Hanaguma

Which begs the question, why not? Criminals do murder each other, they also murder innocent people who get caught in the crossfire. Far more than die in school shootings as well. I know that public opinion can be influenced by the publicity given to shootings at schools and the like. But that should not influence policy or law making unduly. If the goal is to reduce overall crime and murder, there are other ways to do so.

First, the reason I mentioned other forms of tragedy is to get some perspective on the scale of the problem. Relatively speaking, the chances of getting shot in a school is almost zero- far lower than many other daily activities. So we need not panic about it or blow the problem out of proportion. Also, you cannot take away a class of weapon from all people. That is a non starter. Twenty million legal and law abiding AR owners are not going to hand in their weapons because a very few people use them in crime. So I would suggest, for starters; 1. Mandatory prison sentences for crimes committed with firearms- 5 years add on to the sentence which cannot be plea bargained away. 2. Minimum age 21 to buy a firearm- I have no problem with this. Perhaps 18 for those with hunting licenses, for hunting weapons only. 3. No firearms for convicted felons. 4. Death penalty for drug dealers. Good start?

You are using vague terms. "Tighter gun controls" would mean what exactly- assault weapons only or handguns/shotguns as well? Any statistics or research on how many mass shootings would be prevented by these measures? To me, obfuscation is focusing inordinate attention on one grain of sand on the beach, then using that to deprive millions of law abiding citizens of their constitutional rights. Mass shootings in schools cause the deaths of 40-60 people per year on average. And every one of those deaths is a tragedy. But law cannot prevent every single bad outcome. There is an element of risk in everything we do, every choice we make. Hundreds of kids every year drown in swimming pools in the USA- leading cause of death in kids under 5 years old actually. So do you think we should have tighter pool controls? Perhaps ban private ownership of swimming pools- make everyone fill them in with cement? I mean, nobody NEEDS a pool in their backyard, they can just go to the local rec centre. Yet we allow people to have pools. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for children from 5-16. Lowering the speed limit nationwide to 40mph would save dozens, if not hundreds, of their lives. Yet we don't do that. Why not? If it saves one life...

Not obfuscation. You are focussing so narrowly on such a small subsegment of shootings that it is impossible to make sense of it. From the data I posted, those altogether are about 35% of mass shootings. Not sure what you mean by "non crime related"... you mean shootings not connected with another criminal plan, like a robbery, but just random acts of violence by nutcases?

This is utter insanity, and embarrassing as a fellow citizen of Canuckistan. Have you considered going to the media, perhaps in your friend's hometown? Get him to send you some covert photos from the jail, attach the line conversation screenshots, generate some sympathy. The media usually love "Canadian stranded overseas" stories. Not to cast aspersions on your friend, but is there anything, anything at all, that may have happened in Thailand to possibly give someone motive to want revenge? Could be a simple thing that makes one local person call their friend in immigration, who calls a higher up, who calls.... you get the picture.

No obfuscation- see above. Homicides in schools are about 0.3% of homicides in the country. Most mass shootings involve handguns (77%), not long weapons. Even as a location of mass shootings, public schools are only 7.6% of all mass shootings. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings It is all about publicity and media coverage. School shootings and the like attract attention and give politicians a chance to grandstand in front of cameras. But policy should not be formed on that basis.

The reason is because school shootings and murders, while tragic, are a subset of a subset of a subset of crimes. EG; total homicides in 2018 about 16,000. Homicides with guns about 12,000. Homicides of young people about 1500. Homicides at schools 39 (including staff). Has been as high as about 60 in the past. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a01/violent-deaths-and-shootings?tid=4 So people spend too much time on a problem that pales in comparison to the overall problem of violence and crime.

This. The truth that anti gun people do not want to admit. Rifles and shotguns are not the problem. Handguns are the weapon of choice in the vast majority of both murders and suicides. It is beyond ridiculous to attempt to craft social policy based on feeling and not on data.

Glad you are relieved. Now, once you can communicate without hyperbole or tear-filled appeals to emotion, perhaps we could enjoy a productive conversation.

Then you can rest easy my friend. Nobody can buy a war weapon anywhere in Texas, or the US for that matter.

Which is why we need to ascertain the timing. Assuming the first 911 call was made around the same time as the altercation got physical, it was 4-5 minutes before the police arrived. Otherwise, we have the deceased having been restrained for 10 minutes before anyone called 911, which seems unlikely given the number of 911 calls the police got.

I said earlier that their ratings went up by 10 times. Actually it was 7-8 times. But the point still stands.

What is even worse is the attempt to sway the narrative by portraying him as a busker, a Michael Jackson lookalike... then they show pictures from 10 plus years ago, when he was a teenager and not homeless, looking innocent and harmless. Anyone who has dealt with himm lately has a different take.

You are the voice of reason. Which is no fun at all when we want to slag each other off ( ˙꒳˙ )

The most available video of the event is 3 minutes and the two men are already on the ground. Which kind of aligns nicely with the 911 calls.

...really? News to me.

True, but given the time between the calls and the police arriving, 15 minutes does not seem accurate. The 911 calls escalated from a disturbance to a fight to the police coming within a few minutes.

Only when accused of it. As happened here.

I am sure they do too. But the devil is in the details. Retreat to where? Including Crimea? Who pays for the damages? Prisoner exchange? Future Ukraine membership in NATO or EU? The US could apply pressure to get them both to the table. But if your default position is 100% status quo ante, then the war will continue into the future and probably grow worse.

This story from the Daily Mail shows an interesting timeline; 2:25 first call to 911 2:27 two more calls reporting threats and weapons 2:29 call regarding a fight in progress 2:30 Police arrive and start to work on Penny 2:45 Fire department arrives I am wondering where the "15 minute chokehold" fits into this timeline...

Yeah, sure. "Hey crazy guy! Wanna take a rest from the shouting and throwing things and threatening people? I'm on the phone with the cops. Thanks!"

No MAGA guy here. Just being practical. You want to make peace? Hard to do when you are calling the other guy a war criminal at the same time. Or threatening to do a regime change in his country. If peace is "the indefensible", then I plead guilty.

Kinda hard to do in the middle of the situation.

Did I say that? No straw manning please. I simply said that the format of the event, which was sold as a "town hall", was not followed.

Trump's answer on Ukraine was the correct and mature one (surprisingly). He wants Europe to foot more of the bill- that is good. He wants the fighting to stop and end the bloodshed. He thinks it is rather stupid to label one leader as a "war criminal" and then expect that same leader to participate in any kind of negotiated settlement. Nothing wrong with any of those positions. The Democrats have shown themselves to be surprisingly bloodthirsty on this issue, joining the worst of the warmonger GOP and seeming to be accepting of a possible larger scale conflict with Russia.