This time, at Brown University. It’s deja vu all over again. For some of the students, this was their second school shooting.
As the deadly attack unfolded at Brown University, leaving students hiding under desks and reeling as gunshots rang out, the scene was eerily familiar for at least two students.
Years earlier, Mia Tretta, 21, and Zoe Weissman, 20, had both survived school shootings. “What I’ve been feeling most is just, like, how dare this country allow this to happen to someone like me twice?” Weissman told the New York Times.
Two people were killed and nine others wounded on Saturday after a man dressed in black opened fire during final exams at one of America’s most prestigious colleges. Hundreds of police spent the night scouring the campus and nearby neighbourhoods as the suspect remained at large.
I’m working on some simple statistical problems for my genetics course — you know, basic stuff like the probability that two rare mutations would simultaneously occur in a single individual, etc. I’m not going to set up any problems around this kind of event in America, because this has become too real and too close to home. Also finals are an easy target: students are under stress, they’ve been openly studying (and complaining!) for weeks, and the finals schedules are easy to find online. It’s like we’re advertising that a herd of students will be gathering in a large space at precisely Day X and Time Y, and nobody plans on bringing a gun to such an event, other than cowards with nefarious intent. Maybe we need to start being more secure and confidential with this kind of information.
This story ends with another coincidence. Every story about a mass shooting somehow ends with a fairly typical and familiar conclusion.
Saturday’s attack has again cast a spotlight on longstanding calls for gun control in the US, where gun laws rank among the most permissive in the developed world. So far this year, there have been 389 mass shootings across the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines incidents where four or more victims have been shot. Last year, more than 500 mass shootings were reported.
Yeah, how weird that every story has to end with a conclusion deploring the USA’s insane gun policy.
I have another familiar part of the conclusion: nothing will be done.
I thought this was going to be about Bondi Beach. Sad commentary that no, this is a different another mass shooting.
By the way, in Australia the only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a good guy umm… without a gun.
“I have another familiar part of the conclusion: nothing will be done.”
Now really, don’t be so negative. You know damn well there will be a lot of thought and prayers done! /s
On the other hand, when I think what your current government might do in reaction to that, it might be better nothing is done right now. Otherwise you might end up with armed kindergarteners and rocked launchers on top of school buildings.
The things I want done include lots of pirhanas. And a spider tank. Then you can move on to build a society that works.
@2. Silentbob : “By the way, in Australia the only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a good guy umm… without a gun.”
A Muslim man who risked his own life and was injured trying to save Jewish lives named Ahmed Al Ahmed to be precise. A true Aussie hero. :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-15/bondi-beach-shooting-fruit-shop-gunman-hero-parents-speak/106143864
PS. Australia is also working onmaking its gun laws already toughened after the Port Arthur massacre even tougher :
State and territory leaders have agreed to strengthen Australia’s gun laws in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. One of the two shooters had held a gun licence for a decade and possessed six firearms.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-15/albanese-proposes-tougher-gun-laws-after-bondi-attack/106143310
Merican gun owner: “Only six firearms?”
You left out an important step.
The thoughts and prayers for the shooting victims and everyone who knows them. Because that is all we ever do after a mass shooting incident. And that always does…nothing much.
This is strange.
The Rhode Island police initially arrested the shooter. Except then they didn’t. The guy they picked up apparently had nothing to do with the shooting.
Which means he is still out there somewhere.
Thoughts and prayers are more like shits and giggles.
5 StevoR
I wonder if the gunman could shoot the hero and successfully claim self defence in the US.
There is a significant portion of this country that’s hostile toward higher education, if not all education, and values the right to own firearms above all else so, sadly, nothing will be done to improve the situation.
In 1996 Australia saw the worst mass shooting in its history when a single nutter murdered 35 people and wounded 23 others using stolen guns including military style weapons. The result was over the bleatings of the gun lobby restrictive gun ownership laws came in wit tens of thousands of now illegal weapons surrendered for destruction. Over the years there have been many attempts at watering these down some funded by donations to extreme right political parties by the American NRA.
ow we have had another massacre with two shooters who owned 6 guns. The government is now planning to tighten gun laws even further. The gun lobby will cry foul again but they will lose.
We Ozzies are getting your gun nuts yelling at us about how gun laws don’t work. They can all F off. We had two mass shootings in 30 years. I have familly snd friends in and around Sydney and, having checked they are all safe and well, all I can think of is how glad I am that our gun laws are really tight.
So how could the Rhode Island police immediately arrest…the wrong person.
They didn’t. It was mostly the FBI’s mistake.
This has been a common pattern since the Trump disaster gained control of the FBI. They purged any FBI agents that looked normal, promoted a bunch of fascists, and assigned half the agents to hunt down farm workers and lawn mowing immigrants.
The competence level of the FBI has dropped drastically.
Which might be for the best.
Their current plan is to use the FBI to hunt down immigrants, Antifas, and Progressives. People like myself.
Ironically, Mango Mussolini summed up the situation in the US with three words: These things happen.
That’s all the political rhetoric from the so-called Second Amendment people, aka gun nuts, in three words.
Oh, well. This is us. Tots and pears. And a stack of bumper sticker excuses.
Doc Bill @ 15
Bring the aliens!
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D8HSVQJdx/
“… the Gun Violence Archive, which defines incidents where four or more victims have been shot.”
Didn’t it used to be 3 victims? I guess using that criterion would overwhelm the system now.
@12 garydargan: “ …tens of thousands of now illegal weapons surrendered for destruction.“
Meanwhile here in the southern US, police are taking guns from criminals and putting them back on the streets: https://www.wfxg.com/community/jefferson-county-sheriff-s-office-to-auction-off-pew-pews-this-saturday/article_0df74891-b696-4722-bb9c-8bbdfab098d2.html
Note how they gall the guns “pew-pews” in the official press release. You would think with all the whining from law enforcement about how their lives are on the line every day (just like everyone else in this country), they would be more supportive of gun control, but instead they help flood the streets with more guns, while acting as if they are toys.
@10 erik333: “ I wonder if the gunman could shoot the hero and successfully claim self defence in the US.”
That depends on the relative amount of melanin in the skin of the shooters, as well as the bumper stickers on their cars.
@tedw, #17:
In other words, that site is doing things that are flat-out illegal in civilised countries. Just saying.
Doubtful, bluerizlagirl .
Content is