What Is Making You Feel "grrr" Today ?

PeakXV, may I suggest you've got the bull by the horns.

The situation you cite in China confirms the long held view that when someone is intent on killing, little will stop them.

But, that is not the point regarding gun control.

Gun control is about limiting the opportunities available to people to use an efficient killing machine as a means to inflict hurt on an unsuspecting other.

While stopping violence is another matter altogether, at least when the gun is removed less people die.

The approach by authorities here in Australia is that the decision to use a gun to kill someone is a premeditated occurrence, and the killer has to take several steps over a period of time before enacting the crime. Given this, by licensing gun holders, and removing machine guns from the range of items available for use, random acts against the unsuspecting public are substantially lessened. To date, the approach has worked quite well.

It is my view that in the US, violent crimes involving guns and death have become normalised. Americans say to me "Oh, yes, but it is deranged people that commit these crimes". They are effectively saying the crime is OK because it was committed by a deranged person.

Take the guns away, and don't allow a license to a troubled person and I'm sure the death toll would be lowered.


Grrrr - PeakVX!


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Rich people do not die of those kind of random shooting. Only people who vote democratic, or potentially would vote democratic die. Poor kids die, either in random violence, or in the battlefield, fighting so that the super rich can get tax breaks

Precisely, old chap. Especially when fueled by that deranging hate-driven music cum neo nazi/white supremacism as was the case in this latest event. Ban that crap first, please & now!

Criminals/gangs that do not nor will ever register their guns commit the overwhelming amount of violent crimes involving guns in America. This new & trendy spree of shootings by those that have acquired their weapons of choice through legal means is a concern for sure. They seem to be an almost monkey see – monkey do effect happening, perpetuated by the vast media coverage & residual publicity given to them.

Ahhh, a troubled person!? But the question is what is a troubled person & how does one discern? A punk rocker with a hate for society &/or certain races that exist within? Nope, sorry – nothing wrong with them.

I foresee that in 100 years that they will have hand held MRI/PET scanners that will be able to detect/predict mental illnesses before the patient shows any adverse symptoms – and available much like BP monitors are today. But until then, it’s impossible to restrict all weapons & methods for mass murder from all potential evil doers.

I believe the lastest shooter only had one former minor conviction & in the State of Wisconsin must go through a system of security checks in order to receive the firearm he used in the attack. Agreed that these screenings could be & probably will be tightened in the future – but they are not nearly as loose as has been alleged by many of the uninitiated 'armchair' critics.

Incidentally, I had an antique Derringer pistol that I wanted to sell about 10 years ago. I listed in on the Internet and as you can imagine many American collectors where interested. However, there are strict import laws with regards to handguns into the USA. Although this weapon was an antique & obsolete, I could never get the proper clearances through the ATF. Impossible!

Here is the hangun acquisition precedure for a handgun in the State of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Legislative Documents


http://wilawlibrary.gov/topics/firearms.php

this is one of the most intelligent articles I've read about gun control. it's not just about guns, people.....

PeakXV

The article Sama quotes as "one of the most intelligent articles I've read about gun control" portrays the opposite view to you.

You say there is adequate gun control, and that while 30,000 people die annually from gun violence, somehow it is because they are ideologically different.

Ho hum!

Sentences from the article Sama cites are:

But… we know what happens next. The gun lobby will go into hyper-drive, and, with the help of those in Washington, successfully convince us to look the other way when it comes to our own best interests.

We know what happens next: more tragedies like the one today. They’re inevitable with relatively unfettered access to deadly weapons

Will we be able to stop terrible attacks like these all together? No. Could we stop the frequency of them with greater attention and resources given to mental health care? I should think so. Could we keep casualties from being so high if we decided to meaningfully regulate guns and ammunition? There’s no question.

Until we decide to do those things, though, days like today—with headlines about no less than three separate, terrible shooting rampages—will become commonplace. They will become part of our lives; the costs of our deadly habit and ignored social responsibility.


We have to decide to care enough about one another to create a safer world for all of us

- - -

Honestly, PeakXV (and I am not being nasty, rather merely stating how I see it) for me you are part of the problem - you accept status quo.

Cheers

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ps. Why am I so against gun use as displayed in the US? Because the US is a role model for many other nations. So, rather than give up (as the gun lobby has incited a majority of citizens to do), the citizens ought show the world that this terrible wrong needs righting!




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I think it's come up before, but have you in fact ever read Huxley's Brave New World? You should, it's famous for a reason. (May I then always suggest reading Orwell's 1984 as a good companion, or the other way around.)

(An interesting write-up dating to 1992 on the dystopian aspects of modern futuristic notions about self-regulating crowd-controlling architecture and stuff is this piece by Mike Davis, "Beyond Blade Runner. Urban Control: The Ecology of Fear." Before anyone gets a heart attack btw, yes, it appears he identifies himself as a Marxist. Certainly neither Huxley nor Orwell did.)

An attempt to rob a UK store by a guy with a knife was foiled by the shop manager hurling cases of canned beer at him. He took to his heels and ran. The CCTV video is on BoingBoing.

Sadly, BoingBoing seem to have removed the original, and brilliantly put, first comment on the post, which was something to the effect of, "American version: Four die and six critically injured in shop robbery shootout." To me, it just said it all on this subject.

Of course, if Americans had not spent the past few hundred years shooting each other, we would be missing some wonderful songs --- so let's look on the bright side: the right to bear arms has some advantages.

Went down to the jewellery store, packing a gun,
Said, wrap it up, I think I'll take this one.
A thousand dollars please, the jewellery man said,
Dupree, he say, I'll pay this one off to you in lead...

Thanks, America!

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Indeed. Where would we be without Roosevelt Sykes' most excellent "Trouble and Whiskey Blues"

If the blues were whiskey and trouble was a bottle of gin
If the blues were whiskey and trouble was a bottle of gin
I would buy me a 38 special
And that's when trouble would begin

I expect the NRA would propose Prohibition as the solution.

I never said that at all. It certainly needs some 'tweaking' but it is by no means needs sweeping reforms. Nor is it currently as easy to access a firearm as the ignorant armchair lefties who shoot their mouth off on website forums often imply. How to 'tweak' under the various interpretations of the 2nd amendment & lobbying power of the NRA - is a topical discussion for another day.

Certainly, the non permitted CCW laws as they exist in AK, AZ and VT could be altered. I would also tighten the laws regarding trigger locks, safe storage requirements & the acquisition requirement for certain auto, semi-auto weapons and their associated clip sizes used.

Simultaneously, I would pump millions of dollars into mental health studies - particularly for monitoring/support for army vets & frazzled students - who seem to be behind the majority of this recent trend in mass shootings. The prescription drug mafia has to be controlled better as well - the pills these days are stronger, more potent, more addictive & arriving to the end-user with less & less clinical testing & research.


No, you're not nasty at all - you are however ignorant of the details and it's not the first time on this forum where you've made odd, sweeping generalizations about the North American culture/mindset that are simply, ridiculously untrue.

Yes & India is a supposedly a model society for kindness and non-violence towards all living things. Yet they are also a major exporter of 'honor killings' ( not to mention gender selective abortions) which seems to rear their ugliness more & more in Canada in recent times.

How many unassuming, innocent, unknowing, helpless females do these vindictive, heinous acts kill around the world each year? Do they keep stats on that little nugget? Do they want to? Does it matter by what means they rid themselves of their 'family embarrassment'?

Too bad some of those passed away females weren't carrying a handgun when their scumbag, yellow-bellied, back-stabbing, coward assailant showed up to do them in. In this case, I believe the proper person might have been the one that went to meet their maker?

Liked your post for that. Mental health is a sadly low priority in many countries. The plight of soldiers, expected to slot back into "normal" society after have been trained in and experiencing extremes of violence and fear is a special case.
No, it is not. At least, not outside the spirituality forums of Indiamike. Not in reality.

I was told when I arrived in India that I come from a brutal society because ... we play ice hockey. I thought, geezus, these people must be extremely, passively, squeaky clean & kind - if they are putting me on my heels with that opening gambit.

Of course we all know that the best defense is a good offense, now don't we?

HA! oh yeah, that pesky little 2nd Amendment put into the Constitution just in case the Brits came back!
would have been kinda hard to keep them out by throwing tea at them... -- threw it in Boston Harbor but they didn't get the hint!

personally my favorite is Pistol Packin' Mama...

but needless to say, I doubt ANY of these issues discussed here will ever be solved in my lifetime.

Lay that pistol down, Babe.
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin mama
Lay that pistol down.

Oh, drinkin beer in a cabaret
Was I havin fun!
Until one night she caught me right
And now I'm on the run.

Oh, lay that pistol down, Babe.
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin mama
Lay that pistol down.....

Oh, she kicked out my windshield
And she hit me over the head.
She cussed and cried and said I lied
And she wished that I was dead.

Oh, lay that pistol down, Babe.
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin mama
Lay that pistol down.

We're 3 tough gals
From deep down Texas way.
We got no pals
They don't like the way we play.
We're a rough rootin tootin shootin trio
But you ought to see my sister Cleo
She's a terror make no error
But there ain't no nicer terror
Here's what we tell her:

Lay that pistol down, Babe.
Lay that pistol down.
Pistol packin mama
Lay that pistol down....

The majority of homeless on the streets in America are former soldiers. and it is estimated that a former solider a day here commits suicide and that estimate is damn low. one of the reasons why I do the work that I do with trauma survivors and those with PTSD.

That is just dreadful. Somehow, one can't press "like" on a post with statistics like that --- but thanks!

Isn't this romance in song and drama all a part of the problem, by the way? Little boys watch Westerns and play with guns, but in some other countries it's harder to be a big boy playing with guns.

<THINKS>

Maybe its time for a new Grrr in the thread!

I read the other day (can't remember where) that more returning soldiers have died via suicide than the combined casualties of Iraq and Afganistan.

when I was doing my trauma sensitive yoga training there was woman in the training who said she was taking it for all the soldiers like her husband. he came back from Iraq, shell-shocked as they used to call it, and always slept at the ready, gun next to the bed. then one day he packed his backpack like he was going on mission and left. she did not know when he left or where he went, but she wanted to be ready with the training we were taking for when he came back she said. but we all knew it was IF he came back.