On 10/03/2015 08:01 PM, awoelfleba...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
---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 thatis
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.
Perhaps then we need a maximum wage if we're going to have a minimum
wage. For about the last 25 years it's been "see how much money you can
accumulate. He with the most bucks wins."
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.
