Texas School shooting 19 children and 2 adults murdered

Any fresh new polling data on O'Rourke vs Abbott or is timing too sensitive to be asking people?

Jesus. She could nearly invade a small nation with all that gear.

In fairness to Manic Moran he could also have added Israel to that list of "civilised" (if by civilised you mean countries meeting the minimal requirements of a free-market rule-of-law democracy) that permits its citizens to bear arms. But then, whatever one's position on the Israel-Palestine issue (and let's not disappear down THAT rabbit hole in the course of this discussion) it is uncontroversial to say that Israel's situation is not normal. It is permanently at war, a large minority within its own jurisdiction questions, to say the least its right to exist, and carrying battlefield weapons around is not so much permitted as required by government policy.

So Hurrah!! There are TWO normal democracies outside of the US that permit (under varying degrees of restriction) their citizens to bear firearms. What about all the others? And how are they doing wit regard to gun homicides compared to the US?

It would be very wrong to compare a country the size of Ireland with a country the size of the US but it might be fairer to compare individual states with similar population sizes to Ireland (c 5million) to see how they differ. The following figures are taken from the Washington Post's Police Shootings database (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/) which records the number of fatal shootings by police in the US by each state. There are just shy of 1,000 people shot dead by cops in the US every year.

Extrapolating data for Alabama and North Carolina, two states with similar populations to Ireland you get the following stats. I have chosen to display the aggregate figures for two full calendar years for reasons which should be obvious.

No of fatal shootings by police in 2020/2021 in Alabama: 40

No of fatal shootings by police in 2020/2021 in N Carolina: 61

No of fatal shootings by police in 2020/2021 in Ireland: 1 (the unfortunate Mr Nkencho)

No of fatal shootings by police in 2018/2019 in Alabama: 24

No of fatal shootings by police in 2018/2019 in N Carolina: 59

No of fatal shootings by police in 2018/2019 in Ireland: 1 (the very deserving Mr Hennessy)

The Washington Post DB goes back to 2015 but the Gardai don't keep statistics on fatal shootings by their members....because there's so few. I have been trying to scour the news sites for listings of cop shootings in Ireland to supplement my own memory but can't lay hands on them. Still, I think an average run rate of one every two years is fairly representative.

I'm not saying that cop shootings are the whole story, any more than school shoot-em-ups are. In fact, this latest tragedy--horrific though it was--will hardly make a dent in the US shootings statistics. But the number of shootings by cops is illustrative of the general threat of lethal violence in a country. America is a very dangerous place to be compared to the rest of the "civilised" world.

And however much we may slurp up their cinema, music, dress sense, fast-food style, technology, social media, business methods etc etc giving people the right to walk around with a Glock (or bigger) in their pants is not something the rest of the world wants to do.

So it doesn't.

But the sheer amount of guns out there, the value placed on owning them and the fanaticism about never handing them over seems to have much to do with the narratives that are peddled. And ultimately a narrative is just a collection of words that either reinforces a status quo or challenge it. Gun fanaticism in America is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, it is fuelled by narrative.

The problem is that certain US politicians and commentators cannot even bring themselves to ever just call out the problem — they dance around the issue blaming absolutely everything else except the mass proliferation of high powered lethal guns. So the narrative goes unchallenged and the gun lovers continue to cite a constitutional provision enshrined at a time when you would be lucky to get a couple of shots off in a minute, never mind be able to wipe out a classroom full of children in a minute or kill sixty people from a hotel balcony.

What it will take for certain US politicians and commentators to finally risk the ire of their voters and supporters and admit what the real problem is, I just don’t know. But when they do, that will be a big step in the road to cooling down the heads of the gun fanaticists.

No need at all. what ever purpose different firearms have. There’s endless redundancy there. I don’t think there’s any logical reason you could make.

But unlike Ireland, Americans dint need a reason. Wanting to is sufficient. Like somebody who doesn’t need 100 pairs of shoes, can but 100 pairs of shoes.

Preventing the government trying to disarm the people, is literally the reason for the second amendment. Its like a self fulfilling prophesy.

I honestly don’t think any significant changes can happen without revoking the 2nd Amendment. At the assault weapons bans are extended to more states, but I don’t think it has any impact on these incidents.

You're being a little disingenuous here, not least because someone can't drive more than one car at a time, but they can certainly carry (and/or shoot) more than one weapon at a time.

Most of the highest-profile mass shooters have carried at least one rifle and a sidearm. The Las Vegas shooter had twenty-four weapons in his hotel room.

I'm not saying that owning multiple weapons automatically makes someone a danger. But every extra weapon owned, is an extra weapon that can be lost or stolen and used elsewhere. The more guns you have, the harder is to secure them all.

People in favour of lax gun laws love to point out that most gun crime is done by illegal-held weapons. But all of those weapons were legally-held at one point. More guns = more gun crime.

Aaaaand..... they did nothing about it.

Again.

I mean in the armed resistance scenario (agreed unlikely) 40 people with guns at least have gone through whatever checks are relevant for their states. I still wouldn't want to be near them admittedly. 1 person with 40 guns looking to start a resistance will hand out the guns to the nearest 39 people who agree with them.

In general I would consider 40 guns an obsession to the point it defines who they are. At that point someone isn't doing it for practical reasons, you are doing it out of obsession. I just don't trust someone at that point mentally to take the relevant due care that dangerous weapons need, people underestimate low odds scenarios (i.e. toddler picking up a gun left alone and shooting it etc. etc. etc.) especially with things they love (my dog won't bite). If someone has less of an emotional attachment to it then I can see it being approached logically and safely without emotions and the personality getting in the way. Obviously plenty of people just get one gun who shouldn't be near one as well.

As for the cars, yeah I would assume someone obsessed with cars is likely a more technically proficient but ultimately more dangerous driver (they don't put turn signals on the expensive ones). Although at the 40 car stage it is also pretty likely it is some status symbol and they know next to nothing about cars.