Surprise surprise. .another shooting

[AllPurposeAtheist]

This time at a movie theater in Lafayette,  Louisiana.  2 or 3 dead, at least 8 injured.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-killed-least-six-injured-louisiana-theater-shooting-n397586

By golly if everyone in the theatre had a gun this might not have been so few killed. . Makes sense huh? A bunch of people in a dark building shooting at anything that moves. . Nothing says safety like a hundred people shooting in the dark!   

[TomFoolery]

I've never understood how advocates for both open and concealed carry imagine that firearms and rifles would effectively neutralize a threat in a crowded population. When one guy with a gun starts shooting and dozens of people draw their weapons to fire at the initial shooter, positive target identification becomes very difficult. Any 13 year old who has ever been paint balling knows that. Military and police teams train hundreds of hours on dedicated teams to work as a cohesive unit. A bunch of gun nuts who hunt deer and go to the range to shoot beer bottles off of fences isn't even remotely close to the same thing.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The important thing to remember is that Bobby Jindal is offering prayers. Ok, he's actually a Hindu,  but he's a Christian Hindu which means that if he gets killed he'll be reincarnated into Santa Claus. .

[Aupmanyav]

The important thing to remember is that Bobby Jindal is offering prayers. Ok, he's actually a Hindu,  but he's a Christian Hindu which means that if he gets killed he'll be reincarnated into Santa Claus. .

Bobby Jindal is not a Hindu. He converted.

This time at a movie theater in Lafayette,  Louisiana.  2 or 3 dead, at least 8 injured.

Why should that be a surprise?

[Baruch]

Bobby Jindal converted like "Uncle Ben's Rice" ... he is a politician!

Open/Concealed carry folks aren't going to be defending the innocent, they want to be "do it yourself cops" like Zimmerman.  I know some, so I know.  Why should rogue cops have all the fun?

Ban knives ... 5 members of a family in Oklahoma killed by two knife wielding teens.

[Johan]

By golly if everyone in the theatre had a gun this might not have been so few killed. .

Who is saying that? Besides you, I mean.

This is a tragic event no doubt and I don't want to belittle that. This trend of suicidal people deciding to massacre others before taking their own lives is truly baffling and disturbing.

But once again at the risk of being shunned or flamed or whatever, I have to ask why this tragic news story warrants its own thread here on an athiest forum while these other stories do not. Are the lives of these other people not just as important? Where is the outcry from the athiest community for them? These were all in the news in the last 48 hours and took about 30 seconds to find via google search. Why no threads here for any of them? Not one? I guess we don't give a fuck about people who are killed by mixing booze and cars.

http://www.katc.com/story/29611152/duson-man-charged-in-fatal-car-wreck-in-myrtle-beach
http://www.dailyprogress.com/alcohol-possible-factor-in-fatal-crash-on-u-s-tuesday/article_47d430f6-305f-11e5-8242-2bb0b2b12b12.html
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4236888-181/st-helena-police-alcohol-main
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-23/double-fatal-crash-in-nakara-darwin/6641448
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/westbrook-man-dies-fatal-crash-gore-highway/2715722/
http://wncn.com/2015/07/23/1-million-bond-set-for-unc-student-charged-in-triple-fatal-crash/

[SGOS]

Who is saying that? Besides you, I mean.

It's poking fun at the NRAs doubling down after one of those school shootings.  Many people cried, "Outlaw guns."  Of course the media, fair and balanced as it is, wants a response from the opposition, so they call the NRA, which comes out with the stupidest solution anyone could possibly imagine, "Arm more people!"

APA's type of response is not going away, because the NRA's position, even if they ever retract it, is burned into the brain of everyone, whether they are fanatical anti-gun, or just reasonably thoughtful people.  You can't promote a position that absurd, and expect people to forget that it was ever said.  Some things are just too priceless to ignore.

As to why someone hasn't posted a thread about someone dying in a car accident, I suppose it's irrelevant to the gun issue, and it doesn't parallel the debate.  When someone dies in a drunk driving accident, there is no organized group that says, "The solution is for more people to drive drunk."  There's no one to point to, make fun of, or to paint as some sort of deranged nut job.

[Mike Cl]

Killing people with a gun and killing by a drunk driver.  Yeah, that is a great parallel.  Yes, that was sarcasm.  But it will be okay, for everybodies 'thoughts and prayers' are with those in that tragedy.  BFD!  Shall we simply record that statement?  That way we can just hit the button and replay it again, and again.  But let's not do anything.  It is just natural.  After all, guns do not kill people, people do.  Oh......hey.........then we can just ban people!  That's the ticket!  After all the guns and ammo corporations just need to make a living too.  The answers are so obvious--corporate America is not yet willing to lose the money it makes yet, so, suck it up America, and just live (die) with it. 

[Solitary]

Ban knifes? I had a switchblade puled on me when I was 14 after running away from home and I never flinched. I had another one pulled on me while working a job with another man and three guys trashed a bar across from us and kept staring at me and I told him to take picture it last longer. The guy I was working with went inside the building and never came back. When I went inside  the one jerk pulled a bowie knife on me and came toward me. He didn't know I had a Stanley knife in my nail apron. He lunged with the knife and I moved to the side and cut him from the ear to his  chin while his cheek fell down exposing his teeth. One other time when I was older I had a knife put to my face and I took it away and held it at the guys throat. Try doing that with a gun pointed at you.

I had an attempted robbery in South Chicago with a gun put to my head, and I coward into a fetal position on the ground terrified he was going to shoot me unable to do nothing, even though I knew how to take the gun away. How many mass killings have you heard by knives? It's too fucking easy to kill with a gun, even accidently.  That's not the point either, it's the fact that with every Tom Dick and Harriet running around scared with a loaded gun does not make us safer.  Just who is this that is trying to take our guns away? 

[Hydra009]

But once again at the risk of being shunned or flamed or whatever, I have to ask why this tragic news story warrants its own thread here on an athiest forum while these other stories do not.

Because someone posted about the former and not the latter.  You're free to change that if you want.

But yeah, murders tend to get a disproportionate amount of attention, though it's not much of a mystery as to why that is.

[Baruch]

Solitary ... yes a gun makes mayhem easier ... but seriously, you need to live in a better neighborhood/work in a better job ... if you haven't changed your situation already.  Either that or you are ready to join ISIS!  I shouldn't speak, because I choose to live in a bad neighborhood myself ... how come these are so often found near police stations and city halls? ... maybe the "positive" influence from the "good citizens" is working wonders?

[Solitary]

Killing cops, soldiers, and innocent people are working wonders?  Are you serious?

[Baruch]

I see you got the sociopathic satire.  If they were an actual good influence, there would be less crime near the police station and city hall.  Killing is the universal "warning to others".  It won't help the person killed by the cops, foreign nation or random civilian ... but it does lessen the chance you will mouth off!  I am not sure I should stand up for my rights anywhere ... not even in the bedroom with my spouse.  Cowardly?  Perhaps.  But definitely still alive to fight another day.

[Solitary]

There is nothing cowardly about being wise! Does your wife have a gun? 

[TomFoolery]

It's too fucking easy to kill with a gun, even accidently.  That's not the point either, it's the fact that with every Tom Dick and Harriet running around scared with a loaded gun does not make us safer.

Not only is it too fucking easy to kill with a gun, it does a lot of damage in a fraction of the time at further ranges than almost anything else. Oh, not to mention the intended function of a gun is to kill and maim things. And for people that say "I would never kill or maim something with my gun, I only like it for target shooting!" well, why do people go target shooting? To hone a skill focused on killing and maiming things. Knives, baseball bats, scissors, piano wire, cars, etc. all have different intended purposes.