Seventeen high school children killed in Florida; or should we say, just another school shooting.
Canadian children and U.S. children are homogeneous. Some small percentage of Canadian children suffer ridicule, depression and bullying just like American kids. Yet, Canadian children do not attend school every day in fear of carnage.
The reason is obvious: Canada has strict gun control laws.
Any politician that talks publicly about background checks and mental health, to distract from the elephant in the room – assault weapons and high capacity magazines, is complicit in the death of all the children that have died of gun violence over the past decade. That politician may as well have stood at the scenes of the shootings and pass the clips to the shooters.
An assault weapons band was passed by Democrats in 1994; but when it expired in 2004 the Republican House led by Tom DeLay refused to bring up for debate any renewal legislation.
Republicans own this.
William Gilliland
Farmington
William, Canada doesn’t have nearly half the freedom we have. And, You may want to fact check, Canada does have mass shootings, one guy even used a crossbow. Under the Clinton ban, not a single AR type rifle was banned. The ban listed very specific requirements in order to be banned. A rifle must have a detachable box magazine and TWO of the following, a bayonet lug(ARs don’t have them) a pistol grip(all rifles have them), flash suppressor(ARs don’t have one), folding or telescoping stock(not standard equipment on most ARs), grenade launcher(can’t be owned without a permit.) Clinton’s ban didn’t actually ban anything that wasn’t already banned under the NFA. Democrats controlled BOTH houses and the presidency from 2009 to 2012, they could have done something and they didn’t. Of the almost 100 million kids that go to school every day, school shootings are rare. We have had five in the past 5 years, NOT 18 in the past 45 days. Assault is a crime, if a bat is used, then by definition that bat is an assault weapon. The federal government defines it as a weapon used by they military to assault an enemy position. The AR is not a military gun. The M-16 is a military gun and has a bayonet lug, Flash suppressor, FULL AUTO or select fire. If you can’t tell the difference between an AR-15 and an M-16, you’ve got no business telling people what an assault weapon is. Under the National Firearms Act, enacted in 1932, we have background checks and can’t own fully automatic/select fire guns without an extensive background check. Even then, most of Americans don’t have $30,000 kicking around to buy one. An AR can’t be converted to full auto without $18,000 in parts, a bumpfire stock does not convert them to full auto.You can bump fire any gun. Guns are not nor will they ever be a problem, people are the problem, and no amount of background checks can detect intentions.
So tired of the stale platitudes!
“A good guy with a gun” -vs. “a bad guy with a gun”.
The insanity of arming teachers!
If the NRA has 5 only million members, they shouldn’t have the outsized influence in Congress that they do. BUT THEY HAVE BOUGHT their influence by way of campaign contributions. Shameful!
Guns ARE the problem! The victims and their families and the survivors at Parkland, Las Vegas, the Pulse Night Club, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Columbine and all those in between, know that GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM.
But change is on the horizon.
Well said Hrtlss Bstrd
Sadly I own an AR15. Even though AR actually stands for Armalite, the company that originally produced them, my AR enjoys the bad boy reputation of “Assault Rifle”. After only a few months of owning it I realized that all of the other guns in my cabinet were being bullied by it. Now I have to leave it in solitary confinement, I could see the bad influence it was having on my handguns. My rifles are coming back out of their shells, but my shotguns I fear will never be the same.
My boys used to use it to hunt with when they were smaller, the light recoil made it a joy to shoot and it easily fit them as they were able to collapse the stock in to fit their arm length. Unfortunately my boys started to like it, and being a conscientious father I chose to nip that in the bud. Now they have much higher powered rifles fitted with better scopes that can cycle at the same rate as the AR. You’ll be happy to hear that they have wooden stocks though, so they couldn’t possibly be used for anything nefarious.
I’m seriously considering selling it, but I can’t bear the thought that it will go rogue if I’m not there to keep it in check. Maybe I’ll just get rid of the high capacity magazines and paint it a happy color. Yellow seems right. If someone knows of a support group like AR’s Anonymous or Disarmament for Dummies, please let me know where I can join.
I humbly beg that each of you reading this lobby your government officials to do the right thing by banning anything that can be used to inflict harm. Repeal the 2nd Ammendment, bring back prohibition, insist that kitchen cutlery be government regulated, make fast food slow, and for good measure permanently shutdown the Interstate system. Together we can protect each other from inanimate objects with intrinsic evil intentions toward the human race.
Hey William explain Chicago? The Democrat Utopia leads or is near the top of murders in the US per year. They also have the strictest gun laws in the country. Democrats own that. The scariest gun in the world is as useful as a paperweight until some deranged person decides to terrorize. Why are you not rallying to ban the automobile? An average of 3000 people die from auto accidents a day, but that doesn’t fit your agenda.
Bring hunter safety back into schools as a mandatory course. If all the students had knowledge and respect for firearms we wouldn’t have to keep having this discussion. More laws will not fix this problem.
Awesome response.
A church sign I thought was great said. When will They Love Their Kids More Than Their GUNS Think about it !!!!!!!
If guns are not the problem, then is it possible that people with guns are the problem? Even worse, people with rapid fire, high energy guns?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KEMjLd2u9Y with an NRA instructor to help us understand how to deliver more energy towards any target, faster, don’t know what size magazine, could not count fast enough.
American Freedoms: The freedom to play with high energy, rapid fire weapons.
American Fears: The fear of high energy, rapid fire weapons
Bump Stocks: Provide the possibility to fire at a rate of 400+ rounds per minute
High capacity magazines: Provide the chance to take advantage of a high energy weapon, at a rapid fire rate for a longer period of time then a “low” capacity magazine.
Sandy Hook: 154 shots in 5 minutes, Since the Newtown school shooting, Gov. Dannel Malloy has pushed for expanding the assault weapons ban and limiting how many bullets can be fired without reloading.
The following is from the Governor of Connecticut: The Governor released a statement following the release of the Sandy Hook search warrants by the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney.
“I want to thank the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney for providing this information today. In some cases, the facts really do speak for themselves, and in this case they only add starker detail to what we already knew.
“We knew that a disturbed individual entered a school and fired 154 rounds in less than five minutes, killing 20 innocent children and six dedicated educators. We knew that he had ready access to weapons that he should not have had access to. We knew that these weapons were legally purchased under our current laws. We knew he used 30-round magazines to do it, and that they allowed him to do maximum damage in a very short period of time. And we now know that he left the lower-capacity magazines at home.
“This is exactly why we need to ban high-capacity magazines and why we need to tighten our assault weapons ban. I don’t know what more we can need to know before we take decisive action to prevent gun violence. The time to act is now.”
http://www.wfsb.com/story/21814424/154-shots-in-5-minutes-sandy-hook-warrants-released
@Guy Montag, I can’t believe you would use something like this to make a ridiculous statement and joke about such tragedy that is happening in our nation. Shame on you, I pray that you never have to experience the nightmare that parents around our country are facing with the loss of their children. I think if this were closer to your home you may think differently. I’m completely appalled and saddened at your heartlessness and you should be ashamed although I’m sure you’re not based on the joking nature or your comment.
The endless fight between “it’s the guns” and “it’s not the guns” will only insure that nothing will be done. So absolutely few are willing to look at our CULTURE. Because it involves many things including things that many/most adults will need to look at also. Movies, videos, games, the blood leads media, the endless fighting, the idea that might makes right, the shouting down of other views, the never ending bullying (certainly not just kids stuff), the separating of ourselves into myriad groups all opposed to each other for some reason or another, the we’re right they’re wrong mentality …. these ideas are ingrained in us, that is in our CULTURE! And the movie makers will say “it’s not our fault for this stuff happening” (meaning) it’s not 100% our fault, and they won’t take responsibility for their portion of it …just as the average adult won’t want to take responsibility for the hurtful ideas they pass down to their children. Hey, I get caught up in this stuff too. It makes me think about the father teaching his kid how to defend himself from the bully (which is OK even though there may be other ways) but what’s often missing if he knocks the bully down is the teaching of offering a hand for him to get up and the offering of friendship if the bully would have it. Enough rambling.
I don’t see why everyone is so upset about Kim Jong-un getting nukes. Nukes don’t kill people. People kill people.
See how dumb that sounds?
The intent for the sensational is premeditated. No access to guns will ultimately result in another means to achieve that end. Vehicles, bombs, and many more implements are within reach and would be deployed. We cannot remove the sick desire to cause mass destruction and death.
With Firearms We are ‘Citizens…..
Without Firearms We are ‘Subjects….
It’s Me, The Sandy Hook shooter didn’t use an AR type rifle, He used two pistols with standard 15rnd magazines. The AR type (a Bushmaster, made in Maine) rifle was found in the trunk of a car OUTSIDE the school, the Connecticut medical examiner said that all the victims were killed with pistol calibers, the police recovered two pistols from inside the school, a Sig and a Glock. Either that, or the shooting was a total sham and corrupted by the governor(Democrat) and the medical examiner, who has several extremely corrupt dealings with the state of CT. He had a bill fast tracked that pretty much seals the autopsy reports of anybody under 18, which means he can change his original findings and nobody can refute them.
Pinetree, If guns are a piece of our culture that we should do away with and that music, video games etc. make people do bad things, than do you also feel that Blacks who say that rap music, music that glorifies the killing of people, cops and civilians, glorifies drug use and violence towards women, music that blacks say is cultural, should that be banned because it makes them do violent things? Guns are not cultural, America didn’t invent the first one, though we are the only country that protects them, for good reason. People will always do bad things no matter what, there is nothing that will change that. You can’t prevent the crime by banning the means. Last year nine people were killed by people ramming them with vehicles. Should we ban cars and trucks? Maine has a lot of guns, and good gun laws, we can carry without a permit, we can own anything, we also haven’t had any mass shootings, neither has Vermont, another lax gun law state, in fact Vermont’s gun laws date back to when it was a colony. Whether a person uses a gun or a hammer, it still doesn’t change the fact that that person killed somebody. In 1927 the first rampage killing at a school in America happened, in Michigan, the guy killed 44 and wounded 68 with homemade bombs planted in the school and his truck. He didn’t use a gun. we have a people problem not a gun problem. On a per capita scale America doesn’t even make the top 10 in terms of the frequency or number killed in rampage killings. don’t blame the NRA, or gun owners, blame the person who walked into a school and killed people.
Mark, A nuke sitting in a warehouse, will continue to sit in that warehouse until a HUMAN decides to use it.
@Seriously?
There is a difference between joke and satire. Admittedly the distinction can be slight, but unfortunately satire has become synonymous with joke. George Orwell and Jonathan Swift used satire to effectively communicate the absurdities of logic that they disagreed with.
The idea that guns are the problem and not people is an argument that I disagree with. Therefore I use satire to point out the absurdity of that perspective.
What should be offensive is the idea that law abiding responsible gun owners who support the 2nd Ammendment are somehow complicit in the deaths of these children. The assertion made by Mr. Gilliland in this editorial is that politicians who agree with me may as well have handed the deranged shooter magazines as he destroyed lives. That statement is DESPICABLE!
Being the legally and responsibly armed citizen that I am, if ever I come across a situation as horrible as what happened in Florida, I will reach for a magazine. Instead of handing it to a sick killer who was ignored by the very government you want to save you, I will use it to reload my weapon as I do my best to protect those around me.
When I grew up my dad and the other adults around didn’t play with guns! I was taught that a gun was a tool not a toy! If you need high capacity magazines to defend yourself you probably be better served to learn to shoot well not fast.sounds like a bunch of insecure and immature gun owners on here it’s not the guns it’s these immature irresponsible people like on here will be or will raise the next generation of gun disrespect!
This has been and still is a media circus. People, please realize that these school problems are, WHEN CONSIDERED IN CONTEXT, very rare. Why? Because there are around 36,000 secondary schools in our country. When the press puts its very very narrow lens on these events the emotional distortion is astounding.
Also note that it was the government, FBI, local, county, and state police in Florida that dropped the ball. Government is, as usual, slow footed and performs poorly. Notice especially that there was one government official at the scene, an armed police officer, who did not even intervene to stop the Parkland killer. He waited outside the school for 4 or 5 minutes till the shooting stopped. He has since resigned from the Sheriffs department.
The complete ignorant responses to this issue are astounding. Kids are killed in a school by an 19 year old who was able to purchase a semi auto weapon with 40 round clips. Why? He was angry… That can and will be the next excuse. The defensive postures using the second amendment are complete B.S. You can own a gun and you can use it for home defense and hunting no problem and if you are a responsible gun owning citizen you will have no problem passing a background scan. The problem here is that the tough guy response to the issue is just blindly wrong when kids are senselessly murdered at a school. Here’s an idea. If you love your guns, own them responsibly, and think it’s all about the second amendment then you should be the first one to stand up and try to limit the age and type of weapon that is so commonly used for the only purpose it was made. You responsible gun owners should be loudest voice to condemn this behavior which seems to be exhibited by a majority of disgruntled and angry white males. Sound like anyone you know. Be a role model who teaches kids the good of this world not the kind who teaches how to use anger and propaganda to get what you want. Stop perpetuating the fact less talk show host opinions and forceful NRA politics. You are merely living up to the stereotype of irresponsible gun owners. I have a few guns and none of them are used for hunting but I’m also not profiting in any way by saying the answer to violence is more guns. That’s just stupid.
Stop the pledge of allegiance
Stop respecting the flag
Stop prayer in school
Keep God out of school
Wonder why we have problems
Why is it easier to buy a gun and kill somebody than it is to vote?
Sam, There is nothing wrong with owning or using a 30rnd MAGAZINE. People seem to think that restricting guns will somehow magically make the shootings stop. That has worked out so well for Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and Washington DC. Of the past 5 school rampages, only 2 shooters used legally purchased guns. Of the last 10 rampage killings, only 3 used legally purchased guns. There is zero proof that had the 5 shooters not bought them legally, that they would not have gotten them by other means. 180 million legal gun owners, will never shoot up a school, yet you seem to think we should all pay the price. Law abiding citizens do not get punished nor should we, to account for the crimes of a very few people. That’s like the cops giving you a speeding ticket because your neighbor got one for speeding. Our gun laws work and have worked for nearly 100 years. Are there flaws? Sure. The FBI dropped the ball on both Florida shooters, one was a terrorist, this latest one was reported on in September and they failed to act. The Texas church shooter, the military failed to release his criminal record to the FBI. Dylann Roof was given his gun for his 21st birthday. Second clause of the second amendment. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. That is just the way it is. It’s not some tough guy response. If you are not happy with the rights and laws of America, there are 194 other countries you can live in.
Crazy man is right, all the things we used to do in school, as soon as the day started, pledge of allegiance..saluting the flag, prayer, no longer happens, kids are not learning values, kindness, respect for others at home anymore, the issue of mental illness is being swept under the rug, AND if you are a gun owner, guns need to be locked up in a secure cabinet, (not something with a glass front to display them) and the key needs to be in a separate, secure place, just my opinion,
Anyone who thinks we need background checks. We already have them. More gun free zones? Most of these shootings (schools,chicago,etc.) are gun free zones.
The best way for people to be responsible gun owners is to be educated with them and even if you don’t want to own one attend a class to become educated. They dont even make a 40 round high capacity magazine as was said a couple comments back.
They are talking about taising the age of buying a gun to 21 as is the age to buy a handgun now. The hypocrisy in that is our military is open to anyone 18+ . So if we wont be allowed to buy a gun or alcohol until 21 years of age heres a few other things that should be the same.
Driving licenses
Military service
Tobacco
Voting
Anything we let 18 yr olds do now.
We cant micromanage every aspect of people’s lives, that’s not the way life was designed to work. Whatever the sad tragedy is school shooting, concert bombing, walking trail vehicle killings, remember tomorrow is not a guarantee it’s something we all hope and pray comes. Enough rambling this early in the morning have a great day !!!
All of you who care more for your guns than the lives of children are as sick as the shooter in Parkland. Please get help before you prove my point.
Thank you William Gilliland for speaking the truth, and Sam and ernie for the thoughtful commentary.
The predictably ignorant responses are nothing more than chest thumping.
FACT: The U.S. has more mass shootings than ANY OTHER country.
For anyone with the willingness to try to understand our neighbor to the north and literate enough to want more information on the freedoms afforded Canadians, please see: https://lop.parl.ca/About/Parliament/Education/ourcountryourparliament/html_booklet/canadian-charter-rights-and-freedoms-e.html
If Canada is such a great place, then why haven’t all the people who said they were going to move there when Trump got elected moved there already? Think about it: if they all moved to Canada they can wait for all the crazy gun people to inevitably kill each other and then come back and recolonize from the ashes of the aftermath, like a phoenix rising from it funeral pyre.
@ 5thgenMe
It’s obvious no one cares about kids these days, because if they did, we would be pushing to heavily regulate silverware, household cleaners, tools, stairs, televisions (a lot of kids are dying from those darned flatscreens falling on them these days), cellphones, and just existence in general. We need more regulations so that we can protect our children and everyone who disagrees are obviously sick people who care more about these things than children. They need to be checked into the loony bin before they force a kid to drink a bottle of bleach or something.
Cheers,
Shamus
the difference is those “Canadian rights” are the ones afforded to the Canadians by their queen as long as her or her inheritors choose to allow it, however ours are granted by God and defended by our right, responsibility and duty (should we choose to accept it) to bear arms.
Just a couple of thoughts:
1. People are going to acquire any kind of gun they want, if they want it bad enough ( legally or illegally ).
2. If we blame the guns, WHO is pulling the trigger? Seems to me it’s the unstable madman behind it.
Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.
Have a great day!
To Hrtlss Bstrd, I’m firmly on the “it’s not the guns” side. My point is that the conversation needs to change because it gets us nowhere. Just more fighting, hate, distrust, etc. which is all PART of our culture which drives a few on the edge to do such things. And I know it’s not as simple as just stated, but we need to change our hearts and our culture as a society will change. Maybe a better word than culture would human nature. Maybe I just dream in an imaginary world.
So many movies and the video games are filled with blood and gore. Kids (and some adults too ) nowadays are desensitized to violence. Look at the difference between movies now and the old movies. Anything goes now. There are no limits to the violence, killing, mutilations, etc. that are portrayed and even glorified and then we wonder why modern society has become so violent? And, people on the edge are especially prone to being influenced by this stuff. Americans have had guns for centuries, but it hasn’t been until recent years that we have had problems with mass shootings. BUT, suggest putting restrictions on movies, video games, books and you will have people screaming freedom of speech. I think in every year of school there should be a weekly mandatory class for students that discusses the detrimental influences in the world and at the same time promotes good character, patience, empathy, tolerance, kindness, responsibility, good citizenship, along with healthy life habits. Some kids get little to no guidance on this from their parents.
Liberal Gun Owner, You should fact check, really. On a per capita basis, Yemen has more mass shootings than the US. Our school shooting victims for the past 20 years, don’t add up to the amount of people killed in mass shootings in the EU in the past 7 years. Canada passed a gun registration act, for their versions of “black rifles” ARs have been banned in Canada since the 50s, something about Britian’s home office and a deal with FN. Anyway, once the law abiding citizens of Canada registered their legally owned guns, the RCMP went knocking on doors confiscating the guns that were registered, Parliament held an emergency meeting and repealed the law, the law was on the books for two weeks. And, America is not Canada, if we had wanted to be British we would not have fought the Revolutionary War. You really need to learn the huge differences between Canada’s charter rights, and our constitutional rights. I’ll give a hint charter rights are not Constitutional rights, for example, Canadians have no right to have guns, they have guns because the government says they can. We have guns because our Constitution has the supremacy clause and the second amendment, Canada’s charter can be rewritten any time their government feels like it. As much as I like our form of government, I don’t always put much faith that it will always have our best interests in mind. Like the last administration for example. And, yes I do love guns more than school kids. We will always have to defend ourselves, Gun Free Zones will always get people killed, which is why I support home schooling.
How about some strong gun laws in Chicago to start with and if it works there we could put the same laws in effect throughout the country…… They had 6 killings and 30 wounded last weekend…
Hrtlss Bstrd, I spent 22 years in the military – expert rifle and expert pistol, I carried an M-16 in Vietnam.
Thanks for educating me.
One certain event changes the attitude of the “any guns/all guns” guys. When their child is lying there dead. I can’t even wish for that to happen.
The best way to start registration, training, and age limits on guns that are not used for hunting: Remove the metal detectors from the State House and see how fast the laws change. Come on local Politicians, we know you are in this conversation, put your money where your mouth is from you gun free zone. Even the NRA makes their annual meetings Gun Free Zones. Follow the money and you find out who profits from telling you it’s your right and we need to fight. I’m a responsible gun owner who wants change and I’m invested in building community health not chaotic discourse. Start with an age limit and registration on semi auto weapons.
Jesse: You are correct they are not 40 round clips they are 30 round clips that cost about $14. at popular hunting and fishing stores. Anyone using this for hunting is not hunting for meat. This was not a legal clip until 2004.
Sam
For clarification, any mag with a capacity above 10 was prohibited to be manufactured under the Clinton temporary ban. So not illegal before 1994. Also, if already owned prior to the ban, it was grandfathered. There were many thousands of these magazines in American homes all throughout the ban.
William, If you have that much experience with an M-16, you should know that the AR-15 as it was released in 1964 to the public isn’t one. Bragging about marksmanship, I drill golf balls at 100 yards free hand with open sights with my AR, best shot, soda can at 400 yards (scoped), so what? Our ability to use our weapons no matter how exceptionally that may be, there is no cause to deny others of the joy of owning and shooting the AR because a few people break the law with them. People break the law in cars and kill people, we don’t scream for a ban on 4000lb, 4 wheeled missiles do we? No we don’t, though we could and unlike guns, cars are not constitutionally protected.
Sam no one said they used it for hunting that would be illegal, seems how you are allowed only five rounds in your gun. The 30 round magazine is made for sport and target shooting. Some people have them just for the simple purpose of owning one.
Could someone answer the same question that many people have asked. Why is it everytime that someone uses a gun to do harm is it a gun problem? Why don’t they scream about vehicles, knives, or any other object that some delusional person puts in there hand to hurt others? Guns are not the problem people are the problem. These sick deranged people need to be dealt with in a manner so that it doesn’t hinder law abiding citizens.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/02/25/parkland-dad-accuses-chris-wallace-focus-gun-control-instead-school-security-ratings/
Jumping on the anti-gun bandwagon gets votes.
Please read the following:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/what-i-saw-treating-the-victims-from-parkland-should-change-the-debate-on-guns/553937/ as written by a radiologist who helped treat Parkland victims.
Note further from the States Attorney report on Sandy Hook:On the morning of December 14, 2012, the shooter, age 20, heavily armed, went to Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) in Newtown, where he shot his way into the locked school building with a Bushmaster Model XM15-E2S rifle. He then shot and killed the principal and school psychologist as they were in the north hallway of the school responding to the noise of the shooter coming into the school. The shooter also shot and injured two other staff members who were also in the hallway…followed by: After leaving the main office, the shooter then went down the same hallway in which he had just killed two people and entered first grade classrooms 8 and 10, the order in which is unknown. While in those rooms he killed the two adults in each room, fifteen children in classroom 8 and five in classroom 10. All of the killings were done with the Bushmaster rifle.
The report from the States Attorney continues with details of the 30 round clips : A Bushmaster Model XM15-E2S rifle was located some distance away from the shooter. The rifle’s shoulder strap was attached in the front but disconnected at the butt of the rifle. The disconnected rear portion was the result of a failed nut attachment. It is unknown if the nut failed while the rifle was being used or as the result of being dropped or thrown to the floor. The Bushmaster rifle was found with the safety in the “fire” position. There was one live 5.56 mm round in the chamber and one PMAG 30 magazine in the magazine well. The magazine contained fourteen live 5.56 mm rounds of ammunition. The rifle did not appear to have malfunctioned when observed by the WDMC van unit, but a CSP-ESU report described the weapon as appearing to have jammed. When tested later, the rifle functioned properly. Two empty PMAG 30 magazines that were duct-taped together in a tactical configuration and one live 5.56 mm round were found near the rifle.
Conclusion: all victims died from bullets fired from the bushmaster rifle, several 30 capacity magazines were found, two of which were taped together, and empty. The murderer died of a self inflicted wound from a pistol.
Hartss, et al.: Could we agree these victims died needlessly? Could we agree, please to look at the very high efficiency built into this type of weapon and magazine configuration? And maybe decide a different way to regulate their availability?
After all, we have auto safety rules and regulations to reduce accidents and fatalities, why not review our weapon safety regulation and see if we can make improvements?
While we are at it, could we also review w how we flag concerns about potentially violent individuals, and what steps we should take to reduce the likelihood our citizens will die?
Lets get to a table and review all of the data. Lets authorize the CDC to collect and sort all data on deaths and injuries caused by firearms, and then look to both sides of this contentious situation to work out ways to reduce deaths and injuries..
Can anyone tell me why a person needs a gun that shoots like a machine gun? Do you hunt with them? What are they good for, besides killing people?
Here are my initial suggestions;
Ban any gun that has the ability to rapid fire.
Make all guns for personal use capable of firing one bullet, and then re-load. If you are a good hunter, all you need is one shot anyway, right?
Make schools (movie theaters, etc) more secure like airports, with metal detectors, locked doors, etc.
Hire NRA members (who really love guns) to guard the schools (and the movie theaters). Teachers can’t be expected to take on that responsibility. Besides there is the potential that a gun could be taken away from the teacher, and used against students/teachers.
You can raise the age limit on guns and have them registered all you want, but guns are simply a scapegoat in instances like school shootings; the true culprits are our society that thrives off shock and horror, our disconnect from fellow humans, and our inability to help the mentally ill.
Look no further than the news when it comes to the want for shock and horror; when you turn it on, you’re instantly barraged by nothing but doom and gloom, and it seems like nothing good is happening in the world. Why is that? Because the media understands that people don’t want happy news; they subconsciously want to be shocked and horrified, and that is also why movies, video games, and other mediums of entertainment have become so violent over the years. Happy news is relegated to a tacked-on five minute feel-good segment at the end when most people have already gone on to doing or watching something else.
As the years have gone by, people have lost their sense of community. We’ve become more ‘connected’, yet people have never been more isolated. Cell phones, pornography, and ironically social media has caused people anxiety and depression, especially in younger generations. Neighbors have grown to distrust each other, and the reasons for that stem back to the news media’s doom and gloom. You’d think there isn’t a good soul out there; everyone is either a potential pedophile or a murderer and cannot be trusted. It’s easier to socialize with someone you can’t see than it is to talk to people face-to-face, yet humans are social creatures and that lack of personal interaction leaves a hole in in one’s soul that cannot be filled by a thousand ‘Facebook friends’ or ‘Twitter followers’.
The fall into a bottomless pit of anxiety and depression has caused people to become more susceptible to mental illness, which is something our society doesn’t seem to know how to treat and those suffering from mental illness are usually forgotten. The more seriously ill people oftentimes don’t have a sense of right or wrong, but they do have a want to be remembered. The news loves to sensationalize bad things, so what is the point of being the Good Samaritan and inevitably have your name be forgotten when you can be ingrained in history as Herod and slaughter a bunch of babies? The media will post your profile and life story all over the place, often times putting the victims on the back burner, and because of your delusions you will be the hero of your own story despite everyone else seeing you as a vile villain.
Society needs to learn how to change its diaper, as the crap is literally bursting from the seams. Putting guns as the foremost issue here makes as much sense as making more laws to stop lawbreakers from breaking laws. The lawbreakers will continue breaking the law and people who were previously in line with the law suddenly become lawbreakers because in the end you can’t fix society’s standing problems with legislation. The problem needs to be fixed starting at home.
Cheers,
Shamus
Shamus I would agree that it’s a mixture of many ingredients but Guns are certainly one of the main factors. I’m actually pro-gun ownership but not pro loosey goosy laws to obtain and own them. If you are a righteous person you will have no problem waiting a few days to have a real background check to own one so that the safety and rights of honest citizens are not instantly removed by one unstable teenager with anger issues. The argument that guns aren’t the issue is problematic because legally or not, in the wrong hands they are the one thing that separates us from every other country. The biggest problem I see is the instant denial and defense of the good gun owners. You don’t fight fire by pouring on the gasoline. I hear you that it sucks to think I would need to register a gun but you also use the vehicle thing as an argument. I have the right to own property like a car but not to drive it on the road. I have to rent my plate and register my vehicle every year and have insurance in case it causes harm to others. A knife can kill, but not with such ease and great numbers. I would take on a freak with a knife over a gun any day. The problem I see is that the majority of gun owners are responsible but also incredibly stubborn and self-righteous touting nra propaganda. If you talk about the need for community and defensive gun rights in the same sentence it becomes an oxymoron. Should community embrace around guns or should guns just be present and a right at all community gatherings? We will never know because collecting data on gun use was outlawed by our paid and elected officials who do not represent even a part of the population. I say again if guns aren’t a problem then you will have no problem removing all metal detectors from every State and Federal building and nra convention. Let’s see how that fairs for our guns are not a problem people.
Brilliantly written Shamus! The best and most thoughtful letter I’ve seen here in ages.
@ Sam
I don’t personally own a gun and I admittedly have a loose understanding of gun rights, nor am I an NRA member, however I do believe people have a right to own guns, whether it be for hunting, recreation, self-defense, display or whatever, and that it is a tool that cannot act on its own. I do also understand the gun owners’ paranoia of gun registration and other legislation being used by the government to confiscate guns are not unfounded, as it has been done previously in history and in other countries and there are a number of politicians here in America who would gladly do just that at the drop of a hat if given the chance especially during these high-tension times. The extremes of both sides have brought the debate to a very emotionally-charged deadlock, but if both sides can work together perhaps a common ground can be reached. Unfortunately trying to get such vehemently opposed sides to work together would be nothing short of miracle work that hasn’t been seen since the time of Jesus.
My biggest qualm with the way the situation is being handled is more that most people make guns the one and only issue while ignoring the underlying issues. You can’t put a band-aid on a festering wound and call it good. You have to treat it and in time (in this case it could take generations) it will heal, perhaps not perfectly but at the very least the sepsis won’t bring you a slow demise.
As for the question of whether or not guns should be present at community gatherings, is it not gun-free zones that are being targeted by these killers? It renders the concept of these safe-zones pointless. We live in an imperfect world where, the unpleasant fact is, it sometimes takes a deterrent to prevent someone from doing something evil. As long as we only focus on the bad things going on in the world and feed peoples’ pessimism and cynicism, we will continue to collapse further into this pit of sorrows. Anyways, forgive me if I seem to be rambling. I am prone to overthinking these messages.
Cheers,
Shamus
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gun-shop-owner-orlando-nightclub-shooter-omar-mateen-passed-background-check/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/03/us/how-mass-shooters-got-their-guns.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html?espv=1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh
Yep, more gun laws will make us safer…smh
Man this one is getting beaten to death! Let move on to Diamon’s latest.
These comments are toward the end of the article (and IMO) need to be considered.
“…the NRA spending ultimately leads to policies that run counter to the expressed preferences of the majority of Americans. A small group of extreme, sometimes profit-motivated donors funnels money to an (ostensibly grassroots) group. That group then blankets our electoral cycles in political ads meant to scare Americans into opposing laws that would actually protect them, laws most of them claim to want. Red-state legislators who might otherwise support common-sense gun restrictions instead live under the constant threat of NRA attack ads; all it takes is one small step toward gun reform.”
“Our country desperately needs to reckon with the complex relationship between money and political power — and yet our intellectual and political leaders are telling us that money doesn’t matter in the case of guns. No wonder we can’t solve our paralysis on gun policy. We can’t even properly diagnose its causes.”
“The story of the NRA’s influence is, in large part, the story of how economic power buys political power in modern America. The methods may not be as obvious as bribery, but that doesn’t mean they’re not corrupt.”
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/2/27/17051560/money-nra-guns-contributions-donations-parkland
“…the voting divide between gun owners and non-owners was starker than divides between white and nonwhite Americans, between working-class whites and the rest of the nation, and between rural and urban voters. “No other demographic characteristic created such a consistent geographic split,” the New York Times’s Nate Cohn and Kevin Quealy write.
That doesn’t mean that gun ownership is more important in explaining American political behavior than race or class or gender. But it does mean that gun ownership has an extremely strong correlation with conservative, pro-Republican voting.
Not owning a gun isn’t a particularly powerful identity. But gun ownership is…”
https://www.vox.com/2018/2/27/17029680/gun-owner-nra-mass-shooting-political-identity-political-science
Marie E you have a point here with big money in politics. The problem is that it’s not only the NRA that does it, there is big money on both sides of gun laws as well as any other topic in D.C.
Will,
I am glad “you” have finally found the “obvious” reason for all these senseless acts of violence. WELL DONE!
-And just to point out something that “I” believe to be “obvious”, not one school shooting in the history of well,….ever, has the weapon of choice ever been fed by a “clip”. A magazine maybe, a clip never.
Words have meaning
To the Administrator….. Please….. Give us the nomenclature for ” Assault Weapon”.
“I’ll give you my press when you pry (or take) it from my cold, dead hands”
Actually Johannes Gutenberg was just posturing, he took his press and went on to the olive oil and whine business