Another shooting

I was just reading this. No fatalities confirmed at this time - lets hope it stays that way.

The latest from the WP is that 11 were injured and a deputy is in hospital with the gunman dead inside. The bar was full of students according to this report.

Just keeps happening

I'm watching the news conference now and there are at least 11 dead including an officer and the shooter. I can't even anymore...

They are saying 13 dead now, and expect the number to rise.

It’s so sad. Listening to the witnesses of this horrible event, made me choke up. I can’t imagine. 

I am going to say something unpopular about this tragedy, and others like it.

They need to start releasing the hard to look at pictures from events like this. The American public needs to be smacked in the face with what events like this actually looks like. Simply seeing survivors stand around in blankets with the blinking police and ambulance lights in the background while they cry and are in shock is not enough to cause change. Nothing ever gets done with images like that. All they do is prompt people to say “oh that is so sad. Thoughts and prayers”. Nothing ever changes until people start seeing the graphic nature of what is actually taking place. I strongly feel that if people saw what a massacre truly looks like, THEN we will have mass outrage over the lack of gun control in this country. And THEN MAYBE the politicians will start to have real conversations with meaningful and hopefully effective results in this country.

My heart is broken (again) for the kids who were victims and for those who had to witness this. This has got to stop.

I sadly agree w/you.  If the faces of those babies at Newtown didn't do it, if the 58 FIFTY-#($*#ING-EIGHT at the Vegas concert didn't do it, I don't think anything will help.  Except the older generation passing away and the younger generation voting in greater numbers. 

I see what you're saying pierkiss, but what about the victims' families? And if the families gave permission, then their unsuspecting friends? I think it might be effective for a little while, but then people would become desensitized to the images before any real change could occur. Because with all of the illegal guns, and the legal but shouldn't be guns and ammunition hoards out there...this is going to be a long, long battle.

TBH, my mom and I have talked about this. She remembers that it was the video footage and photos during the Vietnam war, displayed on the nightly news, that really got people motivated to act in protest of the war. So, you have a point. 

people will always be angry and sick and hurt innocent people. knives can kill people (and i am so sorry for PPs son's friend, so very tragic). but knives cannot kill 58 people from a hotel window hundreds of feet away. or 13 people through a smoky nightclub.

not sure releasing the photos is good enough either. i think people will be angry and gun supporters will feel like they are being bullied and double down even harder.

unfortunately, the only hope is see is either with the next generation saying "enough" and being brave, strong and relentless enough to force change.

or for it to be *so* commonplace that avid gun supporters start losing their loved ones and seeing the devastation first hand.

let's see if that clueless dope in the white house has someone write a coherent statement for him or if he blathers on his ridiculousness.

Trollie: I agree with what you said about trump. I don’t think he’s clueless. He just doesn’t care about people.

Simplistic for sure, but if you can't ban guns, ban ammunition. At least make it really difficult to obtain ammunition. Something has to work.

Yes, this is what led my thinking here. Child labor laws didn’t change until a photographer went into the factories and the mines and started taking pictures of those kids working in deplorable conditions. He released the images to the media, and then a conversation began about what was right and what was wrong concerning children and work. Those images directly led to a fundamental change in how we view childhood and our expectations of what children should and should not do.

When the war in Vietnam started, the country as a whole was for it. It wasn’t until brave photojournalists got their real, unposed and uncensored photos published in the media hat the tide turned. Once those images came out and the real horrors of what was going on over there were shown to the public, support dwindled, protests increased, and we eventually got the hell out of there.

The turtle with the plastic straw stuck up its nose! My god, look at the outrage and the backlash and immediate change that one graphic video and still images has recently caused! Because of that viral video, we suddenly have people and restaurants calling for an all out ban on plastic straws, or switching to paper or biodegradable or aluminum/reusable straws. All because of a short video depicting the pain a poor turtle went through getting that straw out of its face. We were all smacked in the face by the fact that our disposable ways directly caused that situation, and now there is an actual movement to make a positive change so that this isn’t a frequent occurrence.

I absolutely believe that the same would happen with gun control in this country if the populace had to view the actual reality of what it means to be a mass shooting victim. When one is confronted with images of the college girls body ripped apart from multiple bullet wounds, or a child with half his jaw blown off his tiny face, it becomes a lot harder to simply say, “oh thoughts and prayers for those poor victims” and then go on with your day. When you are confronted with a powerful image, emotions run higher, and a desire to ACTUALLY make a change takes place. It’s harder to hide behind ones deeply held convictions and interpretations when you have to look at the actual reality of a situation and see the devestation it’s caused.

Simply reading about it is not enough. There are a lot of people in this country who are not reading. They might read a headline or two on twitter or some random news source, but they’re not reading a whole article detailing events. The nightly news isn’t giving graphic details. They’re providing an overview of what happened, and showing sanitized images of victims crying. It’s not enough. It’s easy to avoid the issue when you don’t have the whole picture. I just think if we saw the whole picture, proactive changes could take place.