Explosions at the Boston Marathon

[Hewson]

Originally Posted by DRay9911

here’s where another member of the chechnyan sleeper cell sneaks into the kid’s hospital room and slips something into his IV before the feds can question him.

Last night after they captured him and loaded him into the ambulance, all the news stations said, "Now he's being taken to Mount Auburn Hospital", I said to the wife "why would they say where they're taking him?" thinking like you that either some chechyan or a local zealot would possibly try to ambush the ambulance or something like it was an episode of 24....a crowd gathered at Mount Auburn Hospital, and apparently Jack Bauer made the decision to have the ambulance drive him to Beth Israel hospital.

[PhilsFan]

Or Jack Ruby, for a real life example.

[Popmartijn]

Good they found the guy.

But here's the thing that's going around in my head for the past couple of days.
Everyone was shocked with the Boston bombings, which killed 3 people. And in many places (including this thread) you see some bloodthirsty comments for revenge, etc. And that's understandable.
But at the same time, there have been 3,500+ people shot dead in the US since the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown. Even 40+ since this past Monday. And for that the outpour is minimal. The US Senate even voted against even the tiniest measures for controlling the number, type and sale of guns. This included measures for a background check, something which according to some polls 90% of the Americans support.

So what's the difference? Why all this emotion for what happened in Boston and not those many gun deaths? What am I missing here?

[PennyLanePHINS]

I'm sure the story has only just begun. I severely doubt they were "lone wolves". The older brother who went to Russia (assuming it was the Chechen Region) for 6 months must have been trained by someone. And that whole issue of a foreign country telling the FBI about him in 2011. I'd bet it was Russia who reported him, they must keep tabs on the Chechens and saw someone was in contact with this guy.

Now it's odd because the Chechen Separatists have concentrated their attacks on Russia, so why start with the US too? Who knows, but terrorists are terrorists and they hate the west, and the US has supported Russia in the conflict. Plus, they've been linked with Al Qaeda.

Just my speculation, but it seems highly unlikely the 26-year-old brother did all this by himself without any outside guidance. I doubt the younger one has much information, but hopefully he has some.

[corianderstem]

Originally Posted by Popmartijn

So what's the difference? Why all this emotion for what happened in Boston and not those many gun deaths? What am I missing here?

Many people here have been asking the same thing.

Paraphrasing what Jon Stewart said the other night ... we only care when foreigners come in and kill Americans. We don't mind so much when we kill each other.

[LuckyNumber7]

Acts of terrorism change the way you live in your daily life. Being afraid of bring in crowds or walking by a trash can or doing every day, normal activities is what is so frightening about this.

I don't mean to say that those people who have been shot dead in an isolated event deserved it or something, but overall it should be no surprise that an act of terrorism is a much bigger deal. Especially when this wasn't just three dead. It was roughly 200 injured, with several amputees and thousands effected during the event and millions effected in the following days.

It's not the same.

[martha]

Originally Posted by Popmartijn

So what's the difference? Why all this emotion for what happened in Boston and not those many gun deaths? What am I missing here?

An American hard-on for guns?

[corianderstem]

Originally Posted by LuckyNumber7

It's not the same.

Logically that makes sense, but it's maddening. We should care as much. We can take extreme measures to try and prevent terrorism, but we can't take common sense measures to try and prevent even one domestic massacre?

[iron yuppie]

Originally Posted by Popmartijn

Good they found the guy.

But here's the thing that's going around in my head for the past couple of days.
Everyone was shocked with the Boston bombings, which killed 3 people. And in many places (including this thread) you see some bloodthirsty comments for revenge, etc. And that's understandable.
But at the same time, there have been 3,500+ people shot dead in the US since the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown. Even 40+ since this past Monday. And for that the outpour is minimal. The US Senate even voted against even the tiniest measures for controlling the number, type and sale of guns. This included measures for a background check, something which according to some polls 90% of the Americans support.

So what's the difference? Why all this emotion for what happened in Boston and not those many gun deaths? What am I missing here?

It becomes even more disturbing when you extrapolate the violence to the whole world. How many innocent Syrians have died over the course of the last year? Yet that is barely a footnote in most US news coverage.

[mama cass]

Originally Posted by LuckyNumber7

Acts of terrorism change the way you live in your daily life. Being afraid of bring in crowds or walking by a trash can or doing every day, normal activities is what is so frightening about this.

I don't mean to say that those people who have been shot dead in an isolated event deserved it or something, but overall it should be no surprise that an act of terrorism is a much bigger deal. Especially when this wasn't just three dead. It was roughly 200 injured, with several amputees and thousands effected during the event and millions effected in the following days.

It's not the same.

what about kids going to school?? or going to the cinema??

[Jive Turkey]

Originally Posted by anitram

So i understand why you'd want him to commit "hari kari"

Pretty sure this refers specifically to disemboweling yourself with a sword

[Hewson]

Originally Posted by PennyLanePHINS

Just my speculation, but it seems highly unlikely the 26-year-old brother did all this by himself without any outside guidance. I doubt the younger one has much information, but hopefully he has some.

I'm sure they weren't acting 100% alone. They at the very least needed help obtaining weapons and explosives, how much help and what part of a larger conspiracy who knows, could be small scale, could be something far bigger. Hopefully its on the smaller scale.

But I'm not convinced it was the older brother who was the ring leader in the family. As stated earlier, the younger brother sounds to me to be the one actually leading the 2 of them...much smarter, willing to sacrifice his older brother to attempt to enable his own escape. His brother's death allows him to claim he was just a pawn with nobody to refute the fact, and the report that he ran his brother over while fleeing only adds fuel to the theory.

[Hewson]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

Pretty sure this refers specifically to disemboweling yourself with a sword

While announcing a Chicago Cubs game.

[IWasBored]

Originally Posted by martha

You know what they really are, right?

They're Caucasians.

I laughed at this. But it's from yesterday, and 20+ pages ago, since this is the Internet that's super old news now. It might not be amusing anymore and I never got the updated twitter feed.

[BoMac]

There will be universal background checks for pressure cookers after this week's events before any meaningful gun laws in the U.S.

[BoMac]

Originally Posted by LuckyNumber7

I don't mean to say that those people who have been shot dead in an isolated event deserved it or something, but overall it should be no surprise that an act of terrorism is a much bigger deal.

Since 9/11, there has been one - one - terrorist act on U.S. soil, while there were seven mass shootings in 2012 alone. That's not even mentioning the hundreds of thousands of gun deaths since 2001.

So acts of terrorism are really the "isolated" events, while gun violence is an unfortunate and sad daily reality that Americans everywhere have to live with.

[anitram]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

Pretty sure this refers specifically to disemboweling yourself with a sword

Not sure how I got quoted there...

[LuckyNumber7]

Originally Posted by corianderstem

Logically that makes sense, but it's maddening. We should care as much. We can take extreme measures to try and prevent terrorism, but we can't take common sense measures to try and prevent even one domestic massacre?

Originally Posted by mama cass

what about kids going to school?? or going to the cinema??

Well those mass shootings are in fact terrorist attacks in my book. I was talking about the individuals who get shot in a robbery or whatnot. I wasn't quite sure what the point was being made earlier... I am just saying that these guys were still alive after it happened and it's one of the few times where I think the hysteria surrounding the situation wasn't significantly far off of the reality of the situation.

The OP that I was responding to was popmartijn's. 40+ people being shot dead in isolated events really isn't the same thing. That's what I meant by saying 'it's not the same.'

So yeah, I view a domestic massacre and an act of terrorism as one in the same. But single killings I do not.

[LuckyNumber7]

Originally Posted by BoMac

Since 9/11, there has been one - one - terrorist act on U.S. soil, while there were seven mass shootings in 2012 alone. That's not even mentioning the hundreds of thousands of gun deaths since 2001.

So acts of terrorism are really the "isolated" events, while gun violence is an unfortunate and sad daily reality that Americans everywhere have to live with.

Again, I think you guys misunderstood me a bit.

I'm including mass shootings in the whole bunch. Newtown, Fort Hood, etc.

To me, terrorism is something that is intended or achieves making you fear living a normal life. I think mass shootings are certainly included. You know... parents now fear sending their kids to school. People now fear the Boston Marathon. etc. etc.

[martha]

Originally Posted by IWasBored

I laughed at this.

Thank you. I'm not sure everyone got it, but I figured if you read it, you'd be one of the few.

Originally Posted by BoMac

There will be universal background checks for pressure cookers after this week's events before any meaningful gun laws in the U.S.

And certainly no pressure cookers on airplanes.