I’m Disgusted

Emanuel ame churchI am disgusted by the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. I am more disgusted we’re living this type of scenario over-and-over-and-over. As President Obama rightfully said,

“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”

We have a culture of guns and violence. We have a portion of this nation whipped up in a frenzy. Dylann Roof, the accused murderer, was part of that group.

From Fox8 Cleveland:

“I think he wanted something big like Trayvon Martin,” his roommate Joey Meek told ABC News, referring to the black Florida teen whose shooting death at the hands of George Zimmerman — who was acquitted of murder — provoked huge protests. “He wanted to make something spark up the race war again.”

I am also disgusted by the reaction of some on the right. There are so many deniers.

Here’s a headline from a site called Ammoland.com:

Obama Can’t Let Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church Murders Go To Waste

Seriously, what kind of sick world are these people living in?

NRA Board Member Charles Cotton tried to pin this tragedy on the victims. The New York Daily News showed him no mercy.

One of the NRA’s top numbskulls responded to the Charleston church massacre by shooting off his mouth — and blaming the victims.

Displaying all the sensitivity of an anvil, Charles Cotton said the slaughter was the fault of Clementa Pinckney, the murdered pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church who also was a South Carolina state senator.

“Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead,” Cotton declared. “Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

Our country still vilifies minorities. Donald Trump had this to say earlier this week.

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Trump probably doesn’t think he’s a racist. He is. This is how he and others speak and feel.

We need to tone down the rhetoric. We need to be more understanding. We need to find a way to cut back the availability of firearms.

As has been said a few times this week, one guy on a plane with a shoebomb and we’re all stripping down before getting on an airplane. An epidemic of gun violence and we do nothing.

I’m disgusted bbecause this whoole state of affairs is disgusting.

18 thoughts on “I’m Disgusted”

  1. Have you noticed that the politicians, talk show hosts, etc who yell the loudest for gun rights have no intelligent agenda for solving any of America’s problems? For example, unemployment – just get rid of the immigrants. All their rhetoric is inflammatory and hate based. Their agenda is neither logical or helpful.

  2. Geoff, one of your best pieces ever. I read them all but because we’re in agreement on just about everything I rarely feel the need to comment. But today’s atrocity was one of the very worst and I know that you and I have a particular sensitivity to hate crimes and bigotry. As a result we can easily (and sadly) identify the super haters and bigots. It can be such a beautiful world until the ugly reality of hate hits us as it did today. Thanks for keeping in touch through this medium. I miss your weather broadcasts. The current new “crop” on Ch 8 looks promising and there’s hope for the future. I admire your hard work at setting up your home studio and your ability to adapt to then west coast. I’ve been there on visits but I was never comfortable with the area. That said I wish you continued success. When you return back east come for a visit to Woidmont and I’ll give you a tour of our great old community!

  3. Obvi mental health IS the issue NOT guns. But, as long as there are people in denial about this facet in life = the more killings will take place. Take guns away and everything will be nice and nice = WAKE-UP – that AIN’T gonna happen & NEVER will – thank God/god. Our country has become a melting pot of sick agendas and that IS the national social mental health problem. Good luck correcting that…

    1. That ain’t gonna happen, as in a black man can’t be elected president or Comcast buying Time Warner is a done deal? Lots of unlikely stuff happens. Don’t you mean you don’t want it to happen?

      1. Take away all the guns and killings will continue = it’s the way the revolving door operates – like it or not. I hope NRA prevails 4ever against anyone who wants to disarm any citizen INCLUDING Obama’s sanctioned illegals/undocumented – allowing all to come under the UMBRELLA of US CONSTITUTION. Obsession with guns on both sides of argument WILL NEVER resolve to peace in US.

  4. Unfortunately firearms are always the one thing politicians & the media enjoy bitching about. How about the individuals around these killers start taking some of the blame.

    Were are the parents and relatives and friends of these people. You can’t tell me not one person ever had a hint to what these various killers have in mind.
    In this day and age parents simple take no responsibility for their own kids

    They rely on everyone else to bring up their kids. They take no time teaching right or wrong. Prejudice is learned your not just born with it. As a parent or a relative or even a close friend YOU allowed this to happen because you didn’t stand up and educate these killers on the correct life style.

    But media, politicians and even The White House find it easier to blame firearms and legal firearm owners.

    If the truth was investigated there’s probably not one person in this country that their ancestors didn’t use a firearm to protect their own families or the country they are from.

    Would you consider destroying a rare classic car that’s no longer produced simple because someone may have been killed in an accident with one?

    There are literately thousands of old historical firearms in private and public collections , They can still be fired at any time so that means that if firearms were to be banned they would be destroyed. That means a part of history would be destroyed. So I guess history doesn’t matter.

    So when do we stop should we destroy all museums?

    Those that feel firearms are the problem have NO actual knowledge of what others do with them. They may be used for hunting , Which contrary to popular belief is needed and in the last 20yrs has become a growing sport, They are also used for target shooting which again has become a very popular sport. And yes some are mainly purchased for personal protection. I guess you haven’t noticed all the media hype where gangs come in and loot and burn down everything because they feel they are entitled to.

    Stop blaming firearms and trying to punish legal firearms owners.

    Start taking an interest in your own kids and their friends and STOP prejudice beliefs before they happen.

    85% of all killings are done by loners and outcasts, Either looking for attention or just mad at the world, Simple because NO ONE took the time to be actual good parents.

    1. No one from my family ever defended themselves with a gun. Not here. Not in Europe.

      There are many interim steps we can take short of seizing guns. We can have background checks. We can stop unregistered sales. We can demand trigger locks that only allow the owner to shoot.

      There are a bunch of simple steps to take without taking your guns. I have friends who are sportsmen. I respect that.

      Please provide a source for your 85% of all killings statement. Otherwise, I’ll just consider it your way of winning an argument by making stuff up.

      1. Background checks, banning unregistered sales and requiring electronic trigger locks would not have stopped this shit head kid who legally bought his own hand gun with some birthday money. Just like banning 11-round magazines wouldn’t have stopped Adam Lanza. If your going to use these tradgedies to push an anti gun agenda just admit that the ultimate goal is to get rid of all guns, because that is the only thing that could slow the rate of these mass killings. Don’t pretend that you’re pro-sportsman and or pro hunter; its disingenuous.

        1. This kid did NOT buy his own handgun. It was bought FOR him by his father, even though he had concerns about his sons mental state. Wisely his parents didn’t allow him to remove the gun from their house. Until the other day.
          It’s scary to think that in Tombstone Arizona in the 1880s there were MORE gun control laws on the books than there are today.
          Now knock off the ‘everyone needs to have a gun’ rhetoric and admit that yeah we need some safeguards in place to keep people who SHOULDN’T have guns from getting them.

  5. My ancestral relatives didn’t have reason to use a weapon–the only “bullets” they needed were the antibiotics and other medicines that weren’t invented til after WW11. They died, never even seeing their children grow up. I do agree that parents need to be a better influence and teach their children —but having relatives through marriage who were brought up in the south–they are still fighting the civil war–the fear and hatred is imbedded —and to paraphrase the lyrics from one of the songs in the King & I–they “have been carefully taught”. I believe that what we are seeing is complete lack of regard for a supreme being–no one attends church or synagogue like they did when I was a kid–God today is greed, riches, living as I please, etc.
    One of the problems today stems from states closing their mental institutions–they are the homeless of today, totally estsranged from their families. Having the availability of any firearm without some type of background check or mental stability acknowledged by a professional just doesn’t make sense. The first gun that I ever saw is one that my cousin brought home from Germany, after fighting in WW11. When my mother found out, he was given a choice—get rid of it, or find another place to live!
    In this latest case, it was apparently wrongly reported that his father bought the gun for the kids 21st birthday. Also, it is now coming out that there were warnings–he planned to ‘shoot up a nearby college’–but that was too thoroughly guarded–. No one reported this—everbody’s afraid to rat on a friend–til a dozen or more people are killed. He also now states that he almost didn’t carry out his plan, because the people were so nice letting him be a part of the prayer group–So–get off this thing of “needing a weapon”. One doesn’t need a 40 Glock to hunt deer or rabbits. Nor does the common man on the street need one period!–Lets get rid of the Heroin and other addictive substances , and start realizing that we are privileged to live in this country–where we can write what we please w/o someone arresting us. Find out who your neighbor is and learn to live with each others differences. And enjoy the sunsets —last eve’s was beautiful in western CT

    1. From my observation the most rabid gun advocates are ‘god fearing’ Christians who, ignoring their creators orders to ‘love thy neighbor’ and ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘judge not lest ye be judged’ and ‘thou shalt not kill’ continue to push their beliefs on the rest of the country. A whole lot of them also firmly believe that we’re in the ‘last days’ and they need to defend themselves against Satan. How guns will do that isn’t clearly explained. Maybe they just want to use the guns to defend themselves against the rest of the population. Or some other unknown unnamed boogie man they can’t describe yet.
      Besides the neverending rhetoric about how guns aren’t to blame and if EVERYONE just had a gun everything would be fine, I’m also tired of people who say that if everyone would ONLY start going back to church and praying everything would be hunky dory. It just doesn’t work that way.

  6. I have to Agee with the mental issue in these cases.

    Look at the nut job in the AZ shooting last year, or the kid whose own father a producer killed the coeds in CA who would not date him, These people would have killed even if the could not have gotten guns.

  7. I also agree 10000% with Barb B (above) about the often “total estsranged from their families” issue with many of these killers. Parents today are so absorbed in trying to make a living and survive (not all their fault) that they often have little knowledge what their children are up to.

    This was the case with killer of the University of California coeds Ellior Rodgers. His dad was spit from his mother, his home life was one where neither parent had any idea what their own sons life was really like

    1. There’s no evidence that this kid was ‘estranged’ from his family. After all his dad bought the gun for him, even though dad was ‘concerned’ that his son was ‘too introverted’. The boys uncles was also involved in his life….for a while.
      There are parents who work two or three jobs and still raise perfectly decent children. There are stay at home moms who are a train wreck (I have one for a neighbor). Some mental illnesses are genetically predisposed. Some are so subtle it never gets diagnosed until something happens.
      My parents were divorced and I didn’t become a killer. I have another neighbor who is divorced and raising a teenage son and they’re fine. Making broad statement like that isn’t fair to anyone.

  8. The University of California killer Ellior Rodgers WAS estranged from his family:

    Rodger had seen multiple therapists since he was eight years old and while he was a student at SBCC was “receiving psychiatric treatment”….a psychiatrist had also prescribed him anti-psychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

    His parents were so self absorbed that they allowed this nut job to buy a slew of guns and weapons. GUNS in the hand of a schizophrenia. Some people have no idea what the their talking about.

  9. Crminals, by definition, live outside the legal framework. What makes you think that more gun control laws will affect them? Gun laws affect only law abiding citizens, and no law abiding citizen will ever do such a thing.

    1. John Car, I could not agree with your stance more – prob IS there are OBAMA termites, who have been infected with the Anti-America virus and are dying YET don’t know it. PRAISE BE…#SHALOM #AMEN…

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