Email
PrintObnoxious but not lethal gas
Editor, Index-Tribune:
NRA and gun industry spokesman Wayne LaPierre is just passing gas, obnoxious but not lethal, when he pronounces that the answer to mass murders by guns is armed guards in every school in America. LaPierre knows full well this is a b---s--- answer, but people who lie for a living don’t care about such things. Let’s take a minute and look at that idiot suggestion.
Mass murders by armed to the teeth people have taken place in schools, to be sure, but they’ve also taken place in shopping malls, movie theaters, college campuses and trains. By LaPierre’s moron logic, are we to have armed guards at all our malls and theaters? As said, LaPierre knows he’s speaking crap, because that’s his job. He’s blowing smoke and it’s a distraction from the serious matter at hand.
Like most Americans, most civilized humans, I was heartbroken by the senseless slaughter of innocents at a Connecticut elementary shool. But now I’m getting mad. I know it’s not possible to end all senseless, murderous acts of unspeakable brutality and callousness, but we must try to limit them. All the reasonable steps to do so have been enumerated: stronger gun laws, a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons and magazine clips that hold more than 7 bullets, better background checks and more mental health services, all as suggested by Michael Moore and others are necessary immediate actions.
We cannot end risk and suffering and blind chance in life, these are among life’s components, but we can use our intelligence and our own instincts to preserve life. And we have to acknowledge that ours is a uniquely violent country with a tremendously high score in gun killings. We have to recognize that we live in a culture of violence and that we are responsible for it at some level, even if it’s only our acquiescence to it. Until we change how we resort to and relate to violence and its many faces, we will remain victimized by it.
Will Shonbrun
Boyes Springs
Please note: Your full name will be published with your comment.
It seems that the Fort Hood shooting is an indication that our soldiers are at risk from the same bad policies and law as the general population.
In that shooting like all others, an armed man had full lethal authority in an area where everyone else was unarmed.
There should be an effort to harden soft targets, empower individuals to defend themselves, and empower police to act on tips and leads more effectively before taking away the rights of millions of law abiding gun owners.
Will...First off..who cares what Michael Moore says,
or any other Hollywood Leftist for that matter. I
find it interesting that of all the solutions you
mention regarding our violent culture, you say
nothing about other cultural reasons that may be
associated with this violence. I am talking about
the garbage that is produced in the entertainment
industry...HOLLYWOOD. But you were quick to mention
Michael Moore as if he is some expert on cultural
and human behavior.
OK Will, let's say you get your weapon and clip
bans you propose. What evidence can you bring to
the table that will show that it would have
prevented Sandy Hook, Columbine, Aurora, Jonesboro,
or any other mass shooting in this country? Let's
say every semi-automatic weapon and every clip over
7 rd are removed from merchant shelves. What are
you proposing to do about the millions of these items
already produced and in the hands of Americans? Are
you going to ask Americans to turn these items in
for destruction? What makes you think the bad guys
will turn in their banded items? Or, are you for U.S.
Government agents kicking in the front doors of Americans
looking for clips and semi-automatic weapons?
I believe the root of all this is the decline in our
moral compass. As long as people question right and
wrong and muddy the distinction between the two these
types of events will continue and probably even get
more frequent. As long as we have a cultural that
wants to define right and wrong based on what THEY
feel it should be I would say we are doomed.
This I believe is the goal of the radical left.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012312300033&nclick_check=1
Phineas...You raise a very important issue in my mind
by mentioning the Fort Hood incident. I find it very
odd that when Obama gave his post Sandy Hook press
conference he never mentioned the Fort Hood incident.
He mentioned all of the other recent mass shootings.
Why did he exclude Fort Hood?? I believe it is because
of the stupid "must not offend anyone" policies Obama
ordered at that facility. We must not offend the Muslim
world so we have to be politically correct and sensative
to others. This stupid policy made it possible for a
armed looney bird to pray on unarmed soldiers. Is that
a oxymoron or what??? Unarmed soldiers in a military base.
PLEASE!!!! Beam me up Scotty!!This is exactly why Obama
did not mention this shooting, or any other Democrat,
for that matter. One word...SAD.
Thanks for the kind feedback Wayne. Its a nice change from other self proclaimed tolerant, open minded people telling me to,"Just shut up!"
Your welcome Phineas!! Yes...the open minded, tolerant Left
are the one's who try and shut people up they don't agree
with. This practice is alive and well in places like UC Berkley.
Perfect example about what I have said about the reporting bias in Mainstream Press regarding guns and shooting
stories. Why is it that only Fox News reported this? I
thought Fox was biased and all the other news agencies
were objective, unbiased and strait-shooters?? Ya Right!!!
http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/Offduty-police-officer-stops-shooter-at-movie-theater/13697603892/FoxNews/newest/