Orlando Has PTSD

That’s the best explanation I have for this:

About 3:20 p.m., mall patrons began reporting on social media that an alleged shooting had occurred in the food court after hearing sharp popping sounds and a fire alarm. The unsettling sounds sent fearful patrons running from the mall.

Orange County Fire Medical and Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the scene, but there was no gunman, OCSO spokeswoman Deputy Rose Silva said.

Instead, the scare was caused by an industry-standard test as part of the inspection for the grand opening of former ‘NSync singer Joey Fatone’s new restaurant, Silva said. An announcement was made over the mall’s public announcement system prior to the test preparing customers for the noise.

“The test consisted of six large balloons popping consecutively, followed by a fire alarm,” Silva said. “This caused people to go into panic mode and run.”

At least 10 people were injured in the ensuing panic, “mostly falls, scrapes and twisted knees.” I guess when your city is home to the nation’s deadliest mass shooting, fears of an active shooter are understamndably prevalent. Indeed, an Apple Store employee said,

“I lost two friends at Pulse, so of course that was my first thought,” he said.

Levane said he ran to the farthest corner of the parking lot, something he learned last week when the store held active shooter training. He called his mother while running and told her he loved her.

Welcome to the NRA’s America. We are truly a nation which has lost its innocence.

What Am I Seeing Here?

From NRA Board Member Grover Norquist:

Is he advocating armed violence when Trump inevitably loses? God, I hope not.

What about all those years of Republican fearmongering, the Swift Boating of John Kerry in 2004, the “THREAT LEVEL: ORANGE” manipulations, all that bullshit to keep people afraid of terrorists? I’m so old, I remember being told that WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE if Barack Obama gets elected (or re-elected).

Crazy times.

Ha Ha He Was Totally Kidding You Guys

Donald Trump’s surrogates are scrambling to defend the GOP candidate, who mentioned the possibility of “2nd Amendment Solutions” to stop Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court nominations.

This seems to be a theme with the Republican fringe. Remember this?

Someone remind me what happened not long after the above appeared? Oh, yeah. This.

What the fuck is wrong with people?

Congratulations, Rodney Cummings! You’re Our 2nd Amendment Hero Du Jour

Been a while since I’ve done one of these, and there’s certainly been no shortage of candidates! The thing I loved about this Indiana prosecutor who accidentally fired his gun into a wall while eating dinner at a Texas Roadhouse is this bit:

Cummings said he plans to have the gun examined to ensure there are no mechanical problems.

Yeah, must’ve been the gun. Couldn’t possibly have been the gun owner. Which sorta goes against the NRA’s whole “guns are safe, it’s people who aren’t” slogan. And furthermore. which begs the question: if a faulty gun is just going to fire off at will on its own, isn’t that a good reason to not have it in a public place like a restaurant?

Tennessee Gun Report

Time to check in with Tennessee’s gun crazies.

• July 13, 2016:

A Maryville man accidentally shot a woman in the stomach, then lied to police about it:

The Blount County Sheriff’s Office was called to a mobile home on Tomotley Road Thursday night around 6 p.m. where they found Kassie Deanna Hill, 34, with a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Carver told deputies a man wearing black clothing and a black cap came inside and shot Hill in the stomach and then ran through a field and woods behind the home.

After conducting an investigation, Carver admitted he lied about the home invasion and said his gun accidentally discharged while he and Hill were in close contact. HIll’s and Carver’s accounts matched up.

• July 11, 2016:

After the shootings of police officers in Dallas, this lone TN National Guardsman decided to “stand guard” outside the Murfreesboro police department. Dude looks kinda stupid if you ask me.

TN National Guard told him he can’t do it in uniform representing the Guard.

• July 9, 2016:

Who cares if the Republicans have a supermajority in our state legislature? Tennessee Democrats aren’t sitting still when it comes to gun violence. They’ve just announced their “10 for TN” plan to tackle the issue. Some good ideas here; now, let’s get to work electing more Democrats so this can actually happen.

• July 8, 2016:

Gee, it’s almost as if having civilians armed to the teeth might be a problem for law enforcement or something:

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) – Authorities in Tennessee say a man who opened fire on a highway in Tennessee targeted police officers and others because he was troubled by incidents involving black people and law enforcement officers.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says in a news release that initial conversations with the suspect, identified as Lakeem Keon Scott revealed he was troubled by incidents across the U.S. The TBI says the suspect is black; the shooting victims are all white.

Investigators say Scott killed one person and wounded three others, including a police officer. Scott had two guns early Thursday morning when he shot at a motel in Bristol, Tennessee, and then shot indiscriminately at several passing cars. When he was confronted by police, he fired at the three officers who responded.

Nobody could have anticipated….

• July 5, 2016:

1- A man in Nashville’s downtown tourist district was struck by a stray bullet, possibly from celebratory gunfire. In 2015, two people visiting Nashville for its huge Fourth of July event were hit by celebratory gunfire.

2- A judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the wacko Tennessee Firearms Assn. and Bill Goodman Shows over a ban on gun shows at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds.

3- Too many “responsible” gun owners are too cavalier with the storing of their weapons, leaving them in unlocked cars or unlocked houses, where they inevitably end up used in crimes. Can’t say that’s where all of these 9,000 gun originated but it’s safe to say a hefty percentage did:

Nearly 9,000 guns seized across U.S. in 2015 have been traced back to original TN owners Most were used in crimes

Law enforcement agencies across the United States picked up almost 9,000 guns during 2015 that traced back to original owners in Tennessee, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Most of the 8,841 guns were seized after they were used in crimes, while some of the weapons may have been found or turned in to law enforcement agencies voluntarily.

The guns were recovered from 49 states, and the states closest to Tennessee saw the most guns from Tennessee, according to a new report from ATF. Mississippi topped the list with 392 guns, followed by Georgia with 256.

On average, it took 10.5 years for a gun to go from its first owner to being used in a crime and recovered by law enforcement, according to the report.

That “time to crime” statistic helps ATF agents recognize when someone is purchasing weapons and intentionally selling them to be used in crimes, said special agent Michael Knight. A quick turnaround is suspicious, he said.

Interesting stuff.

• July 3, 2016:

A 17-year-old girl in Chattanooga accidentally shot herself.

• July 2, 2016:

Accidental shooting deaths are on the rise in Tennessee. Just as we allow more guns, everywhere. Hmm… what a coinky doinky!

• July 1, 2016:

1- A toddler in Clarksville shot himself in the face and died:

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A 3-year-old has died after he accidentally shot himself in the face.

It happened shortly before 5:30 p.m. Friday on Samantha Lane in Clarksville.

The toddler was taken to Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville in critical condition but later passed away.

Clarksville officials told News 2 this appears to be an accidental shooting.

The house was “Protected By 2nd Amendment Security”:

That gun sure kept that kid safe. Except that one time.

2- A Greene County man was driving home from work when his van was struck by a stray bullet.

• June 24, 2016:

Three people, including a Cleveland TN restaurant owner, were shooting an AR-15 and pistols at a jug on top of a trailer, and learned first-hand why that’s a really bad idea:

The weapons — described by the shooters as an AR-15 rifle and two pistols — were aimed at a 5-gallon water jug sitting on top of a trailer on Majeske’s property, according to a police report.

Beyond the trailer are woods, and behind the woods are three houses a “substantial distance away,” Bradford said.

“As they were shooting, bullets were actually going into multiple residences,” Bradford said. “Our deputies who got to the scene observed bullets striking trees and various objects around those residences. People were woken up by the gunfire that happened around midnight.”

Deputies found bullet holes in three homes, including the bedroom wall of one house and near the kitchen and back door of another home, where an adult and four children live.

The neighbors were evacuated from their houses as deputies tried to figure out where the bullets were coming from, Bradford said.

Are we safer yet?

All-American Mass Shooting

[UPDATE]:

Best thing I’ve read on the Dallas shootings is in the New Yorker. Read it:

THE HORRIFIC, PREDICTABLE RESULT OF A WIDELY ARMED CITIZENRY
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-horrific-predictable-result-of-a-widely-armed-citizenry

Weapons empower extremes. Allowing members of any fringe of any movement to get their hands on military weapons guarantees that any normal dispute—political or, for that matter, domestic—can quickly lead to a massacre. Our guns have outraced our restrictions, but not our imaginations. Sometime in the not-too-distant past, annihilation replaced street theatre and demonstrations as the central possibility of the enraged American imagination. Guns allow the fringe to occupy the center.

[…]

Once again, the difference in policy views is clear, and can be coolly stated: those who insist on the right to concealed weapons, to the open carrying of firearms, to the availability of military weapons—to the essentially unlimited dissemination of guns—guarantee that the murders will continue. They have no plan to end them, except to return fire, with results we know. The people who don’t want the regulations that we know will help curb (not end) violent acts and help make them rare (not non-existent) have reconciled themselves to the mass murder of police officers, as well as of innocent men and women during traffic stops and of long, ghostly rows of harmless civilians and helpless children. The country is now clearly divided among those who want the killings and violence to stop and those who don’t. In the words of the old activist song, which side are you on?

Some really good stuff here.
————————————————–

I wish people would stop trying to spin this Dallas shooting as anything other than your ordinary, garden-variety, all-American mass shooting.

Like every other mass shooting, the shooter targeted a specific group. This time it was police officers. Last time it was the GLBT community. The time before that it was, gosh I don’t even remember — was it a workplace shooting? Women at a health clinic? Or was it a bunch of college kids? Gee, there are so many, it’s hard to keep track.

America has about one of these a month and each one is the same: a person who shouldn’t have access to a weapon gets his hands on one and takes out his anger against the (fill in the blanks) he blames for the world’s problems.

Micah Johnson was no different:

The man who the Dallas police say killed five officers in a barrage of bullets on Thursday was a troubled Army reservist who left Afghanistan under a cloud of sexual harassment charges made by a fellow soldier who sought an order of protection against him and said he needed mental health counseling.

We don’t know where Johnson’s guns came from. But there doesn’t appear to be anything that would have prevented Johnson from legally purchasing the SKS semi-automatic assault rifle and handgun he used in his attack on Dallas police officers, or the other weapons and ammo found in his home. Texas probably has the most liberal gun laws in the country, open carry is legal, the right-wing governor of Texas has shilled for the firearms industry and encouraged gun sales. The gun derp is strong. Should anyone really be surprised that there was a mass shooting here? That a culture of “guns everywhere” would end up being an issue for law enforcement? Please.

Wake up, America. Who thought allowing every idiot to buy a gun was a good idea in the first place?

One thing is clear after the Dallas shootings: the NRA’s talking points were all debunked in one horrifying blood bath. There were hundreds of police officers protecting the rally that night … armed police officers. The police officers shot were armed. And still, one crazy person with a high-powered rifle was able to take down five officers, wound seven more, and injure two civilians. The idea that everyone needs to be armed to protect against a mass shooting was proven to be wholly ridiculous.

It’s the guns, dammit. Get them off the streets. It’s long past time we stopped pretending this is about anything else.

Congratulatons, Unidentified MI Man! You’re Our 2nd Amendment Hero Du Jour

Nothing screams “responsible gun owner” like accidentally shooting yourself and getting so mad about it, you shoot your camper, too. Just cuz:

The 48-year-old man from Macomb Township suffered an accidental gunshot wound to his hand when he was handling his 9 mm pistol, Mast said. The man was staying at the campground at 8239 W. Hazel Road.

“He then chose to fire off another round into the bed in the camper he was staying in because he was upset that he just wounded himself,” Mast said.

The man, who was not identified, told deputies he didn’t think the gun was loaded when he shot himself across his left hand, Mast said.

I feel so much safer knowing he’s out there, don’t you?

How To Stop Mass Shootings The Republican Way

Come on, you know you want to.

There’s Always Something We Can Do

Another day, another mass shooting in America … but this time, our worst ever. At least 50 people dead (a number expected to rise), more than 50 injured. Yay, Murrica! We beat our own record. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

The Orlando shooting is set apart by its brutality but in every other respect it’s par for the course. Gun control advocates are left with our rage, our tears, our pleas for gun control laws; gun “rights” people shout back that “there’s nothing we can do” and “nothing we could have done,” as if we are to accept as normal that which never happens anywhere else in the modern world. To which I say, bullshit.

A new meme surfacing on the right is that it’s not the weapon, but the hate. Ah yes, if only we could get people to love one another. Let’s get right on that, shall we? This particular piece of nonsense is the kind of Kumbaya bullshit lefties usually get accused of spouting. You know, don’t focus on the AR-15 the guy was able to get his hands on, let’s focus instead on getting people to stop hating gays, women at Planned Parenthood clinics, black people at Bible study, etc. etc. etc.

Alrighty, then. I’ll just wave my magic wa– … oh wait. Jesus Christ was crucified trying to get people to stop their hate, didn’t seem to work. But you know, fine. As a Kumbaya leftie, I appreciate the sentiment. Let’s see where we are in the effort to get people to stop hating. I bring you Texas ‘ notorious anti-gay Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who hours after the slaughter at a prominent gay nightclub Tweeted (then deleted) the following:

To be fair to the notoriously homophobic Lt. Governor, he claims the Tweet was scheduled in advance and was not a comment on a mass shooting at Orlando’s largest gay nightclub on the eve of Pride Week festivities. Well, if that’s case, let me say: God certainly has a sense of humor, doesn’t she? Funny how karma catches up with one, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United States also took to Twitter, and the notorious narcissist had this to say:

Are y’all feeling the love? So yes, it would be nice if we could eradicate hate, just like that. Indeed, the Islamophobes are out in full force. Never mind that despite hundreds of mass shootings in the past year, only three by my count have been committed by Muslims: this one, the San Bernardino shooting, and the July 2015 shooting in Chattanooga.

As it’s been a defining aspect of the human condition for thousands and thousands of years, I’m going to say, good luck with getting rid of hate. Here’s an idea: clean up your own house. Next time a Republican Tweets something hateful and offensive, instead of staying silent or rushing to his/her defense, try calling them out on it. No? You can’t do that? Well, that explains a lot. Haters gonna hate, isn’t that what the kids say? In the meantime, let’s not arm them to the teeth with military weaponry.

After the last mass shooting I wrote this post, “Yes, There Is Something We Can Do About Mass Shootings.”

In nearly every case, via hindsight, we find something that we could have done to prevent tragedy. Our failure to act is our own national tragedy. Because we all know there are things we can do. The shooter in this case used an AR-15, the same gun used in several previous mass shootings. Republicans in Congress voted down an assault weapons ban in 2013; well THAT might have done something, right off the top of my head.

The facts are coming in on this shooting. What we know: shooter Omar Mateen was a natural-born American citizen; not a refugee, not an immigrant. He was a person of interest to the FBI for at least five years; his ex-wife said he was physically abusive and mentally unstable; despite all of this, he held a statewide concealed-carry permit.

I’m sure we’ll find more things that slipped through the cracks as information is revealed. I wonder how it’s possible that a person with a history of domestic violence and mental instability who was being watched as a “person of interest” and even had an active FBI file opened on him was somehow able to get a concealed-carry permit? And got his hands on an AR-15 and a handgun? That should tell you something is seriously wrong right there. Something we can fix.

There’s a funny meme going around about how anyone wanting to buy a gun should be forced to go through the same rigamarole women seeking abortions must endure:

Funny, sad, and also true. You really lose the right to call yourself pro-life when you refuse to take action on the wholesale slaughter of adult human beings trying to go about their business, enjoy a night out at a club, go to a movie theater or a shopping mall. Seriously, just shut up already about how pro-life you are. You aren’t.

Don’t tell me we need to get people to stop hating. That is not happening. We need to stop allowing haters to get their hands on guns so easily.

Congratulations, FL Teen! You’re Our 2nd Amendment Hero Du Jour

Proving yet again that guns are the stupidest form of self defense:

Deputies say the 15-year-old told them he was in the area when he heard gunshots and took out a gun to defend himself.

Investigators say when he tried to run away from the gunfire, he accidentally shot himself.

Brilliant!