If Music Could Talk

101Walterton wrote:

eumaas wrote:The only gun control that would work would be the kind that stops the manufacture of weapons and destroys existing weapons... and that's not going to happen.

So lets do nothing and let the killing continue.

Gun control isn't going to stop the killing here. And then we'd leave all capacity for violence in the hands of the State. That's very risky.

I look at the shootings over the last few days as mental health issues. We can never get all the guns collected and get rid of them and new laws are always just window dressing. The problem is crazy people who have access to firearms. Like most problems in society we are attacking this one from the wrong direction. Why do we always start with the result and work backwards? We should have a more robust healthcare system in America. It would cure a lot of ills.

BostonBeaneater wrote:I look at the shootings over the last few days as mental health issues. We can never get all the guns collected and get rid of them and new laws are always just window dressing. The problem is crazy people who have access to firearms. Like most problems in society we are attacking this one from the wrong direction. Why do we always start with the result and work backwards? We should have a more robust healthcare system in America. It would cure a lot of ills.

I agree. Killing sprees like this have nothing to do with normal criminality--it's mental illness.

eumaas wrote:

BostonBeaneater wrote:I look at the shootings over the last few days as mental health issues. We can never get all the guns collected and get rid of them and new laws are always just window dressing. The problem is crazy people who have access to firearms. Like most problems in society we are attacking this one from the wrong direction. Why do we always start with the result and work backwards? We should have a more robust healthcare system in America. It would cure a lot of ills.

I agree. Killing sprees like this have nothing to do with normal criminality--it's mental illness.

There will no doubt be some dumb useless law to come out of the rash of spree killings that we have seen over the last decade. Something has to happen to make the local United Mom's For Outrage feel like they got something done. Besides Columbine when do you hear about assault rifles? We should be looking at the aspects of moderity that are crippling people's spirits and destroys their empathy towards others.

Couldn't agree more.

BostonBeaneater wrote:We should be looking at the aspects of moderity that are crippling people's spirits and destroys their empathy towards others.

Isn't that the essence of Bowling For Columbine? It's less the availability of guns than the culture that sees them as a tool for compensation of any number of ills or slights. There's also a decent enough book by Martha Stout called The Sociopath Next Door. Among her arguments is that sociopathy is at least anecdotally greater in societies that place higher value on individualism, competition, and winning (and, more so, denigrating losing) than more moderate societies. Those environments, she suggests, nurture destructive anti-social behaviour. A fairly neat book, with obvious undertones that the 43rd president of the US exhibited a lot of traits common in sociopaths.

Once again, a drunken Irish Masshole is the voice of reason and insight!

Wolter wrote:Once again, a drunken Irish Masshole is the voice of reason and insight!

"Can't we all just get along? Well, except for the blacks. GIMME A BEER!"

Dr. Medulla wrote:
Isn't that the essence of Bowling For Columbine?

No, the essence of Bowling for Columbine was that it was just another platform for Michael Moore to speak to us in a low, sad, I'm-dissapointed-in-you-America type voice.

I kid.

It's interesting that most of the spree shooting in America seem to happen in semi-rural exurbs.

BostonBeaneater wrote:It's interesting that most of the spree shooting in America seem to happen in semi-rural exurbs.

You mean the places that are designed with atomization, runaway consumerism, and a fortress mentality in mind?

So thats it till the next one then.

101Walterton wrote:So thats it till the next one then.

Freedom's always ready for a rampage.

101Walterton wrote:So thats it till the next one then.

If you can find a way to get rid of the guns while protecting us from the cops and the army, I'm all ears.

and denial is always a good supporter.

101Walterton wrote:and denial is always a good supporter.

And here you are again at a loss for rational arguments.

As usual.