Sunday, January 22, 2023

Blood on the Streets of Monterey Park

I woke up this morning to news about an Asian holiday - the Lunar New Year - getting disrupted by a gunman in Monterey Park, California overnight. Another goddamned mass shooting. At least 10 people dead (multiple wounded, so the numbers could get worse). Via NPR: 

A shooting in the city of Monterey Park, just outside of Los Angeles, has left 10 people dead and at least 10 others wounded. The attack came at the end of a day of celebration in the predominantly Asian American community in observance of the Lunar New Year. Authorities said the shooter remains at large.

Here's what we know:

The attack was at least the 33rd mass shooting in the U.S. this year — and the second in California in less than a week.

About 60,000 people — 65% of whom are of Asian descent — call Monterey Park home, according to Census estimates.

President Biden has been briefed on the shooting.

Authorities are investigating another scene in the nearby city of Alhambra.

Take a moment to look at that first stat: This is the 33rd mass shooting in the United States this year. WE ARE ONLY 22 DAYS INTO THE WESTERN CALENDAR. We are up to almost TWO MASS SHOOTINGS A DAY. We have become so jaded and worn down from gun-related deaths that we're utterly numb as a nation to this shit.

The attack focused on a large Asian community, signaling that this was racially motivated by Far Right factions hating on foreigners as part of their overall anti-immigrant mindset.

And given the high body count in just one setting, I'm willing to bet the weapon used was a military-grade assault rifle like the AR-15 (the chosen rifle for mass shooters across the USA). It is not a firearm meant for hunting wildlife, it is not a firearm meant for personal home defense. It is a firearm meant for war zones. Which is what the American landscape has turned into thanks to the Angry Guys With Guns community.

And again, nothing will get done.

There will be more mass shootings, because we're up to one per day, getting closer to doubling up, because this is how the goddamned National Rifle Body Count Association makes their money. 

And in the future, nothing will get done.

There will be more mass shootings, because we're up to one per day, getting closer to doubling up, because this is how the goddamned National Rifle Body Count Association makes their money. 

And another mass shooting, and another and another, and nothing will get done.

There will be more mass shootings, because we're up to one per day, getting closer to doubling up, because this is how the goddamned National Rifle Body Count Association makes their money.

And another... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

...

When are we going to have political leadership in the United States willing to step up and abolish the goddamned Second Amendment? We don't need militias anymore, and we've proven the PAST 40 YEARS THAT WE ARE NOT REGULATING FIREARMS IN ANY WAY. The Second Amendment has devolved from being "Empowerment for states to form and well-regulate their own militias" to "A goddamned license to kill anybody the Angry Guys want to kill."

There is blood on every American street, rising up on a tide of unrelenting hate and violence, and it is going to drown us all until we tell the goddamned gun nuts NO MORE.


2 comments:

dinthebeast said...

My friend upon seeing the article you linked to: "OK guys, if you can't play responsibly with your toys you lose them."
Thorny issue, really. Most of the available legal tools are only partially effective. Not that I'm against using them, just realistic about their likely effects. During the assault weapons ban I could have on any given day, with cash money, bought any assault weapon you care to name up to and including an M60, right here in the people's republic of California, where remember that the original gun control laws were enacted by Ronald the fuck Reagan in response to the Black Panthers showing up at the capitol strapped.
What the bans will do, if we ever get them, is cut down on the crazy-ass white kid mass shooting.
Folks with actual mental problems have a harder time negotiating the black market for weapons than your garden variety miscreant.
What we need is mass confiscation, Australia style, or even something more strict, in line with our existing confiscation laws, but applied to everyone instead of just folks deemed too dangerous to possess them. Right now it is more than obvious that everyone is too dangerous to possess an AR or an AK or any of their imitations. What they do is provide an unacceptable option to folks in situations where they feel they need to throw a violent fit. They are not really good for anything else. You can't hunt an animal with a gun that fires a NATO round, as they are designed to tear up the meat of that animal. No, actually they are designed to tear up the tissue of a human being.
I've been a gun owner since I was nine years old, and I fully and enthusiastically support the banning of the weapons of war for public sale, and the confiscation of all existing such weapons owned by the general public. As long as they are out there, someone will use them, and they are only good for one thing.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

dinthebeast said...

Another mass shooting in Baton Rouge last night. No-one dead, but 12 injured.

-Doug in Sugar Pine