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Congrats, conservatives - another 17 dead school kids. Your national gun obsession is really bearing fruit.
But in 'Murica, guns rank right up there with God and pickup trucks. Since most of these types are the base of the GOP voter ranks, the Republicans are never going to do anything to lose one of them.
Just like shooting fish in a barrel.... But yet we keep making more barrels (gun free zones) for these loons to carry out their fantasies.
Yes, let's arm school kids. As a matter of fact, let's become Brazil or Somalia where everyone is armed. In a a place where everyone is armed no one is safe. What a dystopian future we would have. A country of vigilante fanatics. Guns are a scourge.
..... This is not about the prevalence of guns. It’s something wrong with our culture today. I blame 24/7 news and social media, as well as psychotropic drugs. These people want notoriety, and boy do we ever give it to them.
Exactly.
Over 20 years ago I went on a vacation down to a Caribbean island, where I commented to a local on how nice it must be to live somewhere like that. She replied that while it was nice, since the introduction of American TV shows the islands youths have gotten more unruly, playing out the violence they saw on our TV. But yet Hollywood and video game makers will howl at the mention of the thought that the fruits of their labors may be having a negative effect on the minds of the impressionable.
That's the first I've seen of that mentioned. I've never seen anyone mention doing so unless you're talking about letting adults arm themselves on college campuses. Evidently you have though, so please enlighten us.
Americans blame, and quite rightly in most of these shootings, the mentally ill. Last year the republican controlled house voted 235 to 180 to abolish the rule that anyone diagnosed with a mental illness should be subject to a background check when trying to buy a gun.
The Republicans argued that the rule stigmatises people suffering from mental heath issues. So the next time a nutcase massacres children at your local school, you will know who to blame.
Do you think that a paranoid schizophrenic should be able to legally own a gun?
The Federal law requires that a background check be performed by ANY firearms dealer on ANYBODY who wants to buy a gun. ANYBODY who has been determined by a court to be mentally ill will not pass the background check!
The key point is "determined by a court". Your constitutional rights can not be taken from you without a CONVICTION! An "allegation" is not enough.
Unless, of course, the "allegation" is for sexual or domestic abuse, then you are convicted in the "court of public opinion" automatically! However, that "conviction" will not be reported to the criminal database, so it will not show up on the background check.
Exactly.
Over 20 years ago I went on a vacation down to a Caribbean island, where I commented to a local on how nice it must be to live somewhere like that. She replied that while it was nice, since the introduction of American TV shows the islands youths have gotten more unruly, playing out the violence they saw on our TV. But yet Hollywood and video game makers will howl at the mention of the thought that the fruits of their labors may be having a negative effect on the minds of the impressionable.
The irony.
NRA would adamantly deny that the gun culture in the USA normalizes gun ownership and use but because folks don't like that liberal Hollywood -- they will be blamed for increased violence in our culture.
AND...
One person's anecdote about increased violence in their country doesn't make for a social trend or fact...it makes for one person's anecdote.
AND
The theory of violence in movies and games falls flat when you look at countries that have access to the exact same culture and don't have the rates of violence as the USA does.
Canada isn't as violent, doesn't have as many guns and has absolutely positively the SAME movie, video culture.
Yes, let's arm school kids. As a matter of fact, let's become Brazil or Somalia where everyone is armed. In a a place where everyone is armed no one is safe. What a dystopian future we would have. A country of vigilante fanatics. Guns are a scourge.
No, let's don't arm school kids, let's put armed guards in schools. TRAINED armed guards!
Metal detectors have been installed. Didn't work.
Locked doors have been tried. Didn't work.
"Gun Free Zones" have been tried. Dismal failure.
"Active Shooter Drills" have been implemented. Didn't help.
We have armed guards "protecting" everything from banks to gated communities to courthouses, yet the buildings where our precious CHILDREN are concentrated are not guarded at all!
WHY IS THAT?
Well, it is obvious to me that children today are less important than money or houses or judges and lawyers, in spite of all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over guns!
The problem is not the tool, it is the person holding the tool. Restricting the right of law-abiding citizens to own the tool will have no effect on criminals. They, by definition, don't obey the laws anyway!
Criminals by definition do not obey the law. Using a firearm to harm another is already illegal.
Proponents might want to spend more time thinking about the facts, and less time writing about feelings that won't fix the problem.
The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights reserved.
It's instructive how often trying something for themselves and seeing the real thing, can change the minds of people raised on a steady diet of liberalism.
Sorry, liberals. Despite all your efforts at brainwashing, it looks like another one has gotten away.
How my trip to the shooting range changed how I think about gun owners
by Nicolas Colemam
February 14, 2018 01:28 PM
Updated 39 minutes ago
(snip)
Staring down the range and adjusting to the uncomfortable weight of the rifle, I tried to shake the thought that I was sharing the view of Stephen Paddock and the many other mass-murderers whose weapon of choice I was now holding. I tried to think of the soldiers who valiantly brandished these weapons, but the context was inescapable. Every squeeze of the trigger and every hole ripped through the paper target reminded me of only one thing. The gun gave me a power that felt undeserved. There was no adrenaline rush or satisfaction, just memories of headlines and climbing death tolls. But this was only part of the story.
(snip)
I did not go to a shooting range expecting to learn anything other than how to shoot a gun. It was just something new and interesting that I wanted to try. For most of my life I had been inundated with information, misinformation and political messaging surrounding guns and those who own them. It was another on a long list of topics that I was expected to have an opinion on without having any first-hand knowledge. Having grown up in a predominantly liberal environment, I was taught to associate guns with mass shootings, hicks and the ominous National Rifle Association. I left the shooting range feeling that this narrative was misguided, socially harmful and politically toxic.
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
I am a bleeding heart liberal, someone you would likely classify as a typical over educated, new england yankee, whatever other label you want to apply. I also grew up with a father who belonged to Ducks Unlimited, owned rifles and a handgun, and took me shooting regularly. Skeet mostly but when I was a teen he wanted me to know how to use a handgun.
I was never taught any of the nonsense in this article despite being a typical Martha's Vineyard liberal and I still believe in gun control. I also believe that an AR-15 should not have been able to be purchased by a 19 yo, with a history of making threats, and his mental health problems.
The Federal law requires that a background check be performed by ANY firearms dealer on ANYBODY who wants to buy a gun. ANYBODY who has been determined by a court to be mentally ill will not pass the background check!
The key point is "determined by a court". Your constitutional rights can not be taken from you without a CONVICTION! An "allegation" is not enough.
Unless, of course, the "allegation" is for sexual or domestic abuse, then you are convicted in the "court of public opinion" automatically! However, that "conviction" will not be reported to the criminal database, so it will not show up on the background check.
A student who has been expelled for making threats should also not be able to purchase a gun, particularly one like an AR-15.
Additionally, it is meaningless to put that level of expectation on gun dealers but not on the secondary market. That "loophole" needs to be closed.
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