His identity has been released. He was essentially a transient with a long history of serious mental illness. I've not seen any mention of motive.

I tip my hat to the officer who engaged the suspect and killed him. Job very well done. It might be simple but it ain't easy - tough shot with a handgun and a 9mm rarely puts a suspect down immediately.

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*****
"In case of flood climb to safety"

But you do have sufficient fear to feel it necessary to take away guns from everyone, including law abiding citizens, in order to feel safer around strangers?

It seems like both fears are related to the same root, but with different action plans to improve the feeling of safety.

Did I say that?

That’s a dumb argument. If more guns in a society makes it a less safe society, then sure, to feel more safe then we need less guns overall.

Yes, both fears are related to the same root: more guns in a society make everyone more unsafe. Statistics show this to be true. America shows this to be true.

Any recommendations on how to reduce the number of guns in America?

Sadly with the political structure we have, that’s never going to happen. It’s happened in other countries though, with notably positive effects.

I think the broader point is, that irrespective of whether one should own arms, carry openly or concealed in the US, few other societies are willing to accept the social costs for accomodating a minority (less than 50%) that want or live in house holds with guns.

Incidents like Sydney, London bridge, 7/7 are tragic be the causes mental health related or terrorism but the reality is that they are extremely rare and have a significantly lower impact than those in the US where firearms are readily available and making guns more readily available would simply turn these other societies in to a version of the US that no majority had expressed an interest in wanting.

The idea that having armed staff be they police or educator's in schools to prevent incidents that are usually mental health related is just nuts - what's it say about a society that the health and social system is so broken that you need people with guns just in case

sounds difficult. better to not try, and to just keep stacking up dead students like cord wood.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

These events are relatively rare down here. We had the workplace shooting in Auckland. Guy walked onto his job site (new Deloitte building) and shot two coworkers. It made international news. Meanwhile there are several shootings a day in every USA metropolitan aera that don't even get to their local news.

I walked right through that shooting at Britomart. Was walking to catch a bus to work. Saw three ambulances racing down Queen St. Weird? Got on my bus and as we were leaving saw armed police presence. Police don't usually carry guns here.

In December 2023, there were over 1.7M firearms purchased in the US.

This marks 53 consecutive months that firearm sales were over 1M units.

A more scary fact is the ammo shortage. Who TF is hoarding that much ammo? It isn't all being fired at a range on weekends, surely?

yep. trying to do anything about it would be really hard. all the deaths are worth it. keep doing what you're doing.

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

in your opinion, is that good, bad, or indifferent?

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

1.7M firearms sold in December 2023 is really good.

Almost 1.2M firearms were sold in January 2024, which is a bit disappointing.

Pretty sure it's different reasons at different times. But generally classic supply and demand stuff.

Currently meant to be supply chain issues.

Covid era saw a spike in demand as more Americans became gun owners, paired with global supply chain constraints.

Then it's anecdotal, not data, but behavior of Joe Public at gun shows anytime a Democratic president is elected (especially if that president is black), suggests that those spikes in ammo demand have some fearmongering attached to them. I recall gun shows being sold out of ammo by mid-morning on day 1.

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

Christmas rush, amirite?!

When you say "good" and "disappointing," is that from the standpoint of firearm manufacturer balance sheets, 2A absolutists, the safety of the general public, or all of the above?

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

It's probably a bit of all of the above.

High accuracy 22LR has been hard to find for years! And that's not stuff with high demand - not many people want to spent $20+ for a box of 50 22LR when the basic stuff is $25 for 333 rounds.