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(R) Trisha Calvarese
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(R) Donald Trump
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(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
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February 16, 2018 06:55 AM UTC
25 Comments
A Nation of Killers
Unlike the tragic young victims of Parkland, I have been allowed to live a number of years where I have now accrued a number of “perks” if you will. Social Security and Medicare, discounted prices here and there, a free fishing license.
Another perk I sometimes partake of is a free lunch at the senior center, where I go not only for the food but also the welcome social interaction of others. One fellow I have befriended there is a man named Johnny, 96 years old and although he walks with a cane he still drives and his memory is probably sharper than the cannibis saturated minds of some decades younger.
Johnny worked with his hands all his life, usually as a carpenter. But before that, at 17 years of age, Johnny became a killer. Johnny was in Patton's Third Army in WWII. An M1 Garand rifle was put in his hands, a 1911 .45 pistol strapped to his side, and he was told his job was to kill Germans, and he killed a number of them. And they tried to kill him, but as his Purple Hearts attest, they didn't quite get the job done.
Johnny has killed human beings, just like the shooter killed human beings at Parkland. We rightly honor those who did our killing for us on Veteran's Day and those who were killed themselves on Memorial Day. In war there are rules of engagement and conduct as combatants try to kill each other. But there are no rules for a cowardly mass murderer using a weapon of war to slaughter innocents who have no defense other than their screams.
It is often said WWII was the last “good war”. But you won't hear that from Johnny. He has told me there is no good reason for any war, there is no good reason for killing, he's a pacifist these days.
At lunch yesterday, I was discussing the Parkland shooting with Johnny. He shook his head, looked at me with those ancient eyes and said we are becoming a nation of killers. I had no response. The reality of his statement silenced me.
Johnny has used the weapons of war for their intended purpose. He knows what they can do. And he knows they have no place in civil society.
Its time to remove the weapons of war from the civilian populace and restrict them to their intended use by the military. Like Johnny, I don't want to live in a nation of killers.
Anyone ever notice, after one of these mass shootings, that Dudley Brown and his Rocky Mountain Gunowners group is strangely silent?
Wish they could be silent all the time.
They hire out these days.
Negev does their celebratory gloating and you-can’t-touch-me smugness here.
They're busy pushing their "arm teachers" talking point. There was an armed school resource officer at the Broward County school, but (duh!) the murderer avoided the deputy before beginning his rampage.
RMGO and others who advocate more guns on campus also consistently vote for less funding for schools, because, um…liberty. or something.
Johnny has killed human beings, just like like the shooter killed human beings at Parkland
Are you insane? You are equating the killing in what I would argue was necessary and morally-justified war with the mass murder of children in what should be a civil environment by a demented young man with easy access to weapons?
Is your brain hot-wired to Moddy and Negev's?
You're being very unfair, R and R. This is a very eloquent piece and the pacifist view is the veteran's, not allyn's.
Perhaps you should re read the piece. I state "we rightly honor" those who have served us in war. That would include my mother and father who both served in WWII and were buried with military honors. I certainly don't believe for a minute they served in an "unjust war".
And now the reason these shootings keep happening. The gun nuts, having given their solemn(ish) condolences the day of and after, start decrying calls for gun control. Its either too soon or just outright! Only country in the world where this happens regularly, only country in the world with this many privately owned firearms, and only country in the world with so much money invested in keeping people's guns safer than our children.
Amen, Mike..
The NRA only cares that your child lives because of their potential as a gun buyer.
Semi-automatic weapons should be banned. No American citizen needs to own one. Anyone who supports the continued sale of assault rifles makes themselves complicit in these murders… and the next ones….and there will be more. Until we follow Australias' lead, this will not stop.
And don't any of you fucking gun nuts start talking about relative kill rates and any other nonsense designed to deflect criticism.
Unless you are prepared to experience a string of invective you will not enjoy.
Don't get mad, Duke, but you've conflated a number of issues. Australia didn't just ban assault style guns, it sharply restricted hand guns as well. There are about 30,000 gun homicides in the u.s. each year, two-thirds of which are suicides. The FBI reports that long guns of all types, including assault rifles, account for fewer than 1 percent of those deaths.
So, to really put a dent in the carnage, you need to limit handgun availability.
If you want to start with assault rifles, go to it. Just don't pretend that it's enough.
V, I don't know the answer to this, maybe you do. In mass shootings, what guns get used most often? I've see an internet meme floating around that pins most of the past few notorious shootings on the AR-15. Is that common? Is there a "look at me, I'm Rambo" fantasy that's getting played out? If so, limiting assault rifles may actually decrease mass shooting.
the AR is the preferred weapon for mass slaughter. they used to be banned, remember the "assault weapon ban". We need to do that at a minimum. The gun nuts quibbled about the definition, so, work on the definition. But, reinstitute the assault weapon ban.
Take away guns from everyone with a protection order and get more of those. FL shooter should have had a protection order against him and all guns removed from that home and they fail background check.
Require that those doing background checks have adequate resources, including time and staff. Require social media investigations and any other available info. Interview neighbors.
Unlikely, just because of vote thresholds that we can amend or repeal 2nd amendment, but we can alter gun laws.
lets err toward "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" if we must
The assault rifle lookalikes are the preferred weapon of mass shooters. But mass shootings are a very small part of the problem, which is mostly guys using handguns to kill their wives, etc. Yes, the media love mass shootings. But we have about 33,000 gun homicides a year. Totally eliminate mass shootings and then you have 32,900 gun homicides a year.
I'm fine with reinstating the assault rifle ban, which never should have been repealed. But it is a very small part of the overall problem, albeit the part the media obsesses over.
FYI, as soon as you say the term " assault rifle" some doofus will try to define it away, arguing that real assault rifles are fully automatic, etc. The best response to these nitpicking fools is to take their rifles away from them and stick them up their asses.
The problem ain't semantics. And, while mental health is a huge problem, we can't take the NRA's advice and wait 50,000 years until the last whack job has been bred from the gene pool. We got to get the guns away from the nuts today! Background checks are a start.
I am not going to get mad, V. That would be pointless. Besides, I passed mad a long time ago..
I am going to get busy. The fastest and most effective way to end this is to shine a light on the leadership of the NRA. To help America and its responsible gun owners see that LaPierre, Brown, and the rest of those cretins don't give a shit for you or your kids.
Does NRA membership make your kids immune to bullets? Only the NRA can change this. If they will not, then we will have to change the NRA.
How many of us would need to join the NRA to fire Wayne LaPierre and change the NRAs' agenda? Not too many, I'm thinking.
There was a day when the NRA was lead by actual patriots like war hero and former south dakota gov. joe Foss. Today, you have to pass an iq test to join. If your iq is over 25, you can’t join. Moddy may be the next NRA president.
Seriously, Foss fought against nazism and bushido. He would never had allowed a diehard nazi like Ted Nugent to define the NRA.
It's a pattern. But it is a bigger problem than just the brand of gun used. Per USA today:
13 shooters in the last 35 years have used AR15s to murder 3 or more people.
Mother Jones lists 91 mass murders in the last 35 years. I don't know if anyone has enumerated how many of these were AR15s.
To stop mass murders:
Flip the House. Democrats are more likely to enact gun limitations, including:
Restrict access for people who have violent histories, such as domestic abusers. Thank you, Evie Hudak!
Restrict access for people who have made credible threats, or have been reported multiple times to the FBI as the FLA shooter was. WaPo reports that this database has huge holes in it ; that needs to be fixed. Dems will order it; Repubs won't.
License guns like cars; you use it carelessly and hurt/ kill someone, you lose legal access. This includes people who leave unlocked guns around for children to handle 1300 kids / year die in the US from this.
Restore the regulation Trump deleted. Most mentally ill people are not dangerous to society, but for the few that are, they should not have access to guns.
Allow legal, peaceful suicide. Those who are incurably ill should be able to die peacefully without trying to take others' lives or commit "suicide by cop".
Gun obsessives' "rights" to blast away at a target, or to fantasize about being an anti-government posse leader does not supersede children's right to live their lives, nor to feel safe at school.
That particular statistic makes the problem appear longer-term, and more entrenched historically, than it actually is. 12 of those 13 occurred in roughly the last 10 years — all since the expiration of the “assault weapons” ban.
The recent history, since 2015, is unspeakable.
It also doesn’t count the nearly as equally popular mass-death assault tools, such as the AK-47 (Robert Dear, et al) and all its variants.
Semi-auto…that is where we start…and handguns, too. I don't care..I will gladly give up my revolver, if it would save one life. I can protect my home and hunt for food with a 5 shot hunting rifle and a 12 ga. shotgun…I don't need a weapon of war…
No citizen does. We hire an army for that.
One thing that cannot be overlooked, though, is the effect of first person shooter video games.
Colorado State University is on the pathway to become the first American university to achieve 100% renewable energy without the use of RECs. They were also the first land-grant university to endorse the national "25x'25" movement over a decade ago, then hosting the first (and only) national extension agent conference to educate the extension community on the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy generated in our rural communities. They're setting the pace for the emerging industrial hemp economy, and have a special edition beer made by the most environmentally-sustainable brewery in the nation.
Rams and FoCo are putting the 'green in green'.
🌲🌳🌳♻️😎🌞🌎🎓❗️❗️
Or to quote Nutlid,
Today's kids. Tomorrow's voters. If there is a silver lining in this cloud hopefully it will be in a decade when this entire generation makes the GOP pay for willful negligence on this issue. In the meantime the financial meltdown of the firearm manufacturing sector is one small consolation prize to a Trump Administration.
Parkland survivor slams GOP for shrugging off dead kids — but freaking out over ‘rainbow wedding cakes’
Here are some more of the survivors speaking out, and they are PISSED:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/students-who-lived-through-the-florida-shooting-want-you-to?utm_term=.skVLqOdx1#.yfmBeaPwj
Powerful stuff. The righties will try to spin this as "the kids are dupes of the left" or some such nonsense, but these young people make me feel hopeful.
I’m not really a podcast person, and god knows I already get more daily Trumpencoverage than I can stomach. But, if podcasts are your thing, or you’re a heartier soul than me, I think this might be coverage worth a listen:
https://www.propublica.org/series/trump-inc