2 more school (college) shootings right now. Texas and Arizona.

[LivingWordUnity]

You know it is funny, ( not the shootings), but it is funny how these shootings always seem to happen in gun free zones). If guns were the problem then why do people not shoot up shooting ranges, police stations, or places where it is otherwise known there will likely be guns?

In addition, if it is a gun problem then how is it that this started recently (when you compare how old this country is and yet we have ALWAYS had the second amendment.

Good point. If guns were the problem wouldn't killing sprees happen all the time at gun ranges and at gun shows?

 

[dogs4thewin]

Under Oregon law, guns are allowed on all Oregon campuses, but only if the carriers have concealed carry permits.

http://www.onenewspage.us/video/20151007/3398315/Guns-allowed-on-Oregon-campuses.htm

It is true, of course, that statistically, the more educated people are the less likely they are to feel the need to own guns.

BUT private property holders are allowed to not allow guns and the campus had a rule that no guns are allowed on the property.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Good point. If guns were the problem wouldn't killing sprees happen all the time at gun ranges and at gun shows?

So does that not lead a reasonable person to conclude that more gun control is NOT the answer. Since it is clearly the PEOPLE at fault?

 

[LivingWordUnity]

I think it's weird when a liberal goes crazy with a gun and then the liberals blame it on conservatives.

 

[Erose]

Except that you've got it backwards.

Abortion is, as a film once depicted it, a "silent scream." Were it not for the pro-life movement, it wouldn't even enter our consciousness.

School shootings, on the other hand, garner huge amounts of publicity that continues, as in Sandy Hook, for years and years as the astonished parents of the victims can't believe the callousness of a violent, gun-obsessed society that is willing to let these shootings continue over and over.

The post-birth violence we see daily--wars in the Middle East, refugees in Syria, genocide victims in Africa, immigrant children turned away in the U.S., schoolchildren slain at their desks--that's the culture of death that has resulted in callousness towards abortion.

If Americans can shrug their shoulders at refugees, genocide victims, and slain children, what makes you think they're going to shed tears at the sight of a sonogram picture?

Culture of death. What so hard about that?

 

[Erose]

Under Oregon law, guns are allowed on all Oregon campuses, but only if the carriers have concealed carry permits.

So did the shooter have a CCP?

It is true, of course, that statistically, the more educated people are the less likely they are to feel the need to own guns.

It is? Evidence?

 

[Fantine]

http://www.statisticbrain.com/gun-ownership-statistics-demographics/
College Post Graduate 30 %
College Graduate 37 %
Some College 41 %
High School Graduate or Less 42 %

Another statistic that gives me hope is that few 18-29 year olds own guns--perhaps a sign that our country is moving in a positive direction despite NRA propaganda and lobbying.
18 – 29 31 %
30 – 49 40 %
50 – 64 45 %
50 + 42 %
65+ 38 %

 

[Erose]

Look on the bright side, since Obama and the other socialist are making such a big deal about guns; gun and ammo manufacturers are about to have another boom in business. It's almost like Obama, Reid and Clinton has stocks in a couple of arms manufacturers.

Sadly we are about to start our shooting sports season in 4-H, and having more threats of gun control is going to make it hard as all get out to buy ammo.

 

[stray bullet]

http://www.statisticbrain.com/gun-ownership-statistics-demographics/
College Post Graduate 30 %
College Graduate 37 %
Some College 41 %

That's a very small difference. Generally more education means more money, which means being in a safer place.

Many members of Congress have people they hire for their protection.

 

[Fantine]

That's a very small difference. Generally more education means more money, which means being in a safer place.

Many members of Congress have people they hire for their protection.

42% of high school graduates own guns v.s. 30% for those with graduate degrees. That's 28 4/7% less. I think that's statistically significant. And the idea that they are all hiring people for their protection is beyond laughable.

If only you would take the energy you're spending on justifying gun ownership to insure that no one ever feels he needs to hire someone to protect him (or carry a gun). That would be a mission worthy of your time.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

I live in a state with lots of guns, and we have the highest suicide rate in the US. My county itself has a high rate within the state.
This week it hit close to home, a young boy, elementary school aged and same age as my son, shot and killed himself. He may have even been a teammate of my son's, we'll find out Monday. Now I have to have a talk with my kids about this and I'm not sure how to go about it. Yet another family in my small town is devastated. ..this is one of an alarming number of recent child suicides.
While adults seem to consider various methods for suicide, all the recent suicides here by children were done with guns.

 

[tadoflamb]

I'm active in 4-H shooting sports, and we have kids as young as nine shooting shotguns, rifles, and bows; and we don't have anyone getting shot in the head.

But I have seen people let their young kids drive their vehicles, so do you think we should ban cars.

I commend you on your judiciousness of not letting 9 year old girls handle machine guns.

My dad bought me my first gun when I was 6. It was a .22.

I've yet to see a Drivers Ed instructor letting a 9 year old drive. Every student I see looks to be say.......at least 15.

At any rate, if someone is that stupid to give a 9 year old girl a loaded machine gun, I think they're probably too stupid to possess any kind of firearm let alone be an instructor on a gun range.

 

[tadoflamb]

You have the ability to have that Constitutional right because some have been willing to take up arms to first start this country, and to defend this country.

If you don't like this country, you also have the freedom to go somewhere else, as well.

So what is unAmerican is someone who wants to trash the Constitution so that they can feel like they tried something.

This is an incredibly ignorant and unAmerican thing to say. What use is fighting for our constitutional right if those who disagree base argument is 'go live in some other country'?

I love being an American and I love my country and I think the ideals it was founded on are worth fighting and dying for.

It's the well unregulated fringes of the gun culture which are trashing the 2nd Amendment.

 

[tadoflamb]

Criminals can get guns whenever they want. There is a fine black market out there for guns. But then again when you take guns away from law-abiding citizens those criminals won't really need guns anymore will they? Just go after the weak.

I wouldn't know about any black markets. I've been out of the gun culture for some time.

But since there are black markets, maybe you can to explain to me how they got there, because every gun theoretically started it's career in legal hands.

 

[tadoflamb]

This sick culture is due to the culture of death, that our pope's and bishops have been warning us about. If as a society we have no issues killing the weakest and most vulnerable, you don't think that isn't filtering into the rest of society?

You removing guns from society isn't going to change that.

Thanks. This post actually makes sense.

Yes, we do have a culture of death in this country and the gun culture is intrinsically entwined with it.

As a gun owner, what are you going to do about it? I've given up. There won't be any laws passed and they wouldn't work anyway because legal firearms owners have already let a massive amount of weaponry slip through their fingers. I'm looking for those responsible for this mess to clean it up and I don't just mean the dead bodies, I mean the whole ugly display of gun lovers behaving badly. Across the board, gun culture is out of control. It's sick.

 

[MikeK]

A person can rent a really big vehicle and plow it into a crowd. A person can do a lot more damage that a sick shooting individuals in a room. A person can poison. They can bomb.

But, in general, they don't. We have reasonable legal constraints in place on explosives and mass-poisonings and mixers with explosives are comparatively rare. Should those issues become a problem, we should address them. In this conversation, they are a red herring.

Gun control never stops until all guns are banned.

That is simply nonsense. The goal of requiring driver's licenses and car registration is not an eventual ban on cars, it is to keep our streets as safe as we reasonably can. Bdo it is with the gun control legislation we're talking about, the legislation that our Bishops are calling for.

 

[MikeK]

So what are we talking about here? Huh? Guns are evil? At what point do objects make moral decisions? The root is the overall lack of morality and selfishness of the people of this country, what the popes and the bishops have been calling a culture of death. That is the root.

Address the root, then, by all means. Aknowledge, however, that easy access to guns plays a role in our country's high murder rate.

If someone is intending to kill someone, you think not having a gun is going to keep them from doing so?

In many cases, yes. Not in all cases, and maybe not in most cases. There is a reason that most murders in the USA are committed with guns.

 

[MikeK]

You know it is funny, ( not the shootings), but it is funny how these shootings always seem to happen in gun free zones). If guns were the problem then why do people not shoot up shooting ranges, police stations, or places where it is otherwise known there will likely be guns?

Shooting ranges and police stations seldom have large groups of people congregated in a small area with limited exits.

In addition, if it is a gun problem then how is it that this started recently (when you compare how old this country is and yet we have ALWAYS had the second amendment.

Fatal shootings are actually less common in the USA than they were 40 years ago or 20 years ago. Our problem with gun crime is not a new one.

 

[tadoflamb]

So how do guns make people insane, or force their users to kill people?

Observe Arizona's latest gun lover turned killer:

An interest in firearms stands out in Jones’ social-media posts. In an Instagram selfie, Jones poses with a shotgun while wearing a patriotic tank top and hat. His one-word caption reads “ ‘Merica.”

In another, he is holding a rifle and tells his followers, “It’s a full auto kinda day,” a reference to an automatic weapon.

Guns are “a passion of his,” said Stephan Romanovsky, 19, a friend of Jones’ from Glendale’s Mountain Ridge High School and who played music with him. “Gun rights were super important to him,” said Romanovsky, adding that Jones was a well-trained gun owner who went shooting with his father.

http://tucson.com/news/state-and-re...cle_8b253fe4-03a8-5c5d-9903-44c7b21316e7.html

It's kind of a fine line isn't it?

In retrospect, again, here's someone who is probably too stupid and/or too paranoid to own a firearm.

 

[MikeK]

I think it's weird when a liberal goes crazy with a gun and then the liberals blame it on conservatives.

I think it's weird when people see everything in terms of politics and political labels and refuse to heed the teachings of the USCCB on this moral issue. It isn't about conservatives and liberals or any such political nonsense, it is about doing what we can to protect human life. Reasonable laws concerning access to the weapons most often used in deadly crime sprees is part of that.