Which is often not the case with other sources and studies of self-reported incidents of defensive gun use. Especially once people are radicalized and constantly scared of hypothetical attackers, they wildly overestimate both the seriousness of threats (as in all these cases of people getting shot for wandering into the wrong driveway) and the defensive effectiveness of waving their gun around.
It’s the politics of Fear. They’ve forgotten how to be brave.
I thnk non-news media is also somewhat at fault.
I used to watch FBI: Most Wanted. Their stories all seemed to be about random people kidnapped, tortured and/or murdered by rando evil doers on a daily basis. You watch that show and you’d think you can’t work in your office, go to the laundromat, or even drive down the street without being murdered. It took a while to see that pattern, and now I wonder if it isn’t just storytelling, but deliberate scaremongering.
FBI is one terrorist action, hostage bank robbery, right wing militia, or drug cartel story after another.
East New York is more of the same. My idiot congressman must watch these shows, because he thinks NYC is a post-apocalyptic mad max wasteland.
CBS: the Scaring Old People Network. Giving your daily dose of FUD since 1971
Well, sure, that’s kind of a weird transposition of the Murder, She Wrote Cabot Cove phenomenon, where that small town should have had nobody left alive by the end of the show’s run. More seriously and directly to the theme, it has been long and often pointed out that if crime shows were going to be realistic, there would go whole seasons that none of the police or PI characters would even draw their handgun except at training.
I like how Psych goes meta and they routinely point out that, “Hey, we solve a murder a week in this town.”
Used to be politicians wanted their constituents fat, dumb and happy. Seems they — or at least a goodly percentage of them — now want them dumb and scared (fat optional). And once the desired fright level has been reached, all that;s necessary is to provide a target.
Similarly, in hospital shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “New Amsterdam,” and “The Residents,” they soon start operating mostly on each other (or each others’ close relatives). It’s like Seattle (or New York, or Atlanta) has a population of thirty!
/hijack
Some posters here don’t realize how radically the world has changed. A few decades ago if an unknown sexy female cheerleader started getting into your car when you were a 25 year old man your response might be flirting/sexual advance. But nowadays:
And your elders would have advised that you were more likely about to get rolled, not lucky. But would not have recommended that you just shoot them on the spot.
According to one of the articles, the shooter got out of his car, walked over to the girls’ car, and then shot them. Will we even know what he was thinking?
They weren’t shot on the spot. I’d see some justification if they got in and the person panicked and shot them. As we’ve seen, gun culture is all about being scared all the time and overreacting to perceived threats.
But she got out, went to the correct car, and the man followed them and shot them.
That’s just straight up attempted murder.
Here’s my theory:
Jordan Klepper goes to a gun show and stupid gun stuff happens.
The gunshow loophole (private gun sales without background checks) absolutely needs to be closed in this country.
Sorry, can’t embed Youtube vids like I used to, and it seems many are having this problem. Here is the link.
That he was supposed to be the only “Flying A” in the parking lot?
WTF is “deadly conduct”? And a felony, but only third degree? It was straight up attempted murder.
He’s a sainted Good Guy With a Gun. It’s magical immunity.
I guess that fits this template for action:
Offense causer: I’m sorry.
Over-reactor: You think you’re sorry. You’re really going to be sorry!
What this sadly reminds me of is the somewhat longish thread from years ago where at least one poster was actually defending the homeowner who incapacited one or two individuals who broke into his house and then, after a while, the homeowner shot one or both to death.
What the situation needed was a gooder guy with a gun.
6 year old and family shot over a basketball rolling into a yard.