for those that keep hollering about the second ammendant

[aubiefifty 18,248]

Edited July 21, 2022 by aubiefifty

[aubiefifty 18,248]

Republicans Are Bending Over Backward To Blame Anything But Guns For Shootings — Here Are 19 Ridiculous Things They've Blamed Instead

Wed, July 20, 2022 at 10:16 PM·13 min read

In the wake of continued mass shootings, gun laws have become an increasingly contentious issue for many Americans.

Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

To many, the solution to mass shootings seems easy — ban assault rifles. Raise the age to purchase a gun. Require background checks for anyone looking to buy a gun.

Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

However, others feel that "blaming guns" is the wrong answer.* Instead, they're bending over backward to blame mass shootings on any number of other things. Here are just a few of the moronic comments they've made!

*I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that many of them receive money from the NRA.

1.ABORTION RIGHTS: When Missouri representative Billy Long was asked if there was any desire to look at doing things differently when it came to guns, he replied, "No one has been able to come up with any kind of suggestion that would have helped in any of these situations" and that "unfortunately, they're trying to blame inanimate objects for all of these tragedies."

Literally no one is saying guns get up and walk themselves to schools and fire on their own. That doesn't change the fact that adjusting gun laws would decrease mass shootings as it has in many other countries.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images

He then continued, "When I was growing up in Springfield, you had one or two murders a year. Now, we have two, three, four a week in Springfield, Missouri, so something has happened to our society, and I go back to abortion. When we decided it was OK to murder kids in their mother's wombs, life has no value to a lot of these folks."

I really wonder what the correlation is between people who have gotten abortions and mass shooters. Seeing as most mass shooters typically do not have a uterus...I'm gonna say it's pretty low. And does anyone remember a mass shooter who was super vocally pro-abortion?

Long does not appear to have apologized for or clarified these comments, and last month retweeted an article with a similar sentiment.

RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images

Listen to his words here:

2.WEED: Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently blamed mass shootings on the legalization of weed. “They are high on government-endorsed weed," Carlson said of mass shooters. "‘Smoke some more, it’s good for you...’” he seemed to imply the government says.

Janos Kummer / Getty Images

3.WOMEN IN GENERAL: Carlson also said young men commit mass shootings because "the authorities in their lives ― mostly women ― never stops lecturing them about their so-called privilege.”

4.SPECIFICALLY, WORKING WOMEN: Former New Hampshire Sen. Jim Rubens blamed mass shootings on the rise in working women in a 2009 blog post, and doubled down on the claim during his 2014 run for Senate.

"The collaborative, flexible, amorphously hierarchical American economy is shutting out ordinary men who were once the nation's breadwinners in living-wage labor and manufacturing jobs," he wrote in his blog. In defending these comments in 2013 to BuzzFeed News, he said that the loss of these jobs (linked to the rise of women in the workforce) "has increased stress in males" to the point where some "engage in acts of extreme violence." However, Rubens said he supported women in the workforce and that the solution to the issue he raised would be to increase manufacturing jobs, not decrease the number of working women. "If you read the ... posting, I don't see anything that causes anyone to conclude I'm seeking to in any way make a claim that it's not great that women have come up in the economy," he told BuzzFeed News. After the article was published, he took down the blog post.

Jim Cole / AP

5.MEDICATION: Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed mass shootings on medication, and said a "return to God" would solve the issue.

She also tweeted the next day that most school/mass shooters have "experienced severe trauma in childhood," are "susceptible to depression, anxiety, thought disorders," saying this leads them to medication. "Taking meds like SSRIs have dangerous side effects that can no longer be ignored. Among many other side effects they can cause suicidal and homicidal thoughts," she continued. "Most school/mass shooters have taken or recently stopped taking medications for mental illness."

While it is often true that childhood trauma is at play for mass shooters (this is not, however, to say that experiencing trauma in childhood means someone is going to act violently), and that SSRIs can have side effects like suicidal thoughts, especially in young people, the overgeneralizations Greene made and the implication that SSRIs are responsible for school shootings are largely baseless and confuse correlation with causation.

Jessica Mcgowan / Getty Images

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS: Taylor Greene also referenced "being raised in an American Godless culture that hates masculinity, demeans men, puts girls or trans above boys or turns boys into girls, [and] teaches fleshly desires over responsibility/work" as contributing to a "deadly recipe for mass murder."

It does not appear Taylor Greene ever walked back or apologized for these statements.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

6.DRAG QUEENS and GAY MARRIAGE: Former Ohio lawmaker Candice Keller blamed shootings on a number of things, including (but not limited to): drag queens, gay marriage, weed, open borders, and professional athletes who take a knee during the national anthem. Oh, and "snowflakes."

7.THE COVID-19 VACCINE: Patrick J. Brosnan, a retired NYPD detective and security analyst for many national news networks, said on Fox News that vaccinations would cause mass shootings.

"They were just scared to come out," Brosnan said, suggesting shooters were afraid of getting COVID-19 and once they were vaccinated, that fear would diminish and they'd be back.

Fox

Listen to the clip here:

8.SMARTPHONES: Texas Rep. Pat Fallon pointed out last month that guns have "always" been readily available, but that mass shootings are mostly a modern phenomenon. “So what’s changed in the last 50 years?" he asked.

Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“There’s been a noticeable breakdown of the family, there’s been an erosion of faith, and there’s been a seismic drop in social interaction in large measure due to the overuse of these dang smartphones and the proliferation of social media, which is probably better described as anti-social media," Fallon said.

9.MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA(??): Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker suggested in May that we should put more money toward the “mental health field,” suggesting a department be created to "look at young men that's looking at women that's looking on social media."

10."GODLESSNESS": After the El Paso and Dayton shootings, former Arkansas governor (and 2016 presidential hopeful) Mike Huckabee said the common denominator of shootings were not guns, but "hate inside the heart," a "loss of morality," and "disconnecting from a God who values all people."

In the past, he's also blamed school shootings on the lack of Christian curriculum in schools. “We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools,” Huckabee said on Fox News in 2012. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? Because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability — that we’re not just going to have [to] be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment. If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that.”

Steven Ferdman / Getty Images

11.DECLINING CHURCH ATTENDANCE: Just days after the Uvalde shooting, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gave a speech at the NRA convention and similarly blamed shootings on a lack of religion, among other things. "Tragedies like the events of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing. Looking at broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying, violent online content, desensitizing the act of murder in video games, chronic isolation, prescription drug and opioid abuse, and their collective effects on the psyche of young Americans," Cruz said.

Brandon Bell / Getty Images

12.VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES: Like Cruz, former president Trump also blamed shootings on video games. “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” he said in the wake of two mass shootings in one weekend in 2019. “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace."

Many studies done on the matter over the last few decades have turned up no solid evidence that violent video games cause shootings, though the theory continues to be touted by Republicans today.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

13.CRITICAL RACE THEORY: Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson blamed shootings on "wokeness" and critical race theory. “We stopped teaching values in so many of our schools. Now we’re teaching wokeness,” Johnson said in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. “We’re indoctrinating our children with things like CRT, telling, you know, some children they’re not equal to others and they’re the cause of other people’s problems.”

Critical race theory teaches how America's institutions, policies, and laws have been shaped by racism. Anchor Neil Cavuto replied to Johnson's comments on air, saying shootings were happening before CRT and "wokeness," but Johnson said that those things had been "going on under the radar for quite some time."

STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images

14.GUN REGULATIONS: Former Pennsylvania Sen. and presidential hopeful Rick Santorum blamed the El Paso shooting on the fact that unarmed people couldn't defend themselves, calling the Walmart shoppers "soft targets" that tempted a shooter.

Texas is an open carry state where the shoppers could've been armed, without the El Paso shooter being able to tell in order to target/not target them, so...this argument's pretty stupid.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

15.FATHERLESSNESS: Utah Sen. Mike Lee suggested that not having a father was to blame for shootings. "Why is our culture suddenly producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people?" Lee asked, saying, "it raises questions like, could fatherlessness, the breakdown of families, isolation from civil society, or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?"

There is no solid evidence that fatherlessness is to blame for gun violence.

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

16.LIBERAL TEACHERS: Heather Ann Sprague, a Republican candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, blamed the Uvalde shooting on "liberal teachers," seemingly in reference to a false claim that the Uvalde shooter was transgender.

Heather Anne Sprague / Facebook / Via facebook.com

“All I have to say is this is the result of what happens when kids are pushed past their limits. It's obvious he was brainwashed in school by liberal teachers to think he shouldn’t be a male. If this crap doesn’t stop, we will have more shootings because there are a lot more confused, fed up and now mentally ill kids out there thanks to the #publicschoolsystem THIS is why I have been TRYING to get the truth out about what the schools are doing to our youth because it’s DANGEROUS,” Sprague posted on Facebook.

She later posted an apology, writing, "I let my concern and some false information get the best of me."

Heather Anne Sprague / Facebook / Via Facebook: photo

17.SANCTUARY CITIES: Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe blamed shootings (like the Las Vegas shooting) on a culture of lawlessness created by the existence of sanctuary cities — where local law enforcements limit how much they'll enforce immigration law in their city.

"I’m saying we’re inundated with permissive laws — that has a lot more to do with it than gun [ownership] laws," Inhofe said.

Stefani Reynolds / Getty Images

18.BLACK PEOPLE: Arizona Senate candidate Blake Marsters blamed gun violence and shootings in the US in general on Black people. "It's gangs. It's people in Chicago, St. Louis shooting each other. Very often, you know, Black people, frankly. And the Democrats don't want to do anything about that."

He also said Democrats "don't like the Second Amendment" because "it frankly blocks a lot of their plans for us." Marsters released a statement standing by his comments after backlash over them. "Journalists only cover shootings where the shooters and victims fit a certain profile," Masters wrote. "But most victims of gun murder in America are Black men. And most perpetrators of gun murder in America are Black men. These are simple facts, go look up the FBI crime statistics and CDC cause of death data while you still can." He also said, "There's an epidemic of violence that’s killing young Black men in America," and he "actually want[s] to solve it."

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

19.And finally, ZOMBIES: Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin blamed shootings on violent television — specifically with zombies. “What’s the most popular topic that seems to be in every cable television network? Television shows are all about, what? Zombies! I don’t get it … now it's all about zombies. Which is what we are. We celebrate death."

Scott Olson / Getty Images

“When a culture is surrounded by, inundated by, rewards things that celebrate death, whether it is zombies in television shows, the number of abortions…there’s a thousand justifications for why we do this," Bevin said.

Bevin later made more general remarks after his zombie comments made the rounds on social media. “We have a cultural problem. We celebrate death in America. And we do not celebrate life. At every turn, we denigrate human life. We disregard the sanctity of human life from beginning to end and all these things have an effect, and we are reaping what we have sown for decades."

Scott Olson / Getty Images

[jj3jordan 2,171]

5 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

Republicans Are Bending Over Backward To Blame Anything But Guns For Shootings — Here Are 19 Ridiculous Things They've Blamed Instead

Wed, July 20, 2022 at 10:16 PM·13 min read

In the wake of continued mass shootings, gun laws have become an increasingly contentious issue for many Americans.

Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

To many, the solution to mass shootings seems easy — ban assault rifles. Raise the age to purchase a gun. Require background checks for anyone looking to buy a gun.

Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

However, others feel that "blaming guns" is the wrong answer.* Instead, they're bending over backward to blame mass shootings on any number of other things. Here are just a few of the moronic comments they've made!

*I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that many of them receive money from the NRA.

1.ABORTION RIGHTS: When Missouri representative Billy Long was asked if there was any desire to look at doing things differently when it came to guns, he replied, "No one has been able to come up with any kind of suggestion that would have helped in any of these situations" and that "unfortunately, they're trying to blame inanimate objects for all of these tragedies."

Literally no one is saying guns get up and walk themselves to schools and fire on their own. That doesn't change the fact that adjusting gun laws would decrease mass shootings as it has in many other countries.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images

He then continued, "When I was growing up in Springfield, you had one or two murders a year. Now, we have two, three, four a week in Springfield, Missouri, so something has happened to our society, and I go back to abortion. When we decided it was OK to murder kids in their mother's wombs, life has no value to a lot of these folks."

I really wonder what the correlation is between people who have gotten abortions and mass shooters. Seeing as most mass shooters typically do not have a uterus...I'm gonna say it's pretty low. And does anyone remember a mass shooter who was super vocally pro-abortion?

Long does not appear to have apologized for or clarified these comments, and last month retweeted an article with a similar sentiment.

RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images

Listen to his words here:

2.WEED: Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently blamed mass shootings on the legalization of weed. “They are high on government-endorsed weed," Carlson said of mass shooters. "‘Smoke some more, it’s good for you...’” he seemed to imply the government says.

Janos Kummer / Getty Images

3.WOMEN IN GENERAL: Carlson also said young men commit mass shootings because "the authorities in their lives ― mostly women ― never stops lecturing them about their so-called privilege.”

4.SPECIFICALLY, WORKING WOMEN: Former New Hampshire Sen. Jim Rubens blamed mass shootings on the rise in working women in a 2009 blog post, and doubled down on the claim during his 2014 run for Senate.

"The collaborative, flexible, amorphously hierarchical American economy is shutting out ordinary men who were once the nation's breadwinners in living-wage labor and manufacturing jobs," he wrote in his blog. In defending these comments in 2013 to BuzzFeed News, he said that the loss of these jobs (linked to the rise of women in the workforce) "has increased stress in males" to the point where some "engage in acts of extreme violence." However, Rubens said he supported women in the workforce and that the solution to the issue he raised would be to increase manufacturing jobs, not decrease the number of working women. "If you read the ... posting, I don't see anything that causes anyone to conclude I'm seeking to in any way make a claim that it's not great that women have come up in the economy," he told BuzzFeed News. After the article was published, he took down the blog post.

Jim Cole / AP

5.MEDICATION: Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed mass shootings on medication, and said a "return to God" would solve the issue.

She also tweeted the next day that most school/mass shooters have "experienced severe trauma in childhood," are "susceptible to depression, anxiety, thought disorders," saying this leads them to medication. "Taking meds like SSRIs have dangerous side effects that can no longer be ignored. Among many other side effects they can cause suicidal and homicidal thoughts," she continued. "Most school/mass shooters have taken or recently stopped taking medications for mental illness."

While it is often true that childhood trauma is at play for mass shooters (this is not, however, to say that experiencing trauma in childhood means someone is going to act violently), and that SSRIs can have side effects like suicidal thoughts, especially in young people, the overgeneralizations Greene made and the implication that SSRIs are responsible for school shootings are largely baseless and confuse correlation with causation.

Jessica Mcgowan / Getty Images

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS: Taylor Greene also referenced "being raised in an American Godless culture that hates masculinity, demeans men, puts girls or trans above boys or turns boys into girls, [and] teaches fleshly desires over responsibility/work" as contributing to a "deadly recipe for mass murder."

It does not appear Taylor Greene ever walked back or apologized for these statements.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

6.DRAG QUEENS and GAY MARRIAGE: Former Ohio lawmaker Candice Keller blamed shootings on a number of things, including (but not limited to): drag queens, gay marriage, weed, open borders, and professional athletes who take a knee during the national anthem. Oh, and "snowflakes."

7.THE COVID-19 VACCINE: Patrick J. Brosnan, a retired NYPD detective and security analyst for many national news networks, said on Fox News that vaccinations would cause mass shootings.

"They were just scared to come out," Brosnan said, suggesting shooters were afraid of getting COVID-19 and once they were vaccinated, that fear would diminish and they'd be back.

Fox

Listen to the clip here:

8.SMARTPHONES: Texas Rep. Pat Fallon pointed out last month that guns have "always" been readily available, but that mass shootings are mostly a modern phenomenon. “So what’s changed in the last 50 years?" he asked.

Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“There’s been a noticeable breakdown of the family, there’s been an erosion of faith, and there’s been a seismic drop in social interaction in large measure due to the overuse of these dang smartphones and the proliferation of social media, which is probably better described as anti-social media," Fallon said.

9.MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA(??): Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker suggested in May that we should put more money toward the “mental health field,” suggesting a department be created to "look at young men that's looking at women that's looking on social media."

10."GODLESSNESS": After the El Paso and Dayton shootings, former Arkansas governor (and 2016 presidential hopeful) Mike Huckabee said the common denominator of shootings were not guns, but "hate inside the heart," a "loss of morality," and "disconnecting from a God who values all people."

In the past, he's also blamed school shootings on the lack of Christian curriculum in schools. “We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools,” Huckabee said on Fox News in 2012. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? Because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability — that we’re not just going to have [to] be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment. If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that.”

Steven Ferdman / Getty Images

11.DECLINING CHURCH ATTENDANCE: Just days after the Uvalde shooting, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gave a speech at the NRA convention and similarly blamed shootings on a lack of religion, among other things. "Tragedies like the events of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing. Looking at broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying, violent online content, desensitizing the act of murder in video games, chronic isolation, prescription drug and opioid abuse, and their collective effects on the psyche of young Americans," Cruz said.

Brandon Bell / Getty Images

12.VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES: Like Cruz, former president Trump also blamed shootings on video games. “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” he said in the wake of two mass shootings in one weekend in 2019. “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace."

Many studies done on the matter over the last few decades have turned up no solid evidence that violent video games cause shootings, though the theory continues to be touted by Republicans today.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

13.CRITICAL RACE THEORY: Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson blamed shootings on "wokeness" and critical race theory. “We stopped teaching values in so many of our schools. Now we’re teaching wokeness,” Johnson said in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. “We’re indoctrinating our children with things like CRT, telling, you know, some children they’re not equal to others and they’re the cause of other people’s problems.”

Critical race theory teaches how America's institutions, policies, and laws have been shaped by racism. Anchor Neil Cavuto replied to Johnson's comments on air, saying shootings were happening before CRT and "wokeness," but Johnson said that those things had been "going on under the radar for quite some time."

STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images

14.GUN REGULATIONS: Former Pennsylvania Sen. and presidential hopeful Rick Santorum blamed the El Paso shooting on the fact that unarmed people couldn't defend themselves, calling the Walmart shoppers "soft targets" that tempted a shooter.

Texas is an open carry state where the shoppers could've been armed, without the El Paso shooter being able to tell in order to target/not target them, so...this argument's pretty stupid.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

15.FATHERLESSNESS: Utah Sen. Mike Lee suggested that not having a father was to blame for shootings. "Why is our culture suddenly producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people?" Lee asked, saying, "it raises questions like, could fatherlessness, the breakdown of families, isolation from civil society, or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?"

There is no solid evidence that fatherlessness is to blame for gun violence.

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

16.LIBERAL TEACHERS: Heather Ann Sprague, a Republican candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, blamed the Uvalde shooting on "liberal teachers," seemingly in reference to a false claim that the Uvalde shooter was transgender.

Heather Anne Sprague / Facebook / Via facebook.com

“All I have to say is this is the result of what happens when kids are pushed past their limits. It's obvious he was brainwashed in school by liberal teachers to think he shouldn’t be a male. If this crap doesn’t stop, we will have more shootings because there are a lot more confused, fed up and now mentally ill kids out there thanks to the #publicschoolsystem THIS is why I have been TRYING to get the truth out about what the schools are doing to our youth because it’s DANGEROUS,” Sprague posted on Facebook.

She later posted an apology, writing, "I let my concern and some false information get the best of me."

Heather Anne Sprague / Facebook / Via Facebook: photo

17.SANCTUARY CITIES: Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe blamed shootings (like the Las Vegas shooting) on a culture of lawlessness created by the existence of sanctuary cities — where local law enforcements limit how much they'll enforce immigration law in their city.

"I’m saying we’re inundated with permissive laws — that has a lot more to do with it than gun [ownership] laws," Inhofe said.

Stefani Reynolds / Getty Images

18.BLACK PEOPLE: Arizona Senate candidate Blake Marsters blamed gun violence and shootings in the US in general on Black people. "It's gangs. It's people in Chicago, St. Louis shooting each other. Very often, you know, Black people, frankly. And the Democrats don't want to do anything about that."

He also said Democrats "don't like the Second Amendment" because "it frankly blocks a lot of their plans for us." Marsters released a statement standing by his comments after backlash over them. "Journalists only cover shootings where the shooters and victims fit a certain profile," Masters wrote. "But most victims of gun murder in America are Black men. And most perpetrators of gun murder in America are Black men. These are simple facts, go look up the FBI crime statistics and CDC cause of death data while you still can." He also said, "There's an epidemic of violence that’s killing young Black men in America," and he "actually want[s] to solve it."

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

19.And finally, ZOMBIES: Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin blamed shootings on violent television — specifically with zombies. “What’s the most popular topic that seems to be in every cable television network? Television shows are all about, what? Zombies! I don’t get it … now it's all about zombies. Which is what we are. We celebrate death."

Scott Olson / Getty Images

“When a culture is surrounded by, inundated by, rewards things that celebrate death, whether it is zombies in television shows, the number of abortions…there’s a thousand justifications for why we do this," Bevin said.

Bevin later made more general remarks after his zombie comments made the rounds on social media. “We have a cultural problem. We celebrate death in America. And we do not celebrate life. At every turn, we denigrate human life. We disregard the sanctity of human life from beginning to end and all these things have an effect, and we are reaping what we have sown for decades."

Scott Olson / Getty Images

So what is your answer fiddy? Why does a person pick up a gun and start shooting people?  

[CoffeeTiger 5,876]

30 minutes ago, jj3jordan said:

So what is your answer fiddy? Why does a person pick up a gun and start shooting people?  

I'll answer this. It's Because bad people exist everywhere, but in America they have easy access to guns which are the most effective and efficient tool for killing and harming people available so that's why they pick up a gun. 

For societies that don't have regular shootings, it isn't because they don't have bad, sick, mentally ill people in their populations....it's because they don't provide easy access to guns. 

[wdefromtx 3,611]

Then what’s the solution? 
 

Ban practically all guns? 

[aubiefifty 18,248]

3 hours ago, jj3jordan said:

So what is your answer fiddy? Why does a person pick up a gun and start shooting people?  

the same reason someone wears a certain haircut or skintight jeans. because they are popular. and they are popular. wildly popular. most perps or even home owners know people fear those guns more than others is my take on it. and of course there is the mental aspect of this like mental illness. but me? i think it is anger. there is more anger in this country than i ever remember.  these folks think they are heroes doing the right thing to some people or peers if you will. people being convinced that the left AND the right are destroying this country and both sides have acted out tho i believe the right owns more than the lions share. there is no more agreeing to disagree now it is screw you buddy you get in my lane and i am gonna screw you up. we are all gangs or tribal to some degree and right now people are being taught to hate each other and i will believe that with my last breath. people are being taught by talking heads on television and politicians to lie their asses off instead of trying to be honest. little people are getting thrown under the bus. i dread to see america in a hundred years as i believe we will become a tent city. we have pols on both sides of the aisle making america worse instead of better while making sure that THEY get their own. so you decide to go to church. you find out most are political and many christian institutions are as corrupt as anything. you have preachers pulling in millions and they go buy property in bermuda instead of feeding the hungry and giving shelter with that money they took in the name of the lord. you know why gangs are so strong in this country? because they are treated better by their peers than their own country. i read a book on it that a british cop went to detroit as it was his dream and he discovered why. the gangs reach out and feed their own and all of that sort of thing because either by stupidity or corruption they are failing their people. i tried to give a few examples but it comes down in my eyes is anger. people are being convinced they are getting screwed and they are pissed. and some are. in fact it is probably more anger than mental illness.

[autigeremt 7,208]

12 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

I'll answer this. It's Because bad people exist everywhere, but in America they have easy access to guns which are the most effective and efficient tool for killing and harming people available so that's why they pick up a gun. 

For societies that don't have regular shootings, it isn't because they don't have bad, sick, mentally ill people in their populations....it's because they don't provide easy access to guns. 

They also don’t have the freedoms we have. We don’t treat the root causes we treat the symptoms. 

[jj3jordan 2,171]

10 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

the same reason someone wears a certain haircut or skintight jeans. because they are popular. and they are popular. wildly popular. most perps or even home owners know people fear those guns more than others is my take on it. and of course there is the mental aspect of this like mental illness. but me? i think it is anger. there is more anger in this country than i ever remember.  these folks think they are heroes doing the right thing to some people or peers if you will. people being convinced that the left AND the right are destroying this country and both sides have acted out tho i believe the right owns more than the lions share. there is no more agreeing to disagree now it is screw you buddy you get in my lane and i am gonna screw you up. we are all gangs or tribal to some degree and right now people are being taught to hate each other and i will believe that with my last breath. people are being taught by talking heads on television and politicians to lie their asses off instead of trying to be honest. little people are getting thrown under the bus. i dread to see america in a hundred years as i believe we will become a tent city. we have pols on both sides of the aisle making america worse instead of better while making sure that THEY get their own. so you decide to go to church. you find out most are political and many christian institutions are as corrupt as anything. you have preachers pulling in millions and they go buy property in bermuda instead of feeding the hungry and giving shelter with that money they took in the name of the lord. you know why gangs are so strong in this country? because they are treated better by their peers than their own country. i read a book on it that a british cop went to detroit as it was his dream and he discovered why. the gangs reach out and feed their own and all of that sort of thing because either by stupidity or corruption they are failing their people. i tried to give a few examples but it comes down in my eyes is anger. people are being convinced they are getting screwed and they are pissed. and some are. in fact it is probably more anger than mental illness.

So it makes them popular?

They are mentally ill?

They are angry?

They think they are heroes to somebody?

They don’t like the political climate?

Gangs treat their members better than the country does? Or better than their family.

You think these are the reasons people commit mass murder?

If true there are remedies to be made that do not include taking away peoples guns.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

23 hours ago, jj3jordan said:

So what is your answer fiddy? Why does a person pick up a gun and start shooting people?  

so lets hear your reason for all the shootings jj.

[jj3jordan 2,171]

8 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

so lets hear your reason for all the shootings jj.

It is evil perpetrated by satan manifested in humans who do not have God in their life in any form. The perps know it is wrong, illegal, and evil but their souls are inhabited by satan.  Part of the spiritual war ongoing for the souls of people.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

2 hours ago, jj3jordan said:

It is evil perpetrated by satan manifested in humans who do not have God in their life in any form. The perps know it is wrong, illegal, and evil but their souls are inhabited by satan.  Part of the spiritual war ongoing for the souls of people.

ok so satan snares some poor ol guy and he does something bad like murder or rape or molestation. suddenly everyone wants him to suffer and pay his debt to society but since the devil did it by trickery or possession why not lay hands on the guy and run the devil or demons or bad guys spirits off and let the person live a normal life? it never happens like that. i personally  believe the devil is nothing more than a scapegoat to blame for what evil men have done. just like some of you worship the bible and not jesus. anything bad i have ever done in my life had to do with me and not the devil. i will live this as my truth until someone proves otherwise. i had a dream a few years back during a time i was shattered and suicidal. in the dream jesus came to me in a place that is my favorite place in the whole world. he was very humble and told me to relax that everyone had it wrong and i was just fine in his eyes. now is that a truth or wishful thinking? i see very few christian role models anymore without any kind of agenda other than love. you love me jj? of course you don't. how you make jesus and trump work and think you are not betraying your faith is beyond me. so tell me you love me jj. you claim to be christian but you cannot can you? am i a perfect christian? not even close. but at almost 67 i am still looking and trying to make it all work for me. one thing i will not do is claim i am something i am not. but i have yet to give up and i hope to see the pieces all fit together before i leave this earth. but at the end of the day with all the hate i see coming from religions i might not get an answer before i go.

on the guns who tells those kids to go get guns and shoot up school and malls and clubs,etc? jesus is sure not telling them right?but his children ARE dying because of it. is it the devil causing this? all over a certain type of gun. i am sure jesus is still weeping because when you get to the lowest common denominator of gun ownership if you think he is siding with the right on guns you are crazy. he is crying about those babies and the needless loss and the people that refuse to change because their right trumps the life of a child and it is just that simple.

[jj3jordan 2,171]

21 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

ok so satan snares some poor ol guy and he does something bad like murder or rape or molestation. suddenly everyone wants him to suffer and pay his debt to society but since the devil did it by trickery or possession why not lay hands on the guy and run the devil or demons or bad guys spirits off and let the person live a normal life? it never happens like that. i personally  believe the devil is nothing more than a scapegoat to blame for what evil men have done. just like some of you worship the bible and not jesus. anything bad i have ever done in my life had to do with me and not the devil. i will live this as my truth until someone proves otherwise. i had a dream a few years back during a time i was shattered and suicidal. in the dream jesus came to me in a place that is my favorite place in the whole world. he was very humble and told me to relax that everyone had it wrong and i was just fine in his eyes. now is that a truth or wishful thinking? i see very few christian role models anymore without any kind of agenda other than love. you love me jj? of course you don't. how you make jesus and trump work and think you are not betraying your faith is beyond me. so tell me you love me jj. you claim to be christian but you cannot can you? am i a perfect christian? not even close. but at almost 67 i am still looking and trying to make it all work for me. one thing i will not do is claim i am something i am not. but i have yet to give up and i hope to see the pieces all fit together before i leave this earth. but at the end of the day with all the hate i see coming from religions i might not get an answer before i go.

on the guns who tells those kids to go get guns and shoot up school and malls and clubs,etc? jesus is sure not telling them right?but his children ARE dying because of it. is it the devil causing this? all over a certain type of gun. i am sure jesus is still weeping because when you get to the lowest common denominator of gun ownership if you think he is siding with the right on guns you are crazy. he is crying about those babies and the needless loss and the people that refuse to change because their right trumps the life of a child and it is just that simple.

People are responsible for their choices. That’s why they do the time. They made a choice to perpetrate evil. They could have decided not to act. Running off the demons, accepting Christ, is the answer. Does it remove the crime and punishment? No. We will all pay that price at death for our sins.  If you have Jesus in your heart your eternity is assured in heaven. 
 

Trump and Jesus do not have to work together. That is something you have created in your mind. I did not vote for Trump in the primary. In the general election my choices were Hillary and Trump.  There is no way I would ever vote for Hillary. Trump is obnoxious and bombastic and egotistical with many character no personality flaws. I have yet to see a candidate that is not guilty of most or all of those.
 

Do I love you? Yes. Do I love the things you say and believe? No.  It hurts me inside when I see the way you talk about God, Jesus, Christians. ICHY and Homer too. Even though I don’t know you it hurts to know that if you died today that based on your comments you could be eternally separated from God. And I and others have a chance every day to witness to you. 
 

God created the world and it was perfect. Satan entered the world and sin was introduced. God allows us to have free will to choose our path. Please..don’t reject Him.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

9 minutes ago, jj3jordan said:

People are responsible for their choices. That’s why they do the time. They made a choice to perpetrate evil. They could have decided not to act. Running off the demons, accepting Christ, is the answer. Does it remove the crime and punishment? No. We will all pay that price at death for our sins.  If you have Jesus in your heart your eternity is assured in heaven. 
 

Trump and Jesus do not have to work together. That is something you have created in your mind. I did not vote for Trump in the primary. In the general election my choices were Hillary and Trump.  There is no way I would ever vote for Hillary. Trump is obnoxious and bombastic and egotistical with many character no personality flaws. I have yet to see a candidate that is not guilty of most or all of those.
 

Do I love you? Yes. Do I love the things you say and believe? No.  It hurts me inside when I see the way you talk about God, Jesus, Christians. ICHY and Homer too. Even though I don’t know you it hurts to know that if you died today that based on your comments you could be eternally separated from God. And I and others have a chance every day to witness to you. 
 

God created the world and it was perfect. Satan entered the world and sin was introduced. God allows us to have free will to choose our path. Please..don’t reject Him.

i was baptised as a rug rat jj. and i believe in my heart jesus and i are fine. it is man i have a problem with. i do not believe jesus would have anything to do with hate. and we are teaching others to hate in something that should be beautiful and full of love. i do not trust the bible as the word of god and this is my problem. i mean we murdered the son of god so folks tampering with the bible is very reasonable to me. King James changed several hundred things in the bible if google  is to be believed. and how many texts have been deemed unfit to put in the bible while others stay?in my eyes the bible is not even complete anyway. we have already been at this point once and god drowned the world. truths have to fit my heart and if they do not fit then i do not except them. i grew up in a world of blood and anger. i have seen my mother slumped up against the door of a car with blood streaming down her face. i was beaten with a belt and while i was locked in a room crying my sister was being molested in another room. it took me a while of figuring it all out after my sis confessed she was molested repeatedly at nine and ten years old. she disappeared for years other than drunken rages in the middle of the night on the phone because of what was done to her. we did not know what happened and why until she was in her fifties and even then she was so hurt she could not tell my mother what was done. and you know how all this happened? my father ran off and left us and we were struggling. he came into her office time and again and showed his pay stubs and told her we would never struggle or go hungry again. she believed him and married him for us so we would have nicer things and not miss meals. then the horror started. even then we missed the molesting part but mom found belt marks on my back.after that i get confused because he was still around almost a year before he was run off. it absolutely destroyed my sister and she lived a life of addiction of booze and pills.when she finally got her act together which included being saved she died.and very quickly after that.she got cancer and chemo stopped a pill ravaged heart. i ended up homeless and what got me through was joining the military. my point is through all this time i clung to jesus and not the bible. i still have a ton of issues including being quick to anger. and almost like i slap in the face i discovered head meds made me suicidal so i quit them. i had no choice. and now my family is gone. i had family on my fathers side but i was dropped because my mother claimed we did not get child support when i was a baby. so they dropped me. not wanted. go away. so i did. they did not even have the grace to tell me my father had passed away. my mother found out by accident over two years after the fact. my point in all of this is the bible did not get me through it was jesus. without his help i am dust and long gone from this world. i am not lying when i say it has been hard. i admire the fact you can love me jj because there are times i hate myself but i have made it this far and i hope to figure it out before my time is done. i will probably struggle with this the rest of my life. but i do want to say i have gotten better and life has as well. but it was jesus and some friends that got me through. you see any holes in my beliefs throw them out there but to be honest i never understood most of the bible. so i cling to jesus and love as the higher law. i am still carrying that anger. this is why when i see someone hurting folks when they are in position to do great good i get angry most of the time because i have been on the hurting end of hurt and anger and to be honest it hurts. sad is it not? reduced to venting on a political board to people i barely know because i have no family to vent to and most of my friends have gotten worn down over the years. thanx for an honest answer jj.

[gr82be 14,912]

55 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i do not believe jesus would have anything to do with hate

You are correct

55 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i do not trust the bible as the word of god

I refer you to Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower. jj3 was trying to say that Satan can creep into your thoughts and lives and represent things that seem good and right and a person can justify all the want to about why they do or don't do something. The bottom line is that the Word is there for the reading and if you don't understand it the first time, the 25th time or the 250th time, as believers we must be true to our faith. I don't understand every scripture but there are times when that light comes on and I think how could I not have seen that all this time. My point is, do not turn away from the word of God because of some people who make you doubt their sincerity. Jesus does love but he wasn't tolerant of sin. He just loved the sinner wanting better for them. 

Sorry for the long post but I wish I could tell you my testimony and what God has done for me the past 11 years. Just don't think this is the best forum for it. He is life changing and my life has been like watching dominos fall in line for several years now. 

Appreciate and love you fifty. 

 

[creed 1,790]

10 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

i was baptised as a rug rat jj. and i believe in my heart jesus and i are fine. it is man i have a problem with. i do not believe jesus would have anything to do with hate. and we are teaching others to hate in something that should be beautiful and full of love. i do not trust the bible as the word of god and this is my problem. i mean we murdered the son of god so folks tampering with the bible is very reasonable to me. King James changed several hundred things in the bible if google  is to be believed. and how many texts have been deemed unfit to put in the bible while others stay?in my eyes the bible is not even complete anyway. we have already been at this point once and god drowned the world. truths have to fit my heart and if they do not fit then i do not except them. i grew up in a world of blood and anger. i have seen my mother slumped up against the door of a car with blood streaming down her face. i was beaten with a belt and while i was locked in a room crying my sister was being molested in another room. it took me a while of figuring it all out after my sis confessed she was molested repeatedly at nine and ten years old. she disappeared for years other than drunken rages in the middle of the night on the phone because of what was done to her. we did not know what happened and why until she was in her fifties and even then she was so hurt she could not tell my mother what was done. and you know how all this happened? my father ran off and left us and we were struggling. he came into her office time and again and showed his pay stubs and told her we would never struggle or go hungry again. she believed him and married him for us so we would have nicer things and not miss meals. then the horror started. even then we missed the molesting part but mom found belt marks on my back.after that i get confused because he was still around almost a year before he was run off. it absolutely destroyed my sister and she lived a life of addiction of booze and pills.when she finally got her act together which included being saved she died.and very quickly after that.she got cancer and chemo stopped a pill ravaged heart. i ended up homeless and what got me through was joining the military. my point is through all this time i clung to jesus and not the bible. i still have a ton of issues including being quick to anger. and almost like i slap in the face i discovered head meds made me suicidal so i quit them. i had no choice. and now my family is gone. i had family on my fathers side but i was dropped because my mother claimed we did not get child support when i was a baby. so they dropped me. not wanted. go away. so i did. they did not even have the grace to tell me my father had passed away. my mother found out by accident over two years after the fact. my point in all of this is the bible did not get me through it was jesus. without his help i am dust and long gone from this world. i am not lying when i say it has been hard. i admire the fact you can love me jj because there are times i hate myself but i have made it this far and i hope to figure it out before my time is done. i will probably struggle with this the rest of my life. but i do want to say i have gotten better and life has as well. but it was jesus and some friends that got me through. you see any holes in my beliefs throw them out there but to be honest i never understood most of the bible. so i cling to jesus and love as the higher law. i am still carrying that anger. this is why when i see someone hurting folks when they are in position to do great good i get angry most of the time because i have been on the hurting end of hurt and anger and to be honest it hurts. sad is it not? reduced to venting on a political board to people i barely know because i have no family to vent to and most of my friends have gotten worn down over the years. thanx for an honest answer jj.

Thank you for your testimony. Jesus and LOVE will prevail. 

 

 

[aubiefifty 18,248]

14 hours ago, gr82be said:

You are correct

I refer you to Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower. jj3 was trying to say that Satan can creep into your thoughts and lives and represent things that seem good and right and a person can justify all the want to about why they do or don't do something. The bottom line is that the Word is there for the reading and if you don't understand it the first time, the 25th time or the 250th time, as believers we must be true to our faith. I don't understand every scripture but there are times when that light comes on and I think how could I not have seen that all this time. My point is, do not turn away from the word of God because of some people who make you doubt their sincerity. Jesus does love but he wasn't tolerant of sin. He just loved the sinner wanting better for them. 

Sorry for the long post but I wish I could tell you my testimony and what God has done for me the past 11 years. Just don't think this is the best forum for it. He is life changing and my life has been like watching dominos fall in line for several years now. 

Appreciate and love you fifty. 

 

i have friends watching me. i have had folks lay hands on me twice. my name is in several prayer circles. i had a favorite t shirt with jesus that said hope on it and i wore it out. i admit to being gun shy because i do not think like most people and i understand this. my love for jesus is a constant and it got me to start helping folks who are elderly and cannot drive among other things. right now i think i am fine with jesus. i am usually never without a cross but i gave my fav cross to a close friend who keeps having heart problems. now i feel totally naked. i will probably buy the cross of sorrows payday on ebay. it is a reminder of love when i might not deserve it and a symbol to do better.................thanks for replying

[icanthearyou 4,468]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

i have friends watching me. i have had folks lay hands on me twice. my name is in several prayer circles. i had a favorite t shirt with jesus that said hope on it and i wore it out. i admit to being gun shy because i do not think like most people and i understand this. my love for jesus is a constant and it got me to start helping folks who are elderly and cannot drive among other things. right now i think i am fine with jesus. i am usually never without a cross but i gave my fav cross to a close friend who keeps having heart problems. now i feel totally naked. i will probably buy the cross of sorrows payday on ebay. it is a reminder of love when i might not deserve it and a symbol to do better.................thanks for replying

I believe you are a kind, humble, generous, gentle, loving human being.  Moreover, I believe you are genuine/authentic. 

I wish there were more people like you.  You have my deepest respect and admiration.