"These school shootings have to stop ... I dont want the government taking my gun."

[muriel_volestrangler]

Same parent of a (surviving) child at the school:

“These school shootings have to stop. This is crazy. My son’s football coach died. It’s horrible,” he said. “It’s like Columbine across the street from my house.”

Asked by the Guardian if the tragedy should lead to stricter gun control for people with mental health issues, he replied: “I don’t want to get into a gun debate. I really don’t. What are you going to do? Confiscate everybody’s guns? We have millions and millions of weapons … I’m a gun owner. I don’t want the government taking my gun.”

Michael Irwin, another parent whose son attended the school, shared Crescitelli’s view.

“All the regulation in the world wouldn’t have prevented necessarily what happened today. It’s something that’s tragic, but what regulation can you pass that takes away the guns that are already out there?” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/15/how-the-florida-high-school-shooting-unfolded-students-gunman

Even people at the heart of the disaster are apathetic and resigned to doing nothing about gun control in the USA.

It's Stockholm Syndrome, with the majority of the American population as the hostages.

[sunonmars]

1. They somehow think a gun is going to protect them against a dictator government......

[Freedomofspeech]

2. Wow....Amurika...

[lapfog_1]

3. If I could... I would swap their child that survived for one of the ones

that didn't.

Then ask the question again... your child or your gun.

[B2G]

7. That's abhorrent.

Please self-delete.

[lapfog_1]

8. yes it is... but so are these people

so no, I don't think I will.

[B2G]

10. If you want to look like a tool, that's totally up to you. nt

[lapfog_1]

11. I think they look like tools for putting THEIR FUCKING GUN RIGHTS

over the lives of the children of PEOPLE THEY LIKELY KNOW...

but only because their children didn't die.

If you can't get angry over that attitude... then I don't know what to say.

[B2G]

15. You could have simply said that in the first place

without wishing death upon his innocent child who has no control over what he says, does or owns.

[Marengo]

23. Do you think the shooter should have been arrested and detained over his social media activity?

[lapfog_1]

32. He should have been, and maybe was, evaluated by a mental health

professional.

I was most disturbed by hearing that he had a habit of shooting animals.

Shooting animals for the sake of shooting them is often a sign of sociopathy. Many serial killers start out as animal abusers.

However, my point here in this thread (and many others that I have posted to over the last couple of days) is that perhaps if this shooter didn't have access to such weapons (magazine loaded assault rifles) the body count might be lower... much lower. And if a mental health professional flagged this guy he might have been prevented from purchasing any guns.

And then there is the callous reaction of the parents of children who survived.

[tblue37]

39. Actually, the parents of little kids killed by guns in their own homes sometimes defend

unrestricted gun ownership, too.

Too many have been thoroughly propagandized into believing the NRA party line.

[LanternWaste]

14. Abhorrence is what happened yesterday.

Abhorrence is what happened yesterday. Slugs slamming into fifteen and sixteen year old kids is abhorrent. Another day of double-digit victims of gun violence is abhorrent.

Try not to pretend mere satire rises to that same level simply for the sake of your own narrative.

[B2G]

20. That was not satire.

It was just vile.

[LanternWaste]

25. Satire is often distasteful. Twain's best satire was his ugliest.

Satire is often distasteful. Twain's best satire was his ugliest satire (knowing satire as a literary device will assist you in the future-- I promise).

Yet if you still pretend that was vile, never read Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad-- ensuring your distance from "vileness" is much more important than education.

Your pretense is showing...

[Crunchy Frog]

24. It's the situation and attitudes that are abhorrent,

not the people calling them out.

[B2G]

26. There is a huge difference between calling him out

and expressing a desire that his child had died instead.

You know that.

[LanternWaste]

28. And you know the difference between expressing an actual and deeply held sentiment with mere viscera

And you know the difference between expressing an actual and deeply held sentiment with mere visceral reactions and satire to express a point.

Still, a consistency of pretense layered upon a thick slab of self-righteousness is a wonderful thing to crouch behind.


We both know that.

[onecaliberal]

17. So much that.

[Marengo]

19. Despicable, you should be ashamed.

[lapfog_1]

43. deplorable...

gun rights over lives of children so long as they aren't yours.

[Marengo]

44. Wishing someones child dead so that their opinion on gun control is more to your liking...

Is disgusting. Just who is the deplorable here?

[old guy]

4. Evidence that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool,

than to speak and remove all doubt.

[WestIndianArchie]

5. interpretation

“I don’t want to get into a gun debate. I really don’t. What are you going to do? Confiscate everybody’s guns? We have millions and millions of weapons … I’m a gun owner. I don’t want the government taking my gun.”

means if you take my gun, how am I going to kill people?

I say yes, take their goddamn guns away.

[redstatebluegirl]

6. I wonder how they would have felt if it were their child who died?

Amazing how ignorant people are.

[Corgigal]

9. Surviving, is the key here.

He will have that young person out at the range to teach them how to protect themselves. The whole time, doing more trauma to that persons young brain.

America, can do spirit.

[msongs]

12. his gun is more important than the life of his son's football coach. nt

[wasupaloopa]

13. Society has to make gun ownership an anti social act. Forget laws. Turn society against guns and

gun ownership like cigarettes and drunk driving.

Do not give respect to gun ownership. Do not teach gun culture to kids. To not pass on gun culture to successive generations.

Shun guns and gun ownership so that gun owners voluntarily reduce the number of guns in this country. Make voluntary turning in and destruction of guns something we look to the person doing it with pride and admiration. Honor the once owner but no longer an owner.

Work to make the second amendment mean what it says literally not only mean just a part of the wording. Work to repeal the second amendment.

Make that the freedom thing not gun ownership but freedom from guns. Freedom to walk about without gun carrying people around you.

Make "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" more important than gun ownership.

Hate guns! Stop kowtowing to gun owners and the NRA.

[SammyWinstonJack]

30. If these repugs on the take, keep spewing the empty "thoughts and prayers" bs,

while doing nothing to prevent mass shootings, that will happen sooner rather than later.

[wasupaloopa]

37. I hope so

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. If it were possible to ask this parent something...

Then he should be asked "How did they take all those guns away in Australia? How did the government manage to do this?"

[maxsolomon]

18. Binary Thinking

Confiscation is not the only way.

Try strict regulation - real responsibilities that come with deadly power at the squeeze of a trigger.

[Crunchy Frog]

21. At least we know what their priorities are.

I'm not able to get worked up over these things anymore.

[IluvPitties]

22. These people are gun worshipers. Guns are their true gods.

[mnhtnbb]

27. These sickos would rather sacrifice their children than give up their guns.

[Sophia4]

29. A study needs to be done on the effect of stricter gun legislation on gun ownership

in a state and also on gun violence in a state.

The issue that is ignored is that people BUY guns and practice with them and ultimately use them because THEY FEEL UNSAFE.

The more guns you have, the more people are inclined to want to buy their own gun and then prepare to use it and actually use it.

The fear is the problem.

If people feel safe, they are less likely to feel they need a gun.

That's my theory. I would like to see some social scientists test it.

The category of people who live in areas in which they actually shoot game is entirely different. A farmer or hunter may shoot a wild animal for food or to protect his/her crops. That is a totally different category of gun owner from the category of gun owners who live in small towns or cities, don't hunt or hunt rarely and have guns because they convince themselves they need them for self-defense.

I'd like to see a study done on this. Why do people allow guns in their houses? Why do they think they "need" them? Why do they want them? What is their imagined scenario for using them?

This, it seems to me, is key for beginning a campaign to control guns realistically.

[3catwoman3]

31. What would this father be saying...

...if it had been his son who died, not his son's coach?

[MariaCSR]

42. Came here to post this

[Ken Burch]

33. At this point, I'd say "ok, we won't take your guns...."

"...your BULLETS, though-those we might take".

[logosoco]

34. I can't understand how these minds work.

They just jump right to "the government is going to take my guns away".

This is the same government that looks the other way when a company does things to destroy the planet.
Where do they get the idea that THAT government is going to impede them in any way? And gun owners always seem to think Democrats are going to be the ones to start this confiscation. What in history ever gave them that idea? Seems to me in my lifetime it was the Republicans after Reagan was shot that started thinking about having more rules regarding guns. And wasn't it Reagan himself as governor who started making laws when some black folks started walking around with open carry?

Do they get angry about having to renew their drivers license?

(Why am I even trying to understand how these minds work? They are the same minds that thought trump would be a good idea for POTUS!)

[BeyondGeography]

35. No way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens

https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1823016659

[hunter]

36. Gun love is disgusting.

[Louis1895]

38. Someone needs to make a movie about how Australia handled their gun problem.

It needs to be entertaining so maybe they can include some Jim Jeffries clips.

It needs to pull at peoples' heart strings so include interviews with people who have lost loved ones.

It needs to make people angry so show politicians giving their "thoughts and prayers" comments.

It needs to show how the shooting affect people from all walks of life.

It needs to show the Russian influence on the NRA (think: Alexander Torshin)

It needs to conclude with a plan for action.

Just my initial thoughts...

[pansypoo53219]

40. the american plague of the ammosexual cult.

[oberliner]

41. Gun control does not mean someone will take away his gun

That's the way the NRA frames the argument, but it's a lie.