It all started w/ Santa Claus. Specifically an armed Santa Claus who shot 8 people dead during a holiday party last December. Yup, that inspired me. Cuz' growing up in America, you're privy to lots and lots of ugly news but that one really cut me deep. Columbine, Virginia Tech, it all kinda blurs together over the decades.
Shootings in shopping malls, churches, schools, workplaces - where ever people gather, there have been suicidal rampages by angry, impotent, mentally ill men - mostly white. And yet, gun laws in this country remain lax as ever - so lax that drug dealers from Mexico have resorted to getting their firearms from the across the border. What's worse, the language hasn't even changed to properly frame the issue - terms like "supremacy crime" as coined by Gloria Steinem after Columbine, that links male violence with men's inability to be in charge of their surroundings despite the intense pressure this patriachical culture puts on them, have not become a part of the discourse.
Instead of referring to these men as "suicidal killers," the corporate media still uses soft language like "shooting spree." As if they were going shopping. While the occupied people of Palestine are often derided as a bunch of "Islamic militant suicide bombers," our culture can't seem to look itself in the mirror and recognize how violent it really is. But guns don't kill people - perhaps, but having them so easily available doesn't help.
So i started this blog at the beginning of the year to chart all the shootings. i think we average about two a month as there's probably a lot more that i don't catch. today's shooting took place in a nursing home...
CARTHAGE, N.C. (AP) — A gunman opened fire at a North Carolina nursing home Sunday morning, killing at least six people and wounding several others, police said.
The gunman was also injured before he was apprehended by police after the 10 a.m. shooting at Pinelake Health and Rehab in the town of Carthage, Police Chief Chris McKenzie told several television stations. A police officer was also hurt....
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h91ZbQTpB1bqDYrWJgMJlTE07KDwD977TIMO0
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