The squeaky wheel gets the grease. I expect both the public and politicians to speak out on significant issues. When an issue is serious enough that it regularly has politicians speaking out on it, then there is a better chance that they will deal with it than if it never hit the radar.
Some politicians believe the gun death problem is best dealt with by greater access to guns. Other politicians believe differently. Either way, for democracy to effectively address the problem, it has to be brought to the front and discussed by the public as a matter of importance before one can expect the politicians to get serious about it and legislate.
Obama and the other politicians of various positions (both pro-gun and pro-gun control) are doing what they should be doing – setting out what they think will help reduce the problem, so that the public can decide whom to vote for.
While we don’t yet have all the facts, it clearly does not have “everything to do with ISIS.” It’s some mixture of homophobia, personal assholery, and religious extremist inspiration (distantly connected to ISIS). ISIS did not “mount an armed attack” in Orlando – that’s almost like saying a particular dog in New York was a serial killer in 1977.
When was the last event in the US that used commercial explosives or weaponized chemicals?
I think a 1950s airliner downing was with commercial dynamite (the guy used a timer and the point was to kill his mother for her insurance). That may have been the start of the clamp-down on something that most farmers and private citizens could buy.
Even the 1970 Greenwich Village explosion (Weathermen) was concocted explosives, wasn’t it?
The problem with the gun debate is that both sides are convinced that the reason America doesn’t support their view yet is because there hasn’t been enough death and mayhem to win people over to their view.
Gun-control: “How many more people must die before America finally wakes up and realizes that we need to ban guns?”
Pro-gun: * “How many more people must die before America finally wakes up and realizes that we need to let more people carry guns to defend themselves?”*
With each mass shooting, both sides shake their heads in exasperation: “America STILL hasn’t come around to our point of view yet?”
There are so many horrible aspects to this, but one that really infurates me is how social conservatives and Republicans will pretend to care about the lives of gay people for a little while so they can trash Muslims.
It’s transparent, but predictable and, again, infuriating. I think I need to avoid the news for a good long while, because what will be done, and won’t be done, in the next few weeks and months will only make me even more angry.
If it is true that the shooter has a history of domestic violence, that is something that should be looked at - perhaps it was not reported to police, but if it was then one would think that would be cause to revoke his license, fire him from a job at G4S, and so on.
There were at least 50 people killed. In central Florida. And you think it’s somehow significant that at least 3 of them were Hispanic? Are you off meds today or something?
Given that the attack was on a gay club, and presumably most of the victims are gay, I don’t think race is the issue here.
By your logic, what about all the other victims? Presumably several of the victims were Caucasian - is this an anti-white killing spree? Presumably several of the victims were black - is this an anti-black killing spree?
Do you really believe conservatives and Republican’s don’t care if gays get murdered en-masse? I can imagine a number of cons/repubs don’t care, but I believe the majority of them probably do. They may not believe in gay marriage, or transgender restroom issues, but that’s a far cry from being immune to mass murder.
Reading the politicization in this thread I believe Orlando may be the new Cologne.
As I’ve said in another thread, I’m skeptical; I don’t think these weren’t the “right kind” of victims to stoke the kind of fear and hate that would really throw squishy voters towards Trump, and if they already were that racist, I think they already were for him to begin with.
I was wondering about this, too. Looked like there were at least a dozen cops on the scene, exchanging gunfire with the shooter BEFORE he entered the building. Gotta wait for all the details to come out, but this has to be one of the questions.
Are you off meds today or something?