This country and its gun policies are seriously and utterly broken. When we care about banning kids from seeing a movie about Ruby Bridges to “protect” them but don’t actually want to do anything to protect their lives, we have a serious mismatch in priorities here.
March 28, 2023
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Blogging Bayport Alameda 
Over the years we have hosted several exchange students from Spain, and each time has always been a great experience for us and them.
One exchange that I will never forget:
Student was with me at Walgreens in the drive through line. Our insurance didn’t cover the medication, which was several hundred dollars out of pocket. She said something to the effect of “well that wouldn’t happen at home.” So after Walgreens I drove over to Big 5 to show her something else she wouldn’t see at home. The look of horror on her face was unforgettable.
Comment by dave — March 28, 2023 @ 6:56 am
You know things are fucked up when the gender of the shooter was more surprising than the dead kindergartners.
Comment by JRB — March 28, 2023 @ 6:57 am
Many of those focused on the shooter’s gender are saying it isn’t surprising at all.
Comment by Anonymous — March 28, 2023 @ 7:06 am
So… 3 trans shooters out of 3,400+ mass shootings? So statistically they’re even less likely to go on a rampage relative to their population size. “Many of those” like Marjorie Taylor Greene are simply idiots then. Hope you’re not one of them, lady.
Comment by JRB — March 28, 2023 @ 8:37 am
This was suicide by cop from a deeply troubled individual and daughter of an anti gun activist.
The Trans shooter was pumped with artificial hormones and testosterone and targeted a Christian school to kill Christians following Tennessee banning trans surgery and corresponding call for a National Trans Day of Vengeance in Washington DC on April 1.
Police found a trans political manifesto but it probably will be suppressed cuz counter-narrative.
Comment by Really — March 28, 2023 @ 10:17 am
We should totally ban anyone with testosterone from getting access to guns.
Comment by Lauren Do — March 28, 2023 @ 11:03 am
Not a good day for snark….Trans attacker may have been on testosterone which like in some body builders makes users super-aggressive.
Also people on the autism spectrum like the shooter
have obsessive negative ideation and an inability to tell right from wrong. Don’t sell them guns.
Comment by Really — March 28, 2023 @ 11:28 am
really really disgusting
Comment by Ron Mooney — March 28, 2023 @ 3:58 pm
1. You’re disgusting.
2. You’re basically admitting we need gun control and this is the area where we failed.
Comment by JRB — March 29, 2023 @ 1:38 am
The “unsurprising” hot take appears to be an equal-opportunity one. On the left it’s that it’s unsurprising the targets of a genocide would would be driven to violence. On the right it’s that it’s unsurprising rhetoric of that sort would radicalize people toward violence. This study out of Canada and available through the NIH does identify “[t]ransgender and gender-diverse youth” as “the group at highest risk of support for [violent radicalization].” The study explores pandemic-related isolation as a contributing cause, without directly engaging the politics. Perhaps the best hot take is that politicized hot takes are best avoided in the immediate aftermath of events like this.
Comment by Anonymous — March 28, 2023 @ 9:05 am
Getting your talking points from Benny Johnson I see. Here’s the problem with your Canada thesis. Canadians don’t have access to guns the way that Americans do.
Comment by Lauren Do — March 28, 2023 @ 11:02 am
Not sure who Benny Johnson is and am not offering a thesis (just an observation of some of the competing hot takes). Regardless, it does seem plainly true that radicalized or otherwise violent individuals will be able to do a lot more damage and a lot more killing a lot more easily where they have ready access to guns.
Comment by Anonymous — March 28, 2023 @ 11:41 am
Radicalized? Or bullied? And by grown adults who are waging a culture war using children for the sake of winning elections. And people like you are complicit.
Comment by Truth Teller — March 28, 2023 @ 12:44 pm
“Radicalized or otherwise violent,” meaning people who are violent because they’re radicalized or for any other reason including that they were bullied.
Comment by Anonymous — March 28, 2023 @ 1:03 pm
Trans young people have very high rates of suicide. Trans people have high rates of being victims of crime. Trans black women in particular have extremely high rates of being murdered. I am not aware of any studies indicating that trans people have higher rates of homicide or committing violent crimes against others.
Comment by JohnB — March 28, 2023 @ 2:26 pm
Guns people …. its the guns …
Comment by Ron Mooney — March 28, 2023 @ 4:01 pm
It’s the culture people, it’s the culture. In Switzerland every male over the age of 18 is assigned a “real” military assault rife, and keeps it at home. Yes, they have had mass killings, but not like here.
Comment by Alameda Landlord — March 29, 2023 @ 12:29 pm
Sigh, literally a two second Google search tells you what Switzerland does differently than the US: https://www.businessinsider.com/does-switzerland-give-every-citizen-a-gun-2018-2
But in comparison to their European counterparts:
Comment by Lauren Do — March 29, 2023 @ 12:38 pm
An Alameda landlord bending the truth? Why I never!
Comment by Rod — March 29, 2023 @ 1:39 pm
Heavy sigh, it helps to live in Switzerland and understand the context of the two-second Google search. 100% of the Swiss Conscripts have their automatic weapons at home, and it is very common during the summer, when they are on duty, to see public transportation clogged with military assault weapons as conscripts go to and from home. In fact, when experiencing this, one has the impression that ALL of Switzerland is heavily armed. Which is pretty reassuring, if you are a law-abiding citizen. Conscripts make up the MAJORITY of Swiss Military manpower, NOT the Militia. The 11% cited in the 2 second google search are MILITIA who elect to keep a military pistol or assault rife AFTER MILITARY service. Also sport and hunting weapons are not included in the misleading “only 11% have weapons at home stat.” Percentages are such misleading statistics, and we all know what they say about statistics.
So lets use a factoid that we can agree on. A quarter of Swiss homes have guns, just the like the US. Why the difference in mass shootings? Here’s a balance piece from an American in Switzerland. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/florida-school-shooting_what-can-the-swiss-teach-the-us-about-guns-/43923350
Bottomline: It’s Culture, not Guns. Whether we are talking about alcohol, guns or rapes (please don’t ban penises). We banned all alcohol in the USA, and after that didn’t work, we’ve slowly restricted drinking to the age of 21.
Comment by Alameda Landlord — March 29, 2023 @ 2:18 pm