A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away … well, actually, it was a week or so ago and it was in Florida (which many could argue, is another world), something really different and really not normal happened. There was yet another mass shooting. This time at a high school in Broward County. 17 dead, more wounded. But that wasn’t the not normal thing. That happens all the time. That’s normal.
No, the really different thing that happened was the students who DIDN’T GET KILLED rose up and formed a rebellion. A rebellion against the Empire. Also known as the NRA.
And as rebel fighters, these kids are good. Really good. In just a week or so they’ve knocked down or destroyed all of the Empire’s usual tricks.
EMPIRE: Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
REBELLION: Fuck your thoughts and prayers! We just got shot at! Get rid of machine guns!
EMPIRE: But now is not the time to talk about gun control.
REBELLION: Fuck you. Now is exactly the time and we’re talking about it!
EMPIRE: This is a mental health issue.
REBELLION: No shit Sherlock! We’ve been telling you this guy is fucked up for a while now. He was voted “most likely to shoot up the school”! But that didn’t stop him from legally buying a military assault rifle and KILLING US with it!
EMPIRE: We need armed guards in schools. We need to arm teachers. The only way to beat a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.
REBELLION: We had an armed guard! He left the building! And arming teachers? Are you kidding? A bad guy shoots at everybody. It’s a “target rich environment”. That’s why he’s there. The teacher can only shoot at one target and one target only. And all this while we’re all running around like crazy, trying NOT TO BE KILLED ! You’d have to be Luke Skywalker to make that shot! What the hell is wrong with you??
And the rebellion is spreading. All around the country. You think the Russians are the best at using social media to effect politics? You have no idea what a nation of pissed off teenagers can do.
And it’s only just begun. Business sponsors are already leaving the NRA. They’re on the defensive. Will the Rebellion win? Will the Empire Strike Back? Of course they will. But don’t count out this rebellion.
Strong the force is with these young ones.
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Categories: #News, gun control, guns, Political Cartoons, Tom Curley
REACTING, REACTIONARIES AND RIDICULOUSNESS – BY TOM CURLEY 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Actually 92% of Americans support nationwide background checks that work. 92% of Americans can’t agree on whether or not the sky is blue. 72% of NRA members support gun control. It’s the cult leadership and the gun industry that had an insane amount of control. It has to end.
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I think, sadly, even if it did end, the number of deaths from illegal gun ownership would not reduce by much – if any. Gun laws only work on those who are already likely to follow laws – those who don’t will always find a way around them and do what they want to do – which is largely to feel more powerful than they normally feel like. Randomly killing fellow human beings apparently does that – for a few.
(I was just about to send this comment and then thought about changing the word ‘think’ to ‘believe’ so as to make it sound more like this was more my own personal opinion than a fact, but then realised that a lot of what is wrong with the world today is people who believe things more than they think about things – and i don’t want to be part of that problem, more of us should question and think about just what our beliefs are and how we come by them – the ‘think’ stays!) 😉
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In states that have reduced accessibility to guns, the rates of gun violence and death by gun violence has dropped enormously. California. New York. Massachusetts. All at the very low end of the gun violence spectrum. So I think you are wrong. Statistically, you are wrong. It does work. You have to start somewhere.
I keep saying it over and over. We can’t keep doing nothing and explaining why doing nothing is okay. It ISN’T okay.
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Mr Trump wants to do ‘something’ about it… sometimes doing nothing can be better than doing something!
Congratulations are due to the states who have decreased their gun violence statistics – but how far would the average American in those states have to drive before he could legally by a weapon in a neighbouring state? 20 miles? 50? 100? Is that going to put off any nut job who wants a gun from getting one? Methinks not.
It might reduce the number of ‘normal’ citizens who want a gun from owning one, but they are mostly not the big problem here.
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Well, it has. There you go. Massachusetts has the lowest rate of gun violence in the country and the strongest gun control laws. Next is New York — also with strong — AND California So yes. They obviously DO work.
Are these laws going to stop ALL weirdos who want guns? Do driving test prevent driving accidents? Or car thefts?
SEriously, would have have us continue to sell AR 15s or their ilk to 18-year-olds? Seriously? REally?
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Seriously- i would have ‘you’ (the US) not sell any gun to any one – but that’s just who i am. And one of the reasons i’ll never live in the US is that too many citizens appear to want to be allowed to and feel they need to own one – or more often several. Some even believe they have a ‘God-given’ right to!! (God help us!) And a small number use them on people.
Before you can confidently state the laws work you need the ‘before and after’ stats, not just the current ones, so that a cause-effect relationship might be better inferred. It is quite likely the reason you have strong laws is because the population is less likely to take the action of killing multiple people with guns in the first place and made their state regulators meet their demands.
Again – laws will only work on those who will obey them. If someone is of a mind to kill total strangers, or workmates, or schoolkids i think that no matter what laws you have operant they’re going to get a gun/guns and do it anyway.
Any law needs to be federal when state borders are so gun porous.
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Criminals are not the problem. Of course they will get guns and commit crimes. That’s why they are criminals. The thing is in America a criminal can get an assault rifle for 7 or 8 hundred dollars.
In your country he has to buy it on the black market for over 30,000 dollars. And as your brilliant comic Jim Jefferies says “If you have 30,000 dollars, you don’t need to be a criminal. Your a good little saver. Keep it up.”
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What makes you think I do NOT have before and after stats? I was a tech writer my whole life. I live and die with statistics. Seriously. YOU look up the stats yourself since you think I am not competent to have done it on my own.
And you really have no idea what you are talking about, either. I most assuredly DO know the histories of Massachusetts AND New York. Not ONLY am I pretty damned good amateur historian, but I was born and raised in NY and have lived in Massachusetts for the past 35 years. I read books. About history. Massachusetts AND New York AND California were RIDDLED with crime and guns until someone decided it was time to stop it. I think the person who needs a history lesson is you.
Why would you say stuff like that? Do you really think I am that ignorant?
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It was NOTHING personal i can assure you. No disrespect intended of you at ANY time!
Where you got the ‘not competent’ idea i have no idea at all?? Friends don’t say things like that to each other and i thought we were friends – (even if we are free to and don’t always see exactly eye to eye)
Maybe it’s my writing style that is giving the wrong intention from what i said?? I use ‘you’ when i am not meaning you personally but myself and anyone who reads the comment generally.
Clearly, it is time to drop this particular discussion.
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It’s am Important discussion and worth having. But Bob? Be really careful about “man-splainin.” Because that was some pretty solid man-splainin’ there. If you ain’t sure what that means being from that OTHER part of the world? Look it up.
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And that’s why your questioning if I had the before and after facts (dude — seriously? Me?) and then announcing that they would only make such gun control laws in places where people aren’t inclined to take guns and shoot each other … Where did you get THAT information?
You’re right. Friends don’t ask that stuff. I thought you were MY friend, so consider trusting I have my facts straight. I am a double and triple checker. If I don’t know the answer and haven’t been able to find one, I will SAY that. I have no issue with saying “I don’t know” if I don’t. That’s part of being attached to truth, facts, history, knowledge. I won’t say I “know” something if I don’t. Neither will Garry. Neither will Tom. Or Ellin. Or Rich.
You’ve got in our group two news guys, a lawyer, a tech writer, and a news junkie. We don’t “throw out” information without checking it. We DON’T do that. With US at least, you can assume we have checked it for accuracy. So it is a wee bit insulting to assume otherwise, even if you didn’t mean it that way. And as the editor, I assure you that if I spot a piece going up that needs a fact check, I do it or send it back to the writer and ask them to doublecheck the information.
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I wish those opposed to the ludicrous level of gun violence in the US only the very best of luck and ‘success’ in their endeavours to get THEIR representatives in THEIR government to make it harder, and ideally impossible, for this to happen yet again in the future.
What i heard about gun ‘control’ in the US yesterday however makes me think anything other than a minor reduction in numbers dead or wounded is extremely unlikely to ever happen.
Background checks are supposed to be necessary before you can legally buy a gun from a gun store in most states with the idea that it prevents those who are not ‘suited’ to owning a deadly effective killing weapon from getting their hands on one.
NO background checks are required however when someone sells you a gun that they own privately. (And certainly not when you buy or steal one illegally!)
84% of multiple shootings in the US are committed by people who did not obtain their weapon ‘legally’
The vast majority of people who own the hundreds of millions of guns in the US do so perfectly legally and never use them for anything other than making them feel less insecure or for target practice and the odd hunting trip. Getting these people to agree to tighter gun ownership laws, or a buyback of their weapons like we did in Australia, is almost certainly a lost cause no matter how many kids and adults die in events like last week’s. 😦
You (and/or your youth) may be able to bring about better laws on ownership/availability legally but that is NOT where the true problem and solution is… that lies in preventing CRIMINALS, or those who just crack because of real or perceived injustice that they feel from current society, from getting guns – and good luck ever stopping that. 😦
I think the best thing would be to try to get everyone in your community and your nation to learn how to respect each other as human beings worthy of the Right to Life and Liberty and reduce the inequity and inequality between all members of your society. That would do more to save lives than any gun laws ever could.
Maybe the survivors could start a movement toward that goal?
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Reblogged this on From Sandy Knob and commented:
Great post,, Tom Curley of
Serendipity!
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Wow. Thanks.
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I read a very convincing plea on twitter yesterday from a teacher who said she wished to be armed — with books, teaching materials, trained psychologists — but NOT with weapons.
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Yup. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but it doesn’t help much against and AR-15.
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Except to put a strong spot light onto that atrocity called the AR15
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Sadly, just one of many such atrocities American civilians can own legally: Ak47, R-15, M14, M1A, M16… the long list goes on – and on! Seems like there is a competition to see how many different mass murder weapons companies can produce (and of course sell to scared people).
Perhaps one reason you can own these weapons is so the arms manufacturers can sell more ammunition – an auto/semi-auto uses more bullets in a session than a single fire weapon!
Last year more than 10 billion rounds were sold in the US from US manufacturers alone with almost 18,000 TONS of ammunition imported from foreign manufacturers. 😦
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I hope these students have the stamina to keep this rage going. Us Adults seem to grow tired of an issue well before it is addressed and we’re easily distracted by the next event.
I love the idea that businesses are deciding to cut ties with the NRA. It’s like saying you support child molesters to support the NRA.
I’d like to think this is the beginning of something and not just another whimper from the public. I’ve always been disappointed before, but I have faith in the youth of this country.
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I really WANT you to be right!
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Everyone forgets that it wasn’t until the early 70’s that the NRA went from being a gun safety organizing and becamse the rabid cult whose sole job is to sell more guns. Things can change.
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Your first paragraph was chilling. Particularly that last line “That’s normal. That happens all the time.” Isn’t it time for this version of reality to crash and burn? Seems like it if we’re starting to be accustomed to the slaughter of innocents. Great post btw…I’m snagging that cartoon about childish things and posting it on FB. It needs to be seen.
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it was time for this to crash and burn ten years ago. i have a lot of trouble understanding how we got here, how anyone allowed this to happen.
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I think this will be successful. Finally.
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I am optimistic about this too. Youth has energy and if they don’t vote yet, they will. If they stay with this and vote, the world might actually change!
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Excuses won’t cut it this time. IMO If it does work, I think new movements from youth will happen more often. Could be an exciting year!
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It will. Not to be cynical, but having a perfectly reasonable excuse to not go to class is extremely motivating. We did it in the 70’s over Vietnam.
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More power to the teens of America! I’ve long felt that my political clout was strongest when I was in my teens — when I had the energy to know the issues and to take strong action!
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They are young and they have a very long life ahead of them. Years of voting, years of working and spending money and making the world their own. More power to them!
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They’ve found the clout and they’ll make the changes if they stick with it.
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This is the first thing that has given me real hope.
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Having somebody try to shoot you in the face is highly motivating.
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Yes. I can see how that would be deeply motivating.
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I REALLY hope America listens this time. The students should stay out till something useful is done. https://www.facebook.com/TheOther98/photos/a.115969958413991.17486.114517875225866/2290741744270124/?type=3
Trump’s idiotic suggestion of arming teachers !!!!
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Yes. we did it in 1970 after we found out Nixon was bombing Cambodia. Schools and universities all around the courntry shut down for weeks.
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This really brought tears to my eyes. Finally. Young people fighting back. I wish it didn’t have to be because so many are getting murdered, but it’s great that they are fighting. We sure haven’t gotten it done. Maybe THEY can.
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Well, when we were young we stopped a war. I think these kids can do it.
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I know we made denim into a fashion fabric, but the rest of it? I often wonder how much we got done, other than to change fashion. Maybe I’m being my own cynical self.
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Pancho, these kids hopefully have hit a national nerve. I hope they can shame or prod their parents into active involvement aka VOTING out the shills in the midterms and again in 2020.
Jim “Father Knows Best” Anderson needs to put his pipe down and listen to Bud, Kitten and Betty.
Hell, Bud would make a great town hall spokesman against the NRA.
Even Beaver Cleaver could round up his pals and march on city hall.
Lassie could lead all her canine pals with Prof. Harold Hill supplying the marching music.
The kids are all right!
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