Law, Power, and Justice

THURSDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2024

Germany

The far right party which won a local election in Germany (the first time a right wing party had won since before the second world war) has astounded and troubled Europe.

United States

A fourteen-year-old killed two other fourteen-year-olds and two teachers.  The teenager had been interviewed by the FBI over a year ago.  There are no background checks for buying guns in Georgia.  As Frank Figliuzzi said yesterday, we are doing better at predicting people who might commit a mass slaying, but nothing to get better and doing something about it before it happens.

Both the FBI and the local sheriff’s office was aware of the teenager before the shooting.  Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children and teenagers.  There are not even safe storage laws in Georgia.  There is open carry. 

I was at a demonstration in Georgia several years ago where uniformed men and women were walking around with automatic weapons strapped around their chests.  These people were, of course, enjoying acting as threatening as they could.  I did not feel safe.  One of the speakers talked about “Jewspapers.”  I was amazed.

BRIAN KEMP IS NOT A HERO.  Kemp is like the gang member who is perfectly happy to share in the fruits of the gang’s activities just not willing to go into the liquor store with a gun.

(Note: It’s pouring rain outside, again.  This weather is brutal for people with sinus problems.  My little caretaker cat, Hiram Bernard, is curled up in his heated bed at the foot of my bed.  He is a sweet, complicated soul.)

Later: CNN

• It seems the motive was celebrity for this kid in Georgia. 
• The father has been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and (I think) second-degree murder.
• The father bought the son an automatic weapon months AFTER the police came and interviewed the father and son about tips that the kid had bragged about hatching a plan for a school shooting. 
• Increasingly parents are being charged after school shootings.
• The son had a “discord account.”
• In 2004 the assault weapons ban ran out.
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