Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by LShieldes on December 18, 2012 at 8:07am

You remind me of a militant ex-smoker

Permalink Reply by Will on December 18, 2012 at 7:10am

You know, I think that's a valid point.  In order to stop this shooter, it wouldn't be enough to deny him a gun (he didn't own one) or a CCW permit (he didn't have one).  You'd need to lock him up.  Our public schools do insane things on a regular basis now:  charging 3-year-old with sexual harassment, punishing that girl for wearing a Romney shirt, expelling a boy for talking a suicidal friend into handing over the razor blade she was going to kill herself with (which meant he was briefly in possession of a razor blade).

 On the other end, my aunt, who's a teacher, tells me how her school system wouldn't intervene when one of her students talked about his wish to poke out the eyes of the other children with a student, and physically attacked her.

If we set up a school program to identify killers, it will end up punishing children for drawing pictures of guns, or photos of the brother in Afghanistan with his gun, and leave those who are seriously disturbed free to kill.  How do we know this?  Because that's the way it is right now.

I sympathize with the wish to have such a program; I just don't see how to make it work.

Permalink Reply by LShieldes on December 18, 2012 at 8:12am

I think this is what frustrates me the most. This argument comes across just like the argument to ban all firearms, or at least "assault weapons". It is throwing your hands up in the air, convinced one method won't work and that there can only be another.

On one side we have people saying it is just too many guns, lets ban them all. Completely ignoring the fact that it isn't the gun, it is the psycho. The other side says we don't trust doing anything to stop the psycho earlier because it might slippery slope to hurt us, so lets arm more people and hopefully just kill the bastard.

For me, they both are pretty much wanting to do as little as possible. They both feel extremely reactionary rather than proactive. Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't come up with squat for solutions really, but to be honest I haven't been trying either.

Permalink Reply by Titus Techera on December 18, 2012 at 8:16am

I sympathize with the worries of conservatives on the matter of guns & children. But it does not seem to me impossible for any state that tries to implement some kind of system to protect schools, say, from madmen to assuage their worries; I constantly read stories about some crazy professor or principal or school somewhere. But in any given place, this is not impossible to solve. But it would require that the politicians bring the people along with some kind of evidence that they are not trying to foist another expensive bureaucracy on them. Make the effort, & likely people that voted you or your party in power will go along with an attempt to provide more safety for their kids...

Permalink Reply by LShieldes on December 18, 2012 at 8:26am

Very true, and I completely agree.

 

Unfortunately, I don't see a politician on either side that is up to such a task.

Permalink Reply by Titus Techera on December 18, 2012 at 8:31am

I don't know that much about the many states. But at least nothing to attract national attention. I think part of the problem is that gun control is mostly a media thing--it tends to be wealthy, often influential liberals who cry for gun control.

(& sometimes it's bizzarely humorous stuff like this one dude, an actor, Jamie Foxx, blaming Hollywood violence for real-world violence even as he makes a career out of it--laughing all the way to the bank.)

On the other hand, on the ground, Americans like their guns, they put up with various laws or even support them, but they want to keep their guns. The liberals no longer have the Supreme Court to go to when it comes to gun control; but the conservatives do not seem to have made it an issue of law enforcement to run on--involve people in their security, show them you fight crime, get re-elected. Maybe it's not a big issue anywhere!

This is one of the problems of democracy--nothing can resist the public will, but sometimes public opinion just does not care, & then it's very hard to change that; outpourings of 'tragedy' certainly affect public sentiment, but it does not translate into laws or, more importantly, political changes.

Permalink Reply by JonEdanger on December 18, 2012 at 8:33am

Give BHO time. He's going to get to appoint 2 more to SCOTUS.

Permalink Reply by Titus Techera on December 18, 2012 at 8:38am

Unless Justices Scalia or Kennedy gives up the ghost (Reagan appointees), we're not going to be worse off than we were. Perhaps Justice Ginsburg will retire, or Breyer--they're Clinton appointees, though. One of Bush Jr.'s accomplishments, inadequately sung in praise, is naming Justices Alito & Roberts. They are not ideal, but compared to the liberals on the Court, they're young, very competent, & no less professional.

Permalink Reply by Will on December 18, 2012 at 8:45am

You posted that, Shields, as if it were a reply to my post, but it doesn't seem to relate.  Maybe you just scanned the post and filled in the gaps as best you could.  Anyway, the post addresses much of what you just said, or at least shows that it's not the same thing.  Gotta go.

Permalink Reply by LShieldes on December 18, 2012 at 9:18am

I know what you wrote, and I wrote what I did for a reason.

If we set up a school program to identify killers, it will end up punishing children for drawing pictures of guns, or photos of the brother in Afghanistan with his gun, and leave those who are seriously disturbed free to kill.  How do we know this?  Because that's the way it is right now.

Permalink Reply by Will on December 18, 2012 at 9:39am

Yes, I see that:  much of your reply related to slippery slope, and this excerpt shows that's not what's going on here.  Doesn't seem to relate to the other issues you raised.

But then you've often said you didn't follow what I was saying.

Permalink Reply by LShieldes on December 18, 2012 at 10:07am

No, i don't follow what Titus babbles about half the time, I can follow you just fine. They are your excuses to not try something, so you don't see them as excuses on a slippery slope style scale.

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