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The night before yesterday’s shooting, our 23 year old burst into tears and told us between our refusal to act on climate change and gun control it is unconscionable to bring children into the world. We could find no truthful words to comfort. I am so angry.
My children have also echoed this sentiment. The problem is, these are thoughtful, logical kids. Those that stem from a quiver full family will proceed apace adding multiple children a piece who will be raised in the setting of delusional thinking.
As an elementary school volunteer who has had to experience "shooter drills" with the kids in school, I would recommend that ALL legislators have that horrible experience! As I sat, in the dark, with 6 -1st graders clinging to me, the worst was feeling them shaking and their tears on my arms and hands. They knew they couldn't let out a peep, so this was all done in silence...by First Graders! At the end of the drill, it took a while for me to comfort them by saying what a great job they had done. Usually that brings smiles, but not that day. All I could do was hug them and try to help them get back to learning. IT WAS TRAUMATIC- not for just them, but for me as well! I am not surprised that we are seeing an uptick in mental health issues with our kids! Folks, we're doing it to them EVERY time we do these drills!!!!! 🥵😠😡
Far too many Americans are simply delusional sociopaths and those who aren’t can’t or won’t stop them.
We’ve got a neofascist party that is fine with mass shootings in schools but wants to protect white children from learning about Rosa Parks because they might feel bad.
They’re psychotic. Simple as that, with “psychotic” simply being a polite form of “evil.” They are evil, plain and simple.
That’s the problem, whether it’s gun deaths, Covid—or the infinitely worse carbon, nuclear weapons, or anything else. And all of that is not just the fault of the drooling, upscale, suburban brownshirts performatively displaying their AR-15s. Oh, there’s lots of evil going around, most of it banal and institutionalized, as per usual.
We are absolutely insisting on mass omnicide, and in the very near future. Bad as the mass shootings are, they are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the real tsunamis roaring in the distance on the far side of a temporarily extended beach.
Violence seems to be woven into the very fabric of our society. Our movies our television, our news. We glory in violent solutions. We valorize those who use it. How many violent acts do our children see on television or their video games by the time they are ten years old- a thousand? More like ten thousand, a hundred thousand. We swim in an ocean of violence and our children are fascinated by it, study it with more avidity than anything our schools present to them. We cannot be surprised, we adults- we were raised in the same culture and are carriers of the virus. We can pass as many laws as we like, ban all firearms... But until we change the culture itself, violence, like water will find it's way through all the dikes we build.
It seems to me, and this will lose me friends, but violence is the issue not firearms. If guns had never been invented people would still use spears, hatchets, sabers, knives, arrows, rocks, poison...anything handy. Guns just made it easier but where there is a will to violence, there's a way... We are fighting a two front war, our genetics..we are a violent species who had to be so to survive, and our American culture which is permeated with violence and glorifies it.
Guns facilitate the action, and cause more damage than the implements you cited. And we may be a violent species, but we're the only first-world country in the world with this level of problem.
Yes, that's why in a post lower in the thread I had recommended the CDC send a team with Katelyn to other countries that don't have this problem to the degree we do and study what could be the difference. I believe they will find cultural differences.
Please keep writing about this. We are failing our children but must keep fighting for their safety and their future. My adult children have told me of their frustration and despair. My hope lies in their generation. They are aware and they are not taking any bullshit.
Very important message. It is unfortunate that the NRA owns the soul of the Republican Party. It is more important for our students to have safe schools that it is for people to have the right to buy big guns that are not good for anything but killing other humans.
An AR 15 is not a hunting weapon. It doesn't leave you with usable meat.
Depending on your hunting rife, or even a pistol, the round of an AR travels at 3-5 times the speed of your hunting or sidearm round.
The round is designed to kill. As soon as it makes contact, it breaks apart into a spray that generates a shock wave that literally liquifies tissues and turns nearby bone to gravel. A child's head literally explodes. Exit wounds have a diameter of 8-to-12 inches.
At this point, I wish there were a facility here to show some photos of exit wounds, to drive the point home.
====
Six or five centuries ago, the English longbow was the most terrible weapon. English villages had competitions for boys of all ages, and they then were ready-made soldiers that the French never really overcame. Imagine the equivalent of broomsticks raining down on you out of the sun.
====
Then in the late 18th century, the American revolution made use of fire arms. Arms were frequently privately owned, and taken back home for hunting and for evicting Injuns. For that, a local militia was usually formed, to which you brought your own weapon. So hunting and defending the settlement (like a militia) was pretty much a required skill.
===
Lastly, the Second Amendment was written as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights.
The US Bill of Rights is a set of 10 amendments to the Constitution that protect the rights and freedoms of the people from the government.
Whatever has happened to CIVICS being a a prerequisite to a High School diploma?
Thank you for this, and for links to previous posts. The misuse of mental illness as causal in these instances constantly needs to be combatted. I remember the first time I heard this excuse given, the day of Sandy Hook, from a member of a crew working on our house. A young man in the crew invoked it as the root problem, rather than guns. I responded, to no avail, so appreciated it when his boss, a conservative and gun owner, stepped in. He noted, for one, that there was absolutely no need for weapons with high capacity magazines when shooting at targets in a shooting range, as one example. The young man became so excited that he started jumping up and down, mimicking having a machine gun in his hands, as he countered his boss by describing what a thrill it gave him to shoot multiple rounds at the target. It was terrifying to watch this come over him, and it has always stayed with me.
Let’s make our politician’s failure to address gun violence what it is: a moral failure. These are people placing their own donors and their political careers ahead of the public good.
This issue, reproductive rights, and support for the democratic future of the US should decide the next elections.
PS. Great graphs! Can we add the total number of children killed in school gun violence worldwide as a comparator? Because here, same in as protecting all of our people with health care, we are failing as a nation.
I'm so sorry. As a parent and grandparent, I live with continuing fear and bewilderment that the gun craze has brought to our country. Supposedly-mature men and women, particularly those in legislatures, will not go anywhere near rationality. "Thoughts and prayers," indeed.
The first comment I am going to make is: for all of you demanding a legislative solution to the problem, what additional law do you propose that you think would prevent this sort of thing?
The second comment I am going to make is, both in what I imagine the response to my first question and to several comments below: the answer to your desire for any sort of "ban" be it for magazines, pistols, "assault weapons" (whatever those are - hint the term is made up), etc. is not just NO but HELL NO! The same goes for "Joe Biden" wanting to place everything under the NFA to try to tax and regulate it to death. Even if you were able to get such a thing drafted as legislation it would quickly be struck down by the courts, especially in light of the Bruen ruling last summer.
For those of you who are still reading, as I am sure the above has plenty of the blog's readers screaming already....
My next question for those who think people having guns is the problem and that taking them away is the solution, what makes you think that if you were magically able to disarm the populace to where only the govt had weapons that we'd all be farting unicorn dust and singing kumbaya? History has shown what happens in places where the people were disarmed, and it isn't pretty.
For that matter, an attempt to try it, would very likely be crossing a serious red line for a lot (think millions) of normal people and would result in a violent response that will tear the empire apart. I think the days of Empire USA are doomed anyway, but that would certainly be one way to make it become Sarajevo 2.0. People are buying guns and ammo like mad, and it sure isn't to go turn them in.
While we're on the confiscation subject. Stop with the stupid "buy back" nonsense. The govt. can't buy back what it never owned. Even if they were to try to buy up all the firearms it would be with money taken from the people who they would be buying from or printed out of thin air, which means more inflation. Either way, it's wrong and the people would pay the price.
Now, lets move on to some of the other pieces of data:
1) The leftist arguments, lumping all categories of violence committed with and deaths from the use a gun is dishonest and inaccurate. Most of the "gun violence" takes place in a subset of neighborhoods of major cities run by democrats and can be attributed to gang and other criminal behavior. When this statistic is removed, the "gun violence" become a lot smaller of a problem. Let me comment about suicide. If someone is bent on doing it, they're going to. Take away the gun and they'll find something else, besides, it's not YOUR position to make the choice for them.
2) As Katelyn has posted about before, the "mentally ill" canard misses the boat and is a label that is easy to apply after the fact but does little in terms of addressing the issue before it happens. There is also this pesky little thing called rights and due process. Take the latest shooter for example: she had no criminal record, was of legal age, would pass your "universal background check" (note, this is the same check that the criminals will just ignore, I mean come on man, they're already "prohibited" from having a gun and another law telling them no is going to do the trick? No, it will only impact lawful citizens). She had a manifesto and as Katelyn blogged: this was a planned attack. It was evil. You aren't going to stop evil with legislation.
3) Why do we spend so little on protecting schools? And no, declaring them a gun free zone doesn't cut it. It makes the situation worse because they are advertised soft targets. A lot of damage can be done in the time it takes for even the best dial a prayer response from the govt agents and the worst response is unthinkable. It has been demonstrated time and again, this one being no different, that these evil aggressors only stop when confronted by sufficient force. The sooner they can be stopped the better. Likewise, there are better defensive options than these stupid "lockdowns" that potentially make groups of children into proverbial fish in a barrel.
4) I am getting really tired of the democrat and leftist tropes about the problem being Christian white men. The data says otherwise, and a certain agency is called the FIB for a reason. The political left incited this violence with their tranny day of rage nonsense. Oh, and for the person who made the brownshirts comment - you precious antifa are the brownshirts. How much violence and destruction have they caused? How many leftist soros bought DAs refused to prosecute their crimes? The double standard that gets applied by the legal system is ludicrous and the political prosecution that has been happening is just plain wrong.
5) It is high time to stop all this BS about gender fluidity and transgenderism. I happen to be one of those "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" folks that Katelyn mentioned recently from the survey. I will tell you that I have had enough of that crap being pushed in my face. It is doing tremendous damage to our children and for what? For you communists to destroy social norms as part of your color revolution? STOP IT ALREADY! ENOUGH!
The number of people who are truly gender dysphoric is very small. What we have happening in society is a disgusting fad.
6) I will conclude with this. Back in the day, it was common to have guns in schools. There were shooting clubs. People hunted after school. When I was at school camp in 5th grade one of the activities was marksmanship with rifles. Want to know what we didn't have? Mass shootings targeting schools. Why now? What's changed? One thing I can certainly point to is the destruction of the family unit as a pillar of a strong community and instead the adoption of all these "progressive" ideals.
We all know gun control isn't about the gun, it's about control.
There are solutions. What there isn't is a legislative solution, at least directly. There is nothing you can prohibit or take away that will solve the problem. You want solutions? Then start by securing the schools.
1) Proper and controlled ingress and egress would go a long way towards addressing the problem.
2) Dispense with the gun free zones. Killers are choosing them for a reason. Allow those who want to and are willing to take responsibility for being so, to be armed.
3) Employ other physical protections, which could be as simple as inflatable tornado shelters. or other barriers that can be employed in an emergency.
Sorry to say, and perhaps it shouldn't be this way, but we are at the point where physical hardening of schools is required. This is due not to the fact that more people are armed, but do to leftist policies that have destroyed the strong family unit. We also need to get past this mentality of abdicating responsibility to the government for everything, be it teaching or safety. I grew up in the days before there was a thing called 911 and everyone carried an electronic tracking device everywhere and people have become lazy because of it.
4) Start restoring social values and stop celebrating deviance.
5) Get rid of Soros backed DA's that play catch and release with violent criminals. I believe we need to return to the crime, punishment, and justice models from before we started relying on govt. police, prosecution, and courts roughly 100-120 years ago. Local trials held by the local citizens. Two types of crime: that for which restitution can and is made by the perpetrator and those for which it can't and the punishment is execution, swifty carried out.
1. Kinda like my direct experience with industrial safety organizations and IT security organizations: complete safety will be attained when no one is permitted to do anything; complete security is attained when no one has access to the information under guard, especially those who actually need access to accomplish a particular function. I’m guessing that you have something a bit less than that in mind, dunno. Perhaps you are thinking in terms of emulating airport security measures? The technical and human resources those measures consume aren’t free and that will, presumably, require some kind of legislative action at some level to acquire and sustain. I’ll not argue that schools are already sufficiently secure. And not everyone will agree on what will be sufficient. God forbid anyone should compromise!
2. The answer to people with guns is more people with guns? Who gets to use them (Notice that I don’t say “carry” them; my MP uncle told me that you don’t pick up a gun in the first place if you are not already determined to use it to inflict grievous harm)? Where is that working?
3. I live in an area of frequent, lethal tornadoes, roughly weekly this time of year. Nobody selling or installing inflatable tornado shelters ‘round here. I’ll not dwell further on that. There may be other possibilities of relatively low technological sophistication like metal, accordion gates or vertically moved like garage doors. Activation systems for those would not be free, either. Retrofit and installation also not free. Some kind of legislation at some level, again. Some serious competing issues of emergency egress to reconcile, as well.
I’ll leave aside the “strong family unit” discussion as neither you nor I are looking to be persuaded differently on that one.
4. Who are you suggesting should be in charge of selecting the “social values” to be restored AND those that are to be suppressed and by what means? Oh, I see your answer to the means question down there in 5: “line ‘‘em up and shoot ‘em.” Did I understand you correctly? Same questions with respect to deviance. You are aware that execution of people deemed outside the ”normal“ boundary is classical fascism, right? Is that what you’ve advocating for this issue? It appears so unless you’d care to re-craft that in some way. Either way, some legislative action required there, too. Unless, of course, you are advocating a single point of (hereditary?) authority for all such matters and enforced at gunpoint as items 2 and 5 can be construed. That would certainly preclude the need for any legislative body. If that’s not what you are advocating, you might choose some re-crafting of your message there, too.
5. Substitute Koch for Soros and what do you get (not to say that I give your assertion credence)? The time frame to which you refer corresponds to roughly 1900. Is that what you mean? I’m not familiar with the state and form of judiciary practice in that era (I’m old but not that old). If you could elaborate or refer to some historical reference, I’d be interested to investigate it.
“Local trials held by local citizens.”? Where you may live, are juries composed of people flown or bused in from outside of the jurisdiction of the court district in which charges or suits brought forward? That’s not what happens in the ruby-red place I live, having served three different series of jury duty. Forgive me but the context of your statements make me suspicious of the jury selection criteria you might advocate.
“...and the punishment is execution swiftly carried out.” Perhaps the model you have in mind is that adopted widely in the South following the demise of Reconstruction, which corresponds to roughly preceding the time frame you cited. That practice would be lynching which persisted well into the latter half of the 20th century and has not been eradicated even today. An outside observer would very likely deem that genocide. If that is not what you are advocating, I need some additional clarification what kind of guard rails you’d think apply.
Thanks for the opportunity to do some exercise this morning 🤔
1) You are correct. If you want total safety, go to prison. Liberty and freedom are sometimes messy. I think we both get the point here and recognize that more can be done to make schools safer without turning them into a fortress.
2) "The answer to people with guns is more people with guns?" has become a common trope as has the notion that the problem is the gun, not the person. As the cliche line from Ghostbusters says, "who you going to call?" Dollars to donuts says it's going to be people with guns.
These incidents have shown time and again that the aggressor stops when they are confronted with sufficient force. Would you rather that response be 30 seconds or 30 minutes away?
3) Fine, maybe there aren't inflatable shelters, but you still get the point. Kind of like having a fire extinguisher. I am sure there are some low tech, inexpensive solutions that could be deployed in an emergency.
As to the family unit, look at how kids behave in school today. Look at how folks behave in public. It didn't used to be like this, nor did it take government to get people to behave. Values and the three R's are learned at home.
4) Now this is where you really start putting proverbial words in my mouth.
5) I dislike Koch as much as Soros. I am also not a republican. As far as values go, it is a lack of common values that is causing the USA to come apart, potentially in in a manner much like the Balkans did.
5A) Yes, it was around 1900 when we started seeing the rise of govt police. In the South it was to keep the slaves in line and in the North it was union busting. It is a long subject, but here are a few of the key points.
* - I believe that having career enforcers, especially tax funded ones, will always lead to tyranny. The cops may be well intentioned, but the system is flawed. They ultimately become the force arm of the political class
* - I think it is pretty clear that the nation's founders would have opposed career enforcers. In their day, the military was the police and they were clearly opposed to standing military.
* - I also think you can make some strong constitutional arguments about people having the right to be secure in their person and possessions, including seizure (of the person, meaning arrest) unless a warrant has been issued based upon a sworn statement. This is in contrast to having cops who can "arrest" someone on the belief (even incorrectly) that they have committed a crime.
* - I would like to return to a more colonial model where there is an elected sheriff who has the power to deputize from the community, on a temporary and as needed basis.
* - It wasn't until fairly recently, again perhaps around 1900 that govt was even engaged in criminal prosecution, and even then it was only with high visibility offenses, like train robberies. People dealt with criminals locally.
* - lets also get rid of this notion of "crime against the state", especially for which there is no victim (arguably then - there is no crime) and the punishment being money in the politicians' coffers.
The prison system is a joke, and an expensive one at that. If you commit a violent offence, such as murder, armed robbery, rape, etc., why should working people have to pay for your upkeep in a secure facility? Swift execution and I no repeat offenses. How many times have you heard that the such and such criminal was well known to the system, having been arrested and released multiple times?
On a side note....Is there an explanation for the drastic drop in motor vehicle deaths since 2005? Seems like it has to be more than just advancements in vehicle safety.
The night before yesterday’s shooting, our 23 year old burst into tears and told us between our refusal to act on climate change and gun control it is unconscionable to bring children into the world. We could find no truthful words to comfort. I am so angry.
My children have told me the same. I feel angry and guilty.
My children have also echoed this sentiment. The problem is, these are thoughtful, logical kids. Those that stem from a quiver full family will proceed apace adding multiple children a piece who will be raised in the setting of delusional thinking.
As an elementary school volunteer who has had to experience "shooter drills" with the kids in school, I would recommend that ALL legislators have that horrible experience! As I sat, in the dark, with 6 -1st graders clinging to me, the worst was feeling them shaking and their tears on my arms and hands. They knew they couldn't let out a peep, so this was all done in silence...by First Graders! At the end of the drill, it took a while for me to comfort them by saying what a great job they had done. Usually that brings smiles, but not that day. All I could do was hug them and try to help them get back to learning. IT WAS TRAUMATIC- not for just them, but for me as well! I am not surprised that we are seeing an uptick in mental health issues with our kids! Folks, we're doing it to them EVERY time we do these drills!!!!! 🥵😠😡
I quietly cried as I read your post.
As did I on the way home every time I had to go through these drills. 😢
Far too many Americans are simply delusional sociopaths and those who aren’t can’t or won’t stop them.
We’ve got a neofascist party that is fine with mass shootings in schools but wants to protect white children from learning about Rosa Parks because they might feel bad.
They’re psychotic. Simple as that, with “psychotic” simply being a polite form of “evil.” They are evil, plain and simple.
That’s the problem, whether it’s gun deaths, Covid—or the infinitely worse carbon, nuclear weapons, or anything else. And all of that is not just the fault of the drooling, upscale, suburban brownshirts performatively displaying their AR-15s. Oh, there’s lots of evil going around, most of it banal and institutionalized, as per usual.
We are absolutely insisting on mass omnicide, and in the very near future. Bad as the mass shootings are, they are a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the real tsunamis roaring in the distance on the far side of a temporarily extended beach.
Violence seems to be woven into the very fabric of our society. Our movies our television, our news. We glory in violent solutions. We valorize those who use it. How many violent acts do our children see on television or their video games by the time they are ten years old- a thousand? More like ten thousand, a hundred thousand. We swim in an ocean of violence and our children are fascinated by it, study it with more avidity than anything our schools present to them. We cannot be surprised, we adults- we were raised in the same culture and are carriers of the virus. We can pass as many laws as we like, ban all firearms... But until we change the culture itself, violence, like water will find it's way through all the dikes we build.
It seems to me, and this will lose me friends, but violence is the issue not firearms. If guns had never been invented people would still use spears, hatchets, sabers, knives, arrows, rocks, poison...anything handy. Guns just made it easier but where there is a will to violence, there's a way... We are fighting a two front war, our genetics..we are a violent species who had to be so to survive, and our American culture which is permeated with violence and glorifies it.
Guns facilitate the action, and cause more damage than the implements you cited. And we may be a violent species, but we're the only first-world country in the world with this level of problem.
Yes, that's why in a post lower in the thread I had recommended the CDC send a team with Katelyn to other countries that don't have this problem to the degree we do and study what could be the difference. I believe they will find cultural differences.
It's almost all cultural, I believe. Not sure how we can effect widespread cultural change.
Please keep writing about this. We are failing our children but must keep fighting for their safety and their future. My adult children have told me of their frustration and despair. My hope lies in their generation. They are aware and they are not taking any bullshit.
Very important message. It is unfortunate that the NRA owns the soul of the Republican Party. It is more important for our students to have safe schools that it is for people to have the right to buy big guns that are not good for anything but killing other humans.
Firearms becoming the leading cause of death for children is horrific and is the wake up call of those lost souls crying out.
Corporations rule. There is the problem,.
Thank you. Wrote my electeds AGAIN, but clearly it is up to we the people to decide.
An AR 15 is not a hunting weapon. It doesn't leave you with usable meat.
Depending on your hunting rife, or even a pistol, the round of an AR travels at 3-5 times the speed of your hunting or sidearm round.
The round is designed to kill. As soon as it makes contact, it breaks apart into a spray that generates a shock wave that literally liquifies tissues and turns nearby bone to gravel. A child's head literally explodes. Exit wounds have a diameter of 8-to-12 inches.
At this point, I wish there were a facility here to show some photos of exit wounds, to drive the point home.
====
Six or five centuries ago, the English longbow was the most terrible weapon. English villages had competitions for boys of all ages, and they then were ready-made soldiers that the French never really overcame. Imagine the equivalent of broomsticks raining down on you out of the sun.
====
Then in the late 18th century, the American revolution made use of fire arms. Arms were frequently privately owned, and taken back home for hunting and for evicting Injuns. For that, a local militia was usually formed, to which you brought your own weapon. So hunting and defending the settlement (like a militia) was pretty much a required skill.
===
Lastly, the Second Amendment was written as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights.
The US Bill of Rights is a set of 10 amendments to the Constitution that protect the rights and freedoms of the people from the government.
Whatever has happened to CIVICS being a a prerequisite to a High School diploma?
"An AR 15 is not a hunting weapon. It doesn't leave you with usable meat"
The deer that is in my freezer would beg to differ.
I'll amend to "less usable meat". I refer you to the need for parental DNA after the Uvalde shooting.
Also ref to the article in Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/
Thank you for this, and for links to previous posts. The misuse of mental illness as causal in these instances constantly needs to be combatted. I remember the first time I heard this excuse given, the day of Sandy Hook, from a member of a crew working on our house. A young man in the crew invoked it as the root problem, rather than guns. I responded, to no avail, so appreciated it when his boss, a conservative and gun owner, stepped in. He noted, for one, that there was absolutely no need for weapons with high capacity magazines when shooting at targets in a shooting range, as one example. The young man became so excited that he started jumping up and down, mimicking having a machine gun in his hands, as he countered his boss by describing what a thrill it gave him to shoot multiple rounds at the target. It was terrifying to watch this come over him, and it has always stayed with me.
Let’s make our politician’s failure to address gun violence what it is: a moral failure. These are people placing their own donors and their political careers ahead of the public good.
This issue, reproductive rights, and support for the democratic future of the US should decide the next elections.
PS. Great graphs! Can we add the total number of children killed in school gun violence worldwide as a comparator? Because here, same in as protecting all of our people with health care, we are failing as a nation.
I'm so sorry. As a parent and grandparent, I live with continuing fear and bewilderment that the gun craze has brought to our country. Supposedly-mature men and women, particularly those in legislatures, will not go anywhere near rationality. "Thoughts and prayers," indeed.
Thank you.
The first comment I am going to make is: for all of you demanding a legislative solution to the problem, what additional law do you propose that you think would prevent this sort of thing?
The second comment I am going to make is, both in what I imagine the response to my first question and to several comments below: the answer to your desire for any sort of "ban" be it for magazines, pistols, "assault weapons" (whatever those are - hint the term is made up), etc. is not just NO but HELL NO! The same goes for "Joe Biden" wanting to place everything under the NFA to try to tax and regulate it to death. Even if you were able to get such a thing drafted as legislation it would quickly be struck down by the courts, especially in light of the Bruen ruling last summer.
For those of you who are still reading, as I am sure the above has plenty of the blog's readers screaming already....
My next question for those who think people having guns is the problem and that taking them away is the solution, what makes you think that if you were magically able to disarm the populace to where only the govt had weapons that we'd all be farting unicorn dust and singing kumbaya? History has shown what happens in places where the people were disarmed, and it isn't pretty.
For that matter, an attempt to try it, would very likely be crossing a serious red line for a lot (think millions) of normal people and would result in a violent response that will tear the empire apart. I think the days of Empire USA are doomed anyway, but that would certainly be one way to make it become Sarajevo 2.0. People are buying guns and ammo like mad, and it sure isn't to go turn them in.
While we're on the confiscation subject. Stop with the stupid "buy back" nonsense. The govt. can't buy back what it never owned. Even if they were to try to buy up all the firearms it would be with money taken from the people who they would be buying from or printed out of thin air, which means more inflation. Either way, it's wrong and the people would pay the price.
Now, lets move on to some of the other pieces of data:
1) The leftist arguments, lumping all categories of violence committed with and deaths from the use a gun is dishonest and inaccurate. Most of the "gun violence" takes place in a subset of neighborhoods of major cities run by democrats and can be attributed to gang and other criminal behavior. When this statistic is removed, the "gun violence" become a lot smaller of a problem. Let me comment about suicide. If someone is bent on doing it, they're going to. Take away the gun and they'll find something else, besides, it's not YOUR position to make the choice for them.
2) As Katelyn has posted about before, the "mentally ill" canard misses the boat and is a label that is easy to apply after the fact but does little in terms of addressing the issue before it happens. There is also this pesky little thing called rights and due process. Take the latest shooter for example: she had no criminal record, was of legal age, would pass your "universal background check" (note, this is the same check that the criminals will just ignore, I mean come on man, they're already "prohibited" from having a gun and another law telling them no is going to do the trick? No, it will only impact lawful citizens). She had a manifesto and as Katelyn blogged: this was a planned attack. It was evil. You aren't going to stop evil with legislation.
3) Why do we spend so little on protecting schools? And no, declaring them a gun free zone doesn't cut it. It makes the situation worse because they are advertised soft targets. A lot of damage can be done in the time it takes for even the best dial a prayer response from the govt agents and the worst response is unthinkable. It has been demonstrated time and again, this one being no different, that these evil aggressors only stop when confronted by sufficient force. The sooner they can be stopped the better. Likewise, there are better defensive options than these stupid "lockdowns" that potentially make groups of children into proverbial fish in a barrel.
4) I am getting really tired of the democrat and leftist tropes about the problem being Christian white men. The data says otherwise, and a certain agency is called the FIB for a reason. The political left incited this violence with their tranny day of rage nonsense. Oh, and for the person who made the brownshirts comment - you precious antifa are the brownshirts. How much violence and destruction have they caused? How many leftist soros bought DAs refused to prosecute their crimes? The double standard that gets applied by the legal system is ludicrous and the political prosecution that has been happening is just plain wrong.
5) It is high time to stop all this BS about gender fluidity and transgenderism. I happen to be one of those "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" folks that Katelyn mentioned recently from the survey. I will tell you that I have had enough of that crap being pushed in my face. It is doing tremendous damage to our children and for what? For you communists to destroy social norms as part of your color revolution? STOP IT ALREADY! ENOUGH!
The number of people who are truly gender dysphoric is very small. What we have happening in society is a disgusting fad.
6) I will conclude with this. Back in the day, it was common to have guns in schools. There were shooting clubs. People hunted after school. When I was at school camp in 5th grade one of the activities was marksmanship with rifles. Want to know what we didn't have? Mass shootings targeting schools. Why now? What's changed? One thing I can certainly point to is the destruction of the family unit as a pillar of a strong community and instead the adoption of all these "progressive" ideals.
We all know gun control isn't about the gun, it's about control.
No solutions here, just denial that children are dying in schools.
There are solutions. What there isn't is a legislative solution, at least directly. There is nothing you can prohibit or take away that will solve the problem. You want solutions? Then start by securing the schools.
1) Proper and controlled ingress and egress would go a long way towards addressing the problem.
2) Dispense with the gun free zones. Killers are choosing them for a reason. Allow those who want to and are willing to take responsibility for being so, to be armed.
3) Employ other physical protections, which could be as simple as inflatable tornado shelters. or other barriers that can be employed in an emergency.
Sorry to say, and perhaps it shouldn't be this way, but we are at the point where physical hardening of schools is required. This is due not to the fact that more people are armed, but do to leftist policies that have destroyed the strong family unit. We also need to get past this mentality of abdicating responsibility to the government for everything, be it teaching or safety. I grew up in the days before there was a thing called 911 and everyone carried an electronic tracking device everywhere and people have become lazy because of it.
4) Start restoring social values and stop celebrating deviance.
5) Get rid of Soros backed DA's that play catch and release with violent criminals. I believe we need to return to the crime, punishment, and justice models from before we started relying on govt. police, prosecution, and courts roughly 100-120 years ago. Local trials held by the local citizens. Two types of crime: that for which restitution can and is made by the perpetrator and those for which it can't and the punishment is execution, swifty carried out.
Hmm...thanks for replying
1. Kinda like my direct experience with industrial safety organizations and IT security organizations: complete safety will be attained when no one is permitted to do anything; complete security is attained when no one has access to the information under guard, especially those who actually need access to accomplish a particular function. I’m guessing that you have something a bit less than that in mind, dunno. Perhaps you are thinking in terms of emulating airport security measures? The technical and human resources those measures consume aren’t free and that will, presumably, require some kind of legislative action at some level to acquire and sustain. I’ll not argue that schools are already sufficiently secure. And not everyone will agree on what will be sufficient. God forbid anyone should compromise!
2. The answer to people with guns is more people with guns? Who gets to use them (Notice that I don’t say “carry” them; my MP uncle told me that you don’t pick up a gun in the first place if you are not already determined to use it to inflict grievous harm)? Where is that working?
3. I live in an area of frequent, lethal tornadoes, roughly weekly this time of year. Nobody selling or installing inflatable tornado shelters ‘round here. I’ll not dwell further on that. There may be other possibilities of relatively low technological sophistication like metal, accordion gates or vertically moved like garage doors. Activation systems for those would not be free, either. Retrofit and installation also not free. Some kind of legislation at some level, again. Some serious competing issues of emergency egress to reconcile, as well.
I’ll leave aside the “strong family unit” discussion as neither you nor I are looking to be persuaded differently on that one.
4. Who are you suggesting should be in charge of selecting the “social values” to be restored AND those that are to be suppressed and by what means? Oh, I see your answer to the means question down there in 5: “line ‘‘em up and shoot ‘em.” Did I understand you correctly? Same questions with respect to deviance. You are aware that execution of people deemed outside the ”normal“ boundary is classical fascism, right? Is that what you’ve advocating for this issue? It appears so unless you’d care to re-craft that in some way. Either way, some legislative action required there, too. Unless, of course, you are advocating a single point of (hereditary?) authority for all such matters and enforced at gunpoint as items 2 and 5 can be construed. That would certainly preclude the need for any legislative body. If that’s not what you are advocating, you might choose some re-crafting of your message there, too.
5. Substitute Koch for Soros and what do you get (not to say that I give your assertion credence)? The time frame to which you refer corresponds to roughly 1900. Is that what you mean? I’m not familiar with the state and form of judiciary practice in that era (I’m old but not that old). If you could elaborate or refer to some historical reference, I’d be interested to investigate it.
“Local trials held by local citizens.”? Where you may live, are juries composed of people flown or bused in from outside of the jurisdiction of the court district in which charges or suits brought forward? That’s not what happens in the ruby-red place I live, having served three different series of jury duty. Forgive me but the context of your statements make me suspicious of the jury selection criteria you might advocate.
“...and the punishment is execution swiftly carried out.” Perhaps the model you have in mind is that adopted widely in the South following the demise of Reconstruction, which corresponds to roughly preceding the time frame you cited. That practice would be lynching which persisted well into the latter half of the 20th century and has not been eradicated even today. An outside observer would very likely deem that genocide. If that is not what you are advocating, I need some additional clarification what kind of guard rails you’d think apply.
Thanks for the opportunity to do some exercise this morning 🤔
1) You are correct. If you want total safety, go to prison. Liberty and freedom are sometimes messy. I think we both get the point here and recognize that more can be done to make schools safer without turning them into a fortress.
2) "The answer to people with guns is more people with guns?" has become a common trope as has the notion that the problem is the gun, not the person. As the cliche line from Ghostbusters says, "who you going to call?" Dollars to donuts says it's going to be people with guns.
These incidents have shown time and again that the aggressor stops when they are confronted with sufficient force. Would you rather that response be 30 seconds or 30 minutes away?
3) Fine, maybe there aren't inflatable shelters, but you still get the point. Kind of like having a fire extinguisher. I am sure there are some low tech, inexpensive solutions that could be deployed in an emergency.
As to the family unit, look at how kids behave in school today. Look at how folks behave in public. It didn't used to be like this, nor did it take government to get people to behave. Values and the three R's are learned at home.
4) Now this is where you really start putting proverbial words in my mouth.
5) I dislike Koch as much as Soros. I am also not a republican. As far as values go, it is a lack of common values that is causing the USA to come apart, potentially in in a manner much like the Balkans did.
5A) Yes, it was around 1900 when we started seeing the rise of govt police. In the South it was to keep the slaves in line and in the North it was union busting. It is a long subject, but here are a few of the key points.
* - I believe that having career enforcers, especially tax funded ones, will always lead to tyranny. The cops may be well intentioned, but the system is flawed. They ultimately become the force arm of the political class
* - I think it is pretty clear that the nation's founders would have opposed career enforcers. In their day, the military was the police and they were clearly opposed to standing military.
* - I also think you can make some strong constitutional arguments about people having the right to be secure in their person and possessions, including seizure (of the person, meaning arrest) unless a warrant has been issued based upon a sworn statement. This is in contrast to having cops who can "arrest" someone on the belief (even incorrectly) that they have committed a crime.
* - I would like to return to a more colonial model where there is an elected sheriff who has the power to deputize from the community, on a temporary and as needed basis.
* - It wasn't until fairly recently, again perhaps around 1900 that govt was even engaged in criminal prosecution, and even then it was only with high visibility offenses, like train robberies. People dealt with criminals locally.
* - lets also get rid of this notion of "crime against the state", especially for which there is no victim (arguably then - there is no crime) and the punishment being money in the politicians' coffers.
The prison system is a joke, and an expensive one at that. If you commit a violent offence, such as murder, armed robbery, rape, etc., why should working people have to pay for your upkeep in a secure facility? Swift execution and I no repeat offenses. How many times have you heard that the such and such criminal was well known to the system, having been arrested and released multiple times?
On a side note....Is there an explanation for the drastic drop in motor vehicle deaths since 2005? Seems like it has to be more than just advancements in vehicle safety.
Especially considering the increases in US population.
Some detail here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year