Recent Shooting Massacres in the USA

[DavidS]

As you all probably know by now, there has been 2 recent mass shootings in the USA this month.

The first one was in Buffalo New York, where an 18 year old male, with a hunting rifle and shotgun with him, went to a supermarket in a black neighborhood and proceeded to murder 10 people and seriously injure 3 more.

He did this while yelling racial slurs at the black people. It was reported that at one point, he aimed his gun at a white person behind a checkout counter but apologized and did not shoot.

This young man was a coward because he had no intentions of putting his own life at risk while indiscriminately gunning down random unarmed black people just innocently doing their grocery shopping. He had bullet-proof body armor, and a military helmet (to also shield him from gunfire to his head). He was not stopped when the supermarket security guard shot at him to stop his murderous rampage, and that security guard was in turn shot at and killed by the shooter. The security guard did not have body armor to protect him.

About 6 minutes later, this evil murderer had exited the supermarket, where police officers were able to talk him into dropping his gun (after he apparently aimed it at his neck). After his arrest, the suspect made disturbing statements regarding his motive and state of mind.

The other shooting was the more recent one in Texas only a few days ago.
There another 18 year old boy who just turned 18 that same day, went to a gun store and LEGALLY purchased an AR-15 automatic rifle (designed for military use, not for hunting), without having any background checks or pass any mental illness test, or get any kind of license, or even be forced to wait for a certain amount of days (as per some other states gun purchase laws).

After this purchase, he went back home and put on body armor (just like the Buffalo shooter did). For some unknown reason he shot his Grandmother (I'm guessing probably because she was trying to stop him from leaving the house with a machine gun). Then he proceed to drive to an elementary school and shoot dead 19 young school children and 2 teachers. Just like the first shooter mentioned, this shooter was also shot at by someone trying to stop him, but because of the body armor they did not even wound him. After over an hour, police eventually stormed into the room he was barricaded in, and had a deadly shootout with him, killing him in the process.

These 2 events are "only" 2 mass shootings out of many hundreds that occur every year in the USA. Last year, there were 693 mass shootings in the USA. This number includes school shootings, supermarket shootings, cinemas, etc.

No other country has this problem with people doing these mass shootings so frequently. This is a USA problem. The reason for this? Well, it's because our lawmakers (mainly the republicans) refuse to pass gun control legislation due to their priority to support the gun lobby groups (like the NRA), and also to appease certain sections of the community that vote for them. Not to mention the millions in bribery money (also known as campaign contributions) that these gun lobby groups shower the republicans with.

The overwhelming majority of US citizens want these gun control laws to be passed, but nothing ever gets done thanks to these repulsive republican politicians. They have blood on their hands. If that 18 year old kid was forced to wait 21 days to receive his AR-15 rifle for example, he could not have done this massacre. If he was forced to prove why he needed to purchase a military AR-15 machine gun for example, he could not have done this massacre. If he was forced to pass a mental health check (at his own cost) before being allowed to purchase any firearm, he could not have done this massacre. So many ways that this could have been avoided if our lawmakers had passed these kinds of simple gun control laws already. But instead, 19 children aged between 7-10 years old and 2 of their teachers are now dead. Some of the children could not be identified by sight due to the violent way they were murdered. Authorities had to ask for DNA samples from some of the parents so their child could be identified properly. My God...what did this 18 year old killer do these children to make them unrecognizable from being identified?

I am ashamed to live in a country where half of our politicians (the republicans) prioritizes their bribes and positions of power over the lives of our children. Shame on them and may God judge them for their evil ways.

[James Vilar]

I hear you brother. Sadly, I have heard this message for too many years now. Not just from you David, but from other people every time we have one of these frequent mass shootings. Our corrupt politicians always saying how much their thoughts & prayers go out to the families, blah blah blah. It's all numbing now to be honest. Those speeches are almost identical regardless which politician is making the speech. I really thought when the democrats won the house majority (by just 1) that they would easily pass gun control laws. To their credit, they did try to pass these laws, along with other good laws, but 2 people from their own party have betrayed them and voted against passing these laws. Shame on those 2 democrats, and shame on all 50 of the republicans who would rather continue watching children being slaughtered rather than agreeing to pass gun control laws.

The only "good" that may come of this tragedy is that it might make more voters upset about the inaction of the republicans, and finally vote out these evil greedy people, and vote in more democratic politicians to replace them. Then it won't matter if those 2 betraying democrats won't vote for these laws because the numbers would be too great to make a difference.

For any US citizen reading this...please vote democrats during the next federal election, or any election for that matter. We have all seen how the republicans are running their state controlled jurisdictions...passing inhumane laws and making gun purchases even easier, changing voting laws to make it easier for them to cheat at elections. We need to vote out all these republicans to flush out the evil that they represent. Amen.

[Marwan]

You know, I was brought up in the USA for many years during my childhood, in the 1970's. I went to school there, and have very fond memories of friendships and great times during my school years in the USA. In all those years, never was it ever mentioned that we had to be cautious about gun shooters entering the building and what the procedure is if that happens. I do remember having fire drills and we all evacuated the building and assembled at a certain location outside the building.

But now I hear that children in the USA have gun shooter drills as well as fire drills at their schools. This is truly a very sad reality for these innocent children that are just trying to get an education and grow up to become good adults in society. How dare these monsters walk into school buildings and decide that these children will die today! If you look at the statistics, nearly all these school shooters are aged between 17-20. The last guy actually purchased his AR-15 automatic rifle from a gun shop. The only requirement needed for him to make that purchase was to show that he was 18 years old. And I believe he either turned 18 that day, or the day before. This was no random event for this killer. He waited until he was 18 years old so he can buy his instrument of killing. He somehow purchased body armour from somewhere (maybe military surplus store, or maybe even from ebay). None of these purchases were illegal, and none raised any red flags with the authorities over there. You would think that law enforcement would have knocked on the door of a person who just bought body armour or AR-15's (I believe he bought 2 of them), and asked him why he made those recent purchases.

This 18 year old kid broke no laws purchasing these deadly military grade weapons, yet he was not legally old enough to buy alcohol or cigarettes. You have to be 21 in the USA to buy alcohol or cigarettes. But hey...you want a machine gun...no problem kid. And those lawmakers in the USA publicly declare (with a straight face) that they see no problem with any of this. Of coarse I'm talking about the lawmakes that are owned by the gun lobby groups that represents the NRA and the other gun organisations over there. All those millions of dollars of bribery via campaign contributions are just too tempting for them to give it up. So they would rather see people and school children being murdered every day (nearly 700 total mass shootings in 2021 alone), than give up those millions of dollars in bribe money. It is blood money, but since it doesn't affect them personally, they just turn a blind eye to their responsibilities and blame everything else as the problem. Like mental illness, better school security, and my favourite solution from these clowns...arm the school teachers so they can shoot the shooters (never mind the body armour the shooters are now wearing). Apparently the school shootings only occur at public schools, and these fat cat politicians (most are millionaires) send their children to private schools. So tough luck for all you poor citizens that can't afford to send your child to private school.

The NRA itself have always claimed that the best way to stop a "bad guy" with a gun is a "good guy" with a gun. That statement in itself sounds so immature, doesn't it? "Bad guys" and "good guys"...I mean seriously, what kind of language is that for grown adults? And besides aren't the police officers meant to be the good guys with the guns? Why do we need to arm private citizens with AR-15's? Why do we need primary school teachers carrying guns to stop a shooter? Regardless who has the guns, what use are all these "good guys" with guns if the shooter is wearing body armour that protects him from bullet shots anyway? Like we have just seen with these last 2 shootings in Buffalo and Texas. Both those shooters were wearing body armour, and both got shot at by some "good guy" but were not stopped. So I say to my dear NRA public spokesperson...the best way to stop a "bad guy" with a gun is NOT a good guy with a gun, especially when the bad guys are wearing bullet resistant body armour. So please stop spewing that BS any longer. The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to not make it easy for that bad guy to get the damn guns in the first place! Lets tighten the eligibility criteria a little for God's sake! For starters, let's make it illegal for anyone under 25 to buy any kind of firearm. Let's make it illegal to just keep your firearms sitting around in your barn or basement, within easy reach of a minor. Here in Australia for example, you have to own a special gun storage unit to store your guns when not in use. And they do surprise spot checks on people that are registered gun owners.

Hey NRA...guess how many mass shootings Australia got in 2021? You guys got nearly 700 mass shootings last year, well here in Australia we got zero. In fact we have not had any mass shootings in Australia since 1996, when we had a mass shooting in Tasmania. Tragically 35 people were killed in that incident. Afterwards, 12 days later the government of Australia enacted strict gun control legislation, including a ban on the sale and import of all automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and a gun buyback program. Since then, random public mass shootings in Australia have just about been eliminated all together, and gun homicides decreased nearly 60 percent. Gun control through legislation works. We are living proof of that. Not just Australia, but many other countries with similar gun laws to us also have very low to no mass shootings in their countries either.

So all your Republicans in the USA, and your NRA buddies...please stop the BS and start prioritising the lives of your citizens over your greed and your positions of power. Citizens of the USA...you guys also have the power to stop this almost instantly. James already said it in his post...VOTE OUT THESE HEARTLESS REPUBLICANS during the next elections. You are the ones that voted them into power. They are meant to represent your interests not theirs. Vote them all out, and vote in more democrats so they can fix up the mess in your country. You know, besides gun control, your terrible health care system, a livable minimum wage, climate change action, corruption with police departments and politicians, renewable energy adoption, your overpriced prescription medicines, and so on. All these problems are being ignored by the Republicans, always blocking any attempts by the Democrats to pass laws addressing these issues. Yet more than 80% of the population in the USA are concerned about those issues, and want them fixed. So lets stop just praying for the victims and their families, and lets start voting out these evil politicians that refuse to pass laws to protect school children and the public in general.

I myself will be voting in the next federal election in the USA via overseas ballot voting. I am still a citizen of the USA, even though I reside in Australia. So please join me all you fellow USA citizens reading this. At the next election, and after you have sent your prayers and well-wishes to the families of all the victims...cast your vote to VOTE OUT these A-hole politicians. Let's remind them who they work for and send them a clear message that we will no longer stand by and watch them ignore the killings of children and citizens. Lets remind them that it is not enough for them to just offer their hearts and prayers to the grieving families.