9 dead in South Carolina Church shooting:

[alphanguy74]

Yes... I was referring to the animals, in case you didn't realize it. But since you all think I'm racist, I might was well post this, and also point out that all those OTHER "advanced countries" that you are speaking of have one thing in common, a much smaller black population than we do. And you look at the top 2 cities for homicide rates, they both have an over 80% black population. What does that tell you?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/19/the-racial-divide-in-americas-gun-deaths/

[quartermainefan]

City people? As I sit here in midtown Manhattan sipping iced lattes from the three trillion Starbucks within walking distance of my apartment, it seems to me these crazy gun incidents are always in hick states where no self respecting NYer would even visit.

[Eric83]

That people who are born into generational poverty and into a supremacist society that tells them they are inferior turn to crime when they need to feed their children. Oh and that politicians placed drugs and guns into these communities so that they could kill them off and send them off to prison to fill the pockets of their friends who own the privatized prison system

[marceline]

I don't buy into the hopelessness. We didn't get here overnight and we can't fix it overnight. Real social change takes time. It took generations to change societal attitudes about drunk driving or cigarettes or marriage equality and the same will be true for guns. Of course nothing can change until liberals get off their asses and vote in every election and not just the presidential one.

[GMac]

I agree with this, but OTOH it's disheartening that this kind of thing has happened so many times and the NRA is still going strong. I don't get the seemingly blind obedience that people seem to have to them. But we witness it everyday and even in this very thread.

Slightly off topic...let's not assume that everyone that prefers living in the country is a hick or goes around shooting every animal that happens to cross an imaginary line. There's a lot to be said about rural life and I personally love it. It speaks to my liberal conservationist heart. My garden is protected by fencing, not gunfire.

[Graham]

Apparently, the governor is going to call for the flag to be removed at a press conference this afternoon.

[Juliajms]

This makes me so happy. At least some one in charge is trying to do the right thing.

[marceline]

When I saw people organizing this Saturday as National Burn the Confederate Flag Day, I wondered what it would take to get these folks to come around.

[Wales2004]

Nothing.

People are individuals. If you want to jump to conclusions about millions of black people because they happen to suffer from the same types of behavior (good and/or bad) that other people suffer from then knock yourself out.

I don't buy generational poverty as a reason to kill other people in your neighborhood. And who says that all of those killers are trying to feed any kids? How does killing a young guy in front of his mother because he is wearing the "wrong" color shoes happen because someone grew up poor? Some people are just simply callous and have no regard for others.

Besides that, statistics do not tell the whole story. The common denominator being used is black and the primary instincts seem to be for racists to use those stats to conclude that black people are sub-human criminals and for some black people to automatically come out defensively. Both dehumanize black people because the option is to be sub-human or criminals with justification.

Anyway the bottom line is so what to him and his stats that don't prove a thing. By now we should all be smart enough to know that you can skewer stats to make whatever point you want to make. And black people don't need defending.

[ReddFoxx]

Let me rephrase this. People like you spreading this sort of racial divisiveness do not help matters. The Dylann Roofs of the world read extremism and are willing to pick up weapons to commit crimes. I should not have called you a racist, but you do seem to have an issue with race that comes through in your posts.

[Eric83]

I didn't say every killing was justifiable and to feed children. What I did say is crime thrives in poverty and most blacks live in poverty because of racism and being kept from jobs and redlining which kept them from getting loans to buy homes and pass down financial wealth as well as property. And many of these gangs fight over drugs which were planted in black communities by notorious drug dealers such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

[Eric83]

Yes for these Confederate monuments being vandalized. Stop honoring this "legacy" these people were not heroes. I can't with these statues painting them as martyrs just trying to protect their way of life.

Chile I LIVE

[NothinButAttitude]

Good. I am also tired of these Confederate 'heroes' being honored.

[JaneAusten]

I guess maybe I am naïve but even putting the issue of slavery aside, why is anyone associated with the confederacy being honored? Wasn't the secession and formation of the confederacy an act of treason?

[alphanguy74]

EXACTLY! And that's why I said it's not the GUN that is the problem. If you notice, all those other countries people point to with lower gun crime also have a FAR more robust safety net of social programs, so the populace is not nearly as desperate as here in the US. And anyway... that's why people don't take drugs anymore... because we made them illegal.