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Over 50 dead in mass shooting in Las Vegas

posted by martyb on Monday October 02 2017, @04:18PM   Printer-friendly

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/02/554976369/section-of-las-vegas-strip-is-closed-after-music-festival-shooting

A gunman fired upon thousands of people attending a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday night, in a brutal attack that is blamed for at least 58 deaths, police say. In the mass shooting and panic that ensued, 515 people were injured. At least one of the dead is an off-duty police officer who was attending the concert.

Editorializing: Interesting how media always emphasize ISLAMIC terrorists, but downplay domestic terrorism as psychologically disturbed individual lone-wolfs.

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  • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday October 04 2017, @02:37AM (1 child)

    by Mykl (1112) on Wednesday October 04 2017, @02:37AM (#576899)

    That's just not working because there aren't enough such shootings

    Give it a few years. The rate of mass shootings in the US is increasing over time. Though I agree that if Sandy Hook wasn't going to change hearts, there is a little way to go yet.

    Though I would've thought that just one mass shooting would be "enough". Australia suffered a mass shooting in 1996 which led to stricter gun controls*. In the 21 years since, we have not had a single mass shooting. The total number of gun deaths (minus suicides) per year has kept dropping and the total for 2016 was less than just this one event in Vegas.

    *some higher-powered weapons were outlawed and there was an amnesty on unregistered firearms. People can still purchase and own firearms with an appropriate license

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 04 2017, @11:02AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 04 2017, @11:02AM (#576965) Journal

    The rate of mass shootings in the US is increasing over time.

    It would just due to population growth - supposing it actually is increasing over time.

    Though I would've thought that just one mass shooting would be "enough". Australia suffered a mass shooting in 1996 which led to stricter gun controls*. In the 21 years since, we have not had a single mass shooting.

    Wikipedia listed [wikipedia.org] four mass shootings since.

    • February 2, 1999 Drive by shooting which killed 1 and injured 9.
    • October 2, 2002. Spree killing at a college which killed 2 and injured 5.
    • April 29, 2011. Siege, 3 killed, 3 injured.
    • September 9, 2014. Murder-suicide, killed 5.

    There appears to have been 10 such attacks in a similar duration period before 1996, so those gun control laws may have reduced the frequency of the attacks somewhat. But as usual with these things, it probably wouldn't have done a thing for the Port Arthur massacre itself which is very similar to the Las Vegas attack (wealthy guy covertly acquiring firearms that he couldn't legally be kept away from, and employing relatively intelligent tactics).

    Finally, why should one emergency or one massacre be sufficient to take freedom away from millions or hundreds of millions of people? You're walking into a classic police state trap. Just because there are stupid and/or evil people doesn't mean the rest of us have to be punished as well.