Shooting in Las Vegas @ Jason Aldean Concert

[Ulysees E. McGill]

There are 30,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms, and this number is not disputed. U.S. population 324,059,091 as of Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Do the math: 0.000000925% of the population dies from gun related actions each year. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant! What is never told, however, is a breakdown of those 30,000 deaths, to put them in perspective as compared to other causes of death:

• 65% of those deaths are by suicide which would never be prevented by gun laws
• 15% are by law enforcement in the line of duty and justified
• 17% are through criminal activity, gang and drug related or mentally ill persons – gun violence
• 3% are accidental discharge deaths

So technically, "gun violence" is not 30,000 annually, but drops to 5,100. Still too many? Well, first, how are those deaths spanned across the nation?
• 480 homicides (9.4%) were in Chicago
• 344 homicides (6.7%) were in Baltimore
• 333 homicides (6.5%) were in Detroit
• 119 homicides (2.3%) were in Washington D.C. (a 54% increase over prior years)

So basically, 25% of all gun crime happens in just 4 cities. All 4 of those cities have strict gun laws, so it is not the lack of law that is the root cause.

This basically leaves 3,825 for the entire rest of the nation, or about 75 deaths per state. That is an average because some States have much higher rates than others. For example, California had 1,169 and Alabama had 1.

Now, who has the strictest gun laws by far? California, of course, but understand, so it is not guns causing this. It is a crime rate spawned by the number of criminal persons residing in those cities and states. So if all cities and states are not created equally, then there must be something other than the tool causing the gun deaths.

Are 5,100 deaths per year horrific? How about in comparison to other deaths? All death is sad and especially so when it is in the commission of a crime but that is the nature of crime. Robbery, death, rape, assault all is done by criminals and thinking that criminals will obey laws is ludicrous. That's why they are criminals.

But what about other deaths each year?
• 40,000+ die from a drug overdose–THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THAT!
• 36,000 people die per year from the flu, far exceeding the criminal gun deaths
• 34,000 people die per year in traffic fatalities(exceeding gun deaths even if you include suicide)

Now it gets good:
• 200,000+ people die each year (and growing) from preventable medical errors. You are safer in Chicago than when you are in a hospital!

• 710,000 people die per year from heart disease. It’s time to stop the double cheeseburgers! So what is the point? If Obama and the anti-gun movement focused their attention on heart disease, even a 10% decrease in cardiac deaths would save twice the number of lives annually of all gun-related deaths (including suicide, law enforcement, etc.). A 10% reduction in medical errors would be 66% of the total gun deaths or 4 times the number of criminal homicides......Simple, easily preventable 10% reductions!

So you have to ask yourself, in the grand scheme of things, why the focus on guns? It's pretty simple.:
Taking away guns gives control to governments.

The founders of this nation knew that regardless of the form of government, those in power may become corrupt and seek to rule as the British did by trying to disarm the populace of the colonies. It is not difficult to understand that a disarmed populace is a controlled populace.

Thus, the second amendment was proudly and boldly included in the U.S. Constitution. It must be preserved at all costs.

So the next time someone tries to tell you that gun control is about saving lives, look at these facts and remember these words from Noah Webster: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force at the command of Congress can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power."

Remember, when it comes to "gun control," the important word is “control," not “gun."

Awesome

 

[Grand Vol]

One of the members of my company is among the deceased from this tragic event. We learned of his death the day after and also learned he was the sole source of income for his family. An excerpt from the notification we got:

It wasn’t until 1242 that I received confirmation from METRO’s Lead Homicide Officer that Erick had died at Sunrise Hospital. I was told Erick was assisting and trying to help people escape over the barricade when he was shot in the face. My soul is deeply saddened to know this because Erick was such a proud young man who took the burden on his shoulders to care for his mother and father. He was the leader of his family. His smile was contagious, his commitment and attitude was phenomenal, and his passion for helping others while proudly serving as a security officer with CSC was unmatched! This kid would do EVERYTHING and ANYTHING we asked of him. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as they go through the pain of grieving. I’m not sure what they will do as Erick was the sole provider and did everything for them.

If anyone would like to donate, there is a Gofundme page to help his family during this time of despair.

Fundraiser by Jay Purves : Eric Silva

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Jason Aldean opened Saturday Night Live with Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down. Good call by somebody at NBC.

Jason Aldean Opens ‘Saturday Night Live’ With Tribute To Las Vegas Victims | Deadline

 

[Big Orange Jeff]

There are 30,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms, and this number is not disputed. U.S. population 324,059,091 as of Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Do the math: 0.000000925% of the population dies from gun related actions each year. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant! What is never told, however, is a breakdown of those 30,000 deaths, to put them in perspective as compared to other causes of death:

<major snippage>

Remember, when it comes to "gun control," the important word is “control," not “gun."

Did you fact check any of this before you cut and pasted it, or are you simply repeating it uncritically?

 

[ACvol3]

Mass shootings? They aren't going to stop until we crack down hard on guns and gun sales in this country. Fact. There are vast numbers of mentally unbalanced people in this country (and around the world), and if you give them easy access to guns--handguns and military style weapons--this is what you get, and this is what we've been getting for years. DUH. But conservatives kinda, really want to pretend it's not a problem because they sure do like their guns. Let's not pretend otherwise. This is not political---this is common sense.

What they really should do is just make killing people illegal, then all the bad guys would stop killing people, right?

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

So things still don't add up...now it's been confirmed that the security officer was the FIRST person shot....So he shot the security guard in the hall way then went on a 11 minute killing spree before police knew where he was??

 

[bignewt]

Jason Aldean opened Saturday Night Live with Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down. Good call by somebody at NBC.

Jason Aldean Opens ‘Saturday Night Live’ With Tribute To Las Vegas Victims | Deadline

Except he butchered the song.

 

[JFreak]

So things still don't add up...now it's been confirmed that the security officer was the FIRST person shot....So he shot the security guard in the hall way then went on a 11 minute killing spree before police knew where he was??

I don't understand why people keep saying this. Obviously there was a breakdown in comms between the security guard that was shot and the hotel as well as the hotel and the police. Doubt they will release the details of those breakdowns until the investigation is over for obvious force protection reasons. Those 16 minutes were absolute chaos all over the strip. Multiple false reports of active shooters at various hotels. Furthermore, police had to climb 32 flights of stairs in Mandalay Bay while clearing rooms from the 29th floor on up. That takes time. Getting to the room 11 minutes after the shooting began was miraculously fast.

 

[doozer]

I don't understand why people keep saying this. Obviously there was a breakdown in comms between the security guard that was shot and the hotel as well as the hotel and the police. Doubt they will release the details of those breakdowns until the investigation is over for obvious force protection reasons. Those 16 minutes were absolute chaos all over the strip. Multiple false reports of active shooters at various hotels. Furthermore, police had to climb 32 flights of stairs in Mandalay Bay while clearing rooms from the 29th floor on up. That takes time. Getting to the room 11 minutes after the shooting began was miraculously fast.

Not to mention the fact you can’t just bust through a door with literallly no clue who or what is on the other side.

This isn’t the movies.

 

[OldandStillaVol]

One of the members of my company is among the deceased from this tragic event. We learned of his death the day after and also learned he was the sole source of income for his family. An excerpt from the notification we got:



If anyone would like to donate, there is a Gofundme page to help his family during this time of despair.

Fundraiser by Jay Purves : Eric Silva

Thanks for posting. Sounds like a fine young man - sorry for his family and your company's loss.

 

[JFreak]

Not to mention the fact you can’t just bust through a door with literallly no clue who or what is on the other side.

This isn’t the movies.

Exactly. To add onto that he was probably using some sort of battery operated VHF communications device to radio his boss. Any myriad of failures could have occurred and caused that to not work from 32 floors up. At that point maybe the security guard felt it best to move back to a safe position and ensure the suspect didn't leave the room.

 

[armchair]

There are 30,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms, and this number is not disputed. U.S. population 324,059,091 as of Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Do the math: 0.000000925% of the population dies from gun related actions each year. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant! What is never told, however, is a breakdown of those 30,000 deaths, to put them in perspective as compared to other causes of death:

• 65% of those deaths are by suicide which would never be prevented by gun laws
• 15% are by law enforcement in the line of duty and justified
• 17% are through criminal activity, gang and drug related or mentally ill persons – gun violence
• 3% are accidental discharge deaths

So technically, "gun violence" is not 30,000 annually, but drops to 5,100. Still too many? Well, first, how are those deaths spanned across the nation?
• 480 homicides (9.4%) were in Chicago
• 344 homicides (6.7%) were in Baltimore
• 333 homicides (6.5%) were in Detroit
• 119 homicides (2.3%) were in Washington D.C. (a 54% increase over prior years)

So basically, 25% of all gun crime happens in just 4 cities. All 4 of those cities have strict gun laws, so it is not the lack of law that is the root cause.

This basically leaves 3,825 for the entire rest of the nation, or about 75 deaths per state. That is an average because some States have much higher rates than others. For example, California had 1,169 and Alabama had 1.

Now, who has the strictest gun laws by far? California, of course, but understand, so it is not guns causing this. It is a crime rate spawned by the number of criminal persons residing in those cities and states. So if all cities and states are not created equally, then there must be something other than the tool causing the gun deaths.

Are 5,100 deaths per year horrific? How about in comparison to other deaths? All death is sad and especially so when it is in the commission of a crime but that is the nature of crime. Robbery, death, rape, assault all is done by criminals and thinking that criminals will obey laws is ludicrous. That's why they are criminals.

But what about other deaths each year?
• 40,000+ die from a drug overdose–THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THAT!
• 36,000 people die per year from the flu, far exceeding the criminal gun deaths
• 34,000 people die per year in traffic fatalities(exceeding gun deaths even if you include suicide)

Now it gets good:
• 200,000+ people die each year (and growing) from preventable medical errors. You are safer in Chicago than when you are in a hospital!

• 710,000 people die per year from heart disease. It’s time to stop the double cheeseburgers! So what is the point? If Obama and the anti-gun movement focused their attention on heart disease, even a 10% decrease in cardiac deaths would save twice the number of lives annually of all gun-related deaths (including suicide, law enforcement, etc.). A 10% reduction in medical errors would be 66% of the total gun deaths or 4 times the number of criminal homicides......Simple, easily preventable 10% reductions!

So you have to ask yourself, in the grand scheme of things, why the focus on guns? It's pretty simple.:
Taking away guns gives control to governments.

The founders of this nation knew that regardless of the form of government, those in power may become corrupt and seek to rule as the British did by trying to disarm the populace of the colonies. It is not difficult to understand that a disarmed populace is a controlled populace.

Thus, the second amendment was proudly and boldly included in the U.S. Constitution. It must be preserved at all costs.

So the next time someone tries to tell you that gun control is about saving lives, look at these facts and remember these words from Noah Webster: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force at the command of Congress can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power."

Remember, when it comes to "gun control," the important word is “control," not “gun."

Your post is a classic example of right-wing paranoia. You contend that the government might want to take away guns "to control us." Get real. Control us how? Did it occur to you that getting rid of guns might be a solution to an obvious PROBLEM and has nothing to do with the government "controlling us"? Apparently not. Are you one of those conspiracy-minded people who thought some sort of Army exercise in Texas two or three years ago was the prelude of a government military takeover under Obama? Recall how that got the pro-gun crowd all hot and bothered--laughable.

Prior to the mid-1980s, I believe the 2nd amendment was not interpreted by the Supreme Court in the way it is today--it was not construed as allowing individual gun ownership. But the court switched its majority opinion in the mid-1980s and after. I'm not sure why the shift occurred--maybe it had something to do with the makeup of the Supreme Court, which sadly has become more politicized. The 2nd amendment CLEARLY puts gun ownership in the context of the country needing "well-regulated militias," because that's all we had at the time for community defense. Those are the very first words in the amendment--and they are obviously there for a reason. There was no police or FBI or army in the 1770s. To say the country has changed, times have changed, would be a massive understatement. You're not out on the Plains fighting off native Americans or bandits, though of course gun owners want to pretend that they will save the day with their weapons should a group of Isis fighters parachute into their back yard in Des Moines. The idea that you need a gun for self-defense is cheap BS peddled by an despicable industry lobby--the NRA--for decades. The NRA is in the business of promoting gun making and gun selling--and the self-defense argument as worked pretty well with the Bubbas, who fancy themselves--in their dreams--saving us from bad guys, if they don't shoot themselves or some innocent person first.

Also, state and local gun regulations don't stop violence because many guns are brought into one state from another.

And what in the world do health statistics have to do with gun violence? If the government were more activist, we'd probably have lots less heart disease, cancer and diabetes, not to mention deaths by gun violence. We've got a nation of grossly unhealthy fat people that cost the country's medical system a fortune to treat--and yet conservatives are always fighting attempts to promote healthy eating. We wouldn't want to prevent big food conglomerates from pushing products loaded with sugar on people, would we? That would be limiting their FREEDOM, right? Better to ignore problems and watch them grow, right? Wrong: The good of society outweighs individual freedom--that's why we have laws and regulations. NOTICE how we solve no problems in America any longer because right-wing goofs are always fighting attempts to solve problems in the name of "freedom." Guns are example number one. Republicans have always got some lame excuse for not tackling a problem--whether it is pollution or income inequality...or massacres.

If we had no guns in America, we'd be FAR safer. Nobody can dispute that. And yet we have a bunch of goofs who subscribe to this idea of, well, gun ownership is more important that protecting the lives of the American people. That is patent nonsense.

 

[armchair]

The police tend to be overly cautious, in my view--and very worried about their own safety in addition to the safety of others. It took the police 3 hours and 15 minutes to get inside Columbine High School, which was absurd and resulted in the death of a teacher who would have been saved with a more expedient intervention. The police later defended the delay by saying that they were worried about booby traps and hostages and this and that....you can worry about contingencies until the cows come home; sometimes, somebody needs to show some courage and act.

 

[JFreak]

The police tend to be overly cautious, in my view--and very worried about their own safety in addition to the safety of others. It took the police 3 hours and 15 minutes to get inside Columbine High School, which was absurd and resulted in the death of a teacher who would have been saved with a more expedient intervention. The police later defended the delay by saying that they were worried about booby traps and hostages and this and that....you can worry about contingencies until the cows come home; sometimes, somebody needs to show some courage and act.

SOPs exist for a reason. And anyone who has ever put on a uniform has shown infinitely more courage than you could ever hope to muster.

 

[Dudleys87]

Your post is a classic example of right-wing paranoia. You contend that the government might want to take away guns "to control us." Get real. Control us how? Did it occur to you that getting rid of guns might be a solution to an obvious PROBLEM and has nothing to do with the government "controlling us"? Apparently not. Are you one of those conspiracy-minded people who thought some sort of Army exercise in Texas two or three years ago was the prelude of a government military takeover under Obama? Recall how that got the pro-gun crowd all hot and bothered--laughable.

Prior to the mid-1980s, I believe the 2nd amendment was not interpreted by the Supreme Court in the way it is today--it was not construed as allowing individual gun ownership. But the court switched its majority opinion in the mid-1980s and after. I'm not sure why the shift occurred--maybe it had something to do with the makeup of the Supreme Court, which sadly has become more politicized. The 2nd amendment CLEARLY puts gun ownership in the context of the country needing "well-regulated militias," because that's all we had at the time for community defense. Those are the very first words in the amendment--and they are obviously there for a reason. There was no police or FBI or army in the 1770s. To say the country has changed, times have changed, would be a massive understatement. You're not out on the Plains fighting off native Americans or bandits, though of course gun owners want to pretend that they will save the day with their weapons should a group of Isis fighters parachute into their back yard in Des Moines. The idea that you need a gun for self-defense is cheap BS peddled by an despicable industry lobby--the NRA--for decades. The NRA is in the business of promoting gun making and gun selling--and the self-defense argument as worked pretty well with the Bubbas, who fancy themselves--in their dreams--saving us from bad guys, if they don't shoot themselves or some innocent person first.

Also, state and local gun regulations don't stop violence because many guns are brought into one state from another.

And what in the world do health statistics have to do with gun violence? If the government were more activist, we'd probably have lots less heart disease, cancer and diabetes, not to mention deaths by gun violence. We've got a nation of grossly unhealthy fat people that cost the country's medical system a fortune to treat--and yet conservatives are always fighting attempts to promote healthy eating. We wouldn't want to prevent big food conglomerates from pushing products loaded with sugar on people, would we? That would be limiting their FREEDOM, right? Better to ignore problems and watch them grow, right? Wrong: The good of society outweighs individual freedom--that's why we have laws and regulations. NOTICE how we solve no problems in America any longer because right-wing goofs are always fighting attempts to solve problems in the name of "freedom." Guns are example number one. Republicans have always got some lame excuse for not tackling a problem--whether it is pollution or income inequality...or massacres.

If we had no guns in America, we'd be FAR safer. Nobody can dispute that. And yet we have a bunch of goofs who subscribe to this idea of, well, gun ownership is more important that protecting the lives of the American people. That is patent nonsense.

It must be real nice in your fantasy land &#128514;

 

[Dudleys87]

The police tend to be overly cautious, in my view--and very worried about their own safety in addition to the safety of others. It took the police 3 hours and 15 minutes to get inside Columbine High School, which was absurd and resulted in the death of a teacher who would have been saved with a more expedient intervention. The police later defended the delay by saying that they were worried about booby traps and hostages and this and that....you can worry about contingencies until the cows come home; sometimes, somebody needs to show some courage and act.

This is why things would end up 1 of 2 ways with you:

You’d be dead in the first couple minutes

Or

Be responsible for the loss of x number of lives because of your actions.

 

[Dudleys87]

SOPs exist for a reason. And anyone who has ever put on a uniform has shown infinitely more courage than you could ever hope to muster.

I would genuinely hope that most people know, by now, that it takes strategy and timing to accomplish anything. You can’t run in like Rambo and expect to come back a hero.

 

[golfballs]

.