When I connected with the outside world this morning, my man Charles P. Pierce had already found, on CBS, a guy at the Thousand Oaks shooting who had also been at the massacre at the country music show in Las Vegas a little more than 13 months ago. "Go ahead," Pierce said. "Tell me this is normal. Tell me that the Constitution was
designed so that people can be witness to two mass shootings in 13
months."
Interesting thought.
Some of you, like me, probably just listened to the NPR interview with the news editor of the Pepperdine University newspaper. She had almost been at the bar in Thousand Oaks but stayed home and, instead, stayed up all night reporting the story. She said covering the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 for her high school paper helped her decide to go into journalism.
Now she is covering a massacre while in college.
Tell me this is normal. Tell me being a journalist means covering one massacre while you are in high school and another in college before they even start paying you for your work.
The March for our Lives people claim they are making some impact, I am on there e=mail list:
ReplyDeleteWe made history last night. We fought for the midterms like our lives depended on it – and we drove the highest youth turnout in over 25 years. Gun control was a top issue for voters heading into the election. Last night, 35 NRA-backed candidates lost their seats – more than ever before. And here in Florida, 35% of young people turned out, making statewide races even more competitive. We are winning.
I no longer watch TV but I suspect they ignored the March for Our Lives people just like they ignore Bernie when he is out there campaigning.
They mostly ignore the March For Life young people every year, too. How the media decides what to cover and what not to cover is a code I've never cracked.
DeleteNorman? Not as those of us of a certain age understand the term.
ReplyDeleteBut the "new normal?" Seems it is. America's favorite pastime is no longer baseball: it seems to be slaughtering each other on a regular basis.
I was reading one news source that said "dozens" of people who were survivors of the Vegas shooting were present at Thousand Oaks. I don't know if that's been verified, but it would make me pretty paranoid about going to country music concerts. I hope it's not the new normal
ReplyDeleteOne young man who survived Las Vegas did not survive Thousand Oaks.
DeleteThousand Oaks is a very nice area. Many of the college students in the club were from Pepperdine University. Pepperdine is over the hills from Thousand Oaks, in Malibu. A beautiful campus with spectacular ocean views. It is a christian college, and quite conservative. I toured it with one of my sons about 20 years ago. It had been in downtown LA for decades, but moved to a brand new campus in Malibu in the early 70s. Clean cut kids who apparently went to that country-western bar frequently for line-dancing.
When will people get angry enough to force action? Do they have to realize at some point that they aren't safe either?
Even if they are middle class, or even upper middle class, white and christian - in a "safe" neighborhood - like Thousand Oaks?
I'll be at a benefit dinner dance this weekend. Makes me wonder which celebration Grendel will visit next. Too many guns. Too much ammo. I think AI and drone technology can be married in a way that can neutralize these people. But that technology may be scarier than guns.
ReplyDeleteHow would a drone have helped at Thousand Oaks?
DeleteI can see how maybe AI would be able to discern someone acting suspiciously with more accuracy than the human eye.
DeleteJean, google slaughterbot. small drones with a shaped charge. It lights on the guy's head and blasts his brains out. or it can be made nonlethal with fast acting muscle relaxant.
DeleteThe shooter can also be dazzled with ceiling mounted lasers.
DeleteStanley, someone needs to tell the right-wing militias about slaughterbots; their weaponry is going to be useless against "swarms of AI-controlled drones carry out strikes on thousands of unprepared victims."
DeleteKatherine, AI is only going to be as accurate as the people who input the "suspicious" criteria. I can only imagine the kind of dimwit mistakes that might be made because of hitches in that type of system.
In a venue like the bar or a school, nonlethal weaponry would be better because AI's make mistakes. But, yes, good and bad guys with guns become passe. The only way to stop a slaughterbot is with an anti-slaughterbot bot. The rotors seem vulnerable. For area protection, high power lasers maybe. More measures and countermeasures. Why can't we all just learn to get along? This can get expensive.
DeleteOkay, we can all agree that there are way too many guns, and they're way too available. But something else is going on. Why are we producing so many narcissistic nihilists, who apparently have zero empathy for anyone but themselves?
DeleteYes, I heard that report, Tom, but if dead first graders at Sandy Hook didn't change hearts and minds, what will?
ReplyDeleteThe gun lobby has sold everyone on the idea that good people need guns to stop bad people with guns. It's a terrible turn of events for our country, but I know several people who support strict gun control who have given up and armed themselves. I know for a fact that several ushers at the local parish are packing heat every Sunday.
We have a guard-for-hire at every Mass now. Good use of parish resources? See these Christians, how they eye one another suspiciously.
DeleteYeah, amen, Tom.
DeleteI know for sure that I had coworkers who had a concealed carry permit, and carried at work. One of them was bragging about getting his permit. I had a small mirror in my office. One morning he had it off the wall and was using it to look at his back pocket. I said, "What's the matter, does your gun make your butt look big?"
DeleteTom: We have a guard-for-hire at every Mass now.
DeleteThe first person killed in Thousand Oaks was the guard for hire.
I'll tell him to take up a position behind the organ. If someone shoots in that direction, all they'll hit is the thing nobody plays anymore. And he should have a good position from which to return fire. Everyone else should offer it up, as Sister used to say.
DeleteIsn't there some Catholic thing that says.if you die at Mass, you go straight to heaven, express train, no Purgatory? Where do you go if you hire a gun to kill somebody?
DeleteIt depends. If it is an authorized, Amendment II fire arm (pronounced "farm"), you have to do purgatory. But if it is unauthorized and illegal, you don't. In Florida, though, all guns are authorized and legal, and recommended if you shout "standing my ground" while wiping out a second grade.
Delete