First responder: "...it wasn't mental health that killed these people, it was an automatic rifle."

[Nevilledog]

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Shannon Watts
@shannonrwatts
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WATCH: “…it wasn't mental health that killed these people, it was an automatic rifle. I'm a gun lover. I have guns. I'm a former police officer. I’m a former Army officer ... prayers won't bring these people back. We need action in our legislatures.”


7:26 AM · May 7, 2023

[MagickMuffin]

1. Well gun lover Why not run for office?

You could help in this regard. We need the weapons of mass destruction off the streets and outta the hands of the crazies.

[erronis]

2. It's that "outta the hands of the crazies" that gives the humpers their loophole.

I'm sure most people would take "the crazies" as being people with identified mental health issues.

First of all, we don't have a good system or enough resources to actually know who among us have issues that could merit being labeled "crazy".

Secondly and more importantly, there are lots of "normie" types that love themselves some guns and hate the others. These are the ones I worry about the most.

Just get all firearms registered, licensed yearly, periodic training, demonstrated need to carry. Any ammunition purchase must be done with license.

Add weapon and ammunition manufacturers liability for the misuse of their merchandise.

And yes, all semi-automatic and above should be melted down.

[IbogaProject]

24. We have to go the other way and make it a privledge

Most of our country treat driving as a privilege that has to be earned and maintained. I'd like all gun owners to have to be in some kind of reformed militia. They should be collectively liable for their member's guns and actions.

There are two clauses in Article 1 of The Constitution. [The Militia Clauses]

Clause 15. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

Clause 16. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.

So we need to lay this at the feet of every GOP we ever run against. The notion of guns being a free for all right, isn't there. And the previously cited issues of arms control at both U Va and William And Mary, should also help.

[Ohioboy]

25. Yes!

We need to stress the truth that the founders never intended the 2nd to be a license for insurrection. On the contrary, it was to put down insurrections. It is, and always has been, about a militia under the power of Congress. I like your idea that every gun owner should be considered in a militia that they are responsible to. It is, I think, literally what the founders intended.

[LudwigPastorius]

6. Ahem...

Link to tweet

Mr. Spainhouer was also one of the first to try to help the victims of the shooting, while others whipped their phones out to record the dead and wounded.

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/man-witnessed-allen-outlet-mall-shooting/

[MagickMuffin]

12. Thanks for the info, there wasn't a chyron identifying him

Great news, Good luck to Steven!


I’d vote for him, however, I live a few counties away.

[orthoclad]

19. "No one can see what we saw today and not be affected by it," he said.

from the cbs link.

I can think of plenty of people who are unaffected. They're the type of sociopaths who get elected with NRA money, like Abbott, Patrick, Cruz.

Mr. Spainhouer is a sane human with sane human responses. Not so the above. They're the crazy ones.

[Marius25]

3. I'd say anyone who loves guns has their own mental health issues

Loving weapons designed for mass slaughter is pretty sick.

[johnp3907]

10. Good point.

[Ferrets are Cool]

18. Agreed

[BaronChocula]

4. Who is this guy?

Put him on the campaign trail. "Certain people" need to see someone like that speak in favor of gun control.

[bluboid]

5. more voices like this, PLEASE!

[elocs]

7. The mentally ill are far more often the victims of personal violence

than the ones who commit it but they do make convenient scapegoats for it by those who resent any increase in money going to help the mentally ill and long for the "good old days" of insane asylums and mental warehouses.

[orthoclad]

20. The last time I saw stats on this,

people with mental health issues tend to be LESS violent.

But then again, there are the 2WhiteA sociopaths who live on NRA money. No empathy - classic symptom. These are the people who rise in hierarchies: Congressthings, CEOs. Let's take a close look at sociopathy.

The 2WhiteA is another legacy of the slave economy. Southern states were afraid of slave rebellions; they wanted all white males armed.

[debm55]

29. True

[GoodRaisin]

8. The problem with the "mental illness" response is it can't be controlled.

Nobody is paying attention to the mental person until after the murders have taken place.

The only thing that can be controlled is making the weapons harder to get, but Republicans won’t do it.

[judesedit]

9. Thank you

[Cha]

11. Precisely. :(

[Upthevibe]

13. Kick. n/t

[IronLionZion]

14. These aren't mass mental healthings. Mental illness is a diversion and excuse to change nothing.

GOP doesn't even want to do anything to help people get mental health treatment.

Who decides who is mentally ill or not? It would be a hell of a lot safer if these folks didn't have semi-automatic rifles.

[debm55]

28. Iron, I agree with you.

[yardwork]

15. We need more of this.

[Skittles]

16. "gun lover"

how can anyone love guns - I mean, yeah he has a good point but WTF is wrong with America that so many of its citizens LOVE GUNS

[gratuitous]

23. "Oh, a gun is just a tool"

Absolving the firearms of any responsibility for their proliferation throughout out society, I hear over and over that it's wrong (WRONG I tells ya) to blame the gun for a mass shooting. It seems to be one of the ordained responses blessed by the NRA and others who profit from the free-fire zone they've made of our country.

But you never hear someone say they LOVE their hammer or their measuring cup. You'd look askance at someone who said that. But someone says he LOVES his gun(s)? We're all supposed to just nod and maintain a neutral expression.

[Skittles]

26. it is a sick, sick culture

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

17. K&R

[orthoclad]

21. Reich-wing talk-radio rage is not considered

a mental health issue, I guess.

[Skittles]

27. the thing about mental health issues

is that repukes don't support remedies for that, either

[Stuart G]

22. K and R...Thanks for posting. Great Post - Everyone Needs to Watch This: 48 seconds, entire video