---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote :
I really don't think this is the case. Most gun owners, I mean the vast majority, keep them at home for protection. Conceal and carry permits are pretty rare. When you think about it though, when has society not been in rough shape? I guess these mass shootings are a new development, so perhaps that is the case. What I am saying, Steve, is that the apparent runaway train of gun ownership and lethal gun use on fellow human beings seems to be tied to the state of our society where absurdly rich exist geographically within spitting distance of those who can't afford a decent meal (I was listening to NPR tonight driving home from work and there was an interview where they were talking about the wealthy in Manhattan whose net income per year was, on average, 120K and just a 25 minute commute away in the Bronx were folks who made, on average $20K per annum). This creates a problem. This creates the potential for violence. This can make people crazy with resentment, with need and then place a gun in their hands and all bets are off. Threatening becomes easy. Killing becomes more likely than not killing. So when you say "the vast majority keep them at home for protection." then you agree with what my point was! This is what I'm saying. Too many feel they need protection from the threat from their fellow citizens, their (geographically speaking) neighbors, for crying out loud! And why would this be? I think there are a multitude of reasons but the disparity in economic conditions between Americans is one of them, for sure. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : But, such high profile mass shootings are bound to create media hyper ventilation and the resulting outrage and lamenting is continuously ignited by these relatively common occurrences in schools, movie theaters and elsewhere. It is a subject that deserves attention because it also indicates something deeper - is a barometer for other social disease rampant in (in this case) the US. Guns seem to accompany fear and rage and mental illness but not necessarily in all cases when their use is against a neighbor, a classroom, an employer. The need to own guns, to have them handy at all times, is an indicator or a society in rough shape. When you can't feel safe unless you have a gun in your possession it points to economic reasons as well. Drug addiction, poverty, lack of resources can lead citizens to assume they can take what they need at the point of a gun, for example. Whole city blocks and blocks of substandard living conditions or millions of people scraping by all over America are testimony to the sorry state of our society. Even the vehemence with which gun lovers defend their (and by default everyone's) right to own and carry a gun is based in fear and a distorted idea that to change the Constitution with regard to gun ownership rights would somehow be un-American or even sacrilegious. This whole gun issue reveals far more than just how people feel about arms. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : More than 10,000 Americans are killed every year by gun violence. By contrast, so few Americans have been killed by terrorist attacks since 9/11 that when you chart the two together, the terrorism death count approximates zero for every year except 2001. This comparison, if anything, understates the gap: Far more Americans die every year from (easily preventable http://www.vox.com/2015/8/11/9126891/gun-suicide-rate) gun suicides than gun homicides. The point Obama is making is clear: We spend huge amounts of money every year fighting terrorism, yet are unwilling, at the national level, to take even minor steps (like requiring background checks on all gun sales nationally) to stop gun violence.
