This is the News!

[JayzusB.Christ]

Now I have to admit you've lost me there, Sharky. It seems to me that while easy access to guns may not be the only cause of mass shootings - again, by civilians and against other civilians, which was the sole topic of the clip, not police or military violence - it seems very likely that it's the biggest, and a lack of easy access to guns evidently reduces gun violence significantly, again solely within the sphere of gun violence by civilians against civilians.

War and police brutality are a different subject for a different conversation.

[The Legendary Shark]

I'm not sure they are different things but, rather, parts of the same problem.

Switzerland, for example, is often cited as "proof" that high gun ownership leads to fewer gun related deaths. This may be the case in some situations where a would-be perpetrator is dissuaded by the knowledge that shooting at Ralph would entail getting shot back at, but is far from the whole picture. An armed population helped keep Switzerland out of two world wars, which I think speaks to a different culture where guns are respected and seen as tools of national rather than personal defence.

In the U.S., however, guns appear to be regarded as tools of personal rather than national defence. This, to my mind, is a big difference and a major cause of gun deaths. U.S. citizens also see, with virtually hourly news reports, its government routinely blasting chunks out of human beings all over the world with impunity, blatantly devaluing the worth of human life. At the moment, the USG (along with the UKG and too many others) are supporting and cheering on the inhuman madness being unleashed on innocent Palestinians and innocent Israelis. This cheapening of human life by the so-called authorities (reinforced by domestic police shootings of innocents, Hollywood glamourization, computer games, etc.) has to seep into the consciousness of its citizenry and present as the attitude that it's okay to shoot some people, like anyone who happens to step onto private property without permission. I find this attitude abhorrent. It's never okay to kill anyone, and whether the killer happens to be in uniform or not makes absolutely no difference in my personal philosophy.

Whether mass shootings are conducted officially or unofficially is an artificial distinction, in my view, and it makes no logical sense to idolise one while demonizing the other. The greatest cause of gun violence, I think, is the constant and acceptable narrative that some people are good and need to be defended while others are evil and need to be killed. Again, I find this abhorrent.

So yes, while I agree that the numbers and types of weapons available does provide a massive opportunity for abuse, I don't agree that it's the major problem. It's the way we see our fellow human beings that is, in my view, the major (but, again, not the sole) root of the problem.

[Funt Solo]

So yes, while I agree that the numbers and types of weapons available does provide a massive opportunity for abuse, I don't agree that it's the major problem. It's the way we see our fellow human beings that is, in my view, the major (but, again, not the sole) root of the problem.

You're one hundred percent correct. If I hate my fellow human being, it doesn't matter one jot if I'm armed with a blunt spoon or a hefty mace - it's the way I see them as a fellow human being that matters. Why, I recall the time an insane badger was running down festival goers on a stolen combine harvester - as they were being lopped to pieces by the spinning blades I could hear them cry out "you might as well be armed with a feature duster you lapine lunatic, for all the harm you're doing m...UCK!"

Yes, yes. One hundred percent correct.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I fully agree mass shootings are equally bad when conducted by authorities. But again, that is not what that clip was about and it never mentioned any opinion whatsoever about war deaths or police shootings.

If anyone wants to start a new debate about those things here, of course that's absolutely fine, but there is absolutely nothing in the clip in question that even alludes to them, let alone casts them in a positive light.

The hate is equally strong in many countries besides the US, but the mass shootings, again by civilians with guns, are not. As for Switzerland - yes, there are many guns, but there are also many controls in place as to who buys them and how they're used.  One might even call these gun laws.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say on the subject right now - anything else I post would be just me repeating myself, or re-repeating myself in this case.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/switzerland-gun-laws-rates-of-gun-deaths-2018-2%3famp

[The Legendary Shark]

I know the clip doesn't contain any references whatsoever to military or police shootings. It exclusively examines civilian mass shootings and the availability of guns and attempts to draw the two together in a Blue Peter style. It gets its point across okay in the short time it has and, from that perspective, it does its job. However, as I said in my op, "The presenter's conclusion is that mass shootings lead to both calls to ban guns and increased sales, with an implied causal connection to further mass shootings. A leads to (B+C) which leads to A. Neat, but somewhat lacking in nuance."

It is a strong argument at best and a contributory factor at worst, but it's not the only perspective and should be neither dismissed nor glorified without further information and thought. I think this short clip does a good job of explaining the range and availability of guns and also the unlawfulness and tragedy of mass shootings. It fails, though, to establish a driving force from availability to shooting. Having lots of guns doesn't make people kill each other, but they really make it easier when they do decide to kill each other (or resist an invasion). 

[Funt Solo]

Gaza reporter removes protective vest after learning of colleague's death

[The Legendary Shark]

The Committee to Protect Journalists claims that 36 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead (31 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese) as of yesterday.

[The Legendary Shark]

This is the news...

[Funt Solo]

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg is just so insipid. They could change the name to "Gently Stroking the Government" and it wouldn't be far off.

Grant "Bomber Harris" Schnapps had the gal to reference the firebombing of Dresden as a positive, and Kuenssberg didn't even blink.

[paddykafka]

Horrible scenes in Dublin last night. There were fireworks being set off on the street where I live. I just hope that those poor kids and their teacher will recover from their injuries and the trauma that they have been through. And hats off to those brave people, who intervened to stop the beast who carried out the stabbings from hurting anyone else. One of those heroes was a Brazilian immigrant. An irony that will of course be lost on the far-right wank-stains, who used that awful attack as an excuse for their hate-mongering so-called 'protest'.

https://www.facebook.com/DublinLiveOnline/videos/1057645765582575

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

[JohnW]

I could take a swipe at Dublin here, but I'm reminded of an encounter I witnessed a few years back on my street. A lady of the neighbourhood jovially told a passing dark-skinned man to fuck off back where he came from.

Which do I want living in my town: people who come from wherever and mind their own business or people who shout abuse at strangers?

[Funt Solo]

That happened in my head as I was reading the news.

---

Here's to hoping that the victims manage a recovery.

[JayzusB.Christ]

'These foreigners are destroying our city,' say locals who are destroying our city.

One tiny glimmer of hope is that a GoFundMe campaign has ensured that the heroic Brazilian Caio Benicio will not need to be working for Deliveroo for a very long time.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/buy-caio-benicio-a-pint

[The Legendary Shark]

The Committee to Protect Journalists claims that 36 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead (31 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese) as of yesterday.

~57, now. 

Here are just three that caught my eye:

November 23, 2023 - Mohamed Mouin Ayyash, a Palestinian journalist and a freelance photographer, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, along with 20 members of his family...

November 20, 2023 - Ayat Khadoura, a Palestinian freelance journalist and podcast presenter, was killed along with an unknown number of family members in an Israeli airstrike on her home...

November 20, 2023 - Alaa Taher Al-Hassanat, a Palestinian journalist and presenter at AlMajedat Media Network, was killed, along with multiple members of her family, in an Israeli airstrike that hit her house...

I counted sixteen instances of journalists being killed in their homes. Imagine if that had happened in Iran or Ukraine.

Imagine if any of this happened in Iran or Ukraine. According to the United Nations, in the 640 days since the war in the Ukraine began, at least 10,000 civilians, including more than 560 children, have been killed and over 18,500 have been injured. The world was outraged.

By comparison, in the 50 days since the "War on Hamas" began, 14,800 people have been killed in Gaza alone, including about 6,000 children and 4,000 women, with unknown numbers of injured, starving, and sick.

Putin - bad guy. Netanyahu - good guy. (This isn't me defending either but questioning the judgement and loyalty of our media and governments over the last 75 years.)