Saturday, February 17, 2007
Because it wouldn't be America without guns
The imagined rights of individuals to pack heat because it makes them feel powerful once again outweighs the established rights of individuals to life...
From my Stop the NRA newsletter:
"In Utah, an 18-year-old boy shot and killed five people, including a 15-year-old girl, at Salt Lake City’s Trolley Square mall. At least four others were wounded and taken to local hospitals. In Philadelphia, a gunman shot and killed three business associates and wounded another before killing himself."
Gunman kills 5 at Salt Lake City Mall"(AP) - A trench coat-clad teenager who opened fire on shoppers at a mall had one thing in mind: "to kill a large number of people," and he likely would have killed more than five had an off-duty officer not confronted him, the police chief said Tuesday.
"There is no question that his quick action saved the lives of numerous other people," Police Chief Chris Burbank said of the officer.
Burbank identified the gunman as Sulejmen Talovic, an 18-year-old who lives with his mother in Salt Lake City, and said he had a backpack full of ammunition, the shotgun he was using and a .38-caliber pistol.
The teen killed five people and wounded four at the Trolley Square mall, including two people shot in the parking lot as he arrived around 7 p.m. Monday, another at the entrance and then five people inside a card store, the police chief said.
"It appears to be very random," Burbank said. "There was no sense to why he was doing what he was doing."
"The suspect in this particular circumstance had one thing on his mind, and that was to kill a large number of people," Burbank said.
Had the off-duty Ogden police officer, who had a gun but no extra equipment or additional ammunition, not gone after the gunman, the teenager likely would have continued shooting people on his way through the mall, Burbank said. He said police knew little about the young man."
Four dead, one injured in shooting at business meeting"PHILADELPHIA -- Three men at a marketing company were shot in a conference room and another was critically injured by a gunman who killed himself as police closed in, authorities said.
Police found a scene of "utter chaos" Monday night at the offices of the marketing firm zigzag.net, city police Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said.
Two victims were on the floor, and another was in a chair, all with "wounds to various parts of the body," Ross said. He said two other men had been bound with duct tape but not attacked. One of those men told officers the gunman had shot himself after exchanged fire with police officer, Ross said."
Ok, I left the bit in the first story about the cop "saving the day" by shooting it out with the bad guy because...it was a COP! They're supposed to carry guns, that's their job! I don't like it, but it's an unfortunate reality of our existence that cops need to be armed. And part of the reason for that is because of every idiot's imagined right to own their own personal ARSENAL! The bad guys are legally entitled to be armed and the ones that aren't have so many means of buying guns because guns aren't even remotely regulated that they may as well be! And, as in these two instances, the wack jobs that go out and shoot the hell out of crowded buildings generally speaking weren't bad guys before they did the bad thing. So they could buy guns to their little homicidal heart's content!
I reiterate. NOBODY
needs to own a gun. There's no justifiable reason for it. Period.
posted by Unknown
at 2:37 PM ::
~#~
(2) comments
2 Comments:
it is not the gun, it is an object.
it could have been just as easy to use a knife,sword,poison,gas...my goodness the list could go on and on.
it IS however the "PERSON". as a wiccan you should know there are those who are good and those who have chosen the wrong path . were there signs that led up to all of this
did anyone bother to REALLY pay attention to these signs?was there any attempts to prevent?
do not blame an object that someone uses blame the person ,blame society .
This point of view always makes me sad, because it completely misses the point.
Yes, it could have been any number of other weapons. But aside from the poison gas thing, none of those are weapons of mass destruction. People don't set out on these forays for any other reason than to kill as many people as possible and the most effective method of doing that is with a gun. Not to mention the pathology of power guns have. Have you seen the home movies the Columbine shooters made? You will never see one of these incidents implemented with a sword, knife or poison gas because it simply doesn't fullfill the need these people have. They are angry, they want to strike out and cause as much damage as possible. They have a statement to make and they want to make sure they are heard.
Yes, these people are responsible for their actions. They made a choice albeit most likely under some form of mental illness. And yes, society has a slice of the blame as well. But I CAN and DO blame the guns, the people who choose to make guns, the people who choose to sell guns and the people who choose not to regulate guns. They are just as responsible for those dead people as the person who pulled the trigger.
Guns are not necessary, guns serve no useful purpose. Their only use is to kill things. If guns weren't available, it would be one less thing these nutcases would have to choose from when they walk out of the house.
It's that simple.
Ricks ramblings, at
12:02 AM
