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12-15-2012, 05:56 AM
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Lariat Emeritus
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fargo ND, USA
Posts: 13,816
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Sandy Hook Massacre
Rhina Espaillat asked me to post on this tragedy. Here is my email to her, with a horrifying link to WSJ:
"I just don't know what to say. This is a totally depressing tour of the world's worst mass shootings. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...%3Dinteractive
At my school visitors must show photo ID to come in the one door that is open. The cop who checks your ID is VERY good with a gun. No way would any one dare to go up against him. I once showed up to teach en route to a hunt, and I had guns and ammo in the (locked) Ford. He saw that when he was doing a vehicle check, and he just ripped me a new one! Dumb Tim, a mistake never repeated. Of course if some of the boys at Virginia Tech had been carrying, the killer would have been dropped in his tracks. But what about the school kids on that island in Norway? Or the kids in Canada? Or Scotland? Or Tasmania? Or Finland or Russia? I just don't know what to say."
Last edited by Tim Murphy; 12-15-2012 at 06:03 AM.
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12-15-2012, 07:03 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12,945
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Perhaps, perhaps we think this is more prevalent than it is because of globalisation. I mean we know the details of things from everywhere in the world when we didn't before. I think I am right in saying that ALL the most violent countries in the world are in Africa or South America and that the United States is a relatively safe environment to bring up children in. Britain is safer still and Norway about as safe as you can get.
I am not going to say anything about guns. I have never held a gun in my life and I don't see that changing.
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12-15-2012, 07:36 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 14,175
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Quote:
I just don't know what to say.
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I know what to say. Ban the damned guns and create a society when people are not so frightened that they demand the right to carry concealed weapons on the street.
Handgunds have nothing do with hunting. Most people with guns do not hunt.
It is not a human right to carry a gun and most certainly not to own an automatic weapon. That amendment should be amended.
This is the time when Republican congressmen and senators should get smart and cooperate with President Obama. Why make it so easy to kill?
I weep to think that it is necessary to get a patdown from a sharpshooter officer in order to enter a public school in the US, or any school. i weep to think that anyone considers that such protection is a good state of affairs.
The Norway shooting was a politically inspired hate crime. It was a national tragedy and we in neighboring countries were devastated along with the Norwegians. But I haven't heard anyone saying it would have been prevented if the kids had been carrying guns of their own. That attitude is unthinkable.
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12-15-2012, 07:41 AM
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Moderator
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 2,162
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I firmly believe that anyone who has such dark and malicious intentions that he is willing to kill countless innocent people will find a way to do it, regardless of whether guns are legal, illegal, easily accessed, or completely locked away. I think stricter gun control laws (particularly on handguns, assault rifles etc.) would help to reduce the incidence of spontaneous "snaps" that lead to shooting sprees, but anything premeditated is going to happen if the intent is there.
Like John, I've never held a gun in my life, safe for air rifles or BB guns when I was a child. But I think that the legions of people demanding stricter gun control laws as a result of this incident are oversimplifying the issue. A focus on identifying people with violent tendencies is probably a more prudent course of action, though how such a thing can be done effectively is beyond my ken.
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12-15-2012, 07:48 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 14,175
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I'm not saying that shooting crimes can be stopped completely, but they can certainly be reduced if guns are not considered a god-given and constitution-given right.
Of course there will always be some who get food poisoning in restaurants, but should we do away with sanitary controls because of that?
It is a violent society, but (or so the Swedish radio informed me some days ago) there was recently in New York a day with NO murder. And who is running New York? A mayor who has an agenda for gun control. He seems to be on the right track.
Last edited by Janice D. Soderling; 12-15-2012 at 11:03 AM.
Reason: typo
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12-15-2012, 08:03 AM
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Lariat Emeritus
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fargo ND, USA
Posts: 13,816
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Oh come off your Swedish horse, Janice. Right-to-carry states are way below gun control states in homicide. An inconvenient fact. The most inconvenient fact is that anyone can get a gun, anywhere. And who needs a gun? OJ Simpson managed mayhem with a butcher knife.
I read one reaction this morning urging that all teachers take firearms training and lock a gun in the desk. I prefer stationing a police officer at the door of my school. I do not carry my pistol to class.
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12-15-2012, 09:46 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Alexandria, Va.
Posts: 1,635
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Murphy
Right-to-carry states are way below gun control states in homicide.
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Really?
I'll show you my proof if you'll show me yours.
Quote:
A panel of criminology and statistics experts with the National Research Council the National Academies published a study in 2004 that found no reduced crime in states with right-to-carry (RTC) laws.
A 2010 study from Stanford Law School found that “the most consistent, albeit not uniform, finding to emerge from the array of models is that aggravated assault rises when RTC laws are adopted.”
“More guns do not equal less crime.” Maddow concluded flatly. “The statistical evidence on this, in aggregate, does not support the fantasy.”
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Raw Story ( http://s.tt/1de0i)
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12-15-2012, 11:10 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Posts: 3,048
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Murphy
Oh come off your Swedish horse, Janice. Right-to-carry states are way below gun control states in homicide. An inconvenient fact. The most inconvenient fact is that anyone can get a gun, anywhere. And who needs a gun? OJ Simpson managed mayhem with a butcher knife.
I read one reaction this morning urging that all teachers take firearms training and lock a gun in the desk. I prefer stationing a police officer at the door of my school. I do not carry my pistol to class.
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Hi Tim
You are not going to like this but here it is. Are you still going to say that the United States doesn't have a problem?
I am not a died-in-the-wool liberal who wants strict gun laws that will take away the guns of hunters or others who legitimately wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights safely. I just wish there might be some middle way whereby those who want to bear their firearms in a legitimate way will find a way to allow the rest of the law abiding citizenry of the United States to live safely.
Or could it just be too late?
Best regards
Chris
Last edited by ChrisGeorge; 12-15-2012 at 11:12 AM.
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12-15-2012, 08:04 AM
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Moderator
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 2,162
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I don't necessarily disagree, Janice, but I think the gun control issue is truly a red herring. As you surely heard, yesterday's Newtown massacre wasn't the only one in the world. A slasher, armed with a mere box-cutter, injured dozens in China. While it's easy to point out the distinction between injured and killed, the intent is still the key issue.
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12-15-2012, 08:14 AM
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Lariat Emeritus
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fargo ND, USA
Posts: 13,816
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It all comes down to good and evil. We must recognize the distinction. Brievik was unspeakably evil. I live in an extremely Norwegian community. I'm Norwegian myself, and we were appalled, just shaken by what happened.
Last edited by Tim Murphy; 12-15-2012 at 08:40 AM.
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