President Obama spoke briefly from the White House this afternoon, delivering emotional remarks about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
An emotional President Obama on Friday called for unspecified "meaningful action" regardless of political consequences, after a school shooting in Newtown, CT, reportedly killed 27 people, including 18 children.
"We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics," Obama said during a brief address from the White House, where he repeatedly wiped away tears.
"We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. Each time I learn the news, I react not as a president, but as anybody else would, as a parent. And that is especially true today," said Obama, the father of two daughters.
Video of the president's remarks soon are available below.
Update: For those who can't watch clips online, here's a transcript of the president's comments.
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For the last 6 decades that I've been alive, this country has allowed the NRA to dictate gun policy in this country.
It is NOT working. It has not gotten any better.
The NRA needs to come up with a solution if they don't like what's being put on the table.
As Pogo the cartoon character said. "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Bring Down the NRA
This should be the point where we apply pressure, David Keene-President of the NRA, his picture should run on every page of every web site that wants the mass murder of our children to stop.
http://www.meetthenra.org/nra-member/David%20A.%20Keene
We need to stop running around wringing our hands. If 3 Senators can villify an innocent woman for Bengazi, certainly we should be able to move the nations anger to this one man and one organization.
Arresting Wayne LaPierre for conspiracy would be a good start.
But we also must think about mental health. The availability of mental health care for prevention in the US is abysmal.
Stop closing Mental Health wards!
If you want sensible gun control laws, you have to get Republicans out of office. They are too easily bought by special interests at the expense of the country.
How about rallies this Sunday at NRA offices?
How about we bring child like dolls and pile them up in front of the NRA offices? Maybe that would be an image that would stick in peoples minds.
This Sunday!
Let's go!
It's time to look away from the guns and ammo,those are a done deal. It's time to acknowledge the real weapon here and elsewhere- someone so ignored that they get acknowledgement their way. At least say "If you feel like a powderkeg, please call me just to talk- there are always alternatives" in public, on the air, in blogs, wherever. The weapon is not the gun, it's the sense of complete separation from all reason. Lets work in a sincere way to help these totally out-of-resources people. Engage ONE of these people, and you might save scores. Don't, and it GUARANTEES another tragedy.
There are many avenues to approach this problem with. That is a problem because we not presenting a unified approach. In fact the NRA has been so successful precisley because of their single point focus.
The NRA is a single point that we can attack that will end up enabling a multi-prong solution to violence in our society.
An all out assault on the NRA is the starting point for all who wish to move forward.
Save Our Children!
Destroy The NRA!
Dear NOWinosaur -- Sorry, not very likely. Community mental health resources started disappearing back in the 1960s, and in my rural southern Maryland community, I can count the number of psychologists/psychiatrists able to see new patients in less than 4 months on one hand. There is one hospital with ~10 psych beds 35+ miles away. Whom do my neighbors call? We're closer to the White House than to that nearest hospital with psych beds.
The NRA and its absolutist allies have beat back every proposal at reasonable regulation and limitation on purchases, licensing, et al: they are the ones who have turned the issue into an all-or-nothing proposition, by claiming hysterically that every rational attempt at control is in fact the "first step toward tyranny!".
Even providing a psychiatrist to every citizen could not prevent psychpathic or sociopathic outbursts. Humans aren't linear, we're inherently complex; there are statistical correlations we can derive, but they will never tell us with accuracy exactly which human is ready to break, when, and how. But we do know how to limit -- if not prevent -- the damage such individuals do when they break, and restricting the tools of violence available to them is one such thing we know.
As long as we continue to elect conservative Republicans we can forget about stricter, sensible gun laws. The truly sad part (besides the events of today and any similar day) continues to be that Rush, Sean, the Fox News team and contributing correspondents, and congressional Republicans will be able to sleep well tonight with their so-the-guvmint-won't-get-us-2nd-Amendment-rights paranoia.
To bear free will implies the right to choose,
Yet one must bear the burdens of each choice.
Some say, “For one to gain, another must lose,”
But helping each other helps ease sacrifice.
The right of arms implies the right to kill,
Yet, who are you, to judge who’ll die or live?
The right to life, so strong, yet so fragile,
Requires you to honor it and forgive.
For every right that you feel you deserve
Implies the need to give that right to others,
For you must see the truth that sages observe –
Our souls eternal bind us all as brothers.
Every right must bear responsibility
For consequences we may not foresee.
timothy McVeigh killed 168 people without a gun. I guess we should outlaw fertilizer too
If people were killing other people on purpose every day with fertilizer then, yes. I'd say we need to do something about fertilizer related killings. Seriously, that is the most brain dead argument. What does your family tree look like? A stump?
Seems to me people took down the World Trade Center without guns too. However, it sure is a whole lot more of a pain to get on a plane these days than it was before then due to all the security reforms in the wake of the tragedy. Reforms that most folks are happy to have to feel safer in the air.
I'd sure like to see some reforms to current gun laws that allow me my ultimate freedom -- NOT TO BE KILLED. Especially by one person, in minutes, with weapons no civilian needs to access. Look at how many deaths by guns in uk and japan last year compared to ours (11 in Japan to our 12,000. Compare our populations -- ours a little more than double theirs.)
Seems there's a discrepancy in the numbers, eh? Keep looking and you'll find a trend.
Because words matter, perhaps those of us who seek responsible gun laws need to reframe the discussion. The word "control" often has negative connotations, and it allows for the N.R.A. and others to misrepresent what many Americans desire; which is for government to protect the rights of private citizens while providing common sense laws to preserve the public good.
When automakers and toy manufacturers are regulated by specific standards for the products they produce, we don't call it auto control and toy control. When the FDA sets and enforces standards, nobody accuses them of food control or medicine control. When our water and air quality is regulated, we don't claim that it's water control and air control. And when the FCC regulates interstate and international communications, it's not referred to as speech control or media control.
The only issue that I can think of where government regulation is described as control are laws relating to firearms. And I'm sure that the N.R.A. likes it that way. I don't know when the word control was first inserted into the discussion of gun regulation, but by using the word it allows for the false and negative portrayal of advocates who simply desire common sense gun laws as seeking to control guns and to abolish the Second Amendment, which then allows for the inaccurate portrayal of the N.R.A as defenders of Second Amendment rights.
It's time to change the debate by losing control and calling for common sense gun laws.
The NRA is not the problem,guns are Not the problem.People killing people is the problem.Where there is a will to kill,there is a mean.If not with a gun, with a bomb using fertilizer, a massive fire using gasoline,poison in foods or drinks, hi-jacking a bus, driving a vehicle into the building, kitchen knife, baseball bat. i have not a criminal mind , but I am sure some could figure out many ways of mass killings. The point is that surrendering our freedoms is not the answer. I will take a risk and say here that parenting has a lot to do with what happened in Conn.Also I will like to put blame on violent video games,but mostly to PARENTS who let their kids be intoxicated with them and with TV in general. Parents who fail to monitor their children.Parents who do not teach good values to their kids.I am willing to go as far and say that I guarantee incidents like this happen only because bad parenting. Maybe I just put a noose on my neck for saying it,but damn if I am wrong!
Well Heczy I guess Adam Lanza's mother paid the price for her "bad parenting" since she was his first victim. Let's see what a bad parent she was. Read on.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-shooter-profile-20121218,3181219,3953992.story
This was a women who tried to be as good a mother as she could be with a special needs son. Get real. Let's talk about sensible gun regulation and not about "surrendering our freedoms" FYI I am not against guns I am against an anything goes attitude towards them. I one day hope to own a brace of Queen Anne pistols.
Gun, magazine, ammunition controls????? Better late than never.
If ammunition had the same controls as buying original formula SUDAFED, maybe some of these deaths could have been prevented.
Donate (tax-deductible) to the BRADY gun-control campaign before year end.
Umm...have you looked at how big of a problem Meth is in our country, even with the controls in place?!
Look at how many people are in prison for drug-related offenses (some multiple offenders for drugs)...obviously, our laws prohibiting drug use are working because people just follow the rules and don't use or make varying types of drugs.
Obfuscated comparison.
Meth is sold in an underground market. Guns, for the most part are NOT.
What the NRA has been able to have over the last 6 decades does NOT work.
So unless the NRA wants restrictions from others, THEY need to come up with solutions.
WHY shouldn't the NRA be forced to come up with some SOLUTIONS?
Makes perfect sense to me. I have to jump through hoops to purchase a legal drug designed so that I can breathe, because some people have misused it. Why shouldn't buying ammo be at least as difficult, if not more so?
Comparing this to drug laws is just so excruciatingly stupid. People don't obtain a load of meth and go to schools and use it to murder 18 kindergarteners. And people aren't able to manufacture guns from scratch in their closets and basements.
No, but we've taken the time to enact nonsensical laws about drugs, but nothing sensical about guns. It's an apt comparison. We've been (un)successfully fighting things that are victimless instead of fighting against things that harm a lot of people.
Rotmonian: You have a point, but it isn't the point the commenter at #2.1 was making. That commenter's point is that restricting gun ownership at all is useless, and that the drug laws prove it. And that really is an absurd apples-and-oranges comparison.
When the second amendment was written into the Constitution, the only guns available were single shot mussel loaders. It is true that such a weapon, as a knife, sword, spear, etc. can kill on person, it is hard to kill a lot of people in rapid succession. Even a sixshooter can kill only six people at at time.
Some modification or modernization to the second amendment needs to take this into consideration. We need to restrict the access to guns and magazine clips that can kill dozens in rapid succession.
Nobody goes into an elementary school and throws METH at the kids and kills 20 of them, so your argument doesn't hold much water.
Best. Presidential. Speech. Ever.
A speech is just talk.
Until the President takes action, it's just more words. It is nothing. Until the President decides that he will take on the NRA, nothing will happen.
I hate that this happened, and I would not wish it on anybody. But unless the next gunman opens fire at an NRA convention, nothing will change.
It's not just guns. Our country is SO violent, so uncaring, so un-empathetic towards others. We say we are a Christian Nation, but there is nothing Christian about how we treat each other, including our overly punitive judicial system. When 67% of Americans think we should torture suspected terrorists, there is something seriously wrong with our psych...all the way through. No wonder we raise young men to murder senselessly.
@Carol,,you said a mouthful,,I so agree with you..
Would Jesus own a gun? Have you seen their Santa Claus pictures with guns? These people are nuts. I'm so sick of the "if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns," or "guns don't kill, people do," and of course, "Should we ban cars too..." retorts. Of course they then say that if someone wants to kill some one else they'll find a way even if you ban guns - that might be true for the Kansas City football player who recently shot his girlfriend and himself, but I'm pretty sure this A-hole wouldn't have been able to kill 20 kids if he took some other type of weapon to the school to kill his mother.
To quote a tweet from Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman): "Band-Aids-on-Band-Aids @NRA people want MORE access to guns to combat all the people w access to guns."
Our country has "normalized" itself to violence. We are not only violent in deed (as evidenced here), but I truly believe that what in part lowers the barriers to physical violence is our violent speech. We speak with hate and agression to each other for the smallest thing. We model disrespectful and inconsiderate behavior constantly --- its not "cool" to be kind and thoughtful about the feelings and values of others. We just went through a long election period where the Republicans spouted unbelievable hateful speech towards the President. Last but not least, we have a serious serious problem with untreated -- in fact, undetected/diagnosed mental illness. This guy and all the other ones like him recently -- are just brim full of unbelievable anger. How can we help our families and schools with this? Yes of course, we need to better control guns, but we also have a serious problem with dangerously violent mental illness. Lets help all parts of this complex problem starting with at least controlling our speech!
Where are all our Religious leaders who were so vocal during our Political process? When do our politicians admit they have played a part with the Hatred they spew towards people with different political opinions, different skin color and ethnic backgrounds, different sexual preferences and different religious beliefs? When do we as a Nation stop acting like 50 individual countries and remember we are the "United States of America". We as parents, neighbors, community leaders need to start setting the examples of God's true teaching of love, forgiveness, tolerance, understanding and acceptance.
It is time for the NRA, ALEC, and their funders to realize, no one wants to take away your right to defend yourself in your home from someone intent on doing you harm. Nor does anyone want to take away your right to hunt or collect fire arms. However, Assault weapons, large magazines, military weapons, Stand Your Ground Laws, allowing Concealed weapons in libraries, churches, schools, grocery stores etc. goes far beyond what the 2nd Amendment intended.
My thoughts and prays are with the families of those innocents who were violently taken away from them today. God Bless you in the face of this tragedy.
Actually violent crime rates have been falling for the past two decades. Our country isn't getting more violent, there are just more of these extreme events. I'd note that they've gotten more frequent since the assault weapon ban expired.
Lorr, would you believe that, in Montana they were recently trying to pass a law to enable gun owners to bring them into bars, so that--wait for it--someone who wanted to start a fight could more quickly and more effectively be "neutralized" than waiting for a 911 response. Really. Can you imagine a half dozen patrons with three or four drinks each under their belts taking the law into their own hands?
We can put men on the moon, but we can't keep a gun out of the hands of someone who is insane?
How can we not fix this
Having had a brother who was an untreated schizophrenic, and who possessed 23 guns, one of which he once aimed at me and pulled the trigger twice (discovering in that moment that I had previously found the gun and unloaded it), I can tell you that it is damn near impossible to get a crazy person into treatment, and even with the police report of the incident, he was able to go to court and get his guns back after they had been removed from the house. And this was in California, where there is at least some modicum of gun laws. Getting a crazy person listed as crazy, so they can't get a gun, is just about impossible.
When I was in Bosnia one of the guys I was with lost it. Our 1SG thought he was making it us and as a punishment made him trade in his M16 for an M60 and then sent him out on guard duty...
Yupp just what you need to do, give someone who has had a psychotic break a machine gun...we had to wait for him to run out of ammo before we could get him out of the tower
Very true, TCinLA. Which means, of course, that sensible gun laws are only the start. We also have to start doing something about mental health, poverty, and a huge host of additional related issues.
There are a lot of possible fixes. Right after the congresswomen was shot I would have thought the congress would have taken the rule of 30 shots to a clip back to what it had been 10, when she came onto the floor why didn't they gift her with that bill. But no not a mention, shame on them.
Stricter gun laws are an absolute necessity in the USA, just as the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act is an absolute necessity in the world. Proliferation of weapons only leads to the increased chance that they will get into the wrong hands. The world needs an impenetrable system of checks and balances, or else this world will be destoyed beyond repair. We can't always recognize or fix crazy, and we can't completely stop evil, but we can attempt to lessen their ability to acquire weapons, even if that means that sane and good people also cannot have those weapons.
I want a constitutional amendment overturning the second amendment!
I agree with all of the above....what is wrong with putting into place a ban on "semi-automatic" weapons....there is no use for them except to kill masses of people. Mental health evaluations should also be in order, and the hand gun licence should be renewed every 3 years!!!
You obviously have no understanding about gun's or current gun laws do you? A semi-automatic refers to one trigger pull to one shot fired the only thing automatic is that with each shot fired another is automatically chambered through recoil action of said firearm.
A fully automatic means you pull the triger and hold the trigger and the gun automatically fires until empty through recoil.
It is and has always been illegal for a civilian to own a fully-automatic weapon in our country without an NFA license from the BATFE which is both costly and time cosuming. Not a single one of these events involved a fully-automatic weapon.
Now as to CPL/CWP's I can't speak for every state as all 50 have different laws when it comes to LEGAL concealed carry. In my state of Washington your license has to be renewed every 5 years. You have to go through a full federal/local background check including FBI, and mental health background to receive the right to conceal carry. You can lose your license for just being accused, not convicted but accused of domestic violence here, you can lose it if they feel your mental health would make you unsafe.
Now lastly I want you to consider something here. Every single event of recent like this has involved illegally obtained gun's, now tell me how does regulating them for the law abiding responsible gun owners like myself, effect criminals like this who stole the weapons in this case from his mother? I'm not saying that regulation can't help. But what most people are calling for will make no difference.
Lastly do you realize that the previous assault weapons ban was almost entirely based on cosmetics. Every weapon you can own legally now like AK47's and AR15's you could legally own during the entire duration of the AWB. The AWB had no effect on anything, it was put in place to placate the uneducated that something was actually being done to "ban" certain weapons etc, but in fact it didn't do a single thing in reality.
How about educating people, how about not turning your back on those individuals that are hurting inside, how about we stop blaming guns and address the real problem, our society
Horse manure. GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM.
Access, because of the NRA is too easy.
Illinois (where I live) had a guy who spent 10 years in jail for violence committed with GUNS (actually rifles with multiple clips). When he got out of jail, the court said he could NOT own another gun. The NRA fought for him to be able to own guns again.
WHY?
Are you stupid...... Continue to put it on people and hold guns harmless,,, its takes both..... and it is easier to get a automatic weapon than a HOV Lane permit!!!
Shadow of the Bat: You are part of the problem. Whether you like it or not, all those issues are tied up with gun violence. So long as you refuse to acknowledge that reality, *you* are the one here who fails to honestly address them.
Hey, educating people! What a good idea. Which is why the small children in a school were so effing safe.
Yes, there are many problems within society that need to be dealt with. But let's get the guns out of peoples' hands before we start treatment. It's just slightly safer.
By this crazy anti gun logic we should have banned cars decades ago with all the fatalities they cause, use your minds people
We make you get training and a licence before you can drive and that's for something that is as mundane as transportation. Yet you can be a diagnosed depressive psychotic and go down to the corner shop and get a tool whose sole and ONLY pourpose is to kill and walk out with it no questions asked?
The problem isn't Guns its who we allow to have them and why
TOTALLY apples and oranges. Cars are NOT designed to kill anything.
Guns have essentially ONE purpose. Killing.
Pilots have to have their license renewed every year. My drivers license has to be renewed every three years. I have to prove that I can see. I might have to be re-certified (take a driving test).
Why shouldn't gun owners be required to do the same?
Why shouldn't there be a national registry of guns? Cars have to be registered.
x
Yeah, and there would be millions more dead without the minimal regulations on driving. Gun ownership should be at least as regulated as driving.
No, the crazy logic is coming from you. You're the one who needs to use your mind.
A car's purpose is to transport people from point A to point B. A gun's purpose to kill or injure. Apples and oranges.
Go back to batcrap crazy world, you pig-fornicating moron.
That has got to be amongst the top 10 most asinine statements I've ever read.
A lot of people are making the "Cars kill people. Knives kill people. Baseball bats kill people. Why aren't you outlawing them?" argument. Lets remember that a gun only has one purpose. To put a round into something. It doesn't transport you place to place. It doesn't help you cut your food and make dinner. It isn't for a benign sport. Its purpose is to kill. That's the difference.
Getting a car liscense Should be a lot harder, especially if your male, under 30, over 70, don't understand right of way, felon, can't fix a flat, don't understand "high-beams", brake in a continuous lane,,,,,
By and large, the Americans who couldn't wait to blow the hell out of some brown people after 9/11 are the same d-bags who say "hey, now's not the time to talk about gun control" every time a child or other innocent dies at the hand of a psychopath with a crazy agenda and too-easy access to weaponry.
This is an awful tragedy. I don't even believe semi automatics were used in this incident(technically semi auto handguns perhaps) The simple resolution would be anywhere that doesn't allow guns. (Schools, certain government buildings what have you) should be REQUIRED to have armed security. Its extremely rare a Republican(actually truly bipartisan which few things are) argument makes any sense however this one does. Someone who has committed themselves to multiple counts of murder (20+yrs in prison up to death sentence)and probably plans to commit suicide anyway isn't concerned about a weapons charge(fine-up to 2-5 yrs best guess) Vermont has been run by Democrats almost entirely for as long as I can remember and requires NO gun permit to carry concealed nor can I think of any gun incidents in Vermont of national news anyway. Numerous popular Democratic figures support the 2nd amendment strongly....
and can you see the hue and cry about how dare the govmint require armed guards at schools and how much that'll cost in taxes? No chance that republicans would ever go for this. Why it would mean the black helicopters and the UN is a-comin'!
numerous schools have them already. No one shoots up the clean zone of the airport do they?
Armed guards at every door of every school, mall, theatre, gov building,,,? Give more people more guns to stand around and daydream about useing on their ridiculers....
yes....every one....
So sick about the shootings in CT. I'm reminded of the Amish girls who were murdered in their West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster County, PA about 6 years ago. Sending thoughts of love and peace to the universe and remembering the grace and strength of the Amish in their grief. I hope that the people of the Newtown community will be able to find their own grace and strength to go on and find ways to make sense of this horrible tragedy. Rachel--maybe you can find some sense in this mess by looking at the Amish tragedy. Everyone goes to Columbine when things like this happen, but there is another example that might help to give us some hope by looking at the Amish model of Grace and Strength, maybe you can use it. And shame on MSNBC for interviewing the children-they have no business doing that!
http://www.800padutch.com/amishshooting.shtml
I'm guessing the next thing to come out about this horrible shooting is that Obama planned it because he wants to "git r' guns"!
I enjoy shooting guns. However, I do not need to have something that is made for NOTHING else but killing humans en masse. Those are the guns that need to be controlled. Bat, you aren't thinking at all. Your analogy fails miserably. Cars are not meant to kill people and are not developed to do it better and faster like many guns are. They are not bought by pathetic cowardly people who have nothing else better to do than kill others. Too bad the shooter didn't do everyone the favor of killing himself first. He wouldn't have even needed something that shoots multiple rounds to do so.
All the arguments equating cars, turkey fryers, trampolines, etc., with guns because people are injured while using them is idiotic. If any of these objects were designed solely to kill or main, they would most definitely be banned and the person/people who made them available to the general public would be locked away forever. Perspective... it doesn't hurt to get yourself some
It is in our nature to destroy ourselves. Sad but true. Where can we be safe now? not schools, not malls, not colleges, not movie theaters where?
I"m a big Obama fan, but nothing's going to get done. Tragedies like this will continue to happen with depressing regularity because gun control is a toxic issue, especially for Democrats.
This year we have gone well beyond "depressing regularity." You are correct that nothing is going to get done because the NRA has a very strong lobby. Dems are usually targeted by the NRA because it has become a political arm for the Republican party. It will take bipartisan agreement to get some rational gun control laws. But don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen since Republicans will use gun control as a campaign issue the moment a Dem proposes any law, particularly because Congress is so polarized. Obama is going to dump this in the lap of Congress with no calls for a specific actions. And Congress will pretend to want to do something until the furor dies down.
If nothing lasting or meaningful was passed after St. Ronnie got shot, what are the chances that anything ever will?
Gun control legislation will get done when someone tries to kill the president of the NRA with a gun or shoots up their headquarters with a semi-automatic.
Ah yes, the false equivalency of banning cars because they kill as many or more people. And of course you mean all forms of transportation, because dang it, if you go from one place to another you might get in an accident and die. And yes it is true that some people will use a car as a weapon but it's not the typical weapon of choice of mass murderers entering schools to kill babies. And we spend billions on technology to make cars safer and highly regulate their safe use - not so much on the gun front.
You also can't carry a car into a classroom in your pocket and rev it up by surprise.
#9,
Typical right wing logic: Pro life. Pro gun.
The comparison isnt that awful...theres about 250 million cars in the US and 115 deaths in accidents PER DAY
Theres 300 million guns in the US and about 85 deaths a day now over half of these are suicides. A significant percentage are self defense but since I cant quick google that I wont just throw a figure out
Ok, now compare something meaningful like how many times cars are used everyday vs fatal car accidents, and how many times guns are used every day vs fatal shootings. People own a lot more knives than they do guns (or cars) but somehow there just aren't that many deaths due to stabbing or suicides by knife.
A guy in china stabbed 20+ people within the last several hours actually...
That was only the fatalities from car accidents every day
no one ever uses a car to PREVENT a death or accident
The only actual socialist in the Us government gets a decent grade from the NRA for his support of gun rights
I can go alllll day your move
And how many times were knives used properly in China that day?
How many times are cars used properly without death per day?
What is the per capita death rate in China from guns vs the US vs anywhere else?
I don't care about grades from the NRA, if I did I'd support whoever had the worst grade.
Cars are used everyday to save people and prevent death, we call them ambulances and police cars. We have many regulations and safety features in cars to reduce the deaths and accidents due to cars. Where are the equivalent regulations and safety features to reduce deaths and accidents from guns?
No matter how long you can go on there is no valid argument that would prove that guns should not be banned or regulated by comparing their use to other ways people can die.
We would both be in a Chinese prison right now for discussing their policies on line.
Much more death and crime is prevented by guns than caused.
Guns are an enormous deterrent against a larger stronger attacker or multiple attackers.
There are numerous home invasions, robberies and other felonies prevented by gun use every day.
Good thing we're not in China. Is there a point to that comment?
I'm afraid the crime statistics are going to show that there is much more crime than is being detered by gun ownership.
Many guns are used against the owner by a larger stronger attacker.
Many more guns are stolen in home invasions than are used to prevent them.
RE: #18.4
Those 18 kids must've been really big and strong for that guy to shoot them.
Idiot trolling nra member comments. How sickening.
Please consider signing this petition, as a rational way to curb irresponsible gun ownership and sales: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-gun-insurance-all-guns-owned-united-states/hGrFBMYK
Done.
So sick about the shootings in CT. I'm reminded of the Amish girls who were murdered in their West Nickel Mines Amish School in Lancaster County, PA about 6 years ago. Sending thoughts of love and peace to the universe and remembering the grace and strength of the Amish in their grief. I hope that the people of the Newtown community will be able to find their own grace and strength to go on and find ways to make sense of this horrible tragedy. I think we can learn from both of these tragedies. Why don't you shift the discussion a bit and think about the the victims and their grief. There is no control over things like this. There is no way to stop these things from happening. That said, have your guns for hunting and ban everything else. We don't need it-we don't need it!
http://www.800padutch.com/amishshooting.shtml
uhh no. because not only drunk drivers own cars.
but it does seem like the great majority of gun owners are the gun nuts, who have no need for protection afforded by your right to bare arms.
Unless you can say that more people used guns to defend they're person, property, or family with righteous intent- than the people who go on shooting sprees... the second amendment is obscelete, and actively puts in harms way, the very people it was created to protect.
Baltimore,Oakland,Chicago,Newark all of which you can be jailed for even trying to buy a gun have the highest gun murder rates...Austin Texas where you can buy 100 at a time...the lowest....I'm done with this....
Irrelevant.
The logic behind that is that the current system is working. It ISN'T working. Innocent people are being killed.
If I have to PROVE that my health is okay to fly a plane, once a year, why shouldn't you have to PROVE that you're still sane to own a gun? Why shouldn't you have to register your guns with a national gun registry, where law enforcement folks can trace guns back to you?
Your done with this? Tell that to the people in CT.
It's OUR problem. You want your guns, great. I have no problem with that. NOW. Solve the f***ing problem.
Which constitutional ammendment has been determined to guarantee your right to fly a plane?
I've been to Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago and Newark; I chose to live in Austin. But I would not choose to own a gun.
I seriously doubt that you will get what I'm saying.
Alex,
None. So what?
What we're doing now is NOT working. I'm not anti-gun. I'm anti-gun VIOLENCE.
YOU own the guns. You're pro-gun. YOU come up with some solutions. Don't tell me what you don't like that others are proposing. Come up with a SOLUTION!
If you can't come up with a solution, then don't complain when others come up with a solution you don't like.
I live outside Chicago. I've lived in the inner city. I'm well aware of the violence in the city. The city is TRYING solutions.
Out here a guy was released after serving 10 years for gun violence. The NRA went to court with him because the original judge said that he could no longer own a gun as a convicted felon who had committed gun violence.
THAT'S CRAZY!
ARMED GUARDS IN WEAPON RESTRICTED LOCATIONS
I presented the solution first thing not that I'm responsible for crazy people I'm responsible for protecting the rights of sane people to protect themselves from crazy people. Follow the tactical situation apparently this maniac had time to conduct executions. Armed guard/s would have certainly prevented most of the carnage and may have discouraged the entire incident
I think limiting gun purchases to 9 per person per day would be a very reasonable start also(theres currently no limit to the best of my knowledge nationally anyway--some states do)
Alex,
With these mass shootings. The top two commonalities.
- Guns were obtained legally.
- Weapons of choice (top two) semi-automatic revolvers and assault weapons.
Seems like the first solution would be SOME tighter restrictions on WHO can buy guns. I don't care whether you think that's right, or not. I don't care what you think the 2nd amendment says.
The 2nd amendment does NOT say that the United States can not set up criteria as to who can own a gun. ie. Despite the NRA's wishes, a 4 year old can't own a gun.
If you disagree with the above, then tell me YOUR solution. What's going on now does NOT work!
Ive cited a workable solution several times in the thread. Communities can establish certain secure zones but must provide armed security, such as the clean zone of an airport. This would also prevent the nonsense protests of a few years ago where everyone was bringing their black rifles to healthcare forums. If you like having democratic senators in Montana, Virginia, et al this is the route that will fly.
So you can go to Austin to buy your 100 guns and then go to Baltimore to kill. Great plan. Keep on talking to further demonstrate how ridiculous your thinking is to as many readers as possible.
We don't need a gun ban, we need better access to mental health care.
and a way to crosscheck so that people who need the one don't get given the other
We need both. Guns add to the speed at which an impulsive act can take place. Why are so many Americans so afraid? Why do so many need guns so badly that they see it as a right? Why do we feel we need to kill someone to feel safe?
We need both. Just sayin.
Because of all of the others that have guns. It's a domestic arms race.
We need stricter gun laws AND better access to mental health care.
We do need a gun ban, no citizen has the need, nor should they have they right to posess high powered, high capacity assualt weapons. Look on Cabela's website, you can go to their store and purchase a .50 caliber (1/2" diameter bullets) high velocity sniper rifle that Special Forces use in the middle east to kill people well over a mile away. Do people in the US hunt bear with those? I've seen pictures of what these weapons do to people, if you shot any game other than an elephant with a gun like this you need to mop up what was left with a rag.
Public gun ownership is narcissistic, juvenile, mastabatory and, above all anti-social...little kids now? Come on...how long do we all have to remain in fear of our and our childrens' lives to satsify big boys' GI Joe fantasies?
What does Boehner and McConnell say about guns and massacres?
Do they think we have too many laws against guns and that the left wants to control the people?
Considering Harry Reid voted to make reciprocal carry legal ...as did mark warner, jim webb, numerous others it "failed" 58-39 i believe....Again this is THE ONE THING where all the usual democratic arguments about filibusters and what have you can actually be turned around and thats why they wont touch it
Many gun owners that have guns to protect their homes hardly use them. But getting guns so easily give people a chance of killing innocent people and a lot of times the killer can just get the gun from people who they know. It's getting worst something needs to be done. The right I guess want everyone even kids to walk around packing.
The most meaningful action is to put God first! Or apathy & hypocrisy--personal and national-is the cause. As Mike Huckabee pointed out, we seek God--and that too is to complain- only when some tragedy hits ! Other times we don't care. Ho can God help wen He is ousted from the school scene, the national scene? Even to mention God has become out of fashion. How can He help when He is not acknowledged, when He is not called upon??
Do the children see at the school and the national level, a commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." The removal of the Ten Commandments and the availability of myriads of video games which teach killing is a thrill -- what other things than violence and terrorism do you expect from kids?
So, Mr. President, would you do this nation a great favor? Your contriteness and tears are good but not good enough as a meaningful action. Would you initiate national action for the reinstatement of prayer in school and the teaching of God's commandments in schools another pubic places? Do the tears mean much when Mr. President, you favor abortion, even late term abortion--killing of babies pure and simple--and remain silent on these moral issues?