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With apologies & respect, this is not anything near a common occurrence in DC. http://google.com/search?q=dc+bus+driver+death http://google.com/search?q=dc+bus

With apologies & respect, this is not anything near a common occurrence in DC. http://google.com/search?q=dc+bus+driver+death http://google.com/search?q=dc+bus+driver+death There are very very few incidents of bus drivers dying in DC. I would highly recommend not taking this fear-instilling anecdote as a real sign of what is. I'm not saying to disregard this account, give it the benefit of a doubt, but it also is very new, and has had a pretty contentious first steps. I too am pretty contentious here & there my years, and I'm not at all saying to disregard one another. But this kind of high-brand FUD rather frustates me, & I feel like should set us on guard: it goes deeply to an emotional vulnerability we all have, quickly, rapidly. I genuinely want to believe this event here is not a complete fabrication. But the only bus driver gun-death I can find is linked to the 2002 DC sniper attacks. That this new account demonstrates a particular bias, from what I have seen, adds to my hestiancy to take this as real. Again, I very very much do not want to say to disregard, I do not want to attack the person, but this claim seems fundamentally suspect, & the history seems at least a bit murky, and I'd say this comment deserves caution & question, rather than acceptance. We have some fairly notorious bus lines in DC. But like, overall, the actual scary shit nearly never ever happens. Oh look, some loud people are drinking on the 7X's or the X2 again. Generally it's not really a real problem & we kind of ignore it & eventually they get off, or, if they start causing a scene, the bus driver asks them to leave, and after a couple dozen seconds they get the point that this is not really winnable & wander off. I've seen some people get mad at each other, but someone gets off & the drama dissipates. The notoriety is more about characters & ridiculousness, thank heavens, and rarely about real actual in fact for real problems. Those, from what I have heard in my many years in DC, have been pretty few.

midoridensha 4y ago
It's FAR more common that in other countries where people aren't allowed to walk around with guns.
- rektide 4y ago
  I'm saying there are thusfar zero cases in DC that we have any real evidence of, so this "FAR more common" is trying to compare a 0% vs 0% empirical chance. I'm not opposed to gun control & the general idea here, not at all. And I'm more than willing to accept evidence that guns really are a bit of a menace & problem with some real & regular reocurrence on this transit system I use. Certainly there are problems beyond people getting killed, but so far my attempts to dig up real data to show meaningful problems has surfaced nothing (and no one else has pointed to verifiable problems either). So far it feels- to me- that this is barking up the wrong tree. That there isn't strong data portraying a real transit-gun problem; there isn't evidence, and there isn't actually a problem here, and that this is an imposition of concerns that have an incredibly miniscule factor in the reality of this system. I really want to support the questioning of guns, which I broadly disagree with, but right now I really don't see the data nor hear the anecdotes for this being a real/regular concern. These emotions being projected read to me like anti-urban heresay, which I want to believe/take as real, but am not finding evidence of. Also note so far our metro/subway system has a gun ban. Penalties for fucking with DC metro or DC busses in any moderately significant way is pretty severe, and the city will spend pretty significant effort to track shit down if stuff does go bad, it feels like, from the every couple years drama that makes our local digital rags. Worth noting of course that the bans & commensurate penalties/enforcement are under semi-regular legal threat, like a recent challenge here (https://dcist.com/story/23/01/04/judge-tosses-out-lawsuit-seeking-to-overturn-gun-ban-on-metro-in-dc/ https://dcist.com/story/23/01/04/judge-tosses-out-lawsuit-se...). It feels like it's all gotten especially wild since the latest Supreme Court took the activist position of overturning New York's requirement to have a license to conceal carry. But so far, a number of rulings have kept various DC laws & protections intact.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    There have been several people shot on the DC metro system in the past few years: by off-duty cops. Somehow, they're allowed to carry guns on the trains despite the ban.

midoridensha 4y ago

It's FAR more common that in other countries where people aren't allowed to walk around with guns.

rektide 4y ago
I'm saying there are thusfar zero cases in DC that we have any real evidence of, so this "FAR more common" is trying to compare a 0% vs 0% empirical chance. I'm not opposed to gun control & the general idea here, not at all. And I'm more than willing to accept evidence that guns really are a bit of a menace & problem with some real & regular reocurrence on this transit system I use. Certainly there are problems beyond people getting killed, but so far my attempts to dig up real data to show meaningful problems has surfaced nothing (and no one else has pointed to verifiable problems either). So far it feels- to me- that this is barking up the wrong tree. That there isn't strong data portraying a real transit-gun problem; there isn't evidence, and there isn't actually a problem here, and that this is an imposition of concerns that have an incredibly miniscule factor in the reality of this system. I really want to support the questioning of guns, which I broadly disagree with, but right now I really don't see the data nor hear the anecdotes for this being a real/regular concern. These emotions being projected read to me like anti-urban heresay, which I want to believe/take as real, but am not finding evidence of. Also note so far our metro/subway system has a gun ban. Penalties for fucking with DC metro or DC busses in any moderately significant way is pretty severe, and the city will spend pretty significant effort to track shit down if stuff does go bad, it feels like, from the every couple years drama that makes our local digital rags. Worth noting of course that the bans & commensurate penalties/enforcement are under semi-regular legal threat, like a recent challenge here (https://dcist.com/story/23/01/04/judge-tosses-out-lawsuit-seeking-to-overturn-gun-ban-on-metro-in-dc/ https://dcist.com/story/23/01/04/judge-tosses-out-lawsuit-se...). It feels like it's all gotten especially wild since the latest Supreme Court took the activist position of overturning New York's requirement to have a license to conceal carry. But so far, a number of rulings have kept various DC laws & protections intact.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  There have been several people shot on the DC metro system in the past few years: by off-duty cops. Somehow, they're allowed to carry guns on the trains despite the ban.