Ok, let's acknowledge sociopaths, mentally unstable and angry people have been with us since the beginning of time.  I suppose some neanderthal went nuts and went into a cave with a handful of rocks and began throwing them at a family or a group of people gathered around a fire.

Today we have have sociopaths, mentally unstable and angry people among us.  Nothing has changed.  The difference is the extent of damage a person could do based upon the weaponry available to him.  Knowing that, there is absolutely no reason military-style weaponry should be made available to the citizenry of any population.

I know, I know, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people", but let me add that " using military-style weaponry makes killing lots of people easier."

But, hey, let's listen to some public official say they are sending thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims.  That'll help.



 

Last edited by Just Fred (6/13/2016 7:03 am)

It all starts with HATE !  

Singling out Muslims ignores the fact that hate is brewed by many different religions. Just look at the initial response to this tragedy by Lt Gov Dan Patrick of Texas. Statements like these just help justify hate crimes to those who want to marginalize people. We want to think it is only the "other guy" who breeds hate, but it is not. Some religious groups are more coy about their hatred and some like Westboro are "in your face" about it. Hate is insidious and it is not just spawned in religion as it many times is infused in a family because of hatred of another because of his skin whether it be black, tan or any color other than white. Hate is the underlying problem of all of this. 

Tarnation wrote:

The Man wrote:

tennyson wrote:

 
IMHO there is no "maybe" about it. 


 

 
Agreed.

The moon is at first quarter.

So far, the Moslem "holy month" of Ramadan has been celebrated by burning a couple dozen Yazidi girls alive in a cage in Pakistan because the refused sex with their Moslem captors; the mass shooting in Tel Aviv; and, of course, the Orlando massacre.

Most Christians are familiar with the fasting season of Lent and many practice fasting to some degree during those days.   But those days are also intended as a charitable and giving time, a time for giving a hand up to one's neighbor, a time for concentrating on correcting one's own sins rather than pointing out and condemning the sins of others.

That's quite a contrast.

The moon is at first quarter.

Three weeks to go.

Lord have mercy.
 

 
The aberration of the true meaning of Ramadan by a small group of idiots should not be reason to condemn an entire religious group. I suggest you read or talk to a Muslim friend to learn about Ramadan instead of reaching conclusions based on unrelated insinuations.

I tend to agree with this assessment:


As mass shootings plague US, survivors mourn lack of change


DENVER (AP) — The deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history has people around the world wondering why mass violence keeps happening in America.

For those who have lived through mass shootings, and for the law enforcement officers trying to prevent them, the answer is self-evident.

"Because we allow it," said Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was among 12 killed at Colorado movie theater in 2012.

The nation began the week mourning the 49 people killed early Sunday when a gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Authorities are investigating whether the assault was an act of terrorism, a hate crime, or both. Politicians lamented the violence as tragically familiar despite its staggering scale.

The causes of mass shootings are as disparate as the cases themselves, but those involved in other tragedies couldn't help but feel the similarities.

President Barack Obama called the latest massacre "a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub.

"And we have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be."

The Orlando massacre sparks echoes of last year's attack on a social services center in San Bernardino, California.

For Ryan Reyes, whose boyfriend was killed in San Bernardino, the shootings have less to do with gun control and more to do with highly charged political rhetoric and how people treat each other.

"The issue is American society," he said. "We are to blame, and the fact that we refuse to accept the fact that we are to blame just makes it worse. It's what we do to each other that causes these people to get to the point where they feel this is the only option."

Phillips said even the most horrifying massacres have provoked little change.

The best chance might have come after a gunman in Newtown, Connecticut, killed 20 first-graders and six adults at a school in Sandy Hook, just months after the theater shooting. Obama dedicated much of the start of his second term to pushing legislation to expand background checks, ban certain assault-style weapons and cap the size of ammunition clips.

That measure collapsed in the Senate, and since then, the political makeup of Congress has made new gun laws appear out of reach.

When politicians do succeed at pushing for tighter gun measures, they risk their careers. In Colorado, fresh off the theater shooting and still healing from the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in which two students killed 13 people and themselves, Democrats in the state Legislature in 2013 muscled through new laws requiring universal background checks and banning magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

Gun control advocates considered it a victory, until furious gun rights supporters forced from office two state senators who supported the measures.

"We could have done something about this in the years since Columbine, since Sandy Hook," said Marcus Weaver, who was wounded in the theater shooting and whose friend was killed. "When is enough enough?"

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, disagreed that stricter gun laws are the solution.

"I think there's other root causes in play," he said. "I think mental health is a huge issue. One of the motivators is really that ISIS continues to exist, Islamic terror in other forms continues to exist."

Many mass shooters have been found to have severe psychological problems, including the Colorado theater shooter and the man who tried to assassinate Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011.

Jeremy Richman and his wife Jennifer Hensel whose 6-year-old daughter, Avielle, was killed at Sandy Hook, have created a foundation to help understand the underpinnings of violence and its ties to brain health.

"We need to recognize who needs the help and why they aren't getting it," he said, adding that everyone needs to play a role in sparking change.

Last edited by Rongone (6/14/2016 3:15 pm)

And, without fail, there are the 'If only everyone else had a gun' or the 'If I had been there' crowds.

It never fails to amaze me how neatly the problem of someone shooting up a public venue can be solved hours, days, weeks, or months after the fact.

If everyone had been armed they could have just gunned down the shooter.  Which shooter, exactly?  If people other than the shooter are holding guns, how do you decide which one to shoot?  Will the shooter be wearing his 'I'm here to kill everyone' tee-shirt?

If "I" had been there.  You would have what?  Shot the killer and basked in the afterglow of love and praise from the public?  Automatically recognized that barely audible popping noise is actually gunfire, zeroed in on the villain, and saved the day?  Leapt in to action when everyone around you began falling down clutching their bullet wounds and saying something dramatic like 'avenge me'? 

Do people just assume that the reason other people got killed instead of saving the day is because they either didn't have a gun or didn't know what to do if they did?

I agree with you Lager.  Guns are never going to go away.  They are too deeply rooted into our culture and our history. 

That doesn't mean we can treat deadly weapons like they're a cell phone or a set of car keys.