Today brought another tragedy to an American college campus. A gunman opened fire at Northern Illinois University, and as of this moment, 5 are dead and 18 injured. And in case you were wondering, it didn't take long for the moronosphere to start opining for more guns in the hands of more people.
When will this madness stop? Maybe when we stop being victims.
To borrow a line from one of my favourite movies: Thank you for playing 'Should we or should we not follow the advice of the Galactically Stupid?'
8 comments:
This is the 4th school shooting this month in the US - yup, keep those guns on the streets.
The argument is that guns don't kill - people do. Well, yes that's true, but it's more difficult to kill 10, 15 or more people at once with a knife, piece of lumber or whatever.
I loved this section in the beararms.com article:
"Students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, officials said."
"We saw the shooter, stopped at my vehicle and got out my handgun and started to approach Peter,"
Wow... so the other students should be praised for stopping the violence and helping the killer see the light of reason?
?!?
Good on them for stopping the spree before it escalated past the - what - three people that DID die needlessly...
Did any of the Cons even think to wonder what "might have been" had there been gun laws in effect preventing the firearm from being in ol' Peter's possession in the first place?
Anyone else wonder what would have happened if Peter hasn't been able to see the error of his ways and simply 'popped a cap' into our now-hero?
Gee.. do you think there'd have been more bloodshed?
How many other students would have picked up the gun and dropped Peter with it? Pulled out their own guns?
Why... we'd have had a balls-out knock-down drag-out wild western shootout!
Lemme tie a rope 'round this here steer's nuts and rodeo my way into the fray!
Yee-haw!
Every time I read about this kind of thing happening I wonder how it is that our culture has progressed as far as it has.
Kudos, Red C!
Anon - The argument is that guns don't kill - people do.
This is the most hackneyed and tired of the arguments used by the wingnuts. It constantly amazes me how black & white their worlds are. Tackling the problem of gun violence is clearly multifaceted - it involves addressing problems such as social inequity, mental health issues, gangs, drugs, and a whole host of other issues. But for the righties to claim that access to guns has nothing to do with the problem (i.e "people kill people") is patently absurd.
Inscriminate C - Did any of the Cons even think to wonder what "might have been" had there been gun laws in effect preventing the firearm from being in ol' Peter's possession in the first place?
Well, that would require insight and a nuanced thought process....so I guess the answer is 'no'.
I believe the argument goes something along the lines of infringing on the God-given rights of law abiding people to own & collect handguns, automatics, semi-automatics, rocket-propelled grenades etc etc... yawn
Sadly, it doesn't surprise me that so many of these tragedies occur on college/university campsuses. These are places which house a number of young people from varying backgrounds, with varying levels of maturity, under often stressful conditions. Under social scrutiny from their peers and academic scrutiny from their professors, it's not hard to see why people with possible underlying mental health issues and access to weapons end up resorting to such means.
Putting weapons in the hands of every other student on campus hardly seems like an appropriate way to deal with this situation...but just try to convince the gun nuts about that.
That's precisely the argument Jesse the Body Ventura made after Coumbine in '99. At the time I thought, well he may be governor of Minnesota, but he's a former WWF entertainer, so to be taken with a grain of salt. Now this is "mainstream" right wing thought.
P.S. I'm brain dead this afternoon and its bugging the shit out of me. What movie was that line from??
Bowler - What movie was that line from??
For shame, Bowler!
Hint: "Yerrrrrrrr goddamm right I did!!"
RC - OK, wipe that grin off your Harvard mouth and show me some fuckin' respect.
Bowler - LOL! You got it...
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