This post should be about my jokes for the weekend or the beginning of the
new week, yet the dreadful murder of twenty innocent kids and six of their
teachers in New Town, Connecticut, USA
was so brutal, cruel and meaningless that jokes would not be appropriate at
all…
My sincere condolences to all the victims’ families and relatives must be
the only written words here, as well as some good suggestions and thoughts I
found in Internet. I’m not an America citizen and an expert in USA’s
Constitution and all the good and bad sides of America’s laws, but it’s obvious
after such a horror (and it’s not the only one) there must be some changes made
in some of them (I was in shock with the words of an American weapon expert who
said on the news that in Virginia one has to be twenty one year old to drink
and buy alcohol in restaurants and shops but when one wants to buy a weapon, no
one would ask for an ID card!)…
And I won’t discuss the issue that Americans should be so concerned about
the dead kids in other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, etc because of
USA’s bombing as they are about the poor little souls who lost their lives in
the school in New Town, as the goal of this post is not about that:
TURN OFF THE NEWS.......
Morgan Freeman's brilliant take on what happened yesterday :
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we
treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities.
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of
a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news
and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way.
Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible
monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank
as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow
make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of
third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the
shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their
reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims
and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't
sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for
someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the
name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research
instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off
the news."
A state-of-the-art assault weapon in 1791
Yes, we have this debate every time some sick bastard buys some guns and
shoots innocent people, and I have no doubt that this episode of the the debate
will end the same way it always does:
With each side endlessly repeating their usual bullet points and then
getting bored and moving on.
And then in another week or month or year, some other sick bastard will buy
himself a cache of weapons and slaughter more innocent people, and then we'll
have the debate again.
And so on...
And that's understandable, if frustrating--especially for those whose family
members and friends are the ones who are killed.
For better and worse, we do have a constitutional "right to bear
arms" in this country, and it
should take a broad consensus to
amend the Constitution. And, yes, it probably does make sense for us to have at
least
some right to bear
some arms, even if having the right
to buy
quasi-machine guns like the one used in the Colorado massacre seems
ludicrous. And there's a vast difference between bearing some arms in, say,
Wyoming, and bearing them in New York City, where the population density is a
tad higher, and so forth. So, of course, this is going to be a contentious and
impassioned debate.
But can we at least agree on one thing?
Can we at least agree that, since 1791, when
the Second Amendment was ratified, the country's circumstances have
changed?
In 1791, for example:
- There
were only 3.9 million Americans
- The
"arms" we gave ourselves the right to bear were vastly less
powerful--namely they were single-shot muskets that had to be manually
loaded with powder and ball for each shot, versus today's semi-automatic
assault weapons that spray 50-60 high-caliber bullets per minute
- It was
legal to own slaves in some parts of the country (Constitutionally
permissible behavior that, fortunately, changed)
- "America"
didn't extend west of the Mississippi River (and, really, it was only the
13 colonies)
- Indians
still attacked occasionally
- We
hunted a lot of our food
- "States"
really were separate countries in those days--it took months to travel
from one end of the country to the other
- The
"frontier" (and many other parts of the country) was essentially
lawless: Citizens had to
protect themselves, because no one else was around to do it (Now, most
states have well-armed police forces, etc.)
- And so
on...
Basically, can we at least agree that giving ourselves the unfettered right
to buy, sell, and own whatever kinds of weapons we want might have made more
sense in 1791 than it does today--and, therefore, that it's a bit unfair to
couch this debate in terms of "defending the Constitution" and/or
trying to figure out what the Framers meant by "a well-regulated
militia"?
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Getty
The Framers meant THESE arms when they wrote the Second
Amendment? Really??
|
I mean, do folks really think that if the
"Framers" had seen what happened in that Colorado movie theater last
week, they still would have written the Second Amendment the way they did--with
no qualifications?
Yes, this point is academic, because the Second Amendment is what it is.
But can we all at least agree that it's a bit, if nothing else,
outdated?
Or are we all totally cool with any old sick bastard being able to buy as
many quasi-machine guns as he or she wants?
SEE ALSO: As
Governor Of Mass, Mitt Romney Banned The Assault Weapon Used In The Colorado
Massacre
Winner(!!!!!) of MOST IMPORTANT POST OF THE
YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Art Schultz:
Finally, I will say this about the mass murders in
Connecticut.
All too often, People hide inactivity behind prayer, hoping
things will get better without taking any action themselves, By all means Pray
if you feel the need
To do so. just remember that it does not end there. You
have not done your
Part which is to become ACTIVE. Do not become angry
because God did not
Do something amazing to compensate for mans passivity
and laziness.
The mental health and the future of this Nation and all
nations rests upon
Our caring enough for our Children, working and middle
class, our Military , Women , Seniors, LGBT, and all people who are DIFFERENT
than us.
The fact that you may not live forever or feel that the
well being of strangers
Has nothing to do with you is WRONG. You, a Family
Member or someone
You know can just as easily become the next victim in a
major incident.
It is time that I , we and YOU let your elected
officials know that we care
About people who need psychiatric help, help with
having health care, a
Roof over their heads, and food on their tables.
it is time that I, We and YOU demand GUN CONTROL.
taking guns totally
Away from people is NOT what I am suggesting. I am
saying we need better
Controls on WHO can have an Gun, how many and why. it
is time that
People with mental and emotional issues not be allowed
to just slip through
The crack and be able to weapons as easily as one buys
a candy bar.
This will not be the last such massacre.They will
continue to happen until
WE decide that it must stop. The news can help by not
continually talking
About the perps who bare sick, sick individuals who in
part do these things
Because they know they will have a place in history
albeit a sick one.
Already, somewhere there is some sick person already
thinking about how
They can break the record and show up the last one.
Finally, by all means PRAY, but please take ACTION too
and call your
Elected officials, Visit your Childs school and know
who their friends are
And let someone know when you see REAL antisocial
tendencies in children.
They might get the help they need if WE demand it. No
age is too young.
What you DO from this day forward is what will prevent
others copycat
Incidents. All of the Prayer, Candles , flowers, vigils
and Teddy Bears left
On the side of buildings and parks are useless compared
to actually DOING
Something.
PEACE
www.allanbard.blogspot.com,
www.allanbard.wordpress.com
