NC county announces curfew as nearly 40,000 customers remain without power after 2 substations damaged by gunfire | CNN

2ºWilliam Colon Actually, the news outlets knew about this last night. They failed to report nationally until people started asking questions. Facts: 2 electric substations were broken into and equipment was extensively damaged from gun fire. Upwards of 40,000 people are currently without power and may not see power restored until Thursday.

The intent is established. Shoot up power stations to shut off power. These were not random acts. They were coordinated by either 1 group shooting both or 2 groups at different locations.

The power grid is part of the nation’s infrastructure. Attacking infrastructure to disrupt service is illegal. It’s also an act of terrorism.

Broaden your news selections to get the facts. That’s what the rest of us do. This is domestic terrorism as it was on our soil. The person(s) responsible may or may not be natural born citizens. That would be a theory, as not based in fact. Yet. However, statistically we will probably see they were born here and groomed here. And the facts will eventually tell us who groomed them.

3ºRyan Maloney 1. Sources vary, but overall stats don't lie. Their number of gun violence incidents haven't risen like ours over time. "In 2011, Harvard's David Hemenway and Mary Vriniotis reviewed the research on Australia's suicide and homicide rate after the NFA. Their conclusion was clear: "The NFA seems to have been incredibly successful in terms of lives saved."

What they found is a decline in both suicide and homicide rates after the NFA. The average firearm suicide rate in Australia in the seven years after the bill declined by 57 percent compared with the seven years prior. The average firearm homicide rate went down by about 42 percent." (https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback)

Here's the bottom line. We've had over 600 mass shootings just this year. How many mass shootings have occured in Australia SINCE 1996? A straight answer is expected.

4ºRyan Maloney You want me to stop using facts? Address the points I've made like I have yours and answer the questions.

You're responding as if I'm calling for all out gun bans, but I'm not. We need to make firearms more difficult to obtain so we can reduce the number of mass shootings. Our nation's youth shouldn't be marginalized as collateral damage just so people can obtain firearms easily.

There are multiple factors that lead to school shootings. Guns are one factor. If you were a 4th grader trapped in a classroom, like the Uvalde victims were, would you rather the intruder have a knife or a gun? You can't deny that guns make mass killings far easier. If that wasn't the case the mass killers would be using other weapons now.

Mental health issues are another problem.

5ºMarie Anderson 1. You should really study the topic and learn more about the US to Mexico gun issue. https://worldview.stratfo...90-percent-myth

2. The Left has passed and/or pushed for legislation to establish and/or strengthen background checks, Red Flag Laws, funding to make mental health services more easily accessible, school counseling funding, increased age limit on the purchase of certain firearms, addressing gun trafficking, modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms, encourage the safe storage of firearms, etc. Let's start with the recently passed Safer Communities Act that the overwhelming majority of Republicans voted against. (It was passed anyway.)The Safer Communities Act included:

a. expanded background checks for individuals under the age of 21 purchasing firearms.

b. $11 billion for mental health services

c. increased funding for school-based mental health programs and investments in pediatric mental healthcare services

d. rules preventing individuals who have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or felony in dating relationships from purchasing firearms for five years.

e. $750 million for state grants to implement crisis intervention order programs, also referred to as red-flag laws, that would allow authorities to confiscate firearms from individuals who have been determined by a court to be a significant danger to themselves or others. The grants could also be used to support mental health courts, drug courts, veterans courts, and extreme risk protection orders.

f. Providing $2 billion for community-based violence prevention initiatives.

3. What has the Right done to address the crisis? The Right certainly isn't standing up to adequately protect children in schools! They refuse to address our gun problem.

They often blame school shootings on mental health issues but then often cut funding for mental health services. They want to "harden schools" but aren't known for funding education, to say the least. They want to post arm guards at schools but there is plenty of evidence showing that armed guards don't necessarily deter school shooters. Parkland and Sante Fe come to mind. Increasing school security isn't a bad idea, but it is insufficient in solving our school shootings crisis.

What we've been trying as a country hasn't worked well because one side likes to water down gun legislation. Perhaps it's because they honestly believe that more guns are the answer based on their feelings or based on small, cherry picked pockets of the U.S. Perhaps they simply don't look at nationwide stats like ones I've provided above. Perhaps some are more concerned with pleasing their campaign finances. (https://www.newsweek.com/...uvalde-1710332)

6ºMarie Anderson 1. When people are arrested with firearms, their guns are confiscated. What is the Right's plan?

2. Gun Free Zones can help, but they're not the greatest idea, as evidence shows.

3. Are you a teacher? I am. Find evidence stating that arming teachers will solve more problems than it will create. Do it. I've tried. Find evidence showing how the Right plans to fund the arming of teachers. Who will pay for the training itself? Who will pay for the substitutes needed to cover classes while this training occurs? If not during a school day, who will pay the teachers for doing this outside of school hours? Who will purchase the guns and ammo? Who will pay for gun maintenance? Who will maintain the guns? The Right will push for this but not fund it, just like they often do with their mental health "solutions."

4. Armed guards aren't a bad idea, but they've been proven to not necessarily deter school shooters. Parkland and Sante Fe come to mind. You can't look at school shooters the same way you look at most other criminals. A bank robber, for example, intends to walk out alive. A school shooter often does not. Again, armed guards aren't a bad idea, but they aren't the great solution. Insufficient.

5. No, the Left doesn't have some crazy conspiracy where they want shootings to occur so they can claim your guns. Where have I mentioned bans? I'm not anti-gun at all. I'm just supporting laws that make them more difficult to access. Here is the multi-faceted plan again.

No single solution will solve our school shooting crisis, so we need to attack the problem from as many angles as we can. We need a multi-faceted plan that addresses mental health issues, easy access to firearms, school safety strategies, political bribery, and social media monitoring.

a. Increasing the purchasing age to 21 for all firearms and ammo. ("Data shows at least 59 percent of the 2,275 school shootings researchers recorded since 1970 were committed by someone under 21 years old." (Hearst Connecticut Group, 2022)
b. Making mental health services easily available
c. Increasing school security
d. Ensuring that teachers have classroom doors completely closed and locked during class (Research shows that no school shooter has completely breached a locked classroom door. They have shot through them, so stay away from doors.)
e. Adding and/or strengthening well-written red flag laws in every state
f. Requiring 'See Something, Say Something' programs in schools
g. Preventing the gun industry (or any others) from donating to any political campaigns
h. Legally require social media companies to monitor for and report threats
i. Hold parents responsible if their child uses their gun illegally

6. You're really going to argue that the Left isn't trying to address our nation's mental health crisis? Who doesn't support healthcare for all? Who often blames mass shootings on mental health issues but then often cuts funding for MH services?

7. As someone who is friends with people who lost loved ones in a school shooting, your commrnt about "more kids ___ the better" is appalling. That is not the plan of the Left. Many Democrats have firearms as well. You think they're all supporting mass gun confiscation? No.

8. Provide some facts to counter mime if you want to have a real conversation. Your "feelings" aren't sufficient to prove your points.

9. Again, what has the Right done to address the mental illness and mass shooting crises we have?

10. Why did only 10-12 Republicans support the Safer Communities Act if it attempts to address our mental health crisis?

11. You never responded to the source about Mexico and guns.

7ºLast night, two electrical substations in Moore County, North Carolina were fired upon with weapons simultaneously and completely disabled, allegedly to cut power to a local theater hosting a drag show.

I say “allegedly” because it hasn’t yet been confirmed by authorities, but it sure would take a hell of a string of coincidences to arrive at any other conclusion.

I’ll get to that in a second, but let’s talk about how folks in this county are being affected by this cowardly act.

As of this afternoon, nearly 45,000 residents of Moore County are without power. There are reports of very heavy traffic as thousands attempt to temporarily relocate to areas outside the county, which has a higher-than-average proportion of retirees.

One resident sent me video of a long traffic jam, with this note: "People trying to leave Moore County. US1 at tramway. Traffic is at a standstill everywhere leaving MoCo."

One resident claimed: "I am in southern pines; one thing I haven’t seen people talk about is the cell service is also down. Verizon especially. Anyone on their network is having trouble making calls/texts/internet etc. AT&T network seems to be working fine. No communication is HUGE."

This is all important to note because of those residents who rely on life-sustaining medical equipment and just had their power go out in a county with a higher-than-average proportion of retirees and elderly residents.

This attack has immediately put lives in danger, and despite efforts by local authorities to set up an emergency shelter at the Moore County Sports Complex and what I imagine is a tireless operation by EMS personnel to provide care, it is not out of the question that we could see deaths that result from this power outage.

At an emergency press conference a few hours ago, a representative from Duke Energy, the local power company, said that during the initial investigation, it was determined there was intentional damage on the substations, and the Sheriff’s Office confirmed firearms had been used to disable them. He said equipment will need to be replaced, "a pretty sophisticated repair with large equipment." Repairs, he said, could take until Thursday.

Moore County schools have announced they will be closed tomorrow, and at the press conference, the Superintendent said those closures could last through Thursday.

Clearly, this is a dangerous and deeply disruptive situation for every resident of Moore County.

Let’s discuss possible motive.

Emily Rainey is a former active duty Army officer who resigned her commission after the Army launched an investigation into her participation in the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S Capitol. Last night, shortly after the power outage began, she posted on Facebook:

"The power is out in Moore County, and I know why."

In a follow-up post, Rainey tagged Sunrise Theater, where the drag show was being held, and wrote “God will not be mocked” above what appears to be a photo of the building last night during the power outage.

Rainey has not been tied by authorities to the attack on the substations, and during the press conference, when asked by a reporter why the Sheriff’s Office had turned up at her home last night, presumably to investigate her claim of knowledge regarding the attack, Sheriff Rob Fields responded: “We had to go interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her. But it turned out to be false.”

When a reporter asked how this had been verified, the Sheriff simply responded with only three words and nothing further:

“Good law enforcement.”

That’s it. There were no follow-up questions from reporters about what she may know. There were no questions about the specific content of her posts. There were no questions about the oddly thrown-in religious remark.

And there were no questions about her leadership of a Facebook group called Moore County Citizens for Freedom, which describes itself as “a non partisan network of Moore County Citizens dedicated to the promotion of conservative values in Moore County, NC through education and activism.”

Two weeks ago, Moore County Citizens for Freedom posted the contact information, including emails and numbers, for local sponsors of the scheduled drag show last night with this simple caption: “You know what to do.”

I want to point out a few things:

The organizers of the drag show specifically stated on event fliers that children would not be permitted at the event and all attendees would be required to show ID to satisfy the 18+ restriction.

I do not point this out to enable the terrible propaganda that drag shows are inherently harmful to children (though there are some shows that are adults-only) but to emphasize that the organizers went out of their way to alleviate any concerns, however unfounded and harmful, expressed by those who irrationally and hatefully oppose drag shows for that claimed reason.

This follows an all-year-long concentrated effort by anti-LGBTQ propagandists to claim drag shows are intended as a tool of indoctrination and evidence that LGBTQ people are inherently pedophiles.

Two weeks ago, there was a mass shooting at a queer bar in Colorado Springs, in which five people were murdered and 25 injured. Despite the suspect’s long history of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and past violence, his lawyers suddenly claimed he’s nonbinary in what many assume is an effort to troll the LGBTQ community (by mocking self-identification) after murdering five queer people.

And yesterday, in Columbus, armed protestors showed up outside of a drag show, forcing organizers to close it down out of concern for everyone’s safety.

I want to be very clear: we are witnessing a coordinated campaign of violence and intimidation against LGBTQ people, and if it is substantiated that anti-LGBTQ assailants attempted to cut power for 45,000 people in order to have a drag show cancelled--and I suspect it will be--that is the definition of terrorism, and we can expect more acts of violence will be perpetrated against LGBTQ people.

This is all quite terrifying, and so, I want to end this on a note of recognition and pride in those who attended last night’s drag show in Moore County.

When the power went out and attendees suspected it was due to sabotage by anti-LGBTQ extremists, instead of leaving the venue out of fear for their safety, they collectively turned on their phone lights to illuminate the stage, so the show could go on.

Naomi Dix, the hostess of the event, gave a moving impromptu speech reminding attendees that they are loved and should feel pride in their community.

I didn’t see video of this until later this afternoon, and like many who viewed it, I couldn’t stop myself from crying.

I wish those who so blatantly express hatred and threats of violence against LGBTQ people in our country could find the comfort in their own skin that we have in ours, the sense of pride in their insular community that we have in our open community, and the expression of love we have toward anyone that they seem to deny to everyone who falls short of their extremist hatred.

I, of course, will only speak for myself when I say this, as one queer person, but I will say it with a full heart because it’s important: I was lovingly made by God, as I believe to be true for every human being, and I am guided by the instruction of Jesus Christ, emphasizing God’s words in Corinthians, repeated every Sunday in the church that I call home: that our greatest commandment is love.

I wish those who are behind these acts of hatred would have the courage to follow Christ’s instruction, too.

----

Original essay posted here: https://charlotteclymer.s...nt-out-in-moore

8ºDelta Charlie Many do, actually. Take the Uvalde shooter, for example. Unless stolen from a gun store, all guns are purchased legally at some point. Reducing the number of guns sold will reduce gun crime.

1. If you look at national stats, the more guns we have the more violence we have. If more guns truly equaled less gun violence overall, we would be in the safest country. We, by far, have the most guns per 100 residents in the world. We have double the amount of guns of the next highest county, Yemen. We also rank second in total gun deaths in the world, behind only Brazil. How many mass shootings have we had so far in 2022? Over 400! Other countries have people with mental illnesses as well, but they don't have hundreds of mass shootings a year, do they? We have a gun problem.

2. The good guys with guns idea is a reactionary plan. We need a proactive plan because, while it's good that there's occasionally someone around to stop a 'bad guy', there often times isn't one present. Also, by the time a 'good guy with a gun' responds, there are often already victims. Why not work on preventing the shooting from happening in the first place?

Use the well-publicized mall shooting from over the summer as an example. While it's good that the psycho was eventually stopped, it's not good to overlook the fact that people were shot there to begin with because our country, as a whole, refuses to address the problem. The "more guns equal less crime" mantra is verifiably false nationwide.

I was on your side of this debate until I spent a few months researching it for myself.

9ºRyan Maloney 1. State by state stats vary, as you'll see if you check out the map and tables on the site below. People like to point to NY as having high crime rates in spite of tougher gun laws, but NY has less crime per x amount of people than TX. Again, it varies by state and many factors. If people can easily cross state lines to obtain a firearm, they'll do so. That doesn't reflect the effectiveness of gun laws in the state they're from. If you tell a child they can't have the cookies in the kitchen but there are cookies readily available in the living room, they can easily visit the living room and obtain cookies there. ??


2. When is the last time someone came into a classroom and took out 19 fourth graders with their hands or fentonyl. Stay on topic. Drugs are another issue that should be addressed.

3. Gun violence is in part a "people problem", but the Right doesn't want to address that crisis either. They often blame mass shootings on mental health issues but then often cut funding for mental health services.

4. I'm still waiting on you to address all my points like I have yours.

10ºthe big fish eats the little fish

Big fish eat little fish, and humans eat big fish.

The laws of nature are the big fish eat the little guy, for that, eat small fish until you do bigger and can eat larger fish.

It's nice we can pretend we're all (friends=

R$us.si$a=U$.S$A)

Sometime we need friends, family members or a psychiatrist.

Economy.

Cooperation.

(So then, each time the big fish eats the little fish, he will increment the score,[...]

He took the block and he put it into the program exactly where the big fish eats the little fish.

So this was a game where the big fish eats the little fish, but he wanted to keep score, so that each time the big fish eats the little fish, the score would go up and it would keep track,[...]

Storms come and go, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling.)

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