Celebrating
Gun company drops out of NRA convention:
The gun manufacturer that produced the AR-15-style assault rifle the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooter used to kill 19 children and two teachers has shut down its social media accounts after being linked to the massacre. It has also reportedly dropped out of the National Rifle Association’s annual convention set to be held starting Friday in Houston.
…The firearm Ramos used is reportedly made by Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, authorities and the company each confirmed.
If the company confirmed then you can drop the “reportedly.”
The arms manufacturer states on its site, “At Daniel Defense, we celebrate the liberty of our country, the enthusiasm of our customers and employees, and the quality and accuracy of our products.”
That’s interesting, because the quality and accuracy of their products reduce the liberty of our country, as does the enthusiasm of their customers. A country that has way too many heavily armed lunatics running around can’t boast about its liberty. A country that refuses to do anything about that grotesque situation can’t boast about its liberty. Our liberty is at the sufferance of a lot of heavily armed fanatics.
On Wednesday, one of the company’s social media posts resurfaced from a week ago on May 16, the day Ramos turned 18. That week, he legally purchased two AR-15-style assault rifles, including the Daniel Defense DDM V7 rifle, according to the Washington Post.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” the post said, in reference to a Biblical proverb, followed by a prayer emoji. The post included a photo of a toddler sitting with an AR-15-style assault rifle on its lap. Daniel Defense also reportedly posted the same image and text on Instagram that day, which included the hashtag #childrenarethefuture.
Dayum. Good find. Train up a child in the way he should go, and that way is carrying a military assault rifle. The way she should go is presumably in terror of him. Virtue is a gun; goodness=murderous violence. It’s a very odd combination.
That’s marketing, of course. The goal is not to say anything true or morally useful, it’s to sell the product. The goal is to sell SUVs and cruises as the planet cooks, and mass-murder guns that can take out whole Targets or primary schools. Go team.
There’s another side to this too… Portland’s surge in gang violence was fueled by the massive gun sales in 2020. The guns weren’t manufactured illegally, they were purchased legally and resold illegally.
But who cares who buys the guns? The important thing is that they’re bought.
1. Make gun. 2. Sell gun. 3. Read news of its use in a primary school massacre. 4. Wring hands. 5 Offer prayers followed by condolences. 6.Offer more condolences followed by more prayers. 7. Go to 1.
Around she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows.
I didn’t know that about Portland.
I wonder what the gun industry thinks all these guns are for. Cosplay?
It’s the smell. That’s what forces its way into my thoughts every time there’s another mass shooting. I guess it’s part of the PTSD associated with 25 plus years of trauma surgery trying to undo extremes of violence. It’s left its mark. Iron. Metallic. If you are winning the fight, that’s what you smell. If you’re losing it shifts to an indescribable stench of corruption as cells begin to die and normal organ barriers begin to fail. In the OR you smell death well before the monitors slow and the EKG begins to widen. Still you try. Last night I couldn’t sleep because to this day I can still see the face of my youngest GSW patient, hit in the abdomen by a high velocity slug like those used in Texas. From her diaphragm to her pelvis every organ was shredded. Her liver burst from the supersonic shock wave that followed the bullet. So much blood that you have to throw your socks away. Three trauma surgeons worked on her for hours. It wasn’t enough. I remember the smell.
Oh jesus.
[…] a comment by Pliny the in Between on […]
What infuriated me about the inevitable “ what about the gawd fearin law abidin gun owners” argument is that mass gun ownership inevitably encourages violence. A culture of violent fantasy. Self righteousness. And more seriously, if the society is literally flooded with guns, even supposedly legal guns, these guns will leak into bad hands and used for nefarious purposes.
Especially in a culture infested with incels, mens rights activists, and most seriously deranged Christian fundamentalists intoning sermons about male leadership and silent women. Men just NEED to punish them wayward s women, dontcha know? /sarc