Gun Control

[daycarediva]

My biggest, biggest question is why all very young boys and men. Seriously, the one that blew up the school in the 20's was higher person in the schools. Then the Texas Bell tower guy was intelligent from what I remember. Does something just snap in their mind.

I have a theory on this, and it is strongly linked to the pharmaceutical medication that these young kids are on. I have a boy in my care diagnosed with bipolar, adhd, AND aspergers. He has a tendency to be violent (towards Mom only so far) and is on a LIST of anti psychotic medications with DANGEROUS, SCARY side effects all of which have gone untested on the growing child's brain. THAT is SCARY,


My cousin shot himself when he was weaned from adderall & an antidepressant in the late 90's. His note said he killed himself before someone else too.

[Angelwings36]

In Canada it takes up to 60 days to obtain a firearm, after registering, taking a course and going through background checks. People still own guns in our country it's just harder to obtain them. Although I am not in US I also agree that guns should not be banned.

Personally I think people should be pushing for better security in the schools and in public areas where large amounts of people gather at one time.

It boogles my mind when I think about the ratio of teachers to students. My son's Kindergarden class had 22 students to one teacher!! To me that is completely insane. As a home daycare provider I am aware that it is impossible to ensure the safety of children when ratio's are so high. How could one teacher protect 22 students if a tragedy ever hit the school? Then you look at the ratio of students to teacher on the playground which is even less!! Personally I think if these large student to teacher ratios are going to continue then school's should have increased security in order to protect the children. If the government is already willing to sink money in to ban guns then why not sink it in where it should matter the most, in the safety of our children in the school systems?

[Country Kids]

I have a theory on this, and it is strongly linked to the pharmaceutical medication that these young kids are on. I have a boy in my care diagnosed with bipolar, adhd, AND aspergers. He has a tendency to be violent (towards Mom only so far) and is on a LIST of anti psychotic medications with DANGEROUS, SCARY side effects all of which have gone untested on the growing child's brain. THAT is SCARY,


My cousin shot himself when he was weaned from adderall & an antidepressant in the late 90's. His note said he killed himself before someone else too.

Are just boys proned to these types of mental disorders? Thats what I'm not understanding-it seems to be just boys.

[daycarediva]

Are just boys proned to these types of mental disorders? Thats what I'm not understanding-it seems to be just boys.

Yes, boys are much more likely to be diagnosed with these conditions. I can't remember the actual numbers. For instance, aspergers/autism boys are like 90% of the diagnosed cases. There is no medication for autism, but EVERY TIME my son sees his psychologist he gives me the same anti psychotic prescriptions that they give to my dcb with multiple dx's. My son isn't psychotic, he is disabled. He has never been medicated and never will be.

[Binkybobo]

Why is that suicidal thoughts are a side effect of antidepressants? What's the point?

[Brent]

The nerve toxin Sarin comes from the castor bean and its not hard to make. Remember the Tokyo subway attack where 13 people died? It was the intent to harm people. Japan didn't ban castor beans.

Guns are also used for defense. If a woman were accosted in her home by five men looking to do evil. What would be the great neutralizer; 911, pepper spray or a handgun? Crime takes just seconds where the police take minutes to respond.

We only hear about the bad stories of guns.

[jen]

This is the most sensible thing that I have heard on the gun control debate. I appreciate that this guy, one of the strongest backers of the NRA, has the common sense to say, "hey, maybe we should look at this!"


Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said "everything" must be considered to prevent tragedies like Newtown. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)


WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the strongest backers of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the Democratic Party, said it is time to sit down and have a "sensible, reasonable" debate about gun control in light of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., and expressed an openness to banning assault weapons.

"It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way. ... Everything has to be on the table," Manchin said in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, adding that he had just come from deer hunting with his family.

Manchin's comments are significant because he has an "A" rating from the NRA for his pro-gun positions, and the organization endorsed him as recently as October 2012.

"Joe Manchin is committed to protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms guaranteed to all Americans," NRA Chairman Chris Cox said.

Manchin also appears to be the first senator with an "A" rating from the NRA to go on national television in the wake of the Newtown shooting. On Sunday, David Gregory of NBC's "Meet the Press" said all 31 "pro-gun rights" senators in the new Congress turned down his request to appear on the show. CBS's "Face the Nation" said it ran into a similar problem. Manchin spokeswoman Emily Bittner told The Huffington Post their office had no record of "Meet the Press" reaching out to interview the senator on Sunday.

In Monday's interview, Manchin was critical of assault rifles, saying no hunter needs a weapon like that, although he didn't explicitly say he would back Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) ban on such weapons, which she has said she will introduce in the new year.

"I don't know anyone who in the hunting or sporting arena that goes out with an assault rifle. I don't know anybody that needs 30 rounds in the clip to go hunting," Manchin said. "I mean, these are things that need to be talked about."

While the NRA has always opposed such a ban in the past, Manchin said he believed the nature of the tragedy in Newtown changed the landscape.

"What's happened -- it's always been to the point when once you open it up, pretty soon you'll give up your whole Second Amendment rights, taking guns away and people not allowed to have guns. That's not what this should be about," Manchin said. "Millions and millions of people are proud gun owners, and they do it responsibly and by the law. So I think opening up and seeing the massacre of so many innocent children, it's changed. It's changed America. We've never seen this happen."

Manchin also said, however, that the NRA should have a seat at the table during the gun control debate.

"What I want to do is I want to call all our friends in the NRA and sit down and have this -- bring them into it," he added. "They have to be at the table."

Since the shooting in Newtown, the NRA has been silent and even took down its Facebook page.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

[canadiancare]

On the same day as Sandy Hook, a man in China killed 22 students in a school with a knife. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...-in-china?lite

So no, guns don't kill people. Neither do knives. Or fertilizer. Or remote controls. What kills people is mentally unstable people.

In almost every single mass murder case, behind it lies a disturbed person. Until this country wakes up and realizes that we have a TERRIBLE lack of understanding about mental health, we will continue down this road. Navigating the mental health options in the US is a nightmare. Families cannot help and most of the time the individuals themselves are too unstable to help themselves or even realize they need help.

Read this very interesting blog post from a mother of a mentally ill child. It is really eye opening in many ways.
http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.c...thinkable.html

Just to be clear not a single person died as a result of their knife injuries.

Drinking and Driving is illegal. People who do it anyway are committing a crime that the population has to have faith our law minders will deal with.

[canadiancare]

also if a shooter walks into a classroom they can stand in the doorway trapping the victims until every last one of them is shot. If someone walks in with a knife, machete, baseball bat pretty well any other easy to obtain weapon they will need to physically approach someone in order to inflict harm- there is a chance that the others can escape/restrain the perpetrator at that time.

[Blackcat31]

Just to be clear not a single person died as a result of their knife injuries.

This time.

The recent stabbings in China only echo a string of similar assaults against school children in 2010 that killed nearly 20 and wounded more than 50.

[canadiancare]

This time.

The recent stabbings in China only echo a string of similar assaults against school children in 2010 that killed nearly 20 and wounded more than 50.

absolutely. I am not saying that stabbing is the way to go. I am clarifying that you can't just read the headline and assume that 22 victims were slashed to death.

The gun death stats for US schools are the worst in the developed world. Yes other countries have had incidents of massacres, too but then have taken measures to ensure they don't happen again.

[Blackcat31]

absolutely. I am not saying that stabbing is the way to go. I am clarifying that you can't just read the headline and assume that 22 victims were slashed to death.

The gun death stats for US schools are the worst in the developed world. Yes other countries have had incidents of massacres, too but then have taken measures to ensure they don't happen again.

But I don't think it is always the measures taken to prevent them that prevents them. I think it is so many other things.

There is no other country in the world that lives as "freely" and as egocentrically as the United States. THAT is what I believe is at the root of things like this.

[Countrygal]

Assault weapons are already banned, depending upon the type. Noone can just walk around with an M-16, for example. As another poster said, the weapon used in Connecticut was a small caliber rifle. Not a heavy assault weapon like we would normally think of them. At one point I had heard it was a .223 caliber, not much more power than my squirrel/varmint gun.

Part of the problem in banning assault weapons is: what is an assault weapon? What characteristics does it need to have to be banned? What characteristics are acceptable? Where do we draw the line and why? And remember, these weapons, just like the already banned heavy assault weapons, will still be available on the black market. Three of the four guns this kid possessed were perfectly normal guns - 2 handguns and a shotgun. (most people I know have a 9mm and a shotgun). Even the .223 is a relatively common competition rifle, from what I've read. The problem would not have been averted by him not having the .223 rifle.

I do not agree with banning guns - it is a constitutional right and it was put there for a reason. I live in the country. I have had to shoot two sick(possibly rabid) coons and a sick chicken. What would I have done without a weapon? The police aren't going to come out here and shoot my coon or chicken...., but that coon could spread rabies to my kids, pets and farm animals.

Banning guns is not the answer. Raising our kids right is. That includes everything that goes into their heads from movies, video games, etc. AND proper consequences of actions from little on up.....

OK, got me on a bandwagon.....

[Sugar Magnolia]

Crystal (and everyone), I think it was me that took your original post to OT land, and for that I apologize. My initial horror and sorrow quickly gave way to anger over the circumstances. But so did many others in the national debate.
I will say this....if you can squeeze a trigger, hold it, and have up to 16 rounds per second discharge, that weapon should be for military use only. High capacity clips are for committing mass murder, or a military person to kill enemy combatants. Any alternate uses, besides "recreation"? Anyone? We all know that hunting and home protection are kinda silly arguments for automatic assault rifles with high capacity clips.

"No Comment" from the NRA. THAT speaks volumes.

Ok "guns don't kill people, people kill people". True, and fair enough. But automatic assault rifles and 100 round clips DEFINITELY contribute to mass executions of innocent people.
I heard this on TV today. Since 1968, one million Americans have been killed by gunshot wounds. That is like the entire populations of Tampa and Orlando. Chew on that .fact.

[Countrygal]

But I don't think it is always the measures taken to prevent them that prevents them. I think it is so many other things.

There is no other country in the world that lives as "freely" and as egocentrically as the United States. THAT is what I believe is at the root of things like this.

*like*