I agree with you that exaggerating crime and danger is good business for some.
Without discounting real crime issues, I wonder if it's often the unfamiliar that seems frightening. I'm adapted to an urban environment and my radar is up if any situations seems off. I feel generally safe in cities. I do not feel safe in dodgy neighborhoods where I'm a stranger in- but that's part of the radar, too,- you stick to main streets in that case, not side ones. And if someone is too physically close to me for no reason, I move away, it's reflex.
Maybe that all sounds awful for people not from cities, but I am more personally fearful in more remote places. If I lived in the woods or an island, I would worry about how long it would take for help to get to me when I needed it- for any situation... crime, medical....
And if the news kept playing it up, like if we hear stories over and over about people in rural areas shooting their neighbors, even if it is super rare, we'll all think it is terribly dangerous to live in the country.
I lived for about 15 years by myself in a Bronx apartment in a neighborhood where the politicians not from here like to come during campaign season and talk about how awful and dangerous our community is. I have never had a gun (no political issue; here, gunowners themselves seem to get shot more often than not in confrontations, or some poor random bystander. Police are two minutes away, so....)
I wasn't exactly alone, I had a dog. Most cowardly dog in the world, but he had a great bark and barked at anything outside, so he was a good deterrent.
What would make me use a gun- if someone physically broke into my apartment while I was in it alone. Home invasions are terrifying. We are upstate now, but, half the time, I am in the Bronx for work, in my old apartment. (Another one, not bad neighborhood one). A couple of times, when I know I am alone and my husband is upstate, someone has come into my apartment, which scared the shi*t out of me. Both times, it was my daughter who lives at college and has a key and never bothered to tell me she was coming home.
So ,it's a good thing I don't have a gun, I would have been pointing it at my daughter.
PS- people who want to hurt you don't usually come in the front door, though you may not be thinking that at the time.
My son lives in the warehouse district in New Orleans. When you first see it, you would think it was a slum, a very dangerous neighborhood. But once you get used to it, it is really much nicer than many areas of New Orleans. But it scares you at first.
I live out in the country on the Corinth Rd., and over time, hundreds of cars have pulled or backed into my driveway to turn around. More recently, I had a knock on the door after dark, and a man was telling me he had hit a cat, which was one of my neighbors. I was cautious answering the door, but never did it cross my mind to answer with the shotgun I have. If I pulled the trigger on everyone I encounter, I would be spending my life in prison. People are getting way too trigger happy! If you are that afraid, then don't answer the door! Or, better yet, call the police and they can easily check it out for you!
To sit and watch the local news at dinnertime and beyond during an election cycle we are constantly bombarded with crime, crime, crime. It preys on people's paranoia. Thankfully most people will not take their paranoia to extreme and shoot first, then call your lawyer.
gym jordan as an example ---> suggesting that NYC is the most dangerous place in the world. Not only is crime going down in NYC, it is well below what his district is...
Sad thing to me, just pointing that out, solves nothing
It makes gym jordan a hypocrite, but how nice it would be if republicans and Democrats were solving the problems that lead to crime and not just trying to be better than other places
I don't know about others, but I have never read about someone warding off a trespasser or thief with a gun, yet it seems not a week goes by without a story about a senseless, tragic gun-related death or serious injury. Needless to say, there are lots of reasons for this phenomenon, and social isolation, as Chris Churchill points out, is one of them. But our country's love affair with guns is unique in the world and modern politics will simply not allow for simple, common sense gun laws that most of the country supports. I'm not sure where that leaves us but to mourn the senseless lives that are lost every day. Wish I had an answer.
Good question that I don’t know the answer to. Especially to shoot someone in the driveway, and before they get to the door! It’s very scary. I turn around in driveways all the time when I’m lost. Very scary!
I’d like to answer the question, but I can’t think of a situation that would both support the decision to take a life and afford me the time to do so. Only a hapless, harmless person would give me the chance to retrieve and load a weapon. Someone posing a lethal threat certainly would not. And keeping a loaded weapon at the ready is, in my opinion, the very definition of paranoia.
So, in the extremely unlikely event that lethal threat did show up at my door I suppose I would be in deep trouble. At least my grandchildren would know I died exhibiting some faith in my fellow humans.
I live in rural Washington County with only a Post Office, Volunteer Fire Department and Town Hall. Unfortunately, I think our isolation and lack of ability to meet our neighbors has made us more paranoid and scared. On top of that the media's constant barrage of negative news, I think, makes us more scared especially when the lights go off. We have had a few incidents of sketchy people at the end of our road and people have been recommending cameras to protect our property. Truthfully though, I have nothing that can't be replaced or is worth the life of my husband or myself. We have guns, 4 big dogs, and as a Veteran there is not time that I can imagine myself pulling a gun on or shooting anyone.
I have been advocating for a community center, where neighbors can get together to socialize and know one another. Where families can bring their children and multiple generations can help and support one another. It is my concern that as we continue to live in silos more of these incidents will occur. Also, without good local newspapers we are lost and do not know what is going on in the community. Thanks to Ken, I have subscribed to my closest 2 weekly newspapers and am going to get the Post Star again, even if it has to be mailed!
As a side note, Ken is your book at Northshire? And have you had a presentation at either of their stores?
A community center is a great idea.. sometimes the post office is a place where people meet.
but
someone who is paranoid, might not go to a community center.
And when you have politicians like stefanik preaching replacement theory, it is no surprise someone who is paranoid might be skittish when a car turns around in your driveway
It isn’t the fear. It’s the fear being used as a wedge.
I’ve known 3 people who’ve had siblings who died from playing with their parents handgun. I never owned a handgun because I had 2 kids and my fear of them dying accidentally was greater than any other fear I could imaging.
My 2nd worst fear is killing someone and having to live with that for the rest of my life.
I don’t buy the idea that many people see crime in the news and that translates to a fear of being a victim. Despite the very real danger of being thrown through the windshield or smashing your nose into your brain on the steering wheel in a car accident hundreds of millions of people drove for decades in cars without putting on a seatbelt. I live in fear when I get in the car. Human denial lets me not be afraid that I’ll get hurt in an accident but I fear the unpredictability of the world around me, of hitting and killing a deer, bird, turtle, toad. I worry about hitting a jogger, pedestrian, kid on a bike suddenly shooting out from a side street. I think we all have those sorts of fears.
So it isn’t simply fear, it is imagination that drives people to act with violence. Toads crossing the road do not have a strong lobby pushing the fear of crushing them under your tire as a political issue, of using your imagination to project squashed toads into every moment of time while you drive. It is true that liberals use fear to push political agendas. They use things like fear of people dying for lacking health care, mass extinction and destructive weather events due to climate change, coat hangers being used in back alley abortions, children going hungry for lack of SNAP benefits, minorities being subjected to abuse because of characteristics that make them individual human beings. Those are the kind of things that a certain type of person finds fearful to imagine. I’m one of them.
Others fear more for their personal safety, fear for loss of the stuff they worked hard to buy, fear someone crossing the border and treading on the patch of land they own, fear of not being seen as manly. Those people are a better market for gun manufacturers. And, they reliably vote for candidates who address and promote those irrational fears.
When politicians and the nra tell people that they have a right to protect themselves with a gun... and hint -- or outright say... people are coming for you... it is also the maul hitting the wedge.
I think for 90% of the people who support #pos_tefanik their solution to everything is not a gun.
And another 9% think it, but aren't writing a manifesto
BUT
there is 1% that will drive to a Buffalo Shopping center, frequented by people of color and
The constitution in no way guarantees your right to self defense, the amendment clearly states that "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,". Nowhere does it say for self defense, it calls for defense of the state. Self Defense in that amendment is a more recent construct. And guess what? Owning a gun makes you three times more likely to be shot by a gun. And the notion that an average citizen could be effective in defending themselves from an armed intruder is dubious at best. We are the safest that people that have ever been.
In 1982, I was a young Navy LT, living in the a rural area south of JAX, Fl. I was awakened at about 1:00 am with a man pounding on my door, yelling "Open the door, open the door, let me in, Golddammit, Open the door!" He continued to pound on the door and yell as I grabbed my pistol and went out to the living room to see the door shaking on it's hinges. I was by myself because my USMC husband was up at Parris Island, SC. I was prepared to shoot him when he broke that door down. Then he yelled that he was my neighbor and he needed to use the phone. (Not everyone could afford a home phone then.) So I let him in to use the phone and call his daddy because he was drunk and incensed about the local sheriffs. It was initially very scary and then highly annoying. Since that time, I have said that I will probably never shoot anyone considering that I didn't shoot Wayne on that night.
<b>Ludwig said he never really knew what his grandfather’s social and political views were when he was younger but said Lester had become consumed with watching conservative news outlets and following conspiracy theories built on misinformation.
“His actions are his responsibility, and falling into the fear and paranoia stoked by the 24-hour news cycle and wild conspiracies did not help his mental state,” Ludwig said.</b>
Overall, the country is probably safer than it’s ever been, but that doesn’t fill the cash register at rightwing media. Republican nihilistic politicians are more than happy to stoke the fear in order to get re-elected.
Unfortunately it’s a vicious circle. The more that nonsensical shootings occur the more the fear is fed. The Republican idea is that everyone should be armed at all times. How does that help if you’re getting shot simply for ringing a doorbell?
How many preventable deaths occur when everyone is armed and stand your ground is the rule of the land? As we see in Texas, skin color makes a difference on whether you’re allowed to openly carry, as well.
<b>MICHELLE DEGLI ESPOSTI: These laws are leading to unnecessary loss of lives, to around 700 extra homicides in the U.S. each year.
CORLEY: The study specifically looks at 23 states that enacted Stand Your Ground laws by 2016. Increases in homicides varied by geographic regions.
DEGLI ESPOSTI: So we saw bigger effects in the Southeast - so this is Florida, Alabama, Louisiana. And they went into double figures - so 20 to 30% increases.</b>
In my news travels this morning, I came across this not-at-all surprising piece. It’s from NPR. I hope that doesn’t give anyone a 😢.
On #pos_tefanikkk's social media I do much of what your post do. I enter the conversation with facts and links.
The response is from one of her supporters to attack me (often so quickly you know they responder did not look at the link).
-------
And they will attack the source, much the way so-so-phia will/would do. But they have nothing to prove what they want to believe.
-------
In the end, the reason they need to hate something/someone or the reason they need to own multiple guns is
they are afraid
And yet they know there fear isn't rational, but to admit their fear would mean they would have to address it.
And
Their fear is the number one reason they should NOT have a killing machine, because one day, someone might turn around in their driveway and they need to believe they have to right to shoot innocent people.
The trouble with having a gun for safety is: if you are safe the gun is likely locked up and if it isn’t locked up, it is a deadly weapon that doesn’t care who it kills.
The recent shooting reminds me of a friend of mine. A one-time good friend, but because of distance, time and politics not as close.
I was the best man at his wedding.
His politics have gone from leaning right, to conservative... to now what I can only say is FEARpublican. I on the other hand, leaned left and morphed into a bleeding heart progressive.
Our last political conversation (emails) was about how the crimes of don the con are not as bad as the fact that Joe Biden laughs at poor people. I couldn’t convince him that Biden laughing at a Trevor Noah joke at a Correspondents Dinner did not make the president heartless to poor people.
Well that wasn’t our last political conversation. Indirectly we had another. Only two months ago.
He told me he was going to buy a handgun. When I asked why, he said: “for security.” I asked him a couple of questions. 1) he has about 10 guns already (mainly hunting shotguns and rifles, but I believe handguns as well AND his wife has a handgun); and 2) I asked just how dangerous his neighborhood was.
He told me this story:
He bought some property and is building a house on it in South Carolina. His youngest son and a couple friends went camping on the property. A future neighbor showed up at the property on an ATV.
With a rifle.
So --- to be clear --- he explained how his life was in danger because his own family showed up on his property. Not directly, but that was the only story he had about the danger in his life.
He said his property was isolated. And basically he said he wanted one more gun, and 10 were not enough for his personal safety.
I am afraid to tell him about Kaylin Gillis.
And I am afraid to tell him, that being a FEARpublican -- like his neighbor, could have left his son dead.
If you meet a stranger and s/he only speaks Spanish and you don't --> you try to communicate
If you have English/Spanish dictionary another option. It will be another weapon in your conversation. If you have google translate, you have that -- I have used google translate.
I once asked a Spanish speaker, what he did when he worked at the train station and his response (through google) was:
"I use a cat to make your wife dance."
A few things were ‘lost in translation’ ===but no one got killed.
----
A friend recently categorized a gun as a tool.. and if you bring a gun to a conversation.
I am noticing in the comments a theme of the news is always bad.
I don't own a tv, so most of my news is through the internet. I do read the local paper t the library.. but the newspaper has a different essence to it
The main one is it isn't so dedicated to 'clickbait' as tv news seems to be.
And a good newspaper has sports, calendars and general information that isn't clickbait/knee-jerk.
I have questions for everyone.
The man who pulled the trigger.....
• was he a republican or democrat?
• which cable news network did he watch?
• how much training did he have with his gun?
• had he ever had a background check (i.e. maybe some mental competency/was he a paranoid person)?
Speaking of things bumping in the night: back in the Pleistocene era of the 1950s, we were woken up in suburban NY late one night by a loud thumping on our seldom used front door. We opened it to find a herd of horses on the lawn from a riding stable miles away, led by a big old part Percheron named Beaver, the only horse I ever felt safe with. How or why he found our house I don't know, but to this day when there's a knock on the door at night my first thought is not of danger but of a lost and trusting creature seeking help. What are the odds it would ever be anything else?
I have a carry/conceal permit… had it for years… but have yet to buy a handgun.
The “class” needed to get said permit was for me, insufficient- I didn’t feel at all prepared to use a hand gun safely -let alone a long gun or assault weapon.
Oddly enough, I never felt the need for one when I lived in NYC and only got the permit when safety officers suggest I have one. I thought sure, I might need it when walking to the back of my rural property- to defend myself from the occasional bear or bobcat or rabid fox -but honestly, I don’t think I could shoot a wild animal - let alone another human being- even if they were attacking me
(maybe if they were attacking my family or a pet…) So I carry a walking staff…
I think of all the times people have made U-turns in my driveway- if I had a gun, would I have immediately assumed they were a threat? The thought makes me sick. The NRA’s constant harping about the need to defend ourselves from imagined threats-as if we are facing a zombie apocalypse, only adds to the paranoia. Factions worry about the indoctrination of our youth - how they might be exposed to other lifestyles and choices and god forbid, be lured into that dark state, but think nothing of their own indoctrination of hate and fear.
We don’t have to love everyone- we don’t even have to like everyone- but we must, as the saying goes, live and let live.
I agree with you that exaggerating crime and danger is good business for some.
Without discounting real crime issues, I wonder if it's often the unfamiliar that seems frightening. I'm adapted to an urban environment and my radar is up if any situations seems off. I feel generally safe in cities. I do not feel safe in dodgy neighborhoods where I'm a stranger in- but that's part of the radar, too,- you stick to main streets in that case, not side ones. And if someone is too physically close to me for no reason, I move away, it's reflex.
Maybe that all sounds awful for people not from cities, but I am more personally fearful in more remote places. If I lived in the woods or an island, I would worry about how long it would take for help to get to me when I needed it- for any situation... crime, medical....
And if the news kept playing it up, like if we hear stories over and over about people in rural areas shooting their neighbors, even if it is super rare, we'll all think it is terribly dangerous to live in the country.
I believe local news programs are also guilty of “it bleed, it leads” philosophy.
I lived for about 15 years by myself in a Bronx apartment in a neighborhood where the politicians not from here like to come during campaign season and talk about how awful and dangerous our community is. I have never had a gun (no political issue; here, gunowners themselves seem to get shot more often than not in confrontations, or some poor random bystander. Police are two minutes away, so....)
I wasn't exactly alone, I had a dog. Most cowardly dog in the world, but he had a great bark and barked at anything outside, so he was a good deterrent.
What would make me use a gun- if someone physically broke into my apartment while I was in it alone. Home invasions are terrifying. We are upstate now, but, half the time, I am in the Bronx for work, in my old apartment. (Another one, not bad neighborhood one). A couple of times, when I know I am alone and my husband is upstate, someone has come into my apartment, which scared the shi*t out of me. Both times, it was my daughter who lives at college and has a key and never bothered to tell me she was coming home.
So ,it's a good thing I don't have a gun, I would have been pointing it at my daughter.
PS- people who want to hurt you don't usually come in the front door, though you may not be thinking that at the time.
My son lives in the warehouse district in New Orleans. When you first see it, you would think it was a slum, a very dangerous neighborhood. But once you get used to it, it is really much nicer than many areas of New Orleans. But it scares you at first.
I live out in the country on the Corinth Rd., and over time, hundreds of cars have pulled or backed into my driveway to turn around. More recently, I had a knock on the door after dark, and a man was telling me he had hit a cat, which was one of my neighbors. I was cautious answering the door, but never did it cross my mind to answer with the shotgun I have. If I pulled the trigger on everyone I encounter, I would be spending my life in prison. People are getting way too trigger happy! If you are that afraid, then don't answer the door! Or, better yet, call the police and they can easily check it out for you!
To sit and watch the local news at dinnertime and beyond during an election cycle we are constantly bombarded with crime, crime, crime. It preys on people's paranoia. Thankfully most people will not take their paranoia to extreme and shoot first, then call your lawyer.
I agree.
Perhaps it should be pointed out that the
crime crime crime
is a lie.
gym jordan as an example ---> suggesting that NYC is the most dangerous place in the world. Not only is crime going down in NYC, it is well below what his district is...
and he forgets mention how he knows that.
Crime rate was much higher in Jordan’s district in Columbus, Ohio.
yes...
Sad thing to me, just pointing that out, solves nothing
It makes gym jordan a hypocrite, but how nice it would be if republicans and Democrats were solving the problems that lead to crime and not just trying to be better than other places
I don't know about others, but I have never read about someone warding off a trespasser or thief with a gun, yet it seems not a week goes by without a story about a senseless, tragic gun-related death or serious injury. Needless to say, there are lots of reasons for this phenomenon, and social isolation, as Chris Churchill points out, is one of them. But our country's love affair with guns is unique in the world and modern politics will simply not allow for simple, common sense gun laws that most of the country supports. I'm not sure where that leaves us but to mourn the senseless lives that are lost every day. Wish I had an answer.
Good question that I don’t know the answer to. Especially to shoot someone in the driveway, and before they get to the door! It’s very scary. I turn around in driveways all the time when I’m lost. Very scary!
I’d like to answer the question, but I can’t think of a situation that would both support the decision to take a life and afford me the time to do so. Only a hapless, harmless person would give me the chance to retrieve and load a weapon. Someone posing a lethal threat certainly would not. And keeping a loaded weapon at the ready is, in my opinion, the very definition of paranoia.
So, in the extremely unlikely event that lethal threat did show up at my door I suppose I would be in deep trouble. At least my grandchildren would know I died exhibiting some faith in my fellow humans.
I live in rural Washington County with only a Post Office, Volunteer Fire Department and Town Hall. Unfortunately, I think our isolation and lack of ability to meet our neighbors has made us more paranoid and scared. On top of that the media's constant barrage of negative news, I think, makes us more scared especially when the lights go off. We have had a few incidents of sketchy people at the end of our road and people have been recommending cameras to protect our property. Truthfully though, I have nothing that can't be replaced or is worth the life of my husband or myself. We have guns, 4 big dogs, and as a Veteran there is not time that I can imagine myself pulling a gun on or shooting anyone.
I have been advocating for a community center, where neighbors can get together to socialize and know one another. Where families can bring their children and multiple generations can help and support one another. It is my concern that as we continue to live in silos more of these incidents will occur. Also, without good local newspapers we are lost and do not know what is going on in the community. Thanks to Ken, I have subscribed to my closest 2 weekly newspapers and am going to get the Post Star again, even if it has to be mailed!
As a side note, Ken is your book at Northshire? And have you had a presentation at either of their stores?
Bravo for supporting local media. Book is available at Northshire and Battenkill Books in Cambridge. Also McKernon Gallery in Hudson Falls.
A community center is a great idea.. sometimes the post office is a place where people meet.
but
someone who is paranoid, might not go to a community center.
And when you have politicians like stefanik preaching replacement theory, it is no surprise someone who is paranoid might be skittish when a car turns around in your driveway
It isn’t the fear. It’s the fear being used as a wedge.
I’ve known 3 people who’ve had siblings who died from playing with their parents handgun. I never owned a handgun because I had 2 kids and my fear of them dying accidentally was greater than any other fear I could imaging.
My 2nd worst fear is killing someone and having to live with that for the rest of my life.
I don’t buy the idea that many people see crime in the news and that translates to a fear of being a victim. Despite the very real danger of being thrown through the windshield or smashing your nose into your brain on the steering wheel in a car accident hundreds of millions of people drove for decades in cars without putting on a seatbelt. I live in fear when I get in the car. Human denial lets me not be afraid that I’ll get hurt in an accident but I fear the unpredictability of the world around me, of hitting and killing a deer, bird, turtle, toad. I worry about hitting a jogger, pedestrian, kid on a bike suddenly shooting out from a side street. I think we all have those sorts of fears.
So it isn’t simply fear, it is imagination that drives people to act with violence. Toads crossing the road do not have a strong lobby pushing the fear of crushing them under your tire as a political issue, of using your imagination to project squashed toads into every moment of time while you drive. It is true that liberals use fear to push political agendas. They use things like fear of people dying for lacking health care, mass extinction and destructive weather events due to climate change, coat hangers being used in back alley abortions, children going hungry for lack of SNAP benefits, minorities being subjected to abuse because of characteristics that make them individual human beings. Those are the kind of things that a certain type of person finds fearful to imagine. I’m one of them.
Others fear more for their personal safety, fear for loss of the stuff they worked hard to buy, fear someone crossing the border and treading on the patch of land they own, fear of not being seen as manly. Those people are a better market for gun manufacturers. And, they reliably vote for candidates who address and promote those irrational fears.
excellent.
When politicians and the nra tell people that they have a right to protect themselves with a gun... and hint -- or outright say... people are coming for you... it is also the maul hitting the wedge.
I think for 90% of the people who support #pos_tefanik their solution to everything is not a gun.
And another 9% think it, but aren't writing a manifesto
BUT
there is 1% that will drive to a Buffalo Shopping center, frequented by people of color and
'take justice into their hands.'
The constitution in no way guarantees your right to self defense, the amendment clearly states that "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,". Nowhere does it say for self defense, it calls for defense of the state. Self Defense in that amendment is a more recent construct. And guess what? Owning a gun makes you three times more likely to be shot by a gun. And the notion that an average citizen could be effective in defending themselves from an armed intruder is dubious at best. We are the safest that people that have ever been.
In 1982, I was a young Navy LT, living in the a rural area south of JAX, Fl. I was awakened at about 1:00 am with a man pounding on my door, yelling "Open the door, open the door, let me in, Golddammit, Open the door!" He continued to pound on the door and yell as I grabbed my pistol and went out to the living room to see the door shaking on it's hinges. I was by myself because my USMC husband was up at Parris Island, SC. I was prepared to shoot him when he broke that door down. Then he yelled that he was my neighbor and he needed to use the phone. (Not everyone could afford a home phone then.) So I let him in to use the phone and call his daddy because he was drunk and incensed about the local sheriffs. It was initially very scary and then highly annoying. Since that time, I have said that I will probably never shoot anyone considering that I didn't shoot Wayne on that night.
<b>Ludwig said he never really knew what his grandfather’s social and political views were when he was younger but said Lester had become consumed with watching conservative news outlets and following conspiracy theories built on misinformation.
“His actions are his responsibility, and falling into the fear and paranoia stoked by the 24-hour news cycle and wild conspiracies did not help his mental state,” Ludwig said.</b>
Overall, the country is probably safer than it’s ever been, but that doesn’t fill the cash register at rightwing media. Republican nihilistic politicians are more than happy to stoke the fear in order to get re-elected.
Unfortunately it’s a vicious circle. The more that nonsensical shootings occur the more the fear is fed. The Republican idea is that everyone should be armed at all times. How does that help if you’re getting shot simply for ringing a doorbell?
How many preventable deaths occur when everyone is armed and stand your ground is the rule of the land? As we see in Texas, skin color makes a difference on whether you’re allowed to openly carry, as well.
<b>MICHELLE DEGLI ESPOSTI: These laws are leading to unnecessary loss of lives, to around 700 extra homicides in the U.S. each year.
CORLEY: The study specifically looks at 23 states that enacted Stand Your Ground laws by 2016. Increases in homicides varied by geographic regions.
DEGLI ESPOSTI: So we saw bigger effects in the Southeast - so this is Florida, Alabama, Louisiana. And they went into double figures - so 20 to 30% increases.</b>
In my news travels this morning, I came across this not-at-all surprising piece. It’s from NPR. I hope that doesn’t give anyone a 😢.
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/25/1083003280/stand-your-ground-laws-are-linked-to-an-increase-in-u-s-homicides-study-says?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
You just set an example.
A bar that FEARepublicans can' get over
On #pos_tefanikkk's social media I do much of what your post do. I enter the conversation with facts and links.
The response is from one of her supporters to attack me (often so quickly you know they responder did not look at the link).
-------
And they will attack the source, much the way so-so-phia will/would do. But they have nothing to prove what they want to believe.
-------
In the end, the reason they need to hate something/someone or the reason they need to own multiple guns is
they are afraid
And yet they know there fear isn't rational, but to admit their fear would mean they would have to address it.
And
Their fear is the number one reason they should NOT have a killing machine, because one day, someone might turn around in their driveway and they need to believe they have to right to shoot innocent people.
The trouble with having a gun for safety is: if you are safe the gun is likely locked up and if it isn’t locked up, it is a deadly weapon that doesn’t care who it kills.
It could be your wife or it could be a toddler.
https://www.thetrace.org/2020/04/gun-safety-research-coronavirus-gun-sales/
https://www.euronews.com/2017/01/31/armed-toddlers-kill-twice-as-many-americans-each-year-than-terrorists
my friend the gun nut
The recent shooting reminds me of a friend of mine. A one-time good friend, but because of distance, time and politics not as close.
I was the best man at his wedding.
His politics have gone from leaning right, to conservative... to now what I can only say is FEARpublican. I on the other hand, leaned left and morphed into a bleeding heart progressive.
Our last political conversation (emails) was about how the crimes of don the con are not as bad as the fact that Joe Biden laughs at poor people. I couldn’t convince him that Biden laughing at a Trevor Noah joke at a Correspondents Dinner did not make the president heartless to poor people.
Well that wasn’t our last political conversation. Indirectly we had another. Only two months ago.
He told me he was going to buy a handgun. When I asked why, he said: “for security.” I asked him a couple of questions. 1) he has about 10 guns already (mainly hunting shotguns and rifles, but I believe handguns as well AND his wife has a handgun); and 2) I asked just how dangerous his neighborhood was.
He told me this story:
He bought some property and is building a house on it in South Carolina. His youngest son and a couple friends went camping on the property. A future neighbor showed up at the property on an ATV.
With a rifle.
So --- to be clear --- he explained how his life was in danger because his own family showed up on his property. Not directly, but that was the only story he had about the danger in his life.
He said his property was isolated. And basically he said he wanted one more gun, and 10 were not enough for his personal safety.
I am afraid to tell him about Kaylin Gillis.
And I am afraid to tell him, that being a FEARpublican -- like his neighbor, could have left his son dead.
If you meet a stranger and s/he only speaks Spanish and you don't --> you try to communicate
If you have English/Spanish dictionary another option. It will be another weapon in your conversation. If you have google translate, you have that -- I have used google translate.
I once asked a Spanish speaker, what he did when he worked at the train station and his response (through google) was:
"I use a cat to make your wife dance."
A few things were ‘lost in translation’ ===but no one got killed.
----
A friend recently categorized a gun as a tool.. and if you bring a gun to a conversation.
It is now an option.
I am noticing in the comments a theme of the news is always bad.
I don't own a tv, so most of my news is through the internet. I do read the local paper t the library.. but the newspaper has a different essence to it
The main one is it isn't so dedicated to 'clickbait' as tv news seems to be.
And a good newspaper has sports, calendars and general information that isn't clickbait/knee-jerk.
I have questions for everyone.
The man who pulled the trigger.....
• was he a republican or democrat?
• which cable news network did he watch?
• how much training did he have with his gun?
• had he ever had a background check (i.e. maybe some mental competency/was he a paranoid person)?
I don't know, but what would your guess be?
Would love to believe you are wrong
I deleted my comment because Ken is right, there is no information out there yet and I was making an assumption that was wrong.
I don’t think there is information yet on any of those questions.
Speaking of things bumping in the night: back in the Pleistocene era of the 1950s, we were woken up in suburban NY late one night by a loud thumping on our seldom used front door. We opened it to find a herd of horses on the lawn from a riding stable miles away, led by a big old part Percheron named Beaver, the only horse I ever felt safe with. How or why he found our house I don't know, but to this day when there's a knock on the door at night my first thought is not of danger but of a lost and trusting creature seeking help. What are the odds it would ever be anything else?
What a great story.
I have a carry/conceal permit… had it for years… but have yet to buy a handgun.
The “class” needed to get said permit was for me, insufficient- I didn’t feel at all prepared to use a hand gun safely -let alone a long gun or assault weapon.
Oddly enough, I never felt the need for one when I lived in NYC and only got the permit when safety officers suggest I have one. I thought sure, I might need it when walking to the back of my rural property- to defend myself from the occasional bear or bobcat or rabid fox -but honestly, I don’t think I could shoot a wild animal - let alone another human being- even if they were attacking me
(maybe if they were attacking my family or a pet…) So I carry a walking staff…
I think of all the times people have made U-turns in my driveway- if I had a gun, would I have immediately assumed they were a threat? The thought makes me sick. The NRA’s constant harping about the need to defend ourselves from imagined threats-as if we are facing a zombie apocalypse, only adds to the paranoia. Factions worry about the indoctrination of our youth - how they might be exposed to other lifestyles and choices and god forbid, be lured into that dark state, but think nothing of their own indoctrination of hate and fear.
We don’t have to love everyone- we don’t even have to like everyone- but we must, as the saying goes, live and let live.