The Washington Post’s Philip Bump thinks he’s found it, in what is supposed to be a straight news article, but goes down the opinion road
There’s only one surefire answer to the problem of mass shootings
(He goes through a lot of this and that and the other, blaming White men, not blaming White men (while refusing to acknowledge the mass shootings committed by Islamists, as well as Black in origin shootings), going on about mental health, violence towards women, and even notes that just 14 of 33 mass shootings were by White males. Leading to)
But the picture also suggests there isn’t necessarily a consistent pattern in the characteristics of a mass shooter. If the goal is to prevent future mass shootings, it’s tricky to see where to apply leverage. The only overwhelmingly common characteristic is that the perpetrators were men — but neither gender nor race could form the basis of a ban on gun ownership.
And Bump comes to the realization
In other words, the only surefire way to help prevent mass shootings — or any shootings — is to broadly limit access to guns in general. During the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Trump was in Japan. Last year, as many people died from gun violence in the entire country of Japan as died in the Texas shooting over the weekend (including Kelley). (snip)
Advocates for reducing gun violence, then, are left in an unfortunate position. There are often warning signs that can be addressed before a shooter decides to open fire, but there often aren’t. There are demographic factors that seem to recur — but not universally. The one consistent factor is that the shooter has access to a firearm, and that’s perhaps the one factor that has proven politically impossible to overcome.
Politically impossible, because we have a 2nd Amendment, unlike Japan (which Bump mentions). Regardless, it’s always about disarming Citizens with Leftists.
But there is something which President Trump could, on his own, do in response to #TexasChurchMassacre. He could order changes which would require military prosecutors to charge to the maximum, and not accept plea bargains for minimum sentences. He could make orders which do not allow administrative closing of cases until all reporting to civilian authorities has been completed.
Devin Kelley’s case is a bit of an outlier: most of the bad guys have civilian criminal records. We need to have prosecutors charge to the maximum extent of the law, and judges give out maximum sentences. I’ve documented several instances in which the failure to imprison to the maximum has led to murder by thugs who should have still been in jail, Mr Kelley among them.
Banning drugs has worked so well, banning guns is sure to be successful…
Actually, firearms restrictions work quite well in other advanced nations, but most have a long history of restrictions. This will not work in the US.
Common sense actions like universal background checks (to catch violence prone individuals such as the Texas murderer), restricting semi to full auto, restricting magazine size, though favored by the citizenry are opposed by conservatives and the NRA.
Conservatives, lock, stock and barrel, run America now, so any changes will have to go through them.
https://i.imgflip.com/1e5jfd.jpg
Wait, you want to only allow people to have fully automatic weapons? Pretty extreme, even for you, Jeff.
http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/07/hero-stopped-texas-gunman-couldnt-stopped-without-ar-15/
I saw a stat the other day. In the US, there are 95 guns per 100 citizens. Yet, we have one of the lower homicide rates in the world, of all countries the US is number 111 in killing. Now, what is interesting is that almost all the countries above us outlaw guns and are socialist. Strange.
The FBI also includes suicides in the stats (66% of the total) for gun homicides. No other country in the world does this.
That’s not true.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2009-2013.xls
There are about 30,000 firearms related deaths in the US each year, and as you correctly state, 2/3rds are suicide, 1/3rd are homicide. But the FBI does not report that there are some 30,000 homicides committed with firearms.
Your stats are meaningless fool.
dave,
Some 125 nations (including every advanced nation) have lower homicide rates than the US (~ 5 per 100,000 residents). Most of these homicides (70%) are committed using a firearm (usually a handgun).
Some examples: (homicides per 100,000)
US: 4.88
North Korea: 4.41
Iran: 4.12
India: 3.21
France: 1.58
UK: 0.92
Indonesia: 0.50
Japan: 0.31
Notice what demographic is missing from those other countries, little guy.
Take a guess.
Right-wingers?
Looks like fake news fool.
Looks like hand-waving, dave.
Jeff,
Are you back to ignoring me, thank God.