RE: It's the guns!
Go, tell that to the families from the UK who lost their children to a maniac with a knife. They're children for God's sake. You don't need much. Or how about that wacko in Milwaukee who used his car to killed multiple people and kids?
Understand, guns aren't going anywhere. Guns are a equalizer so the weak, few, female, elderly and most vulnerable has a chance against the strong and many.
Do you really not understand that?
RE: It's the guns!
))So what is the 'real/actual problem'? Violence from black people? ((
Yeah, that's it. We didn't have them black people in the 70s and 80s.
Is it really so difficult to look a little deeper?
RE: It's the guns!
Lancellot, you make a good point. There were no school shootings that made the news, because they weren't happening to white Americans. But they are now...maybe the guns have changed since then?
I mostly went to public school on military bases...I bet our gun to person ratio way exceeded anywhere else. And yet, nothing.
GoWiSt
Poet Rating
Rank: 195 
(+1)
Short Works Rating
Review Stars
Rank: 113
RE: It's the guns!
Personally, I've never blamed Trump or the NRA for our gun/mass shooting problems. This problem was here long before Trump/the NRA came on the scene and will persist long after them.
Our standing military is expressly designed, purposed and taxpayer funded to defend us from external military aggression--the very essence of why they exist at all.
Do you really believe that if even the weakest military might of some foreign nation/state/mercenary group were to invade us, that we, as individual citizens with all the personal guns and ammo we amass, would be able to effectively organize/martial/mobilize ourselves to fend them off? You're living in a Hollywood script, if you believe this.
The Mexican drug cartels alone would overrun us, if our standing military force were to suddenly vanish or be deactivated. And that's just one regional gang/private enterprise, not alone the full military might of another nation, like say Russia/Iran/even North-Korea.
And you think individual citizens with their puny weapons (and I don't care how many AR-15s and hand grenades Joe Blow owns) would be able to thwart such attacks? You're not in touch with reality.
The vast majority of school shootings are committed by members/students/staff of those schools, and that's why they're targeted.
Disgruntled post office employees attack (their) post offices, loony military personnel attack barracks/military facilities, fired/sacked supermarket malcontents attack supermarkets, etc.
RE: It's the guns!
Right, Julie. It is all about the path of least resistance.
It is easier to blame an object, than a person or group of people.
It is easier to attack a building filled with children, than a building filled with cops or adults.
It is easier to speak about shootings upon white schools by white kids, than speak about shootings at black schools by black kids.
It is easier to have someone else defend you and take the risk of dying or injury, than taking the responsibility and risk of defending yourself.
It is easy to ban guns when you live in Mayberry. not so easy when you live in Chicago, Detroit, Memphis or Oakland.
I love to hear people who live their entire life on tiny islands speak with such authority about no need for guns, when they never have to walk through a gang meeting on the corner, or a group of thugs who are looking for an easy target.
People who have no idea what to do when a car full of young thugs yell at you, "What up, N-word, What you is?" And when five of them "young scholars" get out of the car. I bet you wish you had a gun then, because your feet aren't fast enough to save you.
GoWiSt
Poet Rating
Rank: 195 (+1)
Short Works Rating
Review Stars
Rank: 113
RE: It's the guns!
Apparently, I'm too shortsighted/myopic and can't seem to look/see 'a little deeper'. So, spell it out for this dimwit--what the real/actual problem with guns/mass shootings is, and speak sloooowly...
That troubled lad in the UK who knifed those three girls would have ginned down 13...23?...30? of them if he'd been carrying a modern gun (like the assault rifles we're apparently so in love with).
Not even remotely saying that killing by knife/sword is good--that UK incident was a very sad tragedy--but it would have been much worse if the killer had come in with a gun.
Likewise, killing by vehicle is not good, but the driver would have to get relatively close to effect his damage, as compared to a shooter from a hotel room nearby, who can take out multiple times as many victims from afar.
Guns may not be going anywhere, then neither are school/mass shootings.
Perhaps, one day we'll learn--after we've had enough.
RE: It's the guns!
That troubled lad in the UK who knifed those three girls would have ginned down 13...23?...30? of them if he'd been carrying a modern gun (like the assault rifles we're apparently so in love with).
1) Really, did this recent 14 year old armed such a gun gin down 13, 23, or 30? When was that last school shooting when 30 kids were 'ginned down'?
2) Nice way to ignore the majority of my question. What about those of us who do not live in Mayberry, Pleasantville, or the island of New Zealand or England? What about those of us who live in crime ridden neighborhoods with people who don't care about their lives or yours? Please, be honest. The 2nd wasn't just made to defend again external threats. Be HONEST. What will we do when seconds count and the cops are minutes or more away?
Come on, Go, please answer. When a group thugs, with gold teeth, sagging pants, and who don't know what a belt is for, surrounds you, pulls you out of your car, or breaks into you family home. Will you look at your terrified wife and kid and say, "I'm so glad we don't have a gun? Please answer, because this is the main issue, you and others keep avoiding.
RE: It's the guns!
Guns have been with us since the beginning of the country, but clearly gun related violence has continued to increase through the past handful of decades. Gun laws have increased in many states since then, but that didn't stop or slow it.
So something else must have changed. I would say it isn't one single cause but a coming together of many factors which could include the destruction of the nuclear family, the increasing disregard for a moral authority (whether it be the parent, the police, or God), children no longer being primarily raised by the parent(s) but turned over to the state, ie public schools, which have dropped the ball on educating/disciplining children in favor of indoctrinating or just twiddling the day away.
All of these are very convoluted, complex issues that can't be easily fixed. It's the decline of culture.
But banning guns won't fix a one of them. It will leave law-abiding citizens vulnerable. In areas where the police have been defunded, the citizens can't even rely on that protection.
The vast majority of deaths by guns is suicide. Banning guns won't stop people from killing themselves.
I hate it when kids shoot other kids. But something is wrong with the child and taking away his weapon won't address whatever it was that led him to it. What failed the child? The parents, the schools, the doctor who put him on meds instead of dealing with the issues, a culture of violence in entertainment? All of these? Some of these? A lethal combination.
Ban the guns but don't deal with the source of the actual problem and you still have a problem.
GoWiSt
Poet Rating
Rank: 195 (+1)
Short Works Rating
Review Stars
Rank: 113
RE: It's the guns!
Hmm, not sure whether I care to answer *sipping on my bubbly champagne from Paradise Lane, Pleasantville*
Okay, I'll play.
1. I was being metaphoric about gunning down 13, 23, 30 victims, as I used variant numbers with the digit 3 in association with the three girls killed in England.
My point was that more than three children would have been killed in that incident had the killer been armed with a gun.
In this most recent case in Georgia, where four were shot to death and nine others wounded, the casualties would have been significantly less if the killer had been armed with only a knife/sword and not the gun he had.
2. If attacked by organized/determined gangs/thugs, either in our cars or homes, those guns of ours, which we've locked/put away securely to prevent junior from getting at them and accidentally blowing off grandma's head (incidents close to this have happened), will not be readily accesible in time enough to save us.
We just have to hope/pray that the criminals simply rob us and not unnecessarily kill us.
Indeed, if they catch us fumbling to get to our guns, this may spur them to take that next step and shoot/harm/kill us.
Most thugs/gangs want money and money-generating objects, and not simply to willynilly attack and kill folk.
So, our locked and securely tucked away guns won't save us here.
If/when guns are banned, people/criminals caught in possession of them should serve very lengthy prison sentences, and in some cases life terms.
It should be a highly punishable, high punishment offence.
More cops should patrol and be stationed in higher crime areas, where they can better readily respond to calls of attacks. This is the essence of the police force.
I have samurai swords and metal baseball bats stationed at different strategic points within my home. They may not be much, but I make pretty good swings.
The swords are high-mounted and away from the kids, but still easily accessible if/when I need them, which, thank God, I haven't--though I have used the bats several times.
"The vast majority of deaths by guns is suicide."
Excuse my French, but I really don't give a *bleep* if someone chooses to off themselves, as long as they don't take others with them.
Of course I'm being dramatic here and don't really mean I don't care. But if an adult thinks life has gotten too much for them and they want to check out, then ...
The vast majority of shootings from guns in homes are against some known, family, relative or friend, and not against some attacking gangs/thugs from outside.
We are not the only society/nation where the nuclear family system has eroded, religious reverence/fear is in decline, people no longer trust the so-called moral authorities, and other social ills are occurring. Yet, other similar places have vastly significantly lower gun/mass shooting incidents/problems.
I wonder what the distinguishing X-factor could be...
Disgruntled/neglected/maltreated kids in America become angry and pick up guns and shoot folks.
Disgruntled/neglected/maltreated kids in other countries become angry and pick up sticks/stones/knives and get into fist-fights ('cause they have no access to guns).
I wonder which society you'd rather live in.
SimianSavant
Poet Rating
Rank: 68
Short Works Rating
Rank: 119
Review Stars
Rank: 51
RE: It's the guns!
Go, it's really hard to read what you are adding to the conversation when you don't annotate the previous replies you are quoting. Here are some options for doing that:
<em>
italicized text</em>
<div style="color:green">
change the color of the quoted text
</div>
>> indented/arrowed text (this is how I typically do it, as HTML markup only works with the original writing in the forum, and doesn't work if there are mistakes that have to be edited <<
1 -2- 3 4
