CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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A Few Thoughts on What Will Be Unfortunately Referred to as "The Batman Massacre"

Friday, July 20, 2012

this entry brought to you by radiohead, "codex"





* Columbine was the first in this string of horrible mass shootings. It might have been the third one afterward, or it might have been the fifth one, or it might have been the seventeenth, who the hell knows-- but it wasn't long after Columbine when I said, Oh, so this is a thing now. This is a thing people do from now on. America gets to just put up with this.

* I was reading an article about the situation and the article said "This is the second worst mass shooting Colorado has had." It sent shivers up my spine and elicited a horrified, ironic laugh that the article had to specify that this was the second worst in Colorado. Because this is just a thing we do now.

* The article said that as of right now there was no known motive, and no terrorist connection. Motives and terrorist connections were things I'm sure we all thought of in the two or three years following 9/11. But now, in 2012, is there anyone who thought there would be any sort of motive, or that there would be any terrorist organization connection when we saw the headline? Of course there's no motive, no terrorist connections. There never is. And although it's only been a few hours we're just learning about the facts, I have no doubt that there will never be a terrorism connection. This is just a thing we do now.

* I don't understand copycat criminal behavior. If you have a serial rapist that keeps going on too long before being caught, you start having two or three serial rapists. But the thing is, before you know it, you've caught all the serial rapists, and it stops. I don't understand why this just keeps going and going.

* I read today that a woman, god bless her soul, died today. And she had survived a mass shooting in Toronto last month. It's not that I had never heard of the Toronto shooting, I had. I had just forgotten. No offense to her or any of the people who died in that shooting, but I'd forgotten because this is just a thing we do.

* I was reading an article on the Huffington Post, and they had a slideshow at the bottom that said "Worst Mass Shootings". Of course, there were seven. And as I scrolled, oh look, one that happened in May. It's only July. Here's another from this year. Here's one from December of last year-- three in just seven months. Finally, one in 2011-- the far, far ago memories of 2011.

* I've read several posts on Facebook saying things along the line that we need to not jump to political conclusions, to keep in mind that 12 people are dead now, and now is not the time to let that get lost. And I agree with that sentiment somewhat. But I also can't help but feel that this has to lead to political motivation. How many fucking times is this going to happen, how much noise are sane human beings-- a lot of them gun owners-- going to have to make, before sane politicians grow a pair and actually say something about it as well?

* I keep hearing that if you outlaw guns-- and nobody of any import is suggesting that, or has ever suggested that-- then the law abiding citizens that own guns will then be outlaws. And this actually makes sense, on its face. But that's not the problem at all. None of these people that just do this thing that we do now have had a criminal past. None of these people are gang bangers or drug pushers. They have all had a history of being scary in the head. And all of them just bought their guns. You know. At the store.

* They say that a criminal will just buy blackmarket guns. And the criminals who kill people are awful, awful people, and nobody wants to empower them. I just read an article about these three fuckfaces that burst into this woman's house and killed her, because they were looking to steal things from her. That's awful. I don't want anybody to break into my house and kill me. I feel for her immensely, and reading her story made my heart sad. But how sad I am for this woman isn't the issue right this moment. The issue is that the criminal who bursts in your house trying to steal your TV doesn't also go to the next house and kill your neighbors, and the next house, and the next house, and then the guy just walking by, and then people who happen to just be driving by. And then also not actually steal your TV, and never had any plans to, they just wanted to kill as many people as possible for as long a period as possible. Gang bangers and drug dealers don't do that. And yet, this is still something that we as a culture have managed to do regardless.

* I have no idea where to buy blackmarket guns, do you? I wouldn't have any idea at all. Not even in the slightest. And it's not like I can just Google "who in my neighborhood can hook me up with blackmarket drugs?" I can however just Google where to buy actual legal guns. And if I had a history of being scary in the brain, I could still Google that and absolutely nothing would be different. And when I got to that store, I could buy actual legal guns that could mow down human beings with horrible efficiency, guns that were designed not to hunt deer, but were designed to mow down specifically human beings and had no other purpose. And then we just go out and do that. This is just what we do for some reason.

* I'm sick of this happening. We're all sick of this happening. And yet our collective outrage and horror only seems to make it worse.
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with love from CRS @ 11:16 AM 

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