(04-18-2021, 10:13 AM)mal234 Wrote: Touching base a little on some points that were just made, I do understand there will always be violence including gun violence to some degree, I do think that the mass shootings are way too frequent and way out of control. Look at how many we've had the past couple of months, the one in Colorado, the massage parlor, the Fed Ex building, some others ones. It's too much. I know this a large country, but this is ridiculous even for a country of our size. Other countries have larger populations than us, and aren't dealing with this type of gun violence, it's sickening.

I feel like some people really aren't going to understand the multitude of how bad this problem is until they or a loved one is faced with something like this. I think it's more likely to happen to people than they realize. I'm going to give an example of how a workplace of mine was threatened by gun violence recently.

Last March, I was laid off from my previous job, and I ended up getting a job with the federal government. A few months ago, my previous job wanted me to come back. I didn't go back full time as the government job was better, but I agreed to work a few days out of the month with my old job. I agreed to do that up until this Summer, as the spring time is the busiest part of the year for that job and I felt like I could get some nice savings between the start of the year and then. I enjoyed my previous job and I've been saving and investing more and and felt I could put the extra money to good use.

I recently found out that a co-worker from my last job was threatening people in our department. We had a bunch of newer people start work this year. There are a lot of people, (including those who had been laid off) that never came back. Some of the newer people were clashing with each other. Including some that are incredibly bossy and have overstepped their bounds at times. Some of them were clashing with a younger co-worker, a young woman probably in her 20's. This young woman was having a hard time adjusting at this job and kept making a lot of mistakes with clients and co-workers. She ended up clashing heavily with some of the bossier newbies. Things got so out of control that the young woman threatened to jump one of them in the parking lot. I was even questioned by one of them about whether I knew about that threat. And I told them I barely interacted with the woman, and the couple of times, I did it was friendly. Which is true (and I even offered to help her when I first met her.)

Things got worse when some of my co-workers there said that the young woman had threatened to bring a gun to work and shoot people. I questioned one of them about this and my bosses ended up calling the police to the office. They told the cops about that threat, and gave them some information about that including what type of vehicle she was driving. Needless to say she's not working there anymore. But I thought that was a very alarming situation. I was working there the day the cops were called and I had a conversation with some of my co-workers about the things they could do in the event she did show up with a gun.

I talked with them about what be the nearest exit to run out of in the event that she showed up trying to shoot people. We talked about being aware, and paying attention and trying to act quickly in case she did show up. We have two different departments in that office space, the one we're in has some pretty giant windows, I sit at one of the desks that is closest to the window. It's possible to see her if she showed up, but even if you saw her, you'd only have so much time to act. The parking lot isn't very far from the entrance and she could get inside the building quickly. Even faster than people could make it out to the closest exit. 

Some of my co-workers were saying if she showed up, they would try and go out the windows. But I'm not sure how easily those windows open, they are huge, and I've never tried to open one. There are other other things I've thought about and didn't mention, like how if they saw her early enough they could put one of long desks against the door and try and keep her out. (In the event they couldn't make it to an exit fast enough).

That department has mostly women in it and the attire is business casual. So you have a lot of people in there in heels and flats, instead of tennis shoes. How fast could most people run in those types of shoes?

It's unfortunate that I had to have those types of conversations with them, but that is the reality we are dealing with in this country on a daily basis. I'm glad they called the cops regarding my co-worker, but I also wonder/have concerns about her possibly trying to retaliate at some point especially since she is no longer working at the company. People have got to be careful, look out for each other and try and prevent as much harm as possible regarding threatening situations.

Most of what you typed is sensationalism. Your fear of the situation might be real. It might even be warranted. I'm not saying don't be vigilant, but the numbers don't lie: Your odds of being involved in a mass shooting are virtually 0%. Making policy based on fear when your odds of being involved in this type of situation is 1 in 200,000 is insane. Furthermore, how much do you think you can really improve it? Canada, with all it's gun laws barely moves the needle compared to us, and they are the nation that is most similar (but with gun laws).

Speaking of similar, there are only 2 countries larger than ours, and, aside from the fact that they probably aren't reporting their numbers accurately, you also run into the problem that they aren't remotely culturally or politically similar to us. Now, that's not to say we are better, but it is putting the onus on you to prove that guns alone are the issue. I think China probably does have a lower murder rate, but they also have a draconian civil code. Do you really think we'd be better off with China's policies in the US? BLM wouldn't even exist. If you added the US's liberalism with regards to the law and individual freedom, that number would rise dramatically in a decade or two. India, on the other hand, is probably not equipped for accurate reporting. Even if we assumed their numbers were accurate, you have to account for the role Hinduism plays in reducing murders. India is a very religious society. The US is significantly more secular. Are you willing to have our political officials inject more traditional, religious values into our laws to curb the violence?

Apples to apples. 

We are basing too much of our policy on overreactions. Americans have stopped being rational.

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