I thought kittens today...

For today's difficult subject matter,
I thought we'd go with kittens.

Sorry, we're going to talk about this again, and yes, it's a bummer and yes, preacher, choir, but goddamn another gun enthusiast opened fire on people in his yard. This time, a North Carolina man shot and injured a six year-old girl and her parents--her father seriously--because some kids let a ball roll into his yard. And get this, the father was also armed and fired back, although evidently missed. This on top of similar incidents in New York, and Missouri, and I must ask: what the actual?

He didn't, they just wish he
did and are kind of dumb.

One of the more absurd claims on the part of gun people is that it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun, but Tuesday's incident seems to undermine that. The number of times a shooter has been stopped by random armed passers by is low. Vanishingly small one might even say. But the Right--and while I'm generalizing here, I don't think I'm wrong-- tends to disregard statistics and evidence when it contradicts their worldview. It's what makes America so infuriating right now.

That and the constant gun violence. Speaking of, the NRA cites a study from the Crime Prevention Research Center which says something like 34% of active shooter situations are stopped by armed civilians. Which is nonsense. 

Next time you see armed, self-deputized randos, remember to
thank them for their service. No, I'm kidding, just run. Holy shit, run.

Above: John Lott, noted dupe, learning the
hard way that you can't shoot public humiliation.

The Crime Prevention Research Center is a conservative gun-advocacy organization founded by a Stop the Steal asshat called John Lott who used to run the NRA, but whom you might remember him as the guy who was tricked into speaking in front of 3,044 empty chairs representing kids lost to gun violence at a fake graduation ceremony by parents of a Parkland victim. That he didn't collapse into a singularity of impossible guilt and shame is further evidence that he lacks whatever part of the brain is responsible for self-evaluation. Anyway, all this to day, let's not go with their numbers. 

Instead, let's use another, much more widely accepted study done by Texas State University and cited by The New York Times which says the number is 3%. Which, in a country with 393 million guns owned by 32% of the population suggests to me, and I'm no statistician, but it suggests to me that guns are the indeed the problem and that the NRA and the Crime Prevention Research Center are full of shit.

"Yup, there it is. The numbers do not lie. They are full of shit.
Luckily for them, they don't believe in numbers. Or dinosaurs."

-Some mathematician I just made up who

has more credibility than John Lott or anyone

else at the Crime Prevention Research Center