I know 2 Russian Jews.....man and wife. I've asked her many questions. This was before Trump came on scene. After a long conversation with the wife I asked, "If you could tell America one thing, what would it be?"
Without any hesitation she said, "DON'T GIVE UP YOUR GUNS!!"
I love how they are already on gun control when we don't even know what rifle was used. We know the shotgun and handgun are not going to be banned, and we need to know what rifle was used before knowing if it would even possibly be subject to control.
They haven't released the gun details, but does anyone else suspect that if this was an AR-15 we would certainly know that already?
I'm sorry but you're not going to get enough gun control to prevent two gun deaths from someone determined to wreak havoc. That's just never going to happen. Even countries with the gun laws some would like to see here have shootings like this sometimes. Often they have much worse shootings.
The fact the drum isn't beating proves that's a dead issue.
I'm going to digress a bit because most lefties (including I think Sasha) don't know where these came from. I'm not sure this matters but maybe.
After WWII thanks to Ike and his organizational skills the army had something new. Data. It had enough of it to look at the weapons it had used and parse out what it needed.
We used (in the main) three calibers, fired from 7 weapons, all of which had deficiencies. The most common weapon was the M1 carbine, which was given to NCOs, sergeants, truck drivers and similar support troops. It had a 20 round box mag that detached but the cartridge was underpowered. Otherwise it was a sound weapon.
The M1 people are more familiar with fired the 30.06 which is almost twice as powerful as the AR's 5.56mm. It loaded from the top with an 8 round "clip." It's an awesome weapon but it is heavy (X2 ARs) kicks crazy hard, and is in many ways overkill. Likewise the ammo is large and heavy.
Also using 30.06 were two older weapons: An older bolt action rifle built on the 03A3 springfield from WWI that snipers used. Then there was the BAR, which was even heavier than the M1, had a 20 round bottom load magazine, and was as close to an actual "machine gun" one man carried.
There was also a squad machine gun in 30.06 which fired belt ammo and had a crew of 2.
Finally for officers there was the colt .45 ACP, which was fired from the 1911 pistol and the Thompson submachine gun. Both had detachable box magazines.
None of these weapons were practically interchangeable. With different magazines it was impractical to share ammo (except in extremis) between the 30.06 units, and the others used different ammo.
Also, none of these weapons were easy to repair in the field. And since the barrel / receiver were sweat fixed into one unit on the rifles, you couldn't swap parts.
So the army called for a new weapon that addressed these issues. The Armalite group (working for Lockeed) designed 3 weapons: The AR7, (survival .22 long rifle) the AR 10 in .308 (another very powerful caliber still used occasionally in military weapons but having the defects of the 30.06) and the AR 15.
Note: The AR 15 came before the M16.
It was rolled out as a patented set of concepts first in 1947. It had novel construction features that made swapping parts and repairs easier. The 5.56 caliber is more powerful than the M1 carbine but a lot less than the M1.
One issue this created: Where do you put the serial number? The part that got the number in an older weapon was now two parts. Eventually is was decided to serialize the "lower receiver," which is the part with the grip and magazine, and to which the other parts connect. This gets important later.
Armalite was not financially successful. The group spun off from Lockheed and eventually sold their patents to Colt in 1957, which cleaned it up a bit, gave it an automatic / selective fire feature, and submitted it to the Army in the early 1960s. It became the squad weapon in 1965.
Note the part about patents: The sold patents expired in 1971, just as large #s of veterans were coming home. The rest is history.
Most of what the anti-gunners claim about this weapon is bullshit. It isn't all that powerful, it isn't "automatic," (like the M 16)... But it is lightweight, has a big magazine that can be as many as 30 in a box type and 60 in a drum (they don't work well) and in general is a lot of fun if you are into that sort of thing.
One issue: It is NOT a good hunting caliber. In my state is isn't even legal to hunt with - too underpowered.
It isn't for hunting. It is in fact a militia weapon, and we the people have an absolute right to own it. It has one legitimate use: Violent resistance against a government run amok, along with possible use in times of civil unrest, and self-defense in certain situations.
To someone used to firearms it is in some senses almost a toy, like a 22 LR but bigger. They are fun to shoot.
The thing is though is i looks "scary," and those swappable parts are a big deal. A basic AR can be fitted with heavier or lighter barrels that can be shorter or longer, and you can swap the receiver / barrel and make it into many calibers. It has rails all over it to mount stuff on. The power level makes it practical to make it into a pistol.
But it IS NOT a weapon of choice for criminals unless it is converted into a pistol. Most criminals use pistols.
The reason people own an AR is as a defensive weapon (against a tyrannical government), as a plaything (because they don’t like trees) and because it’s relatively cheap.
They do vary in price. This is a platform. It has tremendous variety. You can buy a dandy little "AR" that shoots BBs but looks like the real thing... You can buy paintball "ARs" that look "real." S&W makes a little beauty that shoots 22LR and you have to look at twice to realize it isn't the "real thing." And that is just one manufacturer. All the rest do similar things.
It is a platform. This means among other things that small shops can make ARs and parts. Remember the patent thing. It is wide open. I have lost track (I don't try and keep track) of all the different "ARs" I have seen. Calibers from .308 - I think I even saw a .338 once; that's a big caliber - down to 22LR. They make them to shoot all the common rimless pistol calibers - things like 9mm. There are special calibers that have been developed for ARs like the .300 blackout - people who hunt wild hog like those.
You can't overemphasize the specialty small shops. It's like race cars. Think of all the ways you can "soup up" a car. You can do that with ARs. Little tiny machine shops make and become known for making something like a barrel or bolt. You can buy the plans. You can do this in your garage (may or may not be legal).
There are companies like magpul that make stocks, grips, magazines, rails - but not firearms.
You could take the upper receiver and barrel off of a lower and replace the 5.56 with a .300 or any other gas operated caliber.
It is just huge. And it won't go away. You can sue Ruger maybe... But Joe Cooter redneck in littletown USA? You can't even find him unless you are connected.
And it is all based on that interchangeability built into the platform.
If you buy a Browning or Beretta shotgun you can maybe swap chokes. You can mount optics on some but not others. The same is true of any full-fledged hunting rifle, whether it is an autoloader, a bolt action, etc. What you see is what you get. Add a scope and you are done fiddling. Mostly you can't even get special magazines.
It's a totally different thing.
And the tech has worked its way into pistols too.
And none of this addressed so-called 3D printed guns (I qualify them because only some parts can be 3D printed)
There's no end to any of this. And it terrifies the commies.
OH NOOOOOO!!!! Not the AR platform! Those all have minds of their own. If you leave one alone in your home it will pick the lock, head out to the street and try to find a place with at least 25 people to murder!!! I had to kick one in the balls recently that was heading out to do that.
Post this comment to every Jen psaki we know on here! Posted to MSNBC for the fake crying.
Hey why not do an article on the amount of children opioids have killed over the past 2 decades? It’s not as sexy as gun violence, but it open borders and illegal fentanyl sure have done a job on our youth. More than 10,000 children have died from opioid poisonings, and for every child who died another four were hospitalized. The majority of children who die from opioid poisonings die in their own home. Fentanyl now accounts for ~95% of all fatal opioid poisonings Where is the anger about this?
This is a much bigger problem, 100%. Not to minimize the tragedy that happened in Minneapolis, but in 2024 a person in this country died from an overdose roughly every 5-6 minutes. It not as bad this year, but it's still bad, really bad. The gun thing is a dog whistle for them and they really don't give a shit. To them as Sasha said it's just another "crisis", and never let a good crisis go to waste.
Each YEAR 25-30 children are tragically killed at school.
Each WEEK 25-30 school age children are tragically killed on the streets of our Blue cities EACH WEEK. But most of those kids are black so the media and Dem politicians ignore them and the illegally owned guns which kill them.
The left also seems to forget about the denominator in these fractions. 25-30 kids die each year in school shootings. Do you know how many kids go to school each year? MILLIONS.
As I said above, eugenics in action. Those in charge pre-Trump LIKE the OD deaths. They like anything that afflicts averageman. They want us dead. What we have to do is get them before they get us. That is up next.
Not only does this focus on taking away the guns cause ignoring the real societal problems caused by failed liberal policies, it aids the attack on this country. Create chaos, demoralize people into giving up their rights so they give total control to the government. Very bad ideas. The Democrat party has become the party of communism. All the real problems are purposefully left unaddressed as they propagandize these simple minded libs into a gun control frenzy.
You are willingly giving total control to the Trump admin, allowing him to send the National Guard to any city he wants and to create his ICE army that he could use to attack his opponents and anyone who speaks out against him.
Are your guns going to be effective against tanks, planes, drones, etc?
Nwcitizen…have you ever experienced firsthand the outright lawlessness seen in Chicago? Sure there are plenty of neighborhoods that purport to be peaceful, but who in their right mind would walk alone at night on the west side or south side? We have given the Illinois Dems in power MANY MANY YEARS to lessen/control the violence in this city, and all we get is their progressive rhetoric. We want ACTION. Send in the National Guard. Do whatever it takes to get rid of the gangs, killings and thefts. The once beautiful city of Chicago has gone from a tourist destination to a crime ridden haven for criminals. If Trump is the President to take action, so be it!
Great question! But “mass” anything gets eyeballs. It’s as the author of this article pointed out - too much work to actually look for and find all the child opioid deaths….
Sasha, righteous riff, but I have a technical correction. "Going postal does not refer to random people shooting up post offices. It refers to a series of incidents in which a postal employee went berserk and shot fellow employees.
And it was later discovered that the way the mail sorting machines were programmed imitated the sound of machine gunfire. When that was fixed, the "going postal" situation resolved itself. Why? Because that was a time when there was a push to hire Vietnam Vets. So the sound daily of machine gunfire triggered some of them...
That is so interesting. Noise harms people. Politicians often ignore this and, for example, allow so called "street musicians" to continually blare amplified noise into the homes and offices of people in the area. If it was really about "street music" they would not be using amplifiers to bother people in their homes and offices.
The safest places I have known were shooting ranges and historical reenactments. My husband owned several firearms and was the most gentle, even-tempered man you could find. It's not the guns: it's the psych drugs, gender confusion, bad parenting and poor social skills.
One thing to dig into is how mass shootings are accounted for when this data is reported (any shooting involving more than two shot). You’d be shocked to see how it’s manipulated to play into the gun control crowd. The lack of awareness about these mass shooters (an actual massacre), is the fact that in the past 20 years they all are trans/non-binary/LGBQ taking SSRIs. We have a mental illness issue in America and a medical community handing out pharmaceuticals like candy, all with very bad side effects including violent episodes and suicidal tendencies.
Yes, it’s laced with horrible stuff and also grown to make more addictive just how cigarettes were made more addictive. None of that is good for anyone.
Thanks for sharing that link. I had read other articles some time ago, but this one really encapsulates the whole phony mass shooting sprees propaganda.
Good article. Good comments. What about cannabis (Marijuana)? This shooter worked at a dispensary. Most shooters are heavy pot users. People think pot is harmless, but psychosis is a side effect. Cannabis is fat soluble so builds up in the body. I encourage everyone to do some research. Its a factor no one ever mentions.
Actually cannabis of today, far stronger than what we dappled with in the 70s, can trigger schizophrenia. They call it schizophreniform. Combined with any medication for mental health and it’s almost guaranteed.
We watched this up close with an amazing young man with an absolutely bright future who had several spectrum disabilities and overcame them all - earning a bachelors degree in engineering - but when he was urged by peers AND medical professionals to use marijuana to ease his anxiety, he quickly became delusional and hallucinated, causing extreme hate and rage, and he teetered on the edge of violence. When he was taken off of ALL medications and detoxed from marijuana, and placed on a Keto diet, all symptoms fell away to minimal, even the symptoms of his disabilities. He still struggles today from the emotional impact of his life being derailed and future practically destroyed, but his intelligence reemerged and he’s a funny and sensitive guy once again. He knows firsthand both sides of the fence. He is a rare example of how to save one of these young men.
Pot today is laced with so many dangerous substances, primarily fentanyl. When they were looking for this young man during a time he went missing and was found on the coast of LA, the police said 100% of the cannabis they confiscate out there is laced with fentanyl. People tell ya to make sure you get it from a medical dispensary but there is no true quality control with many of them and they are flying blind too. The bottom line is making money and they will source from anyone at the end of the day, trusting what the supplier is presenting the truth of growing conditions and quality to them.
But it is ALL wayyyyy over the top strong and not the marijuana we all think it is.
Sasha, great piece. Quick turnaround for so much work on such a current topic. Thorough research for historical context, insightful political analysis, as always, and punctuated with amazing collection of videos.
You are in a class by yourself. You have created a whole category of your kind of podcast. There is the Ken Burns Effect of panning through photos in a documentary. Some day there will be the Sasha Stone Effect in podcasts.
🤣🤣 coming from you we all know where this comment belongs. You’ve created a community of haters and liars. So, pot calling the kettle black. I prefer what she has created. Positivity and truth. But that’s like touching hot coals to you right? The darkness HATES the light. Definitely time to block you
She has lived on BOTH sides of the fence and was deeply entrenched on the left. She speaks more truth than you’ll ever know or care to admit to because you have been blinded by your choices. You’re getting exactly what you want, and that isn’t the truth. You will remain blind because of human arrogance without a shred of the humility Sasha possesses.
She has deeply earned the right to have her “bias” take, unlike most of you, who have never lived in the shoes of the opposing side long enough to know what the hell you’re talking about. You seek to divide and deceive for your own personal agendas. You sit on a devious seat of judgement more impressed with yourself than any true insights you might learn from listening to others. Yeah, truth IS positive. But you made your choice and It will forever escape you.
She was rejected by her former left friends & colleagues (which I don't approve of & I don't hate people who disagree with me) and decided to get even. Danimal tells me "You have to open your eyes as the government even hates you more than me." (whatever that means).
YES! I agree. Sasha developed a new "genre" for podcasts/blogs! I'm thinking it's partly because of her background! A note about the videos - I couldn't stomach any of them except the one that has the gals dissing on men towards that end and of course, Elton - I'll listen to him anytime, even though he's an insane leftist.
One fact that gets glossed over is that nearly all mass shootings occur in "gun-free zones." If a would-be shooter is looking at causing the maximum loss of life with a minimum of risk, a gun-free zone is the best location.
Feinstein's 1994 assault weapons ban helped Dems lose the House in 1994 for the first time in 40 years, as well as the Senate. In working-class states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, with large numbers of hunters, it was anathema. Mild correction: It never was renewed, but expired in 2004. Even when back in power, as in 2009 and 2021, Dems never seriously have tried to bring it back because of the memory of 1994. That's why Newsom, who has signed dozens of gun-control laws, is going to have problems in those states, even in the primaries.
Correct... people are the problem, and often mental illness. The trans cult is a serious problem and Greg Gutfeld nailed it with the following monologue:
GREG GUTFELD: This is why none of these a-holes can lecture anyone on compassion. The most compassionate people on this planet are trying to stop the trans delusion. The least compassionate are the people in the media, academia, and politicians who enable this hysteria of horror.
What is so glaring about the trans cult: apparently your identity is the only thing that matters—until you do something awful. Then it’s the least important variable. Then you look at everything else. You talk about guns. But suddenly, we can’t talk about that.
What was it? The other trans shooter where they actually hid her identity? In this manifesto that this creep wrote, he said he was tired of being trans, and that he had wished he had never brainwashed himself. What more do you need—straight from the monster’s mouth?
Politicians, activists, teachers—you built this. You could have listened to the warnings. We were talking about this on the show for years. You amplified the hysterical—hysterical, literally hysterical—phenomenon that was going no place good. You created a poisonous program that twisted young minds for destruction.
It’s a nihilistic place to be, when you deny biology and they have nowhere to go. So all of these media arguments—what you are seeing there among those people—it is to escape their own culpability and the reality they created.
Forget the layer of mental illness and gun control. The origin of evil, the evil lies in the creation of a mindset that indulged a delusional self, rupturing connections with fellow human beings. So that trans identity, by ascribing an extreme aggrieved mentality, then gets directed against society—so this person feels justified in killing children. His killing resulted from that ideology.
And if you don’t believe that, you are one dumb assh-le. Excuse me.
Completely agree. 1. Guns are always available on the black market to those who want them, usually for no good. 2. Because there are hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of owners protected by the 2nd Amendment, outlawing sales will just force the market underground. 3. Guns can today be 3D printed, so can never be eliminated. 4. Since there are so many guns already in the market, the 2nd Amendment allows ownership for self-defense. 5. The problem is not guns, it is a dystopian society much which embraces nihilism in the absence of faith. In religious terms, Satan is doing battle with God on Earth today. 6. We need to solve the problem, not try to treat symptoms. Mental health care, strong nuclear families and a return to religion as the centerpiece of national life are the solutions
As ever, Sasha's writings are thoughtful and informed enterprises. I would like to distill this to action. A "conversation" is what the Left always wants, but they only shout, they do not converse. JFK in 1963 signed the Community Mental Health Act, and sadly, Reagan furthered it. Justice in American society is punishing criminals, making victims and families whole in whatever way is possible - sparing no expense - and SEPARATING bad people from normal, law-abiding good people. It's time for involuntary institutionalization and for facilities to be modernized and rebuilt to keep madness out of normal society. A slippery slope? Let's see. The SCOTUS gets petitions for 7,000 to 8,000 for hearing each year. They accept anywhere from 70 to 80 cases on average. Reopening and building new institutions for the mentally ill? My deceased younger brother (schizophrenia) and I will believe it when we see it.
It all comes down to political will. Political will vs political correctness... Just walk the streets in any major (and especially blue) city and yes--there are those that need to be separated from society. But instead--they just drug them up, shove them out on the streets to scream and yell at someone just walking down the street to a restaurant....
It's difficult for a person or their family even to access mental health treatment these days. There are all kinds of obstacles; doctors not accepting new patients, waiting months for appointments, no insurance coverage or insurance not being accepted...
You are your own first responder. On average it takes the police 6 minutes to respond after the first 911 call. This is not their fault but the unforgiving math of time and distance. If you don't support arming and training school staff you are accepting double digit casualty counts.
I don't support "arming" school staff, but it's not for the reason you would suppose.
I came of age at a time when schools weren't "gunfree zones" because that concept hadn't really even been invented yet. Our high school campus had a number of different buildings - not all of them even having breezeways between them despite being in rainy Western Washington - - and visitors could just walk in anywhere, almost all the exterior doors were unlocked all the time, and though I supposed technically they were supposed to check in at the office nobody cared.
Today's trend of making schools heavily fortified as if they were minimum security prisons is going exactly the wrong direction - - we should instead be making society safer, in this case by removing all the restrictions against self-defense and self-defense capabilities. My inspiration for this is from Sir Robert Peel's Policing Principles, particularly #7:
"To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence."
Once again the "authorities" and MSM ignore the elephant in the room. Was the murderer going through gender transition on SSRI's and other drugs that may have contributed to this demonic act.
When we had Islamists going on rampages and killing people the "authorities" studiously avoided mentioning radical Islam as a root cause. Here's just 1 example:
Nidal Malik Hasan (born September 8, 1970) is an American former United States Army major, physician, and mass murderer convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in August 2013. Only long after this tragedy did we learn he was a radical Islamist.
Thank God for alternate news sources and RFKJR who will at least discuss what may have happened. For example -even looking for root causes is condemned.
"Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith (D) blasted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday after he suggested psychiatric drugs given to children could partly be to blame for school shootings." (The Hill)
Doctors who prescribe Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)—a common class of antidepressants—must carefully monitor patients, particularly during the early stages of treatment or when adjusting doses. This is due to the increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors, especially in children, adolescents, and young adults under the age of 25.
Has anyone spoken to the doctors who treated this monster? Not one "journalist even asked this question. For some in the medical community, gender affirming care is a huge potential profit area. Here's just some of the costs:
Low-end (minimal intervention): Hormones + minor procedures may start around $5,000–$10,000.
Typical comprehensive transitions: Combine hormones, hair removal, voice, FFS, breast augmentation, and vaginoplasty—expect $40,000 to over $100,000.
This recent past tragic event was obviously a mental health issue and not about gun control. In dealing with my own mental health, let’s not forget that mental illness is real and that treatment options need to be paramount in reaching people displaying this type of behavior early on in their lives. This deranged shooter had been obviously acting crazy long before this happened and it’s not about being trans or confused. He was acting deranged for quite a while. Those other issues were a part of his illness. He seems to have been acting this way before he became an adult and if children are acting in such a way that is obviously deranged we need intervention from adults to treat this person at the onset. We are ignoring these young men while they suffer at stages long before tragic events like this. This could include medicine or therapy or hospitalization, but children displaying these behaviors need to be recognized and dealt with immediately and not ignored. In speaking toward a medication solution, the medicines we have out there are in no way perfect and cause many secondary side effects. We need to be extra careful about the meds we use and there needs to be a combination of therapy and hospitalization to monitor how those meds are affecting growing minds especially. The solution for our mental health crisis needs to be discussed because each mental health crisis is unique to each individual and we must learn how to catch it early for intervention. I think a good first step is access to doctors and hospitals needs to be increased and made easier. I’m ready for this conversation. It is long overdue.
Yes, although Robert's appeals to his mental state were NOT ignored, but enabled when the parents went through with the gender folly.
The hue and cry over "mental health" is intriguing. What is the cause of this so-called mental health crisis? What if being indoctrinated into believing that the SELF is paramount, one's APPEARANCE is of the highest value, and one's political proclivities are all there is to live for?
The Trans narrative is that Trump is denying his "right to exist." This is HYSTERIA. For the past several years, we've had to wade through one Left Think Hysteria after another.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Even worse, adolescence is protracted well into adulthood. This was a 23-year-old man who wore his hair in PONY TAILS. With ribbons. Like a little girl. Sixty years ago, this man would have been working construction to support two kids. He wouldn't have had time to VAPE and FRET.
The Mental Health Crisis is borne of SELF-OBSESSION, and a culture that encourages it. Add to that (and my colleagues are guilty) professors and teachers running on the fumes of hysteria, frightening young people with doom and gloom stories of "injustice and oppression" rather than teaching them ABOUT THE WORLD OUTSIDE THEIR MYOPIA.
Mental illness is real. It needs treatment. It is not self or family induced. We must remove the stigma and treat it as any other illness and as early as possible. If he was treated as trans, what a mistake that was because obviously it had nothing to do with his illness. He had been writing violently for years before this.
Figuratively. He would have been "tyrannized" into being busy, instead of lying around vaping, and feeling sorry for himself. And he certainly wouldn't have been encouraged to cut his balls off.
Sure, the mental illness may be congenital.
But he was encouraged to believe his mental aguish could be resolved by growing breasts and wearing pony tails.
I can prove that young people are encouraged into narcissism and that mental health issues are fetishized. It’s also clear that he wasn’t behaving like an adult.
I wouldn’t be surprised that you’re unaware of what’s been going on culturally speaking. Most LEFT THINK are bizarrely unaware.
It's difficult for a person or their family even to access mental health treatment these days. There are all kinds of obstacles; doctors not accepting new patients, waiting months for appointments, no insurance coverage or insurance not being accepted...
I agree. I would look really hard at the mother and his upbringing. Interesting that she retained Colin Kaprenicks attorney and is not cooperating with the police.
I had a pristine upbringing in all private schools with my parents regarded as saints, yet I have struggled my whole life with bipolar illness. I don’t agree with your statements about upbringing. We need to understand it is an illness and it needs real treatment and awareness from everyone involved with that person. We need to enhance awareness and get rid of the stigma. Mental illness is not the parent’s fault, they do not have the awareness and are hampered by the stigma of their child being sick.
The stigma is long gone. Young people introduce themselves via their mental illnesses; it's their identity.
At the university where I teach, faculty are salivating over rooting out depressed students they can rescue by shepherding them down to health services for Mental Health Treatment.
Pills are handed out like candy.
If you're responding to me, I don't see anything in my comment about upbringing. But I am talking about a CULTURE that ENCOURAGES SELF-OBSESSION.
OK, mental health issues are real. Yes. Some people experience a deep abiding malaise. My point is that our culture has guided young people INTO that, where otherwise they’d get onto the business of living with the reality of suffering which no one escapes anyway.
I think we are moving toward awareness and getting rid of the stigma and our children and adults who deal with them in education are much more aware, but the stigma exists in misunderstandings about mental illness from society in general and resistance to this awareness. It needs more understanding. People do not get it.
While I agree with you that most people do not fully understand that, to the individual, there is still some stigma attached to having a mental health issue, I believe that there is a growing population who believes in wearing their diagnoses like a combat ribbon. While some people, usually those who feel that any illness is a weakness that can be overcome on one's own, struggle to admit their problems and seek help, the younger generation seems to adopt their self-diagnosed mental illness as a persona.
Then there are the parents that use their child's illness as a method of gaining sympathy or attention; particularly if the child is diagnosed with gender dysphoria. However, that is a topic for another time.
Please add to your suggestion of "good first steps" the need for an intact, two-parent home, and a father who teaches his sons to turn their focus outward and away from the mirror.
We need more doctors, therapists and hospitals. Many of those problems at hospitals are caused by the stigma and how the mentally ill are looked at by society. The better our network of mental care and awareness, the better those systems will become.
I know 2 Russian Jews.....man and wife. I've asked her many questions. This was before Trump came on scene. After a long conversation with the wife I asked, "If you could tell America one thing, what would it be?"
Without any hesitation she said, "DON'T GIVE UP YOUR GUNS!!"
Precisely America, "DON'T GIVE UP YOUR GUNS!!"
I love how they are already on gun control when we don't even know what rifle was used. We know the shotgun and handgun are not going to be banned, and we need to know what rifle was used before knowing if it would even possibly be subject to control.
They haven't released the gun details, but does anyone else suspect that if this was an AR-15 we would certainly know that already?
I'm sorry but you're not going to get enough gun control to prevent two gun deaths from someone determined to wreak havoc. That's just never going to happen. Even countries with the gun laws some would like to see here have shootings like this sometimes. Often they have much worse shootings.
The fact the drum isn't beating proves that's a dead issue.
I'm going to digress a bit because most lefties (including I think Sasha) don't know where these came from. I'm not sure this matters but maybe.
After WWII thanks to Ike and his organizational skills the army had something new. Data. It had enough of it to look at the weapons it had used and parse out what it needed.
We used (in the main) three calibers, fired from 7 weapons, all of which had deficiencies. The most common weapon was the M1 carbine, which was given to NCOs, sergeants, truck drivers and similar support troops. It had a 20 round box mag that detached but the cartridge was underpowered. Otherwise it was a sound weapon.
The M1 people are more familiar with fired the 30.06 which is almost twice as powerful as the AR's 5.56mm. It loaded from the top with an 8 round "clip." It's an awesome weapon but it is heavy (X2 ARs) kicks crazy hard, and is in many ways overkill. Likewise the ammo is large and heavy.
Also using 30.06 were two older weapons: An older bolt action rifle built on the 03A3 springfield from WWI that snipers used. Then there was the BAR, which was even heavier than the M1, had a 20 round bottom load magazine, and was as close to an actual "machine gun" one man carried.
There was also a squad machine gun in 30.06 which fired belt ammo and had a crew of 2.
Finally for officers there was the colt .45 ACP, which was fired from the 1911 pistol and the Thompson submachine gun. Both had detachable box magazines.
None of these weapons were practically interchangeable. With different magazines it was impractical to share ammo (except in extremis) between the 30.06 units, and the others used different ammo.
Also, none of these weapons were easy to repair in the field. And since the barrel / receiver were sweat fixed into one unit on the rifles, you couldn't swap parts.
So the army called for a new weapon that addressed these issues. The Armalite group (working for Lockeed) designed 3 weapons: The AR7, (survival .22 long rifle) the AR 10 in .308 (another very powerful caliber still used occasionally in military weapons but having the defects of the 30.06) and the AR 15.
Note: The AR 15 came before the M16.
It was rolled out as a patented set of concepts first in 1947. It had novel construction features that made swapping parts and repairs easier. The 5.56 caliber is more powerful than the M1 carbine but a lot less than the M1.
One issue this created: Where do you put the serial number? The part that got the number in an older weapon was now two parts. Eventually is was decided to serialize the "lower receiver," which is the part with the grip and magazine, and to which the other parts connect. This gets important later.
Armalite was not financially successful. The group spun off from Lockheed and eventually sold their patents to Colt in 1957, which cleaned it up a bit, gave it an automatic / selective fire feature, and submitted it to the Army in the early 1960s. It became the squad weapon in 1965.
Note the part about patents: The sold patents expired in 1971, just as large #s of veterans were coming home. The rest is history.
Most of what the anti-gunners claim about this weapon is bullshit. It isn't all that powerful, it isn't "automatic," (like the M 16)... But it is lightweight, has a big magazine that can be as many as 30 in a box type and 60 in a drum (they don't work well) and in general is a lot of fun if you are into that sort of thing.
One issue: It is NOT a good hunting caliber. In my state is isn't even legal to hunt with - too underpowered.
It isn't for hunting. It is in fact a militia weapon, and we the people have an absolute right to own it. It has one legitimate use: Violent resistance against a government run amok, along with possible use in times of civil unrest, and self-defense in certain situations.
To someone used to firearms it is in some senses almost a toy, like a 22 LR but bigger. They are fun to shoot.
The thing is though is i looks "scary," and those swappable parts are a big deal. A basic AR can be fitted with heavier or lighter barrels that can be shorter or longer, and you can swap the receiver / barrel and make it into many calibers. It has rails all over it to mount stuff on. The power level makes it practical to make it into a pistol.
But it IS NOT a weapon of choice for criminals unless it is converted into a pistol. Most criminals use pistols.
"I'm not sure this matters but maybe." It was very helpful. I misunderstood the power issue before this.
The reason people own an AR is as a defensive weapon (against a tyrannical government), as a plaything (because they don’t like trees) and because it’s relatively cheap.
I'll give you 2 of 3. They are not cheap...
They do vary in price. This is a platform. It has tremendous variety. You can buy a dandy little "AR" that shoots BBs but looks like the real thing... You can buy paintball "ARs" that look "real." S&W makes a little beauty that shoots 22LR and you have to look at twice to realize it isn't the "real thing." And that is just one manufacturer. All the rest do similar things.
It is a platform. This means among other things that small shops can make ARs and parts. Remember the patent thing. It is wide open. I have lost track (I don't try and keep track) of all the different "ARs" I have seen. Calibers from .308 - I think I even saw a .338 once; that's a big caliber - down to 22LR. They make them to shoot all the common rimless pistol calibers - things like 9mm. There are special calibers that have been developed for ARs like the .300 blackout - people who hunt wild hog like those.
You can't overemphasize the specialty small shops. It's like race cars. Think of all the ways you can "soup up" a car. You can do that with ARs. Little tiny machine shops make and become known for making something like a barrel or bolt. You can buy the plans. You can do this in your garage (may or may not be legal).
There are companies like magpul that make stocks, grips, magazines, rails - but not firearms.
You could take the upper receiver and barrel off of a lower and replace the 5.56 with a .300 or any other gas operated caliber.
It is just huge. And it won't go away. You can sue Ruger maybe... But Joe Cooter redneck in littletown USA? You can't even find him unless you are connected.
And it is all based on that interchangeability built into the platform.
If you buy a Browning or Beretta shotgun you can maybe swap chokes. You can mount optics on some but not others. The same is true of any full-fledged hunting rifle, whether it is an autoloader, a bolt action, etc. What you see is what you get. Add a scope and you are done fiddling. Mostly you can't even get special magazines.
It's a totally different thing.
And the tech has worked its way into pistols too.
And none of this addressed so-called 3D printed guns (I qualify them because only some parts can be 3D printed)
There's no end to any of this. And it terrifies the commies.
Based on the photos of the magazines, I'm pretty sure the rifle was an AR platform.
OH NOOOOOO!!!! Not the AR platform! Those all have minds of their own. If you leave one alone in your home it will pick the lock, head out to the street and try to find a place with at least 25 people to murder!!! I had to kick one in the balls recently that was heading out to do that.
Well that might be good or bad... It's a shame when they go after kids, but hey... How about the DNC? Now that would be a public service...
Correct.
Post this comment to every Jen psaki we know on here! Posted to MSNBC for the fake crying.
Hey why not do an article on the amount of children opioids have killed over the past 2 decades? It’s not as sexy as gun violence, but it open borders and illegal fentanyl sure have done a job on our youth. More than 10,000 children have died from opioid poisonings, and for every child who died another four were hospitalized. The majority of children who die from opioid poisonings die in their own home. Fentanyl now accounts for ~95% of all fatal opioid poisonings Where is the anger about this?
This is a much bigger problem, 100%. Not to minimize the tragedy that happened in Minneapolis, but in 2024 a person in this country died from an overdose roughly every 5-6 minutes. It not as bad this year, but it's still bad, really bad. The gun thing is a dog whistle for them and they really don't give a shit. To them as Sasha said it's just another "crisis", and never let a good crisis go to waste.
Each YEAR 25-30 children are tragically killed at school.
Each WEEK 25-30 school age children are tragically killed on the streets of our Blue cities EACH WEEK. But most of those kids are black so the media and Dem politicians ignore them and the illegally owned guns which kill them.
The left also seems to forget about the denominator in these fractions. 25-30 kids die each year in school shootings. Do you know how many kids go to school each year? MILLIONS.
I don’t believe they give a shit about OD’s either.
As I said above, eugenics in action. Those in charge pre-Trump LIKE the OD deaths. They like anything that afflicts averageman. They want us dead. What we have to do is get them before they get us. That is up next.
Not only does this focus on taking away the guns cause ignoring the real societal problems caused by failed liberal policies, it aids the attack on this country. Create chaos, demoralize people into giving up their rights so they give total control to the government. Very bad ideas. The Democrat party has become the party of communism. All the real problems are purposefully left unaddressed as they propagandize these simple minded libs into a gun control frenzy.
You are willingly giving total control to the Trump admin, allowing him to send the National Guard to any city he wants and to create his ICE army that he could use to attack his opponents and anyone who speaks out against him.
Are your guns going to be effective against tanks, planes, drones, etc?
Nwcitizen…have you ever experienced firsthand the outright lawlessness seen in Chicago? Sure there are plenty of neighborhoods that purport to be peaceful, but who in their right mind would walk alone at night on the west side or south side? We have given the Illinois Dems in power MANY MANY YEARS to lessen/control the violence in this city, and all we get is their progressive rhetoric. We want ACTION. Send in the National Guard. Do whatever it takes to get rid of the gangs, killings and thefts. The once beautiful city of Chicago has gone from a tourist destination to a crime ridden haven for criminals. If Trump is the President to take action, so be it!
ICE existed under Biden, too -- they just weren't allowed to do their job.
Yes indeed.
People don’t know. Now some do. It’s all bad.
Opioids don't threaten tyrants control. People willing to use guns do.
Yep. Opioids GIVE away control.
How many kids die in swimming pools every year?
Yep. I think the commenters here have the right idea. Thinking outside the box of political agendas is a good thing.
Great question! But “mass” anything gets eyeballs. It’s as the author of this article pointed out - too much work to actually look for and find all the child opioid deaths….
Sasha, righteous riff, but I have a technical correction. "Going postal does not refer to random people shooting up post offices. It refers to a series of incidents in which a postal employee went berserk and shot fellow employees.
Here you go:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/going-postal
And it was later discovered that the way the mail sorting machines were programmed imitated the sound of machine gunfire. When that was fixed, the "going postal" situation resolved itself. Why? Because that was a time when there was a push to hire Vietnam Vets. So the sound daily of machine gunfire triggered some of them...
THAT somehow escaped being noted. Thanks!
That is so interesting. Noise harms people. Politicians often ignore this and, for example, allow so called "street musicians" to continually blare amplified noise into the homes and offices of people in the area. If it was really about "street music" they would not be using amplifiers to bother people in their homes and offices.
Those TikTok people are the worst kind of noise. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. Don’t they have a job to be at? Jeesh!
FACT!
The safest places I have known were shooting ranges and historical reenactments. My husband owned several firearms and was the most gentle, even-tempered man you could find. It's not the guns: it's the psych drugs, gender confusion, bad parenting and poor social skills.
Correct.
And playing bloody first-person shooter computer games all day long is contributing too, I'm sure.
One thing to dig into is how mass shootings are accounted for when this data is reported (any shooting involving more than two shot). You’d be shocked to see how it’s manipulated to play into the gun control crowd. The lack of awareness about these mass shooters (an actual massacre), is the fact that in the past 20 years they all are trans/non-binary/LGBQ taking SSRIs. We have a mental illness issue in America and a medical community handing out pharmaceuticals like candy, all with very bad side effects including violent episodes and suicidal tendencies.
Add cannabis using. Today's pot is NOT the pot of the 60s and 70s.
Yes, it’s laced with horrible stuff and also grown to make more addictive just how cigarettes were made more addictive. None of that is good for anyone.
💥
Here’s a good article on just that:
https://hwfo.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-gun-lie?utm_source=publication-search
Thanks for sharing that link. I had read other articles some time ago, but this one really encapsulates the whole phony mass shooting sprees propaganda.
Good article. Good comments. What about cannabis (Marijuana)? This shooter worked at a dispensary. Most shooters are heavy pot users. People think pot is harmless, but psychosis is a side effect. Cannabis is fat soluble so builds up in the body. I encourage everyone to do some research. Its a factor no one ever mentions.
100% Alex Berenson is all over this point.
Actually cannabis of today, far stronger than what we dappled with in the 70s, can trigger schizophrenia. They call it schizophreniform. Combined with any medication for mental health and it’s almost guaranteed.
We watched this up close with an amazing young man with an absolutely bright future who had several spectrum disabilities and overcame them all - earning a bachelors degree in engineering - but when he was urged by peers AND medical professionals to use marijuana to ease his anxiety, he quickly became delusional and hallucinated, causing extreme hate and rage, and he teetered on the edge of violence. When he was taken off of ALL medications and detoxed from marijuana, and placed on a Keto diet, all symptoms fell away to minimal, even the symptoms of his disabilities. He still struggles today from the emotional impact of his life being derailed and future practically destroyed, but his intelligence reemerged and he’s a funny and sensitive guy once again. He knows firsthand both sides of the fence. He is a rare example of how to save one of these young men.
Pot today is laced with so many dangerous substances, primarily fentanyl. When they were looking for this young man during a time he went missing and was found on the coast of LA, the police said 100% of the cannabis they confiscate out there is laced with fentanyl. People tell ya to make sure you get it from a medical dispensary but there is no true quality control with many of them and they are flying blind too. The bottom line is making money and they will source from anyone at the end of the day, trusting what the supplier is presenting the truth of growing conditions and quality to them.
But it is ALL wayyyyy over the top strong and not the marijuana we all think it is.
Ask any honest ex-hippie who lived thru the late 1960s, and you'll get 100% confirmation of that as truth.
I couldn’t agree with this observation more.
I mentioned it above. Thanks for doing a better job than me. It should be mentioned routinely.
Something that keeps getting repeated in the media is that he acquired the firearms legally.
However, there is a question on the Form 4473 that asks the following:
"Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized
for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside."
Who knows, perhaps he sold but never used, but that's highly unlikely.
Sasha, great piece. Quick turnaround for so much work on such a current topic. Thorough research for historical context, insightful political analysis, as always, and punctuated with amazing collection of videos.
You are in a class by yourself. You have created a whole category of your kind of podcast. There is the Ken Burns Effect of panning through photos in a documentary. Some day there will be the Sasha Stone Effect in podcasts.
You are the best.
Best compliment of her ever. You nailed it 👍
She has created a community of worshippers, like Trump.
🤣🤣 coming from you we all know where this comment belongs. You’ve created a community of haters and liars. So, pot calling the kettle black. I prefer what she has created. Positivity and truth. But that’s like touching hot coals to you right? The darkness HATES the light. Definitely time to block you
She is utterly biased and one sided but her worshippers are blind to it. Positivity? LOL!
She has lived on BOTH sides of the fence and was deeply entrenched on the left. She speaks more truth than you’ll ever know or care to admit to because you have been blinded by your choices. You’re getting exactly what you want, and that isn’t the truth. You will remain blind because of human arrogance without a shred of the humility Sasha possesses.
She has deeply earned the right to have her “bias” take, unlike most of you, who have never lived in the shoes of the opposing side long enough to know what the hell you’re talking about. You seek to divide and deceive for your own personal agendas. You sit on a devious seat of judgement more impressed with yourself than any true insights you might learn from listening to others. Yeah, truth IS positive. But you made your choice and It will forever escape you.
She was rejected by her former left friends & colleagues (which I don't approve of & I don't hate people who disagree with me) and decided to get even. Danimal tells me "You have to open your eyes as the government even hates you more than me." (whatever that means).
YES! I agree. Sasha developed a new "genre" for podcasts/blogs! I'm thinking it's partly because of her background! A note about the videos - I couldn't stomach any of them except the one that has the gals dissing on men towards that end and of course, Elton - I'll listen to him anytime, even though he's an insane leftist.
Gun free zone = game preserve
One fact that gets glossed over is that nearly all mass shootings occur in "gun-free zones." If a would-be shooter is looking at causing the maximum loss of life with a minimum of risk, a gun-free zone is the best location.
What bad guy doesn’t love a “gun-free” zone?
The 2nd amendment is there for us to stop a totalitarian government as well as self defense from crime or threat to life.
Unfortunately it was completely ineffective in opposing the imposed tyranny that can be called Coronamania.
Compare US with Australia’s experience.
Feinstein's 1994 assault weapons ban helped Dems lose the House in 1994 for the first time in 40 years, as well as the Senate. In working-class states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, with large numbers of hunters, it was anathema. Mild correction: It never was renewed, but expired in 2004. Even when back in power, as in 2009 and 2021, Dems never seriously have tried to bring it back because of the memory of 1994. That's why Newsom, who has signed dozens of gun-control laws, is going to have problems in those states, even in the primaries.
Correct... people are the problem, and often mental illness. The trans cult is a serious problem and Greg Gutfeld nailed it with the following monologue:
GREG GUTFELD: This is why none of these a-holes can lecture anyone on compassion. The most compassionate people on this planet are trying to stop the trans delusion. The least compassionate are the people in the media, academia, and politicians who enable this hysteria of horror.
What is so glaring about the trans cult: apparently your identity is the only thing that matters—until you do something awful. Then it’s the least important variable. Then you look at everything else. You talk about guns. But suddenly, we can’t talk about that.
What was it? The other trans shooter where they actually hid her identity? In this manifesto that this creep wrote, he said he was tired of being trans, and that he had wished he had never brainwashed himself. What more do you need—straight from the monster’s mouth?
Politicians, activists, teachers—you built this. You could have listened to the warnings. We were talking about this on the show for years. You amplified the hysterical—hysterical, literally hysterical—phenomenon that was going no place good. You created a poisonous program that twisted young minds for destruction.
It’s a nihilistic place to be, when you deny biology and they have nowhere to go. So all of these media arguments—what you are seeing there among those people—it is to escape their own culpability and the reality they created.
Forget the layer of mental illness and gun control. The origin of evil, the evil lies in the creation of a mindset that indulged a delusional self, rupturing connections with fellow human beings. So that trans identity, by ascribing an extreme aggrieved mentality, then gets directed against society—so this person feels justified in killing children. His killing resulted from that ideology.
And if you don’t believe that, you are one dumb assh-le. Excuse me.
When I heard him give that monologue I wanted to jump and cheer. We need 1,000 more Gutfelds.
I saw that. It was magnificent. Only matched by the passion of Johnny Joey Jones after the dimwit Tarlov gave the usual Dem line of its guns.
Try to find it. It’s the August 28 episode of The Five at the end of the first segment.
Greg is great, isn't he. Evil. He talks about evil. That must be discussed, but won't be.
Your discussion of Freud and Jung point a way for the non-believers to recognize and accept that evil is real and amongst us.
What explains all the "straight" killers?
Completely agree. 1. Guns are always available on the black market to those who want them, usually for no good. 2. Because there are hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of owners protected by the 2nd Amendment, outlawing sales will just force the market underground. 3. Guns can today be 3D printed, so can never be eliminated. 4. Since there are so many guns already in the market, the 2nd Amendment allows ownership for self-defense. 5. The problem is not guns, it is a dystopian society much which embraces nihilism in the absence of faith. In religious terms, Satan is doing battle with God on Earth today. 6. We need to solve the problem, not try to treat symptoms. Mental health care, strong nuclear families and a return to religion as the centerpiece of national life are the solutions
As ever, Sasha's writings are thoughtful and informed enterprises. I would like to distill this to action. A "conversation" is what the Left always wants, but they only shout, they do not converse. JFK in 1963 signed the Community Mental Health Act, and sadly, Reagan furthered it. Justice in American society is punishing criminals, making victims and families whole in whatever way is possible - sparing no expense - and SEPARATING bad people from normal, law-abiding good people. It's time for involuntary institutionalization and for facilities to be modernized and rebuilt to keep madness out of normal society. A slippery slope? Let's see. The SCOTUS gets petitions for 7,000 to 8,000 for hearing each year. They accept anywhere from 70 to 80 cases on average. Reopening and building new institutions for the mentally ill? My deceased younger brother (schizophrenia) and I will believe it when we see it.
It all comes down to political will. Political will vs political correctness... Just walk the streets in any major (and especially blue) city and yes--there are those that need to be separated from society. But instead--they just drug them up, shove them out on the streets to scream and yell at someone just walking down the street to a restaurant....
And they are left to fend for themselves against their own kind on the streets, and we are left to fend for ourselves against them. Bizarro America.
It's difficult for a person or their family even to access mental health treatment these days. There are all kinds of obstacles; doctors not accepting new patients, waiting months for appointments, no insurance coverage or insurance not being accepted...
You are your own first responder. On average it takes the police 6 minutes to respond after the first 911 call. This is not their fault but the unforgiving math of time and distance. If you don't support arming and training school staff you are accepting double digit casualty counts.
I don't support "arming" school staff, but it's not for the reason you would suppose.
I came of age at a time when schools weren't "gunfree zones" because that concept hadn't really even been invented yet. Our high school campus had a number of different buildings - not all of them even having breezeways between them despite being in rainy Western Washington - - and visitors could just walk in anywhere, almost all the exterior doors were unlocked all the time, and though I supposed technically they were supposed to check in at the office nobody cared.
Today's trend of making schools heavily fortified as if they were minimum security prisons is going exactly the wrong direction - - we should instead be making society safer, in this case by removing all the restrictions against self-defense and self-defense capabilities. My inspiration for this is from Sir Robert Peel's Policing Principles, particularly #7:
"To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence."
Love Peel, especially 7. I assume that would include schools but it is a heavy lift without the training. Even with the training.
I am sure you saw the recent case in the UK where a 14 yo girl was arrested for defending her younger sister with a knife and hatchet.
The plan was for the US to follow the UK into the abyss. One difference - we in the US have guns.
Equally important.
Oh, Canada.
I hope Canada is not a flash. But the last election results left me questioning the sanity of its population.
Once again the "authorities" and MSM ignore the elephant in the room. Was the murderer going through gender transition on SSRI's and other drugs that may have contributed to this demonic act.
When we had Islamists going on rampages and killing people the "authorities" studiously avoided mentioning radical Islam as a root cause. Here's just 1 example:
Nidal Malik Hasan (born September 8, 1970) is an American former United States Army major, physician, and mass murderer convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in August 2013. Only long after this tragedy did we learn he was a radical Islamist.
Thank God for alternate news sources and RFKJR who will at least discuss what may have happened. For example -even looking for root causes is condemned.
"Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith (D) blasted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday after he suggested psychiatric drugs given to children could partly be to blame for school shootings." (The Hill)
Doctors who prescribe Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)—a common class of antidepressants—must carefully monitor patients, particularly during the early stages of treatment or when adjusting doses. This is due to the increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors, especially in children, adolescents, and young adults under the age of 25.
Has anyone spoken to the doctors who treated this monster? Not one "journalist even asked this question. For some in the medical community, gender affirming care is a huge potential profit area. Here's just some of the costs:
Low-end (minimal intervention): Hormones + minor procedures may start around $5,000–$10,000.
Typical comprehensive transitions: Combine hormones, hair removal, voice, FFS, breast augmentation, and vaginoplasty—expect $40,000 to over $100,000.
This recent past tragic event was obviously a mental health issue and not about gun control. In dealing with my own mental health, let’s not forget that mental illness is real and that treatment options need to be paramount in reaching people displaying this type of behavior early on in their lives. This deranged shooter had been obviously acting crazy long before this happened and it’s not about being trans or confused. He was acting deranged for quite a while. Those other issues were a part of his illness. He seems to have been acting this way before he became an adult and if children are acting in such a way that is obviously deranged we need intervention from adults to treat this person at the onset. We are ignoring these young men while they suffer at stages long before tragic events like this. This could include medicine or therapy or hospitalization, but children displaying these behaviors need to be recognized and dealt with immediately and not ignored. In speaking toward a medication solution, the medicines we have out there are in no way perfect and cause many secondary side effects. We need to be extra careful about the meds we use and there needs to be a combination of therapy and hospitalization to monitor how those meds are affecting growing minds especially. The solution for our mental health crisis needs to be discussed because each mental health crisis is unique to each individual and we must learn how to catch it early for intervention. I think a good first step is access to doctors and hospitals needs to be increased and made easier. I’m ready for this conversation. It is long overdue.
Yes, although Robert's appeals to his mental state were NOT ignored, but enabled when the parents went through with the gender folly.
The hue and cry over "mental health" is intriguing. What is the cause of this so-called mental health crisis? What if being indoctrinated into believing that the SELF is paramount, one's APPEARANCE is of the highest value, and one's political proclivities are all there is to live for?
The Trans narrative is that Trump is denying his "right to exist." This is HYSTERIA. For the past several years, we've had to wade through one Left Think Hysteria after another.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Even worse, adolescence is protracted well into adulthood. This was a 23-year-old man who wore his hair in PONY TAILS. With ribbons. Like a little girl. Sixty years ago, this man would have been working construction to support two kids. He wouldn't have had time to VAPE and FRET.
The Mental Health Crisis is borne of SELF-OBSESSION, and a culture that encourages it. Add to that (and my colleagues are guilty) professors and teachers running on the fumes of hysteria, frightening young people with doom and gloom stories of "injustice and oppression" rather than teaching them ABOUT THE WORLD OUTSIDE THEIR MYOPIA.
AMEN!!!
Dog L.... That is powerfully well said!
Mental illness is real. It needs treatment. It is not self or family induced. We must remove the stigma and treat it as any other illness and as early as possible. If he was treated as trans, what a mistake that was because obviously it had nothing to do with his illness. He had been writing violently for years before this.
"60 years ago he would have been working construction"
How could you possibly know this? Maybe he would have been hopelessly roaming railyards looking to jump the next freight train to nowhere.
The mentally ill have always been with us and, sadly, always will.
Figuratively. He would have been "tyrannized" into being busy, instead of lying around vaping, and feeling sorry for himself. And he certainly wouldn't have been encouraged to cut his balls off.
Sure, the mental illness may be congenital.
But he was encouraged to believe his mental aguish could be resolved by growing breasts and wearing pony tails.
You're making big leaps with assumptions that cannot be proven. No one knows what goes on in the dark corners of the minds of the mentally ill.
I wish I was as sure about the present as you are about the past.
I can prove that young people are encouraged into narcissism and that mental health issues are fetishized. It’s also clear that he wasn’t behaving like an adult.
I wouldn’t be surprised that you’re unaware of what’s been going on culturally speaking. Most LEFT THINK are bizarrely unaware.
It's difficult for a person or their family even to access mental health treatment these days. There are all kinds of obstacles; doctors not accepting new patients, waiting months for appointments, no insurance coverage or insurance not being accepted...
Have you ever heard of the unreal future tense? The hypothetical? Or is your native language among those that have no hypothetical and future tenses?
Ohhh, so I'm 'LEFT THINK'.....or is it simply 'bizarrely unaware.'
You so insecure you must make it personal when challenged? Is it you are so right you're never wrong, or is it just your sanctimonious personna?
I'd rather you take your attack-dog front elsewhere, and remind you what your mother once said "If you have nothing to say.............."
Silence really is golden my friend, but attack away if that makes you happy; the good news is I think you have a lot of company.
Wow! The gift that keeps on giving!
I agree. I would look really hard at the mother and his upbringing. Interesting that she retained Colin Kaprenicks attorney and is not cooperating with the police.
One wonder who reached out to whom? Did she seek him? Or did he seek her.
My guess he’s an ambulance chaser and he reach out to her.
Please see my comments to the original post.
I said I agreed.
I had a pristine upbringing in all private schools with my parents regarded as saints, yet I have struggled my whole life with bipolar illness. I don’t agree with your statements about upbringing. We need to understand it is an illness and it needs real treatment and awareness from everyone involved with that person. We need to enhance awareness and get rid of the stigma. Mental illness is not the parent’s fault, they do not have the awareness and are hampered by the stigma of their child being sick.
The stigma is long gone. Young people introduce themselves via their mental illnesses; it's their identity.
At the university where I teach, faculty are salivating over rooting out depressed students they can rescue by shepherding them down to health services for Mental Health Treatment.
Pills are handed out like candy.
If you're responding to me, I don't see anything in my comment about upbringing. But I am talking about a CULTURE that ENCOURAGES SELF-OBSESSION.
OK, mental health issues are real. Yes. Some people experience a deep abiding malaise. My point is that our culture has guided young people INTO that, where otherwise they’d get onto the business of living with the reality of suffering which no one escapes anyway.
Medication on its own is a mistake….it must be in combination with therapy and hospitals to manage the side effects. The meds are VERY imperfect.
I think we are moving toward awareness and getting rid of the stigma and our children and adults who deal with them in education are much more aware, but the stigma exists in misunderstandings about mental illness from society in general and resistance to this awareness. It needs more understanding. People do not get it.
While I agree with you that most people do not fully understand that, to the individual, there is still some stigma attached to having a mental health issue, I believe that there is a growing population who believes in wearing their diagnoses like a combat ribbon. While some people, usually those who feel that any illness is a weakness that can be overcome on one's own, struggle to admit their problems and seek help, the younger generation seems to adopt their self-diagnosed mental illness as a persona.
Then there are the parents that use their child's illness as a method of gaining sympathy or attention; particularly if the child is diagnosed with gender dysphoria. However, that is a topic for another time.
Please add to your suggestion of "good first steps" the need for an intact, two-parent home, and a father who teaches his sons to turn their focus outward and away from the mirror.
We need more doctors, therapists and hospitals. Many of those problems at hospitals are caused by the stigma and how the mentally ill are looked at by society. The better our network of mental care and awareness, the better those systems will become.
Please see my comments to the original post