Obama Says America Needs 'Soul-Searching' On Gun Violence

[News_Editor]

Obama says America needs 'soul-searching' on gun violence < br />

2012-08-07 08:55:35 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday said the government should examine additional ways to reduce violence after a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in southeastern Wisconsin, but he stopped short of calling for further gun control measures.

Obama said there are "a lot of elements involved" in mass shooting incidents, but did not give a direct answer when asked if he would push for further gun control measures after a lone gunman killed six people and injured three others at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, a suburb of Milwaukee.

"I think all of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul-searching and to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence," Obama said after a bill signing ceremony. "I think there are a lot of elements involved in it, and what I want to do is to bring together law enforcement, community leaders, faith leaders, elected officials of every level to see how we can make continued progress."

Obama said he is heartbroken by Sunday's mass shooting but said he is still awaiting the outcome of a full investigation. "If it turns out, as some early reports indicate, that it may have been motivated in some way by the ethnicity of those who were attending the temple, I think the American people immediately recoil against those kinds of attitudes, and I think it will be very important for us to reaffirm once again that, in this country, regardless of what we look like, where we come from, who we worship, we are all one people, and we look after one another and we respect one another," he said.

Also on Monday, the Oak Creek Police Department identified the six fatal victims as five men and one woman who were aged between 39 and 84. The gunman, who was shot dead by an Oak Creek police officer who was fired upon, was identified as 40-year-old Wade Michael Page.

Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which tracks extremism, described Page as a "frustrated neo-Nazi" and a "white supremacist skinhead" who was previously the leader of racist white-power band 'End Apathy.' The group said Page was also a member of 'Definite Hate', a band whose album "Violent Victory" features a drawing of a disembodied white arm punching a black man in the face.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-08-07

[BookMan]

I cant help but feel that America is way to far down the road to implement any meaningful type of gun control. There must be many hundreds of millions powerful guns circulating.

[hedonist44]

I cant help but feel that America is way to far down the road to implement any meaningful type of gun control. There must be many hundreds of millions powerful guns circulating.

Don't know about hundreds of millions, but there are quite a few including the ones I still own there. That's something that will never change for the most part, at least I hope not.

[Fookhaht]

Remember that the only way America could become a nation was because it had the firepower to throw off the yoke of a tyrannical king. In the long term memory of Americans' subconscious lives the threat that the government can at any time overstep the bounds of personal freedoms and liberty, and a personal weapon is their last defense. That was the rationale built into the Constitution of the United States when it guaranteed the right of every citizen to own a weapon. Yes, gun control will probably never happen.

Gun control isn't the answer to America's problems. Part of the problem is that the TV and film industry continue to promote violence as a way of solving one's personal and social problems. Sadly, they are exporting that culture to the entire world as well, including here. Thailand now perpetuates its own mass mind-conditioning through their own movie industry--offering the same violent solutions to society's problems. I just endured two such ear-splitting, violent, sadistic Thai movies in an inter-provincial bus over the long weekend. It's no surprise that Thailand ranks in the top three of the countries of the world for murder by handgun--significantly eclipsing the USA's own statistics.

[coma]

Yes. I agree that the prospects of lowering the ammount of firearm of all types,shapes and sizes is probabley an impossibilty. At the end of the day I firmly believe that guns do not kill. It is the people using them that kill therefore what needs to be addressed more so is what is going on with these individual that go out on rampages like those that we have seen recently. And infact look at the broader society within the states to look for and try to address problems that are obvioulsy prevelant within it.

[simple1]

Just after the movie theater killings in Colorado an author on gun control in the USA was being interviewed on CNN & mentioned that weapons have always been prevalent in US society and these mass murders did not occur. Only in the past few decades have these mass murders started occurring. He didn't have an answer as to why, but said there is now something amiss within American society that needs to be identified and addressed. He did mention the increasing extremely violent content in media/entertainment content, but went on to say studies have yet to prove any causal link. Some of you would have seen these films and the protagonists never, whilst killing, show any emotion or remorse. This lack of emotion is often mentioned by witnesses of these mass murders. Any thoughts on this or other factors?

[Scott]

Personally, I think the violence in media/entertainment is more an exaggerated reflection of real life than causing it, but that's only a feeling not based on anything concrete. It would be interesting if they did some in depth studies with these people to see what they view, read etc. In spite of what it looks like, there really aren't a lot of them, but over time, some information could be put together to give a better profile about these people.

[Ulysses G.]

Personally, I think the violence in media/entertainment is more an exaggerated reflection of real life than causing it, but that's only a feeling not based on anything concrete.

I concur. The entertainment media is not the problem here. Hateful, violent nutjobs are.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Ulysses G.

[BookMan]

I cant help but feel that America is way to far down the road to implement any meaningful type of gun control. There must be many hundreds of millions powerful guns circulating.

Don't know about hundreds of millions, but there are quite a few including the ones I still own there. That's something that will never change for the most part, at least I hope not.

Of course I could have googled it to start with!

An estimated 270 million according to this article

http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828

[PREM-R]

Personally, I think the violence in media/entertainment is more an exaggerated reflection of real life than causing it, but that's only a feeling not based on anything concrete.

I concur. The entertainment media is not the problem here. Hateful, violent nutjobs are.

The problem is surely that Hateful, violent nutjobs "have the right to keep and bear arms"

[Gary A]

For the gun control advocates, here is an interesting link to the facts. Crime and murders dropped drastically after right to carry laws were passed. Criminals now never know who is armed who is vulnerable.

http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp

[Fookhaht]

Personally, I think the violence in media/entertainment is more an exaggerated reflection of real life than causing it, but that's only a feeling not based on anything concrete. It would be interesting if they did some in depth studies with these people to see what they view, read etc. In spite of what it looks like, there really aren't a lot of them, but over time, some information could be put together to give a better profile about these people.

Simple1: "He did mention the increasing extremely violent content in media/entertainment content, but went on to say studies have yet to prove any causal link."

This author on gun control didn't do his homework. There have been EXTENSIVE psychological studies showing that after a steady diet of violent related content, that the subjects begin to first fantasize, and then act on their fantasies. The studies were first done in relationship to violent video games, and then the researched moved to other forms of violent entertainment. There are enough "nutjobs" on the edge of every society, who only need this kind of environment to smooth the way to a killing spree-type tragedy as we have witnessed in recent decades. While the average person can decipher between fantasy and acting on that fantasy, those with more serious problems of self-control are unwittingly being set up by their steady diet of violence. The kid who carried out the massacre at a technical college in West Virginia a few years ago harbored a host of violence-related entertainment, found in his belongings.

In my opinion: At the most, there's a direct causal connection; at the least, there's a worrisome influence the naysayers must admit. Many don't want to admit the connection because they themselves are part of the mind-numbed audience of violence-related entertainment.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Fookhaht

[hedonist44]

For the gun control advocates, here is an interesting link to the facts. Crime and murders dropped drastically after right to carry laws were passed. Criminals now never know who is armed who is vulnerable.

http://www.justfacts.../guncontrol.asp

You're absolutely correct !

[qdinthailand]

For the gun control advocates, here is an interesting link to the facts. Crime and murders dropped drastically after right to carry laws were passed. Criminals now never know who is armed who is vulnerable.

http://www.justfacts.../guncontrol.asp

Ummmm... not really. It appears, from the few selected state statistics that adopted 'right to carry' laws, the state's crime and murder rates were following the national trend. There's no 'proof' in those stats that the carry laws themselves contributed to the dropping rates.

American's fear 'terrorists' (especially them muslims in their midst) when they actually should fear their gun owning neighbors, co-workers, family members.... and all them other crazy gun owners in America.

[ttelise]

Yes. I agree that the prospects of lowering the ammount of firearm of all types,shapes and sizes is probabley an impossibilty. At the end of the day I firmly believe that guns do not kill. It is the people using them that kill therefore what needs to be addressed more so is what is going on with these individual that go out on rampages like those that we have seen recently. And infact look at the broader society within the states to look for and try to address problems that are obvioulsy prevelant within it.

Before everybody had guns, disputes were resolved by street fights. Sucked getting your tail kicked, but you lived to enjoy another day. Now kids are just shooting it out and killing themselves and innocent bystanders. Guns are in out schools and kids live in fear of being shot to death now.

Back in my day, I was just worried about a bully trying to kick my tail on the way home from school. I cannot imagine being 10 or 12 years old and fearing for my life every day. Thank guns for making out kids live in fear and eventually becoming immune to the threat and fear of an early death. Eventually the fear turns into a fijck it attitude and and a propensity for violence as there is only so much the psyche can handle.

Guns do kill. Pointing your finger at someone and saying bang doesn't kill. Pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger does.

Guns are made to kill. Period. That is their purpose to fijck something up bad enough to end it's life.

Edited August 7, 2012 by ttelise

[koheesti]

Just after the movie theater killings in Colorado an author on gun control in the USA was being interviewed on CNN & mentioned that weapons have always been prevalent in US society and these mass murders did not occur. Only in the past few decades have these mass murders started occurring. He didn't have an answer as to why, but said there is now something amiss within American society that needs to be identified and addressed. He did mention the increasing extremely violent content in media/entertainment content, but went on to say studies have yet to prove any causal link. Some of you would have seen these films and the protagonists never, whilst killing, show any emotion or remorse. This lack of emotion is often mentioned by witnesses of these mass murders. Any thoughts on this or other factors?

One of the reasons - IMO - is the deinstitutionalization of the severely mentally ill starting in the 1980's.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/special/excerpt.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation

[Gary A]

Violence on TV and abused as a child are things lawyers use to defend murderers and other violent criminals. How about blaming drugs and drug addiction as causing crime. Being a thieving violent drug addict does not create as much sympathy among a liberal jury as the TV violence and the abused as a child scam.

Nearly all of the guys I grew up with including myself were abused children. By abused I mean that the school principle bent us over his desk and used the perforated board of education to get our attention and we knew that when we got home it likely meant a trip to the woodshed or the basement for even more education from our fathers. The few of us that got in trouble later in life had become dopers who would lie and steal to support their habits.

It appears that the more liberal people believe that someone or something else is always responsible for people's actions. Why are people no longer responsible for their own actions?

[carmine]

I cant help but feel that America is way to far down the road to implement any meaningful type of gun control. There must be many hundreds of millions powerful guns circulating.

Don't know about hundreds of millions, but there are quite a few including the ones I still own there. That's something that will never change for the most part, at least I hope not.

Well what a shame if you have your wish because then a load more innocent men women ans children are going to be murdered by nut jobs that have instant access to the type of weaponry that have no place other than in the theatre of war. America just won't learn and the cowardly silence of Obama and Romney is deafening. The pair of them are spineless and only concerned with votes

[Jingthing]

For soul searching you need a soul. On the gun control issue, America had a soul, but the NRA bought it. Nothing will be done. Everyone knows nothing will be done. The nation that used to be can do is now morphing into mai bpen rai.

[Steely Dan]

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we have an election issue.

[Steely Dan]

Just after the movie theater killings in Colorado an author on gun control in the USA was being interviewed on CNN & mentioned that weapons have always been prevalent in US society and these mass murders did not occur. Only in the past few decades have these mass murders started occurring. He didn't have an answer as to why, but said there is now something amiss within American society that needs to be identified and addressed. He did mention the increasing extremely violent content in media/entertainment content, but went on to say studies have yet to prove any causal link. Some of you would have seen these films and the protagonists never, whilst killing, show any emotion or remorse. This lack of emotion is often mentioned by witnesses of these mass murders. Any thoughts on this or other factors?

At the risk of veering slightly off topic I read an article once that postulated that the stock market is a leading gauge of social mood and major bear markets were very often followed by wars. To extend this slightly to social anger in general it is possible that race or religious hatred is a symptom of a lousy economy, which would indeed suggest that attempts to control guns may be barking up the wrong tree and policies to give real meaningful change to people's prospects may be a better remedy.

[Credo]

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we have an election issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we do not have an election issue.

[koheesti]

Well what a shame if you have your wish because then a load more innocent men women ans children are going to be murdered by nut jobs that have instant access to the type of weaponry that have no place other than in the theatre of war.

"instant access"?

[Jingthing]

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we have an election issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we do not have an election issue.

That is correct. It's totally third rail.

[koheesti]

For soul searching you need a soul. On the gun control issue, America had a soul, but the NRA bought it. Nothing will be done. Everyone knows nothing will be done. The nation that used to be can do is now morphing into mai bpen rai.

Quit trying to demonize the NRA. The NRA is and have been for tough laws against CRIMINALS using guns while committing a crime.The anti-gun lobby doesn't even want the overwhelmingly vast majority (tens of millions) of LAW-ABIDING gun owners to have a gun.

It's the Liberals who are for letting the criminals off with a slap on the wrist. Perhaps if they were as tough on crime as the NRA, there would be less gun crime.

[koheesti]

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we have an election issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, we do not have an election issue.

That is correct. It's totally third rail.

You mean Obama can't count on the anti-gun lobby for votes?? I didn't think he discriminated in his pandering? In addition, it was a top official in his admin who said something about not letting a good tragedy go to waste.

[Gary A]

The liberals who want more gun control laws surely must know that the existing laws cannot be enforced. Only honest people would respect the law and the outlaws would pay no attention as they do now.

I got an email today from a Florida friend of mine. He made a statement that if the theater massacre had occurred in Florida that the lunatic wouldn't have gotten off more than six shots before a legal gun carrying citizen would have shot him in the head.

Home invasions are a favorite topic of mine. Why is it that suburban homes in cities with strict gun control laws are usually the victims? Why is it that country homes out in the boonies are seldom victims? Could it be that the country homes are well armed and even the children are trained and know how to use the weapons?

I just recently read an article that said that if the German Jews had been armed, Hitler would likely just be a footnote in history.

[Jingthing]

The Batman shooter was fully armored, head to toe including groin. A patron with a gun would NOT have stopped him.

Don't bring Hitler into this. You automatically lose any debate when you try that on a topic that has NOTHING to do with Hitler.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

You mean Obama can't count on the anti-gun lobby for votes?? I didn't think he discriminated in his pandering? In addition, it was a top official in his admin who said something about not letting a good tragedy go to waste.

The NRA has neutralized this issue. It's called corruption, big money, American style. It would be foolish of any national politician to push this issue if he wants to survive.

[Steely Dan]

Note the SPLC cited as an authority in the OP and you get a clue where this might be heading. Clue Bill Ayers ex weather underground and past associate of guess who?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=cs4vXgQWI9o