America`s Gun Culture

[seafoid]

Guns go back to America's history as a colony. There was no nice way to dispossess native Americans or to run slavery. Violence is part of the culture.
Gun ownership is the highest in the world and 4 times more than the next country.

[Rossfan]

A sick place as evidenced by their choice of leader.

[johnnycool]

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, aged 31, has died after being shot at an event in Utah.

I'd never heard of this fella until yesterday, so I must have been living under a bucket evidently..

The actual shooting itself was pretty brutal and looks to have been done by a sniper on a rooftop in the campus.

The quick look at some of the stuff he's said about Palestinians etc would rule me out from having much sympathy for the guy, on the receiving end of what Palestinian children and people have been putting up with for decades.

With Democrat official Melissa Hortman recently getting killed, Pelosi's husband getting battered in his own home, the attempt on Trump himself    you'd fear there's going to be a shooting spree on political activists in the US.

As the good book says, you reap what you sow.

[tiempo]

Half a billion (thats 500,000,000) guns in civilian possession, f**k that

The whole place is a powder keg, wouldn't set foot in it

[Denn Forever]

He was talking about gun control before or as he was shot.  Alledgedly.

[Dag Dog]

He was talking about gun control before or as he was shot.  Alledgedly.

Yes, his last words were "Counting or not counting gang violence?"

[Baile Brigín 2]

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, aged 31, has died after being shot at an event in Utah.

I'd never heard of this fella until yesterday, so I must have been living under a bucket evidently..

The actual shooting itself was pretty brutal and looks to have been done by a sniper on a rooftop in the campus.

The quick look at some of the stuff he's said about Palestinians etc would rule me out from having much sympathy for the guy, on the receiving end of what Palestinian children and people have been putting up with for decades.

With Democrat official Melissa Hortman recently getting killed, Pelosi's husband getting battered in his own home, the attempt on Trump himself    you'd fear there's going to be a shooting spree on political activists in the US.

As the good book says, you reap what you sow.

Political assassination, and I am assuming that is what this is, is surprisingly common in the US. We don't hear about the local political figures killed, but it happens more often than you would think.

[Eamonnca1]

Kinda mad how the right is losing its sh1t over an act of political violence as if it were just invented yesterday. Reminds me of how America suddenly "discovered" the existence of terrorism on this day in 2001, while the rest of the world was already familiar with it.

Also kinda wild how the right is claiming that the left is where the first shot came from. It's damn all of the sort. Here's a list of incidents where RWNJs have killed people, and the right just shrugged their shoulders about it:

- Oklahoma City bombing (1995): Timothy McVeigh; 168 killed.
- Centennial Olympic Park bombing (1996): Eric Rudolph; 2 killed, 111 injured.
- Charleston church shooting (2015): Dylann Roof; 9 killed.
- Charlottesville car attack (2017): James Alex Fields Jr.; 1 killed, 28 injured.
- Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (2018): Robert Bowers; 11 killed.
- El Paso Walmart shooting (2019): Patrick Crusius; 23 killed.
- Buffalo supermarket shooting (2022): Payton Gendron; 10 killed.

[Eamonnca1]

Assassinations and attempted assassinations of left-leaning US politicians starting with Kennedy:

- John F. Kennedy (1963): Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald; 1 killed.
- Robert F. Kennedy (1968): Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan; 1 killed.
- Huey Long (1935): Assassinated by Carl Weiss; 1 killed.
- Harvey Milk (1978): Assassinated by Dan White; 2 killed (incl. Mayor Moscone).
- Leo Ryan (1978): Assassinated by Peoples Temple members; 5 killed.
- Gabrielle Giffords (2011): Attempt by Jared Loughner; survived, 6 killed.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933): Attempt by Giuseppe Zangara; unharmed, 1 killed.
- Melissa Hortman (2025): Assassinated by Vance Boelter; 2 killed.

[seafoid]

https://www.ft.com/content/55fbaea4-9d44-48ae-a812-03c390cb1518

Compared with other democracies, America's constitutional arrangement fails to ringfence violence. This is chiefly because federal authority accommodates the gun rights of citizens. The Second Amendment purposely empowered armed "militias" at the grassroots level, reflecting its drafting at a time when the state relied on private citizens to enforce slave patrols and the 13 colonies were at war with Native Nations and challenging British imperial rule.

Constitutional drafters wanted to ensure that communities could repel the federal government if necessary, a lesson taken from observing European states oppressing their citizens, and to guarantee a religious freedom unavailable in Europe. These Second Amendment rights have expanded generously in the 21st century. In 2008, the US Supreme Court used the Heller decision to broaden the individual right to bear arms. Congressional attempts to enact firm regulation of gun purchasing, possession and weapons lock-up requirements regularly fail, helped by scepticism of gun control among a majority of the federal judiciary. Add to that strong interest group support from organisations such as the National Rifle Association, whose generous contributions to political campaign funds help prevent new regulation of gun ownership.

[trileacman]

Assassinations and attempted assassinations of left-leaning US politicians starting with Kennedy:

- John F. Kennedy (1963): Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald; 1 killed.
- Robert F. Kennedy (1968): Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan; 1 killed.
- Huey Long (1935): Assassinated by Carl Weiss; 1 killed.
- Harvey Milk (1978): Assassinated by Dan White; 2 killed (incl. Mayor Moscone).
- Leo Ryan (1978): Assassinated by Peoples Temple members; 5 killed.
- Gabrielle Giffords (2011): Attempt by Jared Loughner; survived, 6 killed.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933): Attempt by Giuseppe Zangara; unharmed, 1 killed.
- Melissa Hortman (2025): Assassinated by Vance Boelter; 2 killed.

A very disingenuous post there Eamon. Both Kennedys were killed by left wing extremists. Oswald was a communist and Sirhan a Palestinian who shot Bobby because of his support for Israel. I believe Harvey Milk was shot by someone he fired or had fallen out with was he not?

Guissepe Zangara was a radical left anarchist too. I'd say half of the assassins on that list are left wing nutters.

[Puckoon]

Assassinations and attempted assassinations of left-leaning US politicians starting with Kennedy:

- Gabrielle Giffords (2011): Attempt by Jared Loughner; survived, 6 killed.
- Melissa Hortman (2025): Assassinated by Vance Boelter; 2 killed.

A very disingenuous post there Eamon. Both Kennedys were killed by left wing extremists. Oswald was a communist and Sirhan a Palestinian who shot Bobby because of his support for Israel. I believe Harvey Milk was shot by someone he fired or had fallen out with was he not?

Guissepe Zangara was a radical left anarchist too. I'd say half of the assassins on that list are left wing nutters.

Ok, how does it read now? Is that more comfortable?

[trileacman]

Assassinations and attempted assassinations of left-leaning US politicians starting with Kennedy:

- Gabrielle Giffords (2011): Attempt by Jared Loughner; survived, 6 killed.
- Melissa Hortman (2025): Assassinated by Vance Boelter; 2 killed.

A very disingenuous post there Eamon. Both Kennedys were killed by left wing extremists. Oswald was a communist and Sirhan a Palestinian who shot Bobby because of his support for Israel. I believe Harvey Milk was shot by someone he fired or had fallen out with was he not?

Guissepe Zangara was a radical left anarchist too. I'd say half of the assassins on that list are left wing nutters.

Ok, how does it read now? Is that more comfortable?

More realistic anyway.

[trileacman]

Assassinations and attempted assassinations of left-leaning US politicians starting with Kennedy:

- Gabrielle Giffords (2011): Attempt by Jared Loughner; survived, 6 killed.
- Melissa Hortman (2025): Assassinated by Vance Boelter; 2 killed.

A very disingenuous post there Eamon. Both Kennedys were killed by left wing extremists. Oswald was a communist and Sirhan a Palestinian who shot Bobby because of his support for Israel. I believe Harvey Milk was shot by someone he fired or had fallen out with was he not?

Guissepe Zangara was a radical left anarchist too. I'd say half of the assassins on that list are left wing nutters.

Ok, how does it read now? Is that more comfortable?

More realistic anyway.

Actually Jared Loughner was an atheist conspiracy theorist with paranoid schizophrenia, twice deemed unfit to stand trial for the murders he committed.

[Wildweasel74]

If u read the book on the Kennedy assassination you know Oswald could never have hit Kennedy, Bullet entrance and exit point to the head never came from his position.