Should we avoid travel and gatherings for our own personal safety?

[myohmy2]

CNN, 9-1-2019

" There's 'an active shooter every other week' in the US, FBI agent says "

" "If you look at the numbers, we're looking at an active shooter every other week in this country," said Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio division. The FBI defines an active shooter as "an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area" like a school, workplace or other public gathering places.

Combs spoke with CNN Sunday about his frustration with the growing number of active shooters, and possible solutions to help prevent the next shooting. "

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/01/us/fbi-frustrations-mass-shootings/index.html
……………………………

Republicans have done nothing to make us safe from gun violence. Their intransigence to meaningful gun control legislation has made us less safe. They've even loosened gun laws,

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/01/us/fbi-frustrations-mass-shootings/index.html


Should we avoid travel and gatherings for our own personal safety?

I mean this seriously...I'm actually considering avoiding anywhere people may gather...

Gun violence and Republican intransigence has and is destroying our country...


...vote like your life depends on it...because it does...

...republicans...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. I haven't not gone to something for fear of a mass shooter, but I certainly up my situational

awareness at such events.

[Newest Reality]

2. If we

are going to call America a war zone and have to acquiesce to a failure by our politicians and government to perform their duty to assure a reasonable amount to citizens and a especially our children in their early phases of development, (which is necessary and crucial for the future) then, YES.

It does not work well for the facade that things are just going great here in Great America(tm), though. How can you add that to our increasing status as a 3rd-World country and expect to have a thriving, "consumer" culture, too? It is not going to work well and the traumatized children of today will most likely have more fear, anxiety and issues of their own to deal with, so they won't be in the condition to function well and improve things, or cleanup the mess that is being made, I should say.

From the way I understand it, a child's early conditioning, (in an evolutionary sense) gets imprinted in a way that they can survive in the environment they are born into and the modeling and tribe/community they acquire is very fundamental and it can persist as an underlying aspect of the personality for a lifetime. Children who have somewhat of a sense that they are in a "safe" world, initially, fare better in certain ways than children born into chaos, war, or country that fails to assure their safety to a reasonable degree.

That's something to think about in regards to both the long-term, (let's stay home) and short-term, (a generation of scarred children) aspects of this national crises we have going.

[Hortensis]

8. A generation protected from parks, fairs, shopping,

beaches, concerts, people.

Regarding that last, I'm remembering driving our son and some of his friends from our residential community into Hollywood one sunny afternoon. As we turned onto Hollywood Boulevard, on first sight of sidewalks with lots of people out enjoying themselves, instead of mostly empty as they should be, one of the kids was so alarmed he slapped the door lock.

Considering we have a nation of kids brought up that way, I'm thinking we need to get out to public events more.

Our middle-class town had good schools, with a fair amount of diversity. But the sheer strangeness of Hollywood's vibrant street scene was just too much for Marc, a nice, intelligent kid, to be able to relax and enjoy being part of it. NOT good.

[Newest Reality]

9. Yeah.

Thanks for recounting that. I think it makes a very salient point about this situation and your anecdote is appreciated.

I totally agree with you on MORE, rather than less. After the Century of the Self, (as per that excellent BBC documentary) it is really essential to get out and get together more, though that seems to be more difficult and avoidable these days.

The underlying reason for that is that if we want to call this a society, then socializing is a crucial part of that. In order to "keep it together" and continue to call this a society, it would also need to behave like one more. After all, it is about groups of people with a commonality of connections and a general, underlying consensus. When you put it in the abstract like that, much rests on the commons, the connections, the interactions and the agreements and you don't get that when people are inclined to hunker down at home, etc. Alienation is rife in America and statistics support that.

It is about the glue that holds us together as a people and what causes that to be undone, locally and nationally, even if it is very gradual, yet persistent.

[katmondoo]

3. Stay away from Texas, this State has become one of the scariest places in the USA

Has anyone heard of the new gun laws. Seems there are almost NO restrictions.

[Hortensis]

4. One among 300,000,000 people? You're in more danger DRIVING

to gatherings.

Channeling worry into more walking might have a very positive effect on society, though. It'd eliminate most danger of road accidents, fight global warming, paradoxically increase mental wellbeing by increasing personal exposure to the real world, and of course improve physical health.

Walking would keep a lot of people from getting to most public gatherings, but I'm going to suggest that would be very bad for society and only good for the 1 out of every several hundred thousand who turn out to be in the wrong places during this wave of violence.

[uponit7771]

5. +1

[Callmecrazy]

10. So to do reduce gun violence...

We should give up our cars and start walking everywhere?
Why that's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? Better yet, how come Dirigible Donnie hasn't thought of that? Sounds like something he would say.

[Hortensis]

18. If that's what you take from it, ok. Just don't hurt yourself

more than you may already have.

[bdamomma]

21. Ride bikes too

that is what the Europeans do. That's a seasonal thing unless there are people who ride in the snow.

[myohmy2]

24. "Sounds like something he would say."

...yes, and the ball's now in the puke's court...

...if the pukes can come up with a way of stopping mass murder and this senseless out of control gun violence without touching guns, then more power to them...

...but I don't think it can be done...

[cwydro]

25. Wow, really?

Comparing a longtime DUer to the orange stain?

Not cool.

[jberryhill]

35. The OP just answered their question...

...should the OP avoid socializing with others?

[cwydro]

40. The OP wasn't involved in that exchange.

But ok.

[USALiberal]

6. I never worry about mass shootings while I am out.....

Like I don't worry about car wrecks when I drive to work.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. How about shopping, e.g., for food, clothing, necessities?

If we are barricaded in our homes, how can we leave for purposes of survival -- or for work?

My guess is that the NRA is waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop where the rest of us purchase weapons for protection against these lone wolves. They don't care who dies as long as the profits from weapons remain healthy.

[bdamomma]

11. Republicans

they are curse on us. VOTE THEM OUT!!!

[elocs]

14. Yes, if only voters on the Left could be depended on to always vote

like it was their duty without the need to be excited or motivated to show up on voting day.

[myohmy2]

20. republicans...

...

...they can't keep us safe from gun violence and mass murder yet they won't keep guns out of the hands of people who would do us harm...they're down right evil...

...you can't tell right now, but gun violence and public safety is going to be one of the top three issues in 2020...

...it affects all of us...

[bdamomma]

22. that is right

it affects all of us, even our visitors/tourists arrivals. We need to stop this hate, and get this disease eradicated.

[Wounded Bear]

12. If we do that, they win...

[bdamomma]

23. exactly

they win, we must as a people be not brainwashed like that freaking minority. That is their way to control the masses with fear.

Again, Putin must love this, and don't be fooled he is just waiting to see the demise of our country and us.

[elocs]

13. I refuse to live my life in fear, particularly an irrational fear.

I am in far more danger from the traveling part than I ever am from being killed by a mass shooter or in an act of terrorism.

[aikoaiko]

15. Unfortunately, your fear is the result of the fear mongering going on.

Sorry.

The Availabity Heuristic is powerful.

[UniteFightBack]

16. Absolutely not. I wasn't afraid going into the city after 9/11 and I'm not afraid of these fucks

either. I will not live in fear.

[Laffy Kat]

17. I do keep it in the back of my mind.

As soon as I sit down in a movie theater I look around and try to get an escape or hide game plan. I already have one for my grocery store and place of work. I honestly don't worry about me so much, I worry about the people I love.

[virgogal]

19. No.

[NutmegYankee]

26. Statistical wise, you're not at much risk.

You are far more in danger of being killed driving around from a crash. And then there’s the risk of heart disease and cancer, with are orders of magnitude higher than driving.

[Niagara]

27. I don't believe that we have to go that far

I really started noticing my surroundings and possible exit strategies if anything horrifying would happen after the Aurora shooting in 2012.


Like WhiskeyGrinder stated, it's all upping one's situational awareness, but not being afraid to live one's life.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. The likelihood of any particular person being present at the time

and in the place where someone decides to unload their AR-15 is actually pretty small, but even so, the likelihood should be zero. It shouldn't be something we even have to worry about. It shouldn't happen ever, to anyone. Because it's not likely that I will become the victim of a mass shooter I doubt I'll do anything differently (I don't go to large gatherings anyhow because I don't like crowds), but why should we have to even think about the possibility? It's insane.

[smirkymonkey]

29. I avoid large gatherings and crowded spaces simply because I don't like crowds or

being around a lot of people and I am kind of a homebody, although I do live right smack in the middle of a fairly large city.

I love the parks and just walking around doing errands or going to restaurants, farmer's markets, smaller cultural events, etc., but I do occasionally think think about the possibility of being a shooting victim if I am in a mall around Christmas or on public transportation or sometimes in a movie theater. I

I try not to let it run my life, but must admit I am much more conscious of these things than I was even a few years ago.

[Runningdawg]

30. NO. When I stay at home THEY win!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

31. As terrible as these mass shootings are,

and as often as they happen, you need to keep them in perspective. For instance, Walmart. I think there has been exactly one mass shooting at a Walmart. There are nearly 5,000 Walmarts in this country. And while I don't shop there for other reasons, no one else need avoid shopping there for fear of being killed. Same with attending concerts or sending your kids to school.

The number of people killed or injured is an extremely tiny percentage of the population. More people die from lots of other preventable things, like car accidents or smoking, than die from mass shootings.

I'm not intending to minimize how horrific these things are. But do keep them in perspective. And if you stay home because you fear being murdered while out shopping or some such, well don't. Go about your normal business. And work to get guns away from people.

[Iggo]

32. In order to save the guns? Yes, absolutely. (n/t)

[Meadowoak]

33. I live in KY, it's an open carry state, everywhere you go, people

Are carrying guns. I tend to stay home a lot more than I used to. Besides most of them around here are half crazy.

[sarisataka]

36. I went to an event this weekend,

The attendance that day was over a quarter million people. I had zero concerns.

[TeamPooka]

37. I refuse to live my life in fear of madmen. That's how they win and control you. Fuck that.

[Codeine]

38. Absurd.

There’s what, 360+ million people in the US? The probability of experiencing a mass shooting incident is infinitesimal for any given individual.

[Captain Stern]

39. Only if we aren't good at math. n/t

[Magoo48]

41. NO

[hack89]

42. Staying indoors long enough to take an online statistics class would help.

It would at allow people to determine the real dangers in life.

[DFW]

43. They will not control my life

If my number's up, then it's up, but that's like the anti-abortion crowd convincing you not to have sex. Not with me, they don't!

I'll vote like I should, but I'll also live my life as I want. I got jumped by a gang of 3 Arab street thugs in Belgium last week, in broad daylight, and in plain view of a city (Brussels) completely used to it. I will not stop going to Brussels, and I will not run every time I see an Arab.

[JonLP24]

44. I wonder why they bother to do active shooter drills if it so statistically insignificant?

Why did we bother to get involved in several wars if dying from terrorism is insigniificant? Nukes are rare but for some reason I'm more fearful of them before Trump. Maybe because he says stuff like nuking hurricanes and Russia having mysterious explosions, North Korea, etc.

[hack89]

46. Local politicians and police feel the need to "do something" when it comes to active shooter drills

if nothing else, it placates the public.

[JonLP24]

45. Are we more likely to die in an ordinary gun homicide than a mass shooting?

[Vinca]

47. We're all targets wherever we are and whoever we're with. Just live your life . . .

and be alert and aware of your surroundings.