Ho-Hum, Another Mass Shooting

jonathanschmock.com
Oh look, another mass shooting, this one at Umpqua College in Oregon. Let me see if I know the script:

"I'm offering my thoughts and prayers."

"More people are killed in automobile accidents. Or by cancer."

"Criminals don't follow the law."

"2nd Amendment."

"Background checks (or some other regulation) wouldn't have stopped this incident."

"Now is not the time."





So one at a time:

I'm offering my thoughts and prayers.
That's wonderful. Mass shootings still seem to be happening though. I don't think your thoughts and prayers are doing anything.

More people are killed in automobile accidents. Or by cancer.
I've got a ton of thoughts to this. First of all, as a nation we seem to be more than willing to work at improving automobile safety. And we also are willing to fund cancer research. But we're totally unwilling to tackle anything to do with firearms.

I've heard the argument that the number killed in mass shootings (or any kind of shooting) is relatively low. Certainly compared to cancer deaths. But compared to other nations...
Washington Post 2012
That's awful. And demonstrably preventable. Moreover, beyond ending individual lives and devastating families, if the United States can be said to have a soul, this is making our soul rot.

Criminals don't follow the law.
Of course they don't. And yet we're willing to make other things illegal.


2nd Amendment.
The interpretation that the 2nd Amendment gives an individual right to bear arms is relatively new And to be honest, in my opinion, a bunch of jiggery pokery, argle bargle applesauce. At the time the Bill of Rights was ratified people were worried that standing armies would be used to replace the militias of the several states.

Beyond that, we're clearly willing to apply some limits to the Bill of Rights. Freedom of Speech exists but it is nevertheless regulated. Your freedom of religion does not permit human sacrifice. Very few believe there should be a right to own a nuclear warhead. And Congress seems ok with banning guns from the US Capitol.

Background checks (or some other regulation) wouldn't have stopped this incident.
Automobile safety standards came incrementally. Unless the US were to perform an outright ban on personal ownership of firearms and enforce it, changes to the law to reduce gun violence will come incrementally as well. It is possible to create a suite of laws which, together, reduce gun violence. I've heard a number of good ideas. These include requiring insurance on firearms, holding sellers criminally liable if they sell without following procedure, and mandating background checks.

Also, these would need to be at the Federal level. I keep hearing how Chicago has restrictive gun laws yet high levels of gun violence. Apparently criminals know how to leave the city to get guns.

Now is not the time.
I know. I mean we did nothing after a bunch of kids were slaughtered.


I don't imagine we'll ever be like a European country with low levels of individual gun ownership. But one would hope we'd at least try to find ways to reduce massacres.


Image credits

http://jonathanschmock.com/dear-congress/



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Image
Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG,  Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889  when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day). Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein.  Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons  which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent.  With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works b...
Keep reading

Stepping Away and a New Beginning

Image
After maintaining this blog for nearly seven years (an eternity in internet time), I've decided to step away from it. When I first began I wasn't 100% certain what it would be about. For a while I thought it would be a blog related to OSR type RPGs but I found my own tastes not firmly rooted there. Looking at the history of the blog, I see a lot of Call of Cthulhu which is hardly surprising. However, some lack of consistency definitely made it tough for me find a defined niche and over the past few months I've been giving some thought to starting a new, more narrowly focused blog. The imminent end of Google+ played a part in these thoughts, with much of my traffic coming from that site. I write because I enjoy writing, but I do enjoy growing an audience. My plan to start a narrowly-focused blog took a turn when I had the opportunity to join the  Rolling Boxcars  blog. Talking with the contributors (one of whom I game with on Discord already) and going through thei...
Keep reading

Using the Force in D6 Star Wars

Image
Defending yourself with just 1D in Sense is not easy, as Luke discovers when training with a remote. My previous post discussed the proto-D6 System as found in the Ghostbusters RPG. For those unfamiliar with the D6 System and the way it does the Force (or for a brief review) the essentials are: You roll a bunch of six sided dice against a target number, typically ranging from 5-ish (easy) to 20 or even higher. Your rating is listed as something like 2D+2 which means roll 2d6+2. By default, most normal/non-heroic people have 2D in most stats.  Starting heroes will might have their best skill be at 5D or a touch higher. You can take as many actions as you want in a round. However, taking two actions in a round reduces all dice codes by 1D, taking three reduces all by 2D, etc. Starting with Force skills will lower a characters starting attributes. Unlike most skills they start off at 1D. There are three Force skills - control, sense, and alter. Control lets you contr...
Keep reading

Developing Boston for 1920s Call of Cthulhu

Image
While Chaosium has produced sourcebooks for many locations in Lovecraft Country (Kingsport, Arkham, and Innsmouth) as well as non-fictional cities of the 1920s (such as New York City and New Orleans), the nearby city of Boston, while being featured in many adventures, has never received its own full sourcebook. The most common era for my Call of Cthulhu  games has been in the 1920s - some campaigns have been in New York City while others have been in Lovecraft country. For those in Lovecraft Country, many adventures have been in nearby Boston. Over the years I've slowly been building up some expertise in the area and I thought it might be of interest to others gaming in the same setting - whether with Mythos horrors or a purely mundane game. First, let us investigate those official sources. While Boston has found its way into many adventures, I can think of two sources where it has been given a fair amount of detail. First, The Unspeakable Oath  double issue 16/17 has ...
Keep reading

Balancing Classes in Swords and Wizardry

Image
DM: "The box is the size of a small trunk; it is latched but not locked."  Dougal: "I'm looking for traps on the box."  DM (rolling for Dougal's "find traps" ability. The roll indicates that Dougal has failed to find the poisoned needle in the latch.) "You don't find a trap."  Morgan (the group's leader): "Black Dougal will open the box."  DM: "Black Dougal, you find out that you missed a tiny discolored needle in the latch. Roll a saving throw vs. Poison, please!"  Dougal (rolling): "Missed it!"  DM: "Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."  Fredrik: "I'm grabbing his pack to carry treasure in." Game balance. It's a tricky concept in RPGs. D&D 3rd and 4th editions made a very strong effort to balance the character classes with one another as well as to balance encounters. For my purposes, they went too far. A...
Keep reading