Politics & Current Events
tiffielynn91
member
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Gun Control?
Lets hear it ladies. what do you think? yes? no? to strict? not strict enough? hurting the average person? helping the average person? and anything else you want to say. i know since the the awful events in the past few days, its on everyone's mind.
Re: Gun Control?
Every other Western nation has strict gun control. No other Western nation has mass shootings or anywhere NEAR the level of gun violence that we do.
This is not a coincidence.
Ranty but I'm still fired up on this:
While I think we desperately need better control mechanisms, I think it's also far too late to be anywhere near as effective as it could be.
Someone will jump on here and say it's not the guns, it's our culture; it's a lack of emphasis on mental health care in this country. Well maybe our culture is violent and loves guns because we let everyone have one. And maybe the mental health care would be better if we had affordable and accessible health care, period, for everyone. So either do something about the guns or let's do better about medical care in this country. Either way would be fine by me.
But if we make guns less accessible, we're violating constitutional rights; and if we give everyone health care, we're turning into evil socialists and must have the guns to defend against overbearing tyranny.
I did just read a nice opinion piece from the Economist on the matter. Makes me want to live in the UK (and yes, for the love of all that is sacred, I know that violent things still happen in the UK and anywhere else).
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/12/gun-control
This!
I still feel really fired up, too, Lexi. I just can't believe that we've let ourselves get to this point.
Many politicians seem genuinely disgusted at the current status quo, I'm praying that living through a worst case scenario will give them the motivation and balls to do the right thing.
Did you see Snyder vetoed the gun bill passed last week? i still don't like him, but I was happy with that decision. Hopefully more Republicans will follow the lead on that.
Yes! I was so relieved! He would have looked pretty damn douchey if allowed guns to be c&c in day cares and schools right now.
It still skeeves me out that guns are allowed in many of those places, they just can't be concealed.
It skeeves me out as well, but I think those places are allowed to declare themselves to be a "weapon free zone". I think. I thought I read that the bill took that right away and Snyder gave that as a reason for his veto. I just really quickly skimmed the article, so I will have to verify that.
I also wonder if he would have vetoed it had Friday's tragedy not occurred. It scares me that I don't think he would have. ::shudder::
16 y/o kid dead after his friend shot him with a .22 caliber rifle after a disagreement over paintball.
Oh and allegedly the teens bought the gun themselves.
But no, let's not work to tighten up control.
http://wtvr.com/2012/12/20/teen-shot-dead-with-shotgun-after-paintball-argument/
Here's a good video that demonstrates how just because you're packing, doesn't mean you'll necessarily be the hero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QjZY3WiO9s
Just a curiosity thing, but that article says he has been charged as an adult but has the right to have the case heard in juvenile court. Is that not contradictory?
Never having been a juvenile delinquent, I don't really know how the system works, but that sounded odd.
This pretty much sums it up for me
If God is omnipresent, He was there.
I can't help but think of how these families, some of whom were of strong faith, feel about being told that prayer in school would have stopped their children from being shot to death.
I really hope you aren't saying you agree with Huckabee about this.
ETA: Huckabee is basically saying that if only schools would teach Christianity, God would have saved those children. So basically Huckabee's god is a huge *** who has 6 year olds brutally murdered because he's mad at the government.
The last part? The sarcastic "ohhh we white Christians are SUCH martyrs in this country!!!"
I like guns. I enjoy shooting, think it's fun, and think that most people have the right to own guns. What's really bothering me is that every time a tragedy like this happens, two things are at the forefront in the media: guns and video games. But that's just ignoring the real problems - how we treat mental health in this country.
So frustrating.
I know what you mean. It's so frustrating that every time people are brutally murdered by guns, somehow the attention turns to guns like they were somehow involved in the incident.
But I'll concur on the ridiculousness of blaming video games (or movies or "culture" like there's something about being born here that inherently makes us all more predisposed to become psychopathic mass murderers). I'll also concur of the need to discuss mental health care. But I don't understand how on one hand, we say that it's a complex issue with complicated causes we need to examine... but put our hands over our ears the second someone speculates that yes, guns are part of the cause for, you know... gun deaths.
Let me be clear - I do think we need changes to the gun sales system. But I do not think that is more important than a mental health dialog.
I don't think that guns should be outlawed, but I don't think we should be handing them out on street corners. I think the people that want teachers to be armed are ridiculous and misguided. I don't think automatic weapons should be totally legal to citizens (assault rifle for self defense? No.) I also think that we're probably giving guns legally to people who should not be given guns. People should go through hella screenings if they're going to purchase guns. They should be required to take safety classes, similar to driver's ed. They should be educated on the laws.
But I don't think that would necessarily prevent something like this. When someone goes on a murder spree, there is some sort of mentality to that person that may not have ever been addressed as it should have been. Maybe bipolarity, maybe schizophrenia, maybe depression from years of bullying in high school. Yes, gun regulation should be tighter. But more importantly, we need to open our eyes and realize that there are sick people going untreated because for some reason America is sweeping mental healthcare under the rug... And those people are killing people.
I don't think those things would have necessarily prevented this either- we've let a lot of things go awfully unchecked for far too long. But I do think getting serious about those sorts of things you mentioned (assault weapons, safety classes, etc) could help prevent more of them in the future, which is what's important at this point.
I just can't stand a group advocating such a huge waste of money of a plan to put a gun in every public school in the country when so many people can't stand the thought of putting money in practical places- like the health care system. You'd think after all the talk of mental health every time something like this happens, people would better realize that accessible health care is just as much about public safety as personal health.