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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Americans shoot their schoolchildren its
what they do and they don’t care.
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Well, maybe a bit of an over simplification, Niko, don’t you think?
I think most Americans would welcome some stricter control of guns, but really powerful folks in the NRA seem to think otherwise.
They are the equivalent of the English (and to some extent Scottish) Huntin’ shootin’ and fishin’ brigade. Powerful and rich.
Maybe this youth movement will get things going a bit though. Kids are now saying they are frightened to go to school.
To be honest I would be. And if I were a parent I’d be worried too.
I think we do them a disservice to simply dismiss it as a national passtime…although to be fair, some of them in Congress seem to think that “thoughts and prayers” cure everything.
I hope to hear from Danny and Jon and any other American readers, given that they live with the daily (and it is almost daily) reality of this.
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And well done lassies!
Americans do care – the hold the NRA have over so many politicians is gruesome, it´s what you get when there are no restrictions on campaign finance / electoral spending – the moneybags always win, and they are almost without exception greed-driven, right-wing monsters.
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Yes, I had scheduled this post yesterday, and later I noticed that a brave lass had also made a statement, so I wholeheartedly endorse your “and lasses”.
Maybe the politicians will be moved to do something once the kids start telling them how it is, although, as you say, money talks louder than sad kids… and you can always send them your thoughts and prayers as you count your money.
I hear that Trump is holding a “listening” session this week with some unspecified young people. (Well, that’ll be a first, him listening, without telling everyone how stable and clever and brilliant he is and how he’s passed more legislation than any president anywhere in the universe, ever.)
It will be interesting to see if someone manages to staple his mouth shut for a while… and it will be interesting to see who the “young people” are.
Hand picked, I’ll bet.
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Just saw this:
Aly Sheehy
21h21 hours ago
Aly Sheehy Retweeted Donald J. Trump
17 of my classmates are gone. That’s 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But you’re right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget.
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!
1,692 replies 43,464 retweets 119,363 likes
Reply 1.7K Retweet 43K Like 119K Direct message
Clearly, this lass is a good deal more mature than Trump. Not hard, I’ll grant you.
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Hopefully this breaks the news cycle, which seems to go:
1. Horror
2. Thoughts and Prayers
3. Politicians saying ‘now is not the time’ (for gun control)
4. Fatigue on networks with what is becoming, very, very sadly, routine
5. Another unrelated story taking over the news cycle
6. End of.
7. Until next time.
This has been on a rinse and repeat cycle for years in America.
This seems relevant:
https://tinyurl.com/lm79v4a
Geldof refers to an incident that happened on 29th Jan 1979!
It is difficult to understand why the legislators, both Republican and Democrats as inured to the death toll. The remark that adults prefer their guns to their children is chilling.
And must a joy to the NRA, an outfit with no saving grace whatsoever.
(As an aside they have a life member called Alexander Torshin – a Russian – who was accused in the US press about a month ago of funnelling dirty money through the NRA to politicians in Washington. It’s all gone quiet on that story since then. If it turns out to be true, then the the NRA will have aided and abetted the corruption of the US’s democratic process, which in my book is treason.)
We live in a country that acted almost immediately after the Thomas Hamilton atrocity. Things have not been perfect since then, but I doubt that there are very many of us here that would argue for arming the population. I personally am uncomfortable with us regularly arming the Police!
Thanks for highlighting this. It is insane.
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Well, i needs high;lighting, because you laid out clearly what happens, and the order in which it happens.
Credit to the then Tory government of the UK (it was before we had a parliament) who acted very quickly in the case of Hamilton.
Fast legislation is often not good legislation, but to be fair, it seems to have been effective.
Less edifying is the secrecy that surrounds Hamilton. It has to be asked if this had anything to do with his close connections with posh military schools, royalty and Jimmy Savile.
I agree with you about arms. The fewer people who have access to guns, the better.
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If they truly cared Americans would do something
To stop or even reduce this carnage to their children.
I do not say all Americans but the majority
Some truths are hard but hands over your eyes
Is not the answer.
Been reading about this
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/history-green-book-african-american-travelers-180958506/
Ever heard of sundown towns
Meaning any black person found
In town after dark was likely to be
Attacked
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You might well say if Brits cared they would do something about the fact that possibly 1.5 million people rely on foodbanks; that teachers are taking pity on little kids who are so hungry they search bins for thrown away food and that at least one council in Scotland is going to have to feed kids every day of the year.
It’s a case of priorities, or ignorance, and of politicians who only care about themselves.
I’m not sure that it happens everywhere, but it sure happens a lot.
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/history-green-book-african-american-travelers-180958506/
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It’s horrific stuff, Niko.
But that was in the era of actual segregation.
I wonder how it is now.
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When we visited New York we traveled as we always
Do the local transport just to get the feel of the nation
City we are in.
Obviously we got lost etc in the streets and on the
Metro so we were constantly asking the way and
How to get to the places we wished to see.
Overwhelmingly the people we approached were
Coloured who were helpful informative approachable
And more important funny kind and made us laugh.
Even the nypd officer who not far from MACYS
told us in all seriousness the shop had recently
closed,,,,,,before laughing his head off us as well
Then directing us the way
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LOL
New York’s an amazing place. A bit scary at times, but I believe its a lot better these days.
I really agree. Getting the tube/metro/bus is the best way to experience the life of a place.
Sometimes we just buy a day or 3 day ticket and take random bus or train rides, going wherever the transport goes… and looking out of the window.
I can’t think of anywhere I’ve gone where people weren’t by and large friendly, but the best place of all was Dublin.
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Glasgow a bit iffy though
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True dat!
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Rubbish! Just saw a report on Dundee having the highest rate of drug deaths in Scotland which itself has the highest rate in Europe. Sounds to me that Dundee scoops Glesca in the iffy stakes. So Dundee can now lay claim to the four Js – Jute, Jam, Journalism and…Junkies. Mind you, it depends on your definition of “iffy” – I mean Enbra is decidedly iffy, or should that be sniffy or whiffy.
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Look, when we do stuff in Dundee, we do it right! OK.
We need to do something about drugs. We really do.
We need to look at the way that enlightened countries deal with this problem, and see what we can learn.
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Couldn’t agree more, Tris. The obvious first step is decriminalisation but, of course, that would upset the Holy Wullies, Tut-tutters, etc. I’m not a bleeding heart where, to use the current terminology, substance abusers are concerned but if we could stop all the dosh being passed to criminals, a start could be made on tackling this problem. Mind you, that would require a real effort of will on the part of many politicians who don’t seem able to apply their efforts to any of the other iniquities plaguing our society – homelessness, poverty, lack of decent jobs, just for starters.
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It takes real courage to do this, because the Daily Mail will have a canary… and the Sun and the Star and the Diana…
And if anything ever goes wrong…. ouch.
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Listening to the brexiteers (why do I bother )
Ranting about the opportunities wonderful
Possibilities once we escape the eu clutches.
Or the way I see it is
A Sunday league footy team magically
Get a chance to play Chelsea at Wembley.
The team and local town full of hope
Dream of giant killing a fantastic road ahead
For the team.
But we all know what the outcome is going
to be the big one always beats the little one
Especially in economics.
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I read today that in any scenario Scottish farmers are going to be much worse off. I guess they are the ones that voted Tory…
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For Americans to change their view on gun control , is a tall ask . Doesn’t really matter how many have died in these callous and cowardly shootings , America loves its guns . As they will tell you , its our constitutional right .
Its a crying shame and a blight on a country which has a lot to offer .
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Yes.
As we’ve said over and over, the 2nd Amendment makes it a right. But when the 2nd Amendment was written they did’t have AK47s.
So it would make sense to amend the amendment. But the NRA ain’t gonna let that happen, I fear.
If Obama, who was for change, couldn’t get any movement, the likelihood of the Orange one, who doesn’t want change, doing it is very remote.
Didn’t I read that Obama had enacted a law depriving people with mental health issues the write to gun ownership, but within days of this inauguration Trump rescinded that?
Or did I dream that?
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Yes Tris…..that’s mostly true. The issue has gotten a lot of play in the context of Trump’s mindless Tweeting. Obama had issued an administrative rule that facilitated the transfer of information between departments of the government within the existing background check law on gun sales. As soon as Trump took office, he and the Republicans moved to rescind everything they could of what Obama did in his terms of office. In this case, the Obama rule was overturned by a little used procedure in Congress called the Congressional Review Act. So specifically, Congress overturned the Obama rule and Trump signed into law the Congressional action. Here’s the details:
https://www.snopes.com/trump-sign-bill-revoking-obama-era-gun-checks-people-mental-illnesses/
http://fortune.com/2018/02/15/trump-shooting-mental-illness/
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Thanks, Danny. I thought I remembered that.
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One has to try to be hopeful. After all, polling always shows that a majority….sometimes a large majority……of Americans favor common sense gun laws. Contrary to what you often hear, the Second Amendment has never been interpreted as an absolute right…..even with the first 13 words deleted (which are clearly related to arming 18th century militias,) which the NRA radicals love to do. Machine guns for example are generally banned, but not (at the present time) modern semi-automatic assault rifles that cause such carnage in mass shootings. One would think that this and other issues in mass shootings could find bi-partisan political remedies, such as strengthened background checks involving mental health information, restrictions on various types of rapid fire weapons and large ammunition magazines, etc, etc.
The NRA is an organization of riflemen founded in 1871, for the purpose of promoting marksmanship. (The Union army had recently discovered that Civil War recruits couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.) But in recent years, the NRA has morphed into a radicalized right wing political organization whose goal is to elect politicians who will agree to do pretty much NOTHING to restrict the sale or use of guns and ammo. Only claiming about five million members, the NRA can be more accurately thought of in its funding as a lobbying group for the American firearms industry. The modern NRA is about selling as many guns as possible, and the industry funnels is money to politicians through the NRA. (It’s better public relations for the industry to pretend that the money is coming from American hunters and outdoors sportsmen.)
And money talks! Marco Rubio, a Republican Senator from Florida is typical. He was on television almost immediately after the shooting giving the party line. It’s TOO SOON after the tragedy to inject politics into the discussion. We must have MORE INFORMATION. For now, we will send our THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS to the victims. Marco Rubio has received more than $3.3 Million from the NRA gun lobby in his political career.
And over on the House side of the Capitol, we had Paul Ryan (Speaker of the House) giving the “knee-jerk” speech that he’s used for years.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-knee-jerk-shootings_us_5a864263e4b05c2bcac94502
So I’m hopeful, but not optimistic that this time will be any different on the federal level than all the others. There are always demonstrations by sincere people, and the statements and actions of these students might do something that the parents couldn’t do after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012. Depending on the remedies being proposed, they generally represent the majority of Americans. But there is still a stone wall of NRA funded politicians in Congress, and I don’t know when that will ever be any different as long as Republicans (with a few red state Democrats) are in control.
I talked online to a (supposedly sane) lady who was solidly opposed to any federal action, and said that the problem is the fact that schools are generally “gun free” zones. She said that what we need to do is arm every teacher with a gun, and let them protect the students by defensive fire. SERIOUSLY!!!! That’s what she said! But not all Americans are that bat-**** crazy……….the evidence to the contrary in the White House notwithstanding.)
I like this clip from the old TV drama “The West Wing.”
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I see what you mean about the words that have to be removed to make it sound like everyone over 16 can carry an AK47 at will.
Thanks for the explanations. Everything seems to be about making money. It really is sad.
Incidentally, my granny’s expression to indicate a poor shot was: ‘You couldnae hit the corner o’ a roon’ hoose’. I’m sure with your linguistic skills no translation required!
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LOL…..Great expression! No translation required! 😉
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