Two US Journalists Shot Dead LIVE on TV in US

First topic message reminder :

Two journalists have been shot dead during a live TV report in the US state of Virginia, their employer confirms.

WDBJ7 TV reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were killed during an interview in Moneta, Bedford County, the TV station said.

During the live broadcast, shots could be heard, sending the reporter and the person she was interviewing running.

Police say they are investigating the incident and still searching for the suspect.

Jesus, that's horrendous.

ShahenshahG wrote:Yup. The foremost economies in the world rely heavily on the war game.

I doubt these economies spend the TRILLIONS spent in the US

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/us/gun-control-gun-rights-pew-survey.html

http://www.rt.com/usa/213619-gun-rights-control-americans/

If the poll referred to in the articles above are accurate, then the majority of Americans don't favour gun control, and curiously this stance has been strengthened even in the wake of the mass shootings of the last 10 years. If the people don't want gun control, then it won't be brought in. My feeling is that Americans are more interested in being able to own a gun to protect themselves, rather than the greater good of U.S. society.

Seems it was a disgruntled fellow news reporter who filmed and shot the victims.

Very sad but like Don King famously said ''Only in America''

You're right it is for self protection.......My family would come first If I lived in NY....

Two lobbies control Washington the gun lobby and the Insurance lobby...

Nothing will change..

The shooter seems to have video'd the shooting, posted it online and subsequently committed suicide.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/26/us-usa-shooting-virginia-idUSKCN0QV1HY20150826

[img][/img]

Truss your point about Dumblane is a daft one, as a result of that atrocity the John Major government rightly in my opinion tightened gun laws. Its been 20 years nearly since those tragic events and we have had very few cases since.

The who arming to protect yourself against the goverment is a daft reason, for such a developed country this is a blind spot they have to get rid of

wheelchair1991 wrote:Truss your point about Dumblane is a daft one, as a result of that atrocity the John Major government rightly in my opinion tightened gun laws. Its been 20 years nearly since those tragic events and we have had very few cases since.

The who arming to protect yourself against the goverment is a daft reason, for such a developed country this is a blind spot they have to get rid of

It's not a daft one...Anyone can purchase a gun in this Country................and as a father I know how easy it is to walk into a playground to pick up your Son...No questions asked...

In 2010 there were 46 murders with a firearm in the UK. In the US, 9,960.

To try and blame it on population size just doesn't hold water.

Like I said I'm for gun control..

Guns dont kill people rappers do, Ask any politican and they'll tell you its true.

Not going to happen though is it? How many guns are there... roughly... 350 million?

Even here with the gun laws there are still a surprising amount of unregistered gun owners... or certain types of people living in urban areas with zero need for one.

Different in the country though.

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

The Loaded Dog wrote:Not going to happen though is it? How many guns are there... roughly... 350 million?

Even here with the gun laws there are still a surprising amount of unregistered gun owners... or certain types of people living in urban areas with zero need for one.

Doesn't have to happen overnight. They could start with a little consideration of the issue though. They need to start mitigating the risks of these things happening constantly. It might take 2, 5 or 10 generations but if the effort isn't made then that's a failure of the people put in charge of that country. Some people just need to be brave a push these things despite how unpopular they may be.

liverbnz wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:Not going to happen though is it? How many guns are there... roughly... 350 million?

Even here with the gun laws there are still a surprising amount of unregistered gun owners... or certain types of people living in urban areas with zero need for one.

Doesn't have to happen overnight. They could start with a little consideration of the issue though. They need to start mitigating the risks of these things happening constantly. It might take 2, 5 or 10 generations but if the effort isn't made then that's a failure of the people put in charge of that country. Some people just need to be brave a push these things despite how unpopular they may be.

No way it would ever happen overnight.
Ironically, I don't believe the Constitution should be altered (despite these horrible tragedies happening) because I'm not a big fan of total disarmament either. The numbers are simply staggering though. It's like saying "let's turn the Amazon the other way 'round... and change the direction of flow."

The Loaded Dog wrote:Not going to happen though is it? How many guns are there... roughly... 350 million?

Even here with the gun laws there are still a surprising amount of unregistered gun owners... or certain types of people living in urban areas with zero need for one.

Different in the country though.

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

But I'm right in thinking that after they made huge efforts to rid your country of guns that the situation around shootings improved drastically?

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:Not going to happen though is it? How many guns are there... roughly... 350 million?

Even here with the gun laws there are still a surprising amount of unregistered gun owners... or certain types of people living in urban areas with zero need for one.

Different in the country though.

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

But I'm right in thinking that after they made huge efforts to rid your country of guns that the situation around shootings improved drastically?

Yes but we are a pretty small pond really. There are still nutsacks shooting each other and occasionally innocent people are caught in the crossfire.

liverbnz wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:Not going to happen though is it? How many guns are there... roughly... 350 million?

Even here with the gun laws there are still a surprising amount of unregistered gun owners... or certain types of people living in urban areas with zero need for one.

Doesn't have to happen overnight. They could start with a little consideration of the issue though. They need to start mitigating the risks of these things happening constantly. It might take 2, 5 or 10 generations but if the effort isn't made then that's a failure of the people put in charge of that country. Some people just need to be brave a push these things despite how unpopular they may be.

You can't push these things through when 2/3 of the Senate rely on gun lobby money to win seats...Republicans own both houses and Southern democrats tend to be more right wing than Northern Democrats........

Hillary is threatening to take on the gun lobby.............She is probably the most powerful figure since Johnson in the DNC.....

We'll see what she can do...............Very little I imagine with Republicans dominating congress..........She failed on Universal healthcare with the Democrats in better shape back in the 90s....

So it's probably all pee and wind..

The Loaded Dog wrote:

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

.....I thought we were getting on better now mate ..

I mean you haven't threatened to ban me for a while !!

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

 .....I thought we were getting on better now mate ..

I mean you haven't threatened to ban me for a while !!

Remind me.... when did I ever threaten to ban you? I thought it was you who wanted yourself banned.

I took the noose off from around your neck and told you to ride back into town. You looked so parched!
There was some new job waiting for you at the saloon.

Remember?

The Loaded Dog wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

 .....I thought we were getting on better now mate ..

I mean you haven't threatened to ban me for a while !!

Remind me.... when did I ever threaten to ban you? I thought it was you who wanted yourself banned.

I took the noose off from around your neck and told you to ride back into town.
There was some new job waiting for you at the saloon.

Remember?

I have no problem with you....Never did have.......

I was bemused by the whole affair..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:

For instance, if Truss was out brush walking... slipped on a rock... and accidentally broke his big toe... then one might come in handy.

I'd hate to see even a guy like him suffer.........................

 .....I thought we were getting on better now mate ..

I mean you haven't threatened to ban me for a while !!

Remind me.... when did I ever threaten to ban you? I thought it was you who wanted yourself banned.

I took the noose off from around your neck and told you to ride back into town.
There was some new job waiting for you at the saloon.

Remember?

I have no problem with you....Never did have.......

I was bemused by the whole affair..

You mean a bit like Corporal John 'McBee' McBurney in The Beguiled? That was a kind of sad and scary movie. I enjoyed it though.

Never seen it...But I bet he's an a**hole...

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Never seen it...But I bet he's an a**hole...

Yes, it could be said he takes a slight advantage of the situation.... for a time.

Rowley wrote:I appreciate all that Truss, but at what point does the country at least have the debate? I refuse to accept there is not a correlation between how easy it is to obtain guns and how frequently things like this happen. If I decide to do something like this it would be bloody difficult. Obtaining guns would be extrmely difficult, ditto bullets. It would take me ages, during that time there is chances of my plans being exposed, me failing to obtain the necessary firearms, or me coming to my senses. This does not happen in america, pretty much every idiot who contemplates something like this has the means to act on those instincts immediately.

I think you express a certain naivete in the difficulty of obtaining a firearm over here.......Had more trouble obtaining peds back home than I ever had here.........Besides a guy could walk into a schoolyard with a knife and kill three kids before he's stopped.....If he so desires..

Like I've said before when I picked Robbie up from school (Not very often) I just walked in to the play yard and waited surrounded by other kids and Mums and Dads..

The reason these things don't happen is because the idiots that contemplate these things are thankfully very very scarce..

Ah, so more idiots in America! I can believe that.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Rowley wrote:I appreciate all that Truss, but at what point does the country at least have the debate? I refuse to accept there is not a correlation between how easy it is to obtain guns and how frequently things like this happen. If I decide to do something like this it would be bloody difficult. Obtaining guns would be extrmely difficult, ditto bullets. It would take me ages, during that time there is chances of my plans being exposed, me failing to obtain the necessary firearms, or me coming to my senses. This does not happen in america, pretty much every idiot who contemplates something like this has the means to act on those instincts immediately.

I think you express a certain naivete in the difficulty of obtaining a firearm over here.......Had more trouble obtaining peds back home than I ever had here.........Besides a guy could walk into a schoolyard with a knife and kill three kids before he's stopped.....If he so desires..

Like I've said before when I picked Robbie up from school (Not very often)  I just walked in to the play yard and waited surrounded by other kids and Mums and Dads..

The reason these things don't happen is because the idiots that contemplate these things are thankfully very very scarce..

Would you at least argue for a ban on assault weapons in the U.S.? Surely that's something that makes a lot of sense.

Scottrf wrote:Ah, so more idiots in America! I can believe that.

Finally a position on this thread we have universal agreement on.

As I mentioned above, if something as horrific as Sandy Hook can happen without there being any kind of consensus in the legislature to try to address one of the root causes of the tragedy, then it's unlikely that anything could ever happen that would create that consensus.  

If 20 dead young children can't convince the brainless, right-wing, retarded f*ck nuggets that maybe their gun laws are making it far too f*cking easy for some @rsehole  to get hold of an assault weapon (not a handgun, not a hunting rifle - a f*cking war machine) and commit mass murder of innocent civilians and that something needs to be done to make it more difficult to commit such an act, then I don't know what will.  

As for anyone who is pro-gun control not at least trying to do anything about it because it's not a vote winner or because of the strength of the gun lobby - they can go f*ck themselves.  The only way to make change in the face of such stupidity is to repeatedly point out how f*cking stupid the status quo is and to belligerently shame the pro-gun lobby every time there's an incident like this.  It could take generations and there may only be gradual marginal changes, but every step in the right direction is an improvement on the current situation.

Possibly the finest thing you have ever written on here Supefly, bravo.

I've set the bar remarkably low so could be damning with faint praise.

The last paragraph is most pertinent. 

John Oliver on the quite fantastic Last Week Tonight uses the phrase "on the wrong side of history" often. There were those on the wrong side of history as black people were given basic human rights, those who have shown that they will be on things like LGBT rights and also the confederate flag, and hopefully one day those who oppose gun control will be seen similarly.

superflyweight wrote:I've set the bar remarkably low so could be damning with faint praise.  

I did consider making that observation, but did not want to suggest the post was anything less than excellent, which it genuinely was.

To be honest, the gun toting community are never gonna see the solution the same as you. For reference, a couple weeks ago I had the displeasure of attending a community policing forum on the farm. The topic of gun control went up in terms trying to fix legislation, as I believe some old couple was murdered or hospitalised (I really don't know just happened to be at the farm). So I suggest that if we can fix gun legislature at national level, IE eliminating guns the couple wouldn't have been shot at. To which some old Afrikaans man responds, "Ja, maar as hulle 'n vuurwapen gehad het, sou dit nooit gebeur het", which translates 'Yeah, but if that elderly couple had had a gun, it would never have happened".

Can't fault the logic

It's like people think guns protect you from bullets.

Thank god you wrote that in Saffa tongue first, I'd have doubted the authenticity!

Fine work Superfly you should drink wine and eat salads more often

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Thank god you wrote that in Saffa tongue first, I'd have doubted the authenticity!

Afrikaans people are maniacal about their right to bear arms. I think the reason my girlfriend's dad can't accept me is because I can't fire one... much less shoot a springbok from 80 yards in a moving bakkie.

kingraf wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Thank god you wrote that in Saffa tongue first, I'd have doubted the authenticity!

Afrikaans people are maniacal about their right to bear arms. I think the reason my girlfriend's dad can't accept me is because I can't fire one... much less shoot a springbok from 80 yards in a moving bakkie.

That's it Raf, nothing to do with the blonde "tips" or orange jet ski and matching outfits...

An incredibly sad event. It seems that America will never learn and it baffles me as to why. Most countries would be up in arms over this but they stick with it because of the constitution. Do all other 200 year old laws still have place in modern society?

trottb wrote:

kingraf wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Thank god you wrote that in Saffa tongue first, I'd have doubted the authenticity!

Afrikaans people are maniacal about their right to bear arms. I think the reason my girlfriend's dad can't accept me is because I can't fire one... much less shoot a springbok from 80 yards in a moving bakkie.

That's it Raf, nothing to do with the blonde "tips" or orange jet ski and matching outfits...

I'm a man's man. I just take after myself and like jet skiing.

Shoe bombs don't have a vaguely worded mention in an ancient document.

Republicans are highly strung at.the best of times but at the moment there's the threat to the guns. The planned parenthood thing. Disillusionment with the Republican party. And a genuine fear that hilary Clinton will become president. If there's going to be a gun debate then the only way to do so is to offer concessions at the beginning. Like no blanket ban on guns. Unfortunately no ban on assault rifles is going to be one of them and with a bit of luck a mental health evaluation and some measure of control can be implemented. Better to win small victories but by bit than to attempt to grasp a mammoth task and get nowhere.

superflyweight wrote:As I mentioned above, if something as horrific as Sandy Hook can happen without there being any kind of consensus in the legislature to try to address one of the root causes of the tragedy, then it's unlikely that anything could ever happen that would create that consensus.  

If 20 dead young children can't convince the brainless, right-wing, retarded f*ck nuggets that maybe their gun laws are making it far too f*cking easy for some @rsehole  to get hold of an assault weapon (not a handgun, not a hunting rifle - a f*cking war machine) and commit mass murder of innocent civilians and that something needs to be done to make it more difficult to commit such an act, then I don't know what will.  

As for anyone who is pro-gun control not at least trying to do anything about it because it's not a vote winner or because of the strength of the gun lobby - they can go f*ck themselves.  The only way to make change in the face of such stupidity is to repeatedly point out how f*cking stupid the status quo is and to belligerently shame the pro-gun lobby every time there's an incident like this.  It could take generations and there may only be gradual marginal changes, but every step in the right direction is an improvement on the current situation.

Think it's best to remember that America is less of a Country.... More of a group of States with their own legislature that are tenuously linked together...........

I mean gay marriage until recently was banned in some parts of the "same" Country and legal in other parts......

Like I said it's like Europe ....Little countries within one big Country..

If twenty kids were murdered in Germany I can't see Britain rushing to change it's policies....

Like I said I am for gun control..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:
If twenty kids were murdered in Germany I can't see Britain rushing to change it's policies....

Whilst I can see the point you're trying to make the comparison is reaching a bit, for me. The fact of the matter is that these atrocities are being committed on American soil and it is down to the American government to ensure that they put in place the correct legislation to prevent re-occurrences and for the American people to fight for this to happen. So what if a 200 year old bit of paper says you can have them, have we not evolved since then?

There are still federal laws though, so it should be possible to capture gun control within national legislature providing parties are sufficiently motivated to do so.

Whilst the number of guns in circulation suggests it may be a case of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, how about enacting progressively more aggressive over a moderate timescale?

E.g. make the sale/distribution of assault weapons illegal immediately.
Then 12 months later make ownership illegal, but with a 12 month amnesty for assault weapons to be handed in for destruction.

Then maybe repeat the above for automatic weapons?

Anyone watch the programme on sky atlantic last night? (Requiem for the dead:spring 2014) It told the story of many shooting deaths in the US in the spring of 2014 through social media messages and police footage. It was a pretty damning film.

trottb wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:
If twenty kids were murdered in Germany I can't see Britain rushing to change it's policies....

Whilst I can see the point you're trying to make the comparison is reaching a bit, for me. The fact of the matter is that these atrocities are being committed on American soil and it is down to the American government to ensure that they put in place the correct legislation to prevent re-occurrences and for the American people to fight for this to happen. So what if a 200 year old bit of paper says you can have them, have we not evolved since then?

It's my bad for not explaining the cultural differences between our two Countries........

Every morning at school we had to put our right hands on our heart (Father had to do the Bellamy (Nazi) salute before WW2..Changed for obvious reasons) and do the pledge of allegiance plus sing endless recitals Of God bless America.....We had flags in every classroom and at least ten houses on our street alone had flags....

I have ..."One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all".......Coming out of my a**e...

Could you imagine If Cameron said "Ask not what your country can do for you etc"......They would have laughed at him..

The constitution is like the American bible.....To many it's like asking a religious nut to change the commandments...

Only hope is to amend but guns are hear to stay................Unfortunately..

I'm pretty much an Anglophile...........But your Country is far more cynical and less set in it's ways......It's both a good thing and a bad thing !!...

Me I'm anti gun lobby..............Most Northern Democrats are............I'm from the North East.....

Teddy Kennedy was an advocate for gun restriction and for far more responsibility to be put on gun manufacturers.........But he didn't have to worry about re-election.....Kennedy wanted to ban shotguns....and semi automatics....

The "liberal lion" will be sadly missed...

incontinentia wrote:Anyone watch the programme on sky atlantic last night? (Requiem for the dead:spring 2014) It told the story of many shooting deaths in the US in the spring of 2014 through social media messages and police footage. It was a pretty damning film.

My wife and I watched it last night, it was heart breaking, the phone calls to the police where horrible to listen to especially the 11 year old that shot his best friend by accident, when he said to the police that he shot him and the blood was coming out so he picked him up to try and get it to go back in had both of us in tears, what was it an estimated 8000 gun related deaths in one Spring, it really is mind boggling and in my eyes parents who don't properly secure their firearms in the home should be locked up and done on at least manslaughter if an accident happens with the said firearm, it's f**king common sense