Sincerest form of flattery

[tielan]

So: after checking FB, turns out I had two friends at the mall today with knife wielding crazy man, both okay with their kids.

Still thanking God for gun control.

Not so much for the shitstorm that I appear to have kicked off at Tumblr, alas.

Comments

[heliopausa]

I'm very glad your friends are safe - and that nobody died. a very tricky and sad situation.

[tielan]

Four people were injured - one of them the knife-wielder - and that was from weapons wielded by trained cops, not by the guy with the knife.

As outcomes go, not the best; but better than the American alternative.

[muccamukk]

That's really scary, even if it's just a knife. I hope your friends and their kids are doing ok.

[tielan]

As I understand, it was pretty scary at the time. But after the guy was taken down, people went about their business - as one of my friends posted "I even got some shopping done after", and it was an exciting footnote in the news, instead of a tragedy.

So far as I can tell, they're a little shaken, but they're good.

[saturnofthemoon]

*sigh* What a lot of people in my country don't understand is that was no standing militia at the time the constitution was written, so folks needed to be able to defend themselves. In my opinion, it should be repealed, but guns are a big a part of our culture.

I would love if violent, crazy people over here were only carrying knives. I'm really glad your friends are okay.

[tielan]

It's accessibility and purpose that are the problems - which is the purpose of gun control, to manage accessibility, since there's nothing you can do about the purpose of a gun. Sure, someone who wants to kill someone is going to find a way, but guns make it easy. And the availability of guns makes it easy for common Americans (not just the violent crazy ones) to reach for that option.

[everbright]

I'm still confused by that??? I mean, I guess I expect tumblr to be more female and more liberal (american-style) than it really is, but I'm still sort of shocked that a concrete example of gun control set off such a firestorm. I hope it dies down soon!

[tielan]

I'm not hopeful on the dying down soon. Looking at previous gun control posts, they're up to 100,000 reblogs/notes.

And, in enormous irony, I didn't even tag the post "gun control"; someone did in the reblogs, and it got picked up and run with by the gun lobby. So, clearly, funtimes ahead for me on Tumblr for the next couple of years or so.