Gun Control

[MyopicJoe]

Re: Gun Control

- A majority (more than 50%) of NRA funding comes from small arms manufacturers in the US.

Not too surprised about that. Selling guns is a lucrative business. Unfortunately, as in many other industries, preying on people's fears makes more money. Instead of advocating a more pragmatic attitude towards guns, they market all sorts of gadgets and accessories which get in the way or give a false sense of security.

[Kaonohi]

Re: Gun Control

2009 Fatal Car Crashes: 33,808
http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...es/12s1105.pdf

Naturally, many of those were innocent passengers, many were children. It's likely more innocent children die in car crashes than by firearms. All we need is only mass transit, and ban individual cars, but the AAA car-nuts fight against this strategy.

[Kaonohi]

Re: Gun Control

Gun "shows" are exempt from registration.

This is not true here in Hawai`i.

What universe do you live in? You can just make up facts as you want them?

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: Gun Control

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/piers-morga...024000707.html

We can't lose Piers Morgan.

[matapule]

Re: Gun Control

Twenty six additional children have been killed through gun violence in the US since we lost 20 children at Sandy Hook.

Strict gun control now!

[Kaonohi]

Re: Gun Control is not the only answer.

I saw a picture of the Sandy Hook school killer on a recent tabloid cover, check it out if your in a 'drug' convenience store like Longs or Walgreen's.

The kid looked like the arch-typical geek. NOT the face of a tough guy, or the face of a killer, but the face of someone who is likely to be bullied every day of his school life from 1st grade up.

Bully people long enough and they start to have fantasies of revenge; they seek a way to strike back at those who hurt them. Naturally, television, even comics teaches them how to hurt back - shoot the wrong-doer!

I am reminded of when my child was being bullied at St. Marks in Kaneohe, and the bullying was ignored because the mother of the bullies was the playground monitor:

We got a call from the school principal; she wanted to meet with us. We arrived and she showed us a picture my son had drawn of himself with a stick-pistol shooting the two bullies, labeled by name as Sy and Tyler. She said the school had a "no guns" policy, and we had to do something about it or our child would be expelled.

We didn't know at the time our child was being bullied, as he was intimidated. When we found out, we pulled him out of there and put him in a school with a strict no-bullying policy. His schoolwork and attitude improved immensely.

Limiting access to firearms is only a part of the answer, because people will always be able to find guns, no matter what bans you have. We need to address the social issues as well.

We can hardly monitor how parents raise their children, but we can lobby for 'cleaner' children's TV shows, and banning cartoons with guns. We can also insist our schools, public and private, have effective restraints on bullying.

I am convinced the Sandy Hook killer did what he did because he was incessantly picked on. He may have killed his mother because she tried to stop him.

Social reform, NOW!

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: Gun Control

You'll have to pry Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam from my cold dead hands!

[salmoned]

Re: Gun Control

Kaonohi saw a picture and made up a story about it. Too bad he didn't bother to read what other, more informed, people had to say about the boy's history, his story may have been closer to the facts (no bullying intended). Fitting this occurrence into an anti-bullying narrative is not reasonable. You could have more reasonably fit it into an anti-homeschooling narrative, but that wouldn't have suited your agenda, I suppose.

[GregLee]

Re: Gun Control

Speaking of narratives (and guns), I just saw on TV an account of a bank robbery in Manchester, NH, of a branch of Citizens Bank (located on Elm Street). The perpetrator, a James Coldwell, was a veteran who had been in the Special Forces. In the report, they showed security camera recordings of the perp entering the bank disguised as a tree. He waited in line at a teller window, but the people before and after him in line showed no particular reaction to the apparent tree among them.

He got the bank teller to put some money into a bag for him, and absconded. But the teller had managed to drop an exploding dye pack into his money bag, and shortly after Coldwell had exited the bank, the teller triggered the dye by remote control, startling Coldwell, who then dropped the money and fled.

The police managed to identify Coldwell from the camera recordings and apprehended him without incident. The police detective interviewed for the report I saw said he felt the disguise had been effective, so far as the other people in the bank were concerned, because they were too preoccupied looking at the leaves to notice much about the robber's face. And, in the detective's opinion, if Coldwell had just used some additional leaves out to his left and right sides, those would have blocked the view of the security cams and "we never would have caught him".

[Kaonohi]

Re: Gun Control

Kaonohi saw a picture and made up a story about it. Too bad he didn't bother to read what other, more informed, people had to say about the boy's history, his story may have been closer to the facts (no bullying intended). Fitting this occurrence into an anti-bullying narrative is not reasonable. You could have more reasonably fit it into an anti-homeschooling narrative, but that wouldn't have suited your agenda, I suppose.

You are right. I often jump to conclusions and fail to do research. I guess I was acting on my own emotional pain.

But doing the research tells me he was NOT home-schooled, at least not always, he graduated high school, where the other kids called him "a genius" and "weird." He was reported by his classmates as "socially awkward," trying but failing to interact with others, begging friendship, but he avoided other students in the halls. He was definitely an outcast, and although it's not reported, he probably was bullied and ridiculed.

He was 20, a few years out of school, but reports say that he had recently been involved in some altercation with 4 school employees, 3 of whom he killed and one who was wounded. There's many unanswered questions yet.

Still I think that gun control is not enough. It was said he spent most of his days playing violent, gun-using video games. I still think changes in our society's socialization need to accompany any gun control schemes.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Gun Control

... he graduated high school, where the other kids called him "a genius" and "weird." He was reported by his classmates as "socially awkward," --- He was definitely an outcast, and although it's not reported, he probably was bullied and ridiculed.

All of those statements could have been made about me during my high-school years, and could probably apply (to varying degrees) to almost anyone who went to high school.

I was smarter than average during my school days, according to the standardized testing methods - BFD. I was (and still am) definitely "weird" (ask my closest friends or my family, where "not being normal" is a source of pride). Socially awkward? Hell, yes. A bit of an outcast - largely by choice (or so I tell myself; it may have just been a survival strategy). Very much bullied and ridiculed, since I was scrawny, non-athletic, geeky, artistic, I could go on.

Yet I don't want to go shoot anybody - never did, no matter how angry I got. What's the difference? I defy anyone to find a simple explanation.

[matapule]

Re: Gun Control

Yet I don't want to go shoot anybody - never did, no matter how angry I got. What's the difference? I defy anyone to find a simple explanation.

Question: Were there guns in the home as you grew up?

[lensperson]

Re: Gun Control

A sickening number of infant deaths were recorded in Washington state

that involved toddlers picking up firearms and not knowing what they held
killed their sibling.

Unfortunately, one of the officers involved , forgot to stash the weapon so

the kids didn't start blasting away.

I guess the rights of a few hunters to blast away at un-armed wildlife is worth more than the safety of our children.

This is a preposterous situation.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: Gun Control

I guess the rights of a few hunters to blast away at un-armed wildlife is worth more than the safety of our children.

This is a preposterous situation.

You're right. The parents of those children should have properly secured their firearms.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: Gun Control

Looks like there were consequences to that NY newspaper publishing a map of permit holders.

Too bad no one along the way (journalist, editor, county clerks, etc.) didn't say, "Hey, even though we can do this, should we do this? Let's slow things down and talk to some people."