Gun Crime in the USA ~ Shootings and Killings

[Candescence]

Speaking of Australia's gun control laws, we don't really have so much of a gun culture over here, and the gun lobby isn't nearly as powerful as the NRA, despite trying desperately to mimic it. American gun culture to us generally elicits responses of disgust, bewilderment, or amusement, down here, along with puzzlement about why the NRA has so much lobbying power. American gun culture is somewhat of a joke to aussies, basically, if mainly because we're used to gun control and that we really don't care about guns outside of a military context.

Well, that's the vibe I get, anyhow.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Shirou Emiya

[Tornado]

So you can still hit targets with it. Yes you can hurt someone with a BB gun it depends on the power unlike a 22. Rifle they don't pierce flesh I am suggesting a slightly safer alternative, better than nothing.

 

Marketing Firearms to kids is wrong I don't care about Hunting culture by all means take them hunting encourage it even but they shouldn't have guns themselves until reach a maturer age. We have hunting culture in the UK, look up Fox Hunting, not a fan but their is shooting and hunting culture here too some involve firearms but we have better control over it. 

 

Australia they still have access to guns you but they have better controls and restrictions on guns and the types of guns you can own, you still can defend your property and hunt with less risk of mass shootings and high homicide rates and still have privilege to own a firearm. America can have both just like Australia.

 

Its shit like this makes me feel hell let's not bother with any Gun Control in America let's open the flood gates, M4's and Bazookas for everyone because were America were we no guns equal Tyranny.  

 

 

I know you read the rest of my post besides the bit quoted, but the fact that you ignored the actual point anyway and proceeded to strawman makes me think I shouldn't have bothered to begin with.

 

*sigh*

[Stacy]

I know you read the rest of my post besides the bit quoted, but the fact that you ignored the actual point anyway and proceeded to strawman makes me think I shouldn't have bothered to begin with.

 

*sigh*

 

I didn't ignore you. I still think a BB Gun would be a better alternative I was trying to comprise.

 

I have to be honest I don't know what Straw Man means all that well. 

 

Perhaps I should of been more clear that the last part wasn't aimed at you but attitude some people have in america. 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I have to be honest I don't know what Straw Man means all that well. 

Basically that your opponent is talking about X, yet you exaggerate X and make it look like something else.

 

For example, you say that you want to reduce the number of sweets children eat, and someone else takes that to mean that you want them to starve when that clearly wasn't what you were wanting.

[Stacy]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/sarah-palin-praises-nra-not-giving-090909818.html

 

Sarah Palin is praising the NRA telling not to give up admit pressure. What pressure? Other than the Public the NRA have nothing to fear when they line the pockets some of Congress and blackmail the ones they don't into not taking a stand.

 

With politicians like you Sarah they will be around for a long time. 

Edited May 4, 2013 by BW199148

[Solly]

13 year old kid attempts to rape mother for taking away Call of Duty. Then he shoots her. 

A 14 year old Osage, Iowa boy is on trial for shooting and killing his mother, Gretchen Crooks, last March. The jury in the case recently heard the 911 call where Noah Crooks described to a dispatcher how he shot his mother after she took away his copy of Call of Duty saying, “Something just came over me.”

The jury also heard how the 14 year old attempted to rape his 37 year old mother but couldn’t do it saying, “I feel crazy and I know I’m not. I think I have some form of ADD…I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I couldn’t do it…Who tries to rape their own mom? My life is down the drain now.”

When police arrived on the scene, Gretchen Crooks’ body was found stretched out on a couch with her pajama top undone and was naked from the waist down. Deputies seized the murder weapon, a .22 caliber rifle which was given to the boy by his mother when he was 11 years old

Another case of a gun being given to a kid as a present. 

[Johnny Boy]

13 year old kid attempts to rape mother for taking away Call of Duty. Then he shoots her.

Another case of a gun being given to a kid as a present.

There are no words. There just aren't.

[Patticus]

Nobody under 20 should be permitted to own or carry any kind of firearm, other than non-shootable plastic toy guns. It is absolutely the height of criminal irresponsibility to do otherwise, especially given the emotional extremes which adolescents are so often prone to, particularly where parents are concerned. I don't care if it's a "national tradition," I don't give a damn if the kid in A Christmas Story got one; this is 2013, not 1813, and there is no justifiable excuse to leave firearms in the hands of kids.

The 2nd Amendment clearly states that only the rights of members of well regulated militias to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. It makes no provision whatever for minors possessing them, nor any other citizen outside of the organizational structure of any militia group. What's so fucking hard to grasp about that? It's well past time that the government and people of this country wrested control of firearms legislation and the debate over gun control from the fear-mongers, corporate lobbyists and extremists who make the subject so politically poisonous. It's well past time for fear to take a back seat for a change.

[Speederino]

EDIT: Annnnnd just noticed the epic ninja. My bad.

 

 

I debated if I should make a new topic for this, but I guess it would just become a gun debate anyways.

 

http://www.destructoid.com/boy-tries-to-rape-mom-kills-her-over-call-of-duty-ban-253085.phtml

 

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with first degree murder after shooting his mother with a .22 caliber rifle he received as a present. Noah Crooks, who was 13 at the time, attempted to rape his mother in a fit of rage after he was grounded from Call of Duty. 

"I’m not joking at all. She’s dead. I’m scared. I killed my mom with my .22. I don’t know why I did it," confessed Crooks in a 911 call after the act. "I feel crazy and I know I'm not. I think I have some form of ADD.

"I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I couldn't do it. Who tries to rape their own mom? My life is down the drain now."

According to Crooks' own confession, his game was taken from him due to bad grades at school, at which point he snapped. After finding himself unable to follow through with the first act of violence, he used the rifle his mother had given him as a gift when he was 11-years-old.

Gretchen Crooks was shot over 20 times. Her pajama top had been undone and she was naked from the waist down. After the boy killed his mother, he texted his dad to confess that he'd killed his mother "accidentally." The father, thinking his son was joking, joshingly responded by telling him to "throw her in the grove."

According to the father, the mother and son would fight often, but would make up and play videogames together. Noah did once say he wanted to kill his mother, but the father didn't take it too seriously. 

Crooks' lawyers are attempting to argue that the murder was the result of a "tumor of rage" that rendered him unable to control himself. A child psychologist will also be attempting to see if he suffers from intermittent explosive disorder.

 

 

This is so fucking messed up I don't even

Edited May 4, 2013 by Speederino

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

 

"Who tries to rape their own mom?"

 

Because everybody's trying to shoot their parents over video games these days?!

 

Just how freaking stupid can you possibly be?!

 

I... just... rargh.

 

Prisons were built for idiots like this.

[Debug Ring]

"I tried to rape her. I tried to rape her but I just couldn't. Who tries to rape theor own mom?"

"Who tries to rape their own mom"

"I tried to rape her"

"Who tries to rape thoer own mom?"

Um... You?

Edited May 4, 2013 by Eleventh Doctor

[Milo]

Common sense is not so common extinct. I mean, there are no words to go over why this is beyond batshit asinine except for those that have covered why it is already.

 

EDIT: And mere days after the five year old with rifle incident mentioned a previous page ago. 

 

These cases of (what can be argued as) complete disregard on proper handling/security of loaded weapons around the house and casually gifting them to minors is just comical now, up to levels I haven't seen since Home Alone 3 of all things.

Edited May 4, 2013 by Gabe

[Tornado]

Nobody under 20 should be permitted to own or carry any kind of firearm, other than non-shootable plastic toy guns. It is absolutely the height of criminal irresponsibility to do otherwise, especially given the emotional extremes which adolescents are so often prone to, particularly where parents are concerned. I don't care if it's a "national tradition," I don't give a damn if the kid in A Christmas Story got one; this is 2013, not 1813, and there is no justifiable excuse to leave firearms in the hands of kids.

 

Yeah, that's not extreme at all. Voting age is 18. Driving age is 16. Why should the shooting age be 20, of all things? Again, Child Access Prevention laws are already a thing, and I know Iowa has them even if Kentucky doesn't.

 

 

Ideally, the kids don't even touch "their" guns without the supervision of their parents because they are "their" guns in the same way that driving the shitbox someone's parents bought for them to drive with their new learner's permit means they are driving "their" car; and in cases like that sick fuck up their who shot his mom over Call of Duty and tried to rape her, what difference does it make if he did it with his gun (that was left where he had easy access to it when it shouldn't have been) or someone else's (because I'm assuming that his parents also owned guns that were negligently stored if they handed him the fucking thing to do what he wanted with)?

 

 

I'll break down BW's post more to explain the problem with the sentiment:

So you can still hit targets with it. Yes you can hurt someone with a BB gun it depends on the power unlike a 22. Rifle they don't pierce flesh I am suggesting a slightly safer alternative, better than nothing.

 

There's an argument to be made that "toys" that look like guns and shoot like guns but aren't as dangerous as guns don't do the concept of gun safety any favors when it comes to actual guns. Certainly when it comes to police shooting kids because they think they have actual guns but only have airsoft or BB guns that they were allowed free reign to do want they want with because they weren't "real" guns.

 

 

Marketing Firearms to kids is wrong

 

They don't market the guns to kids. They market the guns to parents as being easier for kids to use than "normal" guns. The arguments that apply to, say, cigarette advertising in the 90's don't apply here. A company selling guns that kids can use isn't glamorizing gun use to kids; because modern video games and 80's action movies took that ball and ran halfway to China with it. It's infinitely more difficult for someone not of age to get access to a gun than it is to grab a beer or pack of smokes when you're not supposed to, let alone buy one (because stores never sell firearms without first carding someone; unlike cigarettes and even beer where if you look of age they'll give you a pass). It's giving the parents something that they can get for their kids to use because it would be easier to use than whatever guns they might already own (especially when it comes to teaching a kid to shoot, because when it comes to hunting it wouldn't be surprising if the parent didn't even own a .22).

 

 

The company's website is down every time I try to check, but from looking at the information I can find they look like the "My First Rifle" guns are scaled down slightly and have cheaper construction (in terms of stock and whatnot); which are for practical reasons (namely, a shorter gun with a low caliber is much easier to handle and cheaper construction tends to be easier to repair and maintain) rather than just to have something to advertise for the kid to scream at mom to buy while at Wal-Mart.

 

 

 

I don't care about Hunting culture by all means take them hunting encourage it even but they shouldn't have guns themselves until reach a maturer age.

 

They don't have guns themselves. Their parents have guns that they bought for their child, but were negligent in storing them or gave them to the kids to do what they wanted with; which in no circumstances should they do in the first place. The difference may seem small for these cases, and it is; but apparently the company sold 60,000 "My First Rifles" last year, and the overwhelming majority of those were bought by parents who didn't just put them somewhere that the kid could get it whenever he wants to do whatever he wanted.

Hence Child Access Protection laws; which in the second case was already in place before it happened (meaning criminal charges will probably be filed against the father). The "parents bought the gun as a gift" aspect of it is so unimportant to the two situations that it's pretty much irrelevant (somewhat less so in the latter, because the kid was clearly mentally unstable); and even the fact that it was a gun related issue isn't the focal point. In both cases (especially the first one) it boiled down almost exclusively to parental negligence; that is exacerbated by the fact that the negligence involved something extremely dangerous that they personally gave to the children to do whatever they wanted with which they absolutely should not have done.

[Patticus]

Yeah, that's not extreme at all. Voting age is 18. Driving age is 16. Why should the shooting age be 20, of all things? Again, Child Access Prevention laws are already a thing, and I know Iowa has them even if Kentucky doesn't.

I understand that my views on the subject as articulated in that post might be extreme, but voting, driving and gun ownership are very different things; you can't vote yourself in the head, or vote yourself into oncoming traffic, but you can shoot yourself, and you can plow your car into pedestrians or traffic. Voting isn't all that likely to end your life (unless you join the army and vote for a man/woman who wins and later sends you to war, which is far too specific a set of circumstances to legislate on), but having access to firearms or a car at those early ages very possibly might, for a whole variety of glaringly obvious reasons. That's why, as you say, there are Child Access Prevention laws for guns.

The reason I used the arbitrary age number 20 for the firearms minimum age (and I guess the reason why I think the driving age should go up a bit), is because I just don't trust teens to own them, although I understand that they're not really "theirs" and that it's the parents' responsibility to limit access. I also recognize, by the way, that the teenage emotional rollercoaster doesn't always stop dead at 20, but... yeah. They're incredibly emotional, so the risk of suicide or murder in the depths of depression and/or heat of the moment respectively must be much greater than at later ages (although that's not to say older people can't get be dealt really shitty hands and suffer horribly from depression, or that they don't have anger issues, as many do), and the brain can't fully process risk assessment until sometime in the early-mid 20s (or so that one college teacher I had once said). So um, please let's keep firearms out of the hands of teens and pre-teens.

[Komodin]

At Least 12 Shot During Mother’s Day Parade In New Orleans

 

Twelve people are being treated for gunshot wounds following a shootout at a second line parade on Mother’s Day in New Orleans. The youngest victim in the surprise attack was 10 years old, according to a local resident.

 

Over 100 people were participating in the residential festival, on Frenchmen Street, in the north of the city, when several shots were fired. The incident occurred around 2pm local time on Sunday.

 

Police believe three suspects were responsible for the gunfire.

 

“The shots just started ringing out, and everybody just started running, and the next thing I heard, 10-15 people got shot,” one witness told local station WDSU.

 

Police confirmed the number of casualties stood at 12 following some discrepancies in initial hospital  reports, suggesting that between five and 11 may have been injured.

 

No fatalities have been confirmed, but three are reportedly in a critical condition.

 

Of all the days to have this sort of thing happen on...

Edited May 12, 2013 by Komodin

[TCB]

This crap will never end will it. Jesus...

[PSI Wind]

I'm fucking done, okay? I'm seriously done.

[Patticus]

At Least 12 Shot During Mother’s Day Parade In New Orleans

 

 

Of all the days to have this sort of thing happen on...

It won't be long before the NRA or some corrupt Republican announces that more guns and more concealed carriers would have stopped the whole damn thing from happening.

[spinny]

Welp, time to climb back up and change that counter to "AMERICA: '0' DAYS SINCE LAST SHOOTING"

 

It's really getting scary now. I swear that this many shootings in 5 months is legitimately going over the top. If anything, I feel that giving less coverage may help ease it. People could be just doing this thinking "ooooh I'll be famous". But then again, they could be mentally ill, so I'm not one to judge, really. I'm not an expert on this stuff.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

What are the chances of the NRA secretly giving guns to these maniacs as a means of stirring up controversy so they can sell more guns?

[Komodin]

What are the chances of the NRA secretly giving guns to these maniacs as a means of stirring up controversy so they can sell more guns?

 

Um... so astronomically low as to be completely negligible?

[Johnny Boy]

Mothers Day?! Are you fucking serious?!

[SkyLlama]

I don't understand America and guns and I don't think I ever will. What I really don't get is why there has been such a dramatic rise in shootings in the last year.

 

I really do blame the media for a lot of this. They glorify the shooters and give them if nothing else, temporary fame. Let's not forget the media has a lot to make of these sorts of events.

 

Gun control has worked well other places, it's too bad a good amount of people in the US won't even consider it in any form. Then again I'm not sure any would work at this point.

 

 

What are the chances of the NRA secretly giving guns to these maniacs as a means of stirring up controversy so they can sell more guns?

 

None? That's crossing into conspiracy territory which I don't think there is one. It's so unlikely it's not really worth considering.

Edited May 12, 2013 by SkyLlama

[Patticus]

Oh look, another school shooting.

 

Nev. student opens fire, kills teacher and himself

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — A student at a Nevada middle school opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun on campus just before the starting bell Monday, wounding two 12-year-old boys and killing a math teacher who was trying to protect children from their classmate.

The unidentified shooter killed himself with the gun after a rampage that occurred in front of 20 to 30 horrified students who had just returned to school from a weeklong fall break. Authorities did not provide a motive for the shooting, and it's unknown where the student got the gun.

Teacher Michael Landsberry was being hailed for his actions during the shooting outside Sparks Middle School.

"In my estimation, he is a hero. ... We do know he was trying to intervene," Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said.

Both wounded students were listed in stable condition. One was shot in the shoulder, and the other was hit in the abdomen.

The violence erupted nearly a year after a gunman shocked the nation by opening fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., leaving 26 dead. The Dec. 14 shooting ignited debate over how best to protect the nation's schools and whether armed teachers should be part of that equation.

Landsberry, 45, was a military veteran and leaves behind a wife and two stepdaughters. Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said Landsberry served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada National Guard.

"He proudly served his country and was proudly defending the students at his school," Martini said.

On his school website, Landsberry posted a picture of a brown bear and took on a tough-love tone, telling students, "I have one classroom rule and it is very simple: 'Thou Shall Not Annoy Mr. L.'"

"The kids loved him," his sister-in-law Chanda Landsberry said.

She added his life could be summed up by his love of his family, his students and his country.

"To hear that he was trying to stop that is not surprising by any means," she said.

Police said 150 to 200 officers responded to the shooting, including some from as far as 60 miles away. Students from the middle school and neighboring elementary school were evacuated to the nearby high school, and classes were canceled. The middle school will remain closed for the week.

"As you can imagine, the best description is chaos," Robinson said. "It's too early to say whether he was targeting people or going on an indiscriminate shooting spree."

At the evacuation center, parents comforted their children.

"We came flying down here to get our kids," said Mike Fiorica, whose nephew attends the school. "You can imagine how parents are feeling. You don't know if your kid's OK."

The shooting happened on the school's campus and ended outside the school building, according to police.

"I was deeply saddened to learn of the horrific shooting at Sparks Middle School this morning," Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a statement extending his thoughts and prayers to those affected.

About 700 students in 7th and 8th grades are enrolled at the school, in a working class neighborhood.

"It's not supposed to happen here," Chanda Landsberry said. "We're just Sparks — little Sparks, Nevada. It's unreal."

The mayor praised the quick response from law officers who arrived at the scene within three minutes of a flood of 911 calls to find the gunman already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"They got it under control very quickly and shut down the scene," Martini said.

A statement from Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed in the Connecticut shooting, appeared on the website of gun control advocacy group Sandy Hook Promise. "It's moments like this that demand that we unite as parents to find commonsense solutions that keep our children — all children — safe, and prevent these tragedies from happening again and again," the statement said.

The Washoe County School District held a session in the spring in light of the Newtown tragedy to educate parents on its safety measures. The district has its own 38-officer police department. No officers were on campus at the time of the shooting.

Sparks, a city of roughly 90,000 that sprung out of the railway industry, is just east of Reno.

"You see it on TV all the time. You just don't think it's going to happen to you," Martini said.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Police-Report-of-shooting-at-Sparks-Middle-School-4913132.php

Another mass killing, about which nothing will be done, because it never is. Well, maybe the NRA will erode some more gun legislation, and have Nevada teachers all be armed soon. That's not an alarming and highly reactionary trend which fails to address any of the root causes of these crimes at all, is it? Oh well, another dead teacher and injured/traumatized kids. It's just par for the course now, isn't it?

I'm looking forward to hearing about how this child got hold of a firearm.

[Stacy]

I blame those damn video games, hip hop, Marilyn Manson and those god damn communists. *Obviously being sarcastic*

 

You right. Patticus people will soon forget about it until the next shooting and the media will bring up the same crap as they always do and never address the elephant in the room.

 

Rinse and repeat.

Edited October 24, 2013 by BW199148