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I have little to add to everything written about this horrible massacre. I find myself especially moved by the heroism of the school teachers that died trying to protect the children in their care. There should be a statue of them in Washington and a wreath laid at its base on every anniversary of their sacrifice, perhaps a national holiday should be declared in their honor and inthe honor of all the men and women who teach children.
When you think of what those teachers take home pay was and what the chairman of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein’s take home pay is and the respective value of what they do or did and that such different human beings can inhabit the same country, you have all the hope and despair of America in one package.
With all the pressure of public opinion, will anything be done to regulate firearms now?
The good news is that there is going to be gun control legislation, the bad news is that the gun lobby will only allow restrictions for “crazy” people. People will think that makes sense as all these massacres have been perpetrated by people with mental health issues.
That will be the only compromise possible with the powerful NRA and Democrats in Congress will think that getting that would be better than nothing.
That will of necessity mean some sort of standard test as to who is nuts and who is not, just like who is blind and who is deaf in order to get a driver’s license, but nationwide.
This will entail a very objective measurement of what is sane and what isn’t, something that in a democracy is quite a slippery slope.
Since the US Constitution in its Second Amendment still guarantees the citizens the “right to bear arms”, those who don’t pass the standard sanity test (don’t have any friends, talk to themselves etc) will become officially second class citizens. This then will mean that owning guns will be automatic proof that officially you are not crazy and then everybody will not only want to own a gun, anybody who doesn’t do an “open carry” will appear an oddball.
Result: more people owning and carrying guns… you’d be crazy not to.
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I think it was Stokely Carmichel who once noted that;
“Violence is as American as cherry pie”. [sic]
Absent a miracle,
This situation is soooo baked in the cake now for
God only knows how long.
Sorry to tell you, . . . but . . . we are going
to have to try to get used to it.
By the way, guns ARE regulated, to some degree.
I’d agree, not enough, but don’t make a statement like;
” . . . will anything be done to regulate firearms now?”
I predict that if they push this moment of insanity to its limits
as far as public emotion will take it,
going forward, background checks will be required for ALL gun
purchases, and people whose names are on some terrorist list
will not be able to buy a gun legally.
That’s about all you can hope for.
Absolutely nothing retroactive, and I’ll bet
they don’t even outlaw the 30 round clips.
I own guns.
I favor more regulations re. who can buy, and how many,
what calibers, and type of ammo.
Who needs a .50 cal rifle?
. . . or a 30 round clip for their .223?
I like the 2nd amendment.
I think the NRA is a disgusting representative of the
guns manufacturers lobby and I never considered joining it.
I suspect that a country that is fighting “wars” in multiple locations
over the last eleven years without yelling like our
hair was on fire still has some dues to pay.
Oh God. Look at all those chickens coming in to roost.
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It is impossible to explain the American gun thing to foreigners, especially Europeans… I really don’t understand it myself. My intuition tells me it is much more from Hollywood than from the Founding Fathers. At the heart of it I think it is the frustration of the competitive “loser-winner” society that generates the violence and I don’t think we’ll soon or perhaps ever see the end of that.
That is why I prefer to concentrate on the heroism of the teachers. I think it is time that America took better care of its teachers. This incident proves, if any more proof was needed, what sort of stuff they are made of, their commitment and what they are worth as individuals and as a collective.
The current gun craziness may well have started in Hollywood, I don’t know, but it’s sure pushed by Hollywood, the gun manufacturers, and the NRA and other groups that are constantly telling people, especially white people, to be scared to death and buy that gun for self-protection.
It’s not just the guns themselves. Canadians have LOTS of guns per capita but aren’t in the habit of blowing each other away. Now I don’t believe that private citizens should have the right to own automatic weapons since they are designed for one thing: to kill or injure as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.
For something like home defense or self-protection a revolver is more than adequate. There’s a glorification of mass violence in this country that is really, really sick. I really don’t know what can be done about it without imposing a military dictatorship; a prospect I certainly don’t relish.
The reason Barbarian and David is quite simple really. Nobody here really know what it’s like to have women, kids, houses and villages bombed, burned and turned to rubble.
Europe does. Asia does.
Nobody here knows what it’s like to have to live under despotic and/or imperial rule.
Europe does. Asia does.
Nobody here knows what it’s like to have their women and children raped and enslaved.
Europe does. Asia does.
Since the civil war, we have been living in a fools paradise.
But this will surely change.
This is also an interesting take on it as well.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/guns-and-the-decline-of-the-young-man/?hp
I am not a gun expert,
but I have read the opinions of
plenty of people who claim to be.
Since someone in this thread made a recommendation
about what gun might be used for home defense,
I’ll mention that any gun that
shoots a large caliber round is going to
penetrate interior walls very easily.
This put people in danger in adjacent rooms.
If you MUST have a home defense weapon,
a 20 gauge shotgun loaded with birdshot,
or maybe something
just a bit larger than birdshot, is devastating,
and not as likely to kill anyone outside of the
room you are in.
(12 gauge is “overkill” for home defense
and 20 gauge is easier to handle)
Also, just racking the action on a shotgun
will send the average person running for
the nearest exit. Everyone knows that sound.
I apologize if this comment offends anyone,
but I just wanted to offer a warning.