another school shooting in U.S. of A. :(

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Originally Posted by race aficionado

The next big media event that awaits us on this end is the first interview - or the first comments - from the NRA and it's top guy Wayne LaPierre.
I look forward to seeing what transpires.

Meet the Press

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LaPierre is a maniac. I own a gun and he does not represent me, not in the least.

I remember Wacko Wayne ranting about how the Obama administration was behind some kind of liberal conspiracy to ransack the American people from their weapons, but there was zero evidence of that, as usual. The NRA will simply shrug off any amount of dead people and point fingers at other causes. "Guns don't kill people. They just miraculously discharge and fire lead into your skull by accident."

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Originally Posted by nigelred5

We have had a uniformed police officer assigned to our schools for over ten years. When I tought school just inside of the DC beltway in the late 80's , we had two full time police officers permanently assigned to that school. They were needed for problems INSIDE the school. It was a horrible neighborhood. We hadshootings at school, in a city with the tightest gun ban in the nation Baltimore City schools have police officers.

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Now, all of that I much sympathise with. The same is true of some particularly troublesome schools in the worst areas of some European cities, I'm sure.

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Originally Posted by nigelred5

Every school in my county has had similar procedures as the school in connecticut for years. All external doors are locked once the first bell rings. Teachers or administrators are posted at all doors when the doors are unlocked. All doors have video cameras and intercoms. That has been in place since my 15 year old daugher was in pre kindergarten. Our schools are far more concerned by abductions than mass shootings.

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Again, understandable, though I do tend towards the view that it's possible to go too far in terms of surveillance. There's enough of it about on our streets without introducing it to schools and the like.

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Originally Posted by nigelred5

.... I believe in training, registration and regulation, and responsible ownership not outright bans.

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Which I think many will agree is a very reasonable compromise.

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Originally Posted by schmenke

Which I think many will agree is a very reasonable compromise.

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Agreed, every bit of which is already in place in many jurisdictions in the US,including connecticut where the latest tragedy occurred.

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Originally Posted by nigelred5

Our country's freedom from a tyrannical government was earned through private possession of firearms ... a fact that was not lost by the writers of the constitution and the bill of rights of our country. One that was so important to our founders that is spelled out and guaranteed not to be infringed in the document that rules our country. That right is second only to the right to free expression.

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I don't want to be picky here, but I think the constitution was meant to allow the Patriots to bear arms against the Poms. I really cannot imagine, in my wildest moments, that bearing arms will save anyone or groups of people from you present government's military in any circumstance whatsoever.

They threw this data to us on TV this evening. (no source was offered though)

USA is 5% of earth's population

USA owns 50% of earth's guns

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

I don't want to be picky here, but I think the constitution was meant to allow the Patriots to bear arms against the Poms. I really cannot imagine, in my wildest moments, that bearing arms will save anyone or groups of people from you present government's military in any circumstance whatsoever.

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The end of the war effectively the Treaty of Paris (1783) which wasn't ratified by congress until the end of the first fortnight 1784.
The US Constitution was finally ratified in 1789, some five years after the American Revolutionary War. I think work commenced on writing is as a result of a debt crisis (sounds familiar) at the end of 1786.

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Originally Posted by Rollo

The end of the war effectively the Treaty of Paris (1783) which wasn't ratified by congress until the end of the first fortnight 1784.
The US Constitution was finally ratified in 1789, some five years after the American Revolutionary War. I think work commenced on writing is as a result of a debt crisis (sounds familiar) at the end of 1786.

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The point here is that "Taking up arms or bearing arms" against the British military by Americans back in 1782 is quite different from taking up arms against the might of the US military and the various branches of the services like the FBI, Homeland, CIA, etc.

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

I don't want to be picky here, but I think the constitution was meant to allow the Patriots to bear arms against the Poms. I really cannot imagine, in my wildest moments, that bearing arms will save anyone or groups of people from you present government's military in any circumstance whatsoever.

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Exactly, just to give Mel Gibson- alikes the opportunity to nerf us miserable English (to be distinguished from proud, oppressed Scots). From the foregoing you might interpret that I believe that the USA is a seriously effed-up society. That is your perogative, I make no comment either way, except I wish Marvin Gaye's dad hadn't been toting to enforce his inalienable right to slay a family member when arguments get out of hand!

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Originally Posted by chuck34

I have seen the light!! Thank you BDunnell. I finally understand, being prepared for something, however remote the chances of it happening are, will only instill feelings of insecurity. You're right! How could I have ever been so dumb?

Now to go home and remove all the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors from my home. Rip out the seat belts from my car. Cancel all my insurance. Remove the warning labels off of everything that I own. And live the good life of not having any feelings of insecurity.

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Most of the items you flippently suggest to remove have been designed to preserve life, a gun, no matter how you dress up it's use, is meant for one thing - to take a life.

Maybe if I was a born and bred American, I'd have been brainwashed before my 5th birthday, bus as it is, from where I am, the whole idea and attitude towards guns in the USA is alien.