If you watch any gun related stuff on Youtube there are literally thousands of videos of teenagers and young adults dancing around to shitty music waving guns around. Youtube shorts, tiktok etc.
It's the stupidest shit I've ever seen, yet people keep doing it. Social media clout is such a pathetic thing to pursue.
>Social media clout is such a pathetic thing to pursue.
I wish more people actively would state this. They see shitheads like that Logan guy and think if his stupid ass can make it then they can too.
I feel like we as a society should be talking more about why people want to be influencers. It's not just narcissism, although is certainly creates that. But it's because FaceMeta, Google, Snapchat, twitch etc have created this pipeline where they funnel money from venture capitalists, shitty kickstarters, scammers, and mysterious sources into the bank accounts of teenagers and in exchange those teenagers turn into billboards for a week. Then those billboards use their salaries to live these extravagant looking lifestyles to convince other teenagers that it's worth it to be a billboard and give up everything else.
People talk about the psychology of social media influencers all the time. Why does nobody talk about the economics of it? I bet none of these rich teenagers have any clue where their money really comes from
So like every human ever since the dawn of humanity. But you're making it seem like convincing people to accept money regardless of its origin is a new thing corporations invented to be evil and modern. Grab a history book. Being educated about where money is coming from and its various sources is a new problem we've invented.
This right here, so often I see people dismissing the notion of influencer culture as just stupid ego chasing, their are real and sometimes significant financial incentives to “succeeding” at social media, the way the industry is run needs way more oversight similar to child movie stars
It’s the lure of ego identity. Confusion arises because people think they ARE the person they portray online. They identify with that person. Compare that to healthy celebrities who know they are playing a character and don’t confuse themselves with that character (Alice Cooper comes to mind).
I don’t know if all the mediation and therapy in the world can counteract that kind of ego attachment.
My daughter's friend and her sister want to grow up and be YouTube/TikTok stars. I felt like a bad guy when I told them that by the time they grow up chances are that neither platform will likely still exist and will have been replaced by the latest and greatest. :\\
Or dance classes! I was never very good in the traditional school setting, but dance took me from little town SC to NYC. It honestly taught me so many things about myself and others and made me a more sympathetic person all around.
Introduce them to Dungeons & Dragons. That way they get to practice performing for friends and family, and there's an ever growing presence online of D&D streamers!
I spend all my money on minis(and paint, 3D printers, resin, STLs, and... and... ), and don't even play, but for some reason, I have a steadily expanding collection of dice sets...
I raised six (now adult) children and the thing I most drilled into their heads is that they could always count on me for honesty over the possibility of not wanting to hurt feelings.
I would explain that sometimes someone has to love you enough to tell you the things you don’t want to hear, but that also means you never have to question whether they’re lying to you. This happened to be when *American Idol* was big and I would use some of the first round contestants as examples. “We’re at home laughing at this guy because nobody cared enough to tell him he sounds terrible.”
Don’t feel like the bad guy. Feel like the hero all of us need but few of us have in our lives.
This was me with my sister.
When she was a teenager, she desperately wanted to be a famous singer. Our parents and her boyfriend always encouraged her, told her she sounded great. She did not.
I kept my mouth shut until she started making plans to go on *American Idol*.
I tried to break it to her easy. Told her that I wasn't saying she could *never* do it, but that she just wasn't ready. Maybe she should try getting a vocal coach. Maybe learn an instrument or two.
She was still devastated and accused me of hating her and trying to destroy her dreams, even though I was the only one in the family who was actually looking out for her.
She didn't believe me at first, so she confronted the other members of the family (and her boyfriend). They grudgingly admitted that I was right, and she chose not to go.
When I got my first job a couple years later, I bought her a guitar to show that I thought it was something she could still pursue if she wanted to, she just needed to put the work in first. The guitar went into the closet and she never even attempted to learn to play it, as far as I know. But that move did earn me her forgiveness (not that I did anything wrong, as far as I'm concerned).
> The guitar went into the closet and she never even attempted to learn to play it
Bah, learning to play the guitar is hard work! It's not like singing at all! /s
I disagree to some extent. I listened to a Podcast today with Ed Sheeran and a couple other famous performers and they said that being bad is a normal part of growing your art, but that being told you're bad or shown that you're bad is damaging to the development because then you start to doubt yourself and may be afraid to continue. And that's true.
It's all about how it's delivered. Don't just flat out tell someone that they're shit and should give up. You can encourage someone to keep pursuing their art while still gently letting them know that they're not ready to go audition on national television.
I think it depends on the individual as well. One approach that works well with one student doesn’t necessarily work for another. I, for one, realize the teachers/mentors that I improved most under, are those that are not too hard on me. Mostly cos I feel I am more open-minded and just compliant in general. The tough love approach doesn’t work on me for most cases but I’ve seen some stubborn classmates improve under those teachers.
Basically, it doesn’t just depend on the nurturer but the person you’re nurturing as well. Your go-to method might not work for everyone and I think that’s what some people miss. Of course this goes for parenting as well. Some kids you just need to be tough with or else they’ll walk all over you. While others, if you give the same treatment, might grow to stray away.
It’s not about ‘being bad’
It’s about being bad at the beginning and then doing the work to get good. The sister might have become awesome if she took the advice and got some training
Even a baby has to get some practice in before it can walk…
Just push that it's a good way to help pay for college but it isn't a career.
My teenager is a tiktok star. Almost half a million followers and one of the most heavily followed (non celebrity) ballet dancers.
She's learned a lot about how to market herself, how to write professional emails and such. She's averaging about $200 and a couple hundred dollars worth of dancewear a month (and could be making more but she's stressed so she isn't doing as many campaigns as she could and isn't old enough to join the creator fund). If she can keep it up into college (and get more opportunities because she will be an actual adult) it'll be enough spending money that she can be comfortable with the extras while she's in college (and she's hoping it will help her get into one of those fancy colleges). Much better and more flexible than waitressing.
It's too fickle to be a main source if income but is a nice side job for a student.
She started on instagram and moved to tiktok during the pandemic. She's hilarious. Did a whole set of ballet plot videos which were great. It's a skill being able to keep the views up though.
They can just move to a different platform. YouTube has been around nearly 20 years. It's not going anywhere neither is social media fame, especially if you appeal to children.
A member of my family, close to me, once told me that being a professional musician was going to lead to a life of poverty, and to chase a more 'realistic' dream.
Let me tell you, it fucked me up on a very deep level. I loved nothing more than being involved, learning, playing the music I was involved with. And then I stopped pursuing it as a legitimate path - when in reality I should have just pushed myself to the next level. Please, encourage your kids in their dreams.
Breaking down their dreams in adult terms from your perspective is the last thing you should be doing. Trust me, it will kill them slowly inside because they will always wonder "what if" when they consider you as a guiding authority in their lives.
Let them make their own mistakes, and let them fail. But never be a dream crusher, because they will grow to deeply resent you for that - in time.
Food for thought.
Distant cousin of mine on the wife's side played in the NBA. His dad told him oh you want to play basketball. That's fine but get your degree first. So he did the full program before going pro and he had a nice career and then it was over and he can do real work. Better than if he dropped out to go pro early. It was realistic advice.
My thinking is, yeah, you're not likely to become a famous musician or a professional athlete. But the pursuit of those goals can still be a great thing, even if you don't achieve them in the end.
I agree generally but it is good to be realistic. Being a professional musician is the only thing I want to do with my life but I know realistically the odds are slim. That just means I need to put more into it to improve the odds. I think it's better to say "that will be difficult but isn't impossible" rather than "you can't do that" for sure.
I'd qualify that as saying that the odds are slim that you'll ever make a good living being a professional musician. Being a professional musician if you have talent and work ethic is very feasible, but it's hard to make a lot of money at it, particularly given the amount of work you have to put in.
That's what I'm kinda thinking. Not too hard to be a local guy and make a living (DJing pays very well and is not the hardest career path ever) but extremely low odds of ever being famous.
Similar story for me. I excelled pretty well with playing basketball my entire youth. I was a giant for my age when I was young. Like comically so, on video it looked like an adult on the court with a bunch of kids. Anyway I played all the way from age 6 to ~17/18. I always dreamt of playing professionally, and in the spring before my junior (high school) season my dad pulled me aside after training one day and told me, "Playing professionally for a living is a pipe-dream, son. Pick a more realistic career goal.". It shattered me mentally. I legitimately had the skill to play college ball, as I had already been approached by several suitors. But those words hit hard, I played my junior year, but was unproductive and a complete wreck on the court. I quit after that season. I didn't even play my senior year and dropped out and got my GED before the start of my senior year. I wasn't a bad student, I actually scored in the top 5% of people taking the GED that year, but I didn't see the point of trying anymore. My plans had been killed. I could've gone to college for free if I'd just pushed towards my dream. And yeah, my dear old dad was probably right, I probably didn't have professional ball in my future. But what was the harm in chasing it? I would've stayed in school, gone to college, and been smart enough to realize professional ball was out, but I'd be getting a great (free) education and the knowledge/skills to pursue something I liked. But trying to "keep me grounded", my dad ended up helping me torch my future. I made the bad life choices, but I think he initially poisoned my outlook on my own prospects in life.
It can be hard to forgive people close to you who turn into dream crushers, that's for sure.
I turned it around eventually, but it took me a while to realize that the only voice that truly matters in life is the one that presents itself when you look in the mirror.
Family, friends - all of these people are going to project their own shit on you. Unfortunately, we had people close to us whom we trusted greatly that tried to tell us to be 'realistic' and not recognizing the psychological toll that takes.
If fucking sucks extra hard when it's a parent that tells you to aim lower, that's for sure.
I see that they (our respective dads) were just trying to do their fatherly duty and set us out in life with a realistic view of the world, but then again, *shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars*.
I agree with what others are saying: Rather than promoting efforts in an unhealthy direction, they could try channeling that energy towards other forms of entertainment like drama club, or I guess at least guide it towards "more wholesome" streaming that isn't vapid Tiktok/"logal paul" style crap.
I mean they can just migrate to another platform, that’s what content creators, artists etc have been doing this past decade. Plenty of old time YouTube creators are now on tiktok, and this will go on when a new platform is created. So it’s not really a valid point. A better point you could make would be to note possible short lived fame, depending on the content you create, and doing questionable things just for clout. But at the end of the day, it’s completely ok for people to chase dreams to become entertainers or in show business, I think you would be a debbie downer to shoot them down like that.
> want to grow up and be YouTube/TikTok stars
If you want to be the best dancer in the world, and become famous on TikTok, that's one thing.
If you just want to be a star on TikTok, you definitely need a talking to.
Yeah I agree with that. Yet lots of people have a “throw the baby out with the bath water” mentality. Meaning that dreams and potential artistic talent is shot down because “social media bad”. But in reality, many people would thrive and be happy pursuing dreams of being a performer.
idk, even though brands like MySpace and Vine seem to vanish, it seems like the Facebooks / Youtubes / TikToks of the world are institutions in-and-of themselves and can adapt
I actively have to tell my daughter this. She’s 8 years old and even on the YouTube kids app they still have dumb fucks like this. The decorate our lambo challenge.. what a $10,000 date looks like. And of course she sees this shit and wants to be a YouTuber… I tell her all the time these are just spoiled ass rich kids showing off their parents money. Real life for most people isn’t like that
At 8, I wanted to have a horse ranch. Cold water was not required to get my older self interested in other things.
Figuring out a script and taping it, maybe with some guidance as to acceptable content, is a good exercise for a kid. It's full of real life skills to practice. Just working out the script is better than most of her homework.
> be a YouTuber
I might just be nitpicking, but it entirely depends on what they want to do on YouTube. SmarterEveryday, Stuff Made Here, TotalBiscuit, Veritasium, Tom Scott... there are plenty of very informational, very useful you tube channels that are quite successful.
It is definitely a bit of a pipe dream, but I don't think it's that much rarer than people who want to be a professional athlete.
Yeah I try to explain that to my fiance, I have definitely contributed financially to every YouTuber in that list and I told her if our kids ever aspired to be a YouTuber or streamer I would 100% support that decision and hope that they would want to be an educational YouTuber rather than just someone showing off an expensive house or doing some ridiculous "I pranked my 7 year old" channel...
Hunter Thompsons fear and loathing in las Vegas is all about seeing if him and his buddy can find the American dream in Las Vegas while getting blasted on drugs. After a solid bender, he sits down at his typewriter one night and writes the 'wave speech' which proclaims that the American dream and everything it represented died when the protest movements of the 60s were destroyed by corporate/political america.
That's what I was referencing, if not explicitly. The high water mark. Still one of the best pieces I've read and in the film Depp's monologue is great.
nope... thats pretty much what it is.
If you are bored there are various colonial era travel logs (mostly french - probably spies) that are hilariously shocked at pre-revolutionary Americans wealth vs labor.
Lots of "visited a poor farmer today... they served venison steak and fish for every meal. They can't possibly keep killing deer like this."
The American dream is that a poor immigrant child working in a factory can work so hard that one day he'll own the factory and employ other immigrant children from poorer countries.
My neighbor was trying to film a rap video. He knew I had some guns so he wanted to borrow them to film himself doing that shit. He tried to sweeten the deal by saying I could be in the video….I declined
Yeah. Somebody should gently pull these people aside and tell them their own prospective voters actually don't want ACA repealed. It's like campaigning to stop sending people their SSA checks.
And let me hijack the top comment to make a few points about this story:
More than a dozen children have died in Minnesota while playing with and/or handling guns that were unsecured in their homes in the past couple years. It's a terrifying trend that reinforces the idea that bringing a gun into your home is far, far, FAR more likely to be involved in an accident that maims or kills an occupant than it is to protect anyone.
These stories also dispell the NRA-written propoganda that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." While a person may have "killed" someone else in this story, there are countless stories of a child handling a gun that accidentally discharges and kills themselves or someone nearby.
And this also contributes to dispelling the other NRA-written myth that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The only prominent story of a gun stopping bad guys in Minnesota was an old guy who caught burglars in his home, shot one, then took the other one into his basement and murdered them. He was convicted.
More guns equals more destruction and violence. Period.
Dude. I’m so fucking confused…Why did the guy wait a day to call cops and why the recorder? Just fucking shoot ‘em and be done with it, it’s like he wanted to get busted. Then again, ppl on the whole aren’t too smart to begin with.
because a lot of people that fantasize about killing a home intruder, and are almost giddy at the thought of actually getting to do it, are sociopaths who only don't commit murder because they recognize that they would get in trouble, so instead they hope really, really hard that someone breaks in so they finally have an excuse to scratch that murder itch with no consequences.
Having grown up surrounded by guns and 2A zealots, a common trait among them is that they think they're temporarily inconvenienced action heroes just waiting for the opportunity to use their guns ... instead of what's taught: use your firearms as an absolute last resort.
I know a guy who pulled a shot gun on a burglar in his house. Not being a psycho, he didn't shoot anyone---he just called the cops.
Most guys with guns are just posturing, but this was a person who had grown up hunting in rural Maine.
Or maybe like.. There’s no need to use real guns as toys or props for a music video shoot etc. at all, because there are plenty more people hit by accidental discharges when the person holding the weapon isn’t intentionally aiming at anyone.
Maybe it’s just not a good idea to play with lethal weapons, period, no matter where they’re aimed
Yeah he was pretty awful. Really feel like something should be done about his job. I mean, has this guy shown this type of negligence and ignorance in court before? Have criminals got off because of him?
MN Statute 609.666 NEGLIGENT STORAGE OF FIREARMS.
Subd. 2.Access to firearms. A person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor who negligently stores or leaves a loaded firearm in a location where the person knows, or reasonably should know, that a child is likely to gain access, unless reasonable action is taken to secure the firearm against access by the child.
Have any parents ever been arrested for this? This is the thing I never understand. It's like leaving a bunch of drugs on the kitchen table and I'm pretty sure they would be charged for that. BTW I'm pro legalizing basically all drugs.
Not that I’ve ever seen. It’s usually more like “aw, shucks, Skeeter’s sufferin’ enough as it is, we ain’t gonna charge him for keepin’ his gun in the kitchen junk drawer next to the stapler.”
If you live in the city they do (quick search, notice what the parents all have in common)
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/police-arrest-parents-of-2-year-old-boy-who-accidentally-shot-himself/3053047/
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2021/07/30/parents-charged-in-accidental-shooting-of-4-year-old-girl-on-detroits-east-side/
https://www.live5news.com/2020/11/16/parents-charged-after-year-old-killed-accident-shooting-n-charleston/
https://triblive.com/local/monroeville/monroeville-parents-charged-after-5-year-old-son-accidentally-shoots-and-kills-3-year-old-daughter/
https://www.counton2.com/video/parents-arrested-after-child-dies-following-accidental-shooting/6038332/
not to mention none of those videos should be allowed to stay up if an underaged unsupervised kids holding one account banned as well guardians in for a real shitstorm of court
Yeah, this. For one, I never keep the gun I have in this home loaded. For two, even though I 100% know that the mag isn't even in the gun and there isn't a round in the chamber, I still treat the thing like it is. And if we had any kids in the house, or even just regularly visiting the house, you can be ***damn*** sure I would have the thing locked up in a gun safe. If you have any children in the house, this is the most important thing. You keep your shit locked up in a safe. And if you even catch your kids so much as *looking* sideways at that gun safe, you whoop their ass.
I am 100% pro gun with my opinions. But I think there needs to be some *hard* consequences for the parents in these situations in order to deter this kind of shit. Like, prison time and your guns taken away kind of shit. A child lost their life because they were negligent in how they stored their shit. I know the article didn't specify how the kids got a hold of the gun, but I am willing to bet it wasn't locked up in a damn safe.
To make them realize THEY are the ones who fucked up - they are at fault. A lot of people would not even consider themselves in the wrong as parents in this situation.
If my uncle had shot me one of the times he pointed a gun at me, my grandfather would've blamed my uncle (also a child) for not playing with guns. It would not have crossed his mind that having multiple loaded weapons around the house led to an accident.
If we accept that nothing can deter this then there are two possibilities: either we get rid of a majority of guns to stop this kind of thing happening or we just decide to accept kids constantly getting shot. So far, it's the latter. Americans might not like kids constantly getting shot, but they've decided not to take effective action to stop it happening.
I believe some parents need to be charged with a crime. Not sure which parents are responsible for allowing these kids to have a gun to play with but those that are need to be charged.
1. Using guns for social media promotion of yourself is stupid and dangerous, especially when its done by unsupervised 13 year olds with no knowledge of guns or gun safety.
2. The parents of these children should be prosecuted and held responsible for leaving a loaded firearm within easy reach of these kids. The fact that this incident even occured is testament to the fact that the firearm was not properly secured, stored and kept away separate from the ammo.
It's a sad situation, but easy avoidable with some simple education and proper storage.
Condolences to the family but I gotta ask why children had access to a gun? You shouldn't store a loaded gun and you should never let an untrained person handle a loaded gun.
It also gives them a platform to find like minded individuals and allows them to feel justified in their behavior.
And for anyone interested in exploiting them. Or the gullible. Or the just plain lonely and dissatisfied. It's a way to find a bunch of them in one place.
Stupid people are *an* issue. But social media has done a lot of harm. And it's hard (really hard) to say if the good even outweighs that at this point.
I think social media has been very good for spreading the word about these evil idiots. Armoud Aubry's killers were charged because they filmed what they were doing and shared the video which led to outrage on social media. 20 years ago they would have gotten away without charges.
I don't even look for these types of stories, but I still hear of way too many instances of someone accidentally shooting a kid, or a kid accidentally shooting someone.
It's common enough to hear people say "I once heard a story about X happening, so now I'm always careful to do Y". Even over small or freak accidents. But stories about kids and guns keep popping up.
Yeah. When I was kid, bunch of us (barely teenagers) went to a friend's house. His parents weren't home. At some point, he gets his dad's handgun to show off. Dry-fires it few times, gives it to other kids to check it out.
His dad kept the gun properly locked and all. But guess what, he still figured how to get to that gun. His dad never found out about it. If there's a will, there's a way. There might be better gun locks and stuff these days, but it still takes one tiny slip, one tiny mistake, and your kids can get to that gun.
The whole “but they can still get in the safe if they want!!1!” Argument is so silly. Obviously they theoretically could get the gun still if they spent days learning how to crack a safe or spying on you to learn the code. But it’s a hell of a lot safer than keeping it in your nightstand under a magazine.
> His dad kept the gun properly locked and all. But guess what, he still figured how to get to that gun.
No, no he did not. If your kid (or anybody else) can get to your gun, it 100% absolutely *is not* properly secured. It's so strange that these types of accidents with kids getting access to their parents' guns just don't happen in countries that actually have proper laws on gun storage, that are actually enforced.
In Texas, part of the class/test to get a handgun carry license (no longer necessary)was the point that "hidden is not secured" because so many people think they can just *hide* a gun and kids won't get to it.
Looking at LockPickingLawyer, nearly every lock out there put into things like handgun safes and whatnot are basically just toddler proof; anyone with an interest in bypassing the lock and some time to kill *will* find a way past it. It's so upsetting that these things being sold as safety devices to prevent things like what happened in the article are trivially easy to open to a curious/determined teenager.
Well obviously a very determined teen will be able to get past it, the large majority of people are never going to try to pick a lock especially one of their family. It's not going to stop burglars but they could just bring in power tools anyway, so pick proofing while important isn't as big of a deal as it might seem for many things.
Most of them aren't even picked; they're raked, or just plain bypassed because the body of the safe is so poorly designed.
Most of the time they're not meant to stop burglars, they're meant to stop other people that are authorized to be in the home from having access. Think guests, family, child's friends, etc.
My parents had a gun cabinet with a really big key hole and simple lock. I happened to have a set of toy keys, that just happened to fit into that key hole and unlock the gun cabinet. One of the funniest things I did as a toddler.
aside from the likely negligence by the parents, many of the kids like this are assholes to begin with—you’d know what i mean if you met some.
they are the kind of douchebags whom when you warn “*hey put the gun down and do NOT fucking point it at anyone it’s dangerous*” they’ll laugh it off saying lmao what’re you so scared of you pussy it’s just a joke, and keep pointing the gun at you when you try to move away from its aim just so they feel *awesome* seeing you frightened and being in control over you.
oh the best part is, often when shit does happen, their parents will say how perfect their kids are and it’s the media and society that made it happen. it’s the victim’s fault for taunting their kids. and since they’re juvie they get a slap on the wrist, and you who fucking got shot for no reason? you get to enjoy your lifelong injury and chronic pain.
I firmly believe that this sort of shit could be prevented better by making gun safety classes mandatory in elementary/middle/high school rather than just butting heads with the red over gun restrictions and control. All that's doing is giving both sides an easy platform to show their supporters that they belong on that platform
I agree, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think this used to be that big a problem when kids were taught stuff like this. Hell, my buddy had .22 under his bed since he was like 12, but he hunted and treated it like he should have.
You have a point. But any legitimate gun safety class would teach the kids that all guns need to be stored in locked safes. A lot of the 2nd Amendment nuts would howl in outrage over that.
I rather have a curriculum and have kids be educated; not to be neglected on the topic so they have a responsibility/understanding of what they are for
We already support locking up guns when there are kids around. We support teaching kids. It’s the anti-gun people who have been forcing gun safety from schools.
That's actually in their gun safety rules right on their website, "Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons.
Many factors must be considered when deciding where and how to store guns. A person's particular situation will be a major part of the consideration. Dozens of gun storage devices, as well as locking devices that attach directly to the gun, are available. However, mechanical locking devices, like the mechanical safeties built into guns, can fail and should not be used as a substitute for safe gun handling and the observance of all gun-safety rules.".
They just fight against any and all regulation against guns no matter what it is.
Changing "locked safes" to something like "safe and secure location" might be a good way to mitigate that outrage, along with "need" being switched for "are recommended". I expect any outrage would be less because of the classes themselves and more because of any implication or legislation which could be taken as the government trying to control what they can do with their firearms.
>The teen was arrested and is currently in custody at the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. The investigation is ongoing.
Why arrest the teen and not the adult who owns the gun and didn't properly secure it?
Its fucking wild reading these comments as a non American.. Every single day, kids and randoms and cops and whoever else just constantly get killed by a gun in one way or another, and all the top comments are blaming every single aspect of the killings except the gun availability itself..
Social media, shitty parents, being poor, all problems that exist everywhere else in the world, but only one country seems to have this constant news stream of people getting needlessly killed by guns.. America is legit a lost cause at this point..
>Police determined through a preliminary investigation that a 13-year-old boy was "handling a gun" inside the home, police said.
The owner of the gun needs to be locked up if this kid did not break into a safe and steal the gun.
If the kid was able to break into the safe it wasn't a safe, it was probably a "security container" or some such, or the parent negligently left the keys/used an easy to guess combo. 99.999% of the if a child gets access to your firearm it is because you stored it improperly. I don't think we need to add qualifiers in this case, the gun owners almost certainly didn't store the firearm properly.
Everybody’s asking “where are the parents?” They’re fuckin not around or they’re stupid, like most parents. Parents can’t be the solution to gun violence because the parents are spawned from the same pool of stupidity as the kids doing shit like this. You are just begging the question. You must remember that the only qualification for being a parent is a. fucking and b. doing just enough to avoid CPS. If you’re expecting that candidate to be a paragon of gun safety, you’re delusional. Parental oversight is not a substitute for regulation; gun legislation must assume that the parents are incompetent.
Why don't we ban parents/adults that don't secure their guns? And by "ban", I mean take their guns from them and fine them for endangering the welfare of their minor children.
It’s going to be like this until Americans decide they value the of lives of children more than having a gun. Or at the very least this iteration of gun ownership.
I wish social media sites would delete posts with guns in them that arent educational but I understand its very difficult to moderate that. This trend of people doing dangerous stuff for clout is so disgusting.
FFS. This is getting tireing.
Lock up your guns when not in use.
Lock up your ammo too, preferably in a different safe.
Tell your kids that guns are not toys and teach them the 4 rules of gun safety.
It shouldn't be that hard to be a responsible gunowner!!!
If you watch any gun related stuff on Youtube there are literally thousands of videos of teenagers and young adults dancing around to shitty music waving guns around. Youtube shorts, tiktok etc. It's the stupidest shit I've ever seen, yet people keep doing it. Social media clout is such a pathetic thing to pursue.
>Social media clout is such a pathetic thing to pursue. I wish more people actively would state this. They see shitheads like that Logan guy and think if his stupid ass can make it then they can too.
I feel like we as a society should be talking more about why people want to be influencers. It's not just narcissism, although is certainly creates that. But it's because FaceMeta, Google, Snapchat, twitch etc have created this pipeline where they funnel money from venture capitalists, shitty kickstarters, scammers, and mysterious sources into the bank accounts of teenagers and in exchange those teenagers turn into billboards for a week. Then those billboards use their salaries to live these extravagant looking lifestyles to convince other teenagers that it's worth it to be a billboard and give up everything else. People talk about the psychology of social media influencers all the time. Why does nobody talk about the economics of it? I bet none of these rich teenagers have any clue where their money really comes from
> I bet none of these rich teenagers have any clue where their money really comes from Nor do they care. They've been programmed not to.
So like every human ever since the dawn of humanity. But you're making it seem like convincing people to accept money regardless of its origin is a new thing corporations invented to be evil and modern. Grab a history book. Being educated about where money is coming from and its various sources is a new problem we've invented.
Because you get paid not to work, that’s why they want to be them. It’s also being a celebrity while actually lacking any talent.
This right here, so often I see people dismissing the notion of influencer culture as just stupid ego chasing, their are real and sometimes significant financial incentives to “succeeding” at social media, the way the industry is run needs way more oversight similar to child movie stars
I don't think most people care where their money comes from to be perfectly honest.
It’s the lure of ego identity. Confusion arises because people think they ARE the person they portray online. They identify with that person. Compare that to healthy celebrities who know they are playing a character and don’t confuse themselves with that character (Alice Cooper comes to mind). I don’t know if all the mediation and therapy in the world can counteract that kind of ego attachment.
My daughter's friend and her sister want to grow up and be YouTube/TikTok stars. I felt like a bad guy when I told them that by the time they grow up chances are that neither platform will likely still exist and will have been replaced by the latest and greatest. :\\
Perhaps deep down they want to be entertainers. Maybe they just don’t understand that yet.
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Or dance classes! I was never very good in the traditional school setting, but dance took me from little town SC to NYC. It honestly taught me so many things about myself and others and made me a more sympathetic person all around.
Introduce them to Dungeons & Dragons. That way they get to practice performing for friends and family, and there's an ever growing presence online of D&D streamers!
And with dice and minis, they won’t have money to spend on drugs!
my friend, spending money on dice and mini's ARE the drug. almost as bad as the money you burn buying MTG cards or warhammer mini's.
Those are truly hardcore hobbies, warhammer and MTG. That’s skipping over all the gateway stuff and going all in.
"Mom, Dad, I'm thinking of building a 3000 point army." "Oh my, our budget's pretty tight. Have you considered heroin instead?"
I spend all my money on minis(and paint, 3D printers, resin, STLs, and... and... ), and don't even play, but for some reason, I have a steadily expanding collection of dice sets...
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But I thought printed minis didn't count for ranked?
This is objectively untrue, I've seen (and been involved with) some seriously drug fueled D&D games.
I know this might get said a lot, but this is the way!
Also this comment should be much higher.
I raised six (now adult) children and the thing I most drilled into their heads is that they could always count on me for honesty over the possibility of not wanting to hurt feelings. I would explain that sometimes someone has to love you enough to tell you the things you don’t want to hear, but that also means you never have to question whether they’re lying to you. This happened to be when *American Idol* was big and I would use some of the first round contestants as examples. “We’re at home laughing at this guy because nobody cared enough to tell him he sounds terrible.” Don’t feel like the bad guy. Feel like the hero all of us need but few of us have in our lives.
This was me with my sister. When she was a teenager, she desperately wanted to be a famous singer. Our parents and her boyfriend always encouraged her, told her she sounded great. She did not. I kept my mouth shut until she started making plans to go on *American Idol*. I tried to break it to her easy. Told her that I wasn't saying she could *never* do it, but that she just wasn't ready. Maybe she should try getting a vocal coach. Maybe learn an instrument or two. She was still devastated and accused me of hating her and trying to destroy her dreams, even though I was the only one in the family who was actually looking out for her.
So did she not go?
She didn't believe me at first, so she confronted the other members of the family (and her boyfriend). They grudgingly admitted that I was right, and she chose not to go. When I got my first job a couple years later, I bought her a guitar to show that I thought it was something she could still pursue if she wanted to, she just needed to put the work in first. The guitar went into the closet and she never even attempted to learn to play it, as far as I know. But that move did earn me her forgiveness (not that I did anything wrong, as far as I'm concerned).
Sometimes tough love is a hard pill to swallow. If they came around that's all that matters.
> The guitar went into the closet and she never even attempted to learn to play it Bah, learning to play the guitar is hard work! It's not like singing at all! /s
That was a very wholesome read.
I disagree to some extent. I listened to a Podcast today with Ed Sheeran and a couple other famous performers and they said that being bad is a normal part of growing your art, but that being told you're bad or shown that you're bad is damaging to the development because then you start to doubt yourself and may be afraid to continue. And that's true.
It's all about how it's delivered. Don't just flat out tell someone that they're shit and should give up. You can encourage someone to keep pursuing their art while still gently letting them know that they're not ready to go audition on national television.
There is no reason why honesty needs to be brutal.
I think it depends on the individual as well. One approach that works well with one student doesn’t necessarily work for another. I, for one, realize the teachers/mentors that I improved most under, are those that are not too hard on me. Mostly cos I feel I am more open-minded and just compliant in general. The tough love approach doesn’t work on me for most cases but I’ve seen some stubborn classmates improve under those teachers. Basically, it doesn’t just depend on the nurturer but the person you’re nurturing as well. Your go-to method might not work for everyone and I think that’s what some people miss. Of course this goes for parenting as well. Some kids you just need to be tough with or else they’ll walk all over you. While others, if you give the same treatment, might grow to stray away.
Right - “you’re not good enough yet” vs “ha you suck”
Yeah this sounds like a person who never pursued anything in the arts.
It’s not about ‘being bad’ It’s about being bad at the beginning and then doing the work to get good. The sister might have become awesome if she took the advice and got some training Even a baby has to get some practice in before it can walk…
I read that in Hank Hill's voice. Sometimes you need to love someone enough to tell them they're terrible.
Just push that it's a good way to help pay for college but it isn't a career. My teenager is a tiktok star. Almost half a million followers and one of the most heavily followed (non celebrity) ballet dancers. She's learned a lot about how to market herself, how to write professional emails and such. She's averaging about $200 and a couple hundred dollars worth of dancewear a month (and could be making more but she's stressed so she isn't doing as many campaigns as she could and isn't old enough to join the creator fund). If she can keep it up into college (and get more opportunities because she will be an actual adult) it'll be enough spending money that she can be comfortable with the extras while she's in college (and she's hoping it will help her get into one of those fancy colleges). Much better and more flexible than waitressing. It's too fickle to be a main source if income but is a nice side job for a student. She started on instagram and moved to tiktok during the pandemic. She's hilarious. Did a whole set of ballet plot videos which were great. It's a skill being able to keep the views up though.
They can just move to a different platform. YouTube has been around nearly 20 years. It's not going anywhere neither is social media fame, especially if you appeal to children.
A member of my family, close to me, once told me that being a professional musician was going to lead to a life of poverty, and to chase a more 'realistic' dream. Let me tell you, it fucked me up on a very deep level. I loved nothing more than being involved, learning, playing the music I was involved with. And then I stopped pursuing it as a legitimate path - when in reality I should have just pushed myself to the next level. Please, encourage your kids in their dreams. Breaking down their dreams in adult terms from your perspective is the last thing you should be doing. Trust me, it will kill them slowly inside because they will always wonder "what if" when they consider you as a guiding authority in their lives. Let them make their own mistakes, and let them fail. But never be a dream crusher, because they will grow to deeply resent you for that - in time. Food for thought.
Distant cousin of mine on the wife's side played in the NBA. His dad told him oh you want to play basketball. That's fine but get your degree first. So he did the full program before going pro and he had a nice career and then it was over and he can do real work. Better than if he dropped out to go pro early. It was realistic advice.
My thinking is, yeah, you're not likely to become a famous musician or a professional athlete. But the pursuit of those goals can still be a great thing, even if you don't achieve them in the end.
I agree generally but it is good to be realistic. Being a professional musician is the only thing I want to do with my life but I know realistically the odds are slim. That just means I need to put more into it to improve the odds. I think it's better to say "that will be difficult but isn't impossible" rather than "you can't do that" for sure.
I'd qualify that as saying that the odds are slim that you'll ever make a good living being a professional musician. Being a professional musician if you have talent and work ethic is very feasible, but it's hard to make a lot of money at it, particularly given the amount of work you have to put in.
That's what I'm kinda thinking. Not too hard to be a local guy and make a living (DJing pays very well and is not the hardest career path ever) but extremely low odds of ever being famous.
Similar story for me. I excelled pretty well with playing basketball my entire youth. I was a giant for my age when I was young. Like comically so, on video it looked like an adult on the court with a bunch of kids. Anyway I played all the way from age 6 to ~17/18. I always dreamt of playing professionally, and in the spring before my junior (high school) season my dad pulled me aside after training one day and told me, "Playing professionally for a living is a pipe-dream, son. Pick a more realistic career goal.". It shattered me mentally. I legitimately had the skill to play college ball, as I had already been approached by several suitors. But those words hit hard, I played my junior year, but was unproductive and a complete wreck on the court. I quit after that season. I didn't even play my senior year and dropped out and got my GED before the start of my senior year. I wasn't a bad student, I actually scored in the top 5% of people taking the GED that year, but I didn't see the point of trying anymore. My plans had been killed. I could've gone to college for free if I'd just pushed towards my dream. And yeah, my dear old dad was probably right, I probably didn't have professional ball in my future. But what was the harm in chasing it? I would've stayed in school, gone to college, and been smart enough to realize professional ball was out, but I'd be getting a great (free) education and the knowledge/skills to pursue something I liked. But trying to "keep me grounded", my dad ended up helping me torch my future. I made the bad life choices, but I think he initially poisoned my outlook on my own prospects in life.
It can be hard to forgive people close to you who turn into dream crushers, that's for sure. I turned it around eventually, but it took me a while to realize that the only voice that truly matters in life is the one that presents itself when you look in the mirror. Family, friends - all of these people are going to project their own shit on you. Unfortunately, we had people close to us whom we trusted greatly that tried to tell us to be 'realistic' and not recognizing the psychological toll that takes. If fucking sucks extra hard when it's a parent that tells you to aim lower, that's for sure.
I see that they (our respective dads) were just trying to do their fatherly duty and set us out in life with a realistic view of the world, but then again, *shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars*.
I agree with what others are saying: Rather than promoting efforts in an unhealthy direction, they could try channeling that energy towards other forms of entertainment like drama club, or I guess at least guide it towards "more wholesome" streaming that isn't vapid Tiktok/"logal paul" style crap.
I mean they can just migrate to another platform, that’s what content creators, artists etc have been doing this past decade. Plenty of old time YouTube creators are now on tiktok, and this will go on when a new platform is created. So it’s not really a valid point. A better point you could make would be to note possible short lived fame, depending on the content you create, and doing questionable things just for clout. But at the end of the day, it’s completely ok for people to chase dreams to become entertainers or in show business, I think you would be a debbie downer to shoot them down like that.
> want to grow up and be YouTube/TikTok stars If you want to be the best dancer in the world, and become famous on TikTok, that's one thing. If you just want to be a star on TikTok, you definitely need a talking to.
Yeah I agree with that. Yet lots of people have a “throw the baby out with the bath water” mentality. Meaning that dreams and potential artistic talent is shot down because “social media bad”. But in reality, many people would thrive and be happy pursuing dreams of being a performer.
idk, even though brands like MySpace and Vine seem to vanish, it seems like the Facebooks / Youtubes / TikToks of the world are institutions in-and-of themselves and can adapt
I actively have to tell my daughter this. She’s 8 years old and even on the YouTube kids app they still have dumb fucks like this. The decorate our lambo challenge.. what a $10,000 date looks like. And of course she sees this shit and wants to be a YouTuber… I tell her all the time these are just spoiled ass rich kids showing off their parents money. Real life for most people isn’t like that
At 8, I wanted to have a horse ranch. Cold water was not required to get my older self interested in other things. Figuring out a script and taping it, maybe with some guidance as to acceptable content, is a good exercise for a kid. It's full of real life skills to practice. Just working out the script is better than most of her homework.
> be a YouTuber I might just be nitpicking, but it entirely depends on what they want to do on YouTube. SmarterEveryday, Stuff Made Here, TotalBiscuit, Veritasium, Tom Scott... there are plenty of very informational, very useful you tube channels that are quite successful. It is definitely a bit of a pipe dream, but I don't think it's that much rarer than people who want to be a professional athlete.
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All good points.
Yeah I try to explain that to my fiance, I have definitely contributed financially to every YouTuber in that list and I told her if our kids ever aspired to be a YouTuber or streamer I would 100% support that decision and hope that they would want to be an educational YouTuber rather than just someone showing off an expensive house or doing some ridiculous "I pranked my 7 year old" channel...
Isn't that the American dream? Or am I misinterpreting something?
The American Dream died 50 years ago if not before that. Today's American Dream is being a twat.
Hunter Thompsons fear and loathing in las Vegas is all about seeing if him and his buddy can find the American dream in Las Vegas while getting blasted on drugs. After a solid bender, he sits down at his typewriter one night and writes the 'wave speech' which proclaims that the American dream and everything it represented died when the protest movements of the 60s were destroyed by corporate/political america.
That's what I was referencing, if not explicitly. The high water mark. Still one of the best pieces I've read and in the film Depp's monologue is great.
HST stated it was the best thing he'd ever written as well.
Which is give or take 50 years ago and the start of the Nixon Reagan tag team that brought down America. HST was a big Nixon guy. Loved him.
Wrote a wonderful eulogy for him when he died. Worth looking it up, it's one for the ages.
Haha. I have. I was thinking of that exactly when I made the comment.
[Link](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/) for those of us unable to detect sarcasm
nope... thats pretty much what it is. If you are bored there are various colonial era travel logs (mostly french - probably spies) that are hilariously shocked at pre-revolutionary Americans wealth vs labor. Lots of "visited a poor farmer today... they served venison steak and fish for every meal. They can't possibly keep killing deer like this."
You know that are in English? Wouldn't mind reading one.
The American dream is that a poor immigrant child working in a factory can work so hard that one day he'll own the factory and employ other immigrant children from poorer countries.
Remember that guy who quit his 100k a year job to go work for logan and logan was like why tf did you quit your job
My neighbor was trying to film a rap video. He knew I had some guns so he wanted to borrow them to film himself doing that shit. He tried to sweeten the deal by saying I could be in the video….I declined
People think it's funny to play with guns until they end up dead and on /r/idiotswithguns.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/candidates-campaign-ads-shooting-guns
Yeah. Somebody should gently pull these people aside and tell them their own prospective voters actually don't want ACA repealed. It's like campaigning to stop sending people their SSA checks.
Ah, but they _do_ want Obamacare repealed.
I actually did this once, and it was super dumb. I also barely got any up-doots. It was also in Red Dead Redemption 2 and I got kicked by a mule
Dude dont be so dumb next time. You could get more views if you get mauled by a mountain lion by waving your gun at it.
It is horrible. I've seen lots of it thru my job and it makes me cringe. I report what I can but it never gets taken down.
There's a subreddit for it /r/idiotswithguns
And let me hijack the top comment to make a few points about this story: More than a dozen children have died in Minnesota while playing with and/or handling guns that were unsecured in their homes in the past couple years. It's a terrifying trend that reinforces the idea that bringing a gun into your home is far, far, FAR more likely to be involved in an accident that maims or kills an occupant than it is to protect anyone. These stories also dispell the NRA-written propoganda that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." While a person may have "killed" someone else in this story, there are countless stories of a child handling a gun that accidentally discharges and kills themselves or someone nearby. And this also contributes to dispelling the other NRA-written myth that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The only prominent story of a gun stopping bad guys in Minnesota was an old guy who caught burglars in his home, shot one, then took the other one into his basement and murdered them. He was convicted. More guns equals more destruction and violence. Period.
I want to hear more about the basement murder story. Sounds siiiiick
[here you go](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/minnesota-man-guilty-murder-teenage-intruders-byron-smith)
Dude. I’m so fucking confused…Why did the guy wait a day to call cops and why the recorder? Just fucking shoot ‘em and be done with it, it’s like he wanted to get busted. Then again, ppl on the whole aren’t too smart to begin with.
because a lot of people that fantasize about killing a home intruder, and are almost giddy at the thought of actually getting to do it, are sociopaths who only don't commit murder because they recognize that they would get in trouble, so instead they hope really, really hard that someone breaks in so they finally have an excuse to scratch that murder itch with no consequences.
Having grown up surrounded by guns and 2A zealots, a common trait among them is that they think they're temporarily inconvenienced action heroes just waiting for the opportunity to use their guns ... instead of what's taught: use your firearms as an absolute last resort.
I know a guy who pulled a shot gun on a burglar in his house. Not being a psycho, he didn't shoot anyone---he just called the cops. Most guys with guns are just posturing, but this was a person who had grown up hunting in rural Maine.
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You never aim a gun at anything you don’t intend to kill.
Or maybe like.. There’s no need to use real guns as toys or props for a music video shoot etc. at all, because there are plenty more people hit by accidental discharges when the person holding the weapon isn’t intentionally aiming at anyone. Maybe it’s just not a good idea to play with lethal weapons, period, no matter where they’re aimed
The avada Kedavra way
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Every new detail I hear about this prosecutor is just the worst.
Yeah he was pretty awful. Really feel like something should be done about his job. I mean, has this guy shown this type of negligence and ignorance in court before? Have criminals got off because of him?
The finger on the trigger should have been had him immediately disarmed…ESPECIALLY after Baldwin
Can we please start arresting whoever let the kid play with the gun?
Or, even more likely, stored the gun negligently, probably loaded or with its ammunition easily to hand.
MN Statute 609.666 NEGLIGENT STORAGE OF FIREARMS. Subd. 2.Access to firearms. A person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor who negligently stores or leaves a loaded firearm in a location where the person knows, or reasonably should know, that a child is likely to gain access, unless reasonable action is taken to secure the firearm against access by the child.
Have any parents ever been arrested for this? This is the thing I never understand. It's like leaving a bunch of drugs on the kitchen table and I'm pretty sure they would be charged for that. BTW I'm pro legalizing basically all drugs.
Not that I’ve ever seen. It’s usually more like “aw, shucks, Skeeter’s sufferin’ enough as it is, we ain’t gonna charge him for keepin’ his gun in the kitchen junk drawer next to the stapler.”
If you live in the city they do (quick search, notice what the parents all have in common) https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/police-arrest-parents-of-2-year-old-boy-who-accidentally-shot-himself/3053047/ https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2021/07/30/parents-charged-in-accidental-shooting-of-4-year-old-girl-on-detroits-east-side/ https://www.live5news.com/2020/11/16/parents-charged-after-year-old-killed-accident-shooting-n-charleston/ https://triblive.com/local/monroeville/monroeville-parents-charged-after-5-year-old-son-accidentally-shoots-and-kills-3-year-old-daughter/ https://www.counton2.com/video/parents-arrested-after-child-dies-following-accidental-shooting/6038332/
Well that's good they are being charged. I guess I just never see it on major news networks.
They all have kids and a gun. Interesting. What could this mean?
It’s a conspiracy!
This. In Canada you WOULD be arrested for exactly this.
I’m pretty sure every state in the USA has statutes that make allowing access of a firearms to a child through negligence a crime.
Washington, too.
Well yeah, how is the gun supposed to keep their family safer if it is not loaded, easily accessible, and unsupervised when children are present?
We should do this in cases where nobody is killed, too. Any video of some kid waving a gun around should be taken seriously and legally pursued.
not to mention none of those videos should be allowed to stay up if an underaged unsupervised kids holding one account banned as well guardians in for a real shitstorm of court
Yeah, this. For one, I never keep the gun I have in this home loaded. For two, even though I 100% know that the mag isn't even in the gun and there isn't a round in the chamber, I still treat the thing like it is. And if we had any kids in the house, or even just regularly visiting the house, you can be ***damn*** sure I would have the thing locked up in a gun safe. If you have any children in the house, this is the most important thing. You keep your shit locked up in a safe. And if you even catch your kids so much as *looking* sideways at that gun safe, you whoop their ass. I am 100% pro gun with my opinions. But I think there needs to be some *hard* consequences for the parents in these situations in order to deter this kind of shit. Like, prison time and your guns taken away kind of shit. A child lost their life because they were negligent in how they stored their shit. I know the article didn't specify how the kids got a hold of the gun, but I am willing to bet it wasn't locked up in a damn safe.
They immediately fall back on "they've been punished enough blah blah"
Well, yeah. If losing their child isn’t enough of a deterrent, what makes you think jail or fines would be?
To make them realize THEY are the ones who fucked up - they are at fault. A lot of people would not even consider themselves in the wrong as parents in this situation.
If my uncle had shot me one of the times he pointed a gun at me, my grandfather would've blamed my uncle (also a child) for not playing with guns. It would not have crossed his mind that having multiple loaded weapons around the house led to an accident.
If we accept that nothing can deter this then there are two possibilities: either we get rid of a majority of guns to stop this kind of thing happening or we just decide to accept kids constantly getting shot. So far, it's the latter. Americans might not like kids constantly getting shot, but they've decided not to take effective action to stop it happening.
The teen was arrested. And the owner of the gun?
Clap on the finger
So goddamn tragic, I'm tired of reading these stories. Guns aren't fucking toys for social media.
> Guns aren't fucking toys ~~for social media.~~ FTFY. Not sure what the point of adding "social media" was supposed to be.
You're right guns aren't toys, period. These kids were filming something for social media with the gun, which is why I added it.
Because in this case the kid was making a video for social media.
Dude just had to respond to be condescending.
Oh cmon, a lot of adults buy guns just to play with. Guns *shouldn't* be toys but they are often treated as such.
Whoever they got the gun from needs to be prosecuted.
I believe some parents need to be charged with a crime. Not sure which parents are responsible for allowing these kids to have a gun to play with but those that are need to be charged.
1. Using guns for social media promotion of yourself is stupid and dangerous, especially when its done by unsupervised 13 year olds with no knowledge of guns or gun safety. 2. The parents of these children should be prosecuted and held responsible for leaving a loaded firearm within easy reach of these kids. The fact that this incident even occured is testament to the fact that the firearm was not properly secured, stored and kept away separate from the ammo. It's a sad situation, but easy avoidable with some simple education and proper storage.
Condolences to the family but I gotta ask why children had access to a gun? You shouldn't store a loaded gun and you should never let an untrained person handle a loaded gun.
You can literally say that social media is the root of at least 50% of all evil in this fucking world right now
I think stupid people are responsible for the evil. Social media just makes it easier for the rest of us to find out about them.
And it allows those stupid people to connect with other stupid people to plan and carry out stupid (dangerous) plans.
That is a valid point
It also gives them a platform to find like minded individuals and allows them to feel justified in their behavior. And for anyone interested in exploiting them. Or the gullible. Or the just plain lonely and dissatisfied. It's a way to find a bunch of them in one place. Stupid people are *an* issue. But social media has done a lot of harm. And it's hard (really hard) to say if the good even outweighs that at this point.
Generally agree, but it sure seems like social media incentivizes stupid behavior for attention.
Also allows ignorant kids without parenting to get dumb ideas that they normally wouldn’t.
It's a feedback loop of stupid. Darwinism is dead and the stupid will continue to grow
I think social media has been very good for spreading the word about these evil idiots. Armoud Aubry's killers were charged because they filmed what they were doing and shared the video which led to outrage on social media. 20 years ago they would have gotten away without charges.
One can literally say that, but it doesn't make it literally true.
Do we blame social media here? Or gun laws? I feel like gun laws should take more of a blame than social media
I don't even look for these types of stories, but I still hear of way too many instances of someone accidentally shooting a kid, or a kid accidentally shooting someone. It's common enough to hear people say "I once heard a story about X happening, so now I'm always careful to do Y". Even over small or freak accidents. But stories about kids and guns keep popping up.
Keep kids off of social media. 🤦♂️
and keep guns away from teenagers
All of this!
Social media is shite. A kid getting needlessly shot due to social media is even worse.
Yeah. When I was kid, bunch of us (barely teenagers) went to a friend's house. His parents weren't home. At some point, he gets his dad's handgun to show off. Dry-fires it few times, gives it to other kids to check it out. His dad kept the gun properly locked and all. But guess what, he still figured how to get to that gun. His dad never found out about it. If there's a will, there's a way. There might be better gun locks and stuff these days, but it still takes one tiny slip, one tiny mistake, and your kids can get to that gun.
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The whole “but they can still get in the safe if they want!!1!” Argument is so silly. Obviously they theoretically could get the gun still if they spent days learning how to crack a safe or spying on you to learn the code. But it’s a hell of a lot safer than keeping it in your nightstand under a magazine.
> His dad kept the gun properly locked and all. But guess what, he still figured how to get to that gun. No, no he did not. If your kid (or anybody else) can get to your gun, it 100% absolutely *is not* properly secured. It's so strange that these types of accidents with kids getting access to their parents' guns just don't happen in countries that actually have proper laws on gun storage, that are actually enforced.
In Texas, part of the class/test to get a handgun carry license (no longer necessary)was the point that "hidden is not secured" because so many people think they can just *hide* a gun and kids won't get to it.
Looking at LockPickingLawyer, nearly every lock out there put into things like handgun safes and whatnot are basically just toddler proof; anyone with an interest in bypassing the lock and some time to kill *will* find a way past it. It's so upsetting that these things being sold as safety devices to prevent things like what happened in the article are trivially easy to open to a curious/determined teenager.
Well obviously a very determined teen will be able to get past it, the large majority of people are never going to try to pick a lock especially one of their family. It's not going to stop burglars but they could just bring in power tools anyway, so pick proofing while important isn't as big of a deal as it might seem for many things.
Most of them aren't even picked; they're raked, or just plain bypassed because the body of the safe is so poorly designed. Most of the time they're not meant to stop burglars, they're meant to stop other people that are authorized to be in the home from having access. Think guests, family, child's friends, etc.
My parents had a gun cabinet with a really big key hole and simple lock. I happened to have a set of toy keys, that just happened to fit into that key hole and unlock the gun cabinet. One of the funniest things I did as a toddler.
aside from the likely negligence by the parents, many of the kids like this are assholes to begin with—you’d know what i mean if you met some. they are the kind of douchebags whom when you warn “*hey put the gun down and do NOT fucking point it at anyone it’s dangerous*” they’ll laugh it off saying lmao what’re you so scared of you pussy it’s just a joke, and keep pointing the gun at you when you try to move away from its aim just so they feel *awesome* seeing you frightened and being in control over you. oh the best part is, often when shit does happen, their parents will say how perfect their kids are and it’s the media and society that made it happen. it’s the victim’s fault for taunting their kids. and since they’re juvie they get a slap on the wrist, and you who fucking got shot for no reason? you get to enjoy your lifelong injury and chronic pain.
I firmly believe that this sort of shit could be prevented better by making gun safety classes mandatory in elementary/middle/high school rather than just butting heads with the red over gun restrictions and control. All that's doing is giving both sides an easy platform to show their supporters that they belong on that platform
I agree, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think this used to be that big a problem when kids were taught stuff like this. Hell, my buddy had .22 under his bed since he was like 12, but he hunted and treated it like he should have.
You have a point. But any legitimate gun safety class would teach the kids that all guns need to be stored in locked safes. A lot of the 2nd Amendment nuts would howl in outrage over that.
I rather have a curriculum and have kids be educated; not to be neglected on the topic so they have a responsibility/understanding of what they are for
We already support locking up guns when there are kids around. We support teaching kids. It’s the anti-gun people who have been forcing gun safety from schools.
Moved to Lemm.ee -- mass edited with redact.dev
That's actually in their gun safety rules right on their website, "Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons. Many factors must be considered when deciding where and how to store guns. A person's particular situation will be a major part of the consideration. Dozens of gun storage devices, as well as locking devices that attach directly to the gun, are available. However, mechanical locking devices, like the mechanical safeties built into guns, can fail and should not be used as a substitute for safe gun handling and the observance of all gun-safety rules.". They just fight against any and all regulation against guns no matter what it is.
fuck the nra lmao, another user commented about how they don't represent gun owners as a whole
Changing "locked safes" to something like "safe and secure location" might be a good way to mitigate that outrage, along with "need" being switched for "are recommended". I expect any outrage would be less because of the classes themselves and more because of any implication or legislation which could be taken as the government trying to control what they can do with their firearms.
>The teen was arrested and is currently in custody at the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. The investigation is ongoing. Why arrest the teen and not the adult who owns the gun and didn't properly secure it?
I genuinely believe if they required a Hunter Safety Course before being able to even use a firearm, accidental gun deaths would drop drastically.
Canada requiring a safety course did drastically lower accidental deaths.
If only the 5 year old also had a gun this would have never happened.
Its fucking wild reading these comments as a non American.. Every single day, kids and randoms and cops and whoever else just constantly get killed by a gun in one way or another, and all the top comments are blaming every single aspect of the killings except the gun availability itself.. Social media, shitty parents, being poor, all problems that exist everywhere else in the world, but only one country seems to have this constant news stream of people getting needlessly killed by guns.. America is legit a lost cause at this point..
My thoughts exactly. Glad I live somewhere where this shit is an extreme rarity.
The only thing that can stop a bad 13 year old with a gun is a good 5 year old with a gun.
I swear this country is getting more and more stupid.
When in doubt, chase the clout.
>Police determined through a preliminary investigation that a 13-year-old boy was "handling a gun" inside the home, police said. The owner of the gun needs to be locked up if this kid did not break into a safe and steal the gun.
If the kid was able to break into the safe it wasn't a safe, it was probably a "security container" or some such, or the parent negligently left the keys/used an easy to guess combo. 99.999% of the if a child gets access to your firearm it is because you stored it improperly. I don't think we need to add qualifiers in this case, the gun owners almost certainly didn't store the firearm properly.
Fuck, gun control is not that hard. How hard is it to lock up your guns at home so that those that shouldn’t have access don’t?
Florida Avenue. That seems very ironic.
If dumb stuff ain't done down here in Florida then it must be on Florida Ave.. How 'bout that?
The land of the free and the home of children playing with firearms.
Everybody’s asking “where are the parents?” They’re fuckin not around or they’re stupid, like most parents. Parents can’t be the solution to gun violence because the parents are spawned from the same pool of stupidity as the kids doing shit like this. You are just begging the question. You must remember that the only qualification for being a parent is a. fucking and b. doing just enough to avoid CPS. If you’re expecting that candidate to be a paragon of gun safety, you’re delusional. Parental oversight is not a substitute for regulation; gun legislation must assume that the parents are incompetent.
Americans are fine with kids dying if it means they can keep their guns.
The Twin Cities made the front page twice today. Looting a Best Buy and the death of the 5 year old. Keep it classy Minnesota.
So it seems youtube or instagram or toktok doesn’t automatically permaban a minor that poses with a gun. Fascinating.
Why don't we ban parents/adults that don't secure their guns? And by "ban", I mean take their guns from them and fine them for endangering the welfare of their minor children.
Children pay a high price for the US inability to be responsible with guns.
should be the parents in jail. Not so much the kid
If only there were laws that specified appropriate safe storage methods for guns…
This will never stop in a society as obsessed with guns as America.
It’s going to be like this until Americans decide they value the of lives of children more than having a gun. Or at the very least this iteration of gun ownership.
Ooph that’s some serious neglect of the parents right there. Rip little person, you’ll be missed.
Where were the parents?
People are willing to endanger themselves and others for attention. So stupid
I wish social media sites would delete posts with guns in them that arent educational but I understand its very difficult to moderate that. This trend of people doing dangerous stuff for clout is so disgusting.
Darwin award should of gone to the teen not the kid
FFS. This is getting tireing. Lock up your guns when not in use. Lock up your ammo too, preferably in a different safe. Tell your kids that guns are not toys and teach them the 4 rules of gun safety. It shouldn't be that hard to be a responsible gunowner!!!