Shooting at Boulder, CO Supermarket (Arvada, Craig: buyer, stores, airport)

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Places that don't allow people to carry firearms to protect themselves usually become shooting galleries. Boulder is one of them.

You mean like Europe and, more recently, Australia?

[Westerner92]

Those of y'all who graduated school pre-Columbine need some perspective. Those of y'all who want to talk about guns rather than decades of cultural rot need some perspective. I'm going to list some risk factors:

- from a car-dependent part of the world without walkable access to community
- Abrahamic religious fundamentalism
- feelings of academic inadequacy
- involuntarily celibate/sexually frustrated

Most Americans have no sense of communal life and have to drive miles to their support system. Most Americans are threadbare and worn down from the constant competition, afraid that any stretch of underperformance means you get thrown into the inescapable underclass and judged for it. Many Americans' only accesses to community preach literal interpretation of Abrahamic text, with rhetoric that stresses piety over growth, that there's only one non-sinful sexual expression, that anger is the only masculine way to express frustration, that wealth is a measure of holiness and success. Basically, if you know any suburban adolescent boys/young men, particularly those with Protestant or Muslim backgrounds, who are struggling academically and/or financially and/or socially, reach out and be there for them. It's not enough, but it's a start.

To address the underlying causes of these random acts of violence will take decades of work. To each of the risk factors above:

- Densify, make American communities walkable, make quality public spaces where even loners can have a nice time people watching and feeling connected to the people around them.
- Defund Evangelical and Wahhabist rhetoric. Believe it or not, densification helps. More walkable communities lowers the demand for the oil tycoons funding Evangelical/Wahhabist infiltration of churches/mosques.
- Universal basic income. Replace the ridiculous hoops, arbitrary cutoffs, and purity tests of government safety nets. Those take more funds to enforce than just giving everyone a stipend that will at least fund an individual's shelter and nutritional needs. Make a healthcare public option just like we have public education.
- You straights could use a little more sex ed, free love, and free expression, especially the fundies who want to control strangers' sexual conduct and gender expression.

Anyway, back to Boomers arguing about guns.

[sammy87]

So why is CO home to so many shootings? Thats the big issue I see not being addressed.

Polis will probably let him off the death penalty lock him up for his life. Shouldn't even be a trial.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Mass shootings are not indicative of an area’s relative safety. There are fragile white dudes with AR-15s everywhere.

Well this didn’t age well.

[maiden_fern]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Mass shootings are not indicative of an area’s relative safety. There are fragile white dudes with AR-15s everywhere.

Oh really, was Ahmad a white dude? So quick to judge. Tsk, tsk.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Yeah, right. I'm sure he prepared for this by first walking around Boulder looking for stores with "no weapons allowed" signs.

When was the last time you heard of a mass-shooting inside an airport, or a federal building? Keeping guns out, works. That is why they are prohibited in sensitive areas.

So, you want armed security in grocery stores? I'm sure the guy already knew no one in there was armed because of their policies.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by maiden_fern

Oh really, was Ahmad a white dude? So quick to judge. Tsk, tsk.

They aren't when claiming asylum but they are when they are included for the mass shooting stats.

[happygrrrl]

All I have to say is that my child was driving to that King Sooper yesterday to pick up a few things, when a police car driving the wrong way down the road almost collided with them, trying to get to the shooting location. Then my child saw all the police & EMTs & got a phone call from spouse to get out of there.

I've been to that store. It's in a nice area that is very safe. When my child & their spouse relocated there from the SF Bay area, I was relieved. Now all I can think is there is no safe place anywhere.

My deepest sympathies to the loved ones of the lost.

[aquietpath]

Originally Posted by Guineas

They are worse than worthless. They create complacency until the next mass shooting and then more prayers. Prayers and inaction will never lead to any change.

You are missing the point. While I won't speak for everyone who is offering the thoughts and prayers you are denigrating, I would imagine that the prayers are for the survivors and those who have lost loved ones, that they may experience some relief and peace in their trauma and grief.

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by happygrrrl

All I have to say is that my child was driving to that King Sooper yesterday to pick up a few things, when a police car driving the wrong way down the road almost collided with them, trying to get to the shooting location. Then my child saw all the police & EMTs & got a phone call from spouse to get out of there.

I've been to that store. It's in a nice area that is very safe. When my child & their spouse relocated there from the SF Bay area, I was relieved. Now all I can think is there is no safe place anywhere.

My deepest sympathies to the loved ones of the lost.

Glad to hear your child is okay. This one hits a bit close to home for me. I've been to that shopping area many times over the roughly 20 years I lived in Colorado, and in the grocery store a few times. I had a moment of personal relief this morning in seeing that nobody I know is on the list of the dead. (We know a couple of families that use that store frequently).