Day: May 3, 2023

Gun Violence Comes To The Coast

I apologize if the title is misleading…..we do have the occasional shooting between individuals or some shoot out with the police but we have not had many mass shootings but that came to an end.

Last weekend students from the sleepy little town of Bay St. Louis in Hancock county…..it was an after prom party and all student from local schools were invited to come and hang out.

The party was going well and all seemed to be enjoying themselves and the a 19 year old showed up to confront a student about his sister….the argument got heated and the 19 year old got a gun and shot and killed 2 and wounded 4….the shooter was tracked down and arrested.

All that made me think about the shooting after something I read in VOX.

No other high-income country has suffered such a high death toll from gun violence. Every day, 120 Americans die at the end of a gun, including suicides and homicides, an average of 43,375 per year. Since 2009, there has been an annual average of 19 shootings in which at least four people are killed. The US gun homicide rate is as much as 26 times that of other high-income countries; its gun suicide rate is nearly 12 times higher.

Gun control opponents have typically framed the gun violence epidemic in the US as a symptom of a broader mental health crisis. But every country has people with mental health issues and extremists; those problems aren’t unique. What is unique is the US’s expansive view of civilian gun ownership, ingrained in politics, in culture, and in the law since the nation’s founding, and a national political process that has so far proved incapable of changing that norm.

“America is unique in that guns have always been present, there is wide civilian ownership, and the government hasn’t claimed more of a monopoly on them,” said David Yamane, a professor at Wake Forest University who studies American gun culture.

https://www.vox.com/23142734/cleveland-texas-mass-shootings

I am not trying to convince people that more gun control is needed….all this is just to try and explain how we got to this point in our history.

My thoughts are on record here on IST…..I will not convince you to my way of thinking as your efforts to do so for me are also wasted efforts.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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A World Without Putin

If the comments here are any indication then Putin is a dick and the world would be better off without him on it.

The prevailing propaganda is that he should be taken out…..even assassinated.

I have received many comments on the idea of eliminating Putin…..the prevailing thinking is that he should be taken out in way or another.

But is that really a good idea and would it really make the world a better place?

An ex-CIA agent has thrown his voice into the debate……he does not think the loss of Putin would be as advantageous as some think….

If Russian President Vladimir Putin is assassinated, the country could descend into chaos, a former CIA analyst said.

Paul Goble said the potential for an assassination of the leader would likely cause Russia to break up into several mini states.

This is all a result of the Russians’ disastrous outcome in Ukraine, where more than a year after invading the country is having trouble making progress.

Goble said experts and analysts are now even more “open” to the notion of Russia breaking up into a splintered state, causing the end of the Russian Federation.

The war has caused deterioration in Russia, from its world standing to its internal lack of cohesion.

Goble told The Sun: “What we’re likely to see is something different than the coming apart of the great empires.”

Also, Goble warns that the destruction of the Russian Federation could be a breakup similar to that of Yugoslavia but with nuclear weapons included.

When the Soviet Union was severed in 1991, the countries involved agreed to give up their nuclear weapons, a situation Goble believes would not be the case in this scenario.

“I would argue that this time around the period of decay is going to be messier, longer and vastly more varied than what we had in 1991,” he said.

Goble also warned that the volatility of the world could be more intense than is being talked about, according to The Sun.

“I suspect that there could be a lot more people with nuclear weapons than anybody is talking about.”

(knewz.com)

Not a rosy picture of the time after the loss of Putin….of course this is one person’s opinion…..do you agree?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”