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First I would like to send my prayers and thoughts to the families in Connecticut. I cannot fathom standing in your shoes.
Secondly, I would like to address the oodles, hundreds, thousands… of people that are ready to make guns illegal across our nation.
I’ve listened to the debates. I hear how you try to rationalize it. How you claim that getting rid of guns and making them illegal will somehow end tragedies like this forever.
I just want to put a few thoughts out there.
I am pretty sure it was illegal for him to shoot his mother.
It was illegal for him to steal her guns.
It was illegal for him to go on school property with a weapon.
It was illegal for him to shoot 26 people.
It was illegal for him to commit suicide.
How many mass shootings have happened by the original registered owner of the weapon?
Who is the always the target? Unarmed and innocent victims.
If we unarm the nation, the law abiders, the good, the just… that only leaves weapons in the hands of those that care nothing of the law. Seems a pretty fucking simple answer to me. But then, I am armed, and I will stay that way. Because I don’t trust anyone else to protect my family like I will.
I agree, remove guns from the American people’s way of life for ever, the people who then have them are looking for trouble so deserve to be shot.
I was in an American blog posting about this and their is mind set on the 2nd amendment and they go back to slavery etc.
The Pres; needs to says all guns but hand guns have to be handed in, if you don’t you go to jail for 3 years.
But…..but….but……..
Concur!!!
Concur
Why do people need assault weapons? Why should these efficient and effective death machines be as legal as rifles and handguns? I am appalled that assault weapons are flying off the shelves. What do “ordinary citizens” plan on doing with them? I just don’t understand the dogged need to protect the right to arm yourself with such weapons of mass destruction and have that right protected under a 200+ year old document written by people in a very different time who never could have anticipated this kind of weapon.
My thought on it is this. Let’s say the government goes in and pulls any sort of high powered rifle from the shelf, everywhere, nationally. And then they go into homes and they take every single registered rifle away from the public. What do they do with them? You know they don’t destroy them… they put them in warehouses somewhere. Now the only people left with these types of guns are the government, and people that don’t give a damn about the law. Looking across the nation at all of the success they’ve had with Obamacare, social security, the school systems, yadda yadda yadda… do you really trust them to take care of you against people that are still armed with these weapons? I do not. I read an article yesterday, it was a survey of prison inmates that had commited multiple offenses. They claimed that over 40% of the time they would bypass potential victims that they thought may be armed. They had over 25% of situations where their crime, in action was halted by victims that were armed.
In addition, we recently purchased an M4 for our household. Because if…. IF…. I ever had to protect myself from the government, from zombies…. whatever…. I don’t want to try to shoot someone coming at me that has an assault weapon, with a slingshot. Maybe M4 rounds coming back their direction will slow them down, and give my family the time they need to get away, to get safe… sure, it all sucks… but that’s the date and time we are in, there is no going back at this point.
Jeanna, I understand where you are coming from and trusting the government to not screw things up is folly.
But there has to be some kind of middle ground. Well, I guess there doesn’t have to be, I just wish there could be. There will be no end to gun violence by arming more people with assault weapons “just in case.” We live in a violent culture that WE created (by we, I mean people in general). That means we can change it. How? I’m not sure. But I am pretty sure that we can. We have the smarts, but we have to have the will to change. Do we? Or are too many of us too much in love with the violence?
“I don’t want to try to shoot someone coming at me that has an assault weapon, with a slingshot.”
Something wrong with a regular pistol that you probably own several of already?
“SEMI” automatic rifles are not just used for self defense. They are also used just for the love of shooting and for hunting wildlife. You may not agree with longer range guns but hunting with pistols is just not my thing. And contrary to some of these posts, I’d much rather be shot with a .223/5.56 round than a 45 any day. And yes if someone breaks in to my house they are gonna meet my Taurus 45 not my AR15/M4.
All guns are effective and efficient in what they do. Just because it’s a certain type of gun doesn’t make it any less deadly. I’m also very glad that the people 200+ years ago had enough sense to know that the American people would need to be able to protect themselves against the law breakers. Putting the word illegal on something is never going to stop the fact that people do it. I concur Jeanna in the fact that he not only broke one law…but several. It is horrible what has happened and the fact that no one will ever truely know why. People in this world have no value for themselves so why value someone else. It’s sad really but I do not think guns should be outlawed…it would do no good.
Gotta disagree with “Just because it’s a certain type of gun doesn’t make it any less deadly.” Assault rifles have larger clips, more stopping power, greater range and greater calibers. What potentially could have been a wound is now a lethal wound. What potentially could have been a reloading period to get away or tackle the assaulter is a continuous barrage of bullets instead. There is no profession apart from maybe a SWAT team / military that requires the use of automatic weapons.
“Just because it’s a certain type of gun doesn’t make it any less deadly”
But it definitely makes it more deadly. Assault rifles have larger clips, further range, greater caliber and more stopping power. What was potentially a wound in something like the theater shooting is now lethal.
I disagree with both of youmguys. Pistols and normal rifles all come with large capacity magazines and large calipers. You just don’t here about those because they don’t have the tag “assault”. Too many people trying to make decisions and judgements that don’t have enough knowledge of guns and ammunition. It’s not the guns that are the problem IT IS THE PEOPLE. And like Jeanna said making them illegal will make it just like Meth, only the cops and criminals with have them.
Lorna; I agree with most of your comments most of the time. But I could not disagree more this time. 200 year old document? Ordinary citizens. It is that document and those citizens (We the people) that built this nation. A club is just as deadly. The individual is responsible for their own actions… It is the law abiding citizen that is being disarmed. It is the chaos, that will be empowered. Without arms there is no defence. That document could forsee that we would need protection against our own government in the future as well, therefore wrote in the right, “THE RIGHT” to bear arms, and gather together as a people. Jeanna: I believe your right on in everything you said.
I’m sorry I can’t agree with your view here. I think there needs to be a ban on semi-automatic guns or machine guns of any kind. My thoughts are guns are dangerous enough – if a person is going to pull a trigger on another person it should be an intentional act where the person pulling the trigger needs to be aware each time they pull the trigger not just an action where they pull the trigger & a whole bunch of bullets come out of the gun, killing multiple people.
We need really re-think the issue of guns. Guns for hunting food will always be needed. If you need the gun to issue multiple bullets to hunt then I think you should go to the gun range & improve your skills. If people want to have a gun for self-protection, then they should have to go through a lot of checks to get it & it must be stored properly, so not just anyone can get access to it.
Yes, I know criminals will still have guns & those guns will not be legal & they’ll be able to get them without all the rigamarole of a legal gun. This is the only reason I am willing to make an exception to allow ordinary people to have guns.
We also have to take a look at how our governments treat people with mental issues & make sure there is more funding available for these people.
I’m from the UK where you cannot own any kind of gun except under the strictest guildines so its hard for me to understand the arguments in a culture very different from our own. I just feel so sad for the families who lost someone in Newton, and for all the empty chairs at Christmas. Whether the nutter would have been able to carry out this carnage under a different legal framework I don’t know, but my instinct is against mass arming of civilians for what it’s worth.
I am from Australia. I cannot fathom having to live with the necessity of the type of thinking that a family needs to arm itself against the armed killers who are “out there”.
In 1996 both Australia and Scotland had mass-shootings similar to the tragic event before Christmas in America. There was an outcry of grief and anger and in both countries gun laws were changed. Now sixteen years later gun deaths in Australia and the UK are one-tenth and one-fortieth per capita than they are in America.
Go figure.