More mass shootings

Yes, there have been mass shootings in the USA before Donald Trump became President.

However, in the first 216 days of 2019 there have been an incredible 251 mass shootings.

Since 2016 hate crimes in counties where Donald Trump has held rallies have increased by 226%.

In March this year the House of Representatives passed a bi-partisan bill (HR8) on background checks for gun ownership. Mitch McConnell has consistently refused to put the bill to the vote in the Senate – it is now August and there were two, possibly three mass shootings in the past 24 hours.

The perpetrator in El Paso, not far from the border with Mexico, stated that he wanted to "kill as many Mexicans as possible".

It seems likely that Donald Trump's blatant racism, loudly spewed at all his rallies, the GOP's silence about his bigotry, the Senate's refusal to respond to mass shootings with anything more than "thoughts and prayers", the increase in hate crimes and mass shootings, and the NRA's massive financial investment in the Republican Party all contribute to this terrible state of affairs. Of course, no one can predict where the next mass shooting will happen or who the shooter will be – that is random. That there will be another mass shooting is only too predictable – and in the current political climate it is certain.

Racism is a problem.
But we should get off the merry go round of racism and concentrate on the real problem here - guns and gun laws.
It matters not one jot to the victim if he/she is killed for racist reasons or because the shooter is mentally unhinged or because the shooter bears a grudge against something. What matters to the victims is that there are too many guns in America and anyone and his dog are allowed to own them, carry them, and use them. Therein lies the problem. The gun lobby and presidents who have failed to stand up to it. This will happen again and again until someone, presumably a president, has the guts to stand up against the gun lobby.
Day6 made some excellent suggestions as the way to go. America needs a president who will stand up and be counted. A president who is prepared to be unpopular and probably not gain a second term.
Does anyone truly think that is likely to happen?

If guns are a political problem, smugness and expressed rejection and mud are slung from both sides of the isle in Washington and news channels-

I hear you, Jura. An American friend has a brother who is a veteran of five tours in Afghanistan, has PTSD and is an alcoholic yet he is still allowed as many firearms as he wants. She caused a family rift when she said she didn't want his guns in her house with her children.

9 killed, including the shooter's sister, and 27 injured in Ohio-

Ohio is a concealed carry state, pushing for constitutional carry law where no training or permit would be required to purchase and carry firearms-

The shooter used an assault rifle and was armed with another gun- He was wearing body armor- He supposedly wrote a manifesto which has yet to be released-

If the police didn't take this shooter out as quickly as they did the outcome would have been catastrophic because he had enough ammo kill many, many more-

Absolutely nothing will be done to halt the progression of violence in the US- They shoved it out of one community into another, it's now widespread, no place is safe or sacred- Violence has fans, no different than sports- It has support-

A relative in the US is 82, has advanced Alzheimers, 2nd generation from a very poor part of Italy, made good- very good. And racist - totally taken by the above and Fox News.
Hated Obama.

He still has many guns at home and access to them

'Adding to its pattern of mainstreaming toxic extremism, Fox News regularly echoes and sanitizes the dangerous white supremacist conspiracy theory that non-white immigrants represent the threat of “replacement” to white populations. This racist talking point has already inspired massacres and hate crimes around the world.'

All these shootings in the country whose racist president suggested that 4 members of the House of Representatives of non-American origin “.....go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.

Pot calling the kettle black?

Exactly SueDonim

This latest event has shown up the fallaciousness of the 'self defence' argument. Where were all these gun-carrying people in Texas yesterday while their fellow citizens were being murdered?

When visiting relatives in Alabama my husband's aunt (80+) showed us her handgun in the drawer of her bedside cabinet. She said she had the right to protect her home!

What surprises me is the level of support among Americans for the right to own a gun. We have discussed this over the years with Americans we have met on holiday and so many seem to feel safer with guns in the house.

One man even said he felt safer when he was away from home on business knowing his wife at home could use a gun if need be.

And I fear the powerful NRA, who are Trump supporters, will prevent any such action.

This is the time for Trump to stand up and be counted.

I know a few mild-mannered Americans who posses guns - in the house 'for protection' and they value their right to have them. Their sons have been taught, on official ranges, to shoot too.

However, now is the time for Trump to ban the sale of arms and have every single American who has a gun to register the fact. That would be a massive under-taking but from today Trump should be able to say we will become a country that doesn't use guns, sell guns and only military forces (and the police) will be armed.

I suspect most gun-owning Americans are peaceful and just as concerned as we are about random shootings. If any idiot full of evil and prejudice can get hold of a gun and kill citizens then there has to be massive concern in America that they must severely limit the chances of this happening again.

However, we must be aware that anywhere in the world, someone intent on killing and maiming could find ways to do it. There have been shootings in the UK. It's like knife crime. Youngsters are told if they carry knives, the chances are they will use them in any confrontation. The same applies to guns or any weapon. There are those who deal in the smuggling of guns. There are those with minds intent on retribution or the killing of people they don't like.

How do you wipe out the gun trade as well as flushing out those who have no qualms about murdering innocent citizens? I am not sure 'education' is enough.

Just received an email from my American friend in Florida. She says “it wasn’t on the front page today. It is so common now, it is no longer breaking news”.

Jennifer Eccles of course is loads worse (what on earth are you thinking of) than our knife crime to start with we are trying to address it here in UK in US they are not We are NOT saying everybody has the right to carry a knife and use it if needed
A knife will normally kill one person rarely two, a gun can kill multiply people and injure more
The granddad who fired from a hotel room at a music concert crowd killed dozens, likewise today 20 in one and 9 in another it is most often numbers in double figures
There is NO comparison

School shoting in the US versus in other industrialised nations - The US has had 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized nations combined in the period January 1, 2009 to May 21, 2018..

edition.cnn.com/2018/05/21/us/school-shooting-us-versus-world-trnd/index.html

JenniferEccles:
Quote: Is it any worse than the dreadful stabbings which we have here especially in London?
Both need to be tackled but at least we have got a tough sounding Home Secretary in Prity Patel so there is hope here.
I liked her comment about wanting criminals to feel terror. End quote

Let's see how much hope we can attach to Priti Patel's soundbite. Will it materialise in a message on a bus similar to the one the government delivered on a van ”In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest.” This was an attempt to persuade illegal immigrants to return home. I believe one did. I have a feeling the campaign was short lived.

We now seem to be concentrating on legal EU nationals and making them jump through a few hoops in order to be able to remain.

Many people have less than loving feelings toward their fellow men/women, whatever their race, sex, religion, or political views. They don't need to be insane to be so overwhelmed by their hatred that they wish there were some way to rid the world of these (to them) wicked individuals - even a whole classroom or dance hall full of them. In all countries except the US of A, there are such controls on the possesion of lethal firearms that an impulse such as that is unlikely to be acted on. The international statistics on mass shootings are hair-raising.

President Trump is not trying to exert that control in the US, or even to encourage his citizens to live together peacably with people of those different races/religions,etc.. He may not be directly to blame, but his example helps to fan the flames of intolerance.

Don't blame Mr Trump. He isn't responsible for someone losing their sanity. A person would have to be over-flowing with hatred and anger to walk into a supermarket, or church, and kill innocent people.
Remember that song by Bob Geldoff...'I hate Mondays', written after a girl gave that as her excuse for killing her class-mates.

There are simply a lot of crazy people in the world who blame others for their problems. After the police check up on this gunman, they will probably find he has been threatening to do something like this for a while. Nothing to do with race.

Some have tried, Maddyone but the gun lobby is very powerful in the US. Behind them are decades of gun-owners believing that they were the inheritors of the rootin' tootin' shooters who tamed the Wild West.

JenniferEccles, How do you think Priti Patel will tackle knife crime, apart from sounding threatening? Really interested.

The problem is not Donald Trump, the problem is the easy access and ownership of guns.
Mass shootings is America predate Donald Trump by donkeys years.
If anyone wants to blame presidents, they should ask what ANY president in America has actually done to rectify this. Obama, Bush, Bush Junior, Clinton, Reagan, et al, NONE of them have tried to rectify this.

Correct suziewoozie - ‘idiot’ suggests unknowing. They knew exactly what the were doing and cared little.

Not idiots - that word does not carry sufficient gravitas. Evil bastards would do for me.

As far as I'm aware there have been no mass shootings in Scotland since the Dunblane massacre of innocent children.Air guns even have restrictions on them after a toddler was killed by one in a city street .Of course you get the "its not the gun thats the killer its the person using it" brigade but taking guns out of the mix does stop these awful events happening .
We've made great strides in knife crime here too .There wasn't a single death from a knife crime in Glasgow in 2017 .2018 figures not available yet .Now we need to sort the drug deaths which are preventable with the right action.If only Wm would agree to us implementing our plans ..or letting us run our own country our way!!