of fetishism and violence. They will be on the upswing for another 50-70 years before things start moving the other way. Recall the Shah was deposed and the Ayatollah installed in 1979. That was 44 years ago and still most of the rural less-educated population wants to keep the theo-klepto-authoritarians in charge. Plus a lot of younger more urban people as well. And most of the oldsters wherever they live. Enough that although protests are commonplace, nobody expects real change for another decade or 2, maybe 3. When the Reactionary Right eventually wins the presidency again, whether that’s in 2024, 2028, or 2032 and regardless of who their candidate is, that will be our 1979 moment. And _that’s_ when we can start the clock to our eventual get-well date long after I’m dead and forgotten. Rabid authoritarianism doesn’t lose enthusiasm and crawl back in its box. Especially not when fomented by modern for-profit propaganda 24/7. It has to rampage and destroy until it’s a spent force and the survivors vow “never again”. Which vow lasts about 100-150 years until anyone whose parentss lived through the chaos is dead and forgotten. Then collective amnesia sets in and the cycle repeats. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/17 "2023-04-11T01:27:02Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > What about it folks? Any reason at all to talk about this anymore? I’ve said for a while now that it was clear that mass shootings were a price a lot of people were willing to pay to keep their guns, but that none of them would say that out loud. Well… [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/it-s-worth-it-charlie-kirk-calls-school-shootings-a-prudent-deal-to-protect-the-second-amendment/ar-AA19yBEq](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/it-s-worth-it-charlie-kirk-calls-school-shootings-a-prudent-deal-to-protect-the-second-amendment/ar-AA19yBEq) Now that it’s been said out loud, there’s really no more point in discussing it. This will be with us until those who want gun control are willing to fight a war over it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/18 "2023-04-11T02:03:26Z")
And while the Louisville police were dealing with the bank shooting, a call came in from the community college for - yeah, you guessed it. AFAIK, nobody has been arrested, and reading between the lines, it appears that the shooter(s) and victims may have known each other. > **[LMPD: 1 dead, 1 injured after shooting outside Jefferson Community &...](https://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/lmpd-shooting-jctc-downtown-what-we-know-bank-shooting/417-5bb7f2d6-a497-4c4a-8d11-60bb690ee950)** > > Police said there was a report of a shooting outside the school, however, the suspects fled prior to police arriving. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/19 "2023-04-11T17:54:20Z")
I find them useful as breaking news threads. Dopers can usually find more news stories together than I could on my own. I appreciate the mods running a tight ship and heading off tedious repetitive gun control “debates” before they overwhelm the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460/20 "2023-04-11T23:47:22Z")
I don’t know, Larry\_Borgia. I think the sad thing is everything about the shooting threads is repetitive. Every damn thing. I want to feel more than the numb helplessness and ineffective but somewhat cathartic anger. I want it to stop. The senseless over and over and over again. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-there-really-any-point-to-mass-shooting-threads-in-mpsims-anymore/982460.md?page=2)