[Bones McCoy]

California doesn't have open carry anymore because the Black Panthers had the audacity to do so.

It's also worth contemplating the Overton Window.

Back in the day, any pressure group showing up armed at local government premises would have been shocking.
Now it's normal.

Back in the day the NRA put a lot of effort into gun safety training for new owners.
Now it doesn't.

Back in the day the bulk of the Republican party still advocated an American dream for most citizens.
Now they don't.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61604652

Mounting anger at the fact that Tough Real Men (tm) cops were wrestling grieving parents to the ground while an active massacre of toddlers was ongoing.

[Bones McCoy]

Rule 303 appears to bean something different in America to what it did in Missus Kwin's empire.

[Spoonman]

Thread...

FYI this isn't stopping. There have been 18 mass shootings SINCE Uvalde.

You need to know this. Because it's not going to stop until we do something.

1/ Here's just a sampling of the slaughter in the last six days:

2/ Last night 10 people were shot at an outdoor party in down Charleston, South Carolina. Four people are in critical condition. A pregnant woman was one of the victims.

TEN PEOPLE. Didn't hear about this one, did you?

3/ On Sunday night in Tulsa, 8 people were shot at an outdoor festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So far, one has died and others are in critical conditon. Several teenagers were shot.

And just imagine all the kids at that festival who saw the bodies and live with that trauma.

4/ Saturday night in Austin, Michigan, a man killed his wife and her three children - 6 yr old Katelynn, 4 yr old Ronald, and 3 yr old Josh. All dead. All before their seventh birthdays. The shooter then tried to commit suicide, but survived and is in critical condition.

5/ 18 mass shootings in the 6 days since Uvalde.

Folks, this isn't stopping. Unless you make it stop. Call your Congressman. Call your Senator.

Tell them that this time, doing nothing is not an option.

[Boiler]

Yebbut it's not the guns, it's the person holding them.

Or summat.

[Cyclist]

They've got their scapegoat

Texas police have said the gunman who shot 21 people dead at a school last week entered through a door that was supposed to lock, but somehow did not.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which is investigating the shooting response, confirmed a teacher had initially propped open the door.

But a spokesman on Tuesday said the teacher closed the door once the gunman entered the campus.

Public anger has risen as new details of the shooting emerge.

Initial reports of the gunman getting into the school via an exterior door that was accidentally left open by a teacher had suggested a breach of school policy. Employees at Robb Elementary School are required to keep doors closed and locked...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61655009

Nothing to do with America's insane gun culture. Nothing to do with the police who stood around doing nothing for twenty minutes. It was a teacher not checking the door was locked.

[Rosvanian]

As shocking as the recent mass shootings are, I do wonder sometimes why we Brits get so worked up about it and American politics in general. The British public seem so invested in it which I find very odd. If only they were as invested in, say, the new reality in Northern Ireland.

[Andy McDandy]

Bill Bryson once put it well - we are invested in other countries that are relatable to us. So the white Anglosphere trumps English speaking countries which aren't predominantly white, or hanging onto "Anglo-Saxon values" (so that's Ireland, South Africa and Singapore relegated). Then come predominantly white countries, western Europe first and working outward. And so on. Colonial ties matter too, so the English take more of an interest in Jamaica than in, say, Haiti. Of course, someone with Jamaican roots could be expected to do this, but even the average Brit feels more kinship with the one than the other (the reverse arrangement is another matter).

Also, a common UK media thread is that the USA matters. Very few countries get this privilege. Even before the war, America was the big and flashy cousin, bit of a falling out once but that's all in the past, needs its big brother to steer it right, somewhat gaudy but trying its best. It's changed a bit - more like the tough but slightly dumb hero and their quirky sneaky sidekick (think Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg in Mission: Impossible) - but that's why. Or as Stephen Fry put it, American culture is now the standard.

[MisterMuncher]

They've got their scapegoat

Texas police have said the gunman who shot 21 people dead at a school last week entered through a door that was supposed to lock, but somehow did not.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which is investigating the shooting response, confirmed a teacher had initially propped open the door.

But a spokesman on Tuesday said the teacher closed the door once the gunman entered the campus.

Public anger has risen as new details of the shooting emerge.

Initial reports of the gunman getting into the school via an exterior door that was accidentally left open by a teacher had suggested a breach of school policy. Employees at Robb Elementary School are required to keep doors closed and locked...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61655009

Nothing to do with America's insane gun culture. Nothing to do with the police who stood around doing nothing for twenty minutes. It was a teacher not checking the door was locked.

It's telling that nowhere in the debate does the idea appear that maybe, just maybe the problem is an environment where the teacher needs to lock every door and bolt every window.

[Boiler]

"We should allow highly trained teachers to conceal carry"

D. J. Trump, NRA convention.

[Bones McCoy]

As shocking as the recent mass shootings are, I do wonder sometimes why we Brits get so worked up about it and American politics in general. The British public seem so invested in it which I find very odd. If only they were as invested in, say, the new reality in Northern Ireland.

In brief because of a shared political culture.
Their billionaires see the UK as a potential next state, and some of the most toxic invest heavily in transatlantic pressure groups.

Also because the bar to report on American news is relatively low - mostly English speaking with a personality oriented 2 party political system.
Nothing difficult to get your head around like German federalism.

And finally because they aren't afraid to make complete arses of themselves, often in a life threatening manner.
So plenty of grist for the dumb and frightening foreigner trope (all in a mostly accessible language).

[Spoonman]

'murica! - A post dedicated to the woman that makes Nadine Dorries look like an intellectual heavyweight, US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Grenne...

First, last weekend...

...while on Tuesday...

Marjorie Taylor Greene Suggests Justin Trudeau’s Gun Laws Invite Russian Invasion

In a chaotic, but absolutely riveting, Twitter rant Tuesday, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed gun laws could result in a Russian invasion.

“Trudeau foolishly completely ignores how taking guns away from his people makes his country weak and vulnerable to being invaded and easily taken over by another stronger country,” the Georgia Republican wrote in the second post of a six-part Twitter thread on her official account. (Her personal account was permanently banned by Twitter over COVID misinformation.)

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxjwa/ ... ada-russia

...and while she's on a roll...

Marjorie Taylor Greene Doubles Down On Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric—Suggests Pride Month ‘Needs To End’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a loud but marginal member of the Republican Party’s conservative wing, appears to be doubling down on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the past week—calling for the end of Pride Month, wildly claiming that straight people will become extinct—and also claiming, with the usual dearth of evidence, that the Uvalde gunman was a “cross-dressing loner.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan ... 0ef0af5fcb

...while as a non-MTG bonus, they have no fucking shame...

Zelenskyy shuts down Newsmax interviewer who tried to get him to say there would be no war if Trump were president

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shut down a Newsmax interviewer who prompted him to say that there would be no war in Ukraine if former President Donald Trump were still the US president...

...Zelenskyy said: "Well, I believe what's the most important is the assistance from the people of the United States. They are paying the taxes, and the money being allocated to support Ukraine comes from the taxes, and it's all of that humanitarian, financial, military support to Ukraine. So I am grateful to the current president of the United States as well as to those in the political parties that support us."

"I am sorry if I'll be saying something that you don't like, but for us as the country in war, it doesn't matter whether it's Democrats or Republicans. It's the people of the United States that support us," he said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/zelensk ... ?r=US&IR=T

[Spoonman]

Meanwhile in Oklahoma...

Oklahoma hospital shooting: Four killed and multiple injured

Four people have been killed in a shooting spree at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police say.

Officers confirmed that the suspected shooter, who was armed with a rifle and a handgun, was also dead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61669873

[Bones McCoy]

Meanwhile in Oklahoma...

Oklahoma hospital shooting: Four killed and multiple injured

Four people have been killed in a shooting spree at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police say.

Officers confirmed that the suspected shooter, who was armed with a rifle and a handgun, was also dead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61669873

NRA statement on how "all nurses should be armed" in 3 ... 2 ... 1.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

'spree'?

[zuriblue]

att.png (1.65 MiB) Viewed 1267 times

[Spoonman]

'nother edition of "'murica" so quickly after the last one. Well, there's rarely any shortage of material...

Firstly, for context former Tr*mp advisor Peter Navarro has been indicted for contempt of Congress...

Former White House advisor Peter K. Navarro has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the United States Capitol.

Navarro, 72, is charged with one contempt count involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and another involving his refusal to produce documents, despite a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The indictment was returned yesterday and unsealed today. Navarro is to make his initial appearance this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/pete ... t-congress

...to Navarro himself...

...onto this dumb f*ck whom would certainly give Marjorie Taylor-Grenne a good run for her money. Scary to think that Gohmert was once a judge...

...and to pile on the evidence...

...meanwhile back to Taylor-Greene, as one comment to this tweet suggests, she represents Gilead...

...finally, this sitting Republican Congressman just got RINO'd for daring to even suggest some minimal level of gun control...

[Bones McCoy]

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Mrs A and I just watched the live coverage of the gun control hearings in DC. The testimony of victims.

We wept. How can a nation allow itself to become this?

[Andy McDandy]

There's a rather funny video going round, in which a man (a satirist) at the NRA convention publicly thanks its president for all of his thoughts and prayers over the years, and actually gets a round of applause when he finishes. The committee seems to realise he's taking the piss, but can't really do anything about it.

The sad thing is that much of the crowd probably thought he was being sincere.