The Orlando shooter was not insane, or a deranged madman: like all haters, he had to be carefully taught.
Indeed, he had visited the Pulse Club some dozen or so times beforehand, and had perhaps sought to hunt down victims by using gay dating apps. This, in short, was a man with malice aforethought. (See also this story, which suggests that much more about the planning of this act will come to light soon.)
The rifle he used was not an AR-15.
In fact, there is no such weapon as an "assault rifle." If you can't define it, you can't regulate it.
The shooter was not on any "watch list" or "no-fly list" when he bought his guns (though he had been on one earlier). Instead, he was employed with a major firm providing security services for the DHS and other government agencies.
This was not the "greatest single mass shooting in history on American soil." Think Wounded Knee. Think Tulsa in 1921. Or even the Mystic Massacre in 1637. All were directed against groups who were the objects of prejudice and hatred. Most of the deaths were by gunshot, and all of the dead, including many women and children, were unarmed and mostly defenseless.
Indeed, our history of massacres against American natives alone is shameful to catalog. Google's page for that category lists 51 separate links to individual accounts.
For Planned Parenthood to state that the Orlando shooting was the result of "toxic masculinity" and "imperialist homophobia" is like Kermit Gosnell saying that he performed live-birth abortions because "as a physician, I am very concerned about the sanctity of life."
In this day and age, words are cheap. Pay attention to who is saying them.
Crazy times beget crazy people. Don't aid or abet them by spreading their memes.
After many events, it is best to wait and gather the facts before looking at the memes. It is instructive to watch how these spin through the media cycle and to see what comes out of the wash.
ReplyDeleteThis applies to with blogs, of course. Most blogs have a particular slant on things - like Curmudgeon with his view of the asset-stripping of TEC by the dissidents. One needs to read more widely, and try to understand the politics behind the meme.
DeleteIt also applies to commenters, Father Ron -- especially those who come here assuming that ECUSA can by ecclesiastical fiat declare that it owns the property of every one of its parishes and dioceses, no matter where they are located, and no matter whether their existence predated that of ECUSA or not. 😉
DeleteThe Truth:
ReplyDelete"in this day and age, words are cheap. Pay attention to who is saying them.
Crazy times beget crazy people. Don't aid or abet them by spreading their memes."
It is so....what? Probable, strange, co-incidental, comforting, confirming....? My immediate thought was concerning the many massacres that the Indians committed against the white settlers. There were times when the number exceed 300....or more.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Wounded Knee came to mind immediately as it did with our Leader here.
There were encounters when the White folks would conduct non-military, un-announced retaliations or other punitive actions against the Indians.
There were slave uprisings that involved substantially more dead and wounded, as there were internicine Indian disorders that resulted in much higher casualty counts.
The British killed, in single military actions un-involved civilians, Black and White, for having been helpful to Continentals that would stun most folks, especially considering how very small the universe of population was in the 1774 - 1783 period.
There were deranged spasms of and by white folks that resulted in slaughters of more than just a lynching....I cannot remember the precise time or place, perhaps there were two in particular....one was Oklahoma where scores of Negroes, innocent of anything beyond breathing air, were slaughtered.
The term ''assault weapon" is useless. Not to contradict our host, but one could say that any weapon...any rifle...can be an "assault weapon", of course, if it used in an assault. A single-shot, bolt-action, .22 boy's training-target rifle can be an assault rifle. But the term "assault rifle" is used in these matters in order to make women who think "Hillary is fighting for us" means anything, shudder with dread when they hear the term "assault rifle".
Imagine how much shuddering can be had when somebody says, ".....and it was a fully-semi-automatic assault weapon". I have heard almost every variation.
One thing that does not make any sense to me is that it has been said several times that this individual went into the Pulse Saloon with his AR-15, (first identified as an AK-47, then as other things) and three magazines. The maximum magazine capacity is 30 rounds.
Victims and other witnesses said that this radical Islamic terrorist went back and shot people who were already dead or who were immobilised by previous wounds. There were over 100 casualties. There were only 93 rounds, at the most, because no one has indicated that the shooter reloaded his magazines.
He would have had to had a perfect "fire-for-effect" record, and multiple casualties caused by a single shot. In short nothing really stacks up about any of this.
Couple this with the fact that the FBI was overloaded with first-hand, hard information and a very comprehensive archive showing that the individual had overwhelming terrorist socio-psychological imprints. They were awake at the switch, but apparently stuck in zombie mode....inert....dull....and then after the disaster, high-handed and officious.
Watching the performance of the Director during a television interview (we receive SKY at our place in Mexico, and I still have an increasingly useless FOX News channel) with the FBI Director, I became evermore certain that there is absolutely no chance there will be a referral of (Sir Edmund) Hillary to any form of judicial process. They guy is a piece of moral styrofoam.
Once again, too verbose. Also, once again, I agree and endorse the observations of the Underground Pewster and Boniface.
El Gringo Viejo (aka: David Christian Newton
In the military, we never used the term assault rifle. We said rifle or machine gun. When the 249 SAW (squad automatic weapon) was introduced we had another weapon type.
ReplyDeleteAssault rifle, as defined by the dictionary, is a rapid rife weapon. Very vague. But good for those who want to take our weapons away. My model 870 Shotgun can be considered an assault weapon by that definition.
Something to know about the weapons around when the 2nd Amendment was written. Civilians had better weapons than the military. The British Indian pattern Brown Bess and the French Charleville muskets were cheaply made, grossly inaccurate outside of 100 yards. The term hitting the broadside of a barn...using muskets.
Civilian weapons were better made and generally more accurate. The boring of the military muskets were so bad the ball would rattle in the barrel and you never knew where it was going once fired.
Up to the Spanish American War, Federal troops were supplemented with militia and volunteer units. Teddy's Rough Riders were all volunteers. Not regulars nor militia. They had Colt rapid fire guns, donated by the wealth families of New York. Colt Rapid Fire guns were the first machine guns. Yes civilians had machine guns. The Rough Riders used smokeless powder rifles. The Regular army still used a black powder mix which caused dreadful smoke cloud hindering vision. In the Spanish American War, civilian volunteer units had better weapons than the military. All that changed under FDR when the Federal Government began banning certain types of weapons from civilians.
The 2nd Amendment was never about hunting nor protection. But about the citizens having the necessary weapons and means of fighting the Federal Government when it became oppressive or regal. The last armed rebellion against an oppressive government occurred in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee Aug 1-2, 1946. Yes 1946. The people of those two towns revolted against the Democrat run government for trying to steal another election, like they had since 1936. The people complained to the FDR Justice Dept and the Governor of Tn for 10 years. They were ignored. When the WWII veterans came home, they decided it was time to change. It started peaceful with votes. But once the Democrats shot a poll watcher and beat people up (Sanders and Clinton just carrying on a Dem tradition), the Veterans got their weapons and the weapons out of the National Guard Armory. Ended poorly for the Democrats. The Veteran counted the votes. Ensured the duly elected Mayor was seated and returned their weapons. Neither Federal nor State troops or law enforcement dared enter the county. When the Sheriff of Athens called the Gov of Tn for the National Guard. The Gov refused to call them out. He feared the Guard would turn on him. Athens, Tn 1946 the Founders expected we would have to periodically use force to keep our Republic.
As to mass killings. Orlando, though tragic, may not make the top 20. Memorial weekend 2016 Chicago, 70 people were killed. In history here are five in no certain order.
1. Mountain Meadow 1850. Mormons killed 140 people in a wagon train. That number is a guess as those were the bodies found by the Army. Many people disappeared. This included women and children.
2. Rosewood Florida 1923. 100 killed
3. Colfax, La. 1873. 153 killed. Subsequent killings reach around 8-900 people before it ended.
4.Thibhodaux La. 1887. 300 killed
5. Tusla, OK 1921. 300 killed @800 wounded.
Sandy Hook was not the largest School killings. That happened in Bath, Michigan 1927. 38 killed and 50 wounded by bombs and rifle fire.
What we have in not a gun control problem, but a heart problem.
A friend who spent several years in Central America had this to say about Politician/dictators he had observed there:
ReplyDelete"First they register the guns, then they confiscate them." Beware the motives of anyone who wants to disarm the citizens of this country. Our forefathers knew what they were doing in the Second Amendment.