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| -Land of the Free |
| How America has silently accepted the rage of white men |
| 2017-10-05 |
| The author is in the left's writers farm system (CNN) In the wake of one of the worst massacres in modern American history, our government's highest leaders will be silent about why things like this keep happening. "Warmest condolences" will be tweeted to families of those who lost their lives, minutes of mourning will pass and murmurs of mental health issues and lone-wolf actors will taper into silence. Taming homegrown terror and tightening gun control will be dismissed as inappropriate or unnecessary politicizing of a tragedy and quickly become secondary to more pressing issues on the administration's agenda. America has been here before. In fact, America has been here 273 times in 2017 alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which compiles deaths and injuries from shooting incidents and defines a mass shooting as any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed. According to their tally, there have also been 11,698 deaths as a result of gun violence so far this year. Between 2001 and 2014, 440,095 deaths by firearms occurred on US soil, while deaths by terrorism during those years numbered 3,412. Today, America faces approximately one mass shooting per day on average. I wish this gal would keep to stats from 2017 to make her point. Instead she has to stretch out the statistics so they compile into large numbers, all without pointing out differences between the data sets and what she is trying to say. We know now that many of those mass shootings in 2017 are crime and gang related, and are from extremely violent cities such as Chicago and others run or controlled by the left. And she fails to point out that while trying to fold statistics from the data sets from 2001 and 2017, including suicides and gun accidents. All in all, a rather dishonest attempt at discussing gun violence. Mass shootings are a violent epidemic that have been met with fatal passivity for far too long. If mass shootings were perpetrated mostly by brown bodies, this would quickly be reframed and reformed as an immigration issue. If thousands died at the hands of black men, it would be used to excuse police brutality, minimize the Black Lives Matter movement and exacerbate the "raging black man" stereotype. If mass shooters identified as Muslim, it would quickly become terrorism and catalyze defense and security expenditures. No, but instead this author wishes to politicize the Las Vegas incident through racial frames. But this is a white man's problem. According to an analysis by Mother Jones, out of 62 cases between 1982 and 2012 (a time period that would not include the actions of Dylann Roof or Stephen Paddock, among others), 44 of the killers were white men and only one was a woman. There she goes again, splitting data sets. Since 1982, mass shootings in the United States have been committed by white men who are often labeled "lone wolves" or "psychologically impaired." As a result, the government that would otherwise be mobilizing its institutions to bring about reform remains a stalwart of the Second Amendment and mass shootings' greatest ally. An over-affinity for guns among white men, dangerous against any other backdrop, gets defended as patriotism by many conservatives or even as white pride by those on the alt-right. Gun ownership affinity includes all races, not just "white men." Everyone wants to take responsibility for their own safety, and not rely on this author's customers to show up to protect her and her ilk. In fact, according to a 2014 poll conducted by Fox News, nearly seven in 10 Republicans believed that gun ownership is patriotic. If espoused by other groups, this sentiment and this number might be considered threatening. Instead, it is welcomed in a way that many believe gives tacit encouragement to potential mass shooters. "Many" to include the "many" in the author's fetid imagination. Make no mistake: this is war culture that has dressed up as Uncle Sam and embedded itself into the American psyche. Any other path -- let's say, for example, abortion or foreign-born terror -- that led to the destruction of life on this level would be attacked as violently opposed to American values. But because this culture is embraced by the race and party that controls the government, it continues to be celebrated and defended in the spirit of love of country. So what's your problem again? |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #6 #3: Procopius2K: How America has silently There...fixed it for both of us, P2k... |
| Posted by: ptah 2017-10-05 12:41 |
| #5 Hmmm. Could be white men tend to have health insurance and therefore greater access to psych meds. Americans have always had guns. How long have we had some of these medications? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-10-05 12:33 |
| #4 The real problem is how do we stop the gang violence. Clearly gun laws don't work, less intrusive policing doesn't work. Shorter sentences doesn't work. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2017-10-05 10:28 |
| #3 When you see their real rage, it won't be silent. I promise you that. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-10-05 08:35 |
| #2 Doesn't seem silent to me. Endless talk about it, public court cases where the perp is still alive, calls for gun control. If you want silence, check out Chicago. "What's that?" "Why?" |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2017-10-05 07:43 |
| #1 I thought it was just me. (We feel better now.) |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-10-05 02:18 |