And just this month in Michigan, a legal carrier decided that a fleeing shoplifter was worth pulling out her firearm in a busy parking lot. She failed to shoot out the tires as she had intended, so thank whatever deity you believe in that there wasn’t any collateral damage. This “everyone is a hero if only they’re armed” mentality is DANGEROUS.
I’ve seen that, but the one where wheelchair guy stops a robbery is even cooler. That’s the toughest mofo in his town. I’d hate to run into him in a dark alley. With his upper body strength, he could probably run me down and pummel me to death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rFEx-mkXn8
I’m impressed by that man’s courage, and glad he didn’t get stabbed in the process of the grab. If that robber had a gun instead of a knife it could’ve gone much worse. 🙁
There was a robbery at the 7/11 in a small BC town just before we moved there. Only hold-up the place has ever had.
They cooperated and gave him what he wanted and as soon as he left the first call was to his mum.
Pro tip: If you’re gonna rob a convenience store, maybe don’t do it in the small town of 2000 people you grew up in, where everyone knows everyone else, and they know you. 😀
Appalachian School of Law shooting. Gunman taken down by armed students in 2002.
Also the mall shooting either last year or so where the shooter didn’t fire, but the threat of an armed civilian was enough to make the shooter go hide and kill himself.
There are plenty of other cases where armed civilians stop shootings before they become “mass”. Unfortunately, because they’re not “mass”, anti-gunners use this as an excuse to dismiss legitimate cases of self-defense shootings.
RE: mall shooting – I mean, where the armed civilian didn’t fire. The shooter had opened fire, but the armed civilian was enough for the guy to give up and kill himself.
Fun fact: Scotland has a significantly higher per capita rate of death by mass shooting than the US. Second fun fact: In the last 20 years, Scotland has had only one mass shooting (1997, 17 dead). The USA is so goddamned huge that we have a lot of everything.
(Also, since pre-1800, we’ve had elevated levels of murder relative to the rest of the Anglosphere. No one knows why, but it can’t be a matter of policy, because no policy has stayed constant over that period.)
My I’ve often wondered if it’s related to a rapid increase in population density. We went from “I have all kinds of space and don’t have to deal with anyone I don’t want to,” to “I’m less than 100 yards from other people all the time but still want to act like I don’t have to deal with them.”
I could be wrong.
A quick google of shooting spree rates didn’t show Scotland at all. I instead saw Norway, Finland and Switzerland, as those are all low population countries with isolated incidents in the period(s) being examined.
To make a fairer comparison, you would need to examine a period large enough for a statistically meaningful number of incidents in each country (which makes trends hard to spot), or examine only countries (or collections of countries) with a statistically meaningful number of incidents in the period.
Yeah, that fact about Scotland doesn’t seem true at all. I’ve tried to look but I can only find facts about either England or the UK as a whole, so I’m going to have to do a “citiation needed” here.
Also, I question your argument based on those statistics. You are saying that Scotland has a higher number of people killed in a mass shooting than the US per capita, even though they’ve only had one shooting in the past 19 years (Dunblane was 1996, not 1997). As a single example makes for poor statistical analysis, the fact that Scotland has only had one compared to the US’s many would seem to agree with the overall statement that you have a much higher chance of being killed in a shooting spree in the US than in Scotland.
I live in Scotland. You know what we did after that mass shooting (1996, by the way)? We heavily increased regulation on firearms, especially handguns. No more mass shootings!
Alright, I agree with you on the gun control topic, but was it really necessary with the intense amount of ableism you displayed in your comment? Asylums were and are inherently abusive places where disabled people like me are often forced to stay against their will and have no autonomy or way out. Using something that serious as an insult is incredibly offensive. Please stop trying to insult people by comparing them to disabled people.
As a disabled person, please don’t speak for me. It’s insulting to assert that all people who fit into a certain category think and feel and judge things exactly the same. Thanks.
As a person on the interweb, he is entitled to say whatever the bloody hell he wants to, I can overuse “bloody” and people can be offensive, And theres nothing you can do to stop them, unless you have something meaningful to add to the nonsense, dont try to throw yourself a pity party, and invite everyone else.
The term itself is outdated. If the comment had been about psychiatric hospitals, I can kinda how you’d get upset, but “asylum” usually refers to a historical “insane asylum” of the type you’d find the Joker and Two-Face in, and is pretty far removed from anything that you’d find today that it makes to pretty obvious the original comment is just engaging in (humorous) hyperbole.
I thought it was pretty well established that armed civilians do NOT successfully intervene in the great majority of cases. I don’t have the stats to hand, but of course they came out again in the last couple of weeks.
And that’s not considering the number of accidents or non-public individual homicides, or the fact that lower availability of guns is directly and reliably correlated with lower gun death stats.
Just because it works in some cases, doesn’t make it any less crazy or reduce the inherent risks of escalating the situation badly.
There is no reason to NOT be anti-gun, none, if the only good a gun can do is stop others with guns, cause without guns there’d be no other people with guns to stop in the first place. You don’t need a gun to do hunting, we didn’t need guns to hunt before.
I hate to be a devil’s advocate, but if you live in a place with polar bears you’re gonna want a gun. I realise that isn’t America, but there are almost always counterexamples, even if they’re tiny.
Yeah, I’m from Norway, so I know that on Svalbard you are not even allowed to venture outside of the town borders without a gun, but people lived before guns became usefull against polar bears too, so…
European countries and the US are so far apart culturally and politically on this issue, there no useful comparisons.
Watch Bowling for Columbine. At core, the US problem is down to racism. White people fear coloureds and to “protect” themselves, they arm themselves.
This is in particular after the Civil Rights movements of the 60s came into being. Suddenly, Jim Crow laws were thrown out, the Services were integrated, and the riots and Johnson’s Great Society came into being.
It’s during the 70s that the NRA started ramping up, the GOP began it’s Southern Strategy and the Religious right rose to power culminating in the current GOP bifurcated amongst moderates and Tea Party idiots, all them who seem to advocate less gun control.
Since then every time guns cause damage in the US, the answer is yet more fucking guns, yet more lax gun laws, and nobody checking up that gun-laws are being enforced. (Congress has legislated that the CDC should not keep track of gun related deaths.) The next step – the banning of all gun-free zones as being unconstitutional – is only a short hop and step away. Dur, because emotionally unstable 18-25 year olds (who can’t afford insurance for motor-cycles in Europe because of the high death rates) will have access to all kinds of guns. Brilliant.
No European – or advanced country – has had such a spectacular social history over the same period. There are no useful comparisons.
(I wanted to reply to Willoughby Chase but it wouldn’t let me.)
I agree with you on gun control, but Bowling for Columbine REALLY isn’t a good documentary. It’s incredibly biased and, as a filmmaker, I great disapprove of the techniques he uses to make his points. For one thing, he’ll never convince people who disagree with him. For another thing, the techniques are dishonest and immature. It’s not a good documentary.
Polar bears is extreme. If I have livestock, I’m going to want a hunting rifle to chase the coyotes away from my horses and foxes away from my chickens.
Hunting rifles are INCREDIBLY useful and insanely more practical for hunting. They’re also a lot more humane, and led to more humane warfare. Guns are extremely practical and useful, and thank god we’ve got them. It just doesn’t mean every god damned person needs them, and they sure as hell don’t need to have them on their person at all times.
Guns are more accurate, less painful, and much more instant. And as far as warfare is concerned, the advancement of weapons tech has actually led to much less brutal wars with far fewer civilian casualties. You don’t even wanna know what kind of nightmare world we’d be in if we still fought with spears, swords, bows, and fire. Oh, so very much fire…
I’m all for gun control but I can not morally support the idea going back to the bow and arrow standard for both humanitarian and animal cruelty reasons.
Based on what, exactly ? There is no way being shot with an arrow is LESS humane than being shot with a bullet.
A skilled hunter will fell his prey with one arrow, and the prey will not suffer. There’s less chance of an bow accidentally going off than a gun, and arrows are also more socially equalising than guns and ammo, which costs money. A gunshot wound is much harder to treat than an arrow to the knee.
Tell you what. I’ll get a guy whose never shot a gun, and you get a guy whose never shot a bow, and we’ll put them up against a target at 100 yards. You tell me who is more likely to hit.
You’re right that a skilled hunter can take an animal down with one arrow, but the key word there is “skill.” If they don’t kill the animal in that one shot it’s not going to stick around for more of them. So now you’ve essentially sentenced the animal to death by blood loss or infection if you don’t find it.
I’m in favor of gun control, but let’s not pretend that guns are evil and bows, swords, etc. are noble.
Ummm sorry to bear bad news, but barring disintegrating or splashing ammo, both illegal as far as I know…bullet wounds are no worse than the potential trauma caused by an arrowhead..
That’s ridiculous. Guns make it EASIER to kill people. Guns were designed to kill people. Guns make it impersonal and make it much easier to kill a lot of people faster.
And arguing what’s the more humane way to kill people with violence seems besides the point to me.
the only reason the crazed people intending to cause harm to others are using guns rather than say explosives or chemical/biological weapons is the ease with which guns can be acquired.
that should end because as we all know guns are far more deadly, I mean it takes time to pull out and aim a bomb, a bomb can only kill one or a handful of people at a time whereas a gun targets everyone with in it’s range. there’s always the possibility that a bomb will miss unlike a gun. the wound a bomb creates might be survivable depending upon where a person is hit. you can run or hide from a crazed bomber and possibly survive or some brave soul can risk their lives to stop the bomber whereas with a gun anyone within range of the gun when the shooter decides to use their weapon is dead and those outside of the kill range might be seriously maimed or injured.
the right person armed with a bomb can potentially stop the crazed bomber ether by killing them with the bomb or by convincing them to put down the bomb while a gun will kill the person using it as well unless they are out of it’s range when used.
Umm…. I’m not sure what point you are trying to make, but:
A bomb takes infinitely more time to prepare and use than any gun out there, even the medieval ones, a bomb is more difficult to procure, to conceal. The time spent putting the bomb together is time the maniac has to reconsider the plans, while a gun enables the maniac to have the crazy thought and end a life in just a few seconds!
Bombs made by amateurs tend to either not work properly, or explode during assembly, in the latter there are some risks of colleratal damage, but less chance than with a gun.
Explosives actually DO have an important function, and are used daily for peaceful purposes, for demolition, for putting out fires, for mining, etc., while the only peaceful purpose a gun can be put to is basically perfecting the aim.
(And no, I’m not discounting bad guys stopped by a gun, it’s still not “peaceful” to stop anyone, “good” and “peaceful” are two different words)
“Crazed people”? What is WITH all of the commenters on this comic hating disabled and neurodivergent people so much?
I’ll say it again and again: disabled and neurodivergent people ARE NOT INHERENTLY VIOLENT. In fact, non-disabled and neurotypical people are FAR, FAR more likely to commit acts of violence and atrocities and we disabled and/or neurodivergent folks are more likely to be on the receiving end of it.
No, but violent people often TURN crazy, thereby becoming “crazed”. It’s not being crazy makes you violent, but that violence like this is in itself crazy.
Or we could reinstate assault rifle ban,
put tight controls on all Clip ammunition; and full background checks that weed out terrorisst , felons ad the insane.
It shouldnt be harder vote , drive and but cold medicine than buy a semiautomatic military assault weapon and ammo.
There will still be shootings , but It will harder to make it mass slaughter in seconds.
I do have qualms on the argument “don’t give crazies guns!” (which I know is not quite what you said, but it reminded me.) Because if you mean people with an established violent behavior in their past, sure, but if you just mean “he had a mental illness, no guns for you” then all you are REALLY saying is “if you want a gun, don’t get help!” Also, most people with disorders – even those that correlate more with violence – aren’t personally dangerous, so it’s kinda equivalent to the idea you shouldn’t give poor people guns because they commit more hold-up-style robberies.
Also, I’m pretty sure 90% of us would be diagnosable with something if we went to therapy. We just get by without it. So maybe that’s our backdoor gun control!
“Only people who have never been found to have a psychological disorder with no felony record can have guns. Mandatory mental health visits for all citizens result in massive diagnoses. Make it a felony not to participate fully in the process!”
Boom, we’re all diagnosed with SOMETHING at some time in our life, OR we all have felonies, and guns are gone!
No, to many people (possible even most people, tbh) rifle is not a scary word. Calling weapons “assault rifles” helps to turn them into a bogeyman that we can all fret over.
“Assault rifle” is pretty well-defined as a rifle capable of fully automatic fire built for combat. “Assault weapon” is the “vague” and “scary” term. As far as I know, it comes from the Ban, and if you go with that definition, most mass shootings don’t involve them.
I don’t think so, why should “assault” make a word that allready signifies death and destruction more scary ? You can assault someone without a weapon, which to me at least is a lot less scarier than being assaulted WITH a weapon, the weapon is the scary part.
Oh my fucking god “THE INSANE”??? Why do all of you hate mentally ill people so much? Most murders are neurotypical and non-disabled. I’m so disgusted by how many fans of this comic hate people like me.
I can’t speak for Adam Black, but to me “insane” and “mentally ill” are not remotely synonymous. “Insane” would refer to a very small minority who are completely irrational and unpredictable.
If I understand your 2nd paragraph correctly (voting, driving, buying cold medicine is harder)- I vote, drive, purchase pseudoephedrine, and purchase firearms.
Buying firearm is by far the most time consuming, costly (not including the sales price), and regulated of your list. And driving and buying cold medicine is NOT specifically allowed by the Constitution of the United States of America.
> Assault rifles ARE banned. Assault rifle means fully automatic. Anti-gun people decided to call AR-15 style semi-automatic magazine-fed rifles “assault weapons” so that they would sound worse and people like you would confuse them with military weapons.
“put tight controls on all Clip ammunition”
> WTF is “clip ammunition?” You mean magazines? Magazine sizes?
“full background checks that weed out terrorisst , felons ad the insane.”
> There are background checks for purchasing new guns, but not for private. Personally, I’m not inherently opposed to requiring private sales to be handled through a FFL-licensed third party (like a gun shop) so that background checks can be done for those, too.
“It shouldnt be harder vote , drive and but cold medicine than buy a semiautomatic military assault weapon and ammo.”
> It isn’t. Also, they aren’t military weapons. The M-4 and M-16 are fully automatic, AR-15 rifles are not. You clearly know nothing about the topic.
“There will still be shootings , but It will harder to make it mass slaughter in seconds.”
> You mean with smaller magazines? False. Changing a magazine takes very little time.
Part of the problem is that shootings stopped by civilians tend to get stopped right at the beginning, so they don’t make it to ‘mass killing’ stage, or to the news.
There’s a mass shooting roughly every other week in the U.S. source Assuming that all the ones in your link are accurate, that’s around a 5% stoppage rate.
There, have an article discussing the results of yet another study proving that guns don’t make us safer or help in preventing mass shootings.
P.S., 22 incidents is an embarrassingly small percentage of mass shootings, but IIRC even those anemic numbers usually feature some retired cops — i.e., less “civilian” than they appear on the surface.
And I call myself the Lord of the Potatoes but am neither a spud, nor a lord of any fashion. Look at the policies and pick out the socialist ones. Then tell me if Hitler was a socialist.
National Socialist Party. Socialism and National Socialism has virtually nothing in common except the name. In fact, the only people Hitler hated more than socialists were the jews.
Israel doesn’t have a mass shooting problem in the first place, because it doesn’t have the US’s insane “every violent teenage boy has an inherent right to kill people” gun mentality.
Also, Israel has mandatory armed service, so every ‘joe schmoe’ has in fact had serious, responsible weapons training.
No, Israel doesn’t have the same problem because Israel has a much smaller population. What is often ignored is that the united states is the third most populous country in the World. It may have the highest total number of mass shootings in the western industrialized world, but it doesn’t have the highest rate of mass shootings relative to population.
(this in no way is meant to suggest that gun violence isn’t a problem. It very much is, but it isn’t an exclusively american problem, or a simple problem that can be solved with a simple solution).
It’s annoyingly difficult to provide a decent answer. I can show you an article that gives the top spot to Honduras. I can show you another that gives it to NORWAY. And there’s those countries that are “functional” but can’t provide usable data.
What the article says, depressingly, seems to depend heavily on what the article writer wants it to say, with the details massaged by carefully defining aspects of the data such as what constitutes a mass shooting or a functioning nation, or a western nation, to get the desired result.
My suspicion is that a lot of those may win by being small countries with a single bad shooting. Norway certainly does.
Averaged over a longer period, it likely wouldn’t.
Definitely in the case of the list that had Norway. The bias was unmistakable even if you didn’t know it was a conservative site that posted it. It’s all about picking the stats you want to tell the story you want.
The whole thing from top to bottom is a mess. I think the only clear thing we can take from it is wherever the US appears on the list, it’s not good enough.
As someone living in Norway, I can say that there’s no shortage of reports of violence in the country, but most of them involve domestic abuse and when death is involved, the murder weapon is usually a knife. If any website tries to paint our country as some utopia free of violence because of our gun control, that’s rubbish, but it is true that gun violence is extremely rare here.
“Israel doesn’t have a mass shooting problem in the first place”
Erm… I think the Palestinians would disagree, and the Israelis would say “Yes, but we do have a mass exploding-people-to-pieces problem, and mass rock throwing problem”
The last time a college shooting was stopped by armed civilians was 1966 at the University of Texas, and the civilians didn’t hit the shooter but kept him pinned down so LEO could shoot him from inside the building he was using as a sniper nest.
I was reading about this case a few days ago. Although there are a handful of outliers before this date it is considered the first in the trend of US school shootings.
In Whitman’s impromptu will he asks that if his life insurance policy is valid it should be used to pay his debts, and to “donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.”
except it wont happen because law abiding citizens aren’t allowed to carry guns on most school premises. so that only leaves assholes like toes dad and guys like the sandy hook killers.
No, because non-law abiding citizens arren’t allowed to carry either!
Of course, it won’t be able to stop them fully until we’ve actually DESTROYED all the guns, and why not ? We have no need for guns for ANYTHING, they’re completely useless and too risky to keep around for just a hobby.
A gunless world is a meaningless dream. You can destroy whatever guns you want, you cannot destroy the knowledge of how to make them, or the ability to conceal the ones that are made.
if anything Fahrenheit451 proved this to be false mindlink.
You can try to remove something and people who want it
will still find ways to get it. just as r_r has said
the knowledge wont be lost unless you are advocating lining
up people who know how to create guns of any type and kill
them along with their families and anyone associated with them
so as not to let the knowledge spread.
that last paragraph was just an extreme thing, i know you aren’t
advocating that.
but yeah knowledge will always come back at some point. you go to burn the details form a book on building and someone will begin to hide those books to be found later on by other generations.
“You can try to remove something and people who want it
will still find ways to get it.”
Yeah, but isn’t the main reason people want guns in the first place, that they want to defend themselves against OTHER people with guns ? Therefore, by removing guns from the world, from culture, from knowledge (and yes, it’s hard to think of a “purge” of this scale that wouldn’t be just as horrendus as the mass shootings, I’m talking theoretically here) would there still be anyone left that WANTED to bring the secret of guns back?
“but yeah knowledge will always come back at some point. ”
That is true, still there would at least be a period of peace without any gun violence…
fact of the matter is that no matter what you do some one is gonna have a gun hell i have a few from WW2 because i collect them as antiques. a gun is a weapon and a tool just like a sword or bow and no matter what you do they will always exist and some one will always know how to use them. also look at it this way swords are completely obsolete and yet i own a few and am actually capable at using them.
You are assuming that all people are scrupulous. The problem is that there are violent people who do not care if they harm or injure others to get what they want (and some WANT to harm and injure others). I will agree that the most rational reason to own a gun is to have a way to fight back against other people with guns, but if the only reason we owned guns was to defend against guns, there would be no gun violence.
Reduce the number and kinds of guns available, and even the bad guys can’t get them.
Enforce the medical checks that most states seem to require and you stop guns falling into the hands of people who patently should not be carrying them. People like the VTEC killer.
I don’t see the bad guys in Europe – unless they’re terrorists and they source them from abroad – carrying assault weapons as a matter of course.
Some misguided Englishman tried to assemble a gun from parts sourced on the internet. He was arrested.
The thing is, I suspect – I know – people in the US send gun parts and ammo via post. I don’t see them arrested.
It’s about reducing the chances of bad guys getting hold of weapons. It’s not about prying the damn things from your cold dead hands.
so, here’s the thing. Even in “enlightened” countries, it’s not that hard to get your hands on a gun if you really really one one. Pretty damned easy, actually. Interesting thing though country with the absolutely lowest gun crime rate is a little country called Switzerland – a country where military service is mandatory and nearly every single person has a military rifle because of it.
SO why is this? It’s surprisingly simple. Switzerland -enforces- their gun laws and the US does a shit job about enforcement. All the bans and regulations won’t work if you don’t back it up with proper enforcement, but the cops in the us are so much more worried about a dime bag of weed than they are a legit threat like an illegally carried firearm. if the laws already on the books were actually -enforced- the problem would be a great deal better, as seen here: http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/the-swiss-difference-a-gun-culture-that-works/
Aside from being misleading this is a complete lie. Switzerland does not have the lowest gun crime rate in the world, not even close. It has an above average rate of firearms murder per capita that is above average in Europe.
It’s not about mental illness. It’s about emotional stability and control. Studies show that the most common factor in violence is anger (even in the cases where the person has mental illness). In the US, our culture of masculinity has severely limited the number of “acceptable” emotions a male individual can feel/express. Anger is basically the most “masculine” and thus most acceptable. Partially because of this, we are very bad about controlling anger (and our politicians and news media loves to leverage anger to their benefit). When you have a culture of people who have easy access to gun, are encouraged to feel angry, and then those people have a target to be angry at, you will get gun violence.
There was a study done that checked instances of gun violence, and found that most of the perpetrators often had records of domestic violence, assault, restraining orders, etc. Interestingly enough, these are things that would show up… on a background check. So, perhaps instead of demonizing mental illness (and opening another avenue to violate the privacy of individuals’ medical records), perhaps we should try to keep guns out of people who have violent tendencies?
I wrote that first bit yesterday just after I read this strip, and still whenever I think of it, I get . . . like, [i]echoes.[/i] Let’s just say it’s a good thing I had no pressing obligations today, and leave it at that.
I just read the news about Totalbiscuit having terminal cancer. After a few minutes of emptiness I try to go back to my normal routine, notice it’s midnight, check DoA.
Now, the wrong tree up,
Inqn’s towards a bruisin,
feeling of your choosin
I’d deal you but your losing
Nah, you are barking… mad.
but not thinking,
That isnt what that word … means
Sad Is how you sound; I’d Glean,
youve been drinking;
we’ll not see you round, Lad
One is a dam, the other A Drum,
youve beat on, too many times,
till word-of-God’s patience is now numb,
Dammit Willis gave you three tries,
With that Misogyny, you dont get free fries
If my rhyme makes you “horny”
dont you fret -tit,
Dont be a sad wanker all forlorn-y
im not a cocktease, ill still wet it,
Ill take the Top and scratch that Itch,
But one thing I wont do,
At the risk of Great Kitsch ,
is call you my BeYitch
But Im still fetching, My rod
you can be leching .
Get out your bongoes,
‘Your banned , I’d bet it,’
thats how the song Goes,
Another gamer gets it.
/ Takes a bow.
Im available for wedding, funerals , and whatver holiday it is when the Timelord is on
Alright,I misinterpreted the word,we also have a word in my language that resembles bongo(the drums Stoneheart mentioned) ,,bongau”(accidentaly read it in my language and thought that’s what it means).Sorry people.Btw Adam,nice poetry.
Surving cancer means you still have a 60% or so chance to get the same or another cancer, cause that sh’t spreads. And the docs can never be sure everything is gone. 🙁
It’s an evil thing.
I mean, panel one, where they’ve fully swapped and now Becky is shielding Joyce as best she can from her murderous rampaging father is just an immense act of badassery. Ditto on being the only one not to hit the pavement when the shot rang out. Similarly badass to keep her cool and still try to reason with him and appeal to whatever vestiges of empathy he may still possess.
That panel 3 with everyone down on the ground, all scared that they’re about to die. 🙁
And that panel 4. Joyce is thoroughly traumatized and convinced she is about to die here. And so she makes sure she says the thing she thinks is most important in the world. Showing her love to Becky, giving her that last something before she leaves this mortal coil. Saying what she thinks Becky has most wanted to hear ever, but also reiterating her genuine affection as a friend. It’s so important to her she gets it out that she’s stuck on repeat with it. And those pleading eyes on Becky as she comforts and hugs her. Becky knows Joyce doesn’t need another trauma and is trying in her tiny way to provide some cold comfort in the face of unbelievable danger.
That panel 5 with Toedad committing such great evil with a look of emotional pain upon his face. So dedicated to hardening his heart against everything to protect against the “demons” that he secures his “win” against his daughter simply because she is not willing to put others in mortal danger just to save herself.
Which leads to panel 6. Just… :c
Becky has been unwavering and so strong to risk a great uncertainty. And that little bit of happiness. That little bit of herself has been violently stolen from her by her dad’s unrelenting shitiness. She is broken in that last panel. Unwilling to let further traumas befall a woman she loves so very deeply, unwilling to risk further danger to the other students and with the worry still deep in her heart about the dangerous situation her current deepest love was put in. Literally willing to sacrifice herself, face untold amounts of abuse and awfulness and possibly forever forestalling her ability to escape again and certainly the little bit of space she has carved here.
Literally willing to betray that which is most core to herself, just to stop this dangerous man and save everyone else.
It’s heartbreaking. Debilitatingly heart-breaking as I’ve known so many who’ve clung to closet doors far longer than they should because of their fears of just this type of fuckwittedness. Who’ve had to prioritize safety both for themselves and their loved ones over their own selves.
And the worst bit is that the lesson Toedad learned is these shows of force work. This impending threat works as far as he is concerned. In his twisted outlook, he stared down the Beast that had stolen his daughter and he won. And he now thinks he knows what he’ll need to do next time to ensure that Satan can no longer grasp her soul.
But all he’s really done is broken his daughter by threatening all her friends with death. Becky is far too good for her own good here and I can only hope that somehow Toedad is waylayed into an accident by that November 10th mark.
Patreon supporters see the strip early. They pre-write comments, copy and paste after refreshing. The strip updates around 12:02:11, Willis time. It can get pretty competitive for the first comments.
This is such a great write-up on what’s happening here. I am so much in awe of Becky. Just look at the third panel when she’s trying to support Joyce. People are hiding, Ross the ChildMurderer stands tall and firm with his gun, Joyce is crumpling but Becky is by her side.
Your analysis of this arc is awesome. Absolutely devastating, but awesome. Hopefully someone or something intervenes before he can take her off campus.
Another interpretation of Joyce not diving for cover – she’s gone hunting with her father before. So she might also be aware that the rifle (previously noted as a Ruger v1 Varminter) is a single-shot… and that now is the perfect time to get close and try to take it off of him.
Joyce’s awareness notwithstanding, I figured Willis had a storytelling reason for picking a single-shot rifle (and a visually distinctive rifle that some reader was bound to recognize) as Ross’s weapon.
I don’t know of Becky has been broken or if it is just the finality this brings to losing her family combined with Joyce’s words. This is a whole another level of betrayal of family. Becky is so brave. Joyce is so caring thinking about what Becky needs to hear more than anything right now… And brave despite her terror.
There issuch a depth of strength in these two.
Such well played drama… I just wish it didn’t cut quite so cose to real life. Then again so many LGBT youth face this and almost no one is telling their story, especially since things are getting worse lately. (They are too willing to come out when they should not.)
Just want to say I love your comments and insights on the story. I rarely have anything to add or reply (that I can phrase well), but I enjoy reading them very much.
THESE are the types of comments I’m here for, thank you. I also appreciate you saying, “still try to reason with him and appeal to whatever vestiges of EMPATHY he may still possess” instead of sanity, I’m seeing so much ableism from the commenters today.
I find it interesting to watch Becky grow and change like this. Initially, she was just Joyce’s religious friend from home or something. When she got here and came out, we realized there was more to her. And then she got mildly but understandably annoying with her newfound freedom. (Something I saw a lot of commenters try to be nice about, which I liked.) And then to show us such strength of character and bravery and self-sacrifice. I’m Jewish, so a lot of Christian stuff isn’t really my thing to say the least, but I’m sure she doesn’t even realize that she’s basically martyring herself, which is more in line with her belief system than her father’s actions. (Which also mirrors how Joyce took a lot of the things taught to her about Jesus to heart more than her parents had.)
Even if Toedad gets away, he has opened fire and threatened people on college campus. (He shot at the air, of course, but still.) I hardly imagine he won’t get arrested for this. Enough people know who he and Becky are in the main cast’s circle that SOMEONE would spill the beans, I think, if questioned.
He’s clearly going through some sort of mental breakdown… Here is a man who had a strong grip on his life and then his wife died and then he tried to hold on to his daughter and she’s clearly slipping away from him and he’s panicking… it’s really sad and I just want this to be over!
*WOOOOOOO*
“This is a test of the Emergency Muzak P.A. System. If this –
Actually, this isn’t a test. Some nutjob Toe-person is actually firing a gun. Lose your shit immediately, and run for the nearest exit.
I repeat, this is most certainly NOT a test.”
The first clue that our prison system is fucked up for me was learning that prisons are not owned by government but are actually a business. That blew my mind. The whole system is broken.
Altho I’m not sure how much rehab would help everyone? But it would probably be better than what we have now. If we switched our punishment-focused system to one that prioritized proactive prevention and rehab, it would probably be a lot better.
I stepped out of the corner… I stepped out of the corner and this is what I walked in on…. why did I step out of the corner, nothing bad was happening there….
The worst part is, I am almost certain it doesn’t end here. Becky’s not going back with her dad… Something’s gonna happen, someone’s gonna get hurt… I just hope it’s not her… or her rescuer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
“Bullets fired into the air usually fall back with terminal velocities much lower than their muzzle velocity when they leave the barrel of a firearm. Nevertheless, people can be injured, sometimes fatally, when bullets discharged into the air fall back down to the ground.”
“In Puerto Rico, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve, the CDC says.”
Yep, bullets don’t magically vanish into the luminiferous aether. Drop anything out of the sky at its terminal velocity (which is a factor of wind resistance, and bullets are wonderfully aerodynamic), and you could end up with kinetic energy to kill. Even a slight angle off perfect vertical leaves the bullet traveling at terminal velocities sufficient to (at minimum) penetrate human flesh, and worse clear through bone.
If by some “act of god” someone did manage a perfect straight vertical shot (where the bullet stops spinning and starts to tumble, decreasing its terminal velocity) that lands back down on their own head, they would be the one person who won’t be killed by their stupidity. Tragically firing guns in the air will not award the shooter a Darwin Award for removing themselves from the gene pool.
Ross has called up a non-0 probability that he just wounded or killed someone with that random air shot. And it may not even be someone in close proximity. Could a mile or more away.
“Ross has called up a non-0 probability that he just wounded or killed someone with that random air shot. And it may not even be someone in close proximity. Could a mile or more away.”
….. I really hope that doesn’t happen here. I think it would be hard for me to find it funny if the comic actually had someone die because of that stray bullet later.
Psycopath ? I think people keep forgetting this is a work of FICTION, and in fiction ANYTHING can be played for laughs, and we certainly have no moral obligation to feel anything for the characters. It makes the story better, more effectful, if we do, but it certainly doesn’t make us psychopaths if we don’t!
All the characters…except for Blaine and Ryan and whoever else is that bad
Note: Faz and Mary don’t even come close to being evil enough
everyone else though!
Poor Becky. Her choices, as defined by her shitstain of a “father”, are to either concede defeat and get in the car and be subjected to whatever he has in mind, or refuse and others, including her father, get hurt or die. How anyone could subject someone they claim to love to such a horrible situation is beyond me.
In short, I hope Ross gets eaten by a surprise T-Rex.
Just gonna point out: Given that he fired his gun on campus, in front of witnesses, before ordering his daughter into the car, it is extremely unlikely that Becky will spend more than 15 minutes with him before the police arrive, recognize her as a hostage, and get her away from him. If nothing else, this assures she can gain emancipation from him. He won’t be able to order her around anymore.
Not gonna get tracked by the phone. In order for a person to be tracked via mobile phone requires a court order above and beyond that of a warrant. Not is it half as accurate as people think it is when seeing it on tv.
Most likely to happen: Joyce tells the cops where Becky and Ross live. That is much quicker and far more accurate.
But tracking kidnap victims by phone happens fairly often. Especially if it’s a smartphone with location services turned on.
Mostly it doesn’t work because the kidnappers know it too and ditch the phone.
Though since it’s Dina’s phone, she could track it herself — aren’t there apps or something that allow people to track their own phone, like if they can’t remember where they left it?
Oh my god I hadn’t even thought of that. That’s heartbreaking.
As sad as this is, though, I kind of appreciate Willis showing how there isn’t like some sort of balance where you’ll probably only get traumatized ONCE in life. People who get traumatized once seem to get traumatized more than once, in my experience. Can’t catch a break.
Sometimes bullets fired into the air kill people when coming back down, or at least injure them… I kinda hope he gets taken out (not killed) by his own bullet, I don’t think it’s going to happen, and I hate to wish ill on him but still.
Actually Mythbusters did a study and found that bullets lose velocity only when fired at a 90 degree angle. Any other angle, even 90.5 will result in injury if it hits.
Doubtful if Ross had that gun at a straight 90 degrees. The good news is that he has fired his single bullet and now the gun is unloaded.
What’s the initial speed of a bullet? Can we estimate 300m/s?
So what we need is the time it takes to come back down, when it will be at the opposite velocity. If we make “up” positive (and if you accept my shitty high-scholl kinematics):
And this is assuming it was shot at a perfect 90-degree angle, and it ignores air resistance. Both of these factors should lower the bullet’s maximum height.
If the bullet is plot important, we’ll find out soon.
Wait, SHIT, time isn’t squared for this! I’ve mixed up calculating velocity with calculating distance.
So the time it takes isn’t 11s.
-600m/s = (-9.8m/s^2)t
t ~ 60s
Shit, never mind.
Close…
“Firearms expert Julian Hatcher studied falling bullets in the 1920s and calculated that .30 caliber rounds reach terminal velocities of 90 m/s (300 feet per second or 204 miles per hour).[7] A bullet traveling at only 61 m/s (200 feet per second) to 100 m/s (330 feet per second) can penetrate human skin” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
Followed by flashbacks to Ross getting in the car, pulling up at the curb, finding Becky & Dina, then two months of a flashback from Dinas childhood, then flashbacks of the first flashbacks, then four months of filler arcs with Riley goofing around.
Not quite. Someone’ll call the cops, and even if he gets away, there are 20+ eyewitnesses, and they’ve got his plates. He’s racked up 3+ felonies in the last 5 minutes, so he’d be something of a priority suspect.
Hm, let’s see. 1) Assault with a deadly weapon? Waving his firearm around like that counts as such, right? 2) Whatever the legal term is for firing a shot into the air 3) Open-carry on campus 4) Terroristic threat 5) Attempted? kidnapping
I’m sure there’s a whole bunch more that I can’t think of since I have limited legal knowledge. Yeah I’d say he’s in loads of trouble and there’s no way he gets to drive Becky home and put her through whatever conversion hell he’s planning.
Dina didn’t catch up with Becky, though. That suggests he did more than just throw her off. I’m still expecting to get to know he broke her leg, or something. :c
But then again, a scenario where a car with Becky, Ross and the rifle is stopped by dozens of armed cops, all apparently “working for the Devil” to Ross, might not be the safest situation to be in either.
1) nope. Never used the weapon on anyone. Only if a person being hit by a stay bullet gets reported will that happen.
2) discharging a firearm within city limits is a low class misdemeanor.
3) felony due to federal gun free school zones
4) no threat of terrorism. Worst he could get on this front would be inciting a panic
5) coercion and kidnapping.
Two felonies, several misdemeanors.
Assuming he did little more than throw Dina off of him, there is no charge there.
In an assault with a deadly weapon case, the victim doesn’t need to by physically harmed by the deadly weapon. Instead, the victim only needs to experience an “apprehension of imminent harm” in order for an assault to occur. It’s enough if the defendant purposely frightened the victim into thinking that they’d be harmed by the weapon.
-legalmatch.com
Terroristic threat = / = Threat of terrorism. A terroristic threat is defined as a declaration of intent to commit a crime of violence against another with the intent of threatening a person, building, facility, or public or private habitat (thanks wikipedia for the definition). Ross most definitely threatened violence when he pointed his gun at his fucking daughter.
Which is going to make it really dangerous for her when the cops come to arrest him.
“Even the authorities have sided with the Devil, but I love you too much to let him have you when you were so close to getting better. We shall meet again in Heaven”.
Even if Ross and Becky drive away in the car together without the police getting involved [which isn’t going to happen now that there are witnesses], even if Ross tries to ‘Pressure’ Becky into being Straight [which isn’t going to happen since Becky is out of the closet], even after all that, Ross is going to try and get Becky married off real quick.
Becky is wearing a Scarlet Letter, the only religious type who would have anything to do with her is an abusive bastard who will beat on her as much as he wants because no one will give a damn. After all, ‘Becky is a sinner and deserves to be abused’ [the abusive husband and religious communities thoughts, not mine].
So, even if Becky survives til tomorrow, if she get’s into the car with Ross, her life is going to be a living hell until she either tries to run away or eventually get’s killed.
Mythbusters took a look at it, actually. In the end they found out about a couple of cases in which people were legit harmed by falling bullets, and one of ’em was killed.
They showed this on Mythbusters. Basically it’s very hard to shoot a bullet perfectly straight up in the air. Most fall down in a ballistic trajectory and can still be dangerous.
Hopeful thought (though highly unlikely): Ross packs/loads his own rounds, and he’s got blanks loaded right now. Big noise/scare, no direct danger (though the panic & danger associated with causing said panic are still very real)
Yeah, dang it. Being in jail will put a big crimp in his plan to get Becky to “Come to Penis” . . . I mean “Jesus”. He’ll just have to pray the old-fashioned way.
Safely away from harm, as, I hope, all the other characters that aren’t in this strip. Amazi-girl may be awesome, but I do not want her anywhere near this. In his current state of mind, I’m 99% certain Ross would shoot her without a second thought.
I was shortly wondering too, but even if he doesn’t like Joyce particulary, he wouldn’t just go and stand on the *other* side of the fountain from her.
“Walky,Sal we have to tell you something. This is Thomas(I am not good at naming people,if you have a better one,say it),Walky’s true twin brother. You see,when he was born the doctors didn’t notice Walky and closed my womb.Somehow you managed to survive Walky and were born with Sal a couple of years later.But before you were born we lost Thomas while camping in a forest. We found his backpack covered in blood and thought he was mauled by a bear.”
Reaction:O_O
,,Actually that’s what Linda speculates about the twins part.”
When i got nothing better I imagine crazy fanfic.And also the fact that I’ve been laying in bed 16/24 per day since last week due to a cold.”Lucky me.”
I don’t feel it. I mean, I feel the emotion in this strip, just not the weight of it. We all know Becky’s not going bye bye or getting killed, she’s too popular of a character.
It just, I don’t know it’s just gotten to the point that death is kind of a joke at this point. Which bothers me considering how dramatic everything has been the last few strips. But I mean c’mon, her dad ain’t gonna’ kill anybody important, he might off himself or get tazed by the cops but any actual threat to life is just sorta’…meh.
And you don’t think him dying is gonna be a terrible, visceral thing for everyone else, Becky, Joyce, everyone involved and not even remotely a joke at all? If he dies (or even just goes to jail), that’s gonna have a devastating effect. Just because Becky is not gonna die doesn’t mean her life can’t get any more ruined than it already is. So you don’t believe the stakes are high? They’re high.
I find this arc devastating. The man who’s supposed to love you and protect you, coming to get you with a gun and not caring if he hurts anyone? That’s pretty fucking scary.
The point isn’t whether anyone’s going to be killed. It never has been.
The point is how this crisis will affect Becky’s, Joyce’s, Dina’s and other characters’ lives going forward. The impact it’ll have on their worldviews and assumptions, on their friendships and relationships, on their personalities as a whole.
“We all know Becky’s not going bye bye or getting killed, she’s too popular of a character.”
Right, and I bet people probably thought the same thing about (spoiler) before she got in that car back in Roomies!, too. That’s why all the people making comments about there potentially being a high-speed chase coming up has me rather antsy.
Everytime someone says that, all I can think of is the Aladdin sequel.
Everyone knows one of the rules of genies is that they can’t kill you. Which is why Jafar uses it as this incredibly menacing threat. After all, he can do whatever pops into his head, and everyone knows that his poor target is going to live through it all. Death is not the worst thing that can happen, and a promise that death is off the table is not a promise that there will be a happy ending.
Except his reasoning was that due to the comics pacing it would result in literally years of watching characters grieve which would be absolutely the most tediously unbearable thing to read and fates worse than death don’t really sidestep that issue at all.
Just because no one is going to die, doesn’t mean that there’s no drama. In fact, there’s much more possibility for long-term impact (more so than killing a character) simply because Willis seems to actually be striving to depict actual PTSD and emotional fallout from crisis points accurately.
So instead of a lot of blockbuster fiction where X character dies and everyone shrugs before the last battle, near scrapes like this leave their scars for life (like in real life).
I understand what you mean, but for me, the tension comes from knowing how much this will emotionally traumatize both Joyce and Becky. The question is HOW MUCH trauma and what specifically will happen to Toedad to cause that.
Seriously though, cops? Amazigirl? Sal with an awesome gang of bikers for whatever reason? Friggin Dexter and Monkey Master?! Anyone?! Anyone gonna show up and put an end to the crazy sauce we got goin on here?
I’ve never understood the “Aieeee” yell. What’s it supposed to sound like? Aye – eeeeeee ? It just sounds weird in my head. Something a Native American might be screaming in an offensive “cowboys vs indians” type old movie when attacking or something.
Cops, yes. No one else we know should get anywhere near this clusterfuck. Besides, it’s always more interesting when characters stand up and save themselves. I trust that Becky will find a way somehow; she’s shown an incredible amount of courage so far.
I think it’s a safety feature. The first trigger enables the second, which is more sensitive. A more sensitive trigger improves aim by reducing necessary force and extraneous movement, but is at more risk for accidental discharge.
(I could be totally wrong though. That sort of thing is second hand knowledge to me.)
Yeah. What looks like a big buff trigger guard mysteriously open at the back is actually the lever that opens the breech. The trigger guard is fairly thin: we don’t see the front or bottom parts of it because they are up against the lever, and the curved line that looks like a second trigger is the back of the trigger guard.
This one has only one, but something like a Ruger 10/22 has ten. Probably less powerful cartridges, though: the 10/22 fires .22 Long Rifle cartridges, and this is probably a 5.56mm weapon.
Lever-action hunting rifle? More like 30-30, .308, or something similar. Looks too big for a .22. 5.56mm is about the least likely. Could also be a lever-action shotgun, probably in 12 gauge, but I think it’s more likely a rifle.
It has been fairly convincingly identified as a Ruger 1 rifle, and in particular as the “1V” variant that is tapped for a scope and has no built-in sights. The barrel, and in particular the bore, looks a bit big, but we are cutting the artist a bit of slack.
It does look a lot like a Ruger, but hard to tell how precise that is so I was presuming Willis went with “looks like a hunting rifle.” The barrel looks too dark to be the Varminter (which comes with a stainless steel barrel), and that’s the one that would be in .223 Remington, but you wouldn’t want to fire 5.56mm out from that. You can in a pinch, but no shooter would want to if they had a choice. You can do the inverse easily enough though.
Indeed, especially as it varies. The Ruger 1V is a falling-block single-shot varmint rifle, but other varmint rifles have different actions, including semi-auto.
I like how everyone’s response to my comment was to basically go “Lol, is it really loaded anymore now that he’s fired it?”, and ignore the fact that we have DEFINITIVE PROOF THAT HE WAS POINTING A LOADED GUN AT HIS OWN CHILD.
Shots fired on a college campus. People saw him take the gun out of his car previously. Those people around the fountain can NOT be the only ones around. There should have been SEVERAL 911 calls at this point and the police will literally be SWOOPING down en mass. If she gets into that car it becomes a hostage situation because he will NOT let her go when confronted with police, he is BEYOND the point of reason and legality at this point.
According to the internet–and it is hard to find reputable sources for this–the best average response times to 911 calls from metropolitan police departments is 8-9 minutes (assuming that they don’t happen to be luckily in the area when the call goes out). All the action that has happened since ToeDad first brandished the gun could have easily taken place in 5 minutes.
It’s on a college campus, though, so they’ve got campus security and blue lights. I know IU is huge, so that would slow down the response time, but it should be faster than your average metropolitan area.
How much faster, though, I couldn’t tell you. And yeah, it feels like this conversation has taken place over a couple of minutes at most.
Next strip Becky walks over to her dad, seemingly about to get in the car.
Unfortunately for Ross he forgot she knows that his gun is a single shot rifle with no magazine. Once she gets close enough she lets him have in the kiwis, and down he goes.
As someone from NZ thats the first time I’ve ever heard them described as kiwis
However yes it is a single shot and shes shown quite a degree of calm, quick thinking and making up plans on the go so wrestling with the rifle isn’t that bad an idea as there looks to be at least half a dozen people in the vicinity
That’s what I thought. I wonder how much ammo he brought with him? I just want to find out what happens with the bullet he fired up into the air. It’s got to come down and hit something or someone.
Ya no this solves nothing, you just fired a gun on campus and a bunch of people saw your face cops are going to be all over you like a Mad wolf eating a rabbit.
Wow… and I’m pretty sure they got a good look at his car too… Ross, not only are you crazy, you were also increadibly sloppy with this plan. Like wow, I don’t think he put any actual thought into what he was gonna do if he pulled the gun out.
And I don’t think it’s going to be hard to find a guy with a toe shaped head and camo pants in the police report even if he gets off campus before they get to him.
True, but I wouldn’t count on Joyce’s ability to get coherent words out after all this. I mean it’s perfectly possible that she might, I just wouldn’t count on it.
A car he retrieved after it was towed earlier in the day, which means his name, plates, and possibly driver’s license are on file with the Bloomington PD now.
I don’t think there is a plan. I think there was a plan before Dina put him on the bus, but now I think there’s just animal fear and desperate grasping at control of a situation he never really had control of in the first place.
HAS NO ONE CALLED 911 YET?! THERE’S A MAN WITH A GUN ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS, AND A BUNCH OF WITNESSES!
Wow…. this was soul crushing. It’s noble of Becky to make this sacrifice for the safety of others, but it’s heartbreaking. This is likely to break her. Something needs to happen to stop Toedad from getting Becky in that car — and fast.
Methinks she contacted Dotty to ask her to contact Amazi-girl. Mehopes she didn’t because I don’t want anyone else of the cast getting anywhere near this situation. I really hope she contacted Ruth.
She probably won’t have contacted Ruth, because at the time it still seemed important that Becky should avoid Ruth’s notice.
Becky hadn’t seen and therefore didn’t mention the rifle, so Joyce probably still thought it was a “Hide from Mr. Macintyre” operation. So she will probably have called someone already involved in that, and probably someone who either has a vehicle (d’oh!) or isn’t in class.
S-so even if she starts to get in the car he’s not making it off campus r-right? I mean if he didn’t have attention before he sure as hell has it now, and there’s witnesses to him using deadly force to kidnap a minor…
I’m using minor in this case to describe someone who’s not legally allowed to drink/gamble in the us; ie, under 21, Yes I know she’s 18 and legally an adult, but I’m…blegh
It wouldn’t matter. There’s a pile of things stacked up against him now.
-tracking down and brawling with Dina, who was fleeing, is assault
-demanding Beck leave with him while armed, doesn’t matter whom the threat is against
-discharged a weapon in view of public
Ross has publicly demonstrated he’s not just been aggressive, from the perspective of at least 5 of 7 people known in the area, he’s lethal.
There is no way he’s won’t be pursued for arrest, a hearing then, trial.
That guy is look at about 10 years.
How it plays out is about whether Beck can get him back in the car without anyone getting shot and Joyce or Dina (we don’t where she is) remember (and communicate) “Becky has Dina’s phone.”
Did we determine where the Browns and MacIntyres live? Will he cross a state line with his daughter to get her home? That bumps it to a Federal offense.
Her old character profile page (still available from the pulldown menu) says La Porte. Sarah is from Fort Wayne; Walky and Billie, Evansville; Dorothy, Mishawaka.
I don’t think we know where everyone else is from, except that Howard, and therefore presumably Ruth, are originally from Canada and currently live in Carmel. 29% of IU Bloomington students are from out of state.
And of course Robin (and therefore probably Roz) is from somewhere it would make sense for her to be able to be the congressional representative for the 9th district.
I don’t think there’s anyone who we know doesn’t live in Indiana.
I think the idea is that the FBI doesn’t fuck around, so even for crimes that are the same severity, making it a federal jurisdiction means you’re even more screwed.
Yes but, there are multiple organizations that can get involved.
The higher level can get involved by request or, if he crossed from one state to another, they may take over, altogether.
He would end up be tried in fed court then, sent to another over the other, more local charges.
“Pale dude with black hair, mustache and no neck” (stands out)
“Wearing a white T-shirt and camo pants” (meh, Indiana…)
“driving a baby sh** green [what is that? A Scion?]” (stands out)
“2-door” (stands out, it’s hard to buy a 2-door car in the US that’s not a sports car)
“Last seen headed north on Highway 37 toward Indianapolis.”
That’s easy. They will put it together.
“Amber-alert issued for Rebecca MacIntyre, age 18, 125lbs, pale, freckles, bright red hair, last seen with…”
The trick there is: “Will they realize they have to ping the phone BEFORE issuing the alert, which will cause the phone to agitate the suspect.”
When the alert is transmitted, Becky’s pocket is going ring, too.
Plus, the possibility is not 0 that Ross has the phone Beck was using at her own school.
Firing a gun up is dangerous. Toedad, whether he meant to or not, has now potentially hurt someone. We had a law go through near my home because people were shooting off guns straight up – then one of those bullets came down and instantly killed a small boy.
I really hope that bullet lands somewhere benign. Firing a gun into the air may make a dramatic statement without shooting anyone, but you’ve still launched a bullet, and it’s gonna hit something eventually
Since I’m aware that gravity exists I realize that there’s still a pretty big risk that someone is gonna get fuckin hit by a sky bullet. Go straight to jail, Ross!
I was looking for someone to mention this… missed it though, maybe in composing. Posted below: What goes up, must come down. Don’t know the exact muzzle velocity of the bullet he’s just shot pretty much straight up, nor the high altitude wind conditions, but I assume that the muzzle velocity’s in the 1000 – 2000 metres per second range. At 1000m/s it takes about 8 seconds to apex and return… at 2000m/s it takes about 12 seconds… either is just about appropriate to the scene. Does the brick come down next comic? Who does it hurt?
When was the last time you heard of somebody getting killed by hail? Shot is annoying when it’s pelting down on you but not more than that. We are not on the moon. We have an atmosphere.
People dying after being hit by hail is not at all unheard of (look it up), and just in this comment section I’ve seen at least two people mentioning instances of people dying after being hit by a bullet falling down. Maybe it’s rare, but it can certainly happen; it depends on winds, how straight up the bullet was shot, air humidity I’m guessing, which part of the body it hits when falling down, … Don’t dismiss this possibility so easily.
The cops/campus security must be busy trying to prove that the NRA argument about long police response times rendering their protection ineffective and costing lives is correct.
Which given the wildly unpredictable steering, could mean they get there hundreds of years too early, hundreds of years too late, or end up on another planet entirely.
What goes up, must come down. Don’t know the exact muzzle velocity of the bullet he’s just shot pretty much straight up, nor the high altitude wind conditions, but I assume that the muzzle velocity’s in the 1000 – 2000 metres per second range. At 1000m/s it takes about 8 seconds to apex and return… at 2000m/s it takes about 12 seconds… either is just about appropriate to the scene. Does the brick come down next comic? Who does it hurt?
Most of the ones my google search turned up appeared to be knitted, not sewn. That said, I recently took up sewing for cosplay purposes, and I highly recommend it.^^
I’ve tried knitting before, it bores me to death. In contrast, I’ve always sorta thought sowing might be fun, for cosplay purposes too, since it’s probably cheaper, more fun, and more customizeable than bought costumes. This might just be the thing that finally gets me to stop thinking and start doing. XD
It’s probably a .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO bullet. About 55 grains (3.6 grammes). Its muzzle velocity is irrelevant after it reaches its apex: it’ll hit the ground at its terminal velocity, about like hail. A hailstone like the size of a sugar cube.
They’re much more dangerous fired into the air at a shallow angle, because they come down before air resistance sucks out their energy.
Mythbusters tested it – bullets are aerodynamic enough that even a slight angle (which keeps them from tumbling through the air end over end on the way down) is enough to greatly increase their terminal velocity.
Escape velocity on the Moon is 2.38 km/s. That’s about 7,783 feet per second. A 5.56mm NATO weapons had a muzzle velocity of up to 940 m/s (3,100 feet per second), depending on bullet mass and loading, barrel length, etc..
People die every year from falling bullets, me and some others have posted links further up the thread, unfortunately not many are aware of this and so continue to fire up in the air without thought.
So Becky probably knows its a single shot rifle so unless Toe Dad uses it as a melee weapon its essentially useless, Becky has shown a degree of thinking on the fly and possessing a calm level head under stress.
Theres at least half a dozen people in the near vicinity sooooo will Becky attempt to wrestle the rifle off her Father on the basis that while she won’t win she may give enough time for everyone else to jump in?
If thats Toe Dad reloading then Beckys best bet is to go along with him, the cops will definitely follow him and hes still on campus so its not likely he’ll be able to lose them
I’ve been suspecting this as well (since yesterday). What’s his plan? Go on the lam and hope that the pray-away-gay camp has rooms on hand for the parents?
I doubt he’s really thought that far. I’m pretty sure 99% of his mind is focused on chasing away the demons in Becky, and the remaining 1% is just there to remind him where he parked his car and which pocket he put the spare ammo in.
Becky is not going to break. The only way he will break her, is to kill her.
She is about the most brave person I’ve seen so far.
Joyce did what she had to do, she let Becky know that she loves her, that none of this is her fault.
And where if friggin’ Hell is the cops, or Sal, or the marines???
I think if Ross manages to get Becky into a “rehabilitative” camp, it’s entirely possible that Becky will break. To me, Becky seems like someone who puts up a good front to hide profound insecurities. But even if I’m wrong, being a brave or strong person has nothing to do with it – if you’re isolated with people who treat you as inhuman too long, something’s gotta give.
Mind, I don’t think this story will go there, but I think it’s naive to say Becky’s incapable of breaking. The vast majority of people can be broken.
Dude, Ross just fired a gun into the air in front of a crowd of people and overtly kidnapped Becky. The camp isn’t some sort of Christian black site where they will help Ross hid a kidnapped girl from the police. They ain’t ever going to get there.
Okay, sorry. I’ll respond for real.
I’m aware that given this current situation, the chance of Ross getting Becky to a camp is virtually nil. That’s not what my comment was about.
My comment was about the idea that Becky’s breaking point lies somewhere above the being killed threshold. I don’t think it does.
A more realistic breaking point for this situation might be Ross dying in front of her, and Becky blaming herself/her sexuality for that. And I don’t think that’s going to happen either. But the idea that it couldn’t happen bc Becky is a strong person and strong people can’t break is bs.
I doubt that much time has passed. He confronted them on the side of the road and they ran into the trees. Dina probably stalled him for less than a minute before he saw Becky running across the field. Becky then ran the rest of the way to the fountain while he ran back to his car and drove probably a couple of blocks to confront her again.
The only reason I have to believe that the police might have been called before he fired into the air is the fact that you can see someone on the other side of the street with little “surprise” lines over their head when he pulls the gun out of the car after the first confrontation. But even then, we’re most likely talking about a few minutes.
It’s not over yet folks. The police will be arriving soon enough. Even if Becky gets in the car he will be facing numerous charges so he will not be getting far.
No. There is still the danger that she may be killed in the crossfire or if he crashes his car trying to evade the police, but he will be stopped before he takes her to one of those religious brainwashing facilities. And by now enough people know he has a gun and since the police are less likely to take anything to chance he could be shot on sight before she even gets in the car.
Even if the police blocks the exit routes,he can take the car on the sidewalks and endanger pedestrians. It’s going to be a hell of a chase,’cuz he ain’t going to give up easy.
The family still supports me in general, they don’t hate me and I don’t hate them and we still love each other a lot, it’s just, you know, it’s complicated.
You can’t expect a bunch of people who grew up in a third world country where lgbt activity can get you literally arrested to just accept everything, you know? It’s just not realistic, it’s not a thing that can happen. Like even if they personally accept it, there’s the rest of society and their place in it to consider. God knows they’re stressed out enough by the social upheavals that were already happening for the past few years, at least I got to sit that out by being in American colleges.
I appreciate your comment, like honestly thank you, it’s just, I don’t want to make it out like I’m fishing for sympathy, I’m honestly fine. Things aren’t perfect as far as that one aspect of myself is considered but as long as the rest of my life stays stable then, who knows, maybe things will work out.
Have got a support structure beyond your family? Sometimes family is what you make it to be until your “real” family can wrap their heads around things, you know?
Regarding the last part of your post, please don’t ever feel scared that you’re “fishing for sympathy”. It’s legitimate pain you’re going through and you have the right to express yourself. The folks here are super open and helpful when discussing these issues so feel free to come by and talk about it whenever you want to. You’re always welcome here.
This would be a great time, for the police to arrive, or failing that, a vigilante, or failing that ruth, or failing that staff… SOMEBODY please?! You’ve got like 20 seconds.
That’s at least four strips.
Not even kidding.
Everyone demanding an immediate response/resolution needs to remember how decompressed comic time (especially this comic) is.
His hands are weird for just lowering the gun. The hand that pulled the trigger is now on top of the gun, right about where loading happens, and the other hand is closer to the trigger to brace it.
I hope that Willis’ “no one dies” rule applies to family members. Because I can’t imagine that Toedad is going to surrender to the cops when they show up; in his current state of mind it seems more likely that he’ll force them to kill him. And Becky doesn’t deserve to be orphaned, especially not like that.
I kinda want him to break that rule… Something big and dramatic has been needed. It is reaching a peak, but I don’t feel like it has tipped yet. A little longer… Maybe a misunderstanding that causes the dad’s death after it has unrivaled a bit.
Me, yesterday:
“Honestly, he’s talking. That’s good. Despite his determination at the end of this strip, I’m expecting the situation to de-escalate either tomorrow or the day after (barring interventions!). I think Becky’s getting through to him.”
Right, well…. ok. I’m just gonna stop talking now.
So, random thought that might have been brought up in a previous page: what exactly happened with Becky’s mom? From the “do it for mom” earlier, I can assume mom died a while ago. That “the devil took her” makes me think less that it was due to natural causes. This raises a couple of questions which could go all kinds of crazy places.
For “fun” let’s go to the craziest place & not look back: it turns out Becky’s mom had a bit of a self discovery & Ross was not a fan of whatever this realization was. He tried similar methods as he’s tried with Becky to “fix” his wife (haven’t seen a name other than mom/your mother) and after some time things went from unbelievably bad to “holy crap what the hell is going on I can’t believe it”. Whatever this was resulted in “the devil taking her” which, worst case scenario, was Ross somehow being responsible for her death (not necessarily that he killed her himself [although that would be absolute worst case scenario, especially if nobody knows] but that his actions lead to that end somehow)
I was just figuring that with the whole “you commit suicide you go straight to hell do not pass GO do not collect $200” thing that most (or all?) Christian subsets follow that she realised he’s a dick and killed herself.
Um…no? Like, not even from a standpoint of “this is so bad, Becky, don’t” but like from a standpoint of how or why did we reach this point? Why do we have to worry about this? It took us, what, four, five pages to get to this? Why did he dilute that fast? I mean, what the fuck man?
If it wasnt already Federal Crime , when he chased two lesbians on a state University with a shotgun ( one of whom is missing) .
It became one right now, with a public attempted Kidnapping and shooting up the Indiana U naked mermaid fountain.
Not federal, as far as I know.
Assault. Battery. Attempted kidnapping (possibly about to be just plain kidnapping.) Various weapons charges.
Nothing federal. “lesbians” is legally irrelevant, federally and in Indiana.
I just think it…..’freakishly coincidental’ that this arc should appear as News reports of Campus Shootings is in the limelight. I hope Joyce was smart and got on her phone to the police as well as anyone else near that fountain and the police gain control of the situation. I just hope our “Caped Crusader” is in class now, which like the rest of the Campus should be in LOCKDOWN.
I have a friend who works for The Trace. She used to do the legwork for the Gun Report for the New York Times. Ever since we reconnected on Facebook I don’t think a day has gone by that there hasn’t been a shooting on her feed. We just don’t hear about most of them.
As others have said, we’ve got plenty of mass and school shootings. It is a little coincidental that this came just as one really hit the mass media though. Not highly surprising though.
Until Ross actually reached the fountain and pulled out the rifle, Joyce had little reason to call the police and since then she hasn’t had time. Possible the kid who reacted when Ross first took out the rifle called it in, but the police would be reacting to that location, not here. Now that it’s been fired, there’ll be lots of calls.
I’m trying hard to not shake my hands as I type this.
When Becky was first introduced as a regular character, there were some dialogues and wavering positions back and forth on her standing as a character, between her brashness, style of humor, her often somewhat jumpy attitude towards some characters like Dorothy or Joe. But from her surprising appearance in Joyce’s room, she’s provided her best friend with love and compassion on almost every aspect one can love another person, and even shared that love with another, Dina. She’s shown that even with her snarky outlook and perkiness, she’s been absolutely nothing but kind and adoring towards others, open and accepting to her new friends and she had the beginning of a new life that she was ready to embrace and pursue with all the gusto as that utterly adorable kiss with our favorite paleontologist. Joyce asked for God to send her an angel, and she was delivered just as asked…
… and now she’s going.
Not of her own choice, but by force. From the very person who by all means has to be the one to accept and respect the life of his own daughter. Under threat and in fear for not only her own life, but from fear of her new friends and any potentially unfortunate nearby strangers caught in the crossfire. And she’s not only leaving to be taken to a place where she’ll be instilled to reject the core of her being, the very side of her that caused her to blossom into a person of love and compassion.
There’s only one demon here in this scenario. And it’s the one holding the gun.
I know its… its just so horribly unfair. It took Becky ONE weekend, two empty hands and the limitless love of Joyce to build a new start. Toedad had to resort to a gun to tear that down and he had to go for Becky’s friends and loved ones.
Demon is a too week word for what he is, but I really don’t know any words that are strong enough.
When seconds count the police are only minutes away!
…then there’s the whole time warp effect during an emergency. Fire department I’m on routinely gets complaints on 45minute-to-an-hour response times when in reality we’re usually there in under 15 (unless it’s way out in the sticks).
Yeah, I had just this experience when I had a home invasion. I ended up writing a letter to the 000 call centre to apologise to the operator for my short temper and rudeness.
Class act doing that, dude. I used to do tech support (which is nowhere near as horrible in terms of situations as real emergency operators) and acknowledgement that you’re a human on the other end of the line is sometimes in short supply.
If anyone called in Ross initially brandishing the gun, on the other side of the field & trees (where he currently isn’t) then they’re probably over there, where there was a report of “some toe-looking dude with a gun”
That’s if it got called in.
Now, there’s been a shot fired, all of 5-10 seconds have passed while we get to that last panel, and unless there were already cops waiting at the fountain there’s no way they could magically appear at the scene without knowing about it beforehand.
Best case scenario: there are some cops going through the woods where Ross chased the girls, and they’ve heard the shot & are going in (but, from how freaked out Becky was, I can’t say wether she was short of breath from running so much or just being in shock [maybe it was a large forested area, maybe it’s like 50 feet of trees then the field])
Anyway, it takes time for things to happen, and we’re looking at less than a minute for this entire page (if even close to that, it could be under 30 seconds even, and no police force has that kind of response time, save for something happening at the station while everybody is present)
Yyeah, I’m kinda there. I mean, I don’t feel particularly compelled to name either the lesser of the two evils, but we can say that Blaine abuses Amber because he CAN, while Ross abuses Becky because (in his head at least) he MUST.
Y’know… I actually disagree that he’s trying to manipulate his daughter. He’s trying to do the reasonable, loving parent thing where you don’t let them cross the street when there’s traffic coming. You don’t let them do all kinds of shit that they’re too young to know better about but you do because you’re older. Except now, it’s not her life on the line, it’s her immortal soul. It’s a few decades vs. eternity. This is pure love, pure trying to make sure that he is taking the best care of Becky that he possibly can be taking of her. And absolutely no thought of manipulation or anything else negative.
And that is why Ross is worse than Blaine can ever be. It’s why he is so much more of a monster than Blaine can ever be. Blaine is selfish, and he will be limited by what will benefit him and his perception of himself. Ross is selfless, and cares only about Becky and his love for her. And so he will stop at nothing to do whatever it takes to “save” her, regardless of the price either of them has to pay.
I actually agree. The look on his face; when Becky tells him about the consequences of his actions, it looks like the face of someone who is accepting for the first time about what must really happen… And he doesn’t care. He’s been too passionate, too upset, to really consider the consequences. Now that he sees Becky is doing it for both of them, it doesn’t matter, because his life is a tiny price compared to her immortal soul. He’s not the douchebag who says, “I’ll die for you” to make you do what he wants… There’s nothing but sincerity. That’s why he looks so hurt. He doesn’t want this, but he’d do the unthinkable, and hurt them both, kill them both, to save her.
And Becky, though she’s scared and upset, knows her father loves her. She might not really believe he’d hurt her… But it’s not the same for everyone else. She knows everyone will be safer if she goes. It’s not a personal loss for her, her soul isn’t breaking… yet. Right now she just wants everyone to be safe, including her father, who she still loves, and going with him will protect more people and be safer for both of them.
My big fear is Dina, who, if she isn’t hurt, is running full pelt to continue her battle with Ross. She’d chase that car until she collapsed.
And I second all the, Joyce is the real broken one here. Poor everyone.
Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. And it gets me thinking. As a culture, we think of love as this pure thing that makes you better, whole, and is something that is unambiguously good.
It isn’t, it really isn’t.
This is the ugly flipside of love. The destructive side of love, where everyone is made worse than they could be. Where you can’t get off the tracks even though you can see that ugly freight train called consequences coming your way.
Becky and her dad love each other, no good can come of that fact for any foreseeable future, and that is what makes this a tragedy.
Uuuh, it doens’t matter whether he’s intending to manipulate or not, he’s still manipulating and controlling and abusive. No matter how nice his intentions are. And pretty sure Christianity isn’t or shouldn’t be a proponent of forcing people to do things at gunpoint.
Oh, I’m not saying he isn’t being abusive. I’m in the camp that not only has he taken the title of worst father in webcomics away from Blaine, but that Blaine is bush league compared to Ross.
This is more getting into why he’s much more monstrous than Blaine can ever be, because Blaine will always be concerned about himself first. But Ross? His life doesn’t matter. He’s doing this for Becky, and he’s willing to die for her. He can do anything, no matter how horrible, because it’s all for the Greater Good.
I wouldn’t worry so much as Becky breaking as Joyce will.
So far Joyce’s fear of men has been bad but manageable, in that she can still attend classes and go out with people. Now yet another man who she trusted has turned out bad.
This might push Joyce into ‘insanity’*, where her fear effects prevents her from functioning.
*Note I’m describing insanity as it was described from someone from the local mental health unit, as insanity being something that prevents someone from functioning normally.
so with Becky in the car, Toedad gets gunned down by one of those armed civilians the NRA loves so much
then… she gets back out of the car…
TOTALLY WORTH IT #winning
As I said last time this was raised, can anyone remember an instance of that actually happening? Because I can’t.
yeah, too bad
Shooting in middle of Chicago earlier this year, stopped by an armed Uber driver.
Yeah, a couple of armed goons stopped by civilians. So worth the deaths of children at Sandyhook.
And just this month in Michigan, a legal carrier decided that a fleeing shoplifter was worth pulling out her firearm in a busy parking lot. She failed to shoot out the tires as she had intended, so thank whatever deity you believe in that there wasn’t any collateral damage. This “everyone is a hero if only they’re armed” mentality is DANGEROUS.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/10/13/woman–home-depot-shooting-charged/73863544/
That wasn’t what was being discussed. One person asked if it had happened, another person said it had. No discussion of pros and cons was raised.
Dina was in the car the whole time, and they start loving each other in the back seat as soon as Becky gets in.
If you meant someone with a gun preventing a shooting, it happened in April in Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-uber-driver-shoots-gunman-met-0420-20150419-story.html
This is still more impressive any day of the week:
https://www.facebook.com/NBC4i/videos/10152899878837751/
I hope that guy will live for very long time.
I’ve seen that, but the one where wheelchair guy stops a robbery is even cooler. That’s the toughest mofo in his town. I’d hate to run into him in a dark alley. With his upper body strength, he could probably run me down and pummel me to death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rFEx-mkXn8
http://youtu.be/nOkwhYX9v_0
This is easily my favourite, my hero
I’m impressed by that man’s courage, and glad he didn’t get stabbed in the process of the grab. If that robber had a gun instead of a knife it could’ve gone much worse. 🙁
That’s my home town. I know the dude. Stupid robber; had it been most anyone else around here, he would’ve been shot.
Midlothian, that is. The Texas firefighter.
There was a robbery at the 7/11 in a small BC town just before we moved there. Only hold-up the place has ever had.
They cooperated and gave him what he wanted and as soon as he left the first call was to his mum.
Pro tip: If you’re gonna rob a convenience store, maybe don’t do it in the small town of 2000 people you grew up in, where everyone knows everyone else, and they know you. 😀
As Daniel the Human has said MANY times…
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF HUMAN STUPIDITY…
I can only think of one. There was an Uber driver in Chicago earlier this year who shot a man who was firing into a crowd of people near Logan Square.
Appalachian School of Law shooting. Gunman taken down by armed students in 2002.
Also the mall shooting either last year or so where the shooter didn’t fire, but the threat of an armed civilian was enough to make the shooter go hide and kill himself.
There are plenty of other cases where armed civilians stop shootings before they become “mass”. Unfortunately, because they’re not “mass”, anti-gunners use this as an excuse to dismiss legitimate cases of self-defense shootings.
RE: mall shooting – I mean, where the armed civilian didn’t fire. The shooter had opened fire, but the armed civilian was enough for the guy to give up and kill himself.
SO, those killings of adults by children … what is it? One a week now?
Nice open air asylum you got going. Hope you enjoy it.
Fun fact: Scotland has a significantly higher per capita rate of death by mass shooting than the US. Second fun fact: In the last 20 years, Scotland has had only one mass shooting (1997, 17 dead). The USA is so goddamned huge that we have a lot of everything.
(Also, since pre-1800, we’ve had elevated levels of murder relative to the rest of the Anglosphere. No one knows why, but it can’t be a matter of policy, because no policy has stayed constant over that period.)
My I’ve often wondered if it’s related to a rapid increase in population density. We went from “I have all kinds of space and don’t have to deal with anyone I don’t want to,” to “I’m less than 100 yards from other people all the time but still want to act like I don’t have to deal with them.”
I could be wrong.
If that were the case there’d be a spree a week in London.
A quick google of shooting spree rates didn’t show Scotland at all. I instead saw Norway, Finland and Switzerland, as those are all low population countries with isolated incidents in the period(s) being examined.
To make a fairer comparison, you would need to examine a period large enough for a statistically meaningful number of incidents in each country (which makes trends hard to spot), or examine only countries (or collections of countries) with a statistically meaningful number of incidents in the period.
Yeah, that fact about Scotland doesn’t seem true at all. I’ve tried to look but I can only find facts about either England or the UK as a whole, so I’m going to have to do a “citiation needed” here.
Also, I question your argument based on those statistics. You are saying that Scotland has a higher number of people killed in a mass shooting than the US per capita, even though they’ve only had one shooting in the past 19 years (Dunblane was 1996, not 1997). As a single example makes for poor statistical analysis, the fact that Scotland has only had one compared to the US’s many would seem to agree with the overall statement that you have a much higher chance of being killed in a shooting spree in the US than in Scotland.
I live in Scotland. You know what we did after that mass shooting (1996, by the way)? We heavily increased regulation on firearms, especially handguns. No more mass shootings!
Alright, I agree with you on the gun control topic, but was it really necessary with the intense amount of ableism you displayed in your comment? Asylums were and are inherently abusive places where disabled people like me are often forced to stay against their will and have no autonomy or way out. Using something that serious as an insult is incredibly offensive. Please stop trying to insult people by comparing them to disabled people.
As a disabled person, please don’t speak for me. It’s insulting to assert that all people who fit into a certain category think and feel and judge things exactly the same. Thanks.
Wow, assuming I’m not disabled either?
As a person on the interweb, he is entitled to say whatever the bloody hell he wants to, I can overuse “bloody” and people can be offensive, And theres nothing you can do to stop them, unless you have something meaningful to add to the nonsense, dont try to throw yourself a pity party, and invite everyone else.
Inherently abusive, or abusive in implementation?
But, no, let’s just close them all and let those who can’t support themselves live on the streets, because reforming is hard.
The term itself is outdated. If the comment had been about psychiatric hospitals, I can kinda how you’d get upset, but “asylum” usually refers to a historical “insane asylum” of the type you’d find the Joker and Two-Face in, and is pretty far removed from anything that you’d find today that it makes to pretty obvious the original comment is just engaging in (humorous) hyperbole.
I thought it was pretty well established that armed civilians do NOT successfully intervene in the great majority of cases. I don’t have the stats to hand, but of course they came out again in the last couple of weeks.
And that’s not considering the number of accidents or non-public individual homicides, or the fact that lower availability of guns is directly and reliably correlated with lower gun death stats.
Just because it works in some cases, doesn’t make it any less crazy or reduce the inherent risks of escalating the situation badly.
There is no reason to NOT be anti-gun, none, if the only good a gun can do is stop others with guns, cause without guns there’d be no other people with guns to stop in the first place. You don’t need a gun to do hunting, we didn’t need guns to hunt before.
I hate to be a devil’s advocate, but if you live in a place with polar bears you’re gonna want a gun. I realise that isn’t America, but there are almost always counterexamples, even if they’re tiny.
Yeah, I’m from Norway, so I know that on Svalbard you are not even allowed to venture outside of the town borders without a gun, but people lived before guns became usefull against polar bears too, so…
European countries and the US are so far apart culturally and politically on this issue, there no useful comparisons.
Watch Bowling for Columbine. At core, the US problem is down to racism. White people fear coloureds and to “protect” themselves, they arm themselves.
This is in particular after the Civil Rights movements of the 60s came into being. Suddenly, Jim Crow laws were thrown out, the Services were integrated, and the riots and Johnson’s Great Society came into being.
It’s during the 70s that the NRA started ramping up, the GOP began it’s Southern Strategy and the Religious right rose to power culminating in the current GOP bifurcated amongst moderates and Tea Party idiots, all them who seem to advocate less gun control.
Since then every time guns cause damage in the US, the answer is yet more fucking guns, yet more lax gun laws, and nobody checking up that gun-laws are being enforced. (Congress has legislated that the CDC should not keep track of gun related deaths.) The next step – the banning of all gun-free zones as being unconstitutional – is only a short hop and step away. Dur, because emotionally unstable 18-25 year olds (who can’t afford insurance for motor-cycles in Europe because of the high death rates) will have access to all kinds of guns. Brilliant.
No European – or advanced country – has had such a spectacular social history over the same period. There are no useful comparisons.
People also used to get killed by them fairly regularly, so.
(I wanted to reply to Willoughby Chase but it wouldn’t let me.)
I agree with you on gun control, but Bowling for Columbine REALLY isn’t a good documentary. It’s incredibly biased and, as a filmmaker, I great disapprove of the techniques he uses to make his points. For one thing, he’ll never convince people who disagree with him. For another thing, the techniques are dishonest and immature. It’s not a good documentary.
Polar bears is extreme. If I have livestock, I’m going to want a hunting rifle to chase the coyotes away from my horses and foxes away from my chickens.
There’s bow and arrows, and noisemakers, for that.
Hunting rifles are INCREDIBLY useful and insanely more practical for hunting. They’re also a lot more humane, and led to more humane warfare. Guns are extremely practical and useful, and thank god we’ve got them. It just doesn’t mean every god damned person needs them, and they sure as hell don’t need to have them on their person at all times.
Guns are more accurate, less painful, and much more instant. And as far as warfare is concerned, the advancement of weapons tech has actually led to much less brutal wars with far fewer civilian casualties. You don’t even wanna know what kind of nightmare world we’d be in if we still fought with spears, swords, bows, and fire. Oh, so very much fire…
I’m all for gun control but I can not morally support the idea going back to the bow and arrow standard for both humanitarian and animal cruelty reasons.
Based on what, exactly ? There is no way being shot with an arrow is LESS humane than being shot with a bullet.
A skilled hunter will fell his prey with one arrow, and the prey will not suffer. There’s less chance of an bow accidentally going off than a gun, and arrows are also more socially equalising than guns and ammo, which costs money. A gunshot wound is much harder to treat than an arrow to the knee.
Tell you what. I’ll get a guy whose never shot a gun, and you get a guy whose never shot a bow, and we’ll put them up against a target at 100 yards. You tell me who is more likely to hit.
You’re right that a skilled hunter can take an animal down with one arrow, but the key word there is “skill.” If they don’t kill the animal in that one shot it’s not going to stick around for more of them. So now you’ve essentially sentenced the animal to death by blood loss or infection if you don’t find it.
I’m in favor of gun control, but let’s not pretend that guns are evil and bows, swords, etc. are noble.
Ummm sorry to bear bad news, but barring disintegrating or splashing ammo, both illegal as far as I know…bullet wounds are no worse than the potential trauma caused by an arrowhead..
And the difference between a “hunting rifle” and a “sniper rifle” is what?
That’s ridiculous. Guns make it EASIER to kill people. Guns were designed to kill people. Guns make it impersonal and make it much easier to kill a lot of people faster.
And arguing what’s the more humane way to kill people with violence seems besides the point to me.
the only reason the crazed people intending to cause harm to others are using guns rather than say explosives or chemical/biological weapons is the ease with which guns can be acquired.
that should end because as we all know guns are far more deadly, I mean it takes time to pull out and aim a bomb, a bomb can only kill one or a handful of people at a time whereas a gun targets everyone with in it’s range. there’s always the possibility that a bomb will miss unlike a gun. the wound a bomb creates might be survivable depending upon where a person is hit. you can run or hide from a crazed bomber and possibly survive or some brave soul can risk their lives to stop the bomber whereas with a gun anyone within range of the gun when the shooter decides to use their weapon is dead and those outside of the kill range might be seriously maimed or injured.
the right person armed with a bomb can potentially stop the crazed bomber ether by killing them with the bomb or by convincing them to put down the bomb while a gun will kill the person using it as well unless they are out of it’s range when used.
Umm…. I’m not sure what point you are trying to make, but:
A bomb takes infinitely more time to prepare and use than any gun out there, even the medieval ones, a bomb is more difficult to procure, to conceal. The time spent putting the bomb together is time the maniac has to reconsider the plans, while a gun enables the maniac to have the crazy thought and end a life in just a few seconds!
Bombs made by amateurs tend to either not work properly, or explode during assembly, in the latter there are some risks of colleratal damage, but less chance than with a gun.
Explosives actually DO have an important function, and are used daily for peaceful purposes, for demolition, for putting out fires, for mining, etc., while the only peaceful purpose a gun can be put to is basically perfecting the aim.
(And no, I’m not discounting bad guys stopped by a gun, it’s still not “peaceful” to stop anyone, “good” and “peaceful” are two different words)
@Captain Whatever on the planet of things: Bullshit.
“Crazed people”? What is WITH all of the commenters on this comic hating disabled and neurodivergent people so much?
I’ll say it again and again: disabled and neurodivergent people ARE NOT INHERENTLY VIOLENT. In fact, non-disabled and neurotypical people are FAR, FAR more likely to commit acts of violence and atrocities and we disabled and/or neurodivergent folks are more likely to be on the receiving end of it.
PLEASE stop equating mental illness and violence.
“Crazed” actually just means wild and out of control, and has nothing to do with mental illness.
You seem to have replied to the wrong post, but have a look at a dictionary sometime.
No, but violent people often TURN crazy, thereby becoming “crazed”. It’s not being crazy makes you violent, but that violence like this is in itself crazy.
Or we could reinstate assault rifle ban,
put tight controls on all Clip ammunition; and full background checks that weed out terrorisst , felons ad the insane.
It shouldnt be harder vote , drive and but cold medicine than buy a semiautomatic military assault weapon and ammo.
There will still be shootings , but It will harder to make it mass slaughter in seconds.
I do have qualms on the argument “don’t give crazies guns!” (which I know is not quite what you said, but it reminded me.) Because if you mean people with an established violent behavior in their past, sure, but if you just mean “he had a mental illness, no guns for you” then all you are REALLY saying is “if you want a gun, don’t get help!” Also, most people with disorders – even those that correlate more with violence – aren’t personally dangerous, so it’s kinda equivalent to the idea you shouldn’t give poor people guns because they commit more hold-up-style robberies.
Also, I’m pretty sure 90% of us would be diagnosable with something if we went to therapy. We just get by without it. So maybe that’s our backdoor gun control!
“Only people who have never been found to have a psychological disorder with no felony record can have guns. Mandatory mental health visits for all citizens result in massive diagnoses. Make it a felony not to participate fully in the process!”
Boom, we’re all diagnosed with SOMETHING at some time in our life, OR we all have felonies, and guns are gone!
Mass shootings are pretty much always committed with handguns, not assault weapons.
Any weapon is an assault weapon, isn’t it ? A hammer is an assault weapon if it’s used to smash a person instead of a nail.
Yeah but “assault rifles” look scary.
How ? The word “rifle” or “weapon” is just as scary as “assault”.
No, to many people (possible even most people, tbh) rifle is not a scary word. Calling weapons “assault rifles” helps to turn them into a bogeyman that we can all fret over.
“Assault rifle” is pretty well-defined as a rifle capable of fully automatic fire built for combat. “Assault weapon” is the “vague” and “scary” term. As far as I know, it comes from the Ban, and if you go with that definition, most mass shootings don’t involve them.
I don’t think so, why should “assault” make a word that allready signifies death and destruction more scary ? You can assault someone without a weapon, which to me at least is a lot less scarier than being assaulted WITH a weapon, the weapon is the scary part.
Oh my fucking god “THE INSANE”??? Why do all of you hate mentally ill people so much? Most murders are neurotypical and non-disabled. I’m so disgusted by how many fans of this comic hate people like me.
I can’t speak for Adam Black, but to me “insane” and “mentally ill” are not remotely synonymous. “Insane” would refer to a very small minority who are completely irrational and unpredictable.
If I understand your 2nd paragraph correctly (voting, driving, buying cold medicine is harder)- I vote, drive, purchase pseudoephedrine, and purchase firearms.
Buying firearm is by far the most time consuming, costly (not including the sales price), and regulated of your list. And driving and buying cold medicine is NOT specifically allowed by the Constitution of the United States of America.
“Or we could reinstate assault rifle ban”
> Assault rifles ARE banned. Assault rifle means fully automatic. Anti-gun people decided to call AR-15 style semi-automatic magazine-fed rifles “assault weapons” so that they would sound worse and people like you would confuse them with military weapons.
“put tight controls on all Clip ammunition”
> WTF is “clip ammunition?” You mean magazines? Magazine sizes?
“full background checks that weed out terrorisst , felons ad the insane.”
> There are background checks for purchasing new guns, but not for private. Personally, I’m not inherently opposed to requiring private sales to be handled through a FFL-licensed third party (like a gun shop) so that background checks can be done for those, too.
“It shouldnt be harder vote , drive and but cold medicine than buy a semiautomatic military assault weapon and ammo.”
> It isn’t. Also, they aren’t military weapons. The M-4 and M-16 are fully automatic, AR-15 rifles are not. You clearly know nothing about the topic.
“There will still be shootings , but It will harder to make it mass slaughter in seconds.”
> You mean with smaller magazines? False. Changing a magazine takes very little time.
Here’s a list of 22 relatively well documented cases of it:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.ca/2015/05/mass-killings-stopped-by-armed-citizens.html
Part of the problem is that shootings stopped by civilians tend to get stopped right at the beginning, so they don’t make it to ‘mass killing’ stage, or to the news.
I’m unimpressed.
There’s a mass shooting roughly every other week in the U.S. source Assuming that all the ones in your link are accurate, that’s around a 5% stoppage rate.
Wow what a reliable source
First statement is literally a lie, second is… really unbiased, like, super objective reporting.
http://www.armedwithreason.com/more-guns-more-crime-yet-another-study-debunking-the-myth/
There, have an article discussing the results of yet another study proving that guns don’t make us safer or help in preventing mass shootings.
P.S., 22 incidents is an embarrassingly small percentage of mass shootings, but IIRC even those anemic numbers usually feature some retired cops — i.e., less “civilian” than they appear on the surface.
Oh man that site. With articles such as “Leftist Racism”, “Leftism is Authoritarian” and my personal favourite, “Hitler a Socialist”.
“and my personal favourite, “Hitler a Socialist”.”
Well, that WAS the name of his party….
And I call myself the Lord of the Potatoes but am neither a spud, nor a lord of any fashion. Look at the policies and pick out the socialist ones. Then tell me if Hitler was a socialist.
Not in action, of course, but still, officially at least.
National Socialist Party. Socialism and National Socialism has virtually nothing in common except the name. In fact, the only people Hitler hated more than socialists were the jews.
Ah. Any website that tries to argue that Hitler was anything other than far-right (by current Americans terms) is full of shit.
Police ARE civilians. They might not think of themselves as such, but they are.
It’s telling that a pro-gun site can only scrape together 15 examples by going back to 1915.
In that time gun violence has killed literally hundreds of thousands of people in your country.
Wasn’t there one in Israel just this last week?
Was reported as a “security guard” but turned out to be joe schmoe with a gun.
Israel’s a pretty bad comparison example.
Israel doesn’t have a mass shooting problem in the first place, because it doesn’t have the US’s insane “every violent teenage boy has an inherent right to kill people” gun mentality.
Also, Israel has mandatory armed service, so every ‘joe schmoe’ has in fact had serious, responsible weapons training.
No, Israel doesn’t have the same problem because Israel has a much smaller population. What is often ignored is that the united states is the third most populous country in the World. It may have the highest total number of mass shootings in the western industrialized world, but it doesn’t have the highest rate of mass shootings relative to population.
(this in no way is meant to suggest that gun violence isn’t a problem. It very much is, but it isn’t an exclusively american problem, or a simple problem that can be solved with a simple solution).
Who does have the highest rate of mass shootings to population?
I assume you’re talking a country with a functioning government and not in the middle of a civil war or something like that.
It’s annoyingly difficult to provide a decent answer. I can show you an article that gives the top spot to Honduras. I can show you another that gives it to NORWAY. And there’s those countries that are “functional” but can’t provide usable data.
What the article says, depressingly, seems to depend heavily on what the article writer wants it to say, with the details massaged by carefully defining aspects of the data such as what constitutes a mass shooting or a functioning nation, or a western nation, to get the desired result.
My suspicion is that a lot of those may win by being small countries with a single bad shooting. Norway certainly does.
Averaged over a longer period, it likely wouldn’t.
Definitely in the case of the list that had Norway. The bias was unmistakable even if you didn’t know it was a conservative site that posted it. It’s all about picking the stats you want to tell the story you want.
The whole thing from top to bottom is a mess. I think the only clear thing we can take from it is wherever the US appears on the list, it’s not good enough.
As someone living in Norway, I can say that there’s no shortage of reports of violence in the country, but most of them involve domestic abuse and when death is involved, the murder weapon is usually a knife. If any website tries to paint our country as some utopia free of violence because of our gun control, that’s rubbish, but it is true that gun violence is extremely rare here.
“Israel doesn’t have a mass shooting problem in the first place”
Erm… I think the Palestinians would disagree, and the Israelis would say “Yes, but we do have a mass exploding-people-to-pieces problem, and mass rock throwing problem”
The last time a college shooting was stopped by armed civilians was 1966 at the University of Texas, and the civilians didn’t hit the shooter but kept him pinned down so LEO could shoot him from inside the building he was using as a sniper nest.
No, there’s a newer one on the list that was posted, in 1998:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Middle_School_dance_shooting
That’s not a college shooting. It occurred at an off-campus, after-hours dance for middle-schoolers.
I was reading about this case a few days ago. Although there are a handful of outliers before this date it is considered the first in the trend of US school shootings.
In Whitman’s impromptu will he asks that if his life insurance policy is valid it should be used to pay his debts, and to “donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.”
In retrospect this is pretty chilling.
Does Die Hard count?
xmas movies do not count.
Last week at a Waffle House in Charleston, South Carolina.
People tend to forget that Columbine was a failed bombing. Had the bombs worked, the deaths would have been in the hundreds. http://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/trevinwax/2012/10/09/7-myths-about-the-columbine-shooting/
Perhaps, perhaps not. The bombs worked in Boston; 264 injured, but only three dead.
That’s the difference between an open air schrapnel bomb, and an enclosed incendiary device.
As posted 2 days ago:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/03/do-civilians-with-guns-ever-stop-mass-shootings/
Of course, prevented deaths do not get the same coverage as actual.
except it wont happen because law abiding citizens aren’t allowed to carry guns on most school premises. so that only leaves assholes like toes dad and guys like the sandy hook killers.
No, because non-law abiding citizens arren’t allowed to carry either!
Of course, it won’t be able to stop them fully until we’ve actually DESTROYED all the guns, and why not ? We have no need for guns for ANYTHING, they’re completely useless and too risky to keep around for just a hobby.
A gunless world is a meaningless dream. You can destroy whatever guns you want, you cannot destroy the knowledge of how to make them, or the ability to conceal the ones that are made.
Actually you can, but it would take a lot of work.
if anything Fahrenheit451 proved this to be false mindlink.
You can try to remove something and people who want it
will still find ways to get it. just as r_r has said
the knowledge wont be lost unless you are advocating lining
up people who know how to create guns of any type and kill
them along with their families and anyone associated with them
so as not to let the knowledge spread.
that last paragraph was just an extreme thing, i know you aren’t
advocating that.
but yeah knowledge will always come back at some point. you go to burn the details form a book on building and someone will begin to hide those books to be found later on by other generations.
“You can try to remove something and people who want it
will still find ways to get it.”
Yeah, but isn’t the main reason people want guns in the first place, that they want to defend themselves against OTHER people with guns ? Therefore, by removing guns from the world, from culture, from knowledge (and yes, it’s hard to think of a “purge” of this scale that wouldn’t be just as horrendus as the mass shootings, I’m talking theoretically here) would there still be anyone left that WANTED to bring the secret of guns back?
“but yeah knowledge will always come back at some point. ”
That is true, still there would at least be a period of peace without any gun violence…
fact of the matter is that no matter what you do some one is gonna have a gun hell i have a few from WW2 because i collect them as antiques. a gun is a weapon and a tool just like a sword or bow and no matter what you do they will always exist and some one will always know how to use them. also look at it this way swords are completely obsolete and yet i own a few and am actually capable at using them.
You are assuming that all people are scrupulous. The problem is that there are violent people who do not care if they harm or injure others to get what they want (and some WANT to harm and injure others). I will agree that the most rational reason to own a gun is to have a way to fight back against other people with guns, but if the only reason we owned guns was to defend against guns, there would be no gun violence.
Can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
Because nothing makes things safer than MORE GUNS.
Utter bollocks.
Reduce the number and kinds of guns available, and even the bad guys can’t get them.
Enforce the medical checks that most states seem to require and you stop guns falling into the hands of people who patently should not be carrying them. People like the VTEC killer.
I don’t see the bad guys in Europe – unless they’re terrorists and they source them from abroad – carrying assault weapons as a matter of course.
Some misguided Englishman tried to assemble a gun from parts sourced on the internet. He was arrested.
The thing is, I suspect – I know – people in the US send gun parts and ammo via post. I don’t see them arrested.
It’s about reducing the chances of bad guys getting hold of weapons. It’s not about prying the damn things from your cold dead hands.
so, here’s the thing. Even in “enlightened” countries, it’s not that hard to get your hands on a gun if you really really one one. Pretty damned easy, actually. Interesting thing though country with the absolutely lowest gun crime rate is a little country called Switzerland – a country where military service is mandatory and nearly every single person has a military rifle because of it.
SO why is this? It’s surprisingly simple. Switzerland -enforces- their gun laws and the US does a shit job about enforcement. All the bans and regulations won’t work if you don’t back it up with proper enforcement, but the cops in the us are so much more worried about a dime bag of weed than they are a legit threat like an illegally carried firearm. if the laws already on the books were actually -enforced- the problem would be a great deal better, as seen here: http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/the-swiss-difference-a-gun-culture-that-works/
Looks like it’s time to post this again.
Aside from being misleading this is a complete lie. Switzerland does not have the lowest gun crime rate in the world, not even close. It has an above average rate of firearms murder per capita that is above average in Europe.
I hate not being able to edit my posts.
“It has a rate of firearms murder per capita that is above average in Europe.”
It’s not about mental illness. It’s about emotional stability and control. Studies show that the most common factor in violence is anger (even in the cases where the person has mental illness). In the US, our culture of masculinity has severely limited the number of “acceptable” emotions a male individual can feel/express. Anger is basically the most “masculine” and thus most acceptable. Partially because of this, we are very bad about controlling anger (and our politicians and news media loves to leverage anger to their benefit). When you have a culture of people who have easy access to gun, are encouraged to feel angry, and then those people have a target to be angry at, you will get gun violence.
There was a study done that checked instances of gun violence, and found that most of the perpetrators often had records of domestic violence, assault, restraining orders, etc. Interestingly enough, these are things that would show up… on a background check. So, perhaps instead of demonizing mental illness (and opening another avenue to violate the privacy of individuals’ medical records), perhaps we should try to keep guns out of people who have violent tendencies?
i feel empty now
___________
I wrote that first bit yesterday just after I read this strip, and still whenever I think of it, I get . . . like, [i]echoes.[/i] Let’s just say it’s a good thing I had no pressing obligations today, and leave it at that.
Huh, I reverted to bbc code. I am not as recovered as I thought.
There, there.
I just read the news about Totalbiscuit having terminal cancer. After a few minutes of emptiness I try to go back to my normal routine, notice it’s midnight, check DoA.
Whoops.
I’m sorry, TotalBiscuit has who what now? …. Scuse me, I now need to go be more sad over that way…
He had colon cancer, he beat it. But now he has liver cancer, and most people only survive it three years.
When you say most people, do you mean some folks go beyond 3 years, or that some fall short of it? Or are we lookin at a mix of the 2?
That would mean that three years is the average – some do better, some do worse.
Almost nobody lives beyond three years. It usually appears on much older folks.
He’s still relatively young so his chances of long-term survival are slightly higher.
Who is TotalBiscuit?
This guy. YouTuber & gaming critic.
Beat a type of cancer and gets another. Sheesh,what did the man do that his life decided to be a bongo?
Goddamn keyboard,I meant “bongo” not “tit”.!
*bongo. Third time’s the charm.
Ok,I’m either going crazy or whenever i type the synonim of “horny dog”,it changes it to “tit”.Seriously somebody else try to type…you know.
Yeah, this is a thing that’s been happening for a while. Although, is ‘bongo’ getting changed now too? Because if so, that seems new…
First, you mean female dog. Second, I think somebody’s been messing with your browser, because the word it’s changed to isn’t ‘tit’.
“Camaro Cruisin& Losin'”
Now, the wrong tree up,
Inqn’s towards a bruisin,
feeling of your choosin
I’d deal you but your losing
Nah, you are barking… mad.
but not thinking,
That isnt what that word … means
Sad Is how you sound; I’d Glean,
youve been drinking;
we’ll not see you round, Lad
One is a dam, the other A Drum,
youve beat on, too many times,
till word-of-God’s patience is now numb,
Dammit Willis gave you three tries,
With that Misogyny, you dont get free fries
If my rhyme makes you “horny”
dont you fret -tit,
Dont be a sad wanker all forlorn-y
im not a cocktease, ill still wet it,
Ill take the Top and scratch that Itch,
But one thing I wont do,
At the risk of Great Kitsch ,
is call you my BeYitch
But Im still fetching, My rod
you can be leching .
Get out your bongoes,
‘Your banned , I’d bet it,’
thats how the song Goes,
Another gamer gets it.
/ Takes a bow.
Im available for wedding, funerals , and whatver holiday it is when the Timelord is on
For about eight months now a slur against women has been filtered so it now appears to be a word for a type of drum.
Alright,I misinterpreted the word,we also have a word in my language that resembles bongo(the drums Stoneheart mentioned) ,,bongau”(accidentaly read it in my language and thought that’s what it means).Sorry people.Btw Adam,nice poetry.
Homework for today:
Count the bongos in the comments of this comic.
Because that was the day this filter was put in place.
@Amazistool
Ctrl-F is telling me 75.
Surving cancer means you still have a 60% or so chance to get the same or another cancer, cause that sh’t spreads. And the docs can never be sure everything is gone. 🙁
It’s an evil thing.
Obligatory xkcd.
(Also read the alt-text).
Well, early in his career, he wished for a dev to “get cancer and die”. Much as I love him, that’s rather poetic.
With that in mind, I will most likely die in a fire.
D:
Sorry, I’m drawing a blank on TotalBiscuit. Is that a person who comments here? In that case that sucks. Hell cancer sucks for everybody.
Well-known gaming personality. I think he does reviews.
A youtuber with a degree of notoriety. Anyway, yeah. Cancer sucks. Don’t think you’ll find anyone who disagrees on that one.
Damn. He was kind of an ass, but that’s still sad.
Getting all according to plan.
Urgh, feel dirty even saying that.
Don’t feel.You felt the urge to say it.
http://i.imgur.com/fDSKHvl.png
Oh my gods.
I had to.
And NOW I have “get in the robot, Becky” stuck in my head >_<
There,there.
oh NO
Ahahahaha
HA HA HA HA HA
yOU
There’s so much here…
I mean, panel one, where they’ve fully swapped and now Becky is shielding Joyce as best she can from her murderous rampaging father is just an immense act of badassery. Ditto on being the only one not to hit the pavement when the shot rang out. Similarly badass to keep her cool and still try to reason with him and appeal to whatever vestiges of empathy he may still possess.
That panel 3 with everyone down on the ground, all scared that they’re about to die. 🙁
And that panel 4. Joyce is thoroughly traumatized and convinced she is about to die here. And so she makes sure she says the thing she thinks is most important in the world. Showing her love to Becky, giving her that last something before she leaves this mortal coil. Saying what she thinks Becky has most wanted to hear ever, but also reiterating her genuine affection as a friend. It’s so important to her she gets it out that she’s stuck on repeat with it. And those pleading eyes on Becky as she comforts and hugs her. Becky knows Joyce doesn’t need another trauma and is trying in her tiny way to provide some cold comfort in the face of unbelievable danger.
That panel 5 with Toedad committing such great evil with a look of emotional pain upon his face. So dedicated to hardening his heart against everything to protect against the “demons” that he secures his “win” against his daughter simply because she is not willing to put others in mortal danger just to save herself.
Which leads to panel 6. Just… :c
Becky has been unwavering and so strong to risk a great uncertainty. And that little bit of happiness. That little bit of herself has been violently stolen from her by her dad’s unrelenting shitiness. She is broken in that last panel. Unwilling to let further traumas befall a woman she loves so very deeply, unwilling to risk further danger to the other students and with the worry still deep in her heart about the dangerous situation her current deepest love was put in. Literally willing to sacrifice herself, face untold amounts of abuse and awfulness and possibly forever forestalling her ability to escape again and certainly the little bit of space she has carved here.
Literally willing to betray that which is most core to herself, just to stop this dangerous man and save everyone else.
It’s heartbreaking. Debilitatingly heart-breaking as I’ve known so many who’ve clung to closet doors far longer than they should because of their fears of just this type of fuckwittedness. Who’ve had to prioritize safety both for themselves and their loved ones over their own selves.
And the worst bit is that the lesson Toedad learned is these shows of force work. This impending threat works as far as he is concerned. In his twisted outlook, he stared down the Beast that had stolen his daughter and he won. And he now thinks he knows what he’ll need to do next time to ensure that Satan can no longer grasp her soul.
But all he’s really done is broken his daughter by threatening all her friends with death. Becky is far too good for her own good here and I can only hope that somehow Toedad is waylayed into an accident by that November 10th mark.
HOLY GOD, HOW DID YOU DO THAT SO FAST.
Probably saw it early via Patreon.
Yeah, not gonna lie, I kinda guessed that. But I still didn’t expect that much text THIS early.
Patreon supporters get advance warning.
It doesn’t help
Not even a little, no.
I prepared it yesterday because I had a lot of feelings about this one and didn’t trust myself to be coherent when it went live.
Patreon supporters see the strip early. They pre-write comments, copy and paste after refreshing. The strip updates around 12:02:11, Willis time. It can get pretty competitive for the first comments.
12:02:11 ANY CHANCE YOU HAVE A MORE PRECISE TIME? lolz that is impressive
That gotta have taken a good hour to write 😮
we gotta regular T Campbell over here #fandomreference
This is such a great write-up on what’s happening here. I am so much in awe of Becky. Just look at the third panel when she’s trying to support Joyce. People are hiding, Ross the ChildMurderer stands tall and firm with his gun, Joyce is crumpling but Becky is by her side.
He hasn’t murdered anyone.
Yet.
Depends on where that shot eventually comes down.
he fired straight up, that bullet will tumble on the way down. it
won’t even break the skin
Your analysis of this arc is awesome. Absolutely devastating, but awesome. Hopefully someone or something intervenes before he can take her off campus.
Another interpretation of Joyce not diving for cover – she’s gone hunting with her father before. So she might also be aware that the rifle (previously noted as a Ruger v1 Varminter) is a single-shot… and that now is the perfect time to get close and try to take it off of him.
Not that that would end badly or anything…
Joyce’s awareness notwithstanding, I figured Willis had a storytelling reason for picking a single-shot rifle (and a visually distinctive rifle that some reader was bound to recognize) as Ross’s weapon.
If she knew, why would she be agreeing tho?
Already answered by David: “now is the perfect time to get close and try to take it off of him”.
Because if she doesn’t do that and tries to run away, he will re-load it.
And then aim for her.
I’m pretty sure he’s already reloading it in Panel 3.
Damn dude…..
+
Seconding Bagge and FriendlyNeighbourhoodDave. Also this analysis helped calm me down a little, which is nice.
I don’t know of Becky has been broken or if it is just the finality this brings to losing her family combined with Joyce’s words. This is a whole another level of betrayal of family. Becky is so brave. Joyce is so caring thinking about what Becky needs to hear more than anything right now… And brave despite her terror.
There issuch a depth of strength in these two.
Such well played drama… I just wish it didn’t cut quite so cose to real life. Then again so many LGBT youth face this and almost no one is telling their story, especially since things are getting worse lately. (They are too willing to come out when they should not.)
Just want to say I love your comments and insights on the story. I rarely have anything to add or reply (that I can phrase well), but I enjoy reading them very much.
THESE are the types of comments I’m here for, thank you. I also appreciate you saying, “still try to reason with him and appeal to whatever vestiges of EMPATHY he may still possess” instead of sanity, I’m seeing so much ableism from the commenters today.
I find it interesting to watch Becky grow and change like this. Initially, she was just Joyce’s religious friend from home or something. When she got here and came out, we realized there was more to her. And then she got mildly but understandably annoying with her newfound freedom. (Something I saw a lot of commenters try to be nice about, which I liked.) And then to show us such strength of character and bravery and self-sacrifice. I’m Jewish, so a lot of Christian stuff isn’t really my thing to say the least, but I’m sure she doesn’t even realize that she’s basically martyring herself, which is more in line with her belief system than her father’s actions. (Which also mirrors how Joyce took a lot of the things taught to her about Jesus to heart more than her parents had.)
Even if Toedad gets away, he has opened fire and threatened people on college campus. (He shot at the air, of course, but still.) I hardly imagine he won’t get arrested for this. Enough people know who he and Becky are in the main cast’s circle that SOMEONE would spill the beans, I think, if questioned.
That, and he’s driving a car with licence plates that I’m sure somebody will either remember or take a picture of.
At least the fatphobia seems to have died off. Comments a couple of strips ago were seriously gross to read >_<
Ross…just…Ross. Holy shit, man.
If only that made things better. Sadly it would likely only make things worse.
Er it posted under the Wong one. This should be to the kill Ross post.
Ah, I thought for a moment you were considering the ramifications of Ross, actually, taking a holy shit!
I was just in too much shock too see it from the strip, because it would be the best fanfic ever¡!!!!!!
Compared to Ross, any shit is holy shit.
He’s clearly going through some sort of mental breakdown… Here is a man who had a strong grip on his life and then his wife died and then he tried to hold on to his daughter and she’s clearly slipping away from him and he’s panicking… it’s really sad and I just want this to be over!
SOME ONE KILL ROSS
Easy there
Kill them when we are at happy times not sad times
But killing Ross is surely what makes it the happy times.
Becky seeing her father get shot and killed in front of her? Yeah, happy times.
The police will oblige, after that gunshot.
Yeah, I dont think Ross is coming out of this on the right side of the ground.
fundamentalism, not even once.
*P.A. system sirens go off*
*WOOOOOOO*
“This is a test of the Emergency Muzak P.A. System. If this –
Actually, this isn’t a test. Some nutjob Toe-person is actually firing a gun. Lose your shit immediately, and run for the nearest exit.
I repeat, this is most certainly NOT a test.”
Generally the protocol for an active shooter is the opposite of that – remain in the building, lock yourself in a classroom and stay out of sight.
Good job in the gravatar, by the way!
*on
Oh no, Becky.
No…
The good news is toedad is going to go away forever now!
I just hope Becky doesn’t get fucked up too bad in the process :/
Naawwww. Probably not forever.
Depending on his record it’s more likely to be something between 10 and 30 years tho.
And then he gets out, tracks down his daughter who is now married to a woman and gets down to “unfinished business”.
Somehow this 10 year thing doesn’t feel right.
A lot of things don’t make sense when you focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation
Yeah, pretty much this.
The first clue that our prison system is fucked up for me was learning that prisons are not owned by government but are actually a business. That blew my mind. The whole system is broken.
Altho I’m not sure how much rehab would help everyone? But it would probably be better than what we have now. If we switched our punishment-focused system to one that prioritized proactive prevention and rehab, it would probably be a lot better.
Except we’re never getting past freshman year so.. Forever!
I stepped out of the corner… I stepped out of the corner and this is what I walked in on…. why did I step out of the corner, nothing bad was happening there….
“All because of that Sierra Mist!”
”I told you to buy Sprite,but NO!”
It wasn’t me I tells ya! It was the Mist! The Mist made me do it! THE MIIIIISSSSSTTTT!!!!
*pokes head out of corner* Is it safe now…Nope… *retreats back into corner and loads up another season of Friends*
WAIT, PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!!! AT LEAST TELL ME WHAT SEASON YOU’RE ON!!!
please someone call an apb and track him down.
No no no no no no no no no no no no no
No no nononono nonononononono! Nooooooooo!
There’s no limit!
Sorry not sorry.
Is it safe ye-
NOPE
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPENOPENOPE…
Becky… Becky no…
The worst part is, I am almost certain it doesn’t end here. Becky’s not going back with her dad… Something’s gonna happen, someone’s gonna get hurt… I just hope it’s not her… or her rescuer.
Could be anyone. After all, the bullet hasn’t come down yet.
There are a lot of deaths caused by stray bullets…
A falling bullet won’t really hurt anyone. Like it’ll sting like a motherfucker but unless it hits you smack in the eye it’s basically harmless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
“Bullets fired into the air usually fall back with terminal velocities much lower than their muzzle velocity when they leave the barrel of a firearm. Nevertheless, people can be injured, sometimes fatally, when bullets discharged into the air fall back down to the ground.”
“In Puerto Rico, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve, the CDC says.”
Yep, bullets don’t magically vanish into the luminiferous aether. Drop anything out of the sky at its terminal velocity (which is a factor of wind resistance, and bullets are wonderfully aerodynamic), and you could end up with kinetic energy to kill. Even a slight angle off perfect vertical leaves the bullet traveling at terminal velocities sufficient to (at minimum) penetrate human flesh, and worse clear through bone.
Mythbusters Episode 50, Bullets Fired Up
If by some “act of god” someone did manage a perfect straight vertical shot (where the bullet stops spinning and starts to tumble, decreasing its terminal velocity) that lands back down on their own head, they would be the one person who won’t be killed by their stupidity. Tragically firing guns in the air will not award the shooter a Darwin Award for removing themselves from the gene pool.
Ross has called up a non-0 probability that he just wounded or killed someone with that random air shot. And it may not even be someone in close proximity. Could a mile or more away.
“Ross has called up a non-0 probability that he just wounded or killed someone with that random air shot. And it may not even be someone in close proximity. Could a mile or more away.”
Like, all the way to forest…..?
….. I really hope that doesn’t happen here. I think it would be hard for me to find it funny if the comic actually had someone die because of that stray bullet later.
Congratz, you’re not a psychopath!
Psycopath ? I think people keep forgetting this is a work of FICTION, and in fiction ANYTHING can be played for laughs, and we certainly have no moral obligation to feel anything for the characters. It makes the story better, more effectful, if we do, but it certainly doesn’t make us psychopaths if we don’t!
Im hoping she does get in the car and we have an epic car/motorcycle chase
Joyce finally gets to ride that motorcycle!
And while riding it,she finds it not very exciting as she tought.”Dreams crushed”
It would be exciting if it involves chasing after your kidnapped best friend against a guy with a rifle.
And the cavalry rides to the rescue any second, now!
…right?
Im with you. C’mon Cavalry! (Sal ?)
I’m thinking more ALL the characters!
All the characters…except for Blaine and Ryan and whoever else is that bad
Note: Faz and Mary don’t even come close to being evil enough
everyone else though!
Or Mike. Mike’d get things done.
Galasso would be leading them
“GO MY ARMY, DEFEAT TOE DAD!!!!”
(And Subs!)
Why do you want to defeat the subs? They never did anything to you except be delicious.
You monster.
Mendo perfers paninis
I had that thought!
The bullet will fall back down and kill him dead.
Or just ruin his shoulder.
Poor Becky. Her choices, as defined by her shitstain of a “father”, are to either concede defeat and get in the car and be subjected to whatever he has in mind, or refuse and others, including her father, get hurt or die. How anyone could subject someone they claim to love to such a horrible situation is beyond me.
In short, I hope Ross gets eaten by a surprise T-Rex.
Just gonna point out: Given that he fired his gun on campus, in front of witnesses, before ordering his daughter into the car, it is extremely unlikely that Becky will spend more than 15 minutes with him before the police arrive, recognize her as a hostage, and get her away from him. If nothing else, this assures she can gain emancipation from him. He won’t be able to order her around anymore.
Except that he does not give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s… This man does not recognize secular law.
Secular law categorically does not care whether or not you recognize it.
Maybe psychological emancipation but the legal one is already done, she is 18.
My guess is as Becky is approaching Ross, we hear another shot, and Ross falls to the ground as the police move in. And that’s being hopeful.
15 minutes is a long time and he can be far away before the police know enough about what’s going on to start looking for that car.
On the other hand, Becky has Dina’s phone, which Ross isn’t likely to expect. She can be tracked by that.
On the gripping hand, for dramatic reasons, I expect this to play out here with these characters, not change into a police procedural.
Not gonna get tracked by the phone. In order for a person to be tracked via mobile phone requires a court order above and beyond that of a warrant. Not is it half as accurate as people think it is when seeing it on tv.
Most likely to happen: Joyce tells the cops where Becky and Ross live. That is much quicker and far more accurate.
Well, yeah. Assuming they go home.
But tracking kidnap victims by phone happens fairly often. Especially if it’s a smartphone with location services turned on.
Mostly it doesn’t work because the kidnappers know it too and ditch the phone.
Though since it’s Dina’s phone, she could track it herself — aren’t there apps or something that allow people to track their own phone, like if they can’t remember where they left it?
There are, and I’ve used mine. Turns out that my phone was under a picnic table in a highway rest stop about eighty kilometres away.
Lots of witnesses here.
Probability that someone remembers the number on the car plate and has a mobile to inform the police almost 100%.
Ross does not strike me as the type who has prepared a second car in the surroundings.
Nah, somebody’s got to take this piece of shit out.
Holy shit, dude. I see a high-speed chase in his future. If this makes it to trial, the jury won’t even need to deliberate.
Can someone just. Punch Ross? In the face? With a wrecking ball? With spikes? On fire? Please?
For a nonviolent and kind person like me, this was an unusually satisfactory mental image.
Really hoping the police show up now. Pretty please.
They’re definitely on their way at this point. It’s just a matter of how much can go down in the next few minutes.
Goodbye, one place on campus where Joyce feels safe.
Surely someone with authority will intervene before Becky gets carted off, right?
Your first sentence just completely broke me. Damn. Damnnnnnnnn. Poor Joyce =/
Oh my god I hadn’t even thought of that. That’s heartbreaking.
As sad as this is, though, I kind of appreciate Willis showing how there isn’t like some sort of balance where you’ll probably only get traumatized ONCE in life. People who get traumatized once seem to get traumatized more than once, in my experience. Can’t catch a break.
I’m pretty sure Joyce will be done with college after this semester…
POSSIBLY THE RIGHT CHOICE BUT FUCK
There is no good choices here
Kicking him in the nads while his single-shot rifle is empty, perhaps?
Holy shit. This is so fucking vile and makes me so angry. SOMEONE COME AND TAKE THIS ASSHOLE DOWN. NOW. PLEASE?
Sometimes bullets fired into the air kill people when coming back down, or at least injure them… I kinda hope he gets taken out (not killed) by his own bullet, I don’t think it’s going to happen, and I hate to wish ill on him but still.
Yeah, the instant I saw the second panel I figured someone was going to get hit. That’s the perfect way to rub a bit of salt in.
Unlikely. Because they have so much energy, they go quite high, so a few arcminutes go a long way. They don’t come down where they were fired.
This is true unfortunately they do come down though and hopefully no one is under it when it does
Actually Mythbusters did a study and found that bullets lose velocity only when fired at a 90 degree angle. Any other angle, even 90.5 will result in injury if it hits.
Doubtful if Ross had that gun at a straight 90 degrees. The good news is that he has fired his single bullet and now the gun is unloaded.
90.5°?
I think you mean 89.5°.
Same thing (supplementary angles)
What’s the initial speed of a bullet? Can we estimate 300m/s?
So what we need is the time it takes to come back down, when it will be at the opposite velocity. If we make “up” positive (and if you accept my shitty high-scholl kinematics):
-300m/s = 300m/s – 0.5gt^2, g=9.8m/s^2
-600m/s = -(4.9m/s^2)t^2
122s^2 ~ t^2
t ~ 11s.
And this is assuming it was shot at a perfect 90-degree angle, and it ignores air resistance. Both of these factors should lower the bullet’s maximum height.
If the bullet is plot important, we’ll find out soon.
Wait, SHIT, time isn’t squared for this! I’ve mixed up calculating velocity with calculating distance.
So the time it takes isn’t 11s.
-600m/s = (-9.8m/s^2)t
t ~ 60s
Shit, never mind.
Close…
“Firearms expert Julian Hatcher studied falling bullets in the 1920s and calculated that .30 caliber rounds reach terminal velocities of 90 m/s (300 feet per second or 204 miles per hour).[7] A bullet traveling at only 61 m/s (200 feet per second) to 100 m/s (330 feet per second) can penetrate human skin”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
I really hope it lands in an open area and doesn’t hit anyone.
as linked below: http://mythbustersresults.com/episode50
Ross,stop doing the puppy eyes thing!I have no sympathy for you!
Tomorrow’s strip is naruto-style flash back gratuitous backstory of Ross for the next month
please… no…
Followed by flashbacks to Ross getting in the car, pulling up at the curb, finding Becky & Dina, then two months of a flashback from Dinas childhood, then flashbacks of the first flashbacks, then four months of filler arcs with Riley goofing around.
^ True story.
I said, short of everyone dying, this is the worse case scenario. If Becky get’s into that car, she’s as good as dead.
Not quite. Someone’ll call the cops, and even if he gets away, there are 20+ eyewitnesses, and they’ve got his plates. He’s racked up 3+ felonies in the last 5 minutes, so he’d be something of a priority suspect.
Hm, let’s see. 1) Assault with a deadly weapon? Waving his firearm around like that counts as such, right? 2) Whatever the legal term is for firing a shot into the air 3) Open-carry on campus 4) Terroristic threat 5) Attempted? kidnapping
I’m sure there’s a whole bunch more that I can’t think of since I have limited legal knowledge. Yeah I’d say he’s in loads of trouble and there’s no way he gets to drive Becky home and put her through whatever conversion hell he’s planning.
There’s also battery versus Dina.
Right, yes. So that’s at least 6.
7.When he will try to get away from the cops that will chase him.
Doubt that one would count. The only battery he did to her really was just getting her off of him and then leaving.
I doubt that could be defended as self defense though since he started the whole thing
Yeah, especially as he’s a whole lot bigger than her AND armed with a rifle.
Dina didn’t catch up with Becky, though. That suggests he did more than just throw her off. I’m still expecting to get to know he broke her leg, or something. :c
no that was not battery, that was assault, she could defend herself. battery is physical violence against someone incapable of defending themselves
In most jurisdictions, assault is the threat of violence, battery is actually doing it.
Ross has committed both.
“Incapable of defending themselves” isn’t a distinction I’m aware of.
Coercion is also against the law. Forcing someone to get into a car (or preventing them from getting into a car ) is coercion.
But then again, a scenario where a car with Becky, Ross and the rifle is stopped by dozens of armed cops, all apparently “working for the Devil” to Ross, might not be the safest situation to be in either.
1) nope. Never used the weapon on anyone. Only if a person being hit by a stay bullet gets reported will that happen.
2) discharging a firearm within city limits is a low class misdemeanor.
3) felony due to federal gun free school zones
4) no threat of terrorism. Worst he could get on this front would be inciting a panic
5) coercion and kidnapping.
Two felonies, several misdemeanors.
Assuming he did little more than throw Dina off of him, there is no charge there.
In an assault with a deadly weapon case, the victim doesn’t need to by physically harmed by the deadly weapon. Instead, the victim only needs to experience an “apprehension of imminent harm” in order for an assault to occur. It’s enough if the defendant purposely frightened the victim into thinking that they’d be harmed by the weapon.
-legalmatch.com
Ignore the prior post and my fucked-up HTML.
Yeah, actually shooting them gets a “attempted murder” charge.
Terroristic threat = / = Threat of terrorism. A terroristic threat is defined as a declaration of intent to commit a crime of violence against another with the intent of threatening a person, building, facility, or public or private habitat (thanks wikipedia for the definition). Ross most definitely threatened violence when he pointed his gun at his fucking daughter.
I don’t think he wants to kill her, he could have done that if he wanted to.
I’m guessing he wants to send her to gay conversion therapy, which is also fucked up but she’d be alive. In a way.
That was always Plan A, but I suspect he left room for potential Plan Bs.
I have a sneaking suspicion plan Z is ‘kill her so she cannot be corrupted further.’
Which is going to make it really dangerous for her when the cops come to arrest him.
“Even the authorities have sided with the Devil, but I love you too much to let him have you when you were so close to getting better. We shall meet again in Heaven”.
Even if Ross and Becky drive away in the car together without the police getting involved [which isn’t going to happen now that there are witnesses], even if Ross tries to ‘Pressure’ Becky into being Straight [which isn’t going to happen since Becky is out of the closet], even after all that, Ross is going to try and get Becky married off real quick.
Becky is wearing a Scarlet Letter, the only religious type who would have anything to do with her is an abusive bastard who will beat on her as much as he wants because no one will give a damn. After all, ‘Becky is a sinner and deserves to be abused’ [the abusive husband and religious communities thoughts, not mine].
So, even if Becky survives til tomorrow, if she get’s into the car with Ross, her life is going to be a living hell until she either tries to run away or eventually get’s killed.
Ross isn’t thinking this through, obviously.
ugh, that bullet’s gonna come down and hit someone, isn’t it
Possibly, but IIRC a bullet falling via gravity is little more than a painful nuisance and not deadly.
Mythbusters took a look at it, actually. In the end they found out about a couple of cases in which people were legit harmed by falling bullets, and one of ’em was killed.
http://mythbustersresults.com/episode50
Well shit… this scene just got darker. And my recalling correctly is FALSE!
They can be deadly as well.Here.
About as deadly as hail, at this weight.
Not according to that link
People get killed by hail too.
Yes, I provided examples of that, but not as many as falling bullets, therefore not as “deadly as hail”.
Google “child killed celebratory gunfire” and then keep scrolling until “as deadly as hail” sinks in.
They showed this on Mythbusters. Basically it’s very hard to shoot a bullet perfectly straight up in the air. Most fall down in a ballistic trajectory and can still be dangerous.
And even if you shoot it straight up, there is wind.
In some part of the Philippines, corrupt police would shoot the sky at New Years. At least one civilian died two years in the a row 🙁
That’s one unlucky civilian.
…I didn’t dare say it. Kudos.
*snrk*
Must have been one of my relatives. We be Hard To Kill.
Uh. People die here every year during Xmas and New Year because stupid people fire their guns into the air.
Hopeful thought (though highly unlikely): Ross packs/loads his own rounds, and he’s got blanks loaded right now. Big noise/scare, no direct danger (though the panic & danger associated with causing said panic are still very real)
Again, hopeful, if not likely, possibility.
No, it’s not. Why would it? No in a physics sense, in a “What does this add to the story” sense.
It’s going to come down because if this storyline has one theme, it’s “What can go wrong, will do so. Horribly.”
Also, because of basic gravity.
Man it’s too bad Ross is absolutely getting arrested for this isn’t it
Yeah, dang it. Being in jail will put a big crimp in his plan to get Becky to “Come to Penis” . . . I mean “Jesus”. He’ll just have to pray the old-fashioned way.
Come on, Amazi-Girl!!! Where are you???!!!
In class, probably.
Enjoying her new Transformer figurine.
…Kinky
She did refer to it as “[her] fucking robot” last we saw her.
Safely away from harm, as, I hope, all the other characters that aren’t in this strip. Amazi-girl may be awesome, but I do not want her anywhere near this. In his current state of mind, I’m 99% certain Ross would shoot her without a second thought.
Panel five is probably the scariest part of all this. He genuinely thinks this is what he needs to do to save his daughter.
I’ve been drinking a lot tonight but… is… is that Walky on the other side of the fountain? The hair makes me think yes, but he’s also not tagged here.
Oh. Right. And Joyce was also definitively left here alone by Sal earlier. Bah.
I was shortly wondering too, but even if he doesn’t like Joyce particulary, he wouldn’t just go and stand on the *other* side of the fountain from her.
It’s this dude.
http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/124984014817/anybody-wanna-name-tattoo-skateboard-glasses-guy#notes
You have good eyes.
Actually I objectively do not. I was born with cataracts :p
MUTANT cataracts that actually IMPROVE your vision, right?? *nods vigorously*
It’s pretty easy to make the connection once you notice the skateboard next to him. :3
Shhh, don’t tell them my secret!
Right, of course, what I meant to say is, yes, Meghan has super eyes!
Man,if Walky meets that guy,I’m sure his first words to him willl be:”Cool,I’m going to grow a beard!”
“Actually, THIS GUY is my twin. Forget Sal”
“Walky,Sal we have to tell you something. This is Thomas(I am not good at naming people,if you have a better one,say it),Walky’s true twin brother. You see,when he was born the doctors didn’t notice Walky and closed my womb.Somehow you managed to survive Walky and were born with Sal a couple of years later.But before you were born we lost Thomas while camping in a forest. We found his backpack covered in blood and thought he was mauled by a bear.”
Reaction:O_O
,,Actually that’s what Linda speculates about the twins part.”
When i got nothing better I imagine crazy fanfic.And also the fact that I’ve been laying in bed 16/24 per day since last week due to a cold.”Lucky me.”
Oh hey, it’s Sayid. Technically his second appearance, I think. Not tagged yet, though.
Hmm… what’s he looking at I wonder ? From the angle and shapes, I’d say an ambulance with a paramedic standing next to it in panel two.
Too pale, blow up the panel and check out the ski tone.
I dunno what a ski tone is but it sounds awesome! 😀
I think he meant “skin tone”,not sure.
Is the new guy, skater boy
So… I believe Becky mentioned something about the back of her dad’s head exploding?
Cause that seems pretty likely by this point.
KA-SPEW
Police rarely take head shots, for good reason. Six to the chest or back seems more likely, in the event they actually fire on him.
this is shaping up to be one rough first semester
I don’t feel it. I mean, I feel the emotion in this strip, just not the weight of it. We all know Becky’s not going bye bye or getting killed, she’s too popular of a character.
It just, I don’t know it’s just gotten to the point that death is kind of a joke at this point. Which bothers me considering how dramatic everything has been the last few strips. But I mean c’mon, her dad ain’t gonna’ kill anybody important, he might off himself or get tazed by the cops but any actual threat to life is just sorta’…meh.
I’m sorry.
Sometimes drama and suspense don’t come from not knowing whether things are going to be okay, but from not knowing how things will be solved.
Thanks Pouty Joyce.
Pretty much this. It’s my big take-away from this comic, anyway. C:
And you don’t think him dying is gonna be a terrible, visceral thing for everyone else, Becky, Joyce, everyone involved and not even remotely a joke at all? If he dies (or even just goes to jail), that’s gonna have a devastating effect. Just because Becky is not gonna die doesn’t mean her life can’t get any more ruined than it already is. So you don’t believe the stakes are high? They’re high.
I find this arc devastating. The man who’s supposed to love you and protect you, coming to get you with a gun and not caring if he hurts anyone? That’s pretty fucking scary.
The point isn’t whether anyone’s going to be killed. It never has been.
The point is how this crisis will affect Becky’s, Joyce’s, Dina’s and other characters’ lives going forward. The impact it’ll have on their worldviews and assumptions, on their friendships and relationships, on their personalities as a whole.
Weeeeeellllll, this is the second time in a (month?) that Joyce has been violently threatened in some form or another.
“We all know Becky’s not going bye bye or getting killed, she’s too popular of a character.”
Right, and I bet people probably thought the same thing about (spoiler) before she got in that car back in Roomies!, too. That’s why all the people making comments about there potentially being a high-speed chase coming up has me rather antsy.
IIRC Willis already said he’s not killing anyone right now.
Everytime someone says that, all I can think of is the Aladdin sequel.
Everyone knows one of the rules of genies is that they can’t kill you. Which is why Jafar uses it as this incredibly menacing threat. After all, he can do whatever pops into his head, and everyone knows that his poor target is going to live through it all. Death is not the worst thing that can happen, and a promise that death is off the table is not a promise that there will be a happy ending.
Except his reasoning was that due to the comics pacing it would result in literally years of watching characters grieve which would be absolutely the most tediously unbearable thing to read and fates worse than death don’t really sidestep that issue at all.
Exactly. Guh. It drives me nuts that people keep trying to work around the ‘no killing’ rule with things that have exactly the same effect.
Suppose that’s true. Though even that could be worked around.
To be fair, the repeated mantra of “No deaths” drives me a little nuts.
Just because no one is going to die, doesn’t mean that there’s no drama. In fact, there’s much more possibility for long-term impact (more so than killing a character) simply because Willis seems to actually be striving to depict actual PTSD and emotional fallout from crisis points accurately.
So instead of a lot of blockbuster fiction where X character dies and everyone shrugs before the last battle, near scrapes like this leave their scars for life (like in real life).
I understand what you mean, but for me, the tension comes from knowing how much this will emotionally traumatize both Joyce and Becky. The question is HOW MUCH trauma and what specifically will happen to Toedad to cause that.
Seriously though, cops? Amazigirl? Sal with an awesome gang of bikers for whatever reason? Friggin Dexter and Monkey Master?! Anyone?! Anyone gonna show up and put an end to the crazy sauce we got goin on here?
Ruth.
“Excuse me, sir. Firing guns on campus is not allowed. That will cost you one femur.”
“AIEEEEEE!!!!!!”
“Ruth, he needs his femurs to live!”
“Chill out, Joyce. I left him one. He doesn’t need both.
Aw man, now that will only ever exist in my head.
I’ve never understood the “Aieeee” yell. What’s it supposed to sound like? Aye – eeeeeee ? It just sounds weird in my head. Something a Native American might be screaming in an offensive “cowboys vs indians” type old movie when attacking or something.
Think of Bumblebee Guy from The Simpsons.
Ay ay ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
I think that’s where it comes from. Not native american stereotypes specifically, but old movie bad guys in general
I was assuming that particular Aiiiiiiieeeeee was supposed to be Toedad’s cry of pain, but no, I don’t get that particular battle cry either.
Unfortunately, we concluded a while back that Ross’ legs are too short to contain actual femurs. This renders him immune to Ruth’s attack.
Cops, yes. No one else we know should get anywhere near this clusterfuck. Besides, it’s always more interesting when characters stand up and save themselves. I trust that Becky will find a way somehow; she’s shown an incredible amount of courage so far.
Since when is Amazi-girl ever guided by what actions are “reasonable?”
Great, this is happening now. And I don’t even have QC to provide a distraction till Monday.
Since when are the internal struggles of ab ex-death-machine a “distraction?”
no. please no
WELL I GUESS WE HAVE THE ANSWER TO WHETHER OR NOT THE GUN IS LOADED JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ON A CRUTCH.
How many rounds does a varmint rifle have before reloading?
1
uh, why would you have a double trigger if there is one ammo in the chamber ?
I think it’s a safety feature. The first trigger enables the second, which is more sensitive. A more sensitive trigger improves aim by reducing necessary force and extraneous movement, but is at more risk for accidental discharge.
(I could be totally wrong though. That sort of thing is second hand knowledge to me.)
It’s also possible the “second trigger” that was seen before is actually just the back end of the trigger guard.
http://ruger.com/products/no1DE/models.html
Yeah. What looks like a big buff trigger guard mysteriously open at the back is actually the lever that opens the breech. The trigger guard is fairly thin: we don’t see the front or bottom parts of it because they are up against the lever, and the curved line that looks like a second trigger is the back of the trigger guard.
It’s not a double trigger. That’s the back of the trigger guard.
This one has only one, but something like a Ruger 10/22 has ten. Probably less powerful cartridges, though: the 10/22 fires .22 Long Rifle cartridges, and this is probably a 5.56mm weapon.
Lever-action hunting rifle? More like 30-30, .308, or something similar. Looks too big for a .22. 5.56mm is about the least likely. Could also be a lever-action shotgun, probably in 12 gauge, but I think it’s more likely a rifle.
It has been fairly convincingly identified as a Ruger 1 rifle, and in particular as the “1V” variant that is tapped for a scope and has no built-in sights. The barrel, and in particular the bore, looks a bit big, but we are cutting the artist a bit of slack.
It does look a lot like a Ruger, but hard to tell how precise that is so I was presuming Willis went with “looks like a hunting rifle.” The barrel looks too dark to be the Varminter (which comes with a stainless steel barrel), and that’s the one that would be in .223 Remington, but you wouldn’t want to fire 5.56mm out from that. You can in a pinch, but no shooter would want to if they had a choice. You can do the inverse easily enough though.
I turn up this on an image search for “Ruger 1V”
And it looks like I botched the coding
Try this.
It looks a lot like what Toedad has.
Bugger! I guess people are going to have to do their own image searches, becasue I’m incompetent
Anyway: rifle with a black phosphate finish.
This time fer sure!
Ruger 1V picture on Wikipedia
Not the standard factory finish, but ToeDad’s could be customized. Would still be chambered for .223, not 5.56mm though.
It looks to me like there is a shell casing being ejected (the cylindrical object above the “BLAM”). Maybe this isn’t a varmint rifle after all….
But whatever it is, he sureashell has attracted attention to himself now.
Yeah, that’s odd, unless Toedad worked the action.
As much research as I’m sure Willis put into this, I’m sure it’s entirely possible he just missed how the casing ejection works on a varmint rifle.
Indeed, especially as it varies. The Ruger 1V is a falling-block single-shot varmint rifle, but other varmint rifles have different actions, including semi-auto.
I like how everyone’s response to my comment was to basically go “Lol, is it really loaded anymore now that he’s fired it?”, and ignore the fact that we have DEFINITIVE PROOF THAT HE WAS POINTING A LOADED GUN AT HIS OWN CHILD.
My only hope is that time Mr Willis answered a question in Tumblr with “Becky is staying forever!” Or something like that;_;
Or willis did that to throw us off guard.
“Becky is staying forever!”
I thought you had a link to something Willis posted. Why would you do that?
It’s the darker side of my sense of humor.
That was fucking hilarious.
I keep thinking of that too, but i remember it more that she’s a main character. Doesn’t necessarily mean she’s staying. I hope she stays.
Okay, now attempt at coherent response…
…
nooooooooooo… becky… :’c
Too stressed for tears
Jesus Fuck.
Shots fired on a college campus. People saw him take the gun out of his car previously. Those people around the fountain can NOT be the only ones around. There should have been SEVERAL 911 calls at this point and the police will literally be SWOOPING down en mass. If she gets into that car it becomes a hostage situation because he will NOT let her go when confronted with police, he is BEYOND the point of reason and legality at this point.
According to the internet–and it is hard to find reputable sources for this–the best average response times to 911 calls from metropolitan police departments is 8-9 minutes (assuming that they don’t happen to be luckily in the area when the call goes out). All the action that has happened since ToeDad first brandished the gun could have easily taken place in 5 minutes.
It’s on a college campus, though, so they’ve got campus security and blue lights. I know IU is huge, so that would slow down the response time, but it should be faster than your average metropolitan area.
How much faster, though, I couldn’t tell you. And yeah, it feels like this conversation has taken place over a couple of minutes at most.
I know when I attended Cal State Long Beach, which has similar on-campus police force to IU, they were citing emergency response times of 1-4 minutes.
That’s good to know. My small liberal arts college said that they’re response times were between 30 seconds and a minute, but our campus was tiny.
Next strip Becky walks over to her dad, seemingly about to get in the car.
Unfortunately for Ross he forgot she knows that his gun is a single shot rifle with no magazine. Once she gets close enough she lets him have in the kiwis, and down he goes.
Omg!
As someone from NZ thats the first time I’ve ever heard them described as kiwis
However yes it is a single shot and shes shown quite a degree of calm, quick thinking and making up plans on the go so wrestling with the rifle isn’t that bad an idea as there looks to be at least half a dozen people in the vicinity
As far as I can remember the first place I heard kiwis used that way was in an episode of the Canadian cartoon series 6teen.
Awesome as that would be, if you look close in panel 3, he reloads the gun.
That’s what I thought. I wonder how much ammo he brought with him? I just want to find out what happens with the bullet he fired up into the air. It’s got to come down and hit something or someone.
Unfortunately, he’s visibly reloading it in panel three.
Ya no this solves nothing, you just fired a gun on campus and a bunch of people saw your face cops are going to be all over you like a Mad wolf eating a rabbit.
Wow… and I’m pretty sure they got a good look at his car too… Ross, not only are you crazy, you were also increadibly sloppy with this plan. Like wow, I don’t think he put any actual thought into what he was gonna do if he pulled the gun out.
And I don’t think it’s going to be hard to find a guy with a toe shaped head and camo pants in the police report even if he gets off campus before they get to him.
Especially since several people also saw his car.
And one of the witnesses is someone who KNOWS him and where he LIVES.
True, but I wouldn’t count on Joyce’s ability to get coherent words out after all this. I mean it’s perfectly possible that she might, I just wouldn’t count on it.
A car he retrieved after it was towed earlier in the day, which means his name, plates, and possibly driver’s license are on file with the Bloomington PD now.
Booyah!
I don’t think there is a plan. I think there was a plan before Dina put him on the bus, but now I think there’s just animal fear and desperate grasping at control of a situation he never really had control of in the first place.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Took the word right out of my (gaping, screaming) mouth.
Becky, please, no. Don’t do this to yourself. You deserve better.
HAS NO ONE CALLED 911 YET?! THERE’S A MAN WITH A GUN ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS, AND A BUNCH OF WITNESSES!
Wow…. this was soul crushing. It’s noble of Becky to make this sacrifice for the safety of others, but it’s heartbreaking. This is likely to break her. Something needs to happen to stop Toedad from getting Becky in that car — and fast.
This. These words. Even if she’s rescued before going where she’s going, this is going to haunt her. Because this is Becky losing.
…and Joyce, and Dina. There is so much pain here.
I’m sure lots of people have called 911 by now. But I’m still wondering who, if anybody, Joyce called before Becky got there.
Methinks she contacted Dotty to ask her to contact Amazi-girl. Mehopes she didn’t because I don’t want anyone else of the cast getting anywhere near this situation. I really hope she contacted Ruth.
She probably won’t have contacted Ruth, because at the time it still seemed important that Becky should avoid Ruth’s notice.
Becky hadn’t seen and therefore didn’t mention the rifle, so Joyce probably still thought it was a “Hide from Mr. Macintyre” operation. So she will probably have called someone already involved in that, and probably someone who either has a vehicle (d’oh!) or isn’t in class.
Hm, good point.
S-so even if she starts to get in the car he’s not making it off campus r-right? I mean if he didn’t have attention before he sure as hell has it now, and there’s witnesses to him using deadly force to kidnap a minor…
Just kidnap, Becky’s not a minor.
I’m using minor in this case to describe someone who’s not legally allowed to drink/gamble in the us; ie, under 21, Yes I know she’s 18 and legally an adult, but I’m…blegh
This strip made me sad 🙁
It wouldn’t matter. There’s a pile of things stacked up against him now.
-tracking down and brawling with Dina, who was fleeing, is assault
-demanding Beck leave with him while armed, doesn’t matter whom the threat is against
-discharged a weapon in view of public
Ross has publicly demonstrated he’s not just been aggressive, from the perspective of at least 5 of 7 people known in the area, he’s lethal.
There is no way he’s won’t be pursued for arrest, a hearing then, trial.
That guy is look at about 10 years.
How it plays out is about whether Beck can get him back in the car without anyone getting shot and Joyce or Dina (we don’t where she is) remember (and communicate) “Becky has Dina’s phone.”
Did we determine where the Browns and MacIntyres live? Will he cross a state line with his daughter to get her home? That bumps it to a Federal offense.
I’m pretty sure they live in state.
They do. Almost everyone does. Which makes sense because tuition from out of state costs literally three times as much.
I don’t remember Joyce saying in what town they lived. I only remember her mentioning being not far from Lake Michigan.
Joyce’s speech is a bit neutral dialect compared to Becky but, Becky cracked a joke that makes me think the two grew up together near Gary.
Her old character profile page (still available from the pulldown menu) says La Porte. Sarah is from Fort Wayne; Walky and Billie, Evansville; Dorothy, Mishawaka.
I don’t think we know where everyone else is from, except that Howard, and therefore presumably Ruth, are originally from Canada and currently live in Carmel. 29% of IU Bloomington students are from out of state.
And of course Robin (and therefore probably Roz) is from somewhere it would make sense for her to be able to be the congressional representative for the 9th district.
I don’t think there’s anyone who we know doesn’t live in Indiana.
I’m not 100% sure how the state/federal divide works in US criminal law, but isn’t kidnapping already a felony?
I think the idea is that the FBI doesn’t fuck around, so even for crimes that are the same severity, making it a federal jurisdiction means you’re even more screwed.
Yes but, there are multiple organizations that can get involved.
The higher level can get involved by request or, if he crossed from one state to another, they may take over, altogether.
He would end up be tried in fed court then, sent to another over the other, more local charges.
Only 10 years?
Apart from a scuffle, he hasn’t injured anyone yet.
It depends on how incompetent the police are today.
“Pale dude with black hair, mustache and no neck” (stands out)
“Wearing a white T-shirt and camo pants” (meh, Indiana…)
“driving a baby sh** green [what is that? A Scion?]” (stands out)
“2-door” (stands out, it’s hard to buy a 2-door car in the US that’s not a sports car)
“Last seen headed north on Highway 37 toward Indianapolis.”
That’s easy. They will put it together.
“Amber-alert issued for Rebecca MacIntyre, age 18, 125lbs, pale, freckles, bright red hair, last seen with…”
The trick there is: “Will they realize they have to ping the phone BEFORE issuing the alert, which will cause the phone to agitate the suspect.”
When the alert is transmitted, Becky’s pocket is going ring, too.
Plus, the possibility is not 0 that Ross has the phone Beck was using at her own school.
The phone Becky had at her old school was a landline, so it’s not going to ring in his pocket.
Ohdeargodno.
Firing a gun up is dangerous. Toedad, whether he meant to or not, has now potentially hurt someone. We had a law go through near my home because people were shooting off guns straight up – then one of those bullets came down and instantly killed a small boy.
This is literally the worst and it hurts.
NOOOooooo someone hug me please ;_;
*offers hug…*
*gratefully accepts*
Real good way to show Christian love, there, Ross.
Seriously…nothing screwed up had better happen to Becky.
D: face forever.
Becky is going to do anything to protect Joyce. Even potentially sacrifice her own life. 🙁
She loves her too much to let her suffer “because of her”… It’s… yeah.
“no greater love….”
I really hope that bullet lands somewhere benign. Firing a gun into the air may make a dramatic statement without shooting anyone, but you’ve still launched a bullet, and it’s gonna hit something eventually
Since I’m aware that gravity exists I realize that there’s still a pretty big risk that someone is gonna get fuckin hit by a sky bullet. Go straight to jail, Ross!
So you saw the 1000 ways to die sketch too huh ?
http://mythbustersresults.com/episode50
It DOES look like he did a near-perfect straight-up shot, so whether it’s lethal is up to Willis, I guess
I was looking for someone to mention this… missed it though, maybe in composing. Posted below: What goes up, must come down. Don’t know the exact muzzle velocity of the bullet he’s just shot pretty much straight up, nor the high altitude wind conditions, but I assume that the muzzle velocity’s in the 1000 – 2000 metres per second range. At 1000m/s it takes about 8 seconds to apex and return… at 2000m/s it takes about 12 seconds… either is just about appropriate to the scene. Does the brick come down next comic? Who does it hurt?
When was the last time you heard of somebody getting killed by hail? Shot is annoying when it’s pelting down on you but not more than that. We are not on the moon. We have an atmosphere.
People dying after being hit by hail is not at all unheard of (look it up), and just in this comment section I’ve seen at least two people mentioning instances of people dying after being hit by a bullet falling down. Maybe it’s rare, but it can certainly happen; it depends on winds, how straight up the bullet was shot, air humidity I’m guessing, which part of the body it hits when falling down, … Don’t dismiss this possibility so easily.
I mean, it’s not common, but there are many reports of someone getting hurt by people shooting into the air
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
I even remember a news report of a kid around here getting hit by one. He didn’t die, but he was freaking out as he bled everywhere from it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2271147/Nine-people-killed-freak-hailstorm-rains-massive-boulders-Indian-villages.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/orange-sized-hail-reported-in-india
It happens. Not as often as falling bullets though, which kills plenty of people EVERY YEAR.
WHERE ARE THE GOD DAMN COPS!
That is what all of us are asking.
The cops/campus security must be busy trying to prove that the NRA argument about long police response times rendering their protection ineffective and costing lives is correct.
They’re starting their teleporting blue phone booth.
Which given the wildly unpredictable steering, could mean they get there hundreds of years too early, hundreds of years too late, or end up on another planet entirely.
In a reality that lacks teleportation.
Becky guilted into the car, this I predicted.
Becky getting into the car with a bigoted armed psycho, this is unpleasant.
Okay, any trace of sympathy is gone! Someone kill this brainwashed idiot!!!
NO NO NO NO NO NO THIS IS NOT HAPPENING NO NO NO
No really there is absolutely no good ending to this after that for Ross.
This is so manipulative I can’t even…
What else can Becky do? What else can any of us do?
And Joyce, who might well be thinking one of them is going to die and the last thing she wants to do is tell Becky she loves her.
And a softer, yet equally unyielding and horrible, side of Ross showing…
Just- Okay! Fine! Fuck it. This storyline is finally feeling real and getting to me. I can’t.
I know, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to punch a fictional character so much in my life
What goes up, must come down. Don’t know the exact muzzle velocity of the bullet he’s just shot pretty much straight up, nor the high altitude wind conditions, but I assume that the muzzle velocity’s in the 1000 – 2000 metres per second range. At 1000m/s it takes about 8 seconds to apex and return… at 2000m/s it takes about 12 seconds… either is just about appropriate to the scene. Does the brick come down next comic? Who does it hurt?
I know the odds are incredibly thin, but I feel there would be a fitting justice to the bullet coming down and hitting Ross.
Off-topic, but the new gravatar looks awesome! : D
Thanks! Took 1-1 1/2 hours in Photoshop, I think.
And now my name change has been approved, so Blue is now the true Blue.
(I missed the chance to make that pun earlier, so I’m not missing it again.)
The result was definitely worth that time IMO. :3 Kinda makes me want a hat like that. Maybe I should take up sowing. XD
*sewing. ><"
Most of the ones my google search turned up appeared to be knitted, not sewn. That said, I recently took up sewing for cosplay purposes, and I highly recommend it.^^
I’ve tried knitting before, it bores me to death. In contrast, I’ve always sorta thought sowing might be fun, for cosplay purposes too, since it’s probably cheaper, more fun, and more customizeable than bought costumes. This might just be the thing that finally gets me to stop thinking and start doing. XD
Uh, it’s shot. When it comes down, it comes down with terminal velocity, a bit faster than small hail pellets. Don’t try this on the moon, though.
It’s probably a .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO bullet. About 55 grains (3.6 grammes). Its muzzle velocity is irrelevant after it reaches its apex: it’ll hit the ground at its terminal velocity, about like hail. A hailstone like the size of a sugar cube.
They’re much more dangerous fired into the air at a shallow angle, because they come down before air resistance sucks out their energy.
Mythbusters tested it – bullets are aerodynamic enough that even a slight angle (which keeps them from tumbling through the air end over end on the way down) is enough to greatly increase their terminal velocity.
I watched the episode.
I think the argument being made is bullet vs. shotgun shot.
Wonder if on the moon it’d just reach escape velocity, thanks to the lack of drag.
Escape velocity on the Moon is 2.38 km/s. That’s about 7,783 feet per second. A 5.56mm NATO weapons had a muzzle velocity of up to 940 m/s (3,100 feet per second), depending on bullet mass and loading, barrel length, etc..
aw. ah well.
People die every year from falling bullets, me and some others have posted links further up the thread, unfortunately not many are aware of this and so continue to fire up in the air without thought.
Narratives only focus on what matters. The comics is pretty unlikely to include “Random falling bullet victim”
Unless the RFBV is someone from the main cast….
Yes, but there’s only two of them here and again, it’d be weird and even more weird if Joe happened to be walking a nearby street.
So Becky probably knows its a single shot rifle so unless Toe Dad uses it as a melee weapon its essentially useless, Becky has shown a degree of thinking on the fly and possessing a calm level head under stress.
Theres at least half a dozen people in the near vicinity sooooo will Becky attempt to wrestle the rifle off her Father on the basis that while she won’t win she may give enough time for everyone else to jump in?
I thought that too, but look in the third panel. He reloaded.
If thats Toe Dad reloading then Beckys best bet is to go along with him, the cops will definitely follow him and hes still on campus so its not likely he’ll be able to lose them
remember how Joyce was scared to go outside before
yeah
Becky’s face breaks my heart.
Surely Ross knows that the authorities won’t let him keep his victory here. I’m quite afraid he’s got a murder/suicide planned.
I’ve been suspecting this as well (since yesterday). What’s his plan? Go on the lam and hope that the pray-away-gay camp has rooms on hand for the parents?
There’s probably a curtain cult out there with sucher accommodations.
I doubt he’s really thought that far. I’m pretty sure 99% of his mind is focused on chasing away the demons in Becky, and the remaining 1% is just there to remind him where he parked his car and which pocket he put the spare ammo in.
Becky is not going to break. The only way he will break her, is to kill her.
She is about the most brave person I’ve seen so far.
Joyce did what she had to do, she let Becky know that she loves her, that none of this is her fault.
And where if friggin’ Hell is the cops, or Sal, or the marines???
I think if Ross manages to get Becky into a “rehabilitative” camp, it’s entirely possible that Becky will break. To me, Becky seems like someone who puts up a good front to hide profound insecurities. But even if I’m wrong, being a brave or strong person has nothing to do with it – if you’re isolated with people who treat you as inhuman too long, something’s gotta give.
Mind, I don’t think this story will go there, but I think it’s naive to say Becky’s incapable of breaking. The vast majority of people can be broken.
Dude, Ross just fired a gun into the air in front of a crowd of people and overtly kidnapped Becky. The camp isn’t some sort of Christian black site where they will help Ross hid a kidnapped girl from the police. They ain’t ever going to get there.
…I already said the story wasn’t going to go there o_0
Okay, sorry. I’ll respond for real.
I’m aware that given this current situation, the chance of Ross getting Becky to a camp is virtually nil. That’s not what my comment was about.
My comment was about the idea that Becky’s breaking point lies somewhere above the being killed threshold. I don’t think it does.
A more realistic breaking point for this situation might be Ross dying in front of her, and Becky blaming herself/her sexuality for that. And I don’t think that’s going to happen either. But the idea that it couldn’t happen bc Becky is a strong person and strong people can’t break is bs.
NO
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU
YOU ARE A MANIPULATIVE PIECE OF SHIT MONSTER
Well tell him to stop your the only one he’ll listen to….or is that regular jesus?
Nope Ross only listens to Supply Side Jesus.
Hell, even the donut-munchers on the campus I work at would have responded by now.
I dunno, time is weird in Willis comics.
I doubt that much time has passed. He confronted them on the side of the road and they ran into the trees. Dina probably stalled him for less than a minute before he saw Becky running across the field. Becky then ran the rest of the way to the fountain while he ran back to his car and drove probably a couple of blocks to confront her again.
The only reason I have to believe that the police might have been called before he fired into the air is the fact that you can see someone on the other side of the street with little “surprise” lines over their head when he pulls the gun out of the car after the first confrontation. But even then, we’re most likely talking about a few minutes.
COPS? ANYTIME NOW? ANYBODY?
If you will all excuse me. I’m going to try to watch funny Youtube videos to try and distract my mind from this….
Watch people trying on Enchroma glasses for the first time. It’s very moving.
Their is blue lava in Indonesia !
Wow,for something that destructive the blue colour sure makes it more appealing.
Literally fire and brimstone. Very apposite.
wow, “their”, really.
my apologies. Lack of sleep.
It’s not over yet folks. The police will be arriving soon enough. Even if Becky gets in the car he will be facing numerous charges so he will not be getting far.
Do you think that once he gets the car going, he’s going to stop the car willingly?
No. There is still the danger that she may be killed in the crossfire or if he crashes his car trying to evade the police, but he will be stopped before he takes her to one of those religious brainwashing facilities. And by now enough people know he has a gun and since the police are less likely to take anything to chance he could be shot on sight before she even gets in the car.
Even if the police blocks the exit routes,he can take the car on the sidewalks and endanger pedestrians. It’s going to be a hell of a chase,’cuz he ain’t going to give up easy.
That second to last panel.
Yup, that is what it feels like, that’s the face.
I mean, personal experience has less guns and more threats of disowning but that’s the face they say it with.
Familial love is TERRIBLE.
That comment just makes me want to hug you. I hope you’ve found a family that supports you – biological or otherwise.
The family still supports me in general, they don’t hate me and I don’t hate them and we still love each other a lot, it’s just, you know, it’s complicated.
You can’t expect a bunch of people who grew up in a third world country where lgbt activity can get you literally arrested to just accept everything, you know? It’s just not realistic, it’s not a thing that can happen. Like even if they personally accept it, there’s the rest of society and their place in it to consider. God knows they’re stressed out enough by the social upheavals that were already happening for the past few years, at least I got to sit that out by being in American colleges.
I appreciate your comment, like honestly thank you, it’s just, I don’t want to make it out like I’m fishing for sympathy, I’m honestly fine. Things aren’t perfect as far as that one aspect of myself is considered but as long as the rest of my life stays stable then, who knows, maybe things will work out.
Have got a support structure beyond your family? Sometimes family is what you make it to be until your “real” family can wrap their heads around things, you know?
Regarding the last part of your post, please don’t ever feel scared that you’re “fishing for sympathy”. It’s legitimate pain you’re going through and you have the right to express yourself. The folks here are super open and helpful when discussing these issues so feel free to come by and talk about it whenever you want to. You’re always welcome here.
It really is. *Appropriate gesture of support* from someone who’s been there.
This would be a great time, for the police to arrive, or failing that, a vigilante, or failing that ruth, or failing that staff… SOMEBODY please?! You’ve got like 20 seconds.
That’s at least four strips.
Not even kidding.
Everyone demanding an immediate response/resolution needs to remember how decompressed comic time (especially this comic) is.
The window passed between this strip and the next one.
One part of me is shouting “He spent his one shot, now take him down hard!”
Another part of me knows full well the myriad of reasons that probably won’t occur to anybody.
Yet a third part is going to go watch cute cat videos now.
It looks like he’s reloading in panel 3.
Can’t hear you over the cute cats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFcMG228AwQ
How can you tell the difference between reloading and simply lowering the rifle at this resolution ?
His hands are weird for just lowering the gun. The hand that pulled the trigger is now on top of the gun, right about where loading happens, and the other hand is closer to the trigger to brace it.
I hope that Willis’ “no one dies” rule applies to family members. Because I can’t imagine that Toedad is going to surrender to the cops when they show up; in his current state of mind it seems more likely that he’ll force them to kill him. And Becky doesn’t deserve to be orphaned, especially not like that.
But being an orphan is how you get to go on magic adventures and awaken as the Chosen One.
YES why don’t people get this
I kinda want him to break that rule… Something big and dramatic has been needed. It is reaching a peak, but I don’t feel like it has tipped yet. A little longer… Maybe a misunderstanding that causes the dad’s death after it has unrivaled a bit.
Some might consider deaths to be “too easy” as a way to stir up drama.
We should just forget about that rule and stop bringing it up anytime someone looks in danger.
Seriously, I get where y’all are coming from but it’s annoying.
I humbly request that everyone here just ignore anything I wrote in yesterday’s comments.
Well, now I want to go look… :-\
The fact that you hijacked a muzak to play BeeGees?
Thanks …. I needed that.
Me, yesterday:
“Honestly, he’s talking. That’s good. Despite his determination at the end of this strip, I’m expecting the situation to de-escalate either tomorrow or the day after (barring interventions!). I think Becky’s getting through to him.”
Right, well…. ok. I’m just gonna stop talking now.
So, random thought that might have been brought up in a previous page: what exactly happened with Becky’s mom? From the “do it for mom” earlier, I can assume mom died a while ago. That “the devil took her” makes me think less that it was due to natural causes. This raises a couple of questions which could go all kinds of crazy places.
For “fun” let’s go to the craziest place & not look back: it turns out Becky’s mom had a bit of a self discovery & Ross was not a fan of whatever this realization was. He tried similar methods as he’s tried with Becky to “fix” his wife (haven’t seen a name other than mom/your mother) and after some time things went from unbelievably bad to “holy crap what the hell is going on I can’t believe it”. Whatever this was resulted in “the devil taking her” which, worst case scenario, was Ross somehow being responsible for her death (not necessarily that he killed her himself [although that would be absolute worst case scenario, especially if nobody knows] but that his actions lead to that end somehow)
Or cancer…that’s always a possibility too.
Right, enough of that for now…
It’s cancer. It’s always cancer.
Fuck cancer.
Cancer Cancer.
But it tastes good.(Sorry,I’m a horrible person.)
I was just figuring that with the whole “you commit suicide you go straight to hell do not pass GO do not collect $200” thing that most (or all?) Christian subsets follow that she realised he’s a dick and killed herself.
Um…no? Like, not even from a standpoint of “this is so bad, Becky, don’t” but like from a standpoint of how or why did we reach this point? Why do we have to worry about this? It took us, what, four, five pages to get to this? Why did he dilute that fast? I mean, what the fuck man?
Someone tell me about American law.
• Now Toedad has committed kidnapping, right?
• Kidnapping is a Federal felony, right?
• FBI taking over in about two hours unless Toedad is dead or in custody, right?
Not an expert,but I don’t think the FBI gets involved when there’s only one hostage.
If he crosses state lines with her it becomes a Federal crime and the FBI most definitely will be involved. Otherwise, it stays a state crime.
If it wasnt already Federal Crime , when he chased two lesbians on a state University with a shotgun ( one of whom is missing) .
It became one right now, with a public attempted Kidnapping and shooting up the Indiana U naked mermaid fountain.
Not federal, as far as I know.
Assault. Battery. Attempted kidnapping (possibly about to be just plain kidnapping.) Various weapons charges.
Nothing federal. “lesbians” is legally irrelevant, federally and in Indiana.
I just think it…..’freakishly coincidental’ that this arc should appear as News reports of Campus Shootings is in the limelight. I hope Joyce was smart and got on her phone to the police as well as anyone else near that fountain and the police gain control of the situation. I just hope our “Caped Crusader” is in class now, which like the rest of the Campus should be in LOCKDOWN.
We average one mass shooting a day in America.
And a little over one school shooting a week this year.
I have a friend who works for The Trace. She used to do the legwork for the Gun Report for the New York Times. Ever since we reconnected on Facebook I don’t think a day has gone by that there hasn’t been a shooting on her feed. We just don’t hear about most of them.
Given the stats, it’s about as coincidental as it taking place on a day that ends in a Y.
As others have said, we’ve got plenty of mass and school shootings. It is a little coincidental that this came just as one really hit the mass media though. Not highly surprising though.
Until Ross actually reached the fountain and pulled out the rifle, Joyce had little reason to call the police and since then she hasn’t had time. Possible the kid who reacted when Ross first took out the rifle called it in, but the police would be reacting to that location, not here. Now that it’s been fired, there’ll be lots of calls.
This is NOT CHEERFUL.
AT ALL.
WHAT THE heck.
JESUS FUCK WILLIS.
I know that’s not productive, but… fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Someone’s getting added to the “fuck” spreadsheet~
First panel Becky is my favourite Becky.
Toedad, may you please DIE IN ALL THE FIRES?!?! Thanks very much…
I’m trying hard to not shake my hands as I type this.
When Becky was first introduced as a regular character, there were some dialogues and wavering positions back and forth on her standing as a character, between her brashness, style of humor, her often somewhat jumpy attitude towards some characters like Dorothy or Joe. But from her surprising appearance in Joyce’s room, she’s provided her best friend with love and compassion on almost every aspect one can love another person, and even shared that love with another, Dina. She’s shown that even with her snarky outlook and perkiness, she’s been absolutely nothing but kind and adoring towards others, open and accepting to her new friends and she had the beginning of a new life that she was ready to embrace and pursue with all the gusto as that utterly adorable kiss with our favorite paleontologist. Joyce asked for God to send her an angel, and she was delivered just as asked…
… and now she’s going.
Not of her own choice, but by force. From the very person who by all means has to be the one to accept and respect the life of his own daughter. Under threat and in fear for not only her own life, but from fear of her new friends and any potentially unfortunate nearby strangers caught in the crossfire. And she’s not only leaving to be taken to a place where she’ll be instilled to reject the core of her being, the very side of her that caused her to blossom into a person of love and compassion.
There’s only one demon here in this scenario. And it’s the one holding the gun.
I know its… its just so horribly unfair. It took Becky ONE weekend, two empty hands and the limitless love of Joyce to build a new start. Toedad had to resort to a gun to tear that down and he had to go for Becky’s friends and loved ones.
Demon is a too week word for what he is, but I really don’t know any words that are strong enough.
That is because words do not suffice. Dig deep and feel the writhing anger and outrage within. Temper it and let the loathing flow.
I have no words.
Where the F**K is the god damn campus police!
When seconds count the police are only minutes away!
…then there’s the whole time warp effect during an emergency. Fire department I’m on routinely gets complaints on 45minute-to-an-hour response times when in reality we’re usually there in under 15 (unless it’s way out in the sticks).
Yeah, I had just this experience when I had a home invasion. I ended up writing a letter to the 000 call centre to apologise to the operator for my short temper and rudeness.
Class act doing that, dude. I used to do tech support (which is nowhere near as horrible in terms of situations as real emergency operators) and acknowledgement that you’re a human on the other end of the line is sometimes in short supply.
I also bought a case of beer for the welding shop that had made the bars on my downstairs windows.
Lunch break.
If anyone called in Ross initially brandishing the gun, on the other side of the field & trees (where he currently isn’t) then they’re probably over there, where there was a report of “some toe-looking dude with a gun”
That’s if it got called in.
Now, there’s been a shot fired, all of 5-10 seconds have passed while we get to that last panel, and unless there were already cops waiting at the fountain there’s no way they could magically appear at the scene without knowing about it beforehand.
Best case scenario: there are some cops going through the woods where Ross chased the girls, and they’ve heard the shot & are going in (but, from how freaked out Becky was, I can’t say wether she was short of breath from running so much or just being in shock [maybe it was a large forested area, maybe it’s like 50 feet of trees then the field])
Anyway, it takes time for things to happen, and we’re looking at less than a minute for this entire page (if even close to that, it could be under 30 seconds even, and no police force has that kind of response time, save for something happening at the station while everybody is present)
Right…ranty reply done…enjoy your Saturday.
I feel like a DYW is called for, but at the same time I think it’s possible that the next strip or two might need one even more…
NO DON’T GET IN THE FUCKING CAR!!
AH OH GOD IT WAS LOADED NO PLZ honestly the fact it was armed during the chase makes it ten times scarier
Guns are always loaded.
Makes it no scarier for me, because I always thought it was.
Oh god, oh god I don’t… I don’t feel good right now, I don’t… stop him. H-he can’t do this
He’s literally the worst. Somehow, the sheer depth he’s sunk to, to manipulate his daughter, make him worse than Blaine in my book.
Not necessary worse than Blaine.
The worst part is toedad loves his daughter. Blaine just despites Amber.
Yyeah, I’m kinda there. I mean, I don’t feel particularly compelled to name either the lesser of the two evils, but we can say that Blaine abuses Amber because he CAN, while Ross abuses Becky because (in his head at least) he MUST.
(Which is absolutely not to excuse Ross in any way, to be clear.)
(yup)
Y’know… I actually disagree that he’s trying to manipulate his daughter. He’s trying to do the reasonable, loving parent thing where you don’t let them cross the street when there’s traffic coming. You don’t let them do all kinds of shit that they’re too young to know better about but you do because you’re older. Except now, it’s not her life on the line, it’s her immortal soul. It’s a few decades vs. eternity. This is pure love, pure trying to make sure that he is taking the best care of Becky that he possibly can be taking of her. And absolutely no thought of manipulation or anything else negative.
And that is why Ross is worse than Blaine can ever be. It’s why he is so much more of a monster than Blaine can ever be. Blaine is selfish, and he will be limited by what will benefit him and his perception of himself. Ross is selfless, and cares only about Becky and his love for her. And so he will stop at nothing to do whatever it takes to “save” her, regardless of the price either of them has to pay.
+1
I actually agree. The look on his face; when Becky tells him about the consequences of his actions, it looks like the face of someone who is accepting for the first time about what must really happen… And he doesn’t care. He’s been too passionate, too upset, to really consider the consequences. Now that he sees Becky is doing it for both of them, it doesn’t matter, because his life is a tiny price compared to her immortal soul. He’s not the douchebag who says, “I’ll die for you” to make you do what he wants… There’s nothing but sincerity. That’s why he looks so hurt. He doesn’t want this, but he’d do the unthinkable, and hurt them both, kill them both, to save her.
And Becky, though she’s scared and upset, knows her father loves her. She might not really believe he’d hurt her… But it’s not the same for everyone else. She knows everyone will be safer if she goes. It’s not a personal loss for her, her soul isn’t breaking… yet. Right now she just wants everyone to be safe, including her father, who she still loves, and going with him will protect more people and be safer for both of them.
My big fear is Dina, who, if she isn’t hurt, is running full pelt to continue her battle with Ross. She’d chase that car until she collapsed.
And I second all the, Joyce is the real broken one here. Poor everyone.
Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. And it gets me thinking. As a culture, we think of love as this pure thing that makes you better, whole, and is something that is unambiguously good.
It isn’t, it really isn’t.
This is the ugly flipside of love. The destructive side of love, where everyone is made worse than they could be. Where you can’t get off the tracks even though you can see that ugly freight train called consequences coming your way.
Becky and her dad love each other, no good can come of that fact for any foreseeable future, and that is what makes this a tragedy.
I like this analysis.
Uuuh, it doens’t matter whether he’s intending to manipulate or not, he’s still manipulating and controlling and abusive. No matter how nice his intentions are. And pretty sure Christianity isn’t or shouldn’t be a proponent of forcing people to do things at gunpoint.
Oh, I’m not saying he isn’t being abusive. I’m in the camp that not only has he taken the title of worst father in webcomics away from Blaine, but that Blaine is bush league compared to Ross.
This is more getting into why he’s much more monstrous than Blaine can ever be, because Blaine will always be concerned about himself first. But Ross? His life doesn’t matter. He’s doing this for Becky, and he’s willing to die for her. He can do anything, no matter how horrible, because it’s all for the Greater Good.
I wouldn’t worry so much as Becky breaking as Joyce will.
So far Joyce’s fear of men has been bad but manageable, in that she can still attend classes and go out with people. Now yet another man who she trusted has turned out bad.
This might push Joyce into ‘insanity’*, where her fear effects prevents her from functioning.
*Note I’m describing insanity as it was described from someone from the local mental health unit, as insanity being something that prevents someone from functioning normally.
Looking at the middle panel, is Toedad reloading the rifle? So even if it’s a one shot… it’s loaded.
Amazigirl, if you ever wanted to kill somebody both legally and with a clean conscience, now’s your chance.
Make it hurt.
Oh God, the police need to come before she can get in the car.