I don't mean to derail the Epstein talk, but the gun thing fuckin set me off when I listened to this.
I live in Northern Lower Michigan. It's basically bumblefuck. We have plenty of dumb fucks with guns here who think the 2nd amendment is the only one that matters. Every so often I read in my local paper's 911 dispatch report about a guy who takes his rifle, and starts walking towards one of the small towns in the area. He always gets the cops called on him, and every time he says that he's not out to shoot anyone, he's just exercising his right to bear arms.
Last week, 5 days after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, someone left a gun and ammo in a cart at a local Meijer (Meijer is a bit like Walmart, but Michigan based). A 9mm handgun in a case, 4 boxes of ammo with it. The gun was unregistered, and we haven't heard a fucking thing about it since, because apparently it's not a problem?
https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/d...at-acme-meijer
A couple years ago, a dude from Colorado came to my area and left his fucking Beretta in the bathroom at the Macy's in my local mall. It was found by a fucking 4 year old. When found and confronted, the dude claimed it had been stolen. Later the surveillance tape was found that showed him going into the Macy's bathroom, and the gun being found not long after. If you read the story, you'll see that the penalty for making a false report (that his gun had been stolen) is actually stiffer than the penalty for reckless use of a firearm. Why is that?
https://www.record-eagle.com/news/lo...c1c649586.html
And to me, one of the most sickening was this: Last summer, Lee Chatfield, a republican state rep., brought his UNREGISTERED, LOADED HANDGUN INTO A LOCAL AIRPORT. Now granted, the Pellston Airport is tiny and only has two gates, but since it's the republicans who are always talking about how they value responsible gun ownership, and the republicans who lose their minds over national security, it kind of rubs me the wrong way when they show how irresponsible they really are. Oh, do you want to know what his punishment was? A couple thousand dollars in fines, and the speakership in the Michigan State House of Representatives. That's right. The fucker brought a loaded gun into an airport and they made him speaker of the state house. If he had been black, do you think the outcome would have been any different?
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...nt/2666380002/
And this is all in Northern Lower Michigan. The biggest city in Northern Lower Michigan is Traverse City, with a population of around 15-20,000 and around 150,000 in the greater region. Do you know what we're known for? Growing cherries and consistently topping the list of drunkest/booziest town in Michigan because we're a tourist destination with beaches, lakes, and dozens of wineries, breweries, distilleries, and even a fucking meadery. I'm honestly shocked that there aren't more frequent issues with guns given how prevalent they are here, and how many people come up here to have a "rules don't apply to me" vacation.
It's all crazy making.