So I'm extreme in my views.
I've concocted all of these arguments/opinions.
I'm in fear.
And last but certainly not least, I'm a *^&$ing NAZI?
WTF?
I am not a member of any political party, certainly not the corrupt GOP, but it was the president himself that took to his bully pulpit as soon as the Umpqua event, and was followed by most in his Democrat caucus. Not mentioning one time his own home town of Chicago which has turned into a war-zone of it's own, and has been for several years now. More people dead there from "GUNSHOT" in the last 2 weeks than in the last couple of mass shootings anywhere! He hasn't mentioned that ONCE! Political expediency indeed...
In my immediate family there are at least 3 times the number of guns owned as has been recovered from that lunatic in Oregon. (brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles) And with 5 murders in our immediate family, why wouldn't we have guns? Are you kidding me?
If we're to stand against those who would want to destroy us, with or without guns, are we to stand there like a paper target, or would you rather have a gun to even up the odds a bit?
Fighting against gun crimes with guns doesn't make any sense
What? So the guy is coming at you with a gun, the nearest cop is 40 miles away, what are you gonna fight back with? Just curl up in a little ball and go gently into that good night? Whatever!
Michael Moore is a propagandist and Bowling for Columbine uses staged and edited sequences. It's political satire, not a documentary.
Finally some sense!
Really? May be some parts might have been edited to make it more easy to follow but does that make it a work of fiction? Didn't it win awards in 'documentary' category at Cannes and the Oscars? Do they give best documentary awards to work of fictions & satires?
Yep, they've (Hollywood) been doing it for almost a century now! Over and over and over. Do you suppose all those Hollywood bigshot actors, directors, producers, and Washington D.C. politicians want to take away all the guns, or just the other guys guns? Are they going to suddenly go without their own 'Secret Service' or personal protection details? Are they going to remove the guns their bodyguards carry that are protecting their kids in their schools? There is absolutely no way they will, or would. And who can blame them? HOWEVER, what is good for them should also be good for the rest of us. Do you think that Michael Moore, who's net worth is over 50 million dollars thanks to his sickening so called documentaries, is going to have his personal protection detail suddenly give up their guns? How assinine. The same goes for the politicians in Australia and Great Britain. Do you suppose that even after they've forcefully taken all of your guns, that their people don't have guns? And now that you don't have your guns, I wonder why they need theirs? How naive.
I do have a serious question though. When the only people committing gun crimes are the only people that have the guns, what then?
Criminals will be criminals with or without the guns but 12-13 year old kids (youngest was a six year old child) won't go on shooting their classmates.
America has experienced at least 28 school shootings since 1999 resulting in deaths of a total of 127 victims. No other country comes close to this numbers. No other country in this time period had more than 3 school shootings. Between 2000-2010, 23 countries other than US had incidents resulting in death on the school grounds. The number of total deaths resulting from such incidents in the US was only one less than in all the other 23 countries put together!
A perfect example of refusing to answer a question! And one more thing hakerdefoe, your conveniently leaving out the events in Oslo, Norway where Anders Behring Brevik in two attacks in one day killed 77 people (mostly kids, I think, something like 69 of them?) and injured another 319. Last year in Peshawar, Pakistan 145 dead including 132 school kids. Those two instances DWARF what has happened in America!
These are the facts.
Beslan, Russia 2004 - 385 killed 783 injured over a 4 day period.
Peshawar, Pakistan 2014 - 145 killed (132 children) 114 injured. Both of these events happened at schools.
I'll stop with those two. Since 1927 in America, 262 dead in aprx. 35 school shootings. I'm sorry, I'm not sure of those 262 how many were children. That is almost a century.
Whether they died from radical Islamic terrorists or one single lunatic madman, they were all killed at school. One of the places a child should feel they are the safest, next to being at home. While school shootings are tragic and life altering events, this thread was not started specifically asking about where and how many children died in school shootings. It was started with a question concerning how we Americans felt about gun ownership/love of guns. Because I as an American believe profoundly in the right to own a gun, does not mean that I'm "for" school shootings. That is an absurdity, and to compare the two is offensive and beyond the pale.
Moore's documentary whether fact or fiction concludes that FEAR is woven into the fabric of American society. Fear leads to guns and guns to mass shootings. And jedi's comments quoted above make me feel that afterall Michael Moore could be right.
Whether fact or fiction? Fear leads to guns, and guns lead to mass shootings? Sorry, but this is idiotic. If what you say is true, then extrapolating would mean millions of deaths in America due to mass shootings alone! A really moronic statement.
Because I own guns, I am fearful? Another truly uninformed statement. I believe one could say that true fear would be watching a person with a gun coming at you and you've no way to defend or protect yourself. That my friend would be my definition of fear!
As to seppalta's FEAR about seeing all those guns displayed, I'd think your fear would be better placed in considering the guns you don't see. I'd be thankful about the fellow in the booth next to me carrying a handgun. He'd be the guy I'd be hiding behind were I in your shoes and a criminal or crazy person came into the restaurant brandishing a gun (or machette, or chainsaw) claiming he/she was going to kill everyone there. That fellow in the booth may just save your life! I am all for that teacher having a gun! Imagine if that professor at Umpqua had been carrying a gun. Things may well have turned out quite differently than they did on that day. As it happens, the lunatic who shot him first had the temerity to tell him he'd been waiting years to do just what he did. Those few seconds could have saved some lives had "that teacher" had a gun.
I suppose Mr. Jedi will say that if I don't like it here so much, move somewhere else, the same alternative occasionally offered to German Jews in the 1930's.
This is why I encouraged that this thread be halted at the very beginning. You sir, are comparing or equating me to a nazi? Probably the most offensive thing anyone has ever said to me or about me. If your 80 years old, then you're well aware that it was Americans with their guns that liberated the first concentration camps at the end of WWII, freeing said jews. I seriously doubt that you've ever had a bullet fired at you in warning, though it would explain your extreme fear and loathing of guns. If that has happened to you then I'm sorry for that traumatic event as I can't imagine how terrifying that would be. Truly!
Your rudeness and lack of civility in comparing me to a nazi is totally uncalled for, and I would suggest that it would also mean your adding a Mr. in front of my monniker has been done not out of respect, but rather in mocking disparragment. I'm simply Jed. No mister is required.
Your propensity for avoiding large crowds, and shopping online due to your "fear" (fear without a gun?) of those places being, "prime areas for mass shootings", is indicative of your troubling lack of knoweledge concerning mass shootings. Your more likely to get struck by lightning on your way out to get your newspaper, and then on your way back into your home, getting struck again. It is a very lame argument.
And yes, cars kill more people than guns. By a long shot! Maybe we should ban cars too. Or fatty foods, or ladders, or water, or I know, fast food restaurants etc etc etc.
I've tried in all my posts here to be constructive, respectful, and kind, even when not in agreement with my friends here who have a different opinion than my own. Calling me a nazi? Comparing me to a nazi? Well, VastOne, you are not the only "pissed off" guy here now! Perhaps I'll return later. I can't play golf.
For anyone I've offended, I truly am sorry, but you asked me as an American how I felt about one of my "inalienable rights"! And now you know...
ciao