koheesti

As for the second amendment. It was written at a time of muzzle loading smooth bore flintlocks. People can have as many of those as they want. They were so inaccurate that battles involved standing in lines shooting at each other and the winning army was usually the one that could reload fastest.

Even before the 2nd Amendment was written men were butchering young school children (before Hollywood, video games, single-parent homes, etc)

I am a criminal madman and I want a job as armed guard in a school.

The second amendment was about maintaining an armed militia in America at a time when the standing army was very small.

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed".

The first words concern the maintenance of the militia. it is not about allowing lax licensing of guns in some states to anyone that walks in. Nor about selling huge amounts of ammunition for assault rifles to individuals.

The Swiss militia has been much reduced in the last years but every member has an assault weapon under his bed or somewhere. No ammunition.

If the USA were to follow the second amendment out to the letter, people would be walking about with assault weapons on their backs, seems to be what a lot of people would like, because they are the good guys.

The Swiss are also among the highest in the world in terms of gun ownership(and I don't think this number includes the militia provided assault rifle). And yet, they don't seem to have any gun massacres.

There's something wrong about America with all these killings and its unfair to blame it solely on gun ownership and the NRA.

We had a gun massacre in 2001, the legislative in Kanton Zug was attacked by a guy, 14 legislators killed. In answer to another poster, the Swiss militia do NOT, since 2007, have ammunition at home. 53 homicides in 2010, 40 due to guns. With a population of 7 million, this would be the equivalent of about 2400 homicides a year in the USA. Not the 16 000 that they have now.

16,000 gun homicides in the US? Maybe half that.

I saw the guy from Premier Bar in the pick-up McGregor was riding in. He got a very brief, but full-screen head shot.

I'm over here in Estonia, planning this weekend to see that film about the tsunami, The Impossible with Ewan McGregor & Naomi Watts. I know they used some expats from Samui as extras...so did any of you make the final cut? Is the film even showing down there yet?

Armed guards in schools? I didn't really like the sound of that the first few times I heard it.

I wouldn't want any local volunteers that's for sure.

I wouldn't want to require teachers to be trained and carry guns.

I wouldn't want trained teachers wearing a holster walking down the halls.

I wouldn't want a teacher to keep their gun locked in their desk drawer (easy to break into)

We have school psychiatrists and school nurses sitting in an office most the day collecting a paycheck,...I wouldn't have a problem adding another desk for a security guard-type. A type like that retired police woman who worked security at that church where a madman walked in shooting. She put a quick end to that.

CNN just had a graphic showing there are over 130,000 schools in the USA (that probably sounds like a lot to everyone else with the exception of the Indians and Chinese). Each of those schools is in a community with many retired law enforcement officers around. I like the odds taking the retired professional over a young nut with a gun. Just need to make sure they aren't crazy either.

You think guns are bad? Driving is even more dangerous!

One death is horrible of course, but considering the amount of vehicles involved, people were pretty lucky. Last year I was driving to Florida to see family and the day before on the highway there was a lot of smoke from a fire and the 10 people died out of 19 vehicles involved (another 18 went to the hospital)

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-01-29/news/os-deadly-i-75-crash-20120129_1_pileup-fog-and-smoke-southbound-lanes

Over 33,000 people died in 2008 or 2009 in car accidents in the USA but we love our cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

I wouldn't get too excited - it probably came from Fox and their bevy of "unnamed sources" (i.e blokes in the back writing fairy stories).

Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza may have been motivated by anger at his mother because of plans to have him committed for treatment, Fox News reported Thursday, citing comments from the son of an area church pastor and an unnamed neighborhood source. Fox also cited an unnamed senior law enforcement official saying anger at plans for “his future mental-health treatment” were being investigated as a possible motive.

555 I seriously doubt that JT watches Fox News.

The latest (back to something closer to reality) I've heard about the mysterious motivation of the shooter is this:

Shooter thought Mommy was going to commit him to a mental facility (good move!)

All he did all day was play violent video games (join the club, I guess)

Mommy was a regular volunteer at the elementary school (young kids, kindergarten)

Shooter was jealous that Mommy cared more about the kids at school than him and also angry about the threat to commit him

The rest we know. The targets (Mommy and the poor innocents at the school) starts to make a little more sense from the perspective of a man who had cracked.

Mommy didn't lock up her guns. I'm sorry, she knew her son was mentally ill, she is dead yes, but is she not partly culpable?

Interestingly, this family was very well off financially.

Interesting...where did you read that?

Restricting ammo just might work. There are a lot of people who make their own ammo at home. But they aren't the low-life criminal types looking for a quick score. They are the true gun enthusiasts who probably have an NRA membership card in their pocket. But if criminals can figure out how to make drugs, they can probably figure out how to make their own ammo too...eventually.

This story is going to blow away in the wind.

Yep, the only way to keep this in the news is to capture one of the attackers and put a pair of underwear on his head.

Oh my goodness, whats going to happen when the UK gets a Muslim government as has been forecast, within the next 20 years !

Scotland had better get busy rebuilding Hadrian's Wall.

I bet they are doing it just to get a rise out of the Fox news psychos and to anger people like you.

Yeah, that's a great way to do it, we don't like our diplomats being murdered, denied aid and having it covered up by a narcissist concerned only with keeping his job. It's safe to say most Americans don't look at the assassination of our Ambassador and 3 other Americans as "sh*t happens".

Hey, someone has to care about our diplomats getting murdered and get to the bottom of it. Can't expect those guilty of covering it up and refusing help to do it. That would be like asking Nixon to investigate what happened at the Watergate.

Secretary Clinton, most certainly cares about her personnel. What motivates you to engage in such cruel character assassination as to intimate that she doesn't care? She knew the deceased diplomat and had to deal with the aftermath of pain and despair at the State Department. The Secretary is not afraid of the truth, nor has she covered up anything.

Every experienced diplomat that has had hands on experience has said the same thing, Sh* happens. This doesn't downplay the incident, but attacks happen and a great deal of of the responsibility for local security rests with the diplomats themselves, and the decisions they take. Familiarity breeds complacency. We did it in the lab, eating our lunch in close proximity to infectious agents, doctors do it every day, in not washing their hands after touching patients, diplomats do it, when they don't take local conditions into account when they undertake activities.

Character assassination against a politician? You are freakin' hilarious. Follow that with, "Sh*t happens"? Really? I have friends who are diplomats, some new, some about to retire, and I haven't heard, "Oh well, sh*t happens". I don't suppose you have actually followed what has happened, probably just took the admin's word that it was about a protest and only Fox right wing fanatics think it's an issue. When in fact, ANYONE who reads about it knows something isn't right. Just that some people choose to remain in the dark if it helps them sleep.

Personally, I agree that Hillary does care. But as Sec of State she is not acting as Hillary Clinton, she is acting as the Sec of State and answers to her boss in the White House and does his bidding, and says what he tells her to say. Maybe she doesn't want to testify under oath because telling the truth might not be pretty. Getting out of testifying just shows how smart she is. Some people can believe that this is totally legit, just a coincidence and not related to her testimony at all. Just like it was a coincidence that a week or so before the CIA Director was to testify, a long known about affair became public and he resigned. Again, not related to his testimony at all, I'm sure.

Here's an interesting article written from a different perspective...

I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother

Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

"I can wear these pants," he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.

....

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

http://gawker.com/59...m-lanzas-mother

All very sad and made worse when such children grow up in homes where guns and ammunition are easy to acquire and are apparently accessible.

I can agree with that. Crazy people can't have guns so a sane, law-abiding citizen who lives with a crazy/mentally ill person shouldn't be allowed to keep guns at home. Keep them at the gun club or wherever, but not within reach of the unstable yet lovable family member.

Oh yeah. Just a few nut cases as Kohesti says:

Those stats don't address my comment - which I stand by as correct. To back my claim, here is a chart from Mother Jones, a very anti-gun, liberal website.

300 million guns, approx 31,000 gun-related deaths (2009), and even in that same year the number of deaths total less than 40. So yeah, I'm right, a few nut cases.

Yep, ignore everything else and all facts cited and refer to a single piece of information to misrepresent a broad proposition. The fact is 100,000 plus people are shot and injured by guns each year. Way too many nutcases out there shooting people.

Ironic coming from the guy who just wrote, "don't let facts get in the way".

Here's another FACT for you, guns don't kill people, people kill people. When someone is killed by a car, the driver is blamed, When someone is killed by a knife, the person doing the stabbing is to blame. But when someone is killed by a gun, all of a sudden it is the gun which is at fault.

Here's an interesting article written from a different perspective...

Oh yeah. Just a few nut cases as Kohesti says:

Those stats don't address my comment - which I stand by as correct. To back my claim, here is a chart from Mother Jones, a very anti-gun, liberal website.

300 million guns, approx 31,000 gun-related deaths (2009), and even in that same year the number of deaths by mass-killing crazies total less than 40. So yeah, I'm right, a few nut cases.

A fairly comprehensive article from the Washington Post on mass shootings. A fair amount of data to consider.

Highlights for me:

- States with stricter gun control laws have fewer deaths from gun-related violence.

That's odd considering Chicago & Washington DC have strict gun laws and they are the gun-killing capitals of the US.

-15 of the 25 worst mass shootings in the last 50 years took place in the United States.

And 10 of 25 took place in countries with more strict gun laws? How is that possible?

Here is your quote: "To be safe, we should round them up, test them, identify the potentially dangerous ones and lock them up."

That, sir, is the closest to fascism I heard in a long, long time! And that's why I will not read it!

It already starts with an inhumane premiss.

And advocating the gov't taking guns away from law-abiding citizens because of a few nut cases is even worse. Over 300 million guns in the USA and only a handful of nutjobs shooting people. The problem is the person pulling the trigger, not the gun. We arrest drunk drivers, we don't outlaw automobiles. Look, I'm sure you consider yourself a humane, caring, enlightened, better person than anyone who would ever be so evil as to own a gun, but you and others like you do nothing to solve the problem by focusing on the inanimate object (gun) and ignoring the people behind the tragedy.

Who asked for that?

No me!

And I don't know , who is actually?!

If you read most of my comments and most of the others that are "contra"- guns, it is about MORE CONTROL!

MORE CONTROL...not "taking them all away"!

Big difference!

But as I said before: right wing nutters often twist the stuff we pesky treehuggers say, so it fits their needs!

Don't bother with logic!

Here;s an article you might even take time to read. To show you it isn't a fascist site, I'll paste the comment that goes against what I proposed doing...

The Americans that hate on Hillary, hate on her an awful lot, and they won't ever change, but they do represent a minority.

My view of Hillary has been very favorable the past 4 years. That doesn't mean that I'm blind to what is happening.Others are free to keep their eyes and mind closed if it makes them sleep better at night.

Here is your quote: "To be safe, we should round them up, test them, identify the potentially dangerous ones and lock them up."

That, sir, is the closest to fascism I heard in a long, long time! And that's why I will not read it!

It already starts with an inhumane premiss.

And advocating the gov't taking guns away from law-abiding citizens because of a few nut cases is even worse. Over 300 million guns in the USA and only a handful of nutjobs shooting people. The problem is the person pulling the trigger, not the gun. We arrest drunk drivers, we don't outlaw automobiles. Look, I'm sure you consider yourself a humane, caring, enlightened, better person than anyone who would ever be so evil as to own a gun, but you and others like you do nothing to solve the problem by focusing on the inanimate object (gun) and ignoring the people behind the tragedy.

After reading the below article, I feel the problem are teenagers/young adults who are loners at school, dress in black, wear trench coats, have above average intelligence, are "Goths" or have Asperger's. The Colombine killings were also done by the same type. As were the Dark Knight killings. To be safe, we should round them up, test them, identify the potentially dangerous ones and lock them up. That would save a lot of lives.

http://www.dailymail...Adam-Lanza.html

What?

I didn't even read the article, because if it makes you come to the conclusion, that all "Goth" people and/or Batman-fans should be rounded up and tested psychologically, it must be a) crap or b ) you dint't understand it!

I love the Batman- movies and I don't even own a gun and non of the movies made me want to go out and shoot 20 people!

Guess, I am off the hook then!

But your idea sounds much better than just getting tighter gun laws. Just randomly pick a group that can be widely put under one label and test them.

And to prevent terrorist attacks, just round up everyone looking arabic and test them.

And to prevent children from being molested, just round up all creepy looking guys....brave new world!

I guess you're bringing all Batman fans into this because you can't really find fault with what I actually wrote. First, you don't even read the article I was commenting on, then you add things to my comment in order to disagree. It would be better just to post a fresh comment with your view than to try and connect it to things you haven't read or misread.

Isn't it correct that the problem is not the guns themselves, but the lack of gun control and security when they are in private hands? This latest tragedy was caused by a mentally unstable person having easy access to multiple guns owned by his own family.Controlling and securing arms is just common sense or anyone can walk into your house and "borrow" whatever you have lying around in the kitchen drawers or where-ever.

True to a point, but the killer had "easy" access to weapons in the house after he killed his mother.