Mass shootings and denial

[Hawkmoon]

The Virginia Beach shooting caused me to open my spreadsheet to add another incident. As I was doing so, I realized that I didn't have information on whether or not the gun(s) used at two earlier shootings this year had been acquired legally. These were the University of North Carolina shooting and the Prescott, AR, high school shooting. Looking for updates on the UNC shooting, I got to the Wikipedia article on the incident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_North_Carolina_at_Charlotte_shooting

My jaw dropped when I came to a statement by the shooter's grandfather. He's from Texas, mind you, but (in typical close relative fashion) he doesn't think his grandson is responsible. It was the gun's fault.

Rold said he blamed lax gun laws for making firearms too easy to obtain, and that if his grandson "had not been able to secure a weapon, this would never have happened." He did not believe his grandson had a mental illness which would have disposed him to commit violence, "but then I’m not a psychologist. You would never have believed this could have happened, that he would have done something like this."

Obviously, Granddad's belief was incorrect.

[grampster]

I had to turn the channel this morning as the talking head said this was the 130th or 150th mass shooting this year.

[Hawkmoon]

I had to turn the channel this morning as the talking head said this was the 130th or 150th mass shooting this year.

I make it the fifth ... I'd like to know what the other 125 (or so) were.

[griz]

The grandfather is in denial, but he's just too close to the shooter and it's too soon for him to have reasoned it out.  There are folks who believe that the solution is to eliminate guns* but maybe that grandfather will admit his grandson had issues after a little time has passed.

* Have you noticed that the "NOBODY needs a gun" crowd always explain that one of the reasons you don't need one is because you can call the police if there is a threatening situation and they will arrive with guns to deal with the problem?  I can't tell if they think the officers are so infallible that their guns are OK, or it never occurs to them that the officer's guns are useful tools.

[MechAg94]

The grandfather is in denial, but he's just too close to the shooter and it's too soon for him to have reasoned it out.  There are folks who believe that the solution is to eliminate guns* but maybe that grandfather will admit his grandson had issues after a little time has passed.

* Have you noticed that the "NOBODY needs a gun" crowd always explain that one of the reasons you don't need one is because you can call the police if there is a threatening situation and they will arrive with guns to deal with the problem?  I can't tell if they think the officers are so infallible that their guns are OK, or it never occurs to them that the officer's guns are useful tools.

In my experience, they say the officers are trained and checked out somehow so they must know more than the rest of us.

[Perd Hapley]

In my experience, they say the officers are trained and checked out somehow so they must know more than the rest of us.

And they're govt-controlled.

[Jamisjockey]

I make it the fifth ... I'd like to know what the other 125 (or so) were.

They've begun counting any shooting that has 3 or more victims I think. 

[grampster]

Are the shootings in Chicago considered one continuing shooting, a new separate shooting each time?  880 have been shot not including this weekend and of those 187 have been shot dead.  If that's considered a single continuing situation, it's the worst mass murder in American history.  I'm quite surprised the media doesn't treat it this way.  Inquiring minds want to know.

[Hawkmoon]

They've begun counting any shooting that has 3 or more victims I think.  

Probably. IMHO, intent matters.

I just read a news report from somewhere about a Memorial Day BBQ that went bad. IIRC, it was sort of a neighborhood/block party sort of situation. Two groups "got into it," shots were fired. Don't remember now if it was four wounded and one killed, or one wounded and four killed. What absolutely amazed me was that the local authorities specifically said, "This was not a mass shooting. This was two groups of people who engaged in a gunfight."

And, of course, that's exactly what it was. So I didn't add that one to my list. I'm sure the Brady Bunch and their ilk did add it to their lists.

[Scout26]

IIRC, a "mass shooting" is one gunman, 3+ victims.  So the BBQ gun fight doesn't count.

[griz]

That shooting had nine or ten injured, reports vary, and one young man killed.  The strange thing to me is the police were already there after being called about traffic.  Yet two groups showed up and decided to have a gun fight in the middle of kids and their families.  Strange world.

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/chesapeake/chesapeake-shooting-that-killed-1-injured-9-not-being-investigated-as-mass-shooting-event/