Another shooting in the US…….

[yssie]

Uvalde Shooter Fired Outside School for 12 Minutes Before Entering

As police detailed new timeline of mass shooting at elementary school, residents expressed frustration about the time it took for law enforcement to end the shooting. Videos circulated on social media showing parents confronting police outside the building.

www.wsj.com

It's mostly people talking about what they saw right now.
But the notion that we don't actually have a gun problem is so patently absurd that it doesn't even merit discussion. We can all see whose pockets the NRA is lining.
Ugh. Back to nice and distracting bling.

 

[Calliecake]

@Mreader, This video has been shown on other credible news sources. The pain these parents were experiencing was excruciating.

I’ve watched a lot of the press conferences that have been held in Uvalde. There does seem to be a gap in time that is unaccounted for. It took police an hour to get into the school. People are wondering if children could have been saved.

 

[MrsBlue]

The briefing given by police today didn't do much to clarify the situation. Here are some sources:

Police face questions over their response to Texas school massacre

The gunman in the Texas school massacre barged unchallenged through an unlocked door, then killed 19 children and two teachers while holed up in their classroom for an hour before a tactical team stormed in and killed him, police said on Thursday.

www.reuters.com

Gunman's final 90 minutes fuel questions about police delays

Texas authorities say the gunman who massacred 21 people at an elementary school was in the building for over an hour before he was killed by law enforcement officers.

apnews.com

 

[Lookinagain]

What I heard on the news was that there were some police in the school within 4 minutes but it took the tactical team about an hour to arrive and they are the ones who killed the shooter.

 

[Calliecake]

I would have been livid if I came to the school and there were many armed officers outside and they weren’t going into the school. It was easy to see why the parents were so angry and trying to go into the school. They wanted to rescue their children.

The fact that it took an hour for the tactile team to get to the school is unacceptable. Texas has NO gun laws. They also don’t have adequate plans in place for how to handle a situation like this. It’s time for this state to quit focusing on abortion and take a look at what living, breathing children need. They can set up hotlines, call for bounties on anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion and yet fail so miserably when it comes to having everything in place in case of a school shooting.

Watching old white men talk about this not being about guns with a smile on their face is enough to make a person feel physically ill.

 

[yssie]

Uvalde Shooter Fired Outside School for 12 Minutes Before Entering

As police detailed new timeline of mass shooting at elementary school, residents expressed frustration about the time it took for law enforcement to end the shooting. Videos circulated on social media showing parents confronting police outside the building.

www.wsj.com

It's mostly people talking about what they saw right now.
But the notion that we don't actually have a gun problem is so patently absurd that it doesn't even merit discussion. We can all see whose pockets the NRA is lining.
Ugh. Back to nice and distracting bling.

None of the irritation in this post is aimed at you @Mreader, I'm sorry. Please excuse the rough edges. Long day for everyone I know.

 

[Mreader]

Uvalde Shooter Fired Outside School for 12 Minutes Before Entering

As police detailed new timeline of mass shooting at elementary school, residents expressed frustration about the time it took for law enforcement to end the shooting. Videos circulated on social media showing parents confronting police outside the building.

www.wsj.com

It's mostly people talking about what they saw right now.
But the notion that we don't actually have a gun problem is so patently absurd that it doesn't even merit discussion. We can all see whose pockets the NRA is lining.
Ugh. Back to nice and distracting bling.

Absolutely I’m just mainly wondering about the timeframe and if it really took almost an hour to respond. If so that’s unacceptable and makes the situation even more horrific than it already is.

 

[Mreader]

@Mreader, This video has been shown on other credible news sources. The pain these parents were experiencing was excruciating.

I’ve watched a lot of the press conferences that have been held in Uvalde. There does seem to be a gap in time that is unaccounted for. It took police an hour to get into the school. People are wondering if children could have been saved.

Totally unacceptable and so awful.

 

[Calliecake]

Totally unacceptable and so awful.

This whole situation is just so unbelievably sad. @Mreader, I’ve been so emotional about this the past few days. I apologize if I sounded harsh. I didn’t think I did, but if I did, I’m really sorry.

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

I'm only going to say this. I can't respond as is truly befitting because I might offend living sensibilities. What a privilege that must be. To be living. My grief and my anger is an unending testament to the incalculable loss. This is the direct result of one large faction and being hamstrung from stating the obvious and placing well deserved blame where it belongs is why our children are, and will continue to be, in mortal danger every day. They will die, and we apparently tolerate it. If there was ever an example of evil, this is it. Those considerations protecting the bottom line/status quo of unaffected people are more important. As it stands, America cannot say we love our children. We love money and we love death. We worship guns. The gun is greater than any of our gods. This only happens here. Why? I suppose after the thousands of children sacrificed on the altar of the gun that it must be because they love their children more. There is no other answer.

 

[Lookinagain]

if there was ever an example of evil, this is it.

you took the words right out of my mouth. What is wrong with our country that this can be tolerated over and over again? I'm constrained from voicing my opinion here, other than to say that political ego and financial gains are at the root of it. As well as stupidity.

 

[Matata]

As it stands, America cannot say we love our children.

The Supreme Court and pro lifers love them only when in utero....

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

The Supreme Court and pro lifers love them only when in utero....

Not even then.

 

[aljdewey]

Those "wares" are videos of parents begging a strong LE presence for something to happen whilst their children are murdered inside a school.

I know what the video were depicting. I'm saying the context they are being presented in by the NY Post is sensationalist to its core, to the extent of being exploitative.

As for the parents begging for something to happen.......something was happening. A LOT of something. There were LE officers inside the school.....taking fire , evacuating students, and pinpointing the location of the threat and assess the best plan to minimize loss of life. They were doing all of that simultaneously.

I cannot even imagine the horror those parents were experiencing, out of their minds with abject fear. That doesn't mean it would have been sound judgment to send every single LE officer as a chaotic swell into the building. An unorganized, chaotic response would nearly guarantee a higher casualty count.

The strong LE presence outside the building.....they weren't doing nothing. They were doing their job - to secure the perimeter, protect civilians, and make sure their colleagues trying to stop the situation were not hindered.

The barricade is there for a reason, and their job is to maintain that clear work field by whatever means necessary. Do I like that distraught parents were cuffed or tackled? Of course not, but I do understand that the job of the LE officers outside is to secure the area by whatever means are required.

As for the Senator's comments - he's full of what makes grass grow. Of COURSE lack of adequate gun regulation contributes heavily to this issue.

Something IS very wrong here.......but it isn't a lack of effort on the part of law enforcement. And if none of that adds up for you, there's nothing more I can say.

Heartsick parents have been on video for years begging for something to happen. LE officers aren't the barrier - legislators are. https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwor...parents-offer-emotional-testimony-gun-hearing

 

[Barkingatstrangers]

I hope I don't make this worse for anyone following this thread; I'm venting here because I can't post this anywhere else online. Please bear with me; the last couple days have been hard.

A few years ago, I was at the scene of a school shooting in a professional capacity. I remember one girl telling me about hiding from the gunman, hearing her best friend trapped out in the open as he stalked her, saying there was shooting, and her friend screaming and screaming. Then there was a shot, and there was no more screaming.

And that was BEFORE gun safety started to get rolled back even more in the U.S. The
state that's a moment's drive across the border from there now has some of the laxest gun safety laws in the US. Today, parents here are beside themselves with fear for their kids. And not one of the local school officials will answer our questions about school safety. They are hiding in their offices when children in their schools don't even have a safe place to hide in their classrooms from armed gunmen.
I don't know what to do anymore.

 

[Lookinagain]

And here's the next case before the SC that makes things like this even more scary, based on some thoughts that the court will declare that the NY law is unconstitutional.

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen​

The Supreme Court's Next Big Gun Case, Explained

The case sets the stage for a major shift in gun laws. Here's what it's about, and how a ruling could reverberate across the country.

www.thetrace.org

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen

www.law.cornell.edu

 

[yssie]

I know what the video were depicting. I'm saying the context they are being presented in by the NY Post is sensationalist to its core, to the extent of being exploitative.

As for the parents begging for something to happen.......something was happening. A LOT of something. There were LE officers inside the school.....taking fire , evacuating students, and pinpointing the location of the threat and assess the best plan to minimize loss of life. They were doing all of that simultaneously.

I cannot even imagine the horror those parents were experiencing, out of their minds with abject fear. That doesn't mean it would have been sound judgment to send every single LE officer as a chaotic swell into the building. An unorganized, chaotic response would nearly guarantee a higher casualty count.

The strong LE presence outside the building.....they weren't doing nothing. They were doing their job - to secure the perimeter, protect civilians, and make sure their colleagues trying to stop the situation were not hindered.

The barricade is there for a reason, and their job is to maintain that clear work field by whatever means necessary. Do I like that distraught parents were cuffed or tackled? Of course not, but I do understand that the job of the LE officers outside is to secure the area by whatever means are required.

As for the Senator's comments - he's full of what makes grass grow. Of COURSE lack of adequate gun regulation contributes heavily to this issue.

Something IS very wrong here.......but it isn't a lack of effort on the part of law enforcement. And if none of that adds up for you, there's nothing more I can say.

Heartsick parents have been on video for years begging for something to happen. LE officers aren't the barrier - legislators are. https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwor...parents-offer-emotional-testimony-gun-hearing

You know what, you're right.

I've always stuck up for LE. From where I'm sitting, from everything our various outlets have revealed thus far, it does look like in this instance LE bungled and innocents paid the price. But we don't know everything that happened yet. We don't know for sure. Large portions of the who, what, and when are still missing.

So you're right, we wait before we pass judgment, because that's the right thing to do.

 

[OreoRosies86]

I disagree but everyone is allowed their opinion

You needn’t worry, no one is going to lose their guns. Nothing was done after Sandy Hook, nothing will be done now.

 

[kenny]

**no political fighting, removed by moderator**

They'll just be replaced by other pro-gun politicians who want the power and prestige of office.
The problem is not politicians, it's the voting citizens demanding easy access to lots of guns, big macho guns That can hold a zillion rounds, can fire nearly 1000 rounds per minute, and dripping with testosterone.

 

[Jambalaya]

I am also very rural & there are a lot of shotgun owners, including the farmers to protect livestock, but the farmers I know have NEVER had to discharge their guns.

Around here there are organised Pheasant shoots (to keep the population under control) but they are well planned & well publicised within the village so that everyone is aware. At the end of it, the shotguns go back into the locked cabinets & the vilages get given the birds if they want any.

Full background checks, police checks & mental health assessments are mandatory here. If you wobble on any of these & the system shows you legally own a shotgun for hunts, they will simply turn up & confiscate it.

I think people who want to be violent will find a way, guns or no. The bomb at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester comes to mind. And the IRA didn't need guns - they just used bombs, too.

Guns can be very useful for self-defense. We only hear about the tragedies; the homeowner who shot an intruder - or merely frightened them off with warning shots - doesn't generally get talked about.

If there was more access to mental-health services, perhaps guns would not fall into the wrong hands.

Also, I agree that assault weapons should be banned. A small handgun for self-defense is one thing, but the availability of these assault/semi-automatic weapons is crazy.

I'm not sure that banning all guns outright is the answer. As a woman, I like to know that I could carry a small handgun for self-defense if I wanted. The amount of times I've been scared by a man hassling me on the street, and it made me feel so, so powerless. I would feel less like that if I had a gun. I mean, I don't have one - I'm not trained, I'm clumsy, and guns scare me. But I like having the right to defend myself, and I feel bad for women in other countries who have to put up with the constant danger posed by a small subsection of men in society but who don't have the option of having a small handgun for self-defense.

 

[Lookinagain]

This is probably a foolish statement, but I do think it sometimes. If we quit letting the groups who represent interests that are dangerous to society, like the gun lobby, tobacco lobby, etc. lobby for their special interests and the corporations who hire them quit making unlimited (now) political donations, maybe that would help. I honestly don't know why we permit lobbying at all. And if all political donations had to come out of an individuals pocket, we might see a bit of a change. Again, maybe a foolish thought, but I'll throw it out there anyway.

 

[Jambalaya]

I find it incomprehensible that I send my kids to school, or the cinema and maybe that’s the last time I’ll see them due to some random gun violence.

Or maybe I go to the subway and then die cos I’m Asian and become a victim of some random hate crime.

Or a police will randomly arrest me and sit on me and I die from not being able to breath.

Or if I’m raped I will have no control over my body and whether I want to have a child.

Counting my blessings that it’s not like that where I live.

Believe it or not, 300 million people live here and the things above don't happen to most of them.

As if other countries don't have terrorists and bombs and rapes and murders, even if they may not have guns.

The US is a completely amazing country in so many ways. The natural beauty here is astounding and the people are so warm and friendly, and there are tons of opportunities plus so much space, which means a lower cost of living than in many parts of Europe, and MUCH more living space. I don't think a few nutters should blind us to the many wonderful things about the States. What I love best about it is its wild beauty.

Sorry, but I just had to stick up for my own country when you wrote how glad you were that it's not like that "where I live." Millions of people in the States live very good lives, and due to the amount of opportunities here and the low cost of living, it's more possible to have a good life here than in many other developed countries, and if you have a modicum of brains and work ethic, then an AMAZING life is significantly more within reach here than most places. The news that comes out about the occasional nutter doing terrible things belies how great day-to-day life is here. Many parts of the States have amazing weather, and we have it all - mountains prairies, gorgeous lakes, white-sand beaches and turquoise waters. So no need to turn your nose up at my country.

And I thought you might find this of interest, just to demonstrate that other countries aren't exactly perfect in all the ways you mention, either.

"I Had an Abortion - and My Experiences Shows How Broken the UK System Truly Is."

I had an abortion – and my experience shows how broken the UK system truly is

When she found out she was pregnant, Maya Oppenheim knew that, like thousands of women, she could face difficulties trying to have a termination. But what she discovered were problems at every stage of a process that experts warn is at breaking point

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Calliecake]

You know what, you're right.

I've always stuck up for LE. From where I'm sitting, from everything our various outlets have revealed thus far, it does look like in this instance LE bungled and innocents paid the price. But we don't know everything that happened yet. We don't know for sure. Large portions of the who, what, and when are still missing.

So you're right, we wait before we pass judgment, because that's the right thing to do.

Watching the press conference today was extremely disturbing. Questions were not answered. There needs to be a thorough investigation into what happened. The parents of these children have a right to know the truth, whatever that is. This doesn’t add up and I sincerely hope you are correct @aljdewey. I’m hoping what happened is not another added layer of horrific in this horrendous tragedy.

 

[missy]

"

21 lost lives​ ​

Maite Rodriguez, her mother’s only daughter, dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.​

Tess Marie Mata played the same position on her softball team — second base — as her favorite Houston Astros player.​

Layla Salazar sang “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” by Guns N’ Roses, with her father on their morning drives to school.​

Xavier Lopez made the honor roll on Tuesday, which would turn out to be the last day of his life.​

The 19 children killed that day at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were both typical and extraordinary. To read their life stories — as journalists and family members compile them this week — is devastating. We think that it’s also necessary, as a tribute to the children and an acknowledgment of the toll of this country’s unique gun violence.​

Today’s newsletter contains photographs and a brief sketch of each of the 19 children. It includes the same for the two Robb teachers murdered in the attack: Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia. You can read more by clicking on the links below.​

From left: Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, Amerie Jo Garza, Tess Marie Mata and Jose Flores.​

Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10: Alexandria, who went by Lexi, played softball and basketball and wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up. Her parents saw her make the honor roll with straight A’s and receive a good-citizen award at her school on the day she was killed.​

Amerie Jo Garza, 10: Amerie was “a jokester, always smiling,” her father said. She liked playing with Play-Doh and spending time with friends during recess. “She was very social,” he said. “She talked to everybody.”​

Tess Marie Mata, 10: Tess liked TikTok dance videos, Ariana Grande and getting her hair curled, The Washington Post reported. And she loved José Altuve, the diminutive Houston Astros star whose position she emulated. She was saving money for a family trip to Disney World once her older sister, Faith, graduated from college next year.​

Jose Flores: “My little Josesito,” his grandfather called him. He was an energetic baseball and video-game enthusiast. In a photo his grandfather keeps in his wallet, Jose has a beaming smile and wore a T-shirt reading, “Tough guys wear pink.”​

From left: Miranda Mathis, Maite Rodriguez, Makenna Lee Elrod, Xavier Lopez​

Miranda Mathis, 11: Miranda “was very loving and very talkative,” the mother of a close friend told The Austin American-Statesman. Miranda would often ask the mother to do her hair like her friend’s.​

Maite Rodriguez, 10: Maite dreamed of attending Texas A&M University to become a marine biologist, a cousin wrote on Facebook: “She was her mom’s best friend.”​

Makenna Lee Elrod, 10: Makenna liked to sing and dance, play with fidget toys and practice softball and gymnastics, an aunt told ABC News. She also loved animals, and hiding notes for her family to find. She recently gave her friend Chloe a friendship bracelet.​

Xavier Lopez, 10: An exuberant baseball and soccer player, Xavier also chatted on the phone with his girlfriend and made the honor roll. “He was funny, never serious,” his mother, Felicha Martinez, told The Washington Post. “That smile I will never forget. It would always cheer anyone up.”​

From left: Eliana “Ellie” Garcia, Layla Salazar, Eliahana Cruz Torres, Alithia Ramirez​

Eliana Garcia, 9: The second-eldest of five girls, Ellie helped around the house, reminding her grandparents to take their pills, helping mow the lawn and babysitting her younger sisters, her grandfather told The Los Angeles Times. She loved “Encanto,” dancing for TikTok videos, cheerleading and basketball.​

Layla Salazar, 10: Layla also liked dancing to TikTok videos, and she won six races at the school’s field day, her father told The Associated Press. She and her dad would sing every morning on their drive to school.​

Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10: Eliahana played softball and particularly looked forward to wearing her green and gray uniform, along with eye black grease. The final game of the season was scheduled for Tuesday, and she was hoping to make the Uvalde All-Star team.​

Alithia Ramirez, 10: Alithia loved to draw. She wanted to become an artist, her father told a San Antonio TV station. After a car struck and killed her best friend last year, Alithia sent his parents a drawing of him sketching her portrait in heaven and her sketching his portrait on earth.​

From left: Jackie Cazares, Annabelle Rodriguez, Jailah Silguero, Jayce Luevanos​

Jackie Cazares and Annabelle Rodriguez were cousins in the same class. Jackie was the social one. “She always had to be the center of attention,” her aunt said. “She was my little diva.” Annabelle was quieter. But the girls were close — so close that Annabelle’s twin sister, who was home-schooled, “was always jealous.”​

Jailah Silguero, 10: Jailah was the youngest of four children, the “baby” of the family, her father said. Her mother told Univision that Jailah liked to dance and film videos on TikTok.​

Jayce Luevanos, 10: Jayce, Jailah’s cousin, would brew a pot of coffee for his grandparents every morning, his grandfather told USA Today. Friends would come over to his house, a block from the school, to play in the yard. He enjoyed making people laugh, another relative told The Daily Beast.​

From Left: Uziyah Garcia, Nevaeh Bravo, Rojelio Torres​

Uziyah Garcia, 9: Uziyah enjoyed video games and football. His grandfather told The Los Angeles Times that Uziyah “was the type of kid [who] could get interested in anything in five minutes. Just the perfect kid, as far as I’m concerned.”​

Nevaeh Bravo, 10: “She’s flying with the angels now,” a cousin wrote on Twitter.​

Rojelio Torres, 10, was “intelligent, hard-working and helpful,” his aunt told a San Antonio television station.​

From left: Eva Mireles, Irma Garcia​

Eva Mireles, 44: “She loved those children,” a neighbor said. Mireles had worked for the school district for about 17 years. She enjoyed running and hiking. “She was just very adventurous and courageous and vivacious and could light up a room,” a relative told ABC News.​

Irma Garcia, 46: Garcia spent 23 years at Robb Elementary, five of them as Mireles’s co-teacher. She liked to sing along to classic rock tunes and help her nephew, a college student, with his homework. Garcia was known as a steadfast optimist. She enjoyed barbecuing with her husband of 24 years, Joe; he died yesterday, of a heart attack. "​

 

[missy]

"​

America’s Gun Problem​

More guns in the U.S. mean more deaths.

Prayers at Robb Elementary School.Credit...Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times



By German Lopez
Published May 26, 2022Updated May 27, 2022, 12:10 a.m. ET

"
In every country, people get into arguments, hold racist views or suffer from mental health issues. But in the U.S., it is easier for those people to pick up a gun and shoot someone.
That reality is what allowed an 18-year-old to obtain an assault rifle and kill 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. And it is what makes the U.S. a global outlier when it comes to gun violence, with more gun deaths than any of its peers.
This chart, looking at public shootings in which four or more people were killed, shows how much the U.S. stands out:

Number of mass shootings​

Developed countries, 1998-2019


Source: Jason R. Silva, William Paterson University
By The New York Times
In today’s newsletter, I want to walk through three ways to think about America’s gun problem.

The number of guns​

Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths. Studies have found this to be true at the state and national level. It is true for homicides, suicides, mass shootings and even police shootings.



It is an intuitive idea: If guns are more available, people will use them more often. If you replaced “guns” in that sentence with another noun, it would be so obvious as to be banal.
Stricter gun laws appear to help. They are associated with fewer gun deaths, in both a domestic and global context, while looser gun laws are linked with more gun deaths.

Gun ownership and homicide rates in developed countries​

Source: Small Arms Survey
By The New York Times
But federal laws are lax. Other developed countries typically require at least a license to own a gun, if they allow someone to get a firearm at all. In the U.S., even a background check is not always required to buy a gun — a result of poor enforcement and legal loopholes.

Reducing mass shootings​

The U.S. is always going to have more guns, and consequently more deaths, than other rich countries. Given the Second Amendment, mixed public opinion and a closely divided federal government, lawmakers face sharp limits on how far they can go.



But since America’s gun laws are so weak, there is a lot of room to improve — and at least cut some gun deaths.
To reduce mass shootings, experts have several ideas:

• More thorough background checks might stop some gunmen, like those in the church shootings in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 and in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017.
• “Red flag” laws allow law enforcement officials to confiscate guns from people who display warning signs of violence, like threatening their peers or family members. The laws might have applied to the gunman in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting in 2018.
• Assault weapon bans would restrict or prohibit access to the kinds of rifles shooters often use. A ban could at least make mass shootings less deadly by pushing gunmen toward less effective weapons, some experts argue.

But it is hard to say exactly how much impact these measures would have, because little good research exists on the effects of
gun policies on mass shootings. One unanswered question is whether a determined gunman would find a way to bypass the laws: If he can’t use an assault rifle, would he resort to a handgun or shotgun? That could make the shooting less deadly, but not stop it altogether.

The bigger problem​

Most shootings in America never appear in national headlines. The majority of gun deaths in 2021 were suicides. Nearly half were homicides that occurred outside mass shootings; they are more typical acts of violence on streets and in homes (and most involve handguns). Mass shootings were responsible for less than 2 percent of last year’s gun deaths.

Stricter gun laws could also reduce the more common gun deaths. It all comes down to the same problem: More guns equal more gun deaths, whether a gang shootout in California, a suicide in Wyoming or a school shooting in Texas.

The latest on the shooting​

• Details of the attack are still emerging. The gunman got into the school despite an armed security officer, and remained there for more than an hour before a tactical team entered and killed him.
• Officials have not released the names of the victims, but some of the children’s families have come forward. They loved to dance, play with Play-Doh and joke with friends. Read about their lives.
• The gunman had legally bought two AR-style rifles in the past week, the police said. He also texted an online friend that he was about to “shoot up” a school.
• In Uvalde, a small community where families go back generations, almost everyone seemed to know the victims.
• Senate Democrats pulled back from a quick vote on House-passed gun control bills, hoping to negotiate a bipartisan compromise that could overcome a filibuster.
• Here’s an age-by-age guide to talking with kids about mass shootings.

Opinions and analysis​

• The U.S. has lost the will to protect its citizens — women, racial minorities and especially children, Roxane Gay argues.
• On The Times’s “Sway” podcast, Nicholas Kristof and Frank Smyth discuss why liberals are losing the gun reform fight. Kristof thinks liberals should talk about “gun safety” rather than “gun control.”
• Australia, Britain and other countries tightened their gun laws after mass shootings. Amanda Taub explains why the U.S. is different. In those countries, restrictions led to less gun violence, Max Fisher writes.
• Changing America’s gun culture — not its gun laws — is the bigger challenge, Graeme Wood argues in The Atlantic.
• The Uvalde shooting defies easy policy solutions, Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes.
• We need to confront mental instability, social isolation and other cultural problems driving young men to violence, Kaylee McGhee White argues in The Washington Examiner.

"​

 

[icy_jade]

And I thought you might find this of interest, just to demonstrate that other countries aren't exactly perfect in all the ways you mention, either.

Of course there are pros and cons everywhere (unless you are rich enough for it not to matter anyway).

There are lists on best places to live in the world (some top hits from quick google search):

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/quality-of-life

The Best Countries To Live In And Work Abroad | William Russell

Thinking of moving abroad? Discover the best countries for foreign nationals, expats and digital nomads to live and work.

www.william-russell.com

Best Countries to Live In 2025

Discover population, economy, health, and more with the most comprehensive global statistics at your fingertips.

worldpopulationreview.com

World's Best Places To Live - Global Finance Magazine

Global Financeselects the world's 10 best cities to live in based on eight metrics, including cost of living, quality of life, andpandemic response.

www.gfmag.com

But fundamentally what I’m trying to express is what Mark Stone said:

Stone: "But why does this only happen in your country? I really think that's what many people around the world just -- they cannot fathom, why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?"

From: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/26/politics/ted-cruz-gun-laws-exchange/index.html

Am not from Uk by the way.

 

[OreoRosies86]

Of course there are pros and cons everywhere (unless you are rich enough for it not to matter anyway).

There are lists on best places to live in the world (some top hits from quick google search):

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/quality-of-life

The Best Countries To Live In And Work Abroad | William Russell

Thinking of moving abroad? Discover the best countries for foreign nationals, expats and digital nomads to live and work.

www.william-russell.com

Best Countries to Live In 2025

Discover population, economy, health, and more with the most comprehensive global statistics at your fingertips.

worldpopulationreview.com

World's Best Places To Live - Global Finance Magazine

Global Financeselects the world's 10 best cities to live in based on eight metrics, including cost of living, quality of life, andpandemic response.

www.gfmag.com

But fundamentally what I’m trying to express is what Mark Stone said:

Stone: "But why does this only happen in your country? I really think that's what many people around the world just -- they cannot fathom, why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?"

From: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/26/politics/ted-cruz-gun-laws-exchange/index.html

Am not from Uk by the way.

 

[Jambalaya]

Stone: "But why does this only happen in your country? I really think that's what many people around the world just -- they cannot fathom, why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?"

The UK had terrorism from the IRA for many years. Spain has the Basque separatists. France has a lengthy history of terrorists attacks. The USA has had two at the World Trade Center and the Boston bombing. And possibly some minor ones that I can't think of right now, but the US has had NOTHING like the amount of terrorist attacks that developed European countries have had.

Why is there so much terrorism in other developed countries but not in the US?

The school shootings are ABSOLUTELY terrible, of course, and I'm guessing that their prevalence is due to the crazy availability of assault weapons, which should be BANNED, and from stretched mental-health resources. Changes in those two areas are urgently needed to curb these horrendous events in schools.

My point is that these happenings don't mean that the US is uniformly a bad place, and other countries have their own serious problems. It annoys me to have my country ragged on as a whole thanks to the occasional homicidal lunatic. And while we may not yet have access to healthcare for all, we have made great strides in that direction AND the healthcare itself is the best in the world. No NHS waiting lists or postcode lotteries for cancer drugs, for example.

 

[Jambalaya]

France has had 2,979 terrorist attacks in the last fifty years.

I wonder why it happens so often in France and not in the US?

List of terrorist incidents in France - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[icy_jade]

And while we may not yet have access to healthcare for all, we have made great strides in that direction AND the healthcare itself is the best in the world.

Best for the rich, not the poor.

Average life expectancy by country

International ranking of life expectancy in 216 countries including summary by continents. Explanation of significant factors.

www.worlddata.info

50th on the list for life expectancy.