Discussion: Las Vegas: What We Know About The Deadliest Mass Shooting In US History

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Something else we know:

It was So. Fucking. Easy. for a single civilian to slaughter dozens of people. The only hard part is the mindset.

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I get it now. They took away all the concealed guns from the concert goers. So he was free to shoot without return fire, except for the 500 armed cops and the fact that shooting 32 floors up might be a bit inaccurate and more dangerous than the shooter.

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How have we as a nation allowed ourselves to be tolerant of such powerful guns in the hands of mentally ill people?

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What does it take to be ‘terrorism’???

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Josh says that mass shootings by Muslims and blacks are most often political but mass shootings by whites often stand alone and apart, but I wonder if we are mistaken when we lump all whites into the same bucket. I can think of several mass shootings by whites that were completely political and were certainly acts of terrorism. If we don’t investigate this man and his possible motives we will never know if he was making some sort of political statement. We can’t simply assume he was simply deranged just because the shooter was an old white guy.

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Because it’s never ‘the right time’ to discuss it.

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What can one expect when you can legally buy a gun stock modifier which enables one to fire any assault weapon accurately with up to 900 rounds per minute:
It’s called Slide Fire:

At least that was the case until a couple of years ago. That’s when a company called Slide Fire Solutions introduced a replacement rifle stock called the SSAR-15 that, for $369, allows you to bump fire your AR-15-style rifle from your shoulder while still retaining accuracy and control. The stock, in the simplest terms, is the part of the rifle you hold and brace against your shoulder. According to the Slide Fire website, “unlike traditional bump firing, the Slidestock allows the shooter to properly hold the firearm and maintain complete control at all times. As a result of the forward movement required to discharge each round, the shooter naturally corrects their point-of-aim for each shot and prevents recoil from pushing the firearm’s muzzle upward in an unsafe direction.” Or, as the subhed more concisely puts it, the SSAR-15 lets a shooter “unleash 100 rounds, in 7 seconds.” A product review at a site called Guns America notes that the SSAR-15 “installs in one minute with no special skills.”

It was just a matter of time.
ETA: I’m afraid that they are going to see a deluge of orders from people who think they may be outlawed in the near future.

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How many more times? There’s nothing for this but despair.

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Not being a middle-aged white guy named Stephen, for starters

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It is inevitable that this is what happens when civilians have access to weapons of war. Until the voters demand it, nothing will change.

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No “good guy with a gun” can stop something like this. That point needs to be made.

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Searching for a motive? How much motive does a 64 yr old man need? He doesn’t need much beyond annoyance. He does need lots of guns.

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Here are 11 mass shootings by white men over 50. More than a few were political in nature:

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Particularly stupid comment. The guy was shooting from a hotel room overlooking the event. And just what one needs, 22,000 armed concert goers, without a clue where the shots are coming from, shooting at whatever, i.e., each other.

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Time to ban all white folks from the U.S.?

What is it with TPM and all the lead photos of police, rather than attendees? By all appearances, the police were useless in this situation until after the damage had been done.

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I think Josh’s point was just that these are the assumptions based on the shooters color or religion, and that humans are violent.
if you think about it, people tend to be more violent when they lose their jobs, or when they are going through separation or divorce. Some of the most dangerous police calls are for domestic spats. But for preventing mass killings, whether caused by political or crazy motives, the number of deaths is attributed to access to weapons of war that are designed to kill lots of people quickly. These weapons should not be available to anyone in a civil society. The second amendment doesn’t give people rights to any possible weapon that exists. People aren’t allowed to have nuclear weapons or rocket launchers. They shouldn’t have rifles designed for mass casualties either. One can hunt and protect themselves and their home without using weapons designed for war situations. It is incredulous that we allow it.

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how do you get 10 long guns into a hotel room? pretend it’s a golf bag? two golf bags?

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Oh, but they will. Unless someone turns up the Shahada on the guy’s social media feed, that will be the only narrative.

Because, you know, killing dozens of people with high-powered weaponry isn’t necessarily terrorism unless it’s certain kinds of shooter.

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Curtain rods.

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