Agree, it is just the way of life the Americans have chosen.   Its not a shock its not remarkable it is a natural part of their society.  It is not international news.

I do not agree that they are reported “as if they happened in the UKl”. What does that even mean.

I believe it to be still news.  However, I think the coverage is terrible.

Seriously, they keep telling us they're the greatest nation on earth and we look at this and think... I'm not sure that's correct.

Agreed. Never a surprise is it. 

Sir Woke - i think its the level of coverage - you see its a level of blanket coverage when that incel got a shotgun down in the south-east a little while back.

Contrast that with a mass shooting in an eastern european, african, middle eastern or other developing jursidiction which doesnt get coverage.

The level of US coverage is almost as if it happened in london, even though its not that unusual in the US any more.

Cultural imperialism at its finest. 

The more and more I read about the US relationship with shooty things and the US sov cit movement and related nucking futtery the more I'm beginning to think that it would be simply impossible for them to actually change things even if there was the willpower politically.  Everyone below the Mason-Dixon line is tooled up, considers the 2nd amendment on a par with the bible and is just generally insane.

I agree, it's tragic but it's not splash-BBC headline-minute-by-minute-updates relevant to this country.

Wot Bob said.

that SovCit movement is here now.  

They are a very disturbing bunch and they love to "Travel" without insurance.

I aM nOT DriVIng, I aM traVEllINg iN mY conveYAncE oFficER!

The reason it gets reported is because guns are about the only issue the Brits can feel superior to the US about. And the reporting is entirely superficial. 

are you working under common law or admiralty law?

wot chimp said. 

Are you addressing me the flesh and blood human being Eddie? Or the straw man cestui qui trust name in capitals blather some more bollocks man overboard!

oh I saw some footage of a judge entertaining that and it was brilliant, the poor SovCit got so confused.. and extra time in the slammer

The internet made the media much more language-based.  It's given rise to the Anglosphere. Lots of people in the UK consume US media.  Quite a lot of people in the US consume UK media and, frankly, trust the BBC's reporting more than they do most news media sources.

doesn’t really bother me tbh

america is a brother country

we care what goes on theee. you can guffle and hee, but most brits do care more about stuff that happens in america than about stuff that happens in eastern europe

Because it makes us feel smug and superior. 

One bazillion people killed in a train crash in India?  Small article on page 7.

Massive chemical spill kills hundreds in a third tier city in China? No news (all censored - no western journalists within 500km)

Brutal dictator crushes dissent and executes activists in Bumfukhistan?  Forget about it?  What happened on MAFS!?

Nutjob kills a few people in America?  OH MY GOD A NUTJOB KILLED SOME PEOPLE IN AMERICA!  THE USA IS SO fookED UP!!!!

It'll be because Big Events in the US instantly spawn a huge amount of raw video footage and English-speaking eyewitnesses/talking heads, so it is much easier to spin it into a news article/5min TV slot.

Otherwise you need to find someone who can point to Bumfukhistan on a map, let alone speak the lingo well enough to interview people, and then have them write up some original copy.

They happen so often that even when I was living in the US you had to make your shooting a bit special for it to make the national news.

The internet made the media much more language-based.  It's given rise to the Anglosphere.

Total guff. The world is language based and the anglosphere exists, but the internet had feck all to do with it. We were consuming australian and yank TV shows before the internet, we fought every bloody war on their side for a century before the internet.

The internet is now reducing the language-based nature of the world as google translate etc remove language barriers. 

except Vietnam.. Britain knew better than to get involved in that one.

The reason it gets reported is because guns are about the only issue the Brits can feel superior to the US about. And the reporting is entirely superficial. 

Really?

I think, even after 13 years of Tory misrule I think most think the UK is superior to the US in various regards.   Healthcare and health outcomes, welfare and worker protection.  Better and far cheaper food, better public transport (outside places like NY), better cultural access better access to the the countryside.  Better race relations.   

They are richer than us and have a bigger military - thats about the only way I consider them superior.

What Guy said.  I go to the US regularly and while I like visiting some bits I thank my lucky stars I don't have to live there.

I was offered a job there which was very tempting, but the thing that made my mind up was my kids having to have "active shooter training".  Fvck.  That.  Sh1t.

I was in the US when one of my colleagues in a meeting had an active shooter on her kids' school campus.  The look on her face when she took the call - Jesus I'll never forget that.

@ Guy, we also have a better sense of humour and completely understand sarcasm.

Oh, and we know how to use a knife and fork.

I was born there, have visited 40-50 times & spent a year living there in the 90's. This year's trip, the first with my two kids & first for c. 7/8 years, was the first time I have ever felt uneasy about going. It passed quickly enough, admittedly, but was a distinct uneasy feeling this time that I hadn't had before.

Have they tried more guns? 

TSB - was your uneasiness for any rational reason?

Or just because you'd been made to feel uneasy due to a small number of isolated events?

I used to love the USA, I even lived in San Diego for 6 months back in the day. Now I view it as just a gigantic lunatic asylum I fly over on my way to Japan.  

BTW China news stories are becoming increasingly prevalent in UK news.  For example, this is on the front page of the BBC World News now:

China: Police rescue 1,000 cats, bust illicit trade of feline meat - BBC News

along with the usual actual news stuff about Taiwan, SCS, etc. 

One of the ladies I worked with in the US actually said after one of the school shootings that the teachers should have had guns. 

She was from Texas so that might explain it.

TBF you can say many crazy things which become completely believable if you start or finish the sentence with the words "in Texas"

Have you played "Florida Man"?

Go to Google, put in your birthday (without the year) and the words "florida man".

Heh.  Yes am familiar with the phenomenon that is Florida Man. They are all batshit in that state.

One of my favourites of their antics

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z8Cy9-IJjKE

NSFW BTW

thanks for the warning!

Now, excuse me, I'm going to watch Ragical videos of SovCits for the evening.

A YouTuber I was not previously familiar with.  Probably going to waste a lot of time on that.

TSB - was your uneasiness for any rational reason?

Or just because you'd been made to feel uneasy due to a small number of isolated events?

Tbh, it was the thought of having to explain to their respective mothers they'd been shot on my watch.

Just kidding, but I think it was having the kids with me in general this time. And maybe the gap between trips. Traditionally I went to the Bay Area and LA on visits, and they have declined dramatically, but this time it was Colorado. Had I been going back to San Francisco this time, I wouldn't have relished it, and that was for a long time my favourite place of all.

I am just eternally fascinated by their extraordinary fascination with the idea that they need to be protected from their own state.  The BBC documentary about the shooting at the festival in Las Vegas is darkly fascinating when you come to understand just how much damage one man was able to inflict in a matter of minutes using legally purchased weapons.  Even more amazingly nobody seemed to notice him hauling a stack of gun cases up to his hotel room.

I stayed at the Mandalay Bay last time I went to Vegas, a year or so after it opened, it was (as they all are) so vast, and so much going on, that you could imagine how it could be done. Few trips, few bags, etc. without raising eyebrows.

and Las Vegas money made that story die down real quick for economic reasons.

Was a motive ever established for that Vegas shooting? 

I'd say most of the guns purchased there are for protection against fellow citizens rather than the US government (though no doubt the Second Amendment stuff resonates with a good proportion of American gun buyers).  Self-defence, incidentally, is a legitimate concern in a country where so many criminals are armed, and where law enforcement is more than likely to fail to arrive quickly enough.   

First time I went to Vegas there was a drive by on the Strip

Was a motive ever established for that Vegas shooting? 

Really hated country music. Went a bit far though.

That's the thing though PV isn't. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would disarm (excluding proper 2ndA nutters) if it could be shown that they weren't at (a very real risk) from armed criminals. But it's a bit "ok you go first" and, without that impossible to give assurance, it would be unilateral disarmament and that's not going to happen.

Pez it's a kind of vicious circle as the more access the criminals have to weapons the more weapons you need to protect yourself.  I'm pretty comfortable living in a country where a burglar might have a screwdriver or a stanley knife as it's really quite hard to get hold of a gun.

ABC News reported that Card is a military veteran and a firearms instructor with a history of mental illness. It said that he had previously threatened to carry out a mass shooting.

I mean ffs. 

Re reasons for the superiority of here to there must surely include: we don't have the death penalty. 

The son of one of my former partners was killed in a drive by in Atlanta about a week before our annual partner conference there.  The guy got plenty of thoughts and prayers obviously but it was noticeable the comparative absence of any sense of shock on the part of the US partners compared to the Europe based ones.

I went to Vegas shortly after 2Pac was shot there. 

it’s a gr7 reminder that absolutely everything about the murican rightwhinge mentality is the wrongest of the wrong

this is a super important thing 2 b reminded about. think how many lunatic clim7 change denialists, extreme “free” marketeers, brexters, incurable tozzas and assorted other batshit rightwhinging trolls there r on rof. 

they’d b intolerable about guns too if we didn’t have these stories 

My husband is off to the US of A on Friday next.  He had better not come back with a MAGA cap.  He's going to a wedding.  A few years ago I would have loved to have gone too (health prevents me currently) but now I think it's a country full of utter lunatics and extremists.  He's going to Carolina.  Argh.  And he's having to meet lots of lawyers as bride and father are lawyers.

PS Just watched Love and Death on itvx.  Texas in the late seventies.  Enjoyed it though, but those small town communities are really something.

Large parts of the US are perfectly safe fyi. And considerably richer than Blighty. 

It should probably be reported as a minor light hearted  “and finally” at the end of the news.

”And finally, another 20 dead Americans shot by yet another Incel loser to the sound of thoughts and prayers… those crazy Americans keep on killing each other and Rishi and Sir Keir have issued a joint statement saying that when the losses get too high we’re going ro send the redcoats back in!”

With a nice pic of Rishi and Starmer shaking hands and giving a thumbs up in front of Union Jack.

We need more amusing stunts like this to bring the UK together and remind peope to keep American culture wars at arms length. We could all get behind it.

It’s a choice Americans have made. There would undoubtedly be fewer deaths in the U.K. if alcohol was banned but we’ve made a choice there too. 

You With The Face  - I completely agree with you.

You With The Face  - I completely agree with you.

The Yanks are always going to shoot each other.

It’s a choice Americans have made. There would undoubtedly be fewer deaths in the U.K. if alcohol was banned but we’ve made a choice there too. 

Another analogy is cars.  We (in the UK) have accepted the deaths and other issues caused by cars on the basis that they are far outweighed by the mobility that cars give you.  If some nutter uses a vehicle in an act of terrorism (we all remember the spate of incidents of that nature a few years back, I'm sure) no one reacts by demanding we ban cars.  The Americans as a nation have made a very similar choice when it comes to guns.  Their relationship with firearms is quite simply different to most of ours (except possibly the shooting classes, I suppose).  Firearms are bound up with their national identity and are part of their society in a way that is just different to Europe and the UK.  If there was no threat from criminals I do think sales of handguns and similar weapons might go down, but I'm not at all sure all that many Americans would actually disarm themselves - not when the right to own firearms is perceived as essentially a human right.  

Different society, different rules and choices.  I think it's all the more jarring because we speak the same language (for the most part) and consume much of the same media.  

I think inequality is starker there because of the relative lack of a safety net and because the successful can be so successful.  I was in SF not very long ago, walked down Market Street, saw the zombie army at fairly close quarters, didn't enjoy it.  But other parts of the city, plus places like Carmel and Monterey, are as nice as anywhere I've ever seen.  I've seen a little of the wider Bay Area and can absolutely see why all the tech bros want to be there.  It's capitalism more overtly red in tooth and claw than what we see over here, with more of the facade of "we're all in this together" rubbed off.  I don't know if being more aware of the brutal realities of the system is necessarily a bad thing.  I know I wouldn't have minded having the chance to start my career in the Bay Area 20-odd years ago at all.