Here comes that same old song and dance again...

[Godot51]

If a gun is simply a tool, why don't you build me a house with your guns? Or raise a crop?

A hammer is a tool. It could be a weapon but its primary function is a tool and it works beautifully at that.

A gun is a weapon, not a tool. A gun has no function except killing: animals and humans.

So please, go hunting with a simple shotgun or hunting rifle but spare me the need of "the right to bear arms".

Sure, you can "bear" a flintlock rifle or a musket but not a handgun of any type and certainly not a military weapon.

And how about age limits, training, testing and licensing and license renewal?

You need a minimum of these to get a drivers' license so why not a gun, nationwide, America? You are becoming a human slaughterhouse with no morals or ethics.

What other developed country allows murder and killing so freely than the U.S.?

And don't raise that argument that you can kill without guns, of course you can. But not with the ease and the distance. To kill with one's hands, a knife or a hammer requires an intimacy, face to face: smell, touch, sight, sound and even taste.

If you have to own a gun and you have to kill someone when you're angry, scared, distraught or mentally unbalanced please do us one favor: test your gun on yourself first.

Gun owner's rights? How about non-owner's rights? Victims' rights.

At one time people in the U.S. were able to smoke freely and pollute the air around them and affect those around them with secondary smoke. Gradually, kicking and screaming, smokers were tamed. The rights of the victims outweighed the selfishness of the drug users.

Do people still smoke? Of course. The tobacco industry is spreading itself bigger and better and more globally than ever.

But at least, for a portion of the non-smokers, the vehicles we ride in, the stores we shop in, the offices we work in have become cleaner, safer and healthier.

It's time for sanity to control guns and gun laws, not insanity...

[Flatpicker]

1. Agreed

But, I'd like to see a little more attention paid at this moment to mental healthcare.

Mental Healthcare issues need to be addressed in our country. It's needed just as badly as gun laws, if not more.
Somebody with untreated or undiagnosed issues is still a danger with or without a gun.

I just think in light of what has happened, we should take both issues on.

[RegexReader]

5. My wager is

that the shooter will be found to be borderline schizophrenic that was non compliant with his medicines and was a recreational pot user. One of the points missed by those that want to legalize MJ is that THC can push schizophrenics into a full blown episode; whereas, the rest of us it just gives us the munchies.

[stonecutter357]

14. You

You make me wanna roll throw up!

[roody]

18. Pot! Now that's a stretch.

[intheflow]

23. As if alcohol had nothing to do with domestic abuse.

And not even be connected with a mental illness.

Of course, that's part of the problem, too. What is considered mental illness in this country, and the fact that we pretend it doesn't exist in someone we know because it hasn't been diagnosed.

[patrice]

2. Excellent post! but controls alone will not work, the root causes will just morph into something

else.

America REALLY needs to try to look at how we are living and why this kind of stuff happens.

[adieu]

6. Correction...

controls alone will not fully work, but it will have a noticeable impact. And I think it's better and worthy to get 10% improvement rather than debate on how to get 100% improvement. Getting to 100% (or even 90%) is a fruitless, pointless exercise that the NRA wants us to get into. They know it is impossible at this stage, in America, to achieve 90% improvement.

[patrice]

11. I agree. Never discount the value of "small" things. It may be that discounting that has put us here

[tk2kewl]

3. if this post doesn't hit 200 recs i will need to rethink what this place about

thank you Godot51

[ginnyinWI]

4. yes it really matters what kind of gun a crazy can get his hands on

How many would be so bold walking into a school if their gun only would shoot one bullet at a time? And what kind of damage could they do before police arrived v.s. using a semi-automatic military gun?

If we can't ban all guns, we can ban the worst of them. You don't need a semi-automatic to shoot Bambi.

[Flabbergasted]

7. I like the idea that handguns can only be used at a shooting range and must be stored there.

It is in effect a compromise. Gun owners can own them and the rest if society is safe from them.

[former-republican]

16. I'm sure criminals will comply with that law

[Flabbergasted]

19. Adam Lanza and his mother were not criminals. I'm discussing how to make these guns less accessible

[triplepoint]

8. If Guns Don't Kill People...

Last edited Sun Dec 16, 2012, 08:11 PM - Edit history (3)

Somebody better tell the Defense Department to come up with another method to promote U.S. Hegemony in the World....just saying...
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Reference Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmaster_M4_Type_Carbine
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[pinboy3niner]

9. Good post, brother

[ellisonz]

10. Amen.

[secondwind]

12. There are 280 million weapons in this country, how do we get rid of so many guns?

[tk2kewl]

20. one at a time

if need be

[derby378]

21. Ain't gonna happen

Keep dreaming - the real world will still be here when you wake up.

[tk2kewl]

22. i will keep dreaming

as RFK said: "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"

why do anything otherwise

[SCVDem]

13. Time for a new NRA logo

An AK crossed with an AR-15 with a wreath of handguns.

I doubt anyone has a problem with actual sportsman rifles, that is never the issue.

So many people bought firearms just because Obama was elected and then re-elected. So many stupid sheep who will believe any old bullshit they hear on the unamerican right wing media outlets.

That's why we need psych evals before allowing a purchase. These people aren't stable!

[former-republican]

15. who tests you , a doctor set up by your state or the federal government?

So we have 40 million gun owners make an appointment to be tested.

Sounds easy enough.

[intheflow]

24. How many drivers do we have?

We don't seem to have a problem testing every driver. Is it just because it would have to be someone who has training diagnosing mental illness instead of someone who's had training to become a driver's ed instructor? Because I see very little difference in implementation.

[former-republican]

25. "Is it just because it would have to be someone who has training diagnosing mental illness instead "

Yes

How many qualified people do we have in the country to do that?

[intheflow]

26. You speak as though education is impossible to come by.

This could be a job-creation moment. Just because we don't have the workforce this second doesn't mean that workforce couldn't be created. I'm sure there are many people who would be interested in working a mental health job but since mental health care sucks in this country, job openings are few and far between - and often pay crap - so people don't chose that profession. Your argument is short-sighted. People didn't know how to work an assembly line when Ford started his company, no one knew how to teach driving when Ford started his factory, they learned quickly enough.

[OrwellwasRight]

17. Same old song . . .

[jsr]

27. But but how can you raise a cow or chicken or vegetables without a Bushmaster?