I Hope This Song is Appropriate for Today

[CuteOldGuy]

Still having trouble dealing with the horror in Newtown. This song came to mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaY7T...b8w1Hlj07qrCgQ

[Fast Gunn]

There are many grieving parents tonight.

They will never recover from this monstrous act of violence.

. . . Let's send prayers their way.

[Sweet N Little]

It made me think of Eric Clapton when his 4 year old son died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0

[DallasRain]

sad day indeed!

[timpage]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Still having trouble dealing with the horror in Newtown. This song came to mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaY7T...b8w1Hlj07qrCgQ

Wow COG, that is a real tribute. Does it make you feel any better about the system you back that allowed the shooter today to walk into a kindergarten classroom and shoot a bunch of 5 year olds? Tell us all about it. Tell us how freedom demands a system that allows something like this to happen.

[CuteOldGuy]

Honestly, I don't support systems that allow anyone to shoot any other person, other than in self defense. Find someone else to blame, Timmy, like, maybe, the shooter?

[timpage]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Honestly, I don't support systems that allow anyone to shoot any other person, other than in self defense. Find someone else to blame, Timmy, like, maybe, the shooter?

You can tell your self that if you like. But, you know it's wrong. People can't shoot other people unless they have guns that allow them to shoot other people. Again, I'm a gun owner, I believe in the right to defend ourselves with firearms....against the government and against criminals who want to do wrong against us. But, how can we take the position that everybody should have access to guns when there are people that will walk into a Kindergarten class and shoot 5 year olds? Explain it to me. I can't justify it. This one has hit me right in the gut.

[Yssup Rider]

I think the short answer is get your filthy hands off my freedom.

the longer answer is that I thank God my children survived their school years without trauma, and I let them know how thankful I was they managed to escape that, war and lynch mobs today when we spoke.

[CuteOldGuy]

Originally Posted by timpage

You can tell your self that if you like. But, you know it's wrong. People can't shoot other people unless they have guns that allow them to shoot other people. Again, I'm a gun owner, I believe in the right to defend ourselves with firearms....against the government and against criminals who want to do wrong against us. But, how can we take the position that everybody should have access to guns when there are people that will walk into a Kindergarten class and shoot 5 year olds? Explain it to me. I can't justify it. This one has hit me right in the gut.

I don't recall ever saying that anyone who wants a gun should have one. The right to have a gun should not be denied arbitrarily, but if someone is incompetent, a criminal, mentally ill, or some other criteria, I have no problem with denying them a gun. If a person refuses to secure their guns when not in use, they should lose the right to possess a gun. I'm sure there are other criteria as well that can and should be used to deny a person a gun.

I want to know how this guy got ahold of these guns in the first place. He wasn't mentally stable enough to handle them, being autistic and on psychotropic medications. Did his parents not keep their guns secure? Did some dimwit sell or give him the guns? If a licensed dealer sold him those guns, that dealer should his license, and face criminal charges.

But I wouldn't take stricter gun laws off the table. I just don't want to start there.

[Yssup Rider]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

I wouldn't take stricter gun laws off the table. I just don't want to start there.

where would you start? Locking down all intellectually challenged citizens?

Denying the mentally ill, handicapped or emotionally "treatable" among us access to firearms is a stricter law, right?

Also, why the hell should ANYBODY have access to automatic weapons? Period? To protect yourself from a lynch mob?

[JD Barleycorn]

When was the last time that a legally owned automatic weapon was used in a criminal act? Hint: it will be the first time as well.

[Whirlaway]

The anit-gunners are going hysterical....like Rahm said.................

[Randy4Candy]

As with everything, no one will be completely satisfied with any answer to a hard question.

But, at the core of all of this is whether or not "The Governmnet Is Coming Tomorrow To Take ALL Your Guns Away." I was eating and having a couple of beers last night at the bar and this subject came up among the patrons. One of the guys said that, and I don't know whether or not he's correct but it sounds plauseable, the number of gun owners in Ohio, Pennsylvania and another state in that area would be the largest army in the world. Fair enough, except I pointed out that they were not an army because they were not trained to function as a unit. He ammended his claim from "army" to "arms bearing citizens." That's fine. How many helicopters, tanks and drones do they have? He replied that there would have to be someone to fly and operate them. I asked him if his argument was not now moving from "rugged individulaistic self-defense" to depending on some people he doesn't even know to beileve the same way as he does. The silence of the crickets dominated. Now, that pissed a few of them off and I got the silent treatment thereafter. So what? Facts are facts and examination of beliefs is always good. I don't hate the guy nor do I think he is a sorry individual and would have a beer with him anytime because there are a lot of other things we have in common. But, the emotional level of the attachment to a potential event - though in a practical sense unlikely - is a waste of personal bandwidth. The discussion there, as well as here, needs to abandon bumpersticker sloganeering and easy cheap shots.

No one here thinks that what happened in Connecticut was either good or justifiable. It may not have been preventable even with new things supposedly designed to prevent it that may or may not be implemented in the future. But, all the while knowing there will not be a 100% success rate, we need to figure out how to at least MAKE IT HARDER for things like this to happen.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Sweet N Little

It made me think of Eric Clapton when his 4 year old son died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0

+1 Thank you, SNL. It's been a while, and it's so very appropriate.

[Guest032516]

Originally Posted by Sweet N Little

It made me think of Eric Clapton when his 4 year old son died.

Hmmm.

A song by George Harrison made you think about a song by Eric Clapton - a man who had an affair with Harrison's wife.

We'll have to let the professional shrinks figure that one out.