Be careful, Bob.
I'm certain of this: You do not want to be lured down the cul de sac of distinguishing between the twisted freaks who shot up Columbine because they were bullied and listened to Black Sabbath, and the utterly fucked genome in sneakers who drew down on cops because a black man wanted to take his guns away according to Michelle Bachmann.
Operative compound noun = Cul de Sac

The kids who shot up Columbine weren't bullied. They were cultural racists radicalized hate-filled adolescents.

There is very little distinction to be made.

Both them and todays gunman were radicalized by fear mongers and false prophets.

This is what, 5 mass shootings in 3 weeks? What the fuck is happening to the States?

We have to work towards a more peaceful society. How much more of this can we take before the populace at large can't stomach any more of this?

I went to Pearl High School. I've long since given up on "never again."

avi-I agree the people who are doing this are, for the most part, adults who choose their own path. However, the environment of venom that has been spewed in this country since the governor of Alaska started talking is incredible. These same adults are hearing about "armed revolution" from heir public officials. I am not surprised by all these shootings but I am saddened that the people who have been and are creating this environment are not stopping their venom. They need to be shamed or something into acting responsibly and realizing words have consequences. They have the right to free speech, but not to yell fire in a crowded theater.

The GOP has to come out and stop this madness before more people die. No one who opposed bushco ever threatened lives. This is wrong and has to stop.

Of course, they will not realize or accept that their words have consequences and I, for one, find that very sad indeed.

This is what, 5 mass shootings in 3 weeks? What the fuck is happening to the States?.

Sadly, mass shootings have become a fairly common event in the USA. No one can explain it and no one knows what to do about it.

You can't "blame" Beck, Limbaugh, et. al., no.

But you CAN say that they, along with the rest of the noise machine, have ratcheted up the crazy-language to an already borderline audience that is both unstable and specifically armed.

You saw on my board that I "predicted" this sort of thing a few hours before the first spree. I'm not claiming any Dionne Warwick-level powers of psychic prognostication, but if you're open to it, sticking a finger up to the winds of zeitgeist at the moment will show that there's a strong north-crazerly wind gusting.

It is a combination of a lot of factors and all of them add to and compound one another, but, I think, are so intertwined and linked and, while causally related, not directly cause-and-effect related. I think there's a lot of ambient fear of the future and the unknown going on and I think on the dumb and low-information end of the scale, that's going to equate into eruptions from fear. Fearuptions.

The reason these people are drawn to firearms in the first place is out of a semi-irrational fear. I have never met a gun enthusiast who did not have an essential, core-level existential TERROR about confrontations.

The same dynamic can be found, albeit in a healthier direction, in the past of many heavy metal enthusiasts. They were, as kids, alone and quiet and felt scared about expressing themselves, so as teens, they were drawn to this very explosive expression of pent-up aggression. The "scary" trappings, I always felt, were kind of shamanistic; they were trying to become a "scary" thing in order to overmaster an earlier fear.

With gun-dudes, the pathology runs deeper and grosser. It is a cliche to make the dick-size thing an issue and I think it is ultimately a bad argument. It isn't about dick-compensation, but it most certainly is about gaining a sense of *potency,* of mastery over issues of life and death--- most usually because they fear, on a crawling, infantile level, a lack of that potency. It isn't sexual, per se, I don't think. It might be wrapped up or connected, as a lot of things are, but I think it is a mistake to assume that is the direct origin.

In any case, I think there's also an ambient racism-tension in the air, too. There's a first-black-president and the crypto-racists (many of whom are also gun-guys) KNOW they can't come out and SAY something about it, but they *feel* it, and it will out in bad directions.

The economy, the uncertainty about the environment, the notion of an essential change and shift in America's role on the world stage AND having someone smarter, better looking and black in charge has got these people really, really fucked up.

It is like giving LSD to someone with some serious , but repressed, issues in their foundations. YOU take LSD, and you may get freaked out by the passing notion that "what if my bed BITES me?" and then chuckle about it... while avoiding your bed until the stuff passes. But someone not so grounded might burn the bed, Farrah Fawcett style.

Glen Beck reminds me of a college republican with potency issues who was accidentally slipped acid.

But yeah. It's in the air, the crazy. The noise machine is a part of it and an amplifier. But they are free to be so.

What galls me is that someone Apolitical like a Rupert Murdoch, who should know better, lets some of this stuff out on the air.

Amazing that in this time of ratcheted-up-crazy, Bill O'Rielly is even going, "Hey, fellers-- let's calm down a little, shall we?"

joshd-

You make a lot of good points, but a lot of points that you make are so far off and out there that I can't let them pass without comment.

"The reason these people are drawn to firearms in the first place is out of a semi-irrational fear. I have never met a gun enthusiast who did not have an essential, core-level existential TERROR about confrontations."

"With gun-dudes, the pathology runs deeper and grosser. It is a cliche to make the dick-size thing an issue and I think it is ultimately a bad argument. It isn't about dick-compensation, but it most certainly is about gaining a sense of *potency,* of mastery over issues of life and death--- most usually because they fear, on a crawling, infantile level, a lack of that potency."

Nice pyscho babble, but I wonder what gun owners you really cross paths with. Not many I'll bet. I happen to own several guns for trap and skeet shooting, which I have been doing since I've been 14. My friends and I enjoy it as a sport, and without going into a list of other exceptions to your statements, I'll just say you missed the target by a country mile. Oh, BTW we are not hunters, we don't shoot anything but clay.

I always get this "I bet you don't know many gun owners."

The implication being "what with the all the coffee house open mic slam poetry people and weekly Jainist bake-sales you go to."

Dude. I'm an American. I grew up in a rural town. I have relatives. I have *neighbors.* Guns are eeeeeverywhere.

And the guys who want them and want carry permits all-- to a MAN, my friend, will tell you how, exacty, they would stop a home invasion.

They're planning for it like a fantasy, and I'm not unsympathetic; everyone fantasizes, at some point, of being the action hero in daydreams. How YOU'D take down the guy who gets squirrely in a 7-11 and save the day. It is human.

But the difference between having the daydream and going out and acquiring a deadly-force weapon capable of death-dealing with a finger-stroke and CARRYING that weapon around, just in case?

Well, the closest nerd analogy I can come up with is it is the difference between being able to name most STAR TREK episodes and having, maybe, an old school communicator repica keychain vs. being one of those dudes that dresses up in full federation uniform and attends meetings of like-minded folk and assigns rank and such.

I'm not saying that there is no sport or skill involved. I'm actually pretty naturally good with a rifle and I'm awesome with a recurve bow (pulleys are for sissies) and used to be able to peg He-Man figures with a wrist-rocket from 60 feet. I get it. I know about the feeling of satisfaction one gets in lining up the perfect shot.

One ALSO gets the same feeling bowling a strike or sinking a fading jump shot. But guns, in addition to the sport they may carry as part of the dynamic, are different in that they are created for the express purpose of ending human life. That's just a fact-- it is the reason the gun was created. Target practice is, at a certain point, just training for that ultimate goal. I'm saying that being drawn to that-- specifically in the case of handgun owners-- speaks to a desire for a sense of *control* and potency. Not sex-potency, but control of a situation potency. And I do contend that a person who has that desire usually has it because they feel a lack of control, or a fear that they do not have that control, or could not get it otherwise.

But I'm talking about gun *enthusiasts.* I've known and know a lot of them, I can assure you. They've all got essential cracks in the foundation and, in some part, fantasize about the day they are going to get to use that gun in a righteous shooting against a boogeyman of a mugger or home-invader.

The more fringe-right-wing you get, that shifts from mugger/home-invader to "government DEA/ATF/UN New World Order."

one more thing that sort of irked me (no doubt in the same fashion that my remarks irked you)-- the "country mile" thing there at the end seemed to imply an essential urban disconnect you think I probably have from anything resembling country.

You couldn't be further from truth. I grew up on dairy farm with 300 head of cattle. I know from country miles.

JoshD,

I live in a rural area that went fire-engine red for McCain in the '08 election. Real Jesus & Gun country, and you're practically spot-on. Especially with this assessment:

And the guys who want them and want carry permits all-- to a MAN, my friend, will tell you how, exacty, they would stop a home invasion.
They're planning for it like a fantasy, and I'm not unsympathetic; everyone fantasizes, at some point, of being the action hero in daydreams. How YOU'D take down the guy who gets squirrely in a 7-11 and save the day. It is human.

In the meantime, AZDem, don't get your panties in a bunch. JoshD laid out a pretty accurate depiction of most gun-nuts. Thankfully you're not one of them and should realize these people make avid sportsman/responsible gun-owners like yourself look bad.

I live in the south and while I don't have any guns I know lots of people who do. My father had rifles growing up, but being on a military base, I never saw he had a handgun. That being said, I think josh is right. I went to high school with a lot of these guys and he nails it pretty accurately. However, again, the level of crazy is
way up. I don't blame beck or the others, but they are encouraging the crazy.

There is a certain segment of the gun-owning population that acts/thinks like that, yes. But to assume that ALL gun owners behave that way would be poor analysis. The reason you know they own guns is because of that attitude. Plenty of gun owners just plain have them, but since they don't make a point of bringing it up, you never find out.

Yes, it's easy to blame Glenn Beck, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't.

What about Dick Morris, who just this week said he understood wanting to kill federal officers?

The blood of these officers is on their hands. But it will never be on their consciences.

Tusz

I don't think anyone is assuming ALL gun owners are like that. I am not. The majority of the people around me are like that. It gives them all a bad name, agreed.

Just as all republicans aren't douchebags, just the ones we see on tv ratcheting up the crazy

You know what? I DO assume the majority of citizen handgun owners ARE like that.

If it is a Richter scale, some are on the low end and some on the high, but I do assume it is the same continuum, fueled by the same need for (and therefore lack of) a feeling of control, and that the handgun provides a dangerous and darkly comforting illusion of being in charge.

Don't get me wrong, on the day that zombie apocalypse occurs, I'll be sure to head over to my gun-nut-friend's house and see if he can't spare one or two, but until then, I'm not living my life planning for a zombie apocalypse.

There is definitely some bad craziness in the Merkin psyche right now. People teetering on the brink are now toppling over. (teeter toppling?) Bad economy, injustice, big mouthed politicians and media pukes spewing hate, fear, loathing, and readily available firearms are creating a lethal environment. In the last month we've had 2 mass shootings, 5 dead cops in Oakland, 3 dead cops in Pittsburg, and 5 kids murdered by their father. While we fuck around in Afghanistan and Iraq, the real terrorism is in the good old USA.

Dang, I always like to go on blogs and make fun of extremists of either side but there just don't seem to be any here. Ya I would agree that a heck of a lot of gun owners need therapy of some sort or another, but not all. The guy I got my concealed carry permit from was a paranoiac who definitely owned/carried firearms for reasons other than self-defense. I think he needed it to make himself feel like more of a man. Definitely gives the rest of us a bad name.