Expelled student armed with assault rifle slaughters 17 at Florida high school

[Skybird]

In the foreigner's perception:

https://translate.google.de/translat...tml&edit-text=

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Skybird

In the foreigner's perception:

https://translate.google.de/translat...tml&edit-text=

There it is

It's all about power, money and America's original sin - racism.

I stopped there.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

There it is


I stopped there.

You shouldn'T. There is an explanation in history why the authors said that. Civil War. Freeing of Slaves. Firearms in black hands. Whites not wanting that. Dissolving of KKK falling together with founding the NRA. Civil Rights Movement and Anti Vietnam Protest. The fact that school shootings almost always are committed by whites, not blacks.

Did you know that watching the same skyline of the same city from the other end of that city - gives you a completely different sight?

[Rockstar]

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center I don't see any historical 'close ties' to the NRA. I think the Spiegel article shows a certain level of ignorance of American history.

"In fact, the beginning of the Klan involved nothing so sinister, subversive or ancient as the theories supposed. it was the boredom of small-town life that led six young Confederate veterans to gather around a fireplace one December evening in 1865 and form a social club. the place was Pulaski, Tenn., near the Alabama border. when they reassembled a week later, the six young men were full of ideas for their new society. it would be secret, to heighten the amusement of the thing, and the titles for the various offices were to have names as preposterous-sounding as possible, partly for the fun of it and partly to avoid any military or political implications."

The KKK was never meant to be what it is today. It started out as an eccentric social club by six former confederates. Only later did it re-invented itself into the terrorist organization it is today.

The NRA organization was never that. Behavior of some of its members however may be an entirely different story.

Just because Cruz was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It doesn't mean every one else there is as sick or evil as he is.

[vienna]

The source for the above:

Ku Klux Klan - A History of Racism and Violence (6th Ed., 2011) --

(Website Version)

https://www.splcenter.org/20110228/k...history-racism

(PDF Version)

https://www.splcenter.org/sites/defa...-of-Racism.pdf


The essay has these paragraphs following a bit after the previously quoted passage:

Soon after the founders named the Klan, they decided to do a bit of showing off, and so disguised themselves in sheets and galloped their horses through the quiet streets of tiny Pulaski. their ride created such a stir that the men decided to adopt the sheets as the official regalia of the Ku Klux Klan, and they added to the effect by donning grotesque masks and tall pointed hats. They also performed elaborate initiation ceremonies for new members. Similar to the hazing popular in college fraternities, the ceremony consisted of blindfolding the candidate, subjecting him to a series of silly oaths and rough handling, and finally bringing him before a “royal altar” where he was to be invested with a “royal crown.” the altar turned out to be a mirror and the crown two large donkey’s ears. Ridiculous though it sounds today, that was the high point of the earliest activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

Had that been all there was to the Ku Klux Klan, it probably would have disappeared as quietly as it was born. But at some point in early 1866, the club added new members from nearby towns and began to have a chilling effect on local blacks. The intimidating night rides were soon the centerpiece of the hooded order: bands of white-sheeted ghouls paid late night visits to black homes, admonishing the terrified occupants to behave themselves and threatening more visits if they didn’t. It didn’t take long for the threats to be converted into violence against blacks who insisted on exercising their new rights and freedom. Before its six founders realized what had happened, the Ku Klux Klan had become something they may not have originally intended — something deadly serious.

As with many aspects of life, it isn't what someone or something starts out as that's ultimately important, it what they are or have become that really matters; I'm sure Nazism just started with a bunch of guys bitching over beers; if that was all they did, no one would care...

On the other hand, a bunch of guys in New England bitched over ales and decided to to do something positive about their gripes and, in the end, we have our nation. Don't know about you, but I'm more impressed with the New Englanders than I could ever possibly be with those "silly" ex-Confederates and their sympathizers...










<O>

[mapuc]

I have read and heard several companies in the States have cut their support to NRA and the protesters is growing among the youngsters

If my memory doesn't play tricks with me I seem to remember the same thing happened last time the were this mass shooting(Las Vegas)

Lots of protest and angry voices towards NRA.

As last time- After a couple of month NRA was back on track with companies supporting them.

Markus

[Catfish]

Nothing changes.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center I don't see any historical 'close ties' to the NRA. I think the Spiegel article shows a certain level of ignorance of American history. [...]

Whether the 'Spiegel' shows ignorance about american history.. i think you do. The relatively short history of the USA shows close ties to weapons and malevolent behaviour, it is even called gun culture by its very inhabitants. Maybe the NRA has absolutely nothing to do with the shootings (what i seriously doubt regarding propagating public access, allowances and financing "ego shooters" (what a perfectly fitting name b.t.w.) for "gamers"), but whatever: the very beginnings and existence of something like the NRA is exactly one example of the problem and the general mindset. This alone has not much to do with the KKK, i agree. But "you" do not even want to see the problem that lies behind, but instead arm all teachers and pupils? How sick is this?

[Jimbuna]

Several US companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) amid calls for a boycott of businesses linked to the powerful gun lobby in the wake of the Florida school shooting.

The firms include car rental giants Hertz and Enterprise, which had offered discounts for NRA members.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43173753

An inevitable consequence I reckon