Dudes on WRAL comments section still denying this was about race, if you want to go read and have a laugh.

6/18/2015 4:34:22 PM

LOL...our local newspaper had a Gun Ad sticker on the top of the paper this morning:

6/18/2015 4:42:48 PM

Quote :

"South Carolina puts the confederate flag on their state house, I think the whole state is racist, but they don't realize it. "

It's no different than NC other than it has a few less big cities that are "less racist". They're both the same.

6/18/2015 4:51:28 PM

The first thing you see when you cross into SC is the confederate flag. Fuck that state.

6/18/2015 4:54:40 PM

Wonder what you'd be saying if this were a mass shooting against the gay community...

6/18/2015 5:10:48 PM

As I said to your dumb ass in the other thread, please show me where I've ever not supported gay rights? "Oh you don't like our gay nfl savior, you hate gays" Just shut the fuck up and stay on topic.

6/18/2015 5:18:50 PM

There is a house with a confederate flag in Cary right near Bond Park. Place looks like a redneck oasis in the middle of suburbia.

Anyway his roommate basically knew he was planning on doing something like this... and didn't tell anyone.

6/18/2015 5:35:26 PM

these loners always have that same "look" in their mugshots

6/18/2015 6:10:45 PM

The I just got caught masturbating to Ariel from The Little Mermaid look?

6/18/2015 6:19:35 PM

haven't read thread.

but the best thing that has come from this is the outpouring of support, love, and sympathy for the families and the whole charleston community from people of all races, genders, identities, etc.

I hope this is a catalyst for healing in this country and we realize that our commonalities drastically outweigh our differences.

6/18/2015 6:58:14 PM

the people trying to say this was about them being christians and not about race are fascinating to me

6/18/2015 7:02:40 PM

^

it's pretty simple to me. If you're a fox news hard right neo-con evangelical, this flies in the face of everything you believe to be true:

* racism is a thing of the past
* there is a war against christianity
* blacks are mostly criminals, but I have a black friend so I'm not racist.

It allows these people to ignore the fact that this was a hate crime while still being able to find a way to insert their own sense of victimhood into the discussion.

6/18/2015 7:12:13 PM

I see what u did there emce

6/18/2015 7:15:49 PM

Religious black people. Man, I bet this is a tough one for the academic liberals to compartmentalize.

Aren't religious Americans toothless hate-filled white evangelicals?

6/18/2015 7:30:03 PM

Toothless hate filled white evangelicals are religious Americans.


[Edited on June 18, 2015 at 7:38 PM. Reason : Also are you retarded?]

6/18/2015 7:37:04 PM

look can we ONCE not make this about politics? the best way to honor the victims, their families, and the community is to COME TOGETHER regardless of our backgrounds and offer love, sympathy, and support (pipe dream? maybe)

6/18/2015 7:38:47 PM

[Edited on June 18, 2015 at 7:50 PM. Reason : no dog in fight]

6/18/2015 7:50:24 PM

yeah let's ignore the politics and racism issue and the fact that gun violence in this country is absolutely insane and shows no signs of getting any better. UNITED WE STAND!

6/18/2015 7:51:09 PM

So far we know the parents enabled this nut job by buying him a gun. And we know his roommate knew he was planning this and said nothing.

6/18/2015 9:18:18 PM

This guy speaks the truth

https://www.vox.com/2015/3/24/8283199/gun-control-comedy-jefferies

6/18/2015 9:26:42 PM

Other people that knew him around his hometown said that he always had a gun on him, or in his car.

6/18/2015 9:26:47 PM

^^Actually he's pretty stupid if you ask me but continue. Every time theres a "mass" shooting liberals come flying out with the calls for Australian style gun laws. Guess what, you can implement that policy and you will have a war on guns that rivals the war on drugs. Now stop and think about it, are we anywhere near winning the "war on drugs"?


Whats the real common denominator in each mass shooting in this country? MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. But of course republicans want a health care system of haves/have nots and are doing everything possible to gut Obamacare.

[Edited on June 18, 2015 at 9:43 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2015 9:36:34 PM

so racism is just a mental health issue?

[Edited on June 18, 2015 at 10:09 PM. Reason : ,]

6/18/2015 10:03:06 PM

So, should he have been able to get a gun?
Nah.

Well, why not?
He had felony charges pending against him, for illegal possession of Suboxone... A controlled substance. Those with felony charges pending against them cannot go to a store to buy a gun.

Oh. Well, then how did he get the gun?
The gun used to murder these church goers was probably obtained when the assailant's father gifted him the firearm for his birthday. You see, SC is a state that still has the private gun exchange loophole


Oh... Oh.

6/18/2015 10:32:35 PM

the war on drugs argument doesn't apply here. pretty much every developed country in the world has gotten rid of guns and many are legalizing drugs as we speak

6/18/2015 10:36:06 PM

If a father wants to give his son a gun, I don't know that a law will prevent that. And I don't think that's a southern thing or a white thing either. I think it's more of a male bonding type thing.

[Edited on June 18, 2015 at 10:56 PM. Reason : .]

6/18/2015 10:55:08 PM

What I don't understand is what is this guy racist about?

He's 21. What is there to be racist about when you're a kid? Especially in this age.

This is worse than a hate crime. I'd call this domestic terrorism.

This is way closer to school shootings than Trayvon Martin. Just the look of the guy... mental... like he's delusional. Tin foil around his head.

6/18/2015 10:57:13 PM

Everyone should check out the first 5 minutes ago tonight's Daily Show (and the rest too, but only start is relevant)

6/18/2015 11:30:37 PM

Quote :

"If a father wants to give his son a gun, I don't know that a law will prevent that. And I don't think that's a southern thing or a white thing either. I think it's more of a male bonding type thing. "

Something tells me there's rot all through this family. Hopefully the father will be held liable somehow, which is what laws blocking these loopholes would enable.

6/18/2015 11:34:07 PM

Drink every time you see someone say "loophole". Drink the rest of your beer anytime you see someone say "common sense" gun laws.

6/19/2015 12:00:08 AM

It's also a "private transfers not being subject to background checks prevents a de facto federal registry" thing...and I wouldn't call that a "loophole".

and yeah, i suspect this whole family is full of bottom feeders.

__________________________

I don't think this is a gun problem primarily, and to whatever extent that it is, there's little or nothing that we can do about that. This is a mental health and more broadly, American social problem. I don't know how much we can do about that, either. This has been a violent country since it was settled, and I don't see it ending any time soon. Furthermore, the one thing that might go a long way would severely flattening wealth disparity, and that would have colossal economic impacts for the entire world. We're better off having some shootings, as bad as that sounds.

[Edited on June 19, 2015 at 12:05 AM. Reason : ^ haha, yeah...not a "loophole"]

6/19/2015 12:04:54 AM

Quote :

"We're better off having some shootings, as bad as that sounds."

no, no we're not.

6/19/2015 12:27:33 AM

What's the ratio of people who should be murdered by criminals because the person had no gun to defend himself versus people killed in extremely-rare mass shootings that you think would tilt the scales into the direction of allowing people to defend themselves?

6/19/2015 12:30:22 AM

who has claimed that people shouldn't have the right to own a gun to defend themselves?

6/19/2015 12:32:07 AM

Tsarnaev's friend had a FBI gun accidentally go off during an interrogation killing him. If it turns out the father knew anything about this, and still gave his nutty kid a gun, he's just as liable for this as any accomplice to a terrorist attack.

6/19/2015 12:33:37 AM

Well, what's your suggestion to avoid them, then? I'd love for us not to have these mass shootings, but attacking guns isn't the solution. Getting crazy people off the streets and into mental health treatment centers is the solution. Every single anti-gun solution proposed over the past decade or more does nothing but take guns out of the hands of otherwise law-abiding citizens while keeping them in the hands of criminals and people who would want to cause harm.

6/19/2015 12:36:13 AM

how many crazy people on the street have committed a mass shooting?

and what proposed law would take guns out of the hands of a law abiding citizen?

[Edited on June 19, 2015 at 12:46 AM. Reason : .]

6/19/2015 12:45:24 AM

This wasn't a lone crazy person, this was most likely a person brought up in an environment to hate. The solution is to find the people who made him this way, and go after them by all available means. It should be illegal to give someone with pending felony charges a gun, for example, whether they are your own son or not, and it should be illegal to give someone a gun when it's demonstrated that you reasonably could suspect they were going to do something bad with it. But gun nuts would oppose these laws because Obama wants to take their guns.

Have politicians in a state boldly stand up for racial equality, not prominently displaying the flag of a treasonous group who's main issue was pro-slavery is a good start to reducing the safe harbors for KKK and neo-nazi whackos.

We shouldn't act like these incidents are inevitable and pop out of a vacuum... There are specific social ideals and cultural practices, often enshrined in politics and the "code words" of politicians, that send the message to these hate groups that they are to be tolerated. But instead of being very clear in words and actions where we stand in terms of what a just society believes in, politicians dance around the issues of civil rights, equality, and racism.

Duke is right to point out that this is a social issue, and laws against guns as a response won't do too much (there's too many guns out there for these laws to make a difference immediately, it would take 10+ years for any restrictions to filter through). But few politicians have been talking about the social aspect either. But gun nuts are too hypersensitive about gun laws, and even obvious things that most people support are fought, to the detriment of all of us.

It should be easy to see that maybe this guy's dad wouldn't be so glad to give him a gun, if he knew he could be charged for doing so if he went on a rampage for it. There's no slippery slope for a law that says "don't give a gun to a pending felon, especially if you know they are crazy". But gun nuts would still oppose this law, because the NRA has them fooled into thinking Obama is coming for their guns.

6/19/2015 12:57:26 AM

Y'all gotta see this

http://m.mic.com/articles/120990/one-tweet-perfectly-captures-the-racist-double-standards-of-police-brutality-in-america

6/19/2015 1:00:34 AM

Quote :

"Aren't religious Americans toothless hate-filled white evangelicals?"

Quote :

"you can implement that policy and you will have a war on guns that rivals the war on drugs"

That's the stupidest false equivalence I've ever seen. Congrats on that, I guess.

6/19/2015 1:08:38 AM

Need more laws governing what fathers can give their sons. Gotta teach those rogue fathers to get in line.

[Edited on June 19, 2015 at 1:11 AM. Reason : synapse bringing the weak sauce at the 11th hour, like usual]

6/19/2015 1:10:08 AM

so a father should be allowed to give his mentally unstable son something that can do legitimate harm to a large group of people, unchecked?

because why?

6/19/2015 1:18:39 AM

Quote :

"something that can do legitimate harm to a large group of people"

You're referring to an SUV on his 16th birthday, right?

6/19/2015 1:22:36 AM

you unable to see the part of my post that occurred before your quote?

6/19/2015 1:24:01 AM

Quote :

"Whats the real common denominator in each mass shooting in this country? MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. But of course republicans..."

You seem to be oblivious to the fact that Republicans consistently cite the mental health issue after these incidents instead of the access to guns issue (see Duke) but then you try and bag on Republicans while parroting their argument at the same time. That's not how it works. I mean I appreciate your funding point but it's too little too late. Get with the fucking program dude.

Quote :

"You see, SC is a state that still has the private gun exchange loophole"

Yup. That's a piece of the problem, and thankfully, those of use that live in NC, don't have to worry about that being a problem in our state [for now].

Quote :

"If a father wants to give his son a gun, I don't know that a law will prevent that."

EMCE has already addressed that point.

Quote :

"I don't think this is a gun problem primarily, and to whatever extent that it is, there's little or nothing that we can do about that. "

That's such a wild cop-out. In SC it's completely legal to give or sell a handgun to whoever you want, including your son. In other states, including NC for now, the recipient of said handgun is required to have permit/background check, and I'd argue that requirement should extend to the transfer of any firearm, not just handguns.

Quote :

" This has been a violent country since it was settled, and I don't see it ending any time soon. "

Well fuck let's just keep the party going, eh?

Quote :

"Furthermore, the one thing that might go a long way would severely flattening wealth disparity"

I'm a liberal so I'm super with you on this point generally, but I don't think it's a direct cause of this incident. I'll await more info to see if it fleshes out.

Quote :

"We're better off having some shootings, as bad as that sounds."

Yeah and I don't even know what this means.

6/19/2015 1:24:46 AM

Quote :

"so a father should be allowed to give his mentally unstable son "

You're referring to an SUV on his 16th birthday, right?

6/19/2015 1:28:00 AM

Quote :

"You're referring to an SUV on his 16th birthday, right?"

Oh look another false equivalency. How cute.

6/19/2015 1:28:04 AM

Please explain your accusations

6/19/2015 1:29:25 AM

Is Google down or something?

6/19/2015 1:30:17 AM

Ohhh I get it, you thought I was comparing giving your son an SUV to giving your son a gun.

Yeah, you're a fucking idiot.

6/19/2015 1:33:17 AM