The Problem is Not Guns

[Skarl]

"Throughout history, one simple truth rings as loud and clear as a bell
— the presence of a gun in the hand of a good person makes us all
safer.
It’s true. History proves it.
In 1974, a bloody shooting occurred at a school. It was an awful
tragedy. Sound familiar?
Well, this particular school was in Israel. In the wake of the tragedy,
Israel changed its policy. Teachers at schools and nurseries were
armed. That’s right. They put guns in the hands of good people. And,
since 1974, there has been only one school shooting in Israel — just
one in the last 37 years. And that tragedy ended when good guys with
guns stopped the bad guy with a gun.
On the other hand, at Fort Hood, Texas, soldiers … American soldiers
… were banned from carrying their firearms on base — like at all
bases. Our own soldiers were left defenseless — in another “Gun-Free
Zone” — against a madman on a shooting spree.
Thirteen needlessly died that day. Government can’t protect us. But it
can, and has, endangered us … by restricting our freedom to protect
ourselves. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has never
been more relevant than it is today.

It’s time to acknowledge what we know in our hearts to be true — that
the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun."

Wayne LaPierre

Wow, this would be a super impressive point if the USA and Israel had even remotely comparable populations and school systems.

And that quote from LaPierre is imbecilic.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Nice retort. Oh yeah? Well so are you.

 

[Skarl]

Nice retort. Oh yeah? Well so are you.

I'm a nice retort?

How silly of you.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Can't answer the post? Can't stick to the subject? Be sarcastic. Nice strategy.

 

[Skarl]

Can't answer the post? Can't stick to the subject? Be sarcastic. Nice strategy.

Are you under some obligation to not communicate in coherent, complete sentences?

 

[Blackguard_]

And that quote from LaPierre is imbecilic.

Well, what do you think the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is?

And don't tell me "ban guns so he doesn't get one in the first place". Even in Jolly Old England there's still bad guys with handguns running around.

 

[Skarl]

Well, what do you think the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is?

And don't tell me "ban guns so he doesn't get one in the first place". Even in Jolly Old England there's still bad guys with handguns running around.

No, of course not, that's just a pipe-dream. But it would be nice if we made it more difficult for lunatics to get a hold of guns and ammunition. Other than that, I'd rather address the root cause of all this violence, make obtaining mental health care easier. Rather than taking LaPierre's advice and just waiting for them to act out and only then taking action.

 

[mnphysicist]

The problem isn't guns in and of themselves, but when defending the 2nd amendment is a bigger deal than defending the faith, Christian society has a huge problem. In a similar vein, when guns become idols and folks appear to almost worship them, we have a huge problem.

Secondly, I see no where in the scriptures, where preaching the Gospel, Christian education, prayer, and the great commission are the responsibility of the government... if anything, they are the responsibility of the parents, the fellowship of believers, and the individual.

 

[Blackwater Babe]

Well, what do you think the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is?

And don't tell me "ban guns so he doesn't get one in the first place". Even in Jolly Old England there's still bad guys with handguns running around.

Indeed there are. They even have the occasional crazy shoot up a primary school. But you know what? A lot less often than it seems to happen in the US.

 

[Blackguard_]

No, of course not, that's just a pipe-dream. But it would be nice if we made it more difficult for lunatics to get a hold of guns and ammunition.Other than that, I'd rather address the root cause of all this violence, make obtaining mental health care easier. Rather than taking LaPierre's advice and just waiting for them to act out and only then taking action.

Rather than turn the whole country into a low-grade prison/psych ward, people who are a danger should be removed from society.

Guns isn't the problem, the evil person is. If they don't have guns, they'll use something else. It's only through luck that the Aurora Co. incident didn't involve an apartment building blown up(they found the bomb early enough) and that Columbine didn't involve hundreds dead through a propane bomb that failed to go off. The worst school disaster is still the Bath School bombing.

So I agree, we need to reform the mental health system, not try to ban anything a crazy evil person might use to kill others(I mean, what would that leave you?). I do not see why the rights of decent people to defend themselves should be removed because of what other crazy people do. So I do not think we should ban guns in order to keep lunatics( or common criminals. most murders are committed by people who couldn't legally have had a gun in the first place) getting guns.

 

[mnphysicist]

No, of course not, that's just a pipe-dream. But it would be nice if we made it more difficult for lunatics to get a hold of guns and ammunition. Other than that, I'd rather address the root cause of all this violence, make obtaining mental health care easier. Rather than taking LaPierre's advice and just waiting for them to act out and only then taking action.

Reactionary response, ie jail or institutionalization is insanely expensive... yet it seems folks dont crab too much about that, but the cost of preventative mental health care leads a lot of folks to scream about govt spending and the deficit.

There is also the issue of early childhood intervention... folks dont want uncle peering into the baby carriage, but I'm guessing a fair amount of these issues if dealt with from the cradle might be a whole lot easier to solve than waiting until later in life.

Consider the following...
http://thebluereview.org/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother/

I've known kids like that... its a near impossible situation for all involved until something really bad happens.

 

[BleedingHeart]

It is not guns. It is EVIL that exists in the world and that struggle that is now showing itself more and more as we are in really bad times right now. Our culture has hit the toilet, we've taken God out of everything and made him a bad word and look down on people that believe in God, if this guy had grown up in a loving Church like I did or was allowed to pray in school and had SOME relationship with God even if it was small, maybe this wouldn't have happened. This is because our PC culture that liberals have forced upon us, they have taken God and good out of our world and replaced it with liberalism.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

God hasn't been taken out of everything. People still pray, use him in songs and blah blah blah.

"Our culture" doesn't look down on religious people seeing as how MOST people in America are religious. What we look down on is the naive idea that mandatory prayer in school is going to help someone with mental disorders.

 

[Oneofthediaspora]

I live in Jolly Old England and I'm quite happy with the gun laws here. Gun crime exists but it hasn't reached the tipping point where I feel the need to carry a gun.

If I lived in the USA, however, I think I might like to have a gun.
I think it's way too late to try and put the genie back in the bottle for the USA wrt to gun control. There are just too many guns out there.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

You have no idea what you are talking about.

God hasn't been taken out of everything. People still pray, use him in songs and blah blah blah.

"Our culture" doesn't look down on religious people seeing as how MOST people in America are religious. What we look down on is the naive idea that mandatory prayer in school is going to help someone with mental disorders.

Prayer helps everyone with any disorder.

 

[TheQuietRiot]

Prayer helps everyone with any disorder.

Except amputees. They are strangely looked over for any divine help with their disorder.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Except amputees. They are strangely looked over for any divine help with their disorder.

I said "helps", not "cures."

 

[Desk trauma]

Prayer helps everyone with any disorder.

Yet whenever it is studied the results don't show that.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Because people cross state borders with guns? Why is it countries, like the UK, Israel, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, which all have very strong gun control measures, have virtually no gun crime in comparison to the US? Even Israel, with its ongoing terrorism problem, doesn't have the problem with random mass shootings the US has. Why is that, do you think?

but if a place like this where basically EVERYONE has a gun and the ONLY thing in years that I remember in this county (other than maybe one or two suicides is a man who actually shot and killed someone who tried to ROB his store, Therefore, that firearm did nothing but PREVENTED crime.

 

[TheQuietRiot]

I said "helps", not "cures."

If you re-read my post I also said "helps".

Prayer does not help amputees.

 

[BleedingHeart]

Prayer helps everyone with any disorder.

Prayer does nothing.