Close to home

[sabotabby]

There was a mass shooting at 10 pm basically outside my old house and in walking distance from my current neighbourhood. Early reports say nine injured, including a child, and the gunman is dead. Early reports, as we all know, aren't the most trustworthy things.

I wasn't anywhere near there tonight but I'm a bit more rattled by this one than I usually am.

Comments

[umadoshi]

Holy crap. ;_;

[sabotabby]

I heard Brass Taps. Which is one of the places I hung out at all the time when I lived there, and is always full of families.

[xturtle]

<3 thank you for posting. I just read about this and was worried. How terrible.

[sabotabby]

It's awful. I woke up this morning to hear that two of the victims died.

[joymoose]

:( :( :(

How very awful.

[sabotabby]

This one is harder than most.

[dewline]

The rattled-ness is understandable. Glad you're able to discuss it at all.

[sabotabby]

Me too. Fuck.

[minimalistpolygeek]

I'm glad you're okay. TBH, I'm still a little rattled by the last major event - but I didn't live anywhere close to the event. *hugs*

[sabotabby]

I go through a weird metric in my mind—yes, this was my old neighbourhood and geographically close to me, but I'm more likely to have been in North York on that particular day at that time of the year...

Fortunately I'm anxious about everything all the time, so mass murder doesn't tend to increase my baseline anxiety that much.

*hugs back*

[minimalistpolygeek]

Is it bad that I feel better that it seems to be somebody mentally ill rather than the incel movement? Of course, given the last name Hussain, I'm worried about the fallout for their community - especially if the family hasn't been here long.

[sabotabby]

I'm worried more. The incel movement is almost exclusively composed of the dominant group in our culture. No one will ever take collective retribution among young, heterosexual, cisgendered white men. The danger to mentally ill people and Muslim people is much worse.

A certain amount of random, horrific violence is par for the course in any modern city, but with a white male attacker, the vibe quickly shifts to mourning and healing, whereas with a brown guy, it's violent retribution that raises the body count.

[minoanmiss]

That makes total sense. I'm so sorry.
*hugs you gently*

[sabotabby]

*hugs back*

[franklanguage]

Speaking as one who lives down south—from you—I'm a little shell-shocked by all the mass shootings in North America. And yes, when it hits that close to home, it's doubly disturbing.

[sabotabby]

There's been a lot of gun violence here this year. I am pretty sure that this isn't related to that, though.

There's a certain level of risk with living in a big city. And my city has always been unsafe for many people. I try to keep that in perspective.

[moon_custafer]

I saw this post last night, but didn’t realize until I saw the news today that it appears to have been a deliberate mass-murder thing, rather than a “shooting at some individual I hate but my aim is sloppy” thing, which until recently, seemed to be the more common type of shooting in this city. The former is a great deal scarier to my mind, somehow; I suppose one person with good aim but a wide-ranging grudge seems worse than incompetent malice plus splash effect.

[sabotabby]

The thing with gang violence (at least in Canada) is that we have gangsta rap and action movies ensuring that, while substantial tragedy does ensue as a result, the scale of carnage is minimized as everyone holds their guns sideways. This means they tend to shoot people's legs or feet, or miss altogether. Whereas white-dude-with-a-grudge killings involve someone who's probably spent a long time considering how to most effectively murder the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time.

I just read that 95% of Canadian guns and 70% of Mexican guns come via the States, so really it's a matter of Americans getting their shit together, not us. Ha. Ha. Ha.

[moon_custafer]

I admit I’ve been wondering if this was another incel attack – so far the two people reported dead are a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman – no word on the demographics of the injured, but one of the witnesses mentioned the shooter shouting “get down” and aiming at his *feet,* and two people with leg injuries were sheltered and treated by a tattoo artist in her shop; it almost sounds as though the shooter was specifically trying to wound some people worse than others.

At any rate, We Hunted the Mammoth reports that the incel chatrooms are certainly celebrating the murders.

[sabotabby]

One of the witnesses said that he seemed to be targeting women and that the men shot were because he was firing wildly. And that the woman who died was "executed."

I'm guessing incel. Which is its own type of awful, but on the plus side, will minimize violent retaliation against racialized communities.

[lapinlunaire]

This is disgusting, holy shit.

When things like this happen, I can't help but imagine what if it was me in this situation? What if it was a family member of a friend? Which is why I'll never understand why there are men who don't think incels and misogyny in general are as bad as they truly are. They may not be able to imagine being targeted for their gender, but surely they have women and girls in their lives who they don't want to see harmed??

[moon_custafer]

Unfortunately, the Star is claiming he’s been ID’d and giving the last name Hussein, so the bigots are going to seize the excuse.

[welcomingsong]

Yeah, this is unnerving. I've confirmed my brother, sister-in-law and nephew are okay. Now waiting on word from cousins and friends.

Thanks for checking in.

[sabotabby]

I hope everyone's okay. Thanks for checking in as well.

[welcomingsong]

And my cousins are now accounted for! Hooray!

[sabotabby]

Phew!

[mistersmearcase]

Agh, yeah, I don't know what to say. The world is so very awful right now.

[sabotabby]

I think it's always been awful but we're on a 24-hour news cycle.

[lapinlunaire]

Fuck. That's horrifying. I can see why you'd be rattled even though you weren't there. *hugs* I have no idea what to say, to be honest, other than the usual "what the fuck is wrong with people, what the fuck is wrong with this world?" puzzling because seriously, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

[sabotabby]

Everything is wrong.

[smhwpf]

Shit, that is awful. *hugs* Yeah, way too close to home.

I see that the shooter's name was Faisal Hussein, which is potentially disturbing in terms of impact on communities of color. But no word on motive so far. But whichever way, it's awful.

[sabotabby]

His family released a statement saying that he had suffered severe mental health problems for years. Not that this will stop the frothing-at-the-mouth racists.

[contrarywise]

Yowsa, I'm glad you weren't there, but sorry it happened anywhere close to you. And that it happened anywhere at all. *hugs if you want 'em from a relative stranger*

[sabotabby]

Thanks. *hugs back*

[symbioid]

Christ - I saw you mention this, I'm glad you're safe. I haven't followed anything - they have motives? I'm guessing racism or misogyny. :\

[sabotabby]

Interestingly, despite the fact that he has a Muslim background (therefore terrorist), they seem to be going with a white person motive (mentally ill). Not that this has stopped the frothing racists from jumping to all sorts of conclusions.

Looks like he was primarily targeting women. The motive is misogyny. It's nearly always misogyny.

[evilpettingz00]

Ugh, that's awful. :(

[sabotabby]

Yeah. It gets worse daily, with every news report.

[ironed_orchid]

Fuuuuuck.

It's somehow more real when it's a place you (used to) walk by every day.

[sabotabby]

And still am frequently, in fairness to my family who irrationally seemed to think I was dead. Like I'm going to the Danforth Music Hall tomorrow for a show.