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A responsible state

In prisons, the guards inside don’t have guns. Yet, the response of the NRA to the Sandy Hook massacre is to turn our teachers into armed guards. For a country that already doesn’t fund its schools well, and local police forces are having to cut staff to stay in budget, we’re not in a position to pay to secure every last public place just in case someone goes wacko and starts shooting up the place.

As to the wackos- we pretty much shut down all our state sponsored mental institutions under Reagan and began our problem with homelessness. It seems to be beyond our grasp that some people are not capable of functioning normally within society due to challenges in life, but, on the other hand – totally acceptable to pour trillions into places like Iraq and Afghanistan to try to make them “safe for democracy.”

A truly responsible State, would never allow its own veterans to be homeless, while building schools and roads in far away places, and funding public security forces there, while its own citizens are getting murdered by the boatload here.

So, of course, I’m instantly a gun hater, gun banner and have no respect for the Second Amendment. I want to ban guns, or take away your firepower- which protect you just in case, you happen to be watching a movie at midnight and a whack job shows up in full body armor shooting with an assault rifle. Nancy Lanza had a whole arsenal of weaponry “to protect her”- and as the saying goes, those who live by the gun, die by the gun. She was the first, but the only one who wasn’t innocent that died in Connecticut.

We live in a state where you can’t cut hair for money without a license and an exam. Last I heard, a bad haircut never put anyone in the hospital. To sell another persons home, you need a license, to drive a car, to fly a plane, to sell insurance, to practice law, medicine and to be an architect. Whom are we protecting with all these licenses, permits, tests and insurance? We even have F&I insurance for corporate boards so they won’t get sued after they rob their shareholders of their life’s savings.

Yet, to buy something designed to kill people, no license, no test, no insurance. By their nature, guns are an offensive weapon, meant to do harm to someone or something living. But, the argument is, if you take away the good guys guns, only the bad guys will have them. And to me, that’s the last straw. Live by the gun, die by the gun.

I am not afraid of a government of the people, by the people, that expects me not to have to deal with the risk of getting shot every time I leave the house. This is not the wild west, and I don’t want to live there. If I wanted to live somewhere where I run risks of that- I can go to Afghanistan and even there, I’m afraid I might actually be safer. All I’m asking for is well regulated gun ownership, responsible gun ownership. If you want to own a gun, you must pass a real training course, you must certify at least annually, you carry insurance for your gun (or guns) and take full responsibility if they are used in a crime.

As to the “bad guys” who want to have a gun and use it in a crime, or have it out in public without license, insurance and registration (unavailable to those with a felony record), it’s really quite simple- we shoot you on the spot with your own gun and destroy it. What gun loving member of the NRA wouldn’t love that? Because, they are all the good guys- who are going to save us from shooters like the one in Aurora.

And while I fully understand posse comitatus and don’t want the military to deploy here, I ask is it much different if we did put armed guards all over? I’d rather have our soldiers here than in Afghanistan, but, then again, why should we need armed guards in our midst. Even prisoners don’t have to live like that.

And one last thing, I’m pretty sure our Congressmen aren’t allowed to pack heat at work, but, I bet budget debates would be settled a lot quicker if they were. It’s time we stopped dancing around this issue and take some responsibility for our death rate from guns in this country. We banned jarts didn’t we?

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Marc Delaney

I think you’ve made some really good points:

-Body armor and assault rifles.
-Responsible ownership with classes and insurance.

-Our mental health situation.

-Country building, instead of building our country.

The rest was just a whole lot of drama. 

p

Yeah.  It’s a lot of drama until it touches your family.  I just drove a long way to console someone who took a life yesterday.  And when I left town, I thought I might be headed to his funeral instead, so I’m glad it went the way it did.  But still, this shit has to stop.  I may be in the minority, but this is one big sister who would like to see a system that makes it harder for mass murderers to ambush my little brother.  And if you reply, no names David.

gturner

More people have been killed in Chicago in the last few months than in all of Sandy Hook’s shooting. Mass shootings are responsible for such a ridiculously small amount of deaths it’s barely noticeable statistically. Want to make a difference? Focus on better parenting, better fencing around swimming pools, etc. Or here’s an idea? Focus on self-responsibility.
Europe has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, and yet the largest mass shooting of all time happened in Norway, not to mention the mass shootings in Russia, which has banned all guns with the exception of single shot hunting rifles.
Living in a free society has risks. If you want to be coddled, there are plenty of societies that would be more than happy to treat you like child. I, for one, prefer to accept the risks of living in a culture that tries to embrace freedoms, with all the difficulties that can bring.

Diane

Mainstream media churns and churns coverage of these singular, albeit terrible, events until we’re all CONVINCED that they are happening every day in every corner of our country to every person we know or might some day come to know.

People really need to take a breath, turn off the TV, step back and try to regain some semblance of perspective before they encourage our politicians to go off writing a bunch of new restrictive laws that, in the long run, will help no one.

Diane

You can learn more about how the media sets agendas in this country and tells us all what to think by reading this article: http://www.beyondthemythmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/Agenda-Setting-LSherrill.pdf

While the subject of this article happens to deal with biased anti-pitbull media coverage in this country, the same concepts apply to gun control or any other controversial topic.

Our opinions are shaped by the sheer VOLUME of news stories on a given topic in combination with the SPECIFIC WORDS that are repeated (i.e., tragedy, attack, massacre, innocent victims, etc.).

Once you understand how your opinions are being manipulated by media agenda setting, you can consciously decide to resist the manipulation. 

David, you’re a media guy, so I know you know this is true. :-) 

Shortwest Rick

Excellent analogy Diane. The media has a self-imposed practice of not reporting the specifics of suicides or not reporting them at all ‘out of respect for the family’. Adam Lanza is the poster child of someone that could have just offed himself in the basement of his home with no fanfare, he knew going in he was going to kill himself in the end. This is a completely different situation from T.J. Lane who shot up four kids at Chardon High School, T.J. never thought of turning the gun on himself that was not his intention. The distinction needs to be made here between one person who had decided to die that day, could do it at home in his basement, or be immortalized in the media like other mass shooters, took himself to the ultimate challenge that it would be death by cop or he would have that final control of his destiny. The other side of the coin is T. J., he was acting out of self-preservation against four kids who had bullied him, T. J. had no intention of dying. The only common thread between these school shootings is availability to guns. We can’t try to lump them together in any other way.

Don

The NRA is a trade organization, similar to a chamber of commerce, that happens to have craven interests that intersect nicely with the 2nd amendment notion that “the people” should always be able to overthrow the government in a popular uprising. There is HUGE money in firearms and I have to laugh out loud (not really) at Wayne LaP. turning a tragedy into a business opportunity. This country is getting stupider by the second when something like this is being stated as “a solution”.

Ice Bandit

 
All I’m asking for is well regulated gun ownership, responsible gun ownership, (David Esrati)
 
…yessir dear David, there is no substitute for responsible ownership of just about anything from birdbaths to motor vehicles. An outbreak of St. John’s encephalitis in the mid 1970s for example was traced to a single,  neglected birdbath in Beavercreek.  However, it is estimated that over 25 percent of the drivers on the street at any time just aren’t supposed to be there. There are an abundance of motorists with over a dozen points, or with multiple suspensions or driving sans insurance, yet they wager their convenience and freedom of movement far surpasses the risk or penalties of getting caught. So the question, dear David, is how can a society unable to control something as public as legal driving regulate something as clandestine as gun ownership? The answers are they can’t and they shouldn’t…