Rick Jensen is an ass.
Arm everyone to the teeth and gun violence will go way down.
(‘Cuz, you know…in places like Iraq, where everyone has a gun nobody ever gets shot and places like England where only a few people have guns they have to wade through streams of blood to get to work in the morning.)
it goes with the GOP vigilante justice school of thought…
sort of like the doomsday torture scenario
and trickle down economics
and tax cuts distribute wealth
and
you get the idea
He stole this idea from a news item a couple of days ago that there was a movement on a college campus in reaction to the latest shooting. The students wanted the right to bear arms. They figured this would prevent/inhibit crazies from shooting up classrooms.
Are you going to have a thread with that headline every day?
I could if I listened to that show everyday.
But we have to be ready for Red Dawn!
She’s a stripper in Philly, no?
We need to have a right to keep guns, but not everyone needs one. And in this age, having a gun does not equate to violence, but violence equates to giving criminals access to a black market of guns that is outside of the law. Point is we should not try to live like the wild west- better to live with at least a little mutual respect.
To give another European perspective – I went to Ireland this past summer and one thing I found out there which I never knew before is that the vast majority of An Garda Síochána, their national police force, is armed not with guns but with extendable batons. Only about 1/4 of their force (primarily their equivalent of SWAT and counter-terrorism units) actually carry guns.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garda_S%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na)
Now call me silly, but if a republic of nearly 4.5 million people can function safely and effectively with a primarily unarmed police force, can’t we expect our average college campus to function alright with unarmed students?
I noted too in Europe that the police do not generally carry hand guns. But if anything is done requiring force, they’re loaded for bear with automatic weapons and serious riot gear. I saw a road block where they were searching for something; looked like a small army.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed…come on guys. We can be civilized and have guns as long as we ensure that the people who are truly dangerous do not get them through the black market. No one is addressing the fact that gun crime almost always occurs with illegal guns! The people with legal ones who commit crime are the exception to the rule but get the most press. Let’s focus on the culture of violence we have., In Sweden every single adult male has a machine gun to help protect their state if they are called on. But they do not have rap songs about guns, and people are not walking down the street with them. Why can’t we do that? Are we too fucking immature to even consider doing this?
Yes, we are too fucking immature to even consider doing this.
Have you had a conversation with a stranger lately? There is a reason that a show called “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” can be produced.
People watch “American Idol”, still…
Kelli Pickler, didn’t know that Budapest was in Hungary, moreover she hadn’t heard of Hungary (only Turkey she said) and she thought Europe was a country but wasn’t sure France was. Check it out on you tube, dude.
W. was elected… twice! This country is quite dim.
Shit. That is why things are so fucked up.
Dorian, obviously you don’t love America enough. 🙂
“But they do not have rap songs about guns, and people are not walking down the street with them.”
There’s our solution guys, all we’ve got to do is ban rap music and no one will ever get shot again. Brilliant!
If you are going for the banning music gambit, you’ll have to ban Johnny Cash too.
Cassandra, how silly of you to forget, it’s perfectly OK for white musicians to sing about guns! Duh! (snicker, snicker)
No Banning anything all. I like unfettered free speech. But I wish we had a culture that did not glorify gun violence. It is not helpful to the people. And I think people should be trained to be mature enough to be responsible citizens and have guns to protect their state.
I thought it was Switzerland where everybody had to have a rifle at home, just in case?
Anyway, what would you say about non-typical students carrying concealed on campus? For example, a guy like me who, prior to my freshman year, had just spent 4 years in the Army and qualified as an expert marksman, or perhaps an off-duty police officer taking a Criminal Justice class? Under some of these “gun-free” university rules the only people allowed to carry firearms of any kind are on duty officers – UD police only recently were permitted to carry guns; they previously were required to lock them in their cars until given permission to respond to specific incidents.
An off-duty police officer or ex-army officer would admittedly not bother me as much as a drunken wanna-be vigilante frat boy who thinks guns are “cool, man” – but I’m pretty sure the latter are a lot more common on most college campuses than the former.
Hi G- Rex it is both Sweden and Switzerland. I think we have all the rules for responsible citizenship we need, we just need to have people follow them and then we can start to decrease some of these problems. A drunk vigiliante or a plain old drunk is a concern if they are heavily armed and taught that shooting others is no big deal. Change the way people think and you start to change the problem.
Mattel could come out with a line of kid-sized guns that really work so they could carry concealed to kindergarten. Of course, they’d be manufactured in China and the poor kids would die of lead poisoning before they actually got shot by anyone.
America is a violent nation! They have exported violence around the world…I came from a family of native americans who hunted! I was a pacifist that is until George Bush was selected. I now understand the founding fathers and the right to bear arms…its the consitution like it or not.
and yes, Rick Jenson is a total right wing ass!
Don’t worry about the 6,000plus 15 to 24 year-olds who were killed by guns in 2005.
Obviously nothing to discuss here.
I worry very much about that, I worry more about responsible citizenship. We need to be responsible and to have rights. If we act like kids and go around playing cops and robbers and shooting each other we cannot build our society. So we really have two choices, be responsible or have government take all the guns away. I am responsible so it is really up to the people to choose. But I wish they would teach people to be responsible with gun ownership, driving and lots of other things it would make our duties as citizens much easier for us all.
“but violence equates to giving criminals access to a black market of guns that is outside of the law. ”
Brian – How will MORE gun laws have any impact on criminals and a black market firearms trade that flourishes independent of the law?
“Don’t worry about the 6,000plus 15 to 24 year-olds who were killed by guns in 2005.
Obviously nothing to discuss here.”
Killed by Guns! Why yes, the gun just jumped up and started killing people!
What about all the people killed by cars, knives, and noxious fumes? Let’s ban them! For the children!
“We can be civilized and have guns as long as we ensure that the people who are truly dangerous do not get them through the black market.”
The black market is already illegal and not regulated, that’s why it’s the “black market.” How do you propose regulating / policing this black market? (hint – you can’t.)
You want MORE REGULATION on a market that by it’s very nature is NOT REGULATED. Surely you can see why such a cunning plan might not work…..