Florida High School Shooting

[Rachel333]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-florida-school-shooting-20180214-story.html

There have been at least several deaths and the fire department has called this a "mass casualty incident," meaning >20 victims injured or dead. The shooter is currently still at large.

[Ais]

My heart goes out to all those involved. It seems as if we hear about a school/mass shooting almost daily at the minute.

[Nikedagain?]

Ugh. Effin' guns.

 

[apandaaries]

Not again...and yet it's inevitable with the way we avoid any kind of gun control.  Those poor children.  Damnit.

[47of74]

Fuck.  I am so fucking tired of this.  I'm to the point where I would not ever want to have children in the United States and would only want to raise them in another country where this sort of shit does not happen since the rather worthless Republicans are going to do fuck all about the gun problem in this country. 

[Carm_88]

Damn.  Those poor kids. 

[Rachel333]

The shooter is in custody. There have been a "number of fatalities." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-respond-shooting-parkland-florida-high-school-n848101

There's a picture there of a woman crying who has ashes on her head from Ash Wednesday, which is a sad coincidence.

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

America OMG change your gun laws!  FUCK the NRA!  Take away their political power.  But AGAIN nothing will be done!  Those poor kids and parents.  Jesus weeps.

[BlessaYourHeart]

Heard about this on the 10pm news (UK). It’s heart wrenching. I’ll never understand US gun laws. 

When I was younger I always wanted to teach in the US. I qualify this year and had the opportunity/was invited to travel to New York State and Kansas for job interviews. I didn’t go, the dream is gone, there are too many stories of school shootings, I just couldn’t live with the fear. I now understand why homeschooling can be so appealing in the States 

[Nikedagain?]

26 minutes ago, BlessaYourHeart said:

I’ll never understand US gun laws. 

Because white males. 

[47of74]

39 minutes ago, BlessaYourHeart said:

Heard about this on the 10pm news (UK). It’s heart wrenching. I’ll never understand US gun laws. 

When I was younger I always wanted to teach in the US. I qualify this year and had the opportunity/was invited to travel to New York State and Kansas for job interviews. I didn’t go, the dream is gone, there are too many stories of school shootings, I just couldn’t live with the fear. I now understand why homeschooling can be so appealing in the States 

There are times if I could meet my ancestors I would ask them, "You moved to the USA.  What the FUCK were you thinking?  

 

[Fascinated]

17 confirmed dead. Automatic rifle. 19-year-old who was previously expelled in custody. Apparently ‘everyone predicted’ that this kid would do this. 

[Karma]

Every time I hear of a mass shooting in the US, I feel sorry for the innocent victims.  And I am thankful that I live in a country which toughened gun control after one mass killing (Port Arthur, Australia).  

You can still own a gun here.  You just have to be licensed.  My brother is mentally ill. His guns were removed, his license revoked.  My sister in law does not live in fear of him killing himself or others with those guns.  Of course there are illegal guns, nothing will stop that.  But the numbers are far, far lower.

[Carm_88]

Dear god.  I love living in Canada. My heart breaks for all the families who have lost a loved one. There needs to be something done. This can't keep happening. 

[WiseGirl]

This makes me so mad and so, so sad. Just 7 weeks into the year and 8 school shootings that have resulted in death. I am so, so sad, nothing changed after Congress refused to tighten restrictions on gun ownership after Sandy Hook. Is this really the USA's new normal? 

[CrazyLurkerLady]

I can't even with this. EVERY OTHER DAY there's another one. I have a kid in 7th grade and there have been two lockdowns at his school since he's been there. I was utterly TERRIFIED. One ended up being a prank bomb threat and the other was a report of a guy with a gun in the apartment complex across the street that was called as a precaution. 

I also have a kid in 1st grade who has gone through lockdown drills. I hate that my SIX YEAR OLD has to know that an armed intruder at the school is a possibility.

[VelociRapture]

I’m not even shocked or sad anymore because this happens so much. What’s the point in feeling sad when it’s just going to happen again somewhere else in a few days or weeks? What’s the point in feeling sad when nothing is going to be done to stop this from happening again? The GOP have too big a boner for the NRA. Nothing was done on a national level after Sandy Hook - if the murders of twenty six year-olds didn’t force their heads from their asses then nothing will. 

I’m just angry. I’m angry that kids are still dying and that I’m worried about the safety of people I care about - like my pregnant sister and my BIL, both of whom are teachers. And I’m angry because I know the same shit is going to be happening by the time my daughter starts school and I’m going to be sending her off each day scared I’ll never see her again. And I swear to fucking God, if I see one more “thoughts and prayers” comment from a politician I am going to fucking scream. Your thoughts and prayers did nothing to help before and it means shit now too. 

[Snowless]

2 hours ago, Nikedagain? said:

Because white males. 

Because “entitled” white males who think that one line in one Constitutional amendment guarantees that they can own as many guns as they want (while being blissfully ignorant about the beginning of said amendment, which says, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...”) and as much ammunition as they want, especially when those weapons are semiautomatic.  They are basically secular fundamentalists, if you think of it.  Fuck Wayne LaPierre and fuck the NRA for holding our government hostage to prevent us from passing any meaningful, common-sense gun control.

[Cleopatra7]

For a country that was supposedly founded without the baggage of centuries of European monarchism, the United States has shown itself to be remarkably unable or unwilling to address its problems, whether it’s racism or gun violence. That mass shootings have become commonplace to the point where the details all blur together speaks to a deep seated rot that is getting progressively worse. I think part of this stems from the extreme individualism found in American society that claims that no such thing as society even exists and all social problems can be solved with micro level non-solutions like increasing the rates of heterosexual marriage or school prayer. There’s also the problem that too many Americans seem to think that the US Constitution is a divine document that must be interpreted according to the perspective of the dead white male slaveholders who wrote it. Both of these phenomena mean that the US remains terminally dysfunctional and unable to solve social problems in a meaningful way.

[PumaLover]

My elderly grandma told me about this today while I went up to the mountains for a nice drive. I just can't even. Another one!?

In the Jillrod thread there were some very moving posts about the Pulse nightclub shooting and memorial and I had those on my mind all day. I was just in Vegas last weekend and drove by the venue where they had the mass shooting last year. In fact my Memorial shirt for it is in the dryer as I type. This is just happening TOO much and it's ridiculous!

I HATE guns. We recently moved to the mountains, to a very tiny community where everyone has guns for personal safety. We have mountain lions and bears and probably some crazy anti government people too. My husband has been making me learn to shoot and I hate it. I'm so afraid of guns that I want nothing to do with them.

But there is NO reason, absolutely none, that ANYONE needs assault rifles. In the US or anywhere else. There is absolutely no need for that. Regular rifles, okay whatever, I get that people like them. But this is just senseless and ridiculous and it needs to stop and I'm afraid it never will.

[PennySycamore]

I just read this on DailyKos and thought it was great:

Yep, your prayer are noxious and that's biblical

[Rachel333]

The murderer had two really disturbing instagram accounts with pictures of guns and of him killing small animals like a frog. He was also wearing a MAGA cap in his profile picture.

[Seahorse Wrangler]

3 hours ago, CrazyLurkerLady said:

I can't even with this. EVERY OTHER DAY there's another one. I have a kid in 7th grade and there have been two lockdowns at his school since he's been there. I was utterly TERRIFIED. One ended up being a prank bomb threat and the other was a report of a guy with a gun in the apartment complex across the street that was called as a precaution. 

I also have a kid in 1st grade who has gone through lockdown drills. I hate that my SIX YEAR OLD has to know that an armed intruder at the school is a possibility.

I can remember having a school assembly at the start of every term talking about "if the IRA bombed our town" . I still find it hard to be around unattended bags even though at the time I lived in a small town which didn't have any real targets.

That contributed to one of  the reasons I didn't want to move to the US. I didn't want my children to live in fear of a shooting at school.

 

[47of74]

I hate Scalia even more now than I did when that son of a bitch was still alive cause of that originalist horse shit he loved to peddle.  

Yeah I'm sure that just what the founding fathers intended, for our educational institutions to be turned into fucking shooting galleries where children could be pumped full of lead. 

 

 

[StepMonsterInLA]

I hate that I just am hearing of this...I don’t watch the news and did normal work/pick up kids/grocery store/home routine. I am outraged. NO CIVIALIAN should have the right to access these guns!  Goddammit there is going to be one catastrophic event after another and we will take to the streets?