El Paso Shooting

I didn’t want to read it and won’t go into depth, first he kicked off stating he supports the Christchurch shooting, then he goes off on the border being unsecured and migrants coming in. Then he starts in on both the democratic and republican parties, that’s about all I could take. Left me shaking my head.

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I’m going to take an unpopular approach here. There’s no arguing the people who take out hate on innocent people are sick. You can’t blame an inanimate object for it.

(My opinion is based off a picture of the gunman entering the store with an AK style rifle across his chest and earmuffs on)

I cannot believe that didn’t raise a flag to anyone in the parking lot. Who just sits there and watches.
Part of the reason these things didn’t happen “back in the day” was because people weren’t scared to get involved. 20 yrs ago anyone think this guy makes it to the door? It’s not all a parenting problem or a millennial problem its OUR problem and the citizens need to get in the game and turn it around. This isn’t going away, it isn’t going to get better.

This guy didn’t just wake up today and randomly decide I’m gonna go do this today. Someone knew something was off, this PC I don’t wanna get involved garbage has to end. People writing stupid posts on social media should absolutely get questioned. I’m not saying you don’t have the right to speak your mind. But hate filled posts and threats should absolutely be a huge red flag. Every other right has to be used responsibly use the first responsibly also.

We live in a different world and it’s never going to go back to the “good ol days”.

There’s a quote I’ve always enjoyed to focus on before going to the range or the gym or training class. I’ve always thought it was a little to intense for everyday life but this last week has been my final straw. download

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Thank you @Zee, just grabbed it.

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Add Dayton Ohio to this list as of around 2am this morning.

Holy cow. :cry: :rage:
One crazy touches off another.

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Its contagious… be extra careful the next couple weeks.
I put some information and links to more info about how coverage of one shooting sparks others, how it’s the media coverage facilitating that, and what could be done to stop it over here:

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And it was a bad night in Chicago too. :angry:

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:+1: it depends how far we are… :red_car:

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if you want to be better prepared, you may want to look at these:
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/product/e-learning-countering-mass-shooter-threat/

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/product/countering-the-mass-shooter-threat-book/

I’m waiting for info on the Dayton shooter. Thank God officers put him down quickly.

I’m 68. And the comment that mass shootings used to be few and far between is correct. The mass shooting at the University of Texas in Austin in the 60s was a shocking anomaly. The autopsy on the shooter showed he had a brain tumor. Guns were available. People in this country were different somehow. What changed?

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in large part, its the media coverage that changed… there’s some interesting study data showing it’s the 24-7 coverage that spawns the clusters of shootings like we have right now.

if you scroll up a couple replies, I posted another thread with links to data about what the actual frequency change is over the last 30 years, and it isn’t actually trending up… but the news coverage is, and the coverage causes clusters, and then we get a very different perception of what’s happening than we used to.

That doesn’t mean I think we don’t have a problem - we surely do. We need to understand causes and what can be done to address the root cause. But part of the root cause is how the media coverage is done and the increase of shootings in response to media coverage.

Interesting to notice that both Gilroy and El Paso were in gun-free zones, and the Chicago shootings were in a state with extreme gun control laws. Interesting to note that the El Paso shooter apparently drove over 600 miles to get to his gun-free zone. Interesting to note that the media coverage has been dramatic and increasing in drama with each one, and they’re getting closer together.

Going on record as saying it isn’t all about what’s wrong with our kids, or what’s wrong with parents, or what’s wrong with people who see a problem forming and don’t address it… it’s a lot about what’s wrong with the media.

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People changed. Family breakdown caused by an economy no longer allowing one parent to work a single full time job to support his/her family. Now both parents are having to work, sometimes two jobs to make ends meet. Many forgo babysitters and/or daycare because of the costs of such, instead televisions and device screens babysit kids for hours upon hours.
Religious beliefs are spurned and mocked rather than used to establish a moral compass. Often parents are also working during traditional church hours. (I didn’t capitalize “church” so as to use it in a generic form encompassing multiple faiths.)
Additionally society is no longer teaching people that it’s simply ok to disagree with each other. More and more society is preaching that “if you don’t agree with me then you are my enemy.”

There’s also some other things i could touch on, politics and potential conspiracy theories.

The simple fact is that society is breaking down. History is repeating itself. “The Roman empire is falling once again.”

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Definitely copycat from the El Paso shooting. Two shooters wear ear protection? I cant recall another mass shooting where the shooter wore ear protection.

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I have wondering why in Texas, where fire arms are a way of life, that no responsibility armed citizens took action to stop the shooter. I didn’t realize that this was a gun free zone. Now I know.

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Sheepdog you’re correct in that it is never just one thing. Violent video games, absent parents, a lack of morals and respect for others…the list is long. Your point about others getting involved to stop a shooting is a good one. In the training I’ve received for dealing with active shooters we trained to 1. Lock them out, 2. Get out, 3. Take them out. There isn’t a specific order. How you respond is dictated by the situation.

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Yes. You bring up another key point with your foc6on the Media’s quest to up their ratings. I would like to steer the question back to my original one. What can we, the gun community, do to help stem this violence that takes innocent lives and endangers our 2A rights?

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I understand not going into a building and trying to clear it. But this A hole walked right thru the front door of a busy walmart. People saw him coming.

Alot of my frustration came from seeing posts on social media and how many people would’ve stopped him. I’m willing to bet there was someone in that walmart that posted some, I’d do this or that garbage. And they let him walk thru the front door.

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You’ll find it’s a very small percentage of civilians who would actually take a shot at another human. Especially someone with no training at all. They are more likely to freeze no matter how justified it is.

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A more proactive approach is more education to the general public about responsible armed citizens. I am not talking about the politicians because you will never change their rhetoric, but the everyday citizen who needs to know the gun free zones are no more than target rich opportunities. The criminals are not going to abide by the gun free zone rules or the gun acquisition rules. Gun free zones do not work. Simple education of the populace needs to be our battle lines by any means necessary.

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@Michael7, the media issue is right in the middle of “what can we do?”

Because the media coverage is one of the key causes of the clusters of these events, one of the things we can do is put pressure on the media to stop with the 24/7 coverage, to NOT publish the shooter’s name, photo, manifesto, web page, letters, or anything else they produced, and to remove every bit of notoriety that can be removed.

One of the things these shooters want is attention - attention to their pain, their needs, how they’ve been wronged and who they’ve been wronged by. That need for attention, and in particular attention to their grievances and their revenge is already present, but when they see other shooters getting the attention they desire, it lights the fuse in them.

By not giving any shooter that public forum, we avoid lighting the fuse on the latent shooters.

That may allow more time for someone in the system or in their lives to intercept them. Or it may allow time for the crisis in their life to pass and they may become no longer a danger.

In any case, the media coverage sets these folks off, and if the coverage were minimized and the shooters garnered no fame from it, there would be fewer shootings.

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