Geez seems crazy
"lawmakers in Michigan passed a bill — over the objections of the state’s school boards — that would allow people to carry concealed weapons in schools"
Quads
+1 here Quads - That blows me away!
Dave
I love my country and I'm as patriotic as the next American, but I stay angry over the gun issue in this country all the time. I believe in having a strong military in which we have one of the strongest. That being said, there's enough guns and weapons here that would circle the planet.
Once again, we had another mass school shooting here in Connecticut.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-school-shooting/index.html
Unfortunately, this has become a regular occurrence here starting back in the 1980's. Mass school shootings, workplace shootings, shopping mall shootings, the massacre at a McDonald's back in the 1980's. The list goes on forever.
We have the Second Amendment to our United States Constitution, which gives our citizens the right to keep and bear arms. It was adopted in 1791.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
I fully respect our Constitution. It's one of our greatest documents along with the Declaration of Independence, which broke us free from England.
Unfortunately, in modern times today, you can get a gun here, any kind you want, as easy as buying a chocolate bar.
To be perfectly clear on that, for any NRA members reading this, I do mean on the black market, which is easy as going downtown where I or anyone else lives. Any back alley or someone's apartment you can get any kind of weapon you want for the right price. As long as that goes on, which it always will, this country will sadly remain the murder capital of the world.
School children will remain targets for barbaric maniacs while at school, just trying to get an education.
If I sound just a little angry, the recent school shooting here has me seeing red.
Ed
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"
does not sound like a well regulated militia, gun happy militant militia.
Looked up guns per capita and NZ is high in world standards (no where near the top 6 or 6) yet we don't shootings a frequent as you guys, one every 5 + year, get more hunting accidents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_New_Zealand
Quads
Quads wrote:
does not sound like a well regulated militia, gun happy militant militia.
Gun happy and gun crazy is what it is.
I fear our Founding Fathers would be ashamed, if they seen the way it is now.
Ed
A 2007 survey by the U.N's Office on Drugs and Crime found that the United States, which has 5% of the world's population, owns 50% of the world's guns.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/31/politics/gun-ownership-declining/index.html
Quads said
" gun happy militant militia."
I'm not sure that militia applies here. These individuals are neither part of an organized group nor trained in the use of their weapons - training which includes safety and appropriate use of the weapon. 
There's a lot of school children in Connecticut that won't be seeing Christmas this year. Their families, relatives and friends whose lives are changed forever.
I'm not a very religious man, but I have asked my uncle who is an ordained minister to pray for the families and community.
I sit wringing my hands wishing there was something that could be done about this. I fear things will never change in this land of ours. These shootings will continue without end
Ed
Our local paper, The Tampa Bay Times, publishes today this article from Bloomburg News:
2nd Amendment’s meaning has evolved
which includes this bit:
<< Here's a quick way to see how rapidly things have changed. Warren Burger was a conservative Republican, appointed chief justice by President Richard Nixon in 1969. In a speech in 1992, six years after his retirement from the court, Burger declared that "the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee the right to have firearms at all." In his view, the purpose of the Second Amendment was only "to ensure that the 'state armies'— 'the militia' — would be maintained for the defense of the state." >>
A few comments on the bottom of that article has me saying, "you would not be allowed guns in NZ you Nutter, Imagine at the Airport trying to dring the gun to NZ"
Quads
Luckily the printed newspaper doesn't carry live comments so I had not seen them until you pointed to them.
What you say does not apply to NZ only .... But TSA seems pretty good at stopping firearms at the airport if you check the TSA Blog each week with the list of weapons discovered including swordstciks and knives concealed in toothbrushes .....
One thought I have is that the Constitution and that amendment says what the Federal Governement can and cannot do and the rest is reserved to the States .... so States could ban the right to hold and bear arms? (Applies to spears, swords and bows and arrows?)
Basically in NZ military style weapons are not allowed, (AOS, Police and Military only) and guns are not to be carried in public, down the street, in a park etc. (hunting deer in the middle of nowhere is fine, with a standard rifle).
Sone of the comments for that article, (their persona, traits) would mean, they would get no licence to own a gun in NZ.
Quads
'The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,'
Dave
Quads wrote:http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/21/justice/pennsylvania-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Quads
I read this story and unfortunately this has become standard fair in this country. I feel the U.S. is beyond catastrophic with the gun situation. I have already taken the step of asking a relative of mine, if she would give up her apartment and move in with me. I have a very large house you could get lost in. More rooms than any person needs. I live way out in the country where it is much safer.
She lives in the downtown area and hears gunshots on a regular basis. I fear that she will become another statistic by getting hit by a stray bullet that comes right through the wall or window. Small children and infants have been killed in this manner already.
At least until she can find a place out in my area where it is more safe.
The gun lobby here, lead by the NRA, is too strong and they pack the pockets in Washington, just like any other lobby, but they are the strongest. Gun violence here will never end, or for that matter, diminish.
Ed
Krusty13 wrote:'The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,'
Dave
I see once again, that Wayne LaPierre is blaming television and video games on the gun violence that happens. I have watched this guy more times than I care to, blame gun violence on anything and everything except for the real problem of extreme easy access to any weapon you want.
It's all I can do not to put my boot through the television screen when I see him.
Standard LaPierre comments in which he has said many times other than just this news article:
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
"Isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?' he said, naming several violent video games, including one called Kindergarten Killers."
He has said that in the past, before this latest mass killing happened.
Basically, as the leader and the mouth of the NRA, I find him very dangerous.
Ed
After reading about the Firefighters this morning (feel sorry for the firefigters, go to do your job and pop, pop.
A comment has appeared by a poster
If you Americans put as much weight behind education in your country as you do around gun rights, your country would be intellectually unstoppable! I shake my head in disbelief at the absolute stupidity around this whole gun ownership debate. The sooner you leave the guns in the hands of professional law enforcement and the military (ie people that are TRAINED to operate them) and get them to hell out of the general population, the faster these sorts of senseless killings will end. Sadly, with 285 million guns floating around in your society, you have one hell of a task ahead of you. Good luck. The rest of the world is just stunned that so many in your country cannot see the solution here to solving this because of their intense, ridiculous desire to play with firearms.
2667 likes and 132 dislikes given
Quads
Quads wrote:http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/12/18/gun-control-port-arthur/1778519/
Quads
Port Arthur didn't change gun ownership
Dave
One thing is to use Per Capita, as I bet there are more guns in NZ now as compared to 1900 or 1950
NZ pop
1900 = nearly 1 million
1950 = 2 million
Now = 4.4 million
On thing to note in that article is about military / auto weapons though
Philip Alpers = Kiwi
Quads