If I could scream on the Internet, I would. I’m screaming here now. There has been another mass shooting, this time at an elementary (K-4) school in Connecticut. An elementary school!! The first report I heard said 12 dead, including children. The latest is saying 27 are dead and at least 20 of those are children.
What’s it going to take in this country to control guns!!?? This is enough. It’s too much. It’s insane. Mass shootings at a theater in Aurora, Colo., in July, at a shopping mall in Oregon three days ago, and now at a grade school in Connecticut. And still we have lawmakers dragging their feet, afraid to offend the almighty gun lobby, afraid to jeopardize their own reelection chances. And some of them, of course, unwilling to limit their own gun ownership.
Just yesterday Colorado’s governor changed his stance a bit and suggested that now, finally, it is time to address gun laws in Colorado. Ya think? And just yesterday in the Denver Post there was a story about whether or not the state should continue to issue concealed carry permits for which applicants need only take a brief, online test. Online! Not even face-to-face hands-on training. To carry a lethal weapon.
We are the only civilized nation on earth that allows so many guns. Or guns at all. And “civilized” seems a gross misstatement at the moment. Second Amendment rights? Really? Things like this happen and you want to talk to me about your right to have guns? Do you want the blood of those children on your hands? It is, you know. Every time you fight against tighter, more restrictive gun laws, you are making more guns available to everyone, including those who aren’t as responsible as you claim to be. Don’t tell me it wasn’t your fault, that you are a responsible owner, that your right to carry is somehow protecting other people and preventing more mass shootings. It’s not. You are delusional. The lax laws you defend are putting more guns into our society every day, thus making more guns available to the irresponsible, sick, lawless individuals among us. You must realize this.
The Second Amendment protects “the right to bear arms.” It’s time we consider whether that amendment, as currently written, has outlived its usefulness and is doing more harm than good.
I have two grandchildren in class right now at an elementary school half a mile from here. Don’t talk to me about your precious right to bear arms. Don’t. Even. Mention. It.
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I completely agree, PT. Perhaps this time we might have an adult national conversation about gun control, or at least assault rifles. I hope.
As far as I’m concerned, anyone who objects to tighter gun control shares responsibility for tragedies like this. And the law needs to go far beyond just ill-defined “assault rifles.”
Ayup. This one pushed me over the edge, too, and out of the “neutral” zone. Something needs to be done. No, not needs to, MUST be done. Knowing that we’ll never get rid of guns, there are still laws and procedures which can be passed. One thing, and I’ve believed this long before today… no semi or full automatics except by police or other qualified people. End of story.
And the 2nd Amendment? That was written back when guns were crucial to survival for many as well as defend home and family. Plus a gun was a musket for christ’s sake. I can guarantee that if any of those men were alive today, they would all agree that this is not what the amendment was designed to do. And I’m sure they’d be in DC fighting to stop this insanity we’ve been led into by the NRA.
This is horrible. Horrible.
In holding out for lax or non-existent gun laws, the NRA has failed in its stated objective to support and promote responsible gun ownership. They’ve become the irresponsible gun owners they were supposed to save us from.
I’ve been having a calm discussion about this with a co-worker who happens to be the father of a young girl in elementary school. He thinks it is violent video games to blame – not gun laws.
I counter, “If the man had a knife, how many would he have gotten?”
Surely less, right? It is a lot easier to run from a knife than a gun. I understand that he would have killed no matter what, but without all that fire power, I sincerely believe the death toll would have been less, or none at all.
(I am aware of the incident in China, but just reverse the question. If that fellow in China had had a gun, how many more would he have killed?)
As a grandmother who plays violent video games, and who has a son who plays them, I disagree with your co-worker. In my experience, the people who blame real-world violence on video games have never played video games and have no idea what they’re talking about.
And I absolutely agree with you — the man could not have done nearly as much damage with a knife.
And a man would have done considerably less damage with a stick than a knife.
Of course, with a stick or a knife, he’d have never gotten into the school to begin with.
I think another variable in this discussion is how it is easier to get a gun than it is to get mental health care. I can’t fathom that I live in a society that considers gun ownership to be a right, but health care to be a privilege. That’s what I keep turning over and over in my mind. When I’m not grieving for those sweet little kids & their teachers.
Our priorities are indeed screwed up when we make it easier to kill one another than to cure.
That's a really neat turn of phrase, Ally. I'd like to steal it if you don't mind. 🙂
Hear, hear.
This is a real tragedy, but the blame should be laid at the feet of those who think that bad people will obey laws that attempt to thwart their intentions.
At best a gun ban may keep guns from law abiding people. Those same law abiding people (first responders), you’ll be praying show up to stop the mayhem using similar weapons.
At worst, people like me will simply hide their guns and become criminals instead of legally carrying a weapon for the sole purpose of defense of self or some other victim. Like you. Or your kids.
Regrettably, even I have to leave my weapon behind when visiting some place where the management prefers that guns are limited to criminals. Like a school. Or almost any other government building.
How many mass murders are committed at gun shows? Or on a target shooting range?
My emotional response to this tragedy is the same as anyone else’s, but I can’t believe that the resulting attempt to reduce the possibility of another one like it will be based on logic. No… despite history, the Utopian idea that bans will work is simply too attractive to resist.
I know bad people don’t obey laws. That’s precisely the problem. The more guns we have circulating in our society, the more guns there are available for bad or sick people to buy, borrow, steal, etc. The problem is too many guns. Period. The blame should be laid at the feet of those who lobby for and encourage more and more and more guns in America. More guns is not and never has been the answer. We’ve seen that for decades now as the problem keeps getting worse. It’s time — past time — to start working for fewer guns. Fewer and fewer.
I don’t want guns in my grandkids’ school. Yours or anybody else’s. I don’t want our schools, theaters, and other gathering places turned into armed camps, or worse, circular firing squads when a bunch of “responsible” gun owners whip out their guns and start shooting at somebody. Keep your gun at home to defend yourself and your family if you feel you must. But don’t bring it around me and mine.
I don’t believe more guns would have prevented yesterday’s tragedy. I believe no guns would have.
Keep allowing more guns into our society? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
“Keep allowing more guns into our society? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Exactly.
You agree that continuing to allow more guns is insanity? I didn’t expect that. Or do we have a misunderstanding here?
Insanity is banning things that people don’t want banned, or believing that millions of guns can be made to disappear.
Here’s another view: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Lott-guns-Connecticut-shooting/2012/12/15/id/467903
I meant that it’s insanity to continue to allow more guns when we’ve already allowed too many. Doing so is obviously not solving the problem; it’s only making it worse. At least half the population does want a ban, or at least much tighter control. And while we may not be able to make millions of guns disappear overnight, that’s no reason not to start trying to reduce the number. And obviously with that many guns already in circulation, we don’t need to add any more. Guns, unfortunately, last a very long time. (Funny the gun manufacturers haven’t gotten into that “planned obsolescence” thing. Lots of profit in that.)
Hmm. It does sound logical when you say it, Ima, but the statistics I find tell another story. Given how contentious the issue is, this will not likely change your mind but maybe some others will find it persuasive. I do.
The United States of course has the loosest gun control laws of all developed countries. In the United States in 2006, 10,225 people were killed by the use of a gun. Suicides in this country use them a lot as well: 17,002 suicides in 2005.
In 2010 in Germany, with tighter laws, there were only 158 homicides committed with a firearm.
In the U.K. in 2009 only 18 people were murdered with a firearm.
In Japan, probably the strictest gun-controlling of all developed countries in the world, in 2006 there were only two homicides. In 2008 there were 11.
Personally I do not intend to pack heat everywhere I go, and given the behavior I see, road rage included, I sure wish others wouldn’t either.
I’d not seen the statistics before, but I knew in the UK neither civilians nor police carry guns. Are we just too young a nation to be that civilized? I hate that in the 21st Century, we’re still acting like a bunch of 19th Century cowboys.
PT, I believe it to be a meme that is a legacy of our country’s frontier origins. Meme’s can, I think, be as enduring as genes, which of course is why Dawkins chose the name. In my corner of SW Missouri the meme for the political culture is at least a century old and going strong.
That being the case, I wish we could indulge in a little genetic/memetic engineering to accelerate our evolution away from the old frontier.
You should read this: http://margaretandhelen.com/2012/12/15/guns-do-not-kill-people-they-make-it-easier-to-kill-people/
Thanks Stephan. That was excellent. Of course I got wound up all over again …