Another heartbreaking mass shooting yesterday at a grocery store in Buffalo New York lies in the intersection of rampant gun violence, racism, white supremacy, and pure evil. While most Americans are not racist fear-mongers a significant portion apparently are. The manifesto written and uploaded to the internet by the shooter references the “replacement theory” that black and brown people will replace white people. This is based on the original theory that “Jews will not replace us” which is an antisemitic trope found in the “Blood and soil “propaganda propagated by Nazi Germany. It is a philosophy based on hate, racism, and white supremacy.
Last year, an Associated Press poll found that about a third of American adults believe an effort is afoot to “replace” U.S.-born Americans with immigrants. In addition, roughly 3 in 10 Americans think additional immigration will cause white, Americans to lose their economic, political and cultural influence.
This is dangerous thinking and fuels right-wing extremism that leads to violence. Also, while I am at it, no one in America needs a military-style assault weapon. The damage these weapons do to the human body and the number of people killed in a matter of seconds beggars the imagination. There are too many guns on the streets of America. It is a national health crisis of staggering proportions. Attention must be paid! Every day a person is killed by gun violence on the streets of Louisville, Kentucky where I live. You take your life in your hands when you are out for a walk at night. We need common-sense gun laws now to make our cities safe again.
Ghost Dog 
Sorry, but I don’t agree, since the US we know was founded on gun violence and has never known peace for any lenghth of time. Why do assault weapons even exist? Why do we have a standing army, and the other entrenched military and police enforcers of the police state?
Your illusions that more laws to put guns only in the hands of the enforcers will only breed more resentment among the people who believe guns are the answer to social problems.
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Thanks for your reply. We will have to agree to disagree. I am not advocating removal of all guns from the landscape, but rather only the assault rifles in question. Other types of reasonable gun laws I would advocate would include stricter background check and closing certain loop holes. We can and must do better.
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Thanks for your reply. I do not like guns, but I’m convinced laws cause crime. If we lived in a more tolerant world, guns would lose their attraction, not only among the enforcers, but among the users and collectors.
I sount idealistic and unrealistic, but as long as people can buy ammo at Walmart, they will find a use for it.
Guns don’t kill people. Bullets kill people. Where to draw the line on external controls?
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I agree the shooting in Buffalo is a horrible act of violence, as well as the shooting in the California church, but that was by an Asian guy, a non-white, so the coverage will be less dramatic. But, did the national news, old Lester, David, and Norah mention that this past weekend that 77 people were shot and 16 died, all black Americans, shot by other black Americans, and all in the once wonderful city of Chicago? Nope, not one damn word. Now Biden and his (not a doctor) wife will go to Buffalo and turn this into another George Floyd memorial moment, using every trick in the liberal’s book of magic to convince the public all whites are racists and all blacks are victims. A demented old man yelling at the imaginary demons that follow him like a faithful devil dog. Blacks kill far more of their own than whites, so that does make them victims of sorts, from their own race. Which is never mentioned because it destroys the narrative. Gun laws are not the answer, but enforcement of crime is. America has gone too far across the lines of civility to consider taking guns away from the average citizen. We need them to protect ourselves because the police are reactive, not proactive and by the time they respond, I’m not the one that will be dead, the other guy will. I live in Texas, and we take our freedoms and the protection of our families seriously. Guns don’t have a conscience and bullets are not selective of race or age. As long as the bad guys have them, we good folks need them too. Much too late to put the lid back on this box of plagues.
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Thanks for your response and for providing a different point of view.
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You’re welcome Benn. Everyone has a slightly different opinion on events of the day, and that is what makes blogs so interesting. Yours is quite good.
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Benn, I think automatic weapons need to be banned for ALL of the US, including in the hands of law enforcement. Melt them down.
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I’m with you!
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White men literally have a layup in the USA for being born male and white but still want to whine.These are the angriest people on the planet with the LEAST reason to be so.
The fk you so angry for ? You own EVERYTHING. You run EVERYTHING You’re loved all over the world. Even in non white countries. Fk u so angry for ?
And I just wanna say about this “Replacement Theory” or “White Genocide” theory I keep reading about.
Look – He (and others who think like him) need to remember what a genocide really is.
Is there any racial genocide like this being done to white ppl solely because they’re white ?
If so, please show me the cattle cars, bullets, machetes, or Zyklon B.
I’ll wait
.
It’s an affront to actual victims of mass extermination to label his wounded sense of entitlement as a genocide..
Race-mixing is being done by : Who ? White people.
White people choosing to have fewer children is being done by : Who ? White people.
If this is a genocide, it’s the first in history to be carried out mainly by its own targets.
Couldn’t this ugly ass mole rat have just married a cross-eyed inbred girl ? They have plenty of them in Upstate NY. And start making white babies ?
Honestly ? If it was up to me. I’d bring back public executions and medieval torture methods.
Drag the white supremacist piece of sh*t by his greasy dog hair into the street and let a crowd form.
The more I read about this guy the worse it get’s. This MF’ER in his manifesto states he hates “Blacks that choose to INVADE our lands..live on our soil”
WTF? This asshole has only been on earth 18 years and thinks everything is HIS!
Entitled sociopathic b*stard.
And notice that even though he was in New York he thought it best not to hop on a train to the Bronx or Brownsville and go 1 on 1 with some young brothers.
Ater all it’s YOUNG BLACK MEN who these cretins want.
Na. He didn’t want that kinda smoke and deal with brothas who may well be strapped.
That’s why Dylan Roof got no respect EVEN FROM other white supremacist because he killed OLD CHURCH BLACK PEOPLE.
It’s young black men – It’s the killings of a Trayvon Martin, a Tamir Rice, a Mike Brown, a Freddie Gray THAT’S what get’s white supremacists juices flowing.
It’s funny even when we leave these assholes alone, we still occupy space in their minds, And surprise surprise, they managed to take this heavily armed POS into custody alive. No fear for their lives after he just committed mass murder
I think racial separatists should be allowed to colonize the Arctic tundras……..establish little inbred colonies..they’d love it..the whole world would be white !!
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Thanks for your response and providing your unique point of view.
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Dear Ben,
I’m a Brit who lived and worked in the US (in and around Wash D.C for 13 years) and totally agree that tougher gun laws are needed and a total ban on assault rifles show be enacted into law.
Americans for the most part don’t understand that the US is tragically unique in the world and that no other country is awash with guns. More needs to be done by American media to show your fellow citizens that people of other countries live safely without a gun in their truck, concealed on their person or pocket book.
More needs to be done to expose and stop groups like the American rifle association donating to political campaigns. In fact ending all lobbying by vested interests would go a long way to make citizens feel in control of its government again.
If the far right drag America into a 2nd civil war, the gun lobby will only say “see I told you so” and the world will be a poorer place because American lost its grip on democracy, and more wannabe despots like Donald Trump come to the fore.
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Thanks for your thoughtful comments!
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