Mass Killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown Conn.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

I wants to be a cowboy,
like in the wild west.

I wants to be a cowboy,
tin badge upon my chest.

I wants to be a cowboy,
and keep my iron near.

I wants to be a cowboy,
'cuz a cowboy gots no fear.

I wants to be a cowboy,
and keep my chest poked out.

I wants to be a cowboy,
I got lots o' shit to spout.

I wants to be a cowboy,
I gots the myth deep in my head.

That when ya become a cowboy,
ya won't never wind up dead.




Yippy ki ay, assholes!

Regards,
Dave

And there you have it, we glorified the wild west, remember Gunsmoke? Yet in real life Miss Kitty was a broken down probably diseased whore. The gunslingers were simply depraved adolescents. Movies popularizing vigilantes - make my day.

There was a time in England where the police never carried guns and neither did the crooks. Why, because the law came down on you really hard if you were carrying a firearm while committing a crime.

Speaking of the Washington Post, Petula Dvorak's column made a lot of sense. We insist on safe car seats, bicycle helmets, safe cribs, everything to protect our children yet any deranged person seems to be able to get a pistol. They said the shooter was upset over his parents divorce. My son was seventeen when I divorced his mother, he did not go on a killing spree. In fact he is a better father than I was. That stupid woman he married wants to get sole custody of the girls and bring them down here to Jacksonville, NC where domestic violence is well above the norm. I would not consider raising children here in this country.

[Oerets]

So just when is an appropriate time to talk about gun violence? Will it take another ten, twenty or more events like the one yesterday to then be the right time?

Delaying the discussion will only allow more of these events to occur. Should not the fact that of the top 24 mass shooting in the past fifty years 15 were in the USA be enough?

We would all agree that if a gun related event similar to this were to happen every day in America something should be done. So it is just the frequency we disagree on. Some like me already see events close to this happening everyday across this nation, not as severe but still occurring.

I go back to pure selfishness on the part of some gun owners using scare tactics and arcane arguments to justify to themselves mainly their point of view. Fueled by the gun lobby controlled by the manufactures. So just dance on the end of the string.

Barney

[JCricket]

Is it possbile to remove every gun from society?

[barbara]

Originally Posted by JCricket

Is it possbile to remove every gun from society?

Probably not, Cricket. But, I don't think that is what anyone is advoacting. There are good and valid reasons for parts of the population to have ownership of guns. But, there is no good or valid reason why individuals have to have personal arsenals of high powered weapons at their disposal when they loose their grip on reality.

[JCricket]

Originally Posted by barbara

Probably not, Cricket. But, I don't think that is what anyone is advoacting. There are good and valid reasons for parts of the population to have ownership of guns. But, there is no good or valid reason why individuals have to have personal arsenals of high powered weapons at their disposal when they loose their grip on reality.

A person can only pull a trigger one one(maybe two) guns at a time. Having 2 or 20 guns won't change that?

Secondly, it would be impossible to take a person with guns "when they loose grip on reality" and control the situation. Once they lose it, the point is mute.

So, back to the question, is it possible to remove all guns from society? The answer is an obvious no. Will any law prevent this from happening? The obvious answer is no. So unless all guns can be removed, another solution will need to be found.

Is there a way to prevent this from happaning again? Here again, no.

The fix is clearly not a "gun control law", but a shift in values across our country and culture. Maybe a gun control law is all we can do, but it will never fix the problem.

What drove the guy to do this? That is what needs addressed.

BTW - I lived two blocks from Columbine when it happened. I have/had friends and neighbors who lost their children in that tragedy.

Mark

[JCricket]

Another thought................
I grew up with guns. I personally have probably fired more than 20,000 rounds of ammnition in my life. No I am not military either. I KNOW about the culture of guns.

If you look at Pareto's 80/20 rule it applies. Eighty percent of all guns are owned by twenty percent of the gun owners. I would bet a huge amount of my money to say that those twenty percent of gun owners will never lose control and go berserk.

It is the folks who have only a few weapons that are the problem. An arsenal is not made of 4 or 5 guns. Not by a long shot. Although, I think that would be a really good statistic to use in examingin who owns and doesn't own guns - this might be a good way to identify a hot spot if you will.

I think most of these crazy shooters are folks who aquired their guns within a few months of the shooting. Here is a starting point to fix the problem.

[barbara]

Cricket...........sure, you're right, one can ony pull one trigger at a time. But, a person who collects an arsenal of high powered weapons is nuturting a mind set that is based in violence.
As for going off the deep end and losing one's grip on reality......I hear people on the news say about shooters (in general), "but, he was the nicest guy, who would have thougtht".....but, those people saying those things are casual acquintances. When one peels back the layers and talks to the people who really knew that shooter, you will find there were red flags in that person's life that weren't addressed for various reasons. Mostly, the reasons have to do with how we deal with (or, more appropriately, don't deal with) mental illness in our society.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by JCricket

Is it possbile to remove every gun from society?

No, and that's not what I would suggest. But, obviously, there is a problem with them falling into the wrong hands. That's what needs to be brought under control.

Regards,
Dave

[JCricket]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

No, and that's not what I would suggest. But, obviously, there is a problem with them falling into the wrong hands. That's what needs to be brought under control.

Regards,
Dave

Dave agreed!
My point, as long as there are guns in society, these things will happen. Secondly, since it is imposssbile to remove guns, these things will happen. Thus, controlling guns will not solve the problem.

The only remedy then would be to identify the folks that would do this. How can that be done?

I have ideas, but few pro gun folks would lke them.

[Wasillaguy]

So cars were designed to transport, and guns designed to kill. Yet cars kill more people every year. Sounds to me like cars are much more in need of further regulation, and guns are safe by comparison.
If my .44 were as poorly designed as a car, I could ride it to work.