Another 31 People Shot & Killed April 18, 2007
Posted by threadingwater in Virginia Tech, gun control, politics.trackback
Since my last post twenty-four hours ago, approximately 31 people were killed in gun-related homicides in this country. That’s according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
That’s homicide deaths alone, not including suicides or accidental firearm deaths. The victims are mostly young males between the ages of 15-34.
I live in fear of guns – of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – and these statistics prove the fear is reasonable. And because I have lived and traveled in parts of the world where guns are not as prevalent, I know what it feels like to move about with a true sense of freedom and safety – not the lunatic fear monger’s version in which everyone bears arms and courage is defined by shoot-’em-up hollywood movie standards. Yes, I fear guns but I am not a savage, nor am I gullible enough to believe that the answer to gun violence is more guns.
In today’s world, real courage means standing up to the tyranny of the National Rifle Association and their media and political mouthpieces. With a Democratically controlled Congress, there is at least of smidgen of hope that some sanity could be inserted into our country’s gun laws.
Have you asked your elected officials what they intend to do in the wake of our country’s latest tragedy in Virginia? They need to hear from you – not the NRA.
Addendum: Elayne Boosler, “We Are Getting Tired of Prying Your Guns Out of Your Cold Dead Hands”
As a parent my-self I am deeply saddened as to what transpired this week at Virginia Tech. I could not imagine the pain and agony that the parents must be going through, along with the despair that the perpetrators parents are also going through, let not forget about there guilt.
If you go through history not that long ago we had Jews being led like cattle into trains and shipped to the concentration camps.
I myself although not Jewish come from Russian descent. I can remember my father telling me how the communist came into his home when he was 12 years old, put them up against the wall, held a gun to his head, pistol whipped my grandfather, and raped my grandmother in front of him.
On September 11 when the trade towers collapsed, I knew that it would be a period of time when amnesia would set in and the Liberals would forget about 3000 people that died in the towers.
It just seems that this country jumps on the bandwagon when things are fresh in their minds, and then as time goes on we forget about it.
I believe that there’s a reason behind crime and violence in this country. A recent radio news program cited a study showing that England’s violent crime rate was more than four times that of the United States. It was only a few years ago that anti-gun advocates were used in England as an example of the civilized society without firearms.
A few years ago I read that an individual was visiting missionaries in Zambia, as part of what they call. “Operation footsteps” They were taken to see missionaries who had spoken at a church many years ago, they asked the question about gun violence in America.
Before someone could answer a host jumped to his feet with his finger shaking and said guns are not the problem in America or anywhere else. The problem is the lack of moral values.
He went on. You can raise your child with a gun in his hand if you instill moral values, and he will never be a problem to himself or others.
If you raise a child without moral values in a world, he or she will be a danger to themselves and others with any implement they pickup, I believe this is true.
During hurricane Katrina there are many towns along the Gulf Coast hit by the storm but New Orleans made news because of the looting and other violent behavior.
Today, moral values are simply not taught enough. Television programs glorify sex and violence treat them as jokes. The Internet is a great resource for information and education, but look at the trash our children are exposed to if not supervised.
Music degrading women in promoting violence has become mainstream environment, embraced by many. The media has glamorized Hollywood’s bad boys and bad girls and has made them into role models for our teenagers. Look at some of the clothes are children wearing, some of it is very degrading.
Whatever happened to John Wayne and Roy Rogers? They sure look better to me. Even some sports heroes are contributing to the problem. Look at them multimillion dollar athletes using drugs and steroids because winning is all that matters to them.
The moral fiber of our society is unraveling, and the result is more crime and violence. Look at what is happening today. Kids grow up not knowing their fathers, and in some cases, the mothers. What are children to think when they watch TV and see a United States president impeached for his immoral behavior, and congressmen being charged with bribery? The lessons they learned is that if you can get away with it’ it’s okay.
Our country was founded with moral values. Look at small towns in the United States, people go to worship on the weekends and care for the children , there is less violent crime in these places. Prayer has been removed from our schools, and violence and criminal behavior has increased. There is a trend here we can no longer afford to ignore.
It’s about time to stand up and speak out for the moral values that have made America great. If you’re confused about what moral values are, I suggest you may get a copy of the NRA past president Charles Heston’s movie the 10 Commandments. Watch it, and you’ll see where moral values really started.
I believe it’s not fair to imply that all gun dealers are bad. Unfortunately it’s our society today that dictates human Behavior. We are so afraid of standing up for our beliefs but yet we rather condone this so-called political correctness. I believe that this is the single most reason that this mayhem occurred. What we had here was a young adult that had serious problems within the school system along with many problems that he had when he was a child.
Everybody knew this but yet they did nothing, because of the policies that are still within their society today. Why not speak up when there’s an issue with someone’s behavior? I believe in this case something very serious was overlooked by the counselors, the courts along with the judicial system whereas not wanting to make any so-called waves regarding so-called profiling and discrimination.
I cherish my second amendment right as an American born citizen. One thing that I would suggest is that it would be better that the only people in this country that would be eligible to obtain permits to purchase handguns and/or any gun for that matter regardless whether it’s a rifle or a handgun, would have to be born in the United States of America. Just because somebody comes to his country as an exchange student and has applied for permanent residency, with a green card, does not give them the right to have this cherished second amendment privilege. I truly believe in my heart that if there was somebody in that building at that time, that was armed, that’s not saying that we would not have lost any children, but we would not have lost as many. It be wonderful to live in a utopia, but unfortunately that’s not the society we live in. We have to be realistic about what is really happening, not be so quick to point the blame at any one group and take a real good look at how we are raising our children and running our country, then we may stand a chance.
O.K. Moral values, sure. But adding the firing of another gun into a classroom or the hallway of a dormitory wouldn’t necessarily have saved lives. The denial of the level of violence that had just occurred, and the opportunity for this to continue on the campus–this was the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, after all–didn’t help. Those who could have used the public address system to close the classes for the day, and to tell students to stay in their dorms, didn’t do so–I can only think they didn’t believe that what was about to happen, could happen. I think we don’t have to be bitter or cynical to be aware. And moral to put a lethal weapon, manufactured only to kill people, into the hand of a child?–I don’t think so. As for Charlton Heston and the Ten Commandments–one is from Hollywood and the other is from the Torah and the Bible–not the same thing. We have lost students in our schools in Canada, and you have lost students in your schools in the USA. The glorification of violence, and the normalization of private ownership of lethal and assault weapons has everything to do with these lost lives. As for “liberals” forgetting about the lost lives in the violence of 9/11, that comes from way out of left field. Oh, and by the way, according to the news, the shooter at Virginia Tech was not an exchange student. He had lived with his parents in the United States since he was 9 years of age.
[...] that the Virginia Tech shootings seems to be bringing out the worse in some people. According to ThreadingWater, ‘real courage means standing up to the tyranny of the National Rifle Association‘, but [...]