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Two Virginia television journalists fatally shot in on-air attack[READ OP]

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Black people don't like this tag because it takes focus off the racial injustice of police brutality towards blacks. Kind of ridiculous to get in a frizzy over people saying it as they're not saying it to dismiss black lives to but to unite people as one human race and go beyond the color of people's skin but sadly racism is still a part of society. Don't dare say AllLivesMatter without expecting someone to quash you down in 10 seconds. #BePrepared
I don't have twitter and haven't followed the BlackLives/AllLives debate but can understand how sensitive that can become. My comment was related in context to the lack of gun control in the US... not about race.
 

BFIB

Member
Fucking amazing that the media continues to not learn from past mistakes. They are true pieces of scum for releasing any information about his manifesto. They should burn the damn thing on the air.
 

Kabouter

Member
So, just another racist asshole who decided he was going to start killing others for not having the same skin colour as him. These stories seem all too common.
 
I just watched that video. I don't understand how they couldn't see him standing there with a gun out???

She actually does notice him and briefly turns her head only to look back at the woman being interviewed right before he lifts the gun. The woman being interviewed was most likely too busy concentrating on what she had to say to take much notice of him.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
ARe you noticing that too? I'm speaking to a friend on gchat, he is FURIOUS over this....

I mean... I've seen a whole lot of people gunned down in the past months, a lot of innocent people.. but this one is really sticking out for people.

Its like the reaction from the Lion.
Well, it's all rather obvious why that is the case.
 
Holy fuck. can't believe a legitimate news outlet would broadcast that publicly.

The is the real life version of Jake Gyllenhaal's Nightcrawler.

I can absolutely understand and appreciate why people don't want it aired, but airing the footage might actually a good thing in some ways. It presents the horrors of gun violence in all its brutality and might actually result in a positive change.

Again, I can absolutely appreciate why people don't want it aired, but I feel it's actually something that people should be forced to watch. It's too easy to dismiss gun violence when you're not presented with direct footage of its indiscriminate and unavoidable brutality. All those people who then come out of the woodwork with their claims of 'if only everyone had been armed, he might have been stopped', this serves as an example to why that line of thinking is flawed.

If this doesn't result in at least some reforms, I just don't know. The US really will be a list cause with how it deals with guns.
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
This whole idea of "If XXX had a gun, they would have been able to protect themselves" is so fucking stupid. Guns can be useful if you find yourself in the middle of a fire-fight.

But we live in a civil society, not a war zone. You don't go around constantly scanning for threats and moving from cover to cover. If someone with a gun wants to kill you, they can just walk up behind you and shoot you in the head. No matter how good of a gun you have and no matter how much training you have, you are dead. And that is the way many shootings go. They are not firefights, they are ambushes.

You're twisting it a bit. This isn't really what people are talking about when they talk about protecting themselves. Sure, you're right, if someone wants to sneak up behind you and shoot you in the head, then yes, you can't defend against that. Do you really think that's what people are trying to protect against? They want to have protection against situations where they are getting robbed, where there is random violence like the movie theater killings, etc. Some people just feel better about having the ability to protect themselves in these situations.
 

Daft_Cat

Member
Most of those same people deflecting gun control talk and trying to focus on just mental health are also typically the same people against UHC, against Obamacare, lobbying to cut state budgets including healthcare, advocating longer prison sentences and harsher punishment.

Not all, but many. And they are simply using it as a conversation deflecter and their actions and views show that they really could give fuck all for mental healthcare.

Either it's a problem or it's not and if it is all options should be open for discussion. Including gun control.

There's the reality of the situation, and then there's what you choose to extrapolate from it for political purposes. Most things can be spun either way. The likelihood that this dude probably suffered from a mental illness is pretty good. Can you think of a better explanation for his actions? To me, that alone demonstrates the necessity for increased gun control (among many others factors not related to mental illness).

That said, if other groups want to twist that and try to limit it to a discussion on healthcare, then their logic is beyond my own. Certainly there is a debate to be had on how we recognize and treat the mentally ill... but controlling the access to guns in this country seems like a decent first step.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
This. The general public has no use for this information all this can do is fuel copycat killers.

I disagree. Many people walk around with attitudes like this. People need to be aware where this line of thinking leads.

IMHO the only thing that can prevent this kind of thing is people recognizing that someone is unstable and intervening in some way.

To say "welp he was just a evil person" and ignore the real or perceived events that lead to this mental state is just burrying your head in the sand.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
The problem is they are also the same people who are against universal health care and want to see all social safety nets cuts so that the lazy will have to work at jobs that don't exist and the disabled will have to depend on the kindness of strangers and churches who have shown zero kindness to the disabled.
Yep, that was my earlier point.
 
So, just another racist asshole who decided he was going to start killing others for not having the same skin colour as him. These stories seem all too common.

It's not as simple as you've described it. On the surface yeah, his anger pretty much wears that banner, but he was obviously mentally ill and claiming discrimination by other blacks for being gay is a clue to a more nuanced issue.
 

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
Ultimately, most gun owners are sensible, normal people.

I would just like to say that while this is true, it is not a good reason to continue to allow people to have guns. No matter how responsible most people are, guns are too dangerous and inappropriate to be made available to the general population.

As Jim Jefferies said, the only possible defence you have is "because you like 'em." And he's right, there is simply no other reason to own a gun.

I know it will be incredibly hard. Just start making small steps. America must find a way. It has to.
 
That sounds really simple as an idea, but how would you actually accomplish this? How do you set up the facilities, professional evaluators and bureaucratic structure to actually do it? There are 235,000,000 adults in the United States. That's 235,000,000 in-depth psychological analyses. Let's break that down.

There are currently 297 cities in the US that have populations over 100,000 people. So to accomplish your plan, we have to put a facility in each of them so that we can actually accommodate every US citizen. To run an office like this and complete this task in any small amount of time, you'll need at least:

- 100 Evaluators
- 25 Supervisors/Office Managers
- 100 Support Staff Members

That's 225 staff members per office. Multiply that by the complete list of cities, and you're talking about 66,825 public servants (note that this doesn't even include oversight employees across regions and at the national level). And you'll have to either appropriate or build facilities for these people to work out of, which is its own logistical nightmare. But let's say you've got it - that's 29,700 evaluators trying to get 235,000,000 evaluations done - that's over 7900 evaluations per person. And these have to be in-depth, so you have to assume at least 4 hours of interaction between the evaluator and the citizen. Add in the time it takes to do the paperwork after analysis and it'd be at least an extra 4 hours of work before someone's file was "complete." So that's 8 hours per citizen per evaluator, so you figure, one a day, or 5 a week per evaluator. In total, that's 148,500 per week on a national scale, or 7,722,000 per year. So it'll take us over 30 years to do them all, not taking into account new adults who now have to be evaluated, new citizens, and of course re-applicants.

These numbers are pulled straight out of my ass, but I'd guess that they're probably extremely optimistic in every respect.

I mean, it's not like I disagree with you that it'd be great if there were no guns. I'd love that. But I honestly have no clue how to actually do it. Do you? I'm honestly asking, because I can't figure it out.

I'd say the even simpler solution is to just ban them all together and fuck psych evals. Have a gun on you...you go to jail.

You want a fucking gun? Play a video game.
 

Amory

Member
They have an editorial staff, they broadcast information selectively, not indiscriminately.

right, but why would they not release this? it's credible information about an ongoing story, and speaks to the motivation of someone who isn't going to be talking about their motivation any time soon
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
It's not as simple as you've described it. On the surface yeah, his anger pretty much wears that banner, but he was obviously mentally ill and claiming discrimination by other blacks for being gay is a clue to a more nuanced issue.

You give the general population too much credit for nuance.
People will cherry pick what they want from this "Manifesto".
 

mantidor

Member
Fucking amazing that the media continues to not learn from past mistakes. They are true pieces of scum for releasing any information about his manifesto. They should burn the damn thing on the air.

I actually didn't find out about what he said from news outlets, but from twitter and facebook and he did post stuff on social media. It's basically impossible it wasn't going to spread out even if the news didn't report it.
 
I'm sure, as others have said, that gun control in the US isn't going to be an easy process. But surely putting a halt on issuing licenses and selling guns is a starting point.
 

Zabant

Member
'Dear America' is now trending for me, lots of non-us users calling for gun control in america, not that it'l have much impact.
 
I disagree. Many people walk around with attitudes like this. People need to be aware where this line of thinking leads.

IMHO the only thing that can prevent this kind of thing is people recognizing that someone is unstable and intervening in some way.

To say "welp he was just a evil person" and ignore the real or perceived events that lead to this mental state is just burrying your head in the sand.

You make a good point I do think the motives of the killer should be expressed but I don't think presenting it in the way it was written is appropriate
 

Mecha

Member
That's still counter productive to your own apparent agenda.

The whole point of the news is being able to obtain the information and facts as they unfold. Editing out specific content seems more of an agenda based ideal than releasing valid information to the public.

If someone wants to view something I can't stop them, how is giving them an option an issue?

Lucky they don't have to edit out any specific content, they just don't have to release it the day of the shooting. I'm completely fine with them stating that they have the manifesto, but releasing it so soon only increases the interest people have in the killer.

There are better ways to handle news stories of tragedies like this than to constantly talk about and analyze the killer.
 

eot

Banned
I disagree. Many people walk around with attitudes like this. People need to be aware where this line of thinking leads.

IMHO the only thing that can prevent this kind of thing is people recognizing that someone is unstable and intervening in some way.

To say "welp he was just a evil person" and ignore the real or perceived events that lead to this mental state is just burrying your head in the sand.

You don't need to air that stuff to figure out that he's crazy. The people who commit these acts know that they'll get attention for whatever sick message they have. This guy clearly wants the attention, bad enough to fucking kill people, film it and post it online. Don't give him what he wants and don't send the message that this is a good way to get attention.
 
'Dear America' is now trending for me, lots of non-us users calling for gun control in america, not that it'l have much impact.

Well, foreigners calling for gun control in America probably isn't the best way to get through to those that are blocking it, but I guess it's worth a shot!
 
Oh boy, the man on CNN just compared his twitter footage to a first person shooter video game.

Not that video games caused this, but I don't disagree with the comparison. The shooters video from a FPS perspective was eerily similar yet real. It's the main reason I felt the video was troubling.
 

Guevara

Member
It's pretty amazing how this parallels the church shooting Charleston. Both were clearly unhinged, both left racist manifestos to explain their actions.

It's going to be hard to argue THIS guy was 'just' crazy, but not actually racist. But THAT OTHER guy was racist, etc.

Just a thought: every time we highlight race, especially in a divisive way, maybe that does real damage. At the very least: some people can't handle it.
 

Zabant

Member
Well, foreigners calling for gun control in America probably isn't the best way to get through to those that are blocking it, but I guess it's worth a shot!

Maybe a bit of global shaming will get some people to wake up, then again..it will probably just cause more bad sentiment from within the country against non-us nations
 

Squalor

Junior Member
It's pretty amazing how this parallels the church shooting Charleston. Both were clearly unhinged, both left racist manifestos to explain their actions.

It's going to be hard to argue THIS guy was 'just' crazy, but not actually racist. But THAT OTHER guy was racist, etc.

Just a thought: every time we highlight race, especially in a divisive way, maybe that does real damage. At the very least: some people can't handle it.
What will be interesting will be the right's response to this relative to their response to Charleston.
giving a vivid picture with explicit detail.

Nope, not graphic.

I'm assuming the shooter's P.O.V. video is very graphic, but the footage from the news report is not.
I'm talking about the POV footage.
 

Sianos

Member
i have a feeling this will be the tragedy that finally gets mainstream america to realize the true caustic nature of our gun culture that enables a constant cycle of murder, or at least forces them to have the conversation

for years i have said "why don't we have mandatory psych evals when buying a gun or renewing a license and bar the mentally unstable from owning guns" and the response i always get from the fools is "but bad guys will still get guns from somewhete!!" as if the possibility of illegally circumventing a law means there should not be one at all

perhaps now that white people have been killed by a deranged black man who should have been barred from gun ownership people will understand that just because you cannot prevent all tragedy does not mean you should not do what you can to prevent most tragedies
 

scoobs

Member
Should remove that video from the thread. I refuse to watch it, but there's really no reason to be promoting this dudes heinous act.
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
I'm sure, as others have said, that gun control in the US isn't going to be an easy process. But surely putting a halt on issuing licenses and selling guns is a starting point.

These types of comments are so unrealistic and so far removed from reality that I think they actually hinder the gun control issue. Removing guns from our society is not going to happen.
 
I don't have twitter and haven't followed the BlackLives/AllLives debate but can understand how sensitive that can become. My comment was related in context to the lack of gun control in the US... not about race.

I get your point but AllLivesMatter is from BLM's perspective seen as anti-black. These victims were white. You see where I'm going? Don't hashtag anything AllLivesMatter unless you want to see a race war. Hashtags spelled the same don't distinguish between intent whether it be about race or lack of gun control. They all go to the same place. Saying "RIP" to AllLivesMatter will then essentially call up your post history...and people wondering why you say "RIP" to AllLivesMatter when white people die but not BLM when black people die. It'd be stoking the flames of perceived racist bias. Unless of course, you've said "RIP" or some other message on BLM...in which case you can point and say, I do this for all victims of violence. While your reasoning is sound to me...that's not how'd it be perceived. Don't hashtag anything ALM or WLM no matter your intent.
 

Sanjuro

Member
If someone wants to view something I can't stop them, how is giving them an option an issue?

Lucky they don't have to edit out any specific content, they just don't have to release it the day of the shooting. I'm completely fine with them stating that they have the manifesto, but releasing it so soon only increases the interest people have in the killer.

There are better ways to handle news stories of tragedies like this than to constantly talk about and analyze the killer.

Because it doesn't make any sense with your reasoning.

But beyond that, what is the appropriate time frame for releasing important information to a developing story? The entire purpose of the news is to deliver breaking information to top stories. That is how it will always be.
 

Hex

Banned
Oh boy, the man on CNN just compared his twitter footage to a first person shooter video game.

Well it was.
Getting defensive about it does not make it less true.
As far as those saying that they should not release the manifesto, are you saying that they should cover it up? Hide it or bury it, something along those lines?
 

Mecha

Member
I disagree. Many people walk around with attitudes like this. People need to be aware where this line of thinking leads.

IMHO the only thing that can prevent this kind of thing is people recognizing that someone is unstable and intervening in some way.

To say "welp he was just a evil person" and ignore the real or perceived events that lead to this mental state is just burrying your head in the sand.

We talk about the mindset of killers all the time when something like this happens, and yet almost every time people cite that the person never seemed like he/she would hurt anyone. I agree that people need to understand signs, but for most of these killers the signs are most obvious after the shooting happens.
 

Amory

Member
i have a feeling this will be the tragedy that finally gets mainstream america to realize the true caustic nature of our gun culture that enables a constant cycle of murder, or at least forces them to have the conversation

for years i have said "why don't we have mandatory psych evals when buying a gun or renewing a license and bar the mentally unstable from owning guns" and the response i always get from the fools is "but bad guys will still get guns from somewhete!!" as if the possibility of illegally circumventing a law means there should not be one at all

perhaps now that white people have been killed by a deranged black man who should have been barred from gun ownership people will understand that just because you cannot prevent all tragedy does not mean you should not do what you can to prevent most tragedies

as like 100 people in this thread alone have said, if sandy hook didn't do it, this isn't gonna do it

sandy hook was a fucking nightmare, and it sparked about a 2 week "conversation" while some people called it a false flag operation and harassed victims' families.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Oh boy, the man on CNN just compared his twitter footage to a first person shooter video game.
Comparing it to a video game doesn't mean video games are at fault.

I watched the POV video. The first thing I thought was "Damn, this looks like an FPS."
 

Wellington

BAAAALLLINNN'
I just saw the killer's GoPro vid, horrifying. I am amazed they didn't notice when he got so close with the gun drawn.

Absolute tragedy.
 
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