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Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Another view?
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History has shown that great nations decline from within. To avoid this pattern, our great nation must enact gun control now.
The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in our nation’s history and the Defense Department reports that in it we have lost more than 2,000 brave Americans.
Meanwhile, within our own borders, the Justice Department reports that 66.9 percent of all homicides occur with firearms and in 2010 alone we lost 31,076 Americans to gun-related violence.
What is wrong with this picture?
The recent massacre of 26 innocent children and teachers in Newtown, Conn., shows that nobody in our nation is safe any longer from gun violence. We now have to fear going to work, shopping or the theater, or even sending our children to school because some deranged person may show up with assault weapons and start killing innocent people.
This madness must be stopped by enacting tough gun regulation now. Doing nothing is no longer an option!
This year the feast of the Holy Innocents is December 28. This is a religious day celebrated to commemorate and remember the 2 dozen infants killed on the order of King Herod, who feared that the newborn Jesus, King of the Jews, would unseat him from the throne. For good reason, this is an excellent day to use to continue to mourn and grieve over the fallen angels of Newtown Connecticut.
CarmineD
To Peter, the "sky is falling." Nonsense. Most of the gun deaths are criminals killing criminals. Actually, they are doing us all a good turn. Others, like the Rainbow BLVD incident, are the "good" guys defeating the "bad" guys. Again, a good turn for all of us. The outrageous incidents such as Newtown are rare, thankfully, and should not be a "crisis" used to chip away at our Constitutional rights. There are plenty of gun laws on the books as it stands to thwart those who should not be able to possess a firearm. We need no more in my opinion.
The cowardly ambush of four firefighters in western New York, including two who died from their gunshot wounds, was carried out by a convicted felon who was (supposedly) barred from owning or possessing firearms.
So how did the felon acquire his firearm used in this senseless slaughter? Authorities believe he purchased the murder weapon using the gun show loophole that circumvents required background checks and makes it possible for a criminal to get his hands on these deadly weapons.
We have the gun show loophole because of lowlife lawmakers who cower in fear of the gun makers and their powerful NRA lobbyist.
Peter,
As usual, Americans cannot find the middle. Some, like many in the the NRA want more guns and less restrictions. Others want take away as many guns as possible. The wise position, as it often is, in somewhere in the middle. Close the gun show loophole, and ban guns that are not necessary for personal protection and hunting; admit that guns did not cause Newtown, change our laws regarding mental health and take a good honest look the the society we have created and live in.
Michael
12-24-2012 Mass murderer William Spengler killed 2 people with his "hands" and 2 with a single shot rifle and burned down 7 houses.
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11-10-2012 mass murderers Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, and Bob Leonard killed next-door neighbors, John Dion Longworth, and second-grade teacher Jennifer Longworth by a gas explosion that destroyed theirs and 32 other homes and put 12 others in hospital.
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Professor Stephen P. Segal's recent study of murder rates and mental-treatment policy, "Civil Commitment Law, Mental Health Services, and U.S. Homicide Rates," examined state-by-state murder rates and mental-health services and found that "less access to psychiatric inpatient-beds and more poorly rated mental health systems were associated with increases in the homicide rates of 1.08 and 0.26 per 100,000, respectively."
There was an even greater difference in the homicide rate between states with different involuntary civil commitment (ICC) laws. "Broader ICC criteria were associated with 1.42 less homicides per 100,000." In short, states where involuntary commitment was easy had roughly a third less murders than states where it was very hard to civilly commit a mentally ill person.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/335...
Why is it that Liberals never ever want to hold the deranged killer responsibility. Why is it Liberals refuse to address mental illness. Why is it Liberals refuse to address the cultural environment of violence.
"This madness must be stopped by enacting tough gun regulation now."
Blanner -- your letter is just more herdspeak. Your "tough gun regulation now" would have no more effect than any other placebo. You seem to be ignorant of the basic truth it's the person aiming and pulling the trigger to be blamed, not the dumb weapon. You also left out Connecticut has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, yet that didn't stop that shooter. Check that out @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...
"This is a religious day celebrated to commemorate and remember the 2 dozen infants killed on the order of King Herod, who feared that the newborn Jesus, King of the Jews, would unseat him from the throne."
CarmineD -- only 2 dozen? Good suggestion though, to mourn this world's slaughtered innocents. I'd take it a step further and include all those executed in this continent's conquest by Europeans. That would include all those killed or mutilated by the U.S. Calvary, led by a Methodist minister, at Sand Creek and all like actions against our First Nations while "winning the West."
"There are plenty of gun laws on the books as it stands to thwart those who should not be able to possess a firearm. We need no more in my opinion."
lvfacts -- another excellent post on this issue!
"As usual, Americans cannot find the middle."
wtplv -- I disagree, there is no "middle" on this. Safety for each of us and ours is a protected personal freedom and a personal duty. So long as it's for actual self-defense there can be no lawful restrictions.
"So how did the felon acquire his firearm used in this senseless slaughter? Authorities believe he purchased the murder weapon using the gun show loophole..."
LastThroes -- what you just highlighted is 1) the ineffectiveness of the current laws, and 2) a proposal for new draconian restrictions on all the rest of us law-abiding types based on police supposition. Sound about right?
"We must choose between freedom and fear -- we cannot have both. If the citizens of the United States persist in being afraid, the real rulers of this country will be fanatics fired with a zeal to save grown men from objectionable ideas by putting them under the care of official nursemaids." -- Scales v. U.S., 367 U.S. 203, 270 (1961), Justice Douglas dissenting
Mr. Fink is actually right about this one. Many of those killed in the United States are in fact criminals killing criminals. This occurs mostly in the inner-city amongst the poor. If there were 80+ people a day dying in more affluent parts of the country we would've had strict gun Control laws many years ago.
Some of the bustling frontier towns had very strict gun laws. These laws brought homicides in these towns close to zero. Maybe one or two a year on the outskirts of town.
It's amazing how common sense prevailed in the 1800s but you can't get people to agree on anything today.
Future: You forgot 4-19-1995, Oklahoma City, where Timothy McVeigh killed 19 children under the age of 6 and 149 other people. He also injured more than 680 people. No firearm necessary - he used only commercially available materials costing about $5,000 - including cost of renting a truck to carry his materials and a cheap get-away car.
Yeah.....the lack of weapon control brought down the Roman, Greek, Ottoman, Holy Roman, Persia and British empires.
LOL..........
Hilarious.......
I think moral decay, government corruption and ton of debt doomed most of those empires.
I do agree with the author we, as a nation, need to react. But not with regard to gun control.
We need to react to the government:
Not securing our borders
Creating a sub-class dependent welfare state
Federal reserve devaluing the currency
Increasing the national debt by $1 tril./yr.
Engaging in unnecessary wars and conflicts
Stop spending billions in foreign aid
Gun control? get the guns out of criminal hands
Take government away from control of PAC's
Improve public education
Yes there is much to do to keep our country from failing, but the left wing agenda of gun control is far down on the list of critical priorities.
To Sgt:
You are 100% correct.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned isn't just a clever colloquialism.
Potent fire power in the hands of citizens is more likely the thing that can save this country.
The liberal thinking left wing author and his ilk are the real dangers.
I wonder what Mr. Pall's definition of "tough gun regulation" is? I mean some people think having to show I.D. when you by a firearm or not being able to freely purchase an R.P.G. as tough regulation.
Peter.....Very good letter, 100% right-on.
YES, we need better gun control.
WE ALSO NEED A FULL AND COMPLETE BAN ON ASSAULT
RIFLES!
NOBODY NEEDS AN ASSAULT RIFLE, PERIOD!
Those kids and teachers would be alive today if
the assault rifle ban was still in place.
ASSAULT RIFLES ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
Mass murders are done by crazy people with assault
rifles.
We can't ban crazy people but WE CAN BAN ASSAULT
RIFLES!
Let's do it.
AND YES, the crazy man who killed the firemen in
New York had the exact type ASSAULT RIFLE that the
crazy killer used to kill kids and teachers.
Republican gun nuts, who think we should not ban
assault rifles, need to pull their heads out of
their flabby rear-ends and wake up.
If they can.
Deranged because of war? Some. We teach our young that killing and violence are good. Afghanistan is stretching on to unjustifiable time lengths and we keep sending our young soldiers to fight, kill and be maimed. For what? Get it done already. Our society glorifies military life. We keep hundreds of thousands of troops throughout the planet but they are NOT NEEDED. We kill our economy. Soldiers get warped perspectives when they see this country with the means to support everybody else but when they get home, they can't find a job. Imagine the confusion. While as a Veteran, I do not endorse the expectation that the government will take care of you just because you served. But to neglect our economies so people cannot find work, to endlessly tax those who have the stamina to keep it going, to show our young this confusing attitude....