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I’m from the government – I’m here to prote… Oh, you’re dead
In 1966, Charles Whitman killed 16 people from “the Tower” at the University of Texas. Nothing changed. In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold massacred 13 at Columbine High School in Colorado. Nothing changed. In 2007, 32 dead at Virginia Tech. Nothing changed. Twelve killed in Aurora this summer. Nothing changed. Now, 20 children senselessly murdered in Newtown, Connecticut. Nothing will change.
With so much senseless slaughter, many Americans quite reasonably wonder why the hell people are allowed to own handguns at all, and why we can’t do anything to change it. They certainly do not understand what NRA President Wayne LaPierre was talking about when, in reference to the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide, he told USA Today that “the one thing missing in that equation is that woman [Belcher's girlfriend and victim] owning a gun so she could have saved her life from that murderer.”
Couple LaPierre’s claim with the other staple of gun rights advocates — that restricting gun ownership would not have prevented the perpetrators of any of these violent crimes from finding a way to carry out their grisly murders — and one can begin to piece together the logic driving the opponents of regulation.
In light of all of the illegal weapons that all sides concede are out there, ought the government be able to tell individuals that they may not carry weapons to protect themselves when it has not shown the capacity to stop the madmen, even if it means that the madmen themselves are on some level empowered? It’s a hard question to which there are no easy or obvious answers.
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CrustyB
December 16th, 2012
Bottom line: You don’t have the right to suspend the human rights of innocent people. Gun control is immoral.
Navy Squid
December 16th, 2012
I remember that up until the sixties, you could order guns through the mail. They advertised them in catalogs like Sears and Penny’s. Just send them a check or money order – no questions asked. And these were the same type of guns that the gun-grabing nuts like Bloomberg call “assault ” weapons. Funny, but the guns haven’t changed much over the years. So what DID change? Society. We have become desensitized to killing and violence. Look at the blood and mayhem shown on TV, in the movies, in computer games. Combine that with prisons equipped with revolving doors, lenient judges who let criminals walk free, over and over again. Human life has become cheap. The nations moral compass is askew! Seriously! The solution to gun violence will not be found in banning guns, but in restoring morality! Just my two cents worth.
Tim
December 16th, 2012
The courts have ruled that you have NO expectation of protection from the police.
Thus: You protect yourself or you are at the mercy of madmen and criminals.
As a society, if we would refrain from electing criminals and madmen to high office, and refused to tolerate their existence among the sane and law-abiding, these problems would disappear.
norman einstein
December 16th, 2012
From the comments:
cristo52
“Look, we pay the government – spend billions on it – to protect us and mostly they do a lousy job. Oh sure, they can write speeding tickets and citations for going through a red light, direct traffic at a funeral, but when it come to life and death, they mostly show up after the fact, fill body bags and take witness statements.
If you’re happy with that, fine. I would rather have a little more of an edge, just in case I’m in a situation where I come across a mentally deficient person with a knife, hatchet, machete, gun or a shovel or a two-by-four.
And I’ll offer a solution, take half of what we spending on DHS, TSA and assorted community policing and spend it on mental hospitals where we can house these deranged people and prevent them from killing children. You have to separate these predators from their victims. That’s just a fact.”
Part of the problem is that people who are certifiably crazy are no longer segregated from society.
Just read up on Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy et al…SOMEBODY knew they were nuts from an early age.
Xavier
December 16th, 2012
Since the focus of this article is on the right of citizens to protect themselves by carrying a gun, let me ask: (and I’d like a substantiated answer if anyone has it)
What percentage of crimes/homicides are committed by citizens with a concealed carry permit?
MADJACK
December 16th, 2012
I’ve noticed that in America those (the moral) that pay taxes will soon be outnumbered by those (the immoral) that DO NOT!
It seems it goes right along with those that are INSANE will soon outnumber those that are SANE! Coincidence???
sandy
December 16th, 2012
the thing is that even if the left thought or thinks the answer is to remove guns from society ..it’s impossible and unconstitutional.
hating to politicize something so horrific but it seems easy to prevent at least in the school scenario. Just don’t let ANYONE into the school prior to being looked over carefully.
what else can be done? It seems simple to me.. I don’t get it.
sandy
December 16th, 2012
Does the left want these things to continue so that they have a reason to remove guns? Doesn’t add up when there are at least some solutions to this.
yourfavoriteunkle
December 16th, 2012
What government, person or any entity for that matter has the right to tell me how to defend my gift of life? I find the idea that the government requires me to ask their permission to carry a concealed weapon repugnant. It’s none of their damned business and to be able to make a criminal of a person who does not comply is absolutely disgusting. Gun Rights are just another talking-point, just another way to divide us, another way to control us. In reality, there should be no conversation at all because how I practice my self-preservation is nobodys business but mine.
We play right into their trap by allowing them to have the conversation in the first place. Screw them! Who the hell are they? Once we stop playing by their rules… their insanity stops having an effect on our lives. Just my 2 cents.
MADJACK
December 16th, 2012
@yourfavoriteunkle, it is because the mentally illl progressive/liberal/left thinks that you are incompetent and they know what is best for you.
Tim
December 16th, 2012
The 2nd Amendment was written so we could protect ourselves from government, not criminals.
The founders never anticipated a society which would tolerate criminals.
The socialists believe that government is God, and therefore they need no protection from it. As long as they goose-step to the gov’t's drum and bend over when told, they, wrongly, suppose the gov’t will leave them alone.
yourfavoriteunkle
December 16th, 2012
@ MadJack… only because we allow it to be that way in the first place. We compromised our values for others opinions. Something no person should ever do. By allowing the leftist ideals to permeate into our “Polite Society” we have diminished our own liberty and placed the fate of our nation at risk. Patriot Act, Holder allowing us to be spied upon, registration of PRIVATE PROPERTY (ie: my personal firearms)… the list goes on and on. They claim that it is for the safety and benefit of society but really it is about control. By allowing this to occur has brought us to this point. Undoing these restrictions of our God-given endowments will be a chore, to say the least.
Jozan
December 16th, 2012
It’s the ol’ Anarcho-tyranny, the government can’t stop the criminals but they can abuse those good people who follow the law.
Xavier
December 16th, 2012
sandy a few days ago someone (where?) wrote a piece about the left being motivated by intentions, not results. Stopping crime by banning guns sounds easy and sensible to them, and that’s all that matters. Facts and Constitutional Rights and repercussions be damned.
Once they ban guns, we’ll see a real hockey stick graph. It’ll be the crime rate instead of temperature though.
Jethro
December 16th, 2012
One way or another the leftists are pushing this country to a chaotic civil war, or anarchy. If you look at everything that is happening, and read history, it is obvious. The details are not important.
Drive the economy into the sewer – people riot for food.
Make people dependent on entitlments – create a culture of takers
Take away our rights – people revolt
Create a culture of envy and hate – distract from the real problems
Erode away morality and decency – lawlessness…mayhem
When the shit hits the fan they will be ready to dupe the masses into giving them the power to “stop the madness”.
The ultimate goal is complete control – and this is the means to that end.
The sad thing is they have put their plan out for all to see – the masses are just too distracted to look.
Ricky
December 16th, 2012
I’m not going to candy coat this.
I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
Our society is fucked up and sick.
I keep reading replies about the shooter and his various mental issues. (really?)
And people are shocked by the aftermath?
They don’t have the right to talk smack about it. because the reality is..
No one wanted to get involved in the first place.
when that reply doesn’t comfort them, they go off and blame someone else. (NRA)
I’m not sure the exact reason why the kid went off. I do have a few ideas that seem plausible.
I’m fairly certain he was extremely pissed off at the world and the people around him and just lost the ability to give a shit about life in general.
I also think he had a serious problem with his mother, because he shot her in the face..he must have really hated her for whatever she did to him.
I question the validity of term ‘innocent victims’. He knew who he was going to kill..and he was also prepared to kill himself.. so the concept of killing witnesses seems invalid to me.
You just don’t go and do something like this without a plan..
sandy
December 16th, 2012
I know @Ricky BUT there are ways to keep children in school and safely. Why isn’t it being done? BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT RUNS THE SCHOOLS.
Four .45's
December 16th, 2012
All of the above.
Also. (and this is significant) the current regime blames the opposition, to justify increasingly severe measures, to enhance their control.
Dadof3
December 16th, 2012
Xavier, just do a search for that info. Texas is one state that keeps track of licencees convicted of crime. It’s absurdly low compared to the general population.
Xavier
December 16th, 2012
Lord knows I’m opposed to government regulation but I’d bet if some sort of limits were put on the level and amount of violence on television and in movies we’d see a reduction in homicide and crime in general. (Remember the Motion Picture Code of America?)
I wonder why the liberals haven’t thought of that? Oh that’s right they run television and Hollywood. So yeah crickets on that.
Seriously though every time they say gun control we should say the media is responsible, control them.
Anonymous
December 16th, 2012
Perfectly predictable, preposterous, pretentious, pathetic progressive pap! Take a truly horrible tragedy and exploit it to support an oppressive political agenda. Punish and vilify at least 80,000,000 (and growing) citizens for the behavior of a few deranged individuals, individuals in a position to commit such acts in part because of progressive policies and programs. George Orwell -not to mention the Founders – would be weeping in despair at the continued vapid stupidity of a public that pays any atention to these fools and enemies of liberty.
simply enraged
December 16th, 2012
Sorry – that anaonymous was me.
simply enraged
December 16th, 2012
DAMN! anonymous!
MNP
December 16th, 2012
@Jethro, It’s called an Hegelian Dialectic.
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
Argue good or bad, Create problem, Suggest and Implement solution to said problem.
ie: Argue guns good or guns bad, shoot up inocents, determine guns bad, take away guns.
Nutjob
December 16th, 2012
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
An Indiana man was just arrested for having 47 guns and threatening to burn his wife and go on a spree in an elementary school.
I hope they have proof, being this could be the norm whenever someones marriage goes bad, the wife picks up the phone says’s hes making threats about an elementary school shooting and he owns guns.
Now he gets locked away, she gets all of the marital assets and the gubment waives a conspiracy conviction paper showing how they saved us and our kids from another gunowner.
Wonder if the gubment is going to go after the tweeters threatening to shoot the NRA members? They have kids too, But I guess those kids aren’t worthy of being protected because of their parents owning guns.
Reverend Ken
December 16th, 2012
I will ask the government for permission the day after they pry from my cold dead hands.
MNP
December 16th, 2012
In light of all the bad news there is today here is a site for a good laugh.
http://www.dontevenreply.com/index.php
.
Catherine57
December 16th, 2012
This guy just looks like the US version of a suicide bomber. He had no intention of leaving the school alive. He wanted to make a splash and cause as much pain as possible. If it weren’t guns it would have been a bomb.
Wyatt, Insensitive Progressive Jerk
December 16th, 2012
ABC had a “political reporter” on this morning moaning about how on Black Friday, there was an extremely large number of people starting the process of buying a gun. The focus of the program was on the Sandy Hook tragedy, and I guess the implication was that a large number of guns will equal a large number of tragedies.
However, why the increase in guns being sold? (Keep in mind that Black Friday was well before the Sandy Hook shootings). My guess is that part of it is because no one trusts the Obama administration, or the various liberal politicians who inflict this country, to not completely ban guns, and they want to legally buy one before this happens.
But I would guess that a larger part of the increase in gun sales has to do with the kinds of “citizens” liberals are promoting and protecting. Strip away moral and personal accountability, and whine that many perpetrators of crimes are in fact “victims,” and you create a class of people that are unpredictable, morally ungrounded and potentially dangerous. People who are used to the government giving them everything have no reason to try to make anything of themselves, and it is a short step from taking freebies to taking whatever you want.
As an additional bonus, liberals love to group people into various categories, and insist that these people stay there and hate other groups – especially whites. Although liberals believe that America after Obama is post-racial, in point of fact America seems more racially and socially divided than at any time I can remember. According to liberals, blacks must identify with the black cause, hispanics must identify with the hispanic cause, and it o.k. to hate successful people. Heck, I am beginning to miss the days when liberals just made fun of conservatives instead of promoting hate.
Jozan
December 16th, 2012
At thetop of that article there’s a link to an even funnier one “What Gun Control Can and Can’t Do” written by someone who doesn’t even know what the laws currently are.
Golly Gee Willikers
December 16th, 2012
From the article at the jump: “Whatever one thinks of such arguments — I personally am not a gun owner and do not see any problem with limiting access to machine guns and imposing waiting periods…”
This illustrates the typical ignorance of the general… no, LIBERAL public about guns. Access to MACHINE GUNS (i.e., automatic weapons) is already severely restricted.
I just had dinner last night with a liberal couple who were shocked (!) that you could buy semi-automatic guns at the local Sports Authority. And liberal politicians seeking not to let this “crisis go to waste” use the term, “semi-automatic weapons” interchangeably with automatic weapons.
Let’s face it, most of them don’t want ANYONE to have ANY kind of guns. But tyrants and the bad guys always will, so I’m keeping mine.
buck turgidson
December 16th, 2012
Nancy Lanza had several guns to protect herself. Didn’t work out for her, or for the subsequent victims.