US President Barack Obama supports a proposal from Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) that would reinstate a ban on the sale of assault weapons in the United States.
In the discussions following the recent Newtown shooting, several people have told me that data regarding gun ownership and violence supports the case for more restrictive gun prohibition. I believe that the above plots, on their face, discredit this view.
If all countries are included in the plot, there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and rate of homicide. Only when the plot is limited to OECD countries (with the outliers of US and Mexico included), does a very small positive correlation appear.
How sad sad that a tragedy fails to encourage people to look to themselves for answers, but to faith, and then to the tools of violence rather than those acting out in violence.
I have waited for a few days before exhaling, hoping that through the pain and the agony would emerge something more compassionate and more sane.
For many of us who are parents, it's like this.
This tragedy has been visceral, a cry of the heart that aches even too much to make a sound, an agony that does not let up.
Then comes the redirection away from the core issue and to one of means rather than ends. As sad as pointless violence and loss of innocent life is, blaming an inanimate object for these acts misses the mark entirely;
We hear this pettiness in the callous words of the NRA and their supporters, who keep telling us in shooting after shooting that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." No, you heartless enablers of mass murder. The blood of these children is also on your hands.
Yes, guns don't kill people, mentally deranged people with semi-automatic weapons that have no purpose other than killing who walk into classrooms of innocent six-year old children kill people. With even one less gun, there would be more parents still hugging their loved one tonight. How dare you think that your "right" to own killing machines is worth more than the right of our precious children to live?
Unfortunately, it seems that this person of faith is laying out a subjective argument that dismisses the person behind the act and focuses on a tool instead. Had the suspect driven a car into a crowd of people, would they also be laying the blame on the auto industry, as there are more people killed in auto accidents annually than with firearms. This sort of tragedy is entirely unacceptable, but focusing on anything other than the cause (an individual act) is hardly productive or helpful to those grieving the loss of loved ones.
Please, stop politicizing tragedies and think about how to change society in ways that reduces violence. Laws and regulations are not something that works, so maybe it's time for something a but different.
As the nation comes to grips with the Dec. 14 shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the nation's capital braces for the rush to restrict gun rights.The Newtown shooting is the first mass school shooting since the April 20, 1999 shooting in the Littleton, Colo., at the Columbine High School, where 12 students and one teacher were killed by a pair a gunmen, who like the killer in Newtown, killed themselves in the midst the carnage.
Time will tell what will come in the wake of the Newtown shooting, but Columbine was a cultural earthquake and in the hysteria that followed sent Republican leaders in a panic. It was a panic that nearly led to the GOP restricting gun rights—not the Democrats.
This is the inside story of how I held back the Republicans from curtailing our gun rights until help arrived.Washington is full of brave people when times are good and cowards when things get tough.
There is perhaps no greater example than the Congress' reaction — in particular the Senate's reaction. In the course of a few hours, lifelong self-proclaimed advocates of the Second Amendment were looking to enact the most sweeping gun control legislation in a generation.
They almost succeeded.
We were in our offices in the Capitol building when news broke on CNN of a school shooting in Columbine. We watched in horror as students scurried out of their classrooms trying to avoid the rain of bullets.
The April 20, 1999 shooting massacre at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., was a national tragedy. In the aftermath of the shooting, Sen. C. Trent Lott Jr., (R.-Miss.), the majority leader, led his other GOP senators to pass a gun control bill before the Memorial Day recess.
Before the bodies had been buried there was a call for Congress to enact new gun control legislation. The Democrats and the press focused on that fact that Eric D. Harris and Dylan B. Klebold had procured their weapons through the use of a "straw man" purchaser, who bought a rifle and a shotgun from a gun show for the pair. The fact that purchasing a gun on behalf of another person was illegal, President William J. Clinton and his allies were demanding Congress shutdown gun shows.
Shutting down gun shows has been the dream of Democrats. The shocking aspect of the coming floor debate was not that Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y) were pushing another gun control scheme.
The April 20, 1999 shooting massacre at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., was a national tragedy. In the aftermath of the shooting, Sen. C. Trent Lott Sr., (R.-Miss.), the majority leader, led his other GOP senators, such as Sen. Charles T. Hagel (R.-Neb.) to pass a gun control bill before the Memorial Day recess.It was that a number of formally stalwart supporters of the Second Amendment were piling on.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a longtime foe of gun control bills, had introduced his Juvenile Crime Bill in Jan. 20, 1999, but it lanquished until it became the vehicle to exploit the Columbine tragedy. [...]
Poetry without justice:
Now the Dancing in the Blood..
Of the victims begins.
The little ones lost…
But instead of prayer and thoughts for and of them..
The use of their loss begins, by those whom have no sense of shame.
Whom think only of a 'tool' used for evil..
Not of the victims.
Not of the accused..
But an inanimate tool..
Those people sicken me.
As a result of this new school shooting, you will be able to see a massive sweep to outlaw semi-automatic rifles, ban handguns, do everything they can to crush our ability to stand up to a tyrannical government or defend our homes. This is the beginning of the end for American Liberty.
What the response should be, is that Every Responsible Adult be encouraged to pack a gun for defense and have access to a rifle. Evil is not stopped by giving in to it or running away from it… and what we have seen today is truly Evil. Evil that ran unchecked.
Tu ne cede malis...
