Please read this chilling story in the Washington Post about Jesse Osborne, who wanted to go down in history as the school shooter who killed more people than the killers at Columbine or Sandy Hook. You can read it here for free, where it is not behind a paywall.
He spent many hours on the Internet reading about mass murders and idolizing the murderers.
He wanted to use his dad’s semi-automatic but he didn’t have the combination to his dad’s gun safe. So he took his dad’s 40-caliber pistol, killed his dad, and headed to the local elementary school in South Carolina that he had attended, There he killed a six-year-old on the playground, but his gun jammed and he was taken down by a volunteer foreman.
Ironically, his father’s semi-automatic was not locked in the safe. If Jesse had been able to bring it to the elementary school, he would have achieved his goal of being the biggest mass murderer of them all.
Jesse is 16 now. He recently had a hearing. The judge has to decide whether to try him as a juvenile or an adult. If tried as a juvenile, he will be free at the age of 21.
What kind of society breeds such sociopaths?
Think of the mayhem he would have caused if he had been able to get his dad’s semi-automatic. He dreamed of killing scores of people. He wanted to be famous.
If he is ever freed, he should be a keynote speaker at the NRA annual meeting. There’s only one hitch: the NRA does not allow guns into its meetings. Sad.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
… and the longer we wait to do something the more killings sociopaths will have to emulate. I don’t know whether the US has more sociopaths, but we sure have figured out how to enable them to kill the most innocent people.
We’re a nation build on sociopathy. We reward it in our highest business and political leaders.
“I don’t know whether the US has more sociopaths,”
The US is a sociopathic country itself. Name any other country that has been serial bombing innocent women, children and elderly resulting in millions of deaths as this country has been since Viet Nam.
“Oh, but they are collateral damage.”
Collateral damage my ass. Dead is dead and the death and destruction machine that is the US shows that sociopathic nature.
I am not surprised that there are perpetrators of these types of killings as this country steeps in, is suffused with violence through and through.
Syria ,Russia
Duane: You and I are on the same page. The US is now militarily involved in 76 countries. There doesn’t seem to be any outcry about Trump wanting to increase the funding for the military. I’ve been complaining but I don’t have 2 million to give to influence any politician.
Killing is killing and the US is doing just that, and doing it for years and years. How much damage and loss of life is enough? When is the US going to use its resources on helping people instead of killing them in the name of spreading democracy and killing the Muslim enemy? Or, killing the _____, you name it enemy?
The NRA spent $30 million to buy Trump.
How many senators can you buy for $2 Million?
Wait, DeVos bought Sen Toomey for only $60,000.
There are some bargains to be had.
Diane, Senator Todd Young [R-IN] was purchased for $2,896,732. I’m still writing him daily letters and calling him corrupt Senator Todd Young. How much inaction on gun safety can be bought? Am I supposed to be proud that he got over $2 million when others were bought out for less?
“Name any other country that has been serial bombing innocent women, children and elderly resulting in millions of deaths as this country has been since Viet Nam.”
Why since Viet Nam? Why aren’t you including the millions of deaths from bombing in WW II? How about the Civil War dead?
When you lump all war dead together, and just dismiss the US as a “sociopathic country”, what does that make Nazi Germany? Or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq? Once everything is evil, you end up believing that Trump and Hillary are no different. You end up thinking Hitler and Obama are no different.
You end up thinking that it is more righteous to look the other way when a country rounds up and scientifically exterminates millions of children intentionally. Because it’s no worse than the collateral damage incurred by the country waging war to depose the leader who is scientifically exterminating children.
I agree that the US has sometimes been hypocritical and some leaders got involved for selfish reasons.
But not always. And it is not so simple.
In 1990 the US waged the first Iraq War. Arguably for the wrong reasons. But then they abandoned it and some believed had they forged ahead and kept fighting, they could have deposed Saddam and prevented all the deaths and horrifying things that happened to Iraqis over the next 12 years. But fighting on to depose them would have caused death too.
And there were some in the middle east who believed that political and nonviolent responses hurt the public even more. How angry were they about the sanctions that were the “non-violent” way to try to make things better for people in countries led by awful leaders? Who suffered the most under sanctions?
The US has had some awful leadership that was greedy and power hungry. And it has some leadership that tried to make choices about how to conduct ourselves in the world where those leaders knew that every choice would have some blowback. It’s impossible in this world to act — or NOT act — without causing some harm somewhere.
And not all people making those choices are sociopaths even if a choice they make does cause harm. Sometimes not acting is the act of a sociopath, too.
You can turn your blind eye to that death and destruction-as almost all Americans do.
And that “turning a blind eye” and excusing the millions of deaths caused by America’s militaristic foreign policies then allows that death, destruction and violence to continue unabated. And that mayhem filters down to everyone in society. You might deny that. Okay. I don’t.
When it comes to the justifications for unjust and unnecessary violence—and the way those rationalizations corrupt and destroy the very societies that use them as excuses for the inexcusable—I am put in mind of a golden oldie, written by Bob Dylan but [IMHO] best sung by Joan Baez.
“With God On Our Side.”
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSGMlDCj18
Thank you to everyone for a lively discussion.
😎
Duane,
I wasn’t turning a blind eye to the death and destruction at all. I wasn’t even trying to justify it or saying that it was okay.
It’s just that the other side of that is not getting involved and turning a blind eye toward suffering and death in other countries when perhaps there is something our country could do to make that better.
So I just think it is more complicated than just assuming that every President is perpetrating violence and “collateral damage”. I think Obama was naturally anti-war and I don’t think it was some evil advisors who turned him into a someone who was suddenly unconcerned with collateral damage. I just think he recognized there was going to be a lot of collateral damage no matter what he did, and he tried to do what seemed least destructive. He may have been wrong, but it’s also possible that any other actions he took would have caused even more collateral damage.
Not being a fan of the Obomber, he who ordered the extra-judicial killings of two American citizens without any legal proceedings whatsoever, I can’t agree with your assessment of his thinking. We’ll just have to disagree on that one. And yes, I am harsh, strident or whatever you may like to call it in calling out the violence, death and destruction of this country. I know no other stance.
I agree with Arthur. We have no monopoly on sociopaths as individuals or societies. We just make it easier for them to act on their most destructive compulsions. And unless you are fixated on specific places or numbers, it’s widespread: the Soviet Union and now the U.S. in Afghanistan, Russia in Ukraine, Chechnya, Turkey and others against the Kurds (not to mention the genocide they deny in Armenia), Myanmar and Royhingas, North Central Africa and Boko Haram, and on and on. But we did have 15,549 gun deaths last year. USA, USA!
But not one word about a viable solution.
Here is something you to worry about. Call your representative today!
Click to access opioid-addiction-disease-facts-figures.pdf
I have a viable solution.
Sue the Sackler family–whose net worth is more than $14 billion-and hold them personally liable for opiod deaths, the product that made them rich.
Sue the gun manufacturers for deaths caused by the products they make and market. Hold them personally liable.
“He spent many hours on the Internet reading about mass murders and idolizing the murderers.”
Obviously we need to ban the Internet.
No, we need to ban assault weapons.
TIC, Diane, TIC*!
*For those self-diagnosed with AIIDS**, TIC = Tongue in Cheek
**AIIDS = Acronym Identification Impairment Disorder Syndrome
http://www.wndu.com/content/news/Assault-weapon-term-lacks-a-clear-definition-475704873.html
Which ones?
What will the effect be?
For how long?
Whom will be ban from owning same?
How will you enforce such a ban?
Will your ban include clip-fed, semi-automatic handguns like the one used to perpetrate the these deaths?
April 16, 2007
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (known as “Virginia Tech”) in Blacksburg, Virginia
Death toll. 32
Weapons used,
Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol, .22 caliber, and Glock Model 19 semi-automatic pistol, 9 mm caliber
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/rpt/2013-R-0057.htm
It has to be crystal clear. The tool is not to blame.
Morgan,
Not that difficult.
Congress banned all assault weapons from 1994-2004.
Renew the ban.
You are an NRA shill.
Nuclear weapons don’t kill people. People kill people. Why shouldn’t every civilian have a drone and a supply of A Bombs and H bombs?
He would have found another means if he didn’t find the .40. Stop blaming the means and placing band aids on everything. Safety precautions were taken and the rifle was locked. See how easy that was to eliminate a mass murder? Now if dad had only followed gun safety, he’d still be alive. Also, if the parents noticed their kid had these deadly thoughts….
Right. If he couldn’t have gotten a hold of a gun, he would have used a baseball bat or an Xacto knife or a well-sharpened pencil. Think of the damage.
The Xacto knife would have made a better slasher movie. So in the states that have made it difficult to obtain the assault style rifle there have been multiple slashing fatalities ? No !
The assault weapon was not locked up! The boy thought it was, and that’s why he didn’t use it. He didn’t have the combination to the safe. Dad forgot to lock up his guns, and Dad is dead. If the boy had taken the assault rifle to school, he might have acted on his sick fantasy and killed 150 or more.
Too much CNN. Give it a brake.
Too-easy gun availability is the core reason the U.S. has more gun shootings (homicides and suicides) than any other nation, per capita.
But our culture, steeped in violence through TV, movies, video games, and news coverage (“if it bleeds, it leads”) must share much of the blame. Violence sells tickets and raises TV rating shares, so it will continue, because our culture prioritizes profits over the Common Good.
All those who make these violent shows, games, and movies, and schedule the news reports of violent crimes while ignoring the many good deeds done by people as well as the existential threats of Capitalogenic Climate Change (to borrow Paul Street’s apt term) and nuclear weapons, refuse to accept their responsibility for adding to this violent culture.
This is another area where greed kills.
Not buying that .The Japanese have imported that culture of violence in entertainment on steroids . Homicide rate .31 per 100k . USA USA USA 4.88
An eye opener
http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/media-violence-japan-vs-america
It seems sociopaths/psychopaths are born, not made (though environment may have some role):
We have them at our school. The parents create them!
We have kids that hit everyone around them and spit and yell all day. And they’re parents are not alarmed nor do they respond to school requests for assistance.
Send them home.
Interesting, thanks for the link.
Duane,
From some of your posts over the years, I always thought of you as someone who was very hesitant to label any student. It seemed as if you might have had success reaching students who other teachers might have given up on as incorrigible or even in a few cases a sociopath. But you recognized something in them or made them feel like they had something to offer the world instead of feeling they were less than nothing. (If I am confusing you with another poster, I apologize).
Anyway, I just wanted to comment that I it was one of the things I most admired about you. I imagined lots of students passing through your classrooms who might have been overlooked and you saw the good in them.
Thanks for the kind words NYCpsp. I don’t claim to have reached them all. As a matter of fact every year there were usually a half a dozen or so that, in my mind, I tried to help them learn to learn and even accept their own decisions and learn to overcome what was at the time very trying times for them. And every year I failed them, meaning I didn’t reach them in the fashion that helped them enough to overcome what they were going through. I tried my best but I know so much was out of my control. At least at times I hope they saw Spanish class as a bit of a refuge from their troubles-I even told some that thought.
Now, I don’t believe that what I did was anything different than what the vast majority of teachers were doing in their classrooms. And some even went a lot further in trying to help students-buying them shoes, clothes, meals etc. . . . I also see it as most teachers are very empathetic to others, especially the children in their charge, more so than any other jobs environments in which I was employed/involved, except for maybe nurses who have similar empathetic capabilities as a profession. I know there are others also so I don’t mean to exclude them.
Again, thanks for the kind words.
The problem with American ruling elite rhetoric and propaganda is that the INDIVIDUAL is always responsible for bad things, but it NEVER goes beyond that. Congress and the Senate and corporations do not want to look at how society and culture help foster and tenderly nurture any kind of behavior and, in this case, a very bad mindset and horrific violence.
Add a lack of strong, accessible mental health services and weakening social safety nets combined with cuckoo gun laws, and you have a perfect storm of mass murder. And unfortunately, it’s not the ruling elite, like Wayne LaPierre et al, that get the receiving end of it. They manage to pit civilian against civilian, and brilliantly so at that.
I am all for individual responsibility and autonomy, but it must always be well balanced with collectivist causes, catalysts, culture, and systems. Both explain the individual and BOTH are INTERDEPENDENT. Americans are slow to wake up to this idea, but they are doing so more and more, and they did so in the past, such as in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1960s. Americans are amazing people.
Emma Gonzalez and the teachers of West Virginia are shining examples of Western and Northern European style collectivist thinking and action. More power to them! More power to Americans!!
This will take very heavy lifting, but you’re building your muscles at the same time and getting stronger.
“Congress and the Senate and corporations do not want to look at how society and culture help foster and tenderly nurture any kind of behavior..”
Maybe because you are Norwegian you are unaware about some facets of American society. But the statement above is not true.
The Republicans in Congress are happy to blame society and culture for this behavior. It is our “permissive” culture. We don’t have prayer in school. We took religion out of school and aren’t teaching our children what the Bible says about right and wrong. It’s all the fault of those public schools and the liberals who hate religion. No wonder American culture is so bad because Hollywood is showing too many violent movies. Hollywood culture is to blame All those permissive liberals, you know…..
I’m ignoring you.
I don’t think you realize how condescending it sounds — not just to Americans but to so many cultures around the world — when you say “Emma Gonzalez and the teachers of West Virginia are shining examples of Western and European style collectivist thinking and action…” Really? “Western and European style”? You don’t see how that might sound offensive to people living in countries all over the world?
Grow up and stop trolling. Learn from Americans and those abroad. We need focus on the resistance, not your childish hysteria.
I agree that I (and everyone) should learn from Americans and those abroad.
I want to focus on the resistance. I just want to focus on it without making it all about those teens being “shining examples of Western and Northern European style collectivist thinking and action.”
That you could not praise a movement without bringing it back to your own (superior?) culture is revealing. And the truth is, that “Western and Northern European style collectivist thinking and action” has not always been used for good. It has been used to justify much evil as well.
We need to focus on changing the situation.
Not focus on making insulting attacks in which you present yourself as above it all and the arbiter of all that is good (which just happens to be white western culture, of course). In many ways, some of your comments make allusions that are no less racist than those of the alt right. And I don’t think you realize it. You give the politicians of whom you approve (almost always white and often Scandinavian) a pass for the same kind of moral and ethical compromises in which you attack US Democrats. And when Americans do good, you praise them for being like northern Europeans. Why characterize admirable actions “shining examples of Western and Northern European style collectivist thinking and action” instead of just noting your approval? When you criticize the right wing and Trump, I don’t hear you saying that they also embody “western and northern European style collectivist thinking and action.” Because they do. It all depends on what part of history you are viewing and what part you are ignoring.
I have noticed that we agree on many of the goals of what we want, but you often include some “white European superiority” allusion that I find to be quite offensive. And I also find it revealing.
I disagreed with your statement that “American elite rhetoric and propaganda” is always blaming the “individual” and I pointed out that the right wing is always happy to blame culture and society for violence but it is just that it is the liberal culture and “permissive” society that they blame. Why not consider that point?
I’m not here to play polemics with you. Glad you’re here to defend public education, or so I think. More power to you. I’m keeping your orientation on education and discarding the rest of your molecular, OCD nitpicking. Not interested. Get a life before yours passes you by. My last words, as I’ve already wasted too much time with you……
And for the record, there is nothing « white superiority » about me. Please don’t map your own issues and views and project them into me. You may well have the right ideas and the wrong people you attribute them to.
“I am all for individual responsibility and autonomy”
Clearly you are not. Neglected children are lacking personal responsibility and an excess of autonomy, which comes from bad parenting.
If there is anything wrong with the culture as it relates to guns, it is the inane and ubiquitous use of guns in irresponsible and criminal actions depicted in film whilst the most of the action movie stars berate gun owners, manufacturers fully under the protection of their personal “armed” bodyguards.
Now if you really want to talk about a social crisis let’s talk about the opioid epidemic and no it is not the money-hungry big-pharma.
https://draxe.com/opioid-epidemic/
Again it is the parents. Lock up the guns! Save more lives. Lock up the medications!
NRA members are solicited to buy firearms related products, just a golfers are enticed by new clubs–which they don’t need.
Big pharma is responsible for making many of us able to tolerate living with debilitating pain. Irresponsible Doctors and parents make abuse common.
By any comparison gun owners are head and shoulders above the most common causes of pain and suffering. Such as texting while driving for instance.
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/05/09/study-texting-and-driving-kills-more-teens-annually-than-drinking-and-driving/
Morgan M. Audetat,
Most democracies — in fact all of them — have neglected children and drug abuse etc.
Only America has massive gun violence. Including 18 and 19 year olds — from gun-loving American families — who walk into high schools or elementary schools and kill dozens of teens and first graders. That has happened far too many times just in the first 2 months of this year. How many more times does it have to happen until you say “hmm, maybe it IS the easy access to specialized weapons capable of mass killing” that we should stop.
These aren’t hunting rifles. They are military grade weapons. And no, other democracies that also have neglected children and drug abuse don’t make them easily available to 18 year olds. Or citizens of any age.
Morgan, these types of guns need to be irrevocably banned in the hands of civilians. I assume NYPSP agrees with that?
If it were up to me, I would make it very difficult to buy a gun, and I would have a very elaborate screening process. I would also think of ways to take guns away from everyone other than hunters, security guards, police, anyone else with a legitimate reason to own a gun. I am sick of gun deaths. Enough.
But it is not up to me, so gun owners, relax
Diane, I agree completely with you. Guns are not needed in our society. It is the NRA that has turned the whole discussion into the freedom/necessity to have a gun. That distortion of reality is being promoted so that the gun manufacturers will continue to make money. I am tired of the lies. NRAtv works constantly to prove the need. Guns are being promoted to women, even pregnant ones. Buy a specially made beautiful purse to carry your precious gun. Guns are being shown as the true macho way to live. Protect your family and buy a AR-15. Be a man.
Guns kill. Enough with the nonsense. Enough of buying off politicians who don’t have the guts to stand up to the NRA and care nothing about the deaths of innocent children or adults. The NRA is a domestic terrorist organization. It promotes an agenda that is destructive to life in America.
My House Representative Pete Visclosky (D-IN) is proud that he has received an F from the NRA lobby for simply fighting for common-sense gun safety proposals. He recently took a survey online of Hoosiers and the main topics they were concerned about were 1.) healthcare, 2,) gun safety and 3.) the environment. The current GOP isn’t showing concern for any of this.
LOL. The more contributors, in this website, are sarcastic about ways of killing, the more trolls will have BAD ways to spread out to all young psychopathic minds.
IMHO, being sincere and helpful, adults should voice the principle of the TRUE meaning and goal in life to awaken all young minds.
This principle of the TRUE meaning and goal in life is the absolute truth which can be testified through lifetime of all SENTIENT beings on this Earth:
1) People love being in love
2) People hate being destitute.
3) People enjoy an easy living and all forms of entertainment
4) People are afraid of the unknown – death.
5) People dream to live in heaven (?)
Animals and insects are sentient beings. Human beings are the top form of sentient beings. If people are well aware of this absolute truth, then there would be less possibility of psychopathic mind on Earth. Also, people are easily identify the reason to cause others into being psychopathic mind. Back2basic.
WaPo has a paywall. I believe this is the same article and can be read by everyone. It proves how deadly the easy availability of guns can be. Automatic rifles are advertised as fun and give freedom. The NRA cares nothing about dead innocent people or children.
……………
Inside an accused school shooter’s mind: A plot to kill ‘50 or 60. If I get lucky maybe 150.’
http://thebaltimorepost.com/inside-an-accused-school-shooters-mind-a-plot-to-kill-50-or-60-if-i-get-lucky-maybe-150
Buying this automatic AR-15 style rifle is all about keeping our freedom and having fun. It’s definitely causing lots of fun in movie theaters, schools, outdoor concerts and in churches.
…………………….
VIDEO: How to Market an AR-15-Style Rifle: Use Freedom and Fun?
By CHRIS CIRILLO
Here’s a look at how AR-15-style rifles and other firearms are marketed.
https://static01.nyt.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000005768591
Contrast that story with the following video of a Colorado man who details how he was almost a school shooter as a teenager but couldn’t get hold of an assault weapon and then explains how an act of kindness saved his life (and others).
http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/video/17359590/
The most touching “anti-gun” plug I ever saw.
When people say “gun” a TV inspired reaction takes place in some human brains that cause a primal reaction shutting down the all rational thought.
A gun did not tease this man, nor neglect him or make him feel unwanted. In fact, a gun was not part of his story.
He said he couldn’t get one. Your dreams come true. Mine too.
End of story.
Sociopathic thinking is being activated by Sinclair Broadcasting. It is targeting people who are willing to believe Trump and Fox news and other conspiracy mongers.
The FCC currently prevents any one company from owning stations covering more than 39% of US TV households. Sinclair Broadcasting is attempting to shift some of its assets to meet that threshold of ownership and spew fear and hate from local TV stations. https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2018/03/01/sinclair-s-terrorism-alert-desk-segments-are-designed-gin-xenophobia-local-news/219517
See also, a master explainer about what Sinclair Broadcasting is doing to your local news.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/03/john-oliver-sinclair-broadcasting-rightwing-news-fox
posted at Oped News https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/This-14-Year-Old-Aspired-t-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_Guns_Guns-In-Schools_School-180304-12.html
What kind of society breeds such sociopaths?
One that is led by someone like Donald Trump, the GOP, the Koch brothers and their 45-year old ALEC machine, the Walton family, et al.
One in which the god Mammon rules, eh!
The NRA recommends guns in schools, but won’t allow guns in its own conference. Hmmm, what kind of response do you give that?
Shout the hypocrisy out to all.
The Democrats do not know how to use language . When then go low you saw their ankles off . None of the lofty garbage about going higher.
“Day after day, Democrats must take to the House and Senate floors and say that the GOP, and especially Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan, would prefer to see school children massacred than face the wrath of the NRA. To repeat, they would prefer to see kids murdered rather than poke the gun lobby and lose their money and support.”
https://www.mikelofgren.net/russian-roulette/
YEP, for an updated listing see: https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/gun-lobbying-spending-in-america-congress/
Duane:
Todd Young $73,785 Republican Indiana, District 9 6
…………………………………………………………..
He’s upgraded into being a Senator and now was paid $2,896,732 by the NRA. I keep posting about him. He follows the GOP playbook hook line and sinker.
I sometimes wish I had the thinking capabilities to rob and steal from my fellow man like people like Young.
Duane, you lack what is needed for that role. You have compassion and conscience.
In keeping with the new NYC chancellor’s Mexican (?) heritage: Gracias por las palabras simpáticas.
Edit they
Thank you Carol Lerner for the reminder of being kindness.
The act of being kindness can influence and can save young people through the story of a Colorado man.
“…how he was almost a school shooter as a teenager but couldn’t get hold of an assault weapon and then explains how an act of kindness saved his life (and others).”
http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/video/17359590/
We need to compile these stories and to repeat sharing on Facebook and Twitter and local news. Back2basic
Another sad and compelling story that has nothing to do with the NRA. The ignorance is astonishing.
https://eddieeagle.nra.org/parents/
If you really want to save young lives from death and mayhem, teach children not to text and drive. Something we can all agree on and do something about.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/05/09/study-texting-and-driving-kills-more-teens-annually-than-drinking-and-driving/
Wrong, Morgan. If that boy had gotten hold of his dad’s assault weapon, there would have been scores dead at the elementary school.
The NRA is the root cause of the legalization of military weapons in the hands of civilians.
Assault weapons were banned by Congress from 1994-2004. President Reagan and Ford supported the ban. The NRA used its dollars not only to let the ban expire, but to hoodwink the public into believing that it never happened.
Clearly you know nothing about firearms, “assault weapon” or otherwise, and yet you go on.
There are too many variables to predict what might of happened, unlike the last mass-shooter who gave every indication that he was willing and able to carry out his many threats. You can’t blame some far-off shooter’s organization for the failure of local officials including the cowardly Sheriff’s Deputies and the FBI local office.
Blaming the instrument does not address the cause.
The NRA is no more responsible for this tragedy, than Pfiser is for the opioid epidemic; a much more dramatic and statistically awful burden on our society.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/therapy-it-s-more-just-talk/201610/middle-america-and-the-opioid-addiction-epidemic
“Assault” (a verb) style weapons were banned by people, like yourself, whom haven’t a clue to the capabilities of any person with any particular firearm. The ban made such “awful, scary looking, black, military, automatic, assault rifles” more popular than ever.
These in fact, as a category i.e. “semi” automatic AR platform rifles, are the most popular in the country, used by more responsible gun owners for every shooting sport.
In short, you are wasting your time on a subject that impacts the emotions, and not reason, of the human mind. Of course from a commercial standpoint, the money raked in by the Democrats and the Liberal media, as suck the last tear out of these poor victims, is a disgrace and would make the total contributions made by the NRA look paultry in comparison.
You are right on one point. Pfizer is not responsible for the opiod epidemic. Purdue Pharmaceuticals is. They developed marketed, and profited off opioids, and now the Sackler family can plaster its disgraced name on museums, libraries, and universities around the world.
You are wrong about the NRA. Without the NRA, military assault rifles would remain banned, as they were from 1994-2004.
You are an NRA shill.
This is part of today’s letter that I sent to my corrupt Senator Todd Young (R-IN) [NRA paid him $2,896,732]. The NRA is actively working to keep researchers from finding out how to prevent the killings. They didn’t like previous research that shows more guns in the home resulted in more killings.
….
Each massacre reminds us that there’s an enormous amount we don’t know about gun violence — what causes it, what its consequences are for surviving families, how to stop it. This ignorance is caused by the National Rifle Assn. – and on federal officials.
Infuriated by CDC-funded research suggesting that having firearms in the home sharply increased the risks of homicide, the NRA goaded Congress in 1996 into stripping the injury center’s funding for gun violence research – $2.6 million. Congress then passed a measure drafted by then-Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.) forbidding the CDC to spend funds “to advocate or promote gun control”. The result is that the CDC basically does nothing in gun violence research. The consequence is that we’re flying blind on gun violence.
After the Newtown massacre of schoolchildren in 2012, President Obama issued an executive order instructing the CDC to “conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and the ways to prevent it.” But the agency has refused unless it receives a specific appropriation to cover the research. Congress has played its obligatory role in acting as the NRA’s pawn by repeatedly rejecting bills to provide $10 million for the work.
These questions need answering: first, how many people are shot, is the number rising or falling, who gets shot, under what circumstances, and with what weapons? Second, what are the causes? What leads people to shoot other people or kill themselves? Third, learn what works to prevent gun violence, and fourth, figure out how to translate these findings into policy.
Legislators across the country have enacted laws allowing open-carry of firearms on the street or in public places, or authorizing teachers to carry arms in the classroom or on campus, with no idea whether that would result in more people being killed or more lives being saved.
More research would solve some of the riddles in the field. However, a generation of researchers have been discouraged from entering a field in which grants are hard to come by and the political push-back intense.
How many people are dead whose deaths might have been prevented if we had been able to find answers to the problem?
Here is one quote from NRAtv which is made to sell you a product:
“This threat is real our leaders are either incapable of or unwilling to protect you and the AR-15 is one of the most effective tools available to protect yourself and your family.”
NRA TV: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
Published on Mar 4, 2018
The NRA’s streaming lifestyle network aims to boost gun sales, often by using an ominous tone that would make just about anything sound terrifying…including muffins.
“There’s only one hitch: the NRA does not allow guns into its meetings. Sad.”
Maybe this could be the best strategy against the NRA and their supporters: instead of arguing for gun control, lobby for making NRA meetings and Congress gun-carry zones. Let’s allow members of congress personally defend themselves against intruders, terrorists. Poor guys are too exposed to such evildoers.
That’s a great and funny point.
If you love guns so much, allow concealed carry at NRA and in Congress and White House and Mar-a-Lago
Or within a public congressional session…..
Here is Senator Todd Young’s [R-IN] official stance on gun control after having been paid $2,896,732 by the NRA. Who says money doesn’t corrupt?
……..
The Second Amendment is the law of the land. It protects our right to keep and bear arms. To me, that could not be clearer. I will use the prestige of elected office to publicly promote that right.
Any law that infringes upon the rights of law abiding citizens is not constitutional. Most gun control laws do just this. I would work to reverse the most oppressive section of the 1968 Gun Control Act. I believe the “Assault Weapons Ban” of 1994 was bad legislation that needed to be repealed.
Source: 2010 House campaign website, toddyoungforcongress.com/ , Nov 2, 2010
Disgusting. Write him and tell him that President Reagan supported the ban enacted in 1994.
Organize or join a campaign to oust him.
Diane: Here is my today’s letter to corrupt Senator Todd Young. I made a note of the fact that President Regan supported the ban enacted in 1994. I really don’t know how to organize a group against him. I am looking for protest movements in my area and am good at making protest signs.
……….
3/6/2018 Rep. Pete Visclosky got rated an F by the NRA and is proud. Corrupt Senator Todd Young proudly got paid $2,896,732 and supports the NRA
Corrupt Senator Todd Young here is a quote from your news site: “Thank you for the continued privilege to serve you in the U.S. Senate. My mission is to fight on behalf of Hoosiers and the interests that are unique to our state. I look forward to working with you, and sharing our progress, in the days ahead.”
Are you really considering fighting on the behalf of Hoosiers who want to be heard? Hoosiers have told Representative Pete Visclosky that they are primarily interested in three things: 1.) healthcare, 2.) Gun safety and 3,) the environment. Let me know when you become interested in the same things. Gutting ACA and leaving millions with no decent, affordable health insurance doesn’t qualify. ‘Gun safety’ doesn’t mean arm everyone. It means banning assault rifles that have no usage except to kill humans. It means strict registrations and background checks. It means recognizing that guns do kill people and acting to ensure the safety of innocents. How many mass murders have to occur before you realize that you have made a mistake in supporting the NRA?
Representative Pete Visclosky [D-IN]: “Like so many of us, the issue of gun safety has weighed heavily on Pete’s mind in recent weeks. Pete is proud that he has received an F from the NRA lobby for simply fighting for common-sense gun safety proposals.”
Here is corrupt Senator Todd Young’s official stance on gun control after having been paid $2,896,732 by the NRA. [If you love guns so much, demand concealed carry at NRA conferences, in Congress, the White House and Mar-a-Lago.] Speak out against arming teachers. If you don’t allow guns in your office, don’t work to make teachers’ jobs more of a walking hell.
Repeal Assault Weapons Ban & most gun control laws
The Second Amendment is the law of the land. It protects our right to keep and bear arms. To me, that could not be clearer. I will use the prestige of elected office to publicly promote that right.
Any law that infringes upon the rights of law abiding citizens is not constitutional. Most gun control laws do just this. I would work to reverse the most oppressive section of the 1968 Gun Control Act. I believe the “Assault Weapons Ban” of 1994 was bad legislation that needed to be repealed.
Source: 2010 House campaign website, toddyoungforcongress.com/ , Nov 2, 2010
Guns are not needed in our society. It is the NRA that has turned the whole discussion into the freedom/necessity to have a gun. That distortion of reality is being promoted so that the gun manufacturers will continue to make money. I am tired of the lies. NRAtv works constantly to prove the need. Guns are being promoted to women, even pregnant ones. Buy a specially made beautiful purse to carry your precious gun. Guns are being shown as the true macho way to live. Protect your family and buy a AR-15. Be a man.
Guns kill. Enough with the nonsense. Enough of bought off politicians like corrupt Senator Todd Young who don’t have the guts to stand up to the NRA and care nothing about the deaths of innocent children or adults. The NRA is a domestic terrorist organization. It promotes an agenda that is destructive to life in America.