Since 2018, more American children have been murdered in school shootings than American service members have been KIA. #MemorialDay
This includes 2020 when kids weren’t even in school.
Every year, more than twice as many Americans die by gun violence than American service members died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Again: That’s every year in America versus two wars that last a total of 30 years.
And no, that statistic doesn’t include gun-related suicide.
When you include gun-related suicide, more American civilians die at the end of a gun barrel every 18 months than the 58K that were killed in Vietnam.
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When I was 19, I bought into all the patriotic bullshit. An AF recruiter showed me a 5-minute video of dudes blowing shit up and jumping outta helicopters, and I was sold. For the next 6 years, I carried and fired every type of firearm known to man. I became proficient in them.
And the truth is, I quickly learned to hate them too. I was terrified of the responsibility that comes with them. But I carried them, because it was my job.
Remember when the Vegas shooting happened? 600 people shot and it’s a complete afterthought because this happens so often. But when I happened I was watching it unfold live on the couch. And I knew exactly what the shooter was using. I called it.
Things are so desperate in Ukraine that they’re asking foreigners with military experience to join them.
If this was 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated. When I was discharged from the military, I was lost. I had zero skills other than shooting things. So I went and looked up all the countries that allowed foreigners to fight for them. I narrowed it down to France and Australia.
I guess that would’ve made me a mercenary. But I couldn’t fake my way through the physicals and basic training with ruptured discs and a bum knee anyway.
So I’ve been doing some research about the murderous dictator, Francisco Franco, for a project. He often gets overlooked in history books because of other psychopaths like Hitler and Mussolini. That said, the similarities between Francoist Spain and the GOP is eerily similar. /TW
Some background: Like America, in the 1930s, Spain’s Republican Party was the party of the left. They were liberals. They reduced the size of the military, they took religion out of schools, land was taken away from the ultra rich conservatives, etc.
Francisco Franco was a lifelong soldier and worked his way to the top of the chain of command over several decades. He was also a far right nationalist and with half the military behind him he oversaw in insurrection that would turn into the Spanish Civil War.