IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters
https://mediumhappi.org/?p=7463

by John Walters

Special “Let’s Not Keep Killing Each Other” Edition

Oh yeah, don’t forget “Students Filing Out of High School”

Handy Mass Shooting Check List

Once upon a time, on August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman perched himself atop the bell tower at the University of Texas and slaughtered 17 people with a high-powered rifle. That campus-related carnage was the apex/nadir of campus horror for more than 30 years until Colombine. Now Whitman’s Texas Rifle Massacre barely makes the “Slaughter of the Month” Club.

Are you ensconced in coverage of a mass murder news quake? Here are the tell-tale signs:

–Body count report

–“Thoughts and Prayers”

–Mandatory disavowal of gun proliferation as root of the problem by GOP lawmaker and/or Tomi Lahren.

 

–Sleep-deprived sheriff holds press conference, admonishes press to behave

—Don Lemon chokes up

–Student survivor does stand-up interview with cable channel

–Distraught mom photo

–Candlelight vigil

2. We Concur Con Kerr

A reminder that Steve Kerr, the best coach in NBA history (at the three-plus seasons mark), lost his father to gun violence. Yesterday Kerr was eloquent on gun violence, a few days earlier his former coach, Gregg Popovich, was enlightened on racism. Another NBA voice we admire, Steve Nash, tweeted this:

 

Kerr’s father was a scholar who taught in the Middle East, and Kerr spent much of his youth in that part of the world. Popovich is an Air Force Academy alum who spent much of his five years of active military duty in Eastern Europe. Nash is not only Canadian, but the son of teachers who raised their children partly in Africa. He was born in Johannesburg.

Is it any coincidence that three men who have been exposed to other nations and other cultures are far more enlightened than the MAGA/NRA crowd?

3. Marco! Go Low!

 


Two items on this: 1) Using this logic, Senator Rubio should be against the erection of a border wall (“they’ll find a way”) and against laws in general. Why have a penal code when crimes may still be committed? 2) If Marco truly wants to be honest, why doesn’t he disclose that he has accepted $3.3 million from the National Rifle Association?

4. Mental Illness Check-In

 

The source of this aphorism is unknown, but you’ve heard it: “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” By that measure, let’s assess our federal government, which has had pretty much the same reaction for the past 19 years, since Columbine: “Thoughts and prayers” and no further gun-control measures. In fact, last February President Trump signed into law a bill that made it EASIER for mentally unstable people to purchase weapons.

But let’s not digress: Congress and the White House reacts the same way after every mass shooting, and nothing changes. So maybe we can say of them that they are mentally unstable. Should we be reporting them to law enforcement, particularly those members of Congress who own guns or that member of the White House who has the authority to launch the largest firearm of them all? What say you?

5. A Welcome Hand Grenade

Let’s review the argument: After any mass shooting, I wonder aloud, “Now why can’t I own a hand grenade?” The immediate answer is the National Firearms Act of 1934, which categorizes them as Title II weapons, a.k.a. “destructive devices,” making them generally unavailable to the public.

Of course, 1934 was 84 years ago, and while hand grenades have not become all that more potent in the interim, guns have. In 1934 the M-1 Garand, which we’d come to think of as the standard World War II machine gun, was still in the development stages. American infantry began World War II using single-bolt rifles.

Hence, in 1934 an individual could do a lot more damage with a hand grenade over a limited space and time than with a gun.

A 19 year-old in Florida cannot legally purchase this…

But that has all changed. Even though a 1986 revision of the Firearms Act made manufacture of automatic weapons illegal, one can attach a bump stock (legal) to a semi-automatic weapon such as an AR-15 and literally shoot a few hundred rounds a minute.

A few hundred rounds a minute. At that rate, the shooter is not aiming at each discharge. He or she (but we know it’s a he) is spraying fire indiscriminately, much like the path of destruction of a hand grenade. The difference is that the AR-15 has a range of a few hundred yards, while the hand grenade is likely less than 50 yards.

…but he may legally purchase this.

At its most tame, an AR-15 with a bump stock would fire one round. At its most tame, a hand grenade is still a hand grenade. You can’t limit its effect. However, at its most lethal, an AR-15 with a bump stock is FAR MORE DEADLY than a hand grenade.

And yet a 19 year-old who may not purchase a beer legally is able to buy an AR-15. But he cannot buy a hand grenade.

Don’t misread me: I don’t really want to legalize the sale of hand grenades. I’m just using that argument as an illustration of how asinine it is that these guns are legal to purchase. The NRA doesn’t seem to have a problem with hand grenades being illegal. But they do have a problem with guns that are far more lethal than hand grenades being illegal. When we get right down to it, let’s face it, this is all a phallic substitution syndrome, isn’t it?

Music 101

Hallelujah

A plethora of artists have covered Leonard Cohen’s classic, but this version from a trio of Nordic fellas and their pal is pretty special.

Remote Patrol

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