this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
1042 points (98.6% liked)

politics

19144 readers
2448 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Tim Walz has said he’s “sick and tired of hearing about thoughts and prayers” following the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia, which left four dead.

Walz, who was named as Kamala Harris’ running mate in the race for the White House in August, spoke about the Wednesday (4 September) shooting at a campaign rally at the Highmark Amphitheater in Erie, Pennsylvania on Thursday.

He told his supporters: “We believe in the freedom to send our kids to school without being shot dead in the hall.”

“The news cycle moves on within a day,” he commented of the incident, adding that kids had returned to school feeling excited and “now we have four dead”.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ChonkyOwlbear 144 points 2 months ago (4 children)

This shooting in particular shows major society-level failures. The parents were victims of the opiate crisis. Society failed to treat that problem at an appropriate level when it first cropped up and they failed to claw back the profits pharmaceutical companies made off creating addicts. We failed to fund school mental health services that could have helped a child who everyone knew was struggling. Society failed to recognize and address the domestic violence situation, failed to intervene when the child was being raised by addicts, and failed to remove guns from such a volatile situation. There are so many levels on which any significant intervention could have prevented this chain of events.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This kid was already reported for threatening a school school shooting last year and the investigation stopped after they asked him if he did that and he said no. It's a fucking joke.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Country that insists we have a "mental health crisis" providing absolutely zero mental health care to people who are clearly showing all the symptoms of said crisis.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Country that says "nothing can be done to stop this" did nothing to try to stop this.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If they did literally ANYTHING after that it would have Infringed on his Second Amendment Rights! Your ONLY allowed to take someone's Guns away AFTER they've killed people! Or they're ~~Nig~~ Black!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Or they're Black!

Hey, you can't just take away Black people's guns like that! You shoot them for having a gun, because you "feared for your safety" because they were exercising their Second Amendment Rights!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He should have been institutionalized. I'm of the opinion that if you're too dangerous to possess a gun, you're too dangerous to be loose in society.

[–] Crismus 2 points 2 months ago

Exactly, people with serious problems need to be off of the streets.

Why do all the law-abiding sane people have to give away their rights when we already have ways to remove dangerous people from society.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 21 points 2 months ago (4 children)

This is the real takeaway. The Republicans want to do nothing, and the dems want a quick fix in gun control. Neither addresses the root of the problem. The world as a whole needs to invest more in social services, education, and public health. It should be where the majority of money goes really.

[–] ZoopZeZoop 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've heard plenty of arguments from Dems for mental health care at various levels. Those things need to be funded, and who do you think keeps trying to defund government agencies and services for social/mental health issues? Usually not the Dems. The Dems have plenty of faults, including their lack of spines (in at least some cases), but the lack of funding for social services is not usually one of them.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They talk about it sometimes. But never do anything. And more importantly, it doesn't even make Americans top ten. I don't have much faith in politicians doing anything about it until it is in the top 5. https://news.gallup.com/poll/642887/inflation-immigration-rank-among-top-issue-concerns.aspx

[–] ZoopZeZoop 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)
[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 0 points 2 months ago

I'm sorry, I consider "introducing" a bill nothing more than talk. And I should have specified at the federal level. State level dems and even Republicans do sometimes accomplish things for the greater good.

[–] Maggoty 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

On the other hand some of those "quick fixes" are actually modernizing our gun laws to be like other countries that allow gun ownership. We should put all the work in but calling Universal Background Check and Red Flag quick fixes is like calling a highway lane expansion a quick fix. Yes we need a bus system, but the 2 lane road built in the 1950's isn't cutting it anymore either way.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 2 points 2 months ago

I agree they should still be done. I just want some progress on the root of the problem.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

One would think it would be a bipartisan idea that a kid with two parents who are addicts should receive some sort of government intervention.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Conservatives hear "sins of the father" and assume it means that children MUST suffer for what their parents did wrong

And yes, I've legitimately heard multiple CHRISTIAN conservatives use that line in that manner and it amazes me they didn't realize they had it fucking backwards

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We don't have bipartisan ideas anymore. Both sides run on hate for their opponent. So they can't be seen as working with them.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Not really. One side runs on hate. The other side is willing to cross the aisle but won't compromise to the extreme level the other side demands. Look at the border bill. It was a fair bipartisan compromise, but it wasn't far enough for the right.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most democrats run on not being trump. I consider that running on hate. But I could understand if others don't. As for the border bill... they only floated that because 1.. they were pretty sure the Republicans wouldn't want to give them a win. And 2.. they were trying to woo conservative voters to vote for Biden. It was a win win stunt that they wouldn't have done if the election wasn't close.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You do realize there is a difference between hating Trump because he's a fraudulent criminal and hating everyone who isn't a white Christian, right?

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You do realize there is a similarity between "hating Trump because he's a fraudulent criminal and hating everyone who isn't a white Christian" right? It's hate. And more importantly it is a way to rally people to your side without having to promise to accomplish anything that would move the country forward.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 1 points 2 months ago

Hating people trying to harm you is justified. Hating people because they are different is not. Trump and MAGA Republicans are an existential threat to this country. Moving the country forward is only an option if it still exists as a representative democracy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes. We need full societal fixes. But gun control is part of that.

14 year olds have no business having unsupervised access to weapons. We need better storage laws. We need better red flag laws, national licensing laws so that everyone with a gun has to take a basic safety course, and we need universal background checks where ALL branches of law enforcement share info with each other.

Start there and you will significantly cut gun violence while we spin up the mental health infrastructure to deal with the rest. Which is going to take time. And money. Neither of which the current government wants to spend.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 1 points 2 months ago

While I think all of those laws make good sense. I don't think they will actually reduce gun violence much. Most of them people will just ignore like they do the advice to store guns better. The law will only punish people after the fact. And everyone else will always think that it will never happen to them.
And the system fails to protect people with straight up restraining orders against others. It won't be able to do much with all the other things you mention. So focusing on those, and of course never achieving them, is just the carrot on a stick the dems use to get the voters out. If they weren't a political focus they would actually have a better chance of happening.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't want to argue against mental health services, i think mental health services could be helpful. However, i do want to point something out here: saying this is a mental health problem really doesn't make sense. You know a group that has mental health problems? Women. You know who else? Black people. You know who barely do any mass shootings? Either of those groups. We're not (just) talking mental health issues, we're talking about people who view "shooting up a school" as an appropriate way to resolve their social grievances. You can help that with mental health services, you can take their power away by blocking easy access to guns, but that's a pretty big component here as well.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The expression of mental health problems varies widely based on the cause. Societal and cultural pressures are vastly different for different groups. Men in general are 4 times more likely to commit suicide than women for example. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer major depression.hormones also impact the expression of mental illness. Men experiencing depression are more likely to exhibit irritability, sudden anger, increased loss of control, risk-taking, and aggression. Men are also more likely to feel social pressure to deal with their problems alone and are more likely to turn to drugs or alcohol.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This may be the first coherent analysis I've ever seen on Lemmy. Every other take on shootings are always 100% asinine comments about guns.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear 1 points 2 months ago

I'm not going to pretend that I don't have asinine opinions on guns, but there is very little anything but the most authoritarian gun control can do about school shootings without first addressing the social problems behind it. We would be just as likely to get kids building bombs or driving cars through crowds.