The tragedies come and are forgotten after a while; and, obviously, they keep repeating. Practically no one is safe in the USA, due to the easy availability of guns to people who should not have them. Isn’t the gun-crazy mindset the worst shame of the USA?
I had a little conversation today with a pro-gun friend on FB. His argument was that using cars (carelessly or criminally) can kill people. Should the country take cars off the streets? I responded by saying that he had missed a very important point. Cars are needed for a living - for transportation to wherever people need to go in an advanced nation. There is no such need for guns. A civilized nation can certainly live without everyone tottering guns. In fact, the gun right law (2nd Amendment to the Constitution) in the USA was put in place when the USA was mostly wild, a jungle, an uncivilized nation.
How would you address this menace in the USA? How would you console victim-families like the following?:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/victims-aunt-calls-action-not-prayers-shooting-225152005.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb
The tragedies come and are forgotten after a while; and, obviously, they keep repeating. Practically no one is safe in the USA, due to the easy availability of guns to people who should not have them. Isn't the gun-crazy mindset the worst shame of the USA? I had a little conversation today with a pro-gun friend on FB. His argument was that using cars (carelessly or criminally) can kill people. Should the country take cars off the streets? I responded by saying that he had missed a very important point. Cars are needed for a living - for transportation to wherever people need to go in an advanced nation. There is no such need for guns. A civilized nation can certainly live without everyone tottering guns. In fact, the gun right law (2nd Amendment to the Constitution) in the USA was put in place when the USA was mostly wild, a jungle, an uncivilized nation. How would you address this menace in the USA? How would you console victim-families like the following?: https://www.yahoo.com/news/victims-aunt-calls-action-not-prayers-shooting-225152005.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fbI feel so sad and frustrated! My heart goes out to this girl and her friends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxD3o-9H1lY
The tragedies come and are forgotten after a while; and, obviously, they keep repeating. Practically no one is safe in the USA, due to the easy availability of guns to people who should not have them. Isn't the gun-crazy mindset the worst shame of the USA? I had a little conversation today with a pro-gun friend on FB. His argument was that using cars (carelessly or criminally) can kill people. Should the country take cars off the streets? I responded by saying that he had missed a very important point. Cars are needed for a living - for transportation to wherever people need to go in an advanced nation. There is no such need for guns. A civilized nation can certainly live without everyone tottering guns. In fact, the gun right law (2nd Amendment to the Constitution) in the USA was put in place when the USA was mostly wild, a jungle, an uncivilized nation. How would you address this menace in the USA? How would you console victim-families like the following?: https://www.yahoo.com/news/victims-aunt-calls-action-not-prayers-shooting-225152005.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fbThere is no consolation for the families, but what I would do is ban all guns. But as long as we have right wing zealots in the country, we will have more such tragedies. They will never agree to any kind of gun control that is effective. They might agree to window dressing,as long as it doesn’t interfere with the availability of guns, any kind of guns, to anyone who wants them.
I worry that gun violence will never stop. But to be honest people having guns does not really concern me too much. I’m more worried that the fabric of our society is breaking down and all manner of inequalities are becoming worse. The Christians blame a lack of christian values; as they do with everything else including their packages being late, but I think its a very complicated problem.
Mainstream liberals are missing the point. Its not because of firearms, its due to a breakdown in the stability of our society. More and more people are falling though the cracks and even if you decide to repeal the second amendment this situation will only get worse. Although less people would likely get shot up on a daily basis.
I worry that gun violence will never stop. But to be honest people having guns does not really concern me too much. I'm more worried that the fabric of our society is breaking down and all manner of inequalities are becoming worse. The Christians blame a lack of christian values; as they do with everything else including their packages being late, but I think its a very complicated problem. Mainstream liberals are missing the point. Its not because of firearms, its due to a breakdown in the stability of our society. More and more people are falling though the cracks and even if you decide to repeal the second amendment this situation will only get worse. Although less people would likely get shot up on a daily basis.That's a good point. It's not necessarily because of guns, but having none of them would still help greatly. The underlying problem I believe is twofold. One, the disease of capitalism. Gun violence, and really that falling through the cracks you mention, are just a couple sysmptoms. The other is that we're seeing right before our eyes just how much there are two predominant world views in the US (and elsewhere of course). Liberal and Conservative. It just so happens currently Repubs are conservative, but used to be Dems. So it's not necessarily a political distinction. And the conservative view is losing, they know it, and they're fighting back hard. They will literally lie, steal, kill, whatever it takes to hold on. The only silver lining to them taking hold of the entire gov and having a dunce like Drumpf in the WH is that it really exposes them and their malignant worldview for all to see.
I worry that gun violence will never stop. But to be honest people having guns does not really concern me too much. I'm more worried that the fabric of our society is breaking down and all manner of inequalities are becoming worse. The Christians blame a lack of christian values; as they do with everything else including their packages being late, but I think its a very complicated problem. Mainstream liberals are missing the point. Its not because of firearms, its due to a breakdown in the stability of our society. More and more people are falling though the cracks and even if you decide to repeal the second amendment this situation will only get worse. Although less people would likely get shot up on a daily basis.The USA is not the only country with inequality between people, financially or otherwise. There are many countries in the world where there are greater inequalities. The USA is also not the only country that has been rejecting religious nonsense. There are many countries in the world where people are more rational (skeptics/atheists/agnostics) than in the USA. However, the USA is by far the champion of gun-homicide in the world. As for the 'mainstream liberals' of the USA, I think most of them are also seriously stupid when it comes to the 2nd Amendment; although they seem to be better than the 'conservatives' in terms of seeking some common sense gun-control. Citizens needing guns to protect themselves cannot be a law in a civilized nation. In a civilized nation, good laws and law enforcements keep crime level low and ordinary citizens protected against crimes, including murder. In fact, it is utterly foolish to think that civilians can protect themselves by owning guns. The criminal who wants to kill has his/her finger at the trigger; and a citizen living a life is never as ready as the criminal to shoot back.
I worry that gun violence will never stop. But to be honest people having guns does not really concern me too much. I'm more worried that the fabric of our society is breaking down and all manner of inequalities are becoming worse. The Christians blame a lack of christian values; as they do with everything else including their packages being late, but I think its a very complicated problem. Mainstream liberals are missing the point. Its not because of firearms, its due to a breakdown in the stability of our society. More and more people are falling though the cracks and even if you decide to repeal the second amendment this situation will only get worse. Although less people would likely get shot up on a daily basis.The USA is not the only country with inequality between people, financially or otherwise. There are many countries in the world where there are greater inequalities. The USA is also not the only country that has been rejecting religious nonsense. There are many countries in the world where people are more rational (skeptics/atheists/agnostics) than in the USA. However, the USA is by far the champion of gun-homicide in the world. As for the 'mainstream liberals' of the USA, I think most of them are also seriously stupid when it comes to the 2nd Amendment; although they seem to be better than the 'conservatives' in terms of seeking some common sense gun-control. Citizens needing guns to protect themselves cannot be a law in a civilized nation. In a civilized nation, good laws and law enforcements keep crime level low and ordinary citizens protected against crimes, including murder. In fact, it is utterly foolish to think that civilians can protect themselves by owning guns. The criminal who wants to kill has his/her finger at the trigger; and a citizen living a life is never as ready as the criminal to shoot back. There's a systemic stupidity in America when it comes to the 2nd Amendment, it was never intended to remove all controls on gun ownership and turn everyone in the country into a potential vigilante/murderer. It says right in the 2nd Amendment that firearms were to be controlled within a regulate militia system which was required at the time when the US could not afford a large standing army to protect itself from OUTSIDE threats. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."But like everything in the US it is a rigged system where a few people get almost all the wealth and all the rights and everyone who can't afford to pay lobbyists millions of dollars is screwed. The NRA under Wayne Lapierre isn't working in the interests of Americans, he's a paid lobbyist for the gun industry. https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/danbigman/2012/12/21/what-the-nras-wayne-lapierre-gets-paid-to-defend-guns/&refURL=https://www.google.ca/&referrer=https://www.google.ca/
If you're a transparency fan like me, you appreciate knowing what kind of skin public people have in the game during episodes like this. So what did the NRA pay Lapierre to say that the best way to stop school shootings is to have the government put every mentally ill person in the nation on a watch list and arm school personnel to defend schools like banks? Just under a million bucks.The gun industry in America makes $1.5 billion a year selling weapons to civilians there that in tens of thousands of cases are then used to kill those Americans. If there were only a fraction of the firearms there would only be a fraction of the shootings and mass murders at places likes schools would be much less common. The fucking cowards who go into a school - or any place to kill unarmed civilians - would be much less likely if they were forced to use a knife or a club. They'd know that they would likely be overpowered and quite possibly beaten to death by those they are trying to dominate through murder. In the end this is all about power, about loser freaks who think the only way they can have power in America is to buy guns then go out and shoot a bunch of people. Or the assholes in the gun industry that think the only thing that makes then powerful is the huge amount of money they make selling ever more weapons to a civilian population that is already armed to the teeth.
I worry that gun violence will never stop. But to be honest people having guns does not really concern me too much. I'm more worried that the fabric of our society is breaking down and all manner of inequalities are becoming worse. The Christians blame a lack of christian values; as they do with everything else including their packages being late, but I think its a very complicated problem. Mainstream liberals are missing the point. Its not because of firearms, its due to a breakdown in the stability of our society. More and more people are falling though the cracks and even if you decide to repeal the second amendment this situation will only get worse. Although less people would likely get shot up on a daily basis.The USA is not the only country with inequality between people, financially or otherwise. There are many countries in the world where there are greater inequalities. The USA is also not the only country that has been rejecting religious nonsense. There are many countries in the world where people are more rational (skeptics/atheists/agnostics) than in the USA. However, the USA is by far the champion of gun-homicide in the world. As for the 'mainstream liberals' of the USA, I think most of them are also seriously stupid when it comes to the 2nd Amendment; although they seem to be better than the 'conservatives' in terms of seeking some common sense gun-control. Citizens needing guns to protect themselves cannot be a law in a civilized nation. In a civilized nation, good laws and law enforcements keep crime level low and ordinary citizens protected against crimes, including murder. In fact, it is utterly foolish to think that civilians can protect themselves by owning guns. The criminal who wants to kill has his/her finger at the trigger; and a citizen living a life is never as ready as the criminal to shoot back. Pretty rare when I agree with Suk. I've been amazed how many people I've talked to this week who are defending guns. All stupid arguments like not blaming the car when there is a drunk driving accident. I pointed out that we don't arrest the car. That at least got a smile. Then of course there is "Chicago", no data given, just "Chicago". And I was told that the ban on large magazine clips "didn't even slow them down". This turned out to be inaccurate. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/12/31/mass-shootings-in-the-u-s-what-makes-so-many-american-men-dangerous/
I mean if you want a gun that’s fine I think. I just shake my head at how it seems some people are so up in arms, (pardon the pun), about Gun Rights rather then the dozens of other major problems that are actually weakening and harming the country. Or how people threaten to rebel against the government if they strengthen firearms regulation. It’s totally brain dead insanity. It’s official, firearms are a pseudo-religion in the United States.
What a nutty country! Of course, Trump is not the only nut; he is just the nut-in-chief.
Trump endorses guns for teachers to stop shootings
I mean if you want a gun that's fine I think. I just shake my head at how it seems some people are so up in arms, (pardon the pun), about Gun Rights rather then the dozens of other major problems that are actually weakening and harming the country. Or how people threaten to rebel against the government if they strengthen firearms regulation. It's totally brain dead insanity. It's official, firearms are a pseudo-religion in the United States.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiFtJ2pg_94 So that you don't get that millions of Americans are dead set against being slaughtered by a tiny fraction of the population? Other than unmitigated climate change there are few issues more deadly than unregulated firearms in America and their use to kill thousands of Americans a year. It is in effect a form of civil war as anyone with two brain cells to rub together could tell from the above clip where one man with guns he bought legally killed 59 and wounded 850 real people in less than 10 minutes. And terrorized the rest of the nation. I'm pretty sure a de facto civil war in the US that has been raging for decades and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives is a top priority for any sane person.
What a nutty country! Of course, Trump is not the only nut; he is just the nut-in-chief. Trump endorses guns for teachers to stop shootings http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43149694Only parts of it are nuts, millions of people have obviously had enough and students are starting to organize. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/us/florida-school-shooting/index.html
From Arizona to Washington, students walked out of schools in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students a week after their classmates were silenced by gunfire. And in Tallahassee, Stoneman Douglas students who survived the Parkland shooting massacre chanted louder than ever: "Vote them out!" Their words echoed through the hallways of the state Capitol, where they demanded a ban on weapons like the one used to kill their friends and teachers.If the pathetic losers in Congress that have allowed this insanity to go on for decades are voted back in this November then I think it is fair to claim the US is a batshit crazy nation.
What a nutty country! Of course, Trump is not the only nut; he is just the nut-in-chief. Trump endorses guns for teachers to stop shootings http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43149694Only parts of it are nuts, millions of people have obviously had enough and students are starting to organize. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/us/florida-school-shooting/index.html
From Arizona to Washington, students walked out of schools in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students a week after their classmates were silenced by gunfire. And in Tallahassee, Stoneman Douglas students who survived the Parkland shooting massacre chanted louder than ever: "Vote them out!" Their words echoed through the hallways of the state Capitol, where they demanded a ban on weapons like the one used to kill their friends and teachers.If the pathetic losers in Congress that have allowed this insanity to go on for decades are voted back in this November then I think it is fair to claim the US is a batshit crazy nation. I was watching a CNN town-hall last night, where many of the Parkland shooting survivor students talked to leasers, including two US senators. In addition to being sad and mad about what happened to their friends and what they had to go through, I liked what they said in that gathering. However, a few of them made me feel frustrated when they said 'we do not want to take away anyone's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms' - my though was that they were also product of the gun-right mentality of the USA. I thought Newt Gingrich was an educator turned politician, who one time held the position of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. However, under his intellectual posture, he is also a gun nut, proposing arming school teachers to protect students. What a shame! https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/965965538286383104
I wanted to avoid discussion about guns in USA, but lets add some insight.
If you want to own a gun in Slovakia you have to:
a) Learn current legal notice and pass written test regarding it
It has force as a law, and size as a normal book.
b) Pass background check
c) Pass psychotests.
d) Pass a gun handling exam
Each gun should be registered, and written down into “gun passport”.
Guns have to be stored in a safe. (not just locked case).
Also its easier to get a handgun than a rifle - as handguns are less accurate and have less firepower.
Any sort of proposal to arm teachers is complete nonsense.
I wanted to avoid discussion about guns in USA, but lets add some insight.Hard to avoid when kids are shooting kids. A very sensible family member posted something about his 2nd amendment rights. It was also sensible, but I asked if he thought his rights were somehow being threatened. He said something like, I just want the facts to get out there. I responded with a list of possible sensible gun laws, like being 21 to own a gun. A couple other people who I don't know agreed on a couple of the points, like background checks, but then returned to memes about "all Democratic cities with gun restrictions have the highest murder rates" and "the NRA supports bump stock legislation". I could go on, but you've all seen it. The problem, and I know everything, so I know what the problem is, is that liberal thinking is defined as thinking reason and discourse solves problems. It doesn't. It's a way to arrive at possible solutions, but once you have them, it becomes a political problem. People are free to be stupid, that's a liberal value. But liberals are uncomfortable talking about ways to convince stupid people to not hurt others with their stupid ideas and actions. We have to get over that. Edit: He actually said this,
People like you need to get their heads on their shoulders and realize what the real issues are and stop blaming objects. Look at Oklahoma City Bombing not a bomb issue but a mental person issue. But I am sure you will just say “why am I talking to you" “I need sources for what I can see for myself if I opened my eyes" “I cant find what you are talking about"He is mocking me because I asked for sources for his claims.
What a nutty country! Of course, Trump is not the only nut; he is just the nut-in-chief. Trump endorses guns for teachers to stop shootings http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43149694Only parts of it are nuts, millions of people have obviously had enough and students are starting to organize. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/us/florida-school-shooting/index.html
From Arizona to Washington, students walked out of schools in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students a week after their classmates were silenced by gunfire. And in Tallahassee, Stoneman Douglas students who survived the Parkland shooting massacre chanted louder than ever: "Vote them out!" Their words echoed through the hallways of the state Capitol, where they demanded a ban on weapons like the one used to kill their friends and teachers.If the pathetic losers in Congress that have allowed this insanity to go on for decades are voted back in this November then I think it is fair to claim the US is a batshit crazy nation. I was watching a CNN town-hall last night, where many of the Parkland shooting survivor students talked to leasers, including two US senators. In addition to being sad and mad about what happened to their friends and what they had to go through, I liked what they said in that gathering. However, a few of them made me feel frustrated when they said 'we do not want to take away anyone's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms' - my though was that they were also product of the gun-right mentality of the USA. I thought Newt Gingrich was an educator turned politician, who one time held the position of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. However, under his intellectual posture, he is also a gun nut, proposing arming school teachers to protect students. What a shame! https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/965965538286383104 Too many people in the US are not rational about the 2nd Amendment and don't even understand why it was created. At that time the 2nd. Amendment was created the US was politically unstable had little resources and faced one of the greatest empires on the planet. British forces in Canada were only miles away from US territory and could invade at any time. There were not the resources to create and support a large standing army, it was essential that there was a well trained citizens militia present to defend the nation from any possible British attack. Which in fact did happen during the war of 1812 when British forces from Canada invaded and burned the American capital. This is where all this paranoia and patriotic hype around the 2nd. Amendment comes from. The 2nd. Amendment makes it clear in what context US citizens have the right to bear arms. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."Unless you're in the National Guard or the Reserves where guns are tightly controlled you are not part of a well regulated militia. The US stopped needing to rely on "A well regulated militia" for its security over a century ago, it now has the most powerful military on the planet with "defense" spending that is greater than the next seven nations combined. This idea of a US citizen protecting the nation with an AR-15 in his closet is insane. All these weapons are now used for is to intimidate other Americans and in far too many cases murder them outright. The way the 2nd. Amendment is now being applied creates the opposite of security in the US, Americans have far more to fear from each other than terrorists and even war. More Americans died at home from bullets than during all the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clearly there is a very serious problem with gun deaths in the US when it is compared to other nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
Compared to 22 other high-income nations, the U.S. gun-related murder rate is 25 times higher.[13] Although it has half the population of the other 22 nations combined, the U.S. had 82 percent of all gun deaths, 90 percent of all women killed by guns, 91 percent of children under 14 and 92 percent of young people between ages 15 and 24 killed by guns.[13] In 2010, gun violence cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $516 million in direct hospital costs.The US Constitution is not written in stone, right now the republican party is in near total denial of the provisions contained in the US Constitution to guarantee voters rights for millions of Americans creating requirements that will in fact disenfranchise many based on bogus claims of voter "fraud". But they will not budge on an Amendment that is all but useless and is deadly to tens of thousands of Americans every year. There is nothing patriotic in adamantly supporting the 2nd. Amendment no matter how much death it is causing the way it is now being applied, just as there is no patriotism in denying more and more Americans the right to vote. I hope these young people get their act together, help vote out the totally corrupt politicians who take money from groups like the gun lobby then refuse to make changes to law that will actually protect Americans even if does hurt their donor masters. The 2nd. Amendment needs to be amended or it will keep enabling the murder for money of thousands of Americans a year.
The tragedies come and are forgotten after a while; and, obviously, they keep repeating. Practically no one is safe in the USA, due to the easy availability of guns to people who should not have them. Isn't the gun-crazy mindset the worst shame of the USA? I had a little conversation today with a pro-gun friend on FB. His argument was that using cars (carelessly or criminally) can kill people. Should the country take cars off the streets? I responded by saying that he had missed a very important point. Cars are needed for a living - for transportation to wherever people need to go in an advanced nation. There is no such need for guns. A civilized nation can certainly live without everyone tottering guns. In fact, the gun right law (2nd Amendment to the Constitution) in the USA was put in place when the USA was mostly wild, a jungle, an uncivilized nation. How would you address this menace in the USA? How would you console victim-families like the following?: https://www.yahoo.com/news/victims-aunt-calls-action-not-prayers-shooting-225152005.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fbThere is no consolation for the families, but what I would do is ban all guns. But as long as we have right wing zealots in the country, we will have more such tragedies. They will never agree to any kind of gun control that is effective. They might agree to window dressing,as long as it doesn’t interfere with the availability of guns, any kind of guns, to anyone who wants them. Yes, the senseless loss of innocent lives due to guns in the hands of mentally sick people would continue to be the worst shame of the USA for decades to come. The window-dressing jobs that can be imagined in the horizon would have only a limited impact. This country is surely not ready to do the right thing now - to call gun ownership a privilege that must be earned and maintained thorough serious mental health scrutiny; no nonsense of the gun-right (2nd Amendment).
I think it’s easy to relate gun violence to mental illness because it’s obvious you’d have to be crazy to shoot up a bunch of strangers. Mental illness is not that simple.
But if that’s the legislation that can be passed, I’m all for stringent psych evals for every gun owner and gun buyer. Let’s do something.
I think large magazine bans, bump stock bans, no private sales are assault a good start.
Registration just seems obvious. Anyway. Have a nice day.
The armed teacher’s biggest fear is “missing (the deranged shooter) and hitting a student.” Indeed, in a crowd comprising mostly students, the armed teacher/guard is more likely to kill innocent students than the would be killer.
Armed teacher’s fear? ‘Missing and hitting a student’
The whole idea of making the schools warzones is sickening.
The armed teacher's biggest fear is "missing (the deranged shooter) and hitting a student." Indeed, in a crowd comprising mostly students, the armed teacher/guard is more likely to kill innocent students than the would be killer. Armed teacher's fear? 'Missing and hitting a student' http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-43172779/armed-teacher-s-fear-missing-and-hitting-a-student The whole idea of making the schools warzones is sickening.It's pure fantasy that teachers who's main role is engaging with students in a trust relationship to teach and help socialize them are then going to immediately convert to highly proficient tactical teams to take down a shooter. There was an armed deputy at the Florida high school and he would not go into the building where he heard shooting. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/22/stoneman-douglas-shooting-armed-guard-did-not-go-in
The armed deputy who was on campus at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school when a gunman massacred 17 people stood outside the building as it occurred and did not go in to engage the shooter, the Broward County sheriff, Scott Israel, said on Thursday. Deputy Scott Peterson, who was the school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, resigned from the department on Thursday after being told he would be suspended, Israel said.By the time someone has decided to do something this despicable they no longer care about any life including their own. They will shoot everyone they see and are coming in prepared. As you say, any armed teacher would be more likely to hit students in the pandemonium an armed attack on a school would cause. If the idiots now running America are going to keep refusing to accept that over 300 million guns in civilian hands and millions more added each year puts everyone in the US on the frontline of an ongoing civil war then the only thing that would work even marginally would be having tactical teams deployed at every school. And that would turn US schools into an even more violent warzone as you say. Teachers are not tactical response teams and trying to turn them into one would destroy the trust relationship they need to do their job and possibly motivate even more borderline students to go postal. This is a psychopaths response to critical social issues.