A new Approach
“School shootings are a fact of life.” — J.D. Vance
No it’s not. It’s just not. I hate to go all old man on everyone here, but these things didn’t happen when we were kids. I graduated from high school in 1993. I think there was a famous school shooting at the University of Texas back in the day, but that’s pretty much it. In 1999 Columbine happened. In the last 25 years it is has been like shooting fish in a barrel.
So, maybe logic is the way to go about it. I feel like the conservative response is to point to things we know we can’t fix. It’s a whole generation of kids raised by single parents. It’s the violent video games. It is the lack of God in our culture. It’s the ramping up of hate on social media. It’s the mental health.
These things might be true to a greater or lesser extent and I am not here to discount any of those things. However, school violence is a choice. Gun violence is a choice. Every other industrialized country on the planet has figured this out better than we have. It’s not a fact of life. It is what you have chosen to accept.
One of the things I’ve noticed with a child going into the college process is that I wouldn’t have gotten into the institution I went to with the grades I had. My SAT score wouldn’t have been enough. We are loading up our kids with AP courses, college essays, internships, and part-time jobs. These kids aren’t soft like we are accusing them of. They have a lot more on their plate than any of us had.
Now, what does this have to do with the issue at hand? Someone that shoots up a school, mall, movie theater, or anything else by definition is mentally ill. That by definition is someone in distress and is not exercising good coping skills. Mentally ill doesn’t have to mean being in a straight jacket. It doesn’t mean needing a padded room with no sharp things. It doesn’t mean they need copious amounts of medication and therapy.
It is so much more than that. We are increasingly creating an entire generation of people without coping skills. We heap all of this stuff on them, tell them they will have to pay for college for the rest of their lives, won’t be able to ever afford a house of their own, and we provide them with few ways to manage this stress. We tell them they have to choose a path early in life. They need to spend all of their free time either studying or getting better on that path. What stress relief strategies are we providing?
Guns are not necessary for the survival of 99 percent of us. Your little pea shooter is no match for the military might of the largest and most powerful armed force in the history of the planet. I want people to be able to do what they want in their free time as long as it doesn’t endanger me or my family. You can do that without an AR-15. You can do that by simply waiting a week to make sure you don’t have a history of domestic abuse, mental illness, or criminal behavior. Registering your gun is not going to seriously infringe on your rights. Heck, having a license to carry it won’t either.
I graduated in 1968 and the only shooting was the Tx Tower.
1I used to collect guns. Had over 50 at one time. Not anymore.
2Those countries that have strict gun ownership along with proper training, eg, Europe, do not have the bloody mess we have. Until the nra, mfrs and lobby are brought under similar controls, you just end up urinating into a windstorm.
I graduated HS in ‘68, too. Killing was about Vietnam and the Kent State massacre when I was in college. My dad brought me a bb gun in my youth then a single shot 22 (both for Christmases) when I was a little older for target shooting when we were camping. But now a “father” gives his son an AR 15. The mental health issues started with a dad that passed them off to his minor child. I believe a lot more children mass killers have their parents to thank as well.
3Don’t ever forget Kent State. I graduated high school in 1971 and remember the Texass School Book depositpry slaughter.
4Well, SOMEBODY has finally done the right thing and arrested the father for letting a firearm pass into unworthy hands. If the case is successful, the law can be expanded to what it ought to be: ANYBODY who is the first purchaser of a firearm assumes for the life of the weapon the responsibility to never let it pass into unworthy hands. This means they don’t sell it, lend it, give it as a gift, pawn it, leave it unsecured or lose it.
80% of gun homicides are committed with weapons handled as described above. When purchasers realize they are about to buy something more lethal than a toaster, they might think twice. And the first time a grandmother is sent to the electric chair for selling her Glock twenty years ago, more purchasers will think twice.
5I graduated a very small private HS (and GS) in 1965, such gun incidents were unheard of.
While I disagree with many of you on various aspects of the topic, it’s beyond the time to do something about ‘just any whackjob getting possession of firearms ‘.
I was initially trained in the handling of firearms beginning around 7 years old, by WWII vets in the ‘old’, and reasonable, NRA marksmanship programs. It was certainly useful later on.
I have generally carried a weapon ever since, seldom ever even thinking of needing to use it (never fired it in a civil situation, but did ‘present it’ a couple of times…).
There is also a lot of ignorance about civilian semi-automatic weapons here.
It’s almost impossible for a civilian to obtain an “automatic” firearm, which has been referenced herein multiple timesas happening.
These ‘AR/AK style’ semi-automatic ones are functionally no different than any other civilian type, other than ‘looking cool/evil’, which is attractive to some of the whackjobs.
Granted that the individual bullets are equally lethal, but the civilian firearms cannot output as many in a given time.
I have target, carry, and hunting weapons that can fire multiple rounds (of various light to heavy calibers) just almost as fast, but don’t have that ‘look’.
…………
BTW, I predicted a landslide for Kamala just after she succeeded Biden as the Democratic nominee:
https://juanitajean.com/ancient-chinese-curse-may-you-get-what-you-wish-for/#comments
July 24–
6“I have a strong feeling that this is going to be a ‘Landside Kamala’ election, and the MAGAots and Trumpanzees are going to be buried alive. Karma’s a bitch…”.
RE the coming ‘Kamala Landslide’ election, this DK article describes it very well, especially his ‘Prediction #2’ :
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/6/2268366/-The-MSM-Is-Unprepared-For-What-s-Coming
(note for Steve, et al: when using DK URL links, you can simplify it by truncating the link after the “?” in the string; leaves off a lot of junk…)
7I’ll have to remember to do that, big if, if I remember.
8Also, the AR 15 style weapon used in the Georgia mass shooting was a semiautomatic self loading rifle capable of firing 60 rounds a minute. I don’t know how many civilians need that. That’s a lot of killing capacity. But what do I know.
Steve @8, That’s the point of what I wrote, any common civilian semi-automatic firearm has basically the same capability of rapidly firing multiple rounds (my little .22cal semi-automatic rifle can pump out -20 rounds very quickly, the same for many pistols).
9Although those AR/AK types can be fitted with magazines holding up to -100 rounds…
The only reason you would need 100 rounds is if you don’t know how to shoot.
10Sandridge, I apologize for not opening your Daily Kos attachment. I follow Daily Kos so surprised I didn’t see it earlier.
11I certainly hope the analysis is true as far as a Harris landslide including down ballot elections. I know the gop house of vengeance arm of the trumpf campaign is working hard to find HRC email type information to have a last minute reversal of the trends..
The opinion commented that there will be violence. The delay in making decisions about trump’s sentencing and other decisions about his criming will absolutely lead to violence after he loses by his magat followers, but I guess that’s inevitable one way or the other.
Sandridge,
Im an avid golfer. At least I used to be. If someone told me my hobby was killing 1000s of Americans every year (at least golf clubs and golf balls) then I’d understand the government’s right and desire to regulate that. Not that you are doing this but I feel like a common tactic by the right is to attempt to shame us for our lack of knowledge of guns. I’ll cop to that. I’ve never owned one, fired one, and likely never will. This is somehow used as right wing justification for me not being able to weigh in on this topic.
Could you imagine the absurdity of saying “well that’s a Ping driver with a titanium insert. That particular model has never been used in a golf related massacre.” Easy access to guns are the issue and it’s moving I. The wrong direction. Whether it fires 20, 40, or 100 rounds is a semantic argument that’s functionally meaningless. Gun confiscation is a pipe dream but licensing isn’t. Registration isn’t. Background checks aren’t. Red flag laws aren’t. I don’t begrudge anyone’s right to own a gun if they are responsible but reasonable regulation is warranted. I’m not teeing it up on I-45 during rush hour. Common sense has to prevail.
12Heard on a smarter than most radio talk program:
They claim, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Any effort at direct refutation is doomed to fail because of their utterly closed mindset. But a simple question may start to pry open those hermetically sealed brains.
“Who kills more people, people with guns or people without guns?”
13Like everything else, guns are more reliable and cheap than they used to be.
In my early years as a reporter, it was not uncommon for shooting incidents to stop when a gun jammed. That hardly happens any more.
(And, consequently the terms ‘$2 pistol’ and ‘Saturday night special’ have dropped out of the language.)
Although when I was 12, I could have ordered a 37 mm cannon through the mail, in practice firearms are much easier to obtain today. Recall that in 1957 West Side Story was a play about violent teens whose weapons were chains and zip guns.
14“Every other industrialized country on the planet has figured this out better than we have.”
Yes.
If only there were an example of a society or societies that have successfully figured out how humans can safely handle guns.
And a legislative body that would investigate how this might be accomplished, and implemented in America. Perhaps after they finish investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop and impeaching Joe Biden?
15treat gun shops like planned parenthood. Stand outside with a sign that says “get a permit” nothing else. then of course film everyone going in and coming out etc. Since they’re all already paranoid it won’t hurt. Do that at Academy Surplus and Cabelas etc. See how long it takes them to drop guns and ammo. All the other stuff won’t be effective (smaller magazines, piddling background checks) until that happens.
Most anyone who wants a weapon must really want it. Need a permit, you’ll get one what ever it takes. After that the permit to concealed carry requires training. Open carry is advertising for idiots so that will no longer be legal. Make life easy for the gun stores. No permit too bad. You tend to beat up your girl friends, display psychotic breaks, various barroom fights, anger management problems, no permit. That’s not denying any reasonable person self defense.
Now if you’re a Texas state judge and you force someone to the side of the road and pull a gun on them, maybe you shouldn’t be a judge either.
Thanks Darling, the bouffant looks great
Jim
16what I left out
these military weapons are NOT hunting weapons
they are SLAUGHTER WEAPONS that’s what they are designed to do. That’s why the military has them.
They should only be referred to as slaughter weapons. Everything else is intentionally misleading.
17Sandridge, “Granted that the individual bullets are equally lethal”
18Equal to what?
Cause that’s 2 different conversations.
E.R. doctor’s have seemed to notice the difference.
19From what I’ve read, higher velocity rounds like what’s made for the military do exponentially more damage to tissue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton_schoolyard_shooting it was close to home so sticks in my mind.
20P. P. @ 15&16,
A. By equally lethal, I mean that there’s no difference between civilian or military ammunition of the same caliber.
B. As far as “higher velocity”, there is generally no difference between military and civilian ammunition in the most common rifle or pistol calibers.
Civilian Remington .223cal and 5.56x 45mm NATO military ammunition is essentially the same stuff, especially with regard to it’s ballistic properties. They both have velocities in the range of 2800-3200fps, at any of the common loads and bullet weights used. There are some very technical specifiation differences , but nothing that affects their performance , or lethality.
The 5.56x45mm NATO military round is actually derived from the earlier Remington.223cal round.
The same general characteristics apply to the common 9mm pistol rounds, common to both civilian and military arms. Many military members actually carry their own personal civilian weapons, some of which are superior to the military issued ones.
Look them both up on Wikipedia, in general they’re virtually identical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56%C3%9745mm_NATO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.223_Remington
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