843 replies to this topic

[freedom78]

Here...I'll also post some NR bullshit to be fair:

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Government Action Is Not the Answer to Mass Shootings

by Ben Shapiro

 

Why new regulation won’t guarantee Americans’ safety

 

So, now we know.

 

We know that the Texas church shooter should not have been able to own or obtain a gun under federal law. He had a long history of mental illness and criminal behavior: He escaped from a mental institution in 2012, threatened his superior officers and attempted to smuggle weapons onto a military base to carry out those threats, cracked the skull of his infant stepson, beat his wife, abused a dog. He was convicted of domestic violence and did twelve months in the brig and was busted down in rank to E-1. The Air Force failed to inform the FBI, and so the shooter successfully bought four weapons in four years.

 

This isn’t unique. The racist Charleston church-massacre perpetrator obtained his gun despite pending felony charges; the FBI screwed up. The Orlando nightclub shooter had been investigated twice by the FBI, but they didn’t charge him with a crime. The Sandy Hook shooter obtained his weapons illegally. The FBI simply missed the San Bernardino terrorists, despite years of open talk about carrying out a terror attack.

 

And yet the Left continues to maintain that government action should be the chief methodology for stopping mass shootings. In particular, it insists that we pass new gun-control laws. There has been no significant call to make government agencies more efficient or staff them more appropriately; in fact, the Left has repeatedly shied away from blaming the government generally. Instead, we’re told that a few more words on a few more pieces of paper should ensure that babies aren’t shot in church pews.

 

Furthermore, we’re told that to oppose such legislation amounts to greenlighting mass murder; Democrats have rushed to microphones to condemn the National Rifle Association for its supposed intransigence, despite the fact that it was an NRA instructor who put down the Texas church shooter.

 

We’re even told that thoughts and prayers are useless so long as they aren’t attached to an anti-gun effort.

 

It’s this last point that’s particularly telling. Those who are most adamant that thoughts and prayers be forsaken are also most adamant that new regulation will somehow guarantee the safety of Americans. New York governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted, “We have pastors, priests and rabbis to offer thoughts and prayers. What we need from Republicans in DC is to do something. Lead.” This sentiment was repeated on virtually every late-night talk show and throughout the mainstream media.

 

In a certain way, that makes sense: If you believe that government has godlike power, you’re going to be angered by those who suggest that only God does. One of the express purposes of thoughts and prayers is to recognize the limitations of human endeavor, and to pray for God’s guidance and grace. This doesn’t excuse inaction by religious Americans, but it does set boundaries to expectations. Religious people know that evil will endure no matter what, and that our best efforts may not be enough. Those who pray are well aware that prayers don’t guarantee desired results.

 

If you believe that government has godlike power, you’re going to be angered by those who suggest that only God does. Those who believe in government lack any such humility. They believe with the ardor of the newly converted that all ills can be alleviated so long as we believe in the power of government. Hence the deep desire to ignore government’s on-the-ground failures in favor of new and exciting vistas of regulation that can presumably bring us closer to security. The failure is never government’s; it is always ours.

 

This knee-jerk reaction isn’t exclusive to atheists. Many Americans of all stripes have fallen under the sway of idolatry toward government. Failures to detect terrorist attacks are never met with a desire to shrink government’s overall function or seek new efficiencies — they’re met with calls for more pages in the Federal Register. Failures to prevent tragedy don’t prompt employee reviews inside the federal government, or even acknowledgment of the possibility of human error — instead, they prompt calls for new rules that will somehow fix things this time.

 

None of this is a case for apathy or antipathy toward all government action. But it is a case for caution. Government will always be limited in its ability to protect us. Bad guys will always slip through the cracks. That’s precisely why the Founders enshrined the Second Amendment: so that Americans could preserve their own lives when government falls short. It’s also why we should be far more eager to call for accountability inside the government before handing more power over to that government.

Read more at: http://www.nationalr...houghts-prayers

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More "thoughts and prayers".  I love how the answer to a man made problem has to be a supernatural solution.  We create our problems, we can fix them.  I'm not relying on God to fix the environment, poverty, or fucking Kim Jong Un, either.

 

Also, note how he doesn't mention Vegas in his list of "why gubment is bad"...

[freedom78]

I didn’t realize it was easier to get a firearm than it is to vote. When did we require a background check and photo ID to vote?

And as I said earlier, demanding we do “something” isn’t an intelligent response. It just makes the uninformed feel better.

Prayers and thoughts may not do dick, but neither do tweets or change.org petitions.

 

I don't know anyone who thinks the solution to any of this is a tweet or a petition.  But for a regular person with no law-making power, a petition is certainly something to pressure those who do have law-making power. 

 

And he didn't just write "do something".  He argued for banning certain types of weaponry and setting a cap on magazine capacity.  While neither prevents shootings, they do lessen their destructive potential and, ultimately, save lives.

 

As for the point about voting/drivers licenses, vs. buying firearms...I don't know how it is where you live, but in my state you don't have to be licensed to own a firearm and the ways in which weapons are sold allows anyone who wants to to get around the background check fairly easily.  Is that easier than voting?  I don't know.  But it sure isn't a heluva lot harder.

[freedom78]

I have no problem pinning some blame on the government for its failings.  Unfortunately, our system with regard to this issue is too choppy to be fully effective.  An additional unfortunate fact that I'd add is that that's exactly how the NRA and other gun lobbies want it.  The last thing they've ever wanted was a strong, effective, well funded government agency to be in charge of firearms.  The FBI?  They've got a lot on their plate already, so given the choice between crimes and millions of potential crimes (most of which will never be), I can see how they drop the ball on this.  Compare it to something like the IRS...it's primary job is to process tax returns; it's secondary job is to audit.  It does not and cannot audit everyone.  I'm sure there are millions of unintentional mistakes and who knows how many intentionally fraudulent claims that sail through every year.  If we truly want to catch tax fraud, we need to have a dedicated agency or significantly increase the size of the IRS.  To make the FBI fully and effectively responsible for this would require a similar increase.   

 

Yes, going through 15 magazines is easier than going through 30.  Given that this was the rare situation in which a shooter encountered someone who fired back, how might those additional sections from fifteen additional mag changeovers added up, relative to the time at which that individual decided to respond with his own firearm.  I can't say with any certainty...none of us can.  But it's easy enough to imagine how those seconds might have led to that last mag never being put in place, those last bullets never fired, and some number of lives saved.  Or, if there's noone who can respond in kind, how might those additional seconds add up to the time needed for police to respond.  It's not everything, but it's something and I'm sure the person who would have died but did not as a consequence of something like this would be appreciative.

 

Yes, I think SCOTUS would support an assault weapons ban.  If SCOTUS considers it reasonable for police to stop me WITHOUT CAUSE to pat me down, check my seatbelt, or give me a breathalyzer, then I think banning certain weapons while keeping the larger liberty intact presents no problem.  As for the issue of how often such weapons are used, while I agree that they're minor in the overall count of gun deaths, they're much larger in the count of mass shootings.  I think the argument to be made about terrorism has ample weight.

[Mr. Roboto]

Insanity:

 

This Florida school is selling bulletproof panels for students' backpacks

[freedom78]

At my daughter's school, you have to be buzzed into the office before you can enter the building fully, and the office has to buzz you into the building.  It's a small thing, but it would be hard to walk in with an arsenal without someone noticing.

[AxlsMainMan]

At my daughter's school, you have to be buzzed into the office before you can enter the building fully, and the office has to buzz you into the building.  It's a small thing, but it would be hard to walk in with an arsenal without someone noticing.

 

This has been the norm for Canadian elementary schools for some time now, in addition to being peanut-free. High schools don't have either precaution, however.

[freedom78]

We're not peanut free...natural selection is a sum' bitch.

[Mr. Roboto]

Another shooting at an elementary school today....yea guns!!

[Mr. Roboto]

School Shooting in Kentucky Was Nation’s 11th of Year. It Was Jan. 23.

[Mr. Roboto]

At least 20 injured in Florida school shooting. 

 

Fucking sick of this. 

 

Nothing can be done! Says our shitty leaders...even after they got shot as well! 

[freedom78]

Another shooting at an elementary school today....yea guns!!

 

^I saw this and thought it was for today.  Then I had to scroll down to this. v

 

 

At least 20 injured in Florida school shooting. 

 

Fucking sick of this. 

 

Nothing can be done! Says our shitty leaders...even after they got shot as well! 

[Mr. Roboto]

     

 

I saw some student cell phone clips today. 

 

One was when the swat team came in a room with guns drawn. You heard the wimpers and one set of hands (all up in the air) were trembling with fear. 

 

The other video, blurred out, was of children hiding out in a room as the gun blasted away. It was loud and violent, broken up with shrieks of terror. 

 

Both brought tears to my eyes. 

[freedom78]

I guess mix those tears with some gelatin and send them out as physical manifestations of thoughts and prayers?  It's more than anyone else will actually do.