The End Is Nigh

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My immediate nuclear family is… very diverse in political opinion, let’s say. Like, you’ve got a hard-core Trumpist sitting across the table from a Tumblr-posting liberal. Friday night dinners at my house can be pretty contentious affairs. Pretty much anything is fightin’ words.

Well, last night, the conversation was about guns and school shootings. I braced myself for another argument- and then it got pretty surreal.

We didn’t argue. We talked for maybe an hour about gun control, student activism, NRA nefariousness, the problems caused by the Second Amendment, America’s problematic gun culture, nutjobs fantasizing about defending themselves from “tyranny”, politicians caring more about money than dead children. And we… pretty much were in agreement.

Oh, we put a different slant on some things. My dad’s “This is Trump’s chance to prove his worth to the liberals” was my “I loathe the man and everything he stands for, but if he gets gun laws finally passed I’ll give him credit for this one thing”. But still. Dessert was served, and we were all still in general harmony.

Clearly, the End Times are upon us. Just letting y’all know in advance.

2

Thank god, right? We have had a similar awakening around here. Maybe the worm is turning.

3

I thought Bill was Nye?

4

Aren’t you supposed to say “film at 11” when predicting the end of the {universe|civilization|internet|life as we know it|whatever}?

5

My sister and I are much like this, polar opposites politically, much to the amusement of the rest of the family. When the election campaigning was down to pretty much trump and Clinton, we concurred that neither of them would make a good or successful president. I’m still waiting for the sun to explode or a comet to hit the earth or something (thought that interstellar rock that passed through a bit ago might have been it)

No, Chefguy, Nye is where Art Bell is or was from

6

The Sheriff is Near!

7

Malleus, any idea why this school shooting and associated elements made a difference to the GOPers in your family? It’s hardly the first time it’s happened.

8

Ah, righto. I was thinking of Bill Nighy.

9

I dunno, when the news was just breaking he seemed to be against more gun laws. Then the next day he was all in a fury and said we should ban bullets. By Friday he outright said he was “with the liberals” on this one thing- only this one thing, mind you, the Left is still Satan for everything else- that’s as rare a sentence for him as “I’ll give Trump credit” is for me.

(It would be interesting to see what my youngest brother thinks- he’s the second-most conservative family member and more pro-gun than my father- but he’s studying in Israel for the year, so he wasn’t there).

10

Obviously I am not the OP, but it is a good question.
I don’t know, but I have wondered this myself. Some possibilities:
Florida is a red state and this strikes close to home.
It was a high school and the victims are old enough to get in front of cameras and demand change. It puts the politicians on the spot. They aren’t actors, but they are very photogenic.
It is the Trump era, there is no one else to blame. Before, the right could blame it all on Obama and their supporters would be fine with that. Now there is no one to blame except reality.

It is a curious phenomenon though.

11

Ouch!

12

First, thank you for posting Malleus, Incus, Stapes!.
I was wondering about MichaelEmouse’s question as well, and I think part of it is that the Parkland shooting fell close the 20th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. I think that made a lot of people suddenly realize “hey, this has been going on for 20 years and nothing has changed.” I also think that many of the young students are speaking out because they are a generation who has never known otherwise.

13

I think that the worm is turning on a number of school shooting related issues.

Gun free zones do very little, if anything, to prevent gun violence. They seem like a good idea to almost everyone but they have little positive results.

The nationwide NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) for background checks only works to prevent people who should not be able to buy a gun,** if there is information is that system**. There were a number of incidents showing that the Florida school shooter (not naming him) should not have been able to buy the gun he used, but he was not in the NICS system. So the sale was allowed. Background checks, background checks!!! That is what we need for every gun purchase! But we already have that. It depends upon the infractions being entered in the NICS system to stop the gun sale. Some states are still not reporting this information to NICS. This is from NPR.

First responders need to, you know, respond first. Pre-Columbine the training was to set up a perimeter, control the situation, and wait for SWAT to arrive. This was a bad tactic and was changed by most agencies to have the first responder enter and attempt to neutralize the treat. Or at least assess the situation and withdraw to report. Apparently this was not the practice that day in Florida.

Schools are soft targets, they need to be hardened just a bit more. Not prison like, but double door sign in, control of who is in the building. And who should not be there.

But none of this is being done, or even proposed to be done. Political posturing is being done. Background checks (we have those). Gun control (we have that too), Mental health tracking issues, (sorry, that is discriminatory and a HIPPA violation). If only every company would break any relation with the NRA all of this would stop. Just no.

The US is not Australia. Confiscating a half a billion personal weapons will never work, regardless of the political atmosphere. We have them, that isn’t going to change.

I do Active Shooter training twice a year at work in a student environment. This consists of Hide, lock down if you can, stay quiet while everyone is getting shot or in danger, leave if you can being aware that there may be law enforcement on the scene that will shoot you, protect yourself if you can. And as a last resort, fight back and try to survive.

Fighting back should be moved up the list. But I am not allowed to even touch a disruptive student or I will be immediately fired. Something wrong here and I am pretty sure it isn’t the NRA.

14

For some reason, this reminded me of Fox News TV broadcast to be played in case of Armageddon — and the extremely funny John Oliver version.

15

The End is Nye.