I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sick of waking up to news of innocent lives being taken away. I'm sick of hearing about college students, high school students, Congresswomen, and now moviegoers being shot at and killed. And I'm even more sick over the fact that no one seems to care.
President Obama released a statement this morning, stating that "we are united as one American family" in the aftermath of a Colorado shooting that killed 12 and wounded around 40 others. The President is right -- this is one of those rare opportunities for us to come together as one nation. But for all the president's nice words, come tomorrow, there will be no conversation about how to prevent this from happening again. And trust me, it will.
When 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001, we went to war. But every year in this country, more than 30,000 people are killed by firearms. Not only have we not gone to war, but we have failed to do anything -- anything -- that can save thousands of lives.
At the same time, the National Rifle Association works tirelessly to uphold the status quo -- standing by, ready to prey on any member of Congress who dares to bite into this incredible trend of violence. And don't bother asking what the NRA thinks about shootings like those that occurred this morning, because, in the words of their president, it's against policy to comment on a shooting. How convenient.
The United States is home to 300 million privately owned guns -- the highest amount of any country in the world. Next is Yemen -- maybe we should start learning from them.
One moment, we all shake our heads in disgust whenever innocent lives are taken, and then turn the other way and wait for the next tragedy to strike. Tightening gun laws to prevent the sale of assault weapons, or closing the gun show loophole, are simple solutions that could save tens of thousands of lives every year. But no one seems interested.
There are those that claim an unquestionable right to hold their guns, appealing to freedom and the Second Amendment. But all legal theory aside, I hardly think any of our founders would stand today and firmly invoke the right to hold concealed firearms. Ideally, we could all walk around with whatever we want attached to our belts. But so long as people continue to die, I'm sorry, but you're just asking too much.
And there will also be those who shout the same, flawed argument -- that if someone else was holding a gun, all 12 of those deaths could have been prevented this morning. But even in Colorado, where gun laws are very loose, no one came to the rescue and shot down the killer. Even so, why would you take the chance -- why not just keep the gun out of the hand of the killer in the first place?
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You don't understand, Coleman--we're not "asking."
do you think one person can carry 6000 rounds on their person?
with the exception of FFL Class 3 license holders, no one in the United States has access to automatic weapons..
We care more than most non-gun owners because these heinous acts reflect on us just as blaming all Germans for what the Gestapo’s did to the Jews or the Japanese People for what the Japanese war machine did on December 7, 1941.
It's amazing how many foreign people came to America because they adore our free country but don't know that the freedom they enjoy is because we had our guns on the ready. Otherwise, we would be speaking German or Japanese and they would have no where else to go. We despise the tragedy, but we don't despise the freedom that it was stolen from.
America is not Australia, nor is it a current Socialist nation such as the European community is becoming. None of these maintain the standard that led America to become what it is in the world today. We took a stand in WWII and when it was all said and done America came out on top..., and behind that victory was our Constitution. Not the Constitutions of Russia, Europe, Australia, Sweden, or Africa or any other country.
Furthermore, the notion that the framers of our Constitution would have not have chosen to word the Constitution the way they did if they could see us today is, once again, unfounded and ludicrous. There are just as well thought of people in our country today who fully understand what the framers meant and who firmly stand behind the constitution as it is written. They would write it today with the same intention today as they did back then.
The number of people in that theater and no one saw fit to illegally carry a concealed weapon is a testament to how law bidding and safe people feel in this country. The answer isn't the highly improbable task of keeping guns out of some random persons hands but, to place security in our more vulnerable gathers.
Then read the part about how our Federal Government took absolutely no prisoners as it toughened gun laws nation wide, instituting an expensive buy back scheme. People said it wouldn't work, it was an over reaction, it was politicising the tragedy etc etc, but we have had no similar events since.
Of course our countries have different histories. Guns never proliferated here as they do in your country. But it is unbelievable that citizens -- mentally ill citizens at that -- can go arm themselves like paratroopers. And then someone says "oh, if only some of those people in the cinema were concealing weapons and could have taken the shooter down."
Got to tell you: from over here it all looks and sounds INSANE. Really, get your government to do something about gun control. Get the guns out of the hands of crazy people. Kids should be able to go to the movies without being shot in the head. It makes me heart sick!
I also know that the USDOJ says firearms are used to legally defend one’s life 1.5 million times per year in this country. To be used legally there must be an imminent threat. If even 1% of those cases resulted in the victim dying because guns were banned our murder rate would double. If we assume a more realistic expectation of 10% of them being killed and the rate would become 20 times greater.
So called “assault weapons” are used in less than 1% of all homicides, so banning them wouldn’t really change anything either.
Banning guns might prevent something like this from happening, but the math tells us that while these twelve might have lived, thousands more innocent defenseless people would be murdered in their stead.
Dem's are going to say that if we had more gun laws it would have prevented this tragedy from happening, but it really wouldn’t
Repub's are going to say that it's not the gun's fault and laws would not prevent this from happening, and it's true.
I am for stronger gun control, but it's not really laws that are going to change the mentality of the US. Gun control will only make it tougher to get guns, but it will not stop the black market, in fact it will make it worse. We will never stop gun violence until we get rid of the military complex that we have built the backbone of this country. We give billions of dollars each year to manufactures of weapons, which in turn provide funds to the political system to ensure that guns will be available to whoever wants them. How can the country set an example for its citizens, or make sensible laws, when we are always at war. We are always at war, it is in our blood, it is in our education and until we break this cycle, events like this will continue to happen.
Our founders could never envision the internet where anyone can exchange ideas freely with others on a wide-scale instantaneously. Does that mean we ban the internet? You are trying to suppress a civil right protected by the Constitution. Murderers and rapists arguably get off on 4th, 5th, and 6th amendment rights, should we toss those out because its "just asking too much?" What if torturing prisoners or even terrorists could yield information that arguably saves lives, should the 8th Amendment go too, because its just asking too much to forego? Banning groups of 3 or larger from congregating would prevent criminal gangs from meeting on a wide-scale, want to toss the 1st Amendment out?
A civil right should not be waived for everyone because some idiot commits a crime. We don't ban speech when the Westboro cult waves their terrible signs.
This is what amendment says:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
There is a reason why militia appears early on in the sentence. If the intent was to simply say that all people should have a right to guns then it would have been much simpler to just state that with militia being simply one of the implied intents.
Regardless of that a historical perspective on the environment people lived in has to be taken into perspective.
Some idiot may commit a crime, but crimes are not just committed by idiots. What we can do is to take away a powerful and effective tool, from every idiot and paranoid schizophrenic, designed explicitly for killing life beings very fast and from a safe distance.
McDonald v. Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that determined whether the Second Amendment applies to the individual states. The Court held that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" protected by the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and applies to the states.
If we want to end, or at least greatly reduce, violence, we need to address the need of women to prevent unwanted pregnancy, make school cool, put honor and ethical behavior back into the definition of success, stop fribbling our energy away on homophobia, and start putting both time and money into the nation, state, and city we live in.
Simple? Yes. Easy? No.
Regardless of the laws on the books, the killer in CO had: a tear gas grenade, assault rifle, handgun and bulletproof vest. There's no reason for any civilian to own any of these things. The argument could be said that a handgun is needed for self-defense. Fine, what about the rest of the arsenal he was carrying. Also, I'd rather have a shotgun than a handgun any day.
I was mugged at an ATM by someone with a glock. I THOUGHT my way out of it. He got nothing and I didn't get shot. He asked me for money out of my checking account, I had 1500 in savings, no checking account. When the transaction came up as invalid, I told him I was waiting for a check to clear and had no cash as of yet. I couldn't help him. He quietly left the bank.
I'd rather have quick wits than a gun of any kind any day!
Excelsior!
I'm not alleging anything. Since then, however, I'm MUCH, MUCH more aware of my surroundings. Since the ATM incident, I have a family and I'm thinking of them constantly. I, definitely,would have noticed someone leave via the emergency exit and come back in armed to the teeth. What I would have done next, I can't say. I probably would have died, but I don't think as many others would have. I just don't know for sure and hope I never have to find out.