I’m writing this on Friday, December 13, 2013. I feel a sense of foreboding that has nothing to do with Friday the thirteenth. It has everything to do with the fact that tomorrow will mark one year since the atrocity in Newtown, Connecticut at the Sandy Hook Elementary School that left twenty little kids and six innocent adults dead before the monster responsible blew his own brains out.
My first thought, and still the strongest, was the horror of it all: I have grandchildren the age of the victims. But I cannot escape the firestorm of hate that came down on law-abiding gun owners in the wake of it. Sandy Hook became a handy hook for a newly re-elected anti-gun President to take off his mask of neutrality on Second Amendment rights, and lead an unprecedented assault against them.
That assault gained ground in some places: California to some extent, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York, for example. Nationally, though, it largely fizzled. My friend Richie Feldman analyzed the situation well yesterday in his op-ed piece in USA Today.
But on the fourteenth, we can expect the Prohibitionists to dance until they’re exhausted in the blood of the innocent dead, pushing their class warfare against gun owners and ignoring the remedies that CAN prevent such atrocities. That would be measures in place on the ground allowing the next such monster to be interdicted before he can build his sick “body count.” There has been some positive movement in that direction in the year since, but not nearly enough.
Expect a media gun control circus, despite counter-efforts by pro-gun groups to make it a day of education on safety. Another old friend, Dave Workman, makes some good points on that topic.
Mourn the dead, as we will on this end. If something meaningful comes from those heartbreaking deaths, it will be a push for on-the-ground measures to interdict mass murderers a’ la’ the Israeli Model, not punishment of more innocent people with Draconian laws born in empty symbolism.
That they will, and coincidentally, there was another school shooting in Colorado today…
Such a tragedy! A tragedy that should have never happened or at least been minimized! It makes me sick. But as all responsible CCW people know that the gun grabbers either don’t care about the solutions or they are so tied up in their hate of guns that they will grab what they CAN!! That means the law abiding citizens gun, not the criminals.
We know criminals won’t give up THEIR GUNS, why can’t gun grabbers GET IT!!
I was a teacher, I love kids, we need to try to move toward solutions that will work.
Mas, I know you’ve written about the solution, and I agree. Now tell me how do we get the message out!
Mourn the dead, but the dead will never know what measures we take to prevent recurrence.
It is for us, the living, to learn from our errors and correct the faults permitting atrocities such as Sandy Hook, Columbine, et al. Today’s news carries yet another incident near Columbine. I am deeply saddened because those who purport to have our childrens’ best interests in mind are seriously misguided on how to accomplish the task. They know nothing about defense, only deference to higher authority equally ignorant.
Those who claim access to weapons causes these atrocities are false prophets. Anyone bent upon wreaking havoc will find a method. Children can discover how to make explosives from household products on the internet. Government cannot prevent future problems regardless of any authorities unlawfully assumed or granted by us. They are powerless to accomplish anything beyond bureaucratic measures that look good on paper. In the Army, we called it ‘eyewash’.
Only preparation to defend against the unthinkable will work. It is not a perfect solution, but those do not exist. We can only prepare and hope it is never necessary.
95% of self-defense is between your ears and only 5% on your hip. If you are prepared and situationally aware, you may never need the firearm. In the worst case, when all else fails, having lethal force in your CAPABLE hands will be far more effective than any law or regulation.
Imagine a hold-up man picking a different target because the store posted a “No Guns” sign.
Yes, the new Colorado shooting was all over the CBS evening news tonight.
Aparently one shooter, didn’t say Student, or othewise, entered School, carrying a shotgun in plain sight, and asked a particular Libraian, who somehow learned about it, and who fled the school.
Think two people were killed, maybe including the shooter?
Thing is this was the third shooting in that area of Colorado, and of course, they are trying to dredge up the Columbine, and the Movie Shooting, and beat the drums for “More Gun Control” (People Control!)
Maybe someone will tell us what really happened there, but it sure as Hell won’t the Lame Stream Media!
The obvious solution to school shootings is to not have gun free zones. Arm a couple of teachers with backgrounds in the military, ex-police etc. Parents visiting schools or dropping off their kids could also be armed.
Here in the independant Republic of Illinois, we also have drug free zones. It is really, really bad if you you sell drugs within 1000 ft of a school or church. If arrested and you enter the legal system. You get a slap on the wrist and some prison time. If you are a good boy you only serve 85 % of the sentence, that is if the Gov. doesn’t release you early to make room for more of your friends.
I hope you all enjoy this Christmas and our gift to you; our fearless leader BHO:-)
Empty Symbolism. True.
Sad to note that we’ve wasted this gift of time without a true dialogue of remedy. It doesn’t look like ‘change’ will take place on that front. Such misguided agendas from the Fed are a slap in the face to thinking-America.
I have to applaud the individual Schools around the Country that have taken matters into their own hands by creating measures and putting systems into place to thwart tragedies like Newtown from happening in their locale. Yet they and the rest could truly benefit from a concerted effort with national dialogue and national dollars to aid them in their security measures.
Peace to Newtown.
Paul Edwards,— Last I heard, the shooter was a student with a beef against a particular teacher ( debate coach ) that had dismissed him from the debate team. Evidently this teacher got warning and fled the building. Shooter shot and seriously wounded one other student ( no motive given) then killed himself. The school did have a law enforcement resource officer on site, who reportedly immediately implemented their “active shooter” protocol. No report yet on whether he confronted the shooter. Since the Columbine incident, most, if not all law enforcement implemented policy that their officers immediately engage a school shooter without waiting for backup. Don’t know if this happened or if shooter killed himself before being confronted.
What is known is armed resistance was available on site and the only fatality ( assuming the wounded student survives ) was the suspect. It may have played out the same way had the officer not been on site, we won’t know until more info is released.
One question that immediately comes to my mind is how the targeted teacher got such early warning. Reports say the suspect asked for him, but is it possible that warning signs were given in prior days and no one reported it to authorities ?
This stuff makes me me sick because it is partly preventable with proper security, especially the high amount of deaths in one trip to a local school is troubling. I feel our government is not doing enough for school security, wish they would. There seems to be unlimited funding available when it comes to aiding everyone else but lacking here. The anti gun groups also exploit these crimes.
I also feel that as long as we have gun free zones we are encouraging these monsters to go to those areas to comitt these crimes.
Weeks prior to the Newtown massacre I took an interest in guns at the age of 45. I hadn’t shot a gun in 30 years, then only a long gun a few times. I have no idea what inspired me take an interest in firearms. On that terrible Friday of the Newtown shooting as I took my hour long trip home from work I listened on the radio about the tragedy. I went by the gunship before going home and bought my first handgun. You see, I have two small children that I want to be able to protect.
Timely, if not prophetic blog post by Mas.
Anybody tracking the average age of these shooters?
I agree 100%, EXCEPT the whole “class warfare” thing. That’s BS, the so-called CONservatives (CON capitalized for truth) are the masters of class-warfare. their every breath revolves around trying to take from the poor and give to the rich.
An important quote from the USA Today article: “Did we examine the inadequacies of our mental health resources to prevent future tragedies like Newtown? No, we did not.”
If we truly care about protecting our loved ones and doing all we can to ensure their safety, we need to get our hands around the issue of treating mental illness. I am pro-2nd Amendment, and have joined the National Alliance on Mental Illness (http://www.nami.org/) to take action locally where I live to help those that need help treating a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life. Surely we need to educate ourselves on this issue, too.
Dennis – Thanks for filling me on on the details.
Glad the damage was minimal, but that doesn’t seem to make any difference, the way the Lame Setream Media was twisting the facts, and beating the drums, for more “Gun Control”, and bringing up the previos shooting in the area>
Allen:
This was not what I was going to discuss, but your comment, presuming you are serious, is troubling because it is so glib, flip and wrong, cries out for a serious answer. if you are a troll, you can disregard and resume your usual depredations.
Since you seem to have a misunderstanding of:
1) conservatism
2) class warfare
3) “conservatives want to take from the poor and give to the rich”
I will attempt to provide a short explanation of each, presuming Mr. Ayoob’s indulgence.
1) Conservatism is a political ideology that maintains that traditional methods, principals, morals, approaches and legal and social structures exist for a reason, and that a wholesale sudden abandonment of these societal foundations will produce unwanted and significantly bad outcomes. American Conservatism seeks to protect and conserve the rights and liberties created or confirmed in the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence, and defend the principles and understanding of Man , Individual Liberty and Government described in those and other American Founding documents. Among others, these principles include ordered liberty, freedom of conscience, the right to property, the right to self-defense, the rule of law and a restricted, limited, constrained general government which interferes with the activities and property of individual citizen very little, and where taxes pay for the operation of government and are neither punitive to the taxpayer or redistributed by the government to others.
To be a true American Conservative is to support limited government, low taxes and the concept that a law-abiding citizen is to be left alone.
The antithesis is modern American Liberal-Progressivism which has as its very core belief that people are not capable of taking care of themselves, and these powerless and ignorant masses require a powerful and ever present Government to protect them, taking money from some to redistribute to others, which government is run by a skilled , socially elite class of highly educated and well-rewarded bureaucrats who will care for you and your needs in spite of your preferences and personal beliefs.
Need an example? Examine the Bloomberg Soda regulations- based on the premise that the mayor has the power to cram regulations down peoples throats ” it is for their own good.”
2) Class-Warfare is a Marxist theoretical construct which suggests that society is stratified into economic classes, and the upper classes maintain their position by “holding down” those of lower classes, denying them education, power, and status. The fact that “classes” are not generally self-aware entities like tribes or teams makes the concept extremely suspect.
It is noted that Liberal-Progressive elites try to create and then emphasize class distinction, – they ignore ” individual rights”, individuals to them are important only as a member of a particular demographic or tribal group. They press for “group rights”, “group identity” and seek to annoint certain persons as “leaders” of particular ethnic groups.
The Marxist idea, perpetuated by modern American Liberal-Progressives , is to create in this country a series of competing groups or classes, who are at war with each other. They are the antithesis of ” E pluribus Unum” – ” from many , one”, seeking instead to create ” from One, Many”, hoping to disassemble American culture and the American people into a series of warring ethnic and demographic pressure groups. This then requires a powerful government to function as “umpire” or “adult supervision” to distribute pieces of the pie to each group according to the clamor and current concept of “fairness”; group leaders get fame, recognition and a healthy compensation. And the Liberal-Progressive “smart guys” will run the show on the government side- for your own good, of course.
3) “Conservatives want to take from the poor and give to the rich”.
By what magic does this mechanism operate? Do poor people pay a special tax which is then given to the rich?
What is rich? is it 50k per year? $100k ? Are all the rich people morally bad? Are all poor people morally good?
The only person I have heard specifically utter this untruth is Mr. Reid of Nevada – he opined that a tax cut on the wealthy was stealing from the poor.
Actually, it is the other way around, taxwise, rich people pay a lot, which goes to Washington, and there, Uncle Sam as Santa Claus dispenses that money back out – that is “redistribution”.
I have a story, followed by a simple question.
Lets look at a guy – lets call him Emerson J. Gottrox. Gottrox studied hard in high school. He did not stand around smoking and joking – took it seriously. With decent grades, Gottrox made it to State U to get a business degree. His buddies went to Aruba for the summer and Key West for spring break; he worked for a construction company every spring break and every summer , swinging a 9 pound hammer building highways. Christmas break he sold shoes at Target. He finally finished his degree and took a job with a company, he quickly got a reputation for burning the midnight oil. He was promoted several times, changed companies as better offers came along. He managed some savings, made some small investments – still had a reputation for burning midnight oil and as a problem solver. Finally he was hired to be Chief Operating Officer by a struggling shoe company, and took a hefty reduction in salary to do so- they would pay him in shares of stock. of course, if the company crashed, those shares of stock would be worthless.
After three years of reduced salary, no vacation and 6 day work weeks, he and his team managed to turn the formerly failing company around- the company was again profitable, saving about two hundred jobs in the process. Selling his stock , he realized a hefty sum – lets say $15 million. After paying his taxes he is left with about $9 million. He is “rich”.
Does a poor person , just by being poor, deserve a chunk of Gottrox money? Did that poor person work his way through college? Did he burn the midnight oil as he worked himself up in the business world? Would that poor person agree to work a job for half salary on the promise of a big return if he achieved success?
Did Gottrox “steal” any money from any poor person by becoming wealthy?
Actually, most conservatives would like to see every poor person doing better financially. Of course, doing better financially requires paying a cost, just like Gottrox did – working overtime to build up investment capital, going to school to get a better education for a business or trade, saving money by buying only one sixpack a week, cutting off the cable, etc. Some people are poor by circumstance, but most are by choice- they chose to not do better, because they dont want to go to the effort or expense of getting the extra schooling, they treasure cable and the Sunday NFL games too much to give them up, they would rather have the second and third six pack than invest those 12 dollars a week in something of lasting value.
Ok, thus endeth the lesson. I hope it helps.
Unless you are a troll, then I have wasted my time.
Regards to Mas and friends
GKT
Gun grabbers are blind. If they read the constitution they would know that every law controlling guns is unconstitutional. Those gun rights ‘shall not be infringed’. Any law that tries to limit, deny, or even register guns is an infringement on gun ownership. I believe, personally, that the need for a carry permit is also an infringement because it limits your ownership to being inside your home. The second amendment was written with a specific purpose: So that the government will not oppress the people who would be unarmed. It happened in Germany with the nazis coming to power and countless current governments have the same policy with pretty much the same results. If we are unarmed, I wouldn’t worry so much about the crook trying to get into my home as much as I would be worried about the state officials coming to my door to harass me about political matters. BTW, since NSA reads this stuff, they should know that an armed nation is one that makes governments think twice about oppression, and from the outside, about invasion. Even home to home search, with resistance, will net losses to invading troops, until attrition weakens them. Just my thoughts.
I agree that quick intervention is the proper response but we must be careful using Israel as an example. Israel’s focus is on fighting terrorism and not school shootings. They also have gun registration laws and strict limits on the number of guns you can own. Once you get past the solution of having an immediate responder who can put ’em down quick, I don’t believe it is an apples to apples comparison.
I have to give a hearty well done to Greg Tag. Rarely have I read a more concise, well written treatise on conservatism and class warfare!
Greg Tag,— A beautiful piece of truth.
May I add that liberal/progressive/marxist/communist/modern day democrats, with the aid of media types, perpetuate this lie that you are poor because of forces beyond your control; racism/discrimination, i.e.; conservatism.
Modern American liberal/progressives are no different than their role-models in Russia, China, Cuba, N. Korea etc., who believe that the deaths and incarceration of millions was necessary for the good of the collective. Consider “Obama Care”. They consider the disruption of the lives of hundreds of millions and their loss of medical insurance as acceptable to achieve their objective of your enslavement to the state.
Those who blindly follow the leadership of liberal/progressives, thinking they will continue with a free ride, will love what is always the end results of this ideology. Total control of your life, every minute aspect of your existence, with no hope for achieving more than what the state arbitrarily dictates your station in life will be. Believe me, their will be no free rides if they achieve their objective.
Consider the attacks on the “Constitution” and “Bill of Rights”. Who tries continually to limit those rights and protections?
Wake up America.
Ever wonder why the USA didn’t have these attacks, 30, 40, 50, and more years ago ? Why did we not have school “resource” officers then ? Why did we not have 4th Amendment violations (searches via physical or metal detector) then ? Why did we not have attacks by politicians against gun ownership, Freedom and Liberty then ?
The answer is we had a Christian-Judeo upbringing steeped in the tradition of family, a mother and father in the home, togetjer. Raising their children TOGETHER. Unlike the last 20 years where the family and relifion, Christian-Judeo values are scorned, mocked. Hell, the bulk of ciolent crime in thismcountry is perpetrated by black Americans. More than 70%, nearly 80% of black American births are births out-of-wedlock. And white Americans are working hard to catch up to those black out-of-wedlock statistics.
Americans have embraced single-parent families, scorned religion, mocked traditional family values and have chosen the path of socialism, marxism and dependency on those we call “government”. There is the problem.
No father.
No family.
No religion.
No self-respect.
No belief system.
No love for one’s fellow man.
Wake up folks. The answer lies in history. Look at the past to correct the present and prepare for a future that returns values Americans once
had.
My thanks to Greg Tag, and to Dennis, for their wonderful, and accurate, discussions of Conservatism, and Class Warfare.
Also to Dan III, for the concise discription of the America, that I was born and raised in to, and the present day America, as it has now been molded, by our current Left Wing/Communist controled Democratic Government!
I am so frustrated with the Safety BolsheviksGun Grabbers I’m not sure where to start, so perhaps an analogy can summarize at least the lion’s share of the problem when it comes to winning over the public on gun rightsself defense issues.
Suppose some young laborer is asked by his boss to take over running a crane, bulldozer or other piece of heavy equipment because the current operator is getting ready to retire. Out of timidity the young man says that the machine is too big and powerful for him to handle, and won’t so much as climb up into the cab. Even after the old hand instructs him about the controls and assures him that as long as he is careful and takes it easy it really isn’t as hard to master as it looks to the uninitiated. Still the young man refuses to make the effort to learn. Such timidity is bad enough, but imagine the same young man going on to advocate the notion that nobody else should try to learn how to operate such equipment and denounces those who do as people with “cowboy complexes” who are “compensating for something” when really it is he who envies them.
I think that this is the very attitude we’re up against in winning over the public, but in the public’s defense it is an attitude instilled and cultivated in them both by the leftist dominated education system and mainstream media. Since we don’t have the funds to buy a major TVradio network or newspaper chain or build a continent wide network of private schools, we have to persevere at demonstrating our decency to all we meet. Like the old cat skinner who while instilling due caution emphasizes to his young protégé all the job satisfaction that awaits him after a long productive day we need to point out to those who would ride the Sandy Hook shooting into the ground the envy they’re reluctant to admit motivates them and emphasize the pride that will come with being part of an informed, armed, and thus polite, law upholding citizenry.
Dan III,
Instant media coverage is a bigger factor than most give credit. The modern Mass Killer does it to make a point and to become famous, and the media eats it up.
Religion isn’t in any way necessary to bring up good and moral children. I think you’ll find the factor in most is, as you have seen, a lack of an active father-presence in the home. Again I don’t see how religion is a factor here. One doesn’t need to believe in a magical beardy dude in the sky in order to be decent to other people.
Well Mr. Sian….you appear to be of that athiestic mentality that has been the problem in this country. Quite frankly your kind disgust me.
You state that you can’t see how religion is a factor. Perhaps you should read the 10 Commandments ? Those “rules” given to Moses for all to abide by, are the “religion” you so despise. But, if we all would follow those comandments, given us by G-d, through Moses, this country would be again, what it once was.
So, tell the readers here how your pagan lifestyle and those who join you in your beliefs, have instilled love and obedience to mother and father and elders ? Tell us how abortion on demand has been an example for protecting the innocent and undefensible in the womb ?
Judeo-Christian values and teachings have been the building blocks of society, of mankind. “Honor Thy Father and Mother”, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”….and Mr. Sian, you dismiss these “religious” rules as so much rubbish ? As useless ? Your kind are not the solution. Rather you are the problem.
Mr. Edwards, thank you for your kind words.
Does anyone realize how easy it would be for a psych major in any Gov’t agency to cruse Facebook, or any social media and find an individual disturbed enough to manipulate them into active violence. And never show up as a causal influence . There is a Bulderburg influence in the world working to that end and many others. Obama, Clintons, Bushes, and many others in our GOV’t have been to Builderburg summits. Think about that. This is not a nuto conspiracy theory, it is plain fact.
DAN III,— Amen.
Sian,—- I don’t believe in “a magical bearded dude in the sky”.
I do believe in a loving God who sent his son to die for my sins. His word points out His expectations for my life, laying a burden on my heart for my shortcomings, and a desire to remove that burden by allowing Him to carry them for me.
The only thing He asked me in return was to believe in His son and change my ways to more closely match His desires than my own.
When questioned by his detractor’s as to what the most important of God’s law was, God’s son responded “love God” and similarly “love you neighbor like you love yourself” and continued, ” keep these two laws and all the others will be kept” (paraphrased for non-bible types)
I can’t make you or any other non- believer recognize these truths. I sincerely wish I could. All I can do is try to live my life by His dictates and hope that my walk through this life will cause others to want what He has given me.
I wish you well in this life Sian, and God will be with you, and love you, whether you acknowledge His presence or not.
Class warfare is absolutely correct! It’s actually “LBJ/KGB” class
warfare (1968 Gun Control Act style) perpetrated by a well
financed elite hellbent and determined to undermine, subvert,
and destroy our republic! Two online commentaries of mine allude
to this. They include: “Anti-gun agenda is class warfare”: ADT:
Friday, January 9th, 2009 and “The War on America’s gun
owners” : ADT: Monday, August 3, 2009, respectively. These
both remain archived in the Ashland Daily Tidings of Ashland,
Oregon at http://www.dailytidings.com. Enter “Search Daily Tidings.”
Madmen with guns are drawn to “gun free zones”, so arm some teachers or other workers at the school.
Have an idea that could solve some of these problems and make someone some real money. Lots of places have CCW laws, but being licensed to carry basically means knowing when it is legal to shoot in self defense, and prooving that one can hit a body-sized target at 7 yards.
If an organization offered certification at a higher standard, that included 25 or 50 yard shooting, multiple assailants, active shooter, low light, testing under stress, etc., it might pave the way for exceptions being made in the no-CCW / gun free zones for people with CCW’s and that certification. The certificate holder would be trained at a level higher than typical law enforcement officers, and tested under stress, etc. Include retention training and less than lethal, as well. Certification standards could be established and maintained by a private organization.
Regarding the root cause of Newton, the problem was in Newton: the abandoned state mental hospital in that town that several decades ago would have been the home of the assailant. Paranoid schizophrenics are not institutionalized and there is no good way to ensure that they are on their meds, assuming the meds are effective in the long term. Up to the mid-60’s or there snouts the seriously mentally ill were institutionalized, and M1 carbines were sold mail order…and no school shootings.
Observation and comments: For many years I pondered why supposedly learned and intelligent “leaders” could not see the obvious: Banning guns does not reduce violence or crime because only the law-abiding follow the laws they enact. I finally came to the realization that, in order to get support for these laws (and themselves at election time), these “leaders” use that premise because it gives the “followers” a “warm, fuzzy feeling” that they are doing “something” to stop the violence. But, their real agenda is people control, best accomplished by disarming the populace. However, if they espoused their real agenda they would lose the support of the masses who truly believe “less guns = less crime.” Can you imagine how little support they would get from those fools if they said, “Let’s ban guns so we have control over the citizens?” So, remember they are not as dumb as you think they are….
Sian: I think you expressed your views on religion well and I believe that you are a good man without it.
DanIII: I fear you are one of those that thinks people MUST have religion in their lives in order to be good people. Religion is a guide for those that need it. Many, many people do not need that guide and instinctively know right from wrong (likley from insticts instilled in them from their parents) and do not “despise the 10 Commandments” or lead “Pagan lives.” You may believe that the Commandments were actually handed down by God but others beleive that they were written by learned men. Either way, good people follow those principles because they are the right thing to do, not because the were commanded to do so by the “beardy dude in the sky.” Many people brought up in strict religious families go on to be terrible people. Many people brought up in non-religious familes grow up to be very good people. It’s not the religion, per se, it’s the family environment and the teachings it promotes. Religion can be a terrible thing (think Islam), can have a very strict set of rules (think Orthodox Jew), a mild set of rules (think Catholic) or just a set of general guidlines for everyday life (think Universal Unitarian).
Unfortunately, I have found that usually (not always) the more involved in religion someone is, the less tolerant of others not likewise involved some people become. If you truly follow your (I assume some form of Christian) religion you would find that it does not condemn other forms. And, good people can follow the religion of their hearts and be just as good, kind, compassionate and righteous as people who go the church 3 times a week. It’s all in what inpires you and what you need to “reinforce” your “goodness.”
I know people that go to church every Sunday yet will cheat people using their business services. I know people who never go to church and are honest to a fault, kind and wonderful family men. Not everyone needs a set of rules and an interpreter of these rules to know right from wrong.
Brian G., good on you for wanting to protect your kids…may I suggest private school or homeschooling? Keeping your offspring out of those public school death traps (see shelter-in-place) is as good a reason as any to seriously consider alternatives.
TXCOMT
Sian-Captain Bob,
Please don’t construe my response as an attack on your beliefs or non-belief. My faith makes me neither a more moral or “good” person than you or anyone else. It does cause me to be very cognizant of my actions and a desire to live up to certain standards that have stood the test of time. This faith does give me an inner peace that I wish everyone could experience, and a desire to be a better person today than I was yesterday.
I probably will never be as good with a gun as Mas, but I have lost nothing by trying.
DanIII, I’m part of the problem? I base my morals on basic humanism, things like ‘be decent to other people’ without being under threat of not going to some nice place after death, but because it’s just the right thing to do. I don’t want to turn this into a religion debate, but I take great offense at the thought that one needs to be religious in order to be moral. I believe that this is the only life I have, and it’s not worth it to live it in a way that hurts other people, because whether they know it or not, they only have one life as well and I don’t want my actions to screw that up.
Mas
This is a pretty thought provoking thread – thanks for the forum.
Thank you to all who commented positively on my earlier post.
Now, back to work.
———————————————————————————-
As has been noted earlier-
We have school shooters these days not because guns are easily available, they were far more available pre-1968. We have school shooters because there is a generational cohort in modern Western society who have no moral compass whatsoever.
These people do not have a grasp of the concept of “right and wrong”, they do not value life, not even their own. They have little understanding of honor, duty, personal responsibility, obligation, placing oneself second, or self-control, self-discipline or self-denial. Their only understanding of “virtue” is whether or not a particular course of action directly and immediately benefits them.
These are self-centered, materialistic, children, for whom their encounter with the world can be summed up ” it is all about me”.When they are thwarted in some way, by a debate coach who dismisses them, a professor who fails to provide a good grade, by a girlfriend who wants to end a relationship, by someone else having the car they want, they often react with violence – a temper tantrum of lethal and often self-destructive behavior.
People like these weigh their actions based on how they feel, and whether or not they will get caught, rather than on whether an action is right or wrong, morally good or morally evil. These people are not restrained by their conscience, or sense of civic responsibility, in fact they are almost unanimous that their actions were forced on them by what those “other folks did to me”.
This is not confined to school shooters, nor is it an affliction of most people, but the numbers of these amoral, narcissistic, selfish and potentially lethal predators seems to be on the rise.
Want to make your hair stand on end?
Watch the Youtube jailhouse interviews of Fox-4, Dallas, with Damarius Cummings and James Broadnax, after their arrest for murdering two Christian musicians on a Garland, Texas street in 2008. These persons exhibit no guilt, no remorse, no grief; they merely display annoyance that all the work of the robbery and murder netted them two dollars and a 12 year old car. There is evil out there.
Right and wrong, morality and civic virtue are not being taught to impressionable young, and the popular culture does not model these for them.
In an 1849 speech, Robert Winthrop, Congressman and American political philosopher and essayist addressed this issue :
“…All societies of men must be governed in some way or another. They less they have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint:.
He concluded “…men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet…”
There are many earnest folks who will argue that Winthrop was wrong, the choice is not Bible vs. bayonet; people can live in harmony without an existential moral code of some sort and still without the bayonet. Perhaps these people are right, but I think they are wrong.
Perhaps Winthrop’s term “Bible” is too narrow, perhaps we can broaden the term to include the basic Judeo-Christian ethical and moral system, as expressed pretty succinctly in the Ten Commandments. These hard and fast rules of right and wrong, of appropriate and inappropriate behavior, are today conspicuous by their absence from public education and the higher academy, except for being exposed to ridicule . Such rules are absent as well from the examples and teachings of many modern parents, public figures and pop culture icons.
Since the early 60’s, it has been the Liberal-Progressives who have worked incessantly to rid American culture of the influence of the Bible, and the traditional Judeo-Christian ethical system, and to date they have been reasonably successful.
In closing, the Leftists want to control the strong arm of the State, in order to “protect society”, and they sure dont want me and Bubba to have arms because we might not cooperate in their vision. The more mayhem occurs in civil society, the stronger the potential pressure for citizen disarmament.
One important and often overlooked tool in the fight to keep our guns and protect our Second Amendment rights against the leftist onslaught is the vigorous promotion in every public and private venue of virtue, ethics , morality, and personal responsibility. in short, we need to have some more “Bible” in modern American culture, or it is almost certain we will get more “bayonet”.
Regards
GKT
Cpt Bob….re-read my remarks. Of course you would even challenge the Old Testament itself, that Moses didn’t receive and deliver the tablets.
Take a look around you at the degenerates, the pagans, the large amount of crime committed at the hands of bastard children void of a two-parent upbringing, the Judeo-Christian haters destroying the fabric of this country.
Sorry Bob, but your excuse for dismissing a Christian-Judeo society as unnecessary for an peaceable, loving, family-oriented, productive society does not wash.
@DAN III – you sound remarkably like a Islamic extremist (the politically correct term for ‘terrorist’). You open with an insult, blame the world’s problems on those who do not share your faith, and preach hatred. What a shining example of God’s love you have been in this thread. It just goes to show that there are extremists in everything – not just politics.
@Greg Tag & Captain Bob – well said, gentlemen. In fact, your words were profound enough that I felt compelled to copy them and print them out for future reference.
As far as the recent shooting, from all reports there *was* an officer at the school, who responded immediately. The gunman apparently saw that a police officer was approaching and then killed himself rather than let the officer kill/apprehend him. The local Sheriff was quoted as saying that he strongly believed that having an officer on the scene prevented further loss of life, and I agree. I note that after that single news story, his quote has not gotten much media play at all, though…
FOLKS, PLEASE: No personal insults. Respect one another’s belief systems.
Mr. Greg Tag @ 17 DEC….you stated more eloquently, with specific references, much of what I wrote. Turning away from the Bible, from the 10 Commandments, from Judeo-Christian values has greatly contributed to the state of affairs this nation is in today.
Enjoy Christmas for what it is supposed to be celebrating….the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Thank you and Merry Christmas.
Looking a couple of comments above this one, you’ll find mine requesting an end to personal attacks on one another in this thread. If a certain gentleman is looking for his two comments just sent in — well, they don’t appear here because both messages violated that request.
Mas,
Over the last month or so I believe we have seen some of the problems our present culture is experiencing being played out on this blog.
Most follow this blog because it is “Massad Ayoob on Guns”. We come here to be enlightened with your knowledge and expertise on a subject that interests each of us.
This should bring us together with a common goal, but like society around us, lately we seem to find something to disagree on with just about every subject that is being discussed.
Nothing wrong with disagreement, we learn from debating different sides of a subject. But when a debate or discussion degenerates into lashing out in anger, name calling, and personal attacks, we prove ourselves incapable of controlling our emotions.
I realize this phenomena has occurred partly because of a migration of new posters enraged by the thread discussing the Deming incident, but it is also a sign of our times.
Methinks we should all take deep breath and concentrate on the things that brought us together to start with, agree to disagree when we can’t come to consensus, and prove to those who would disarm America that we are emotionally stable and deserving of the guarantees of the second amendment.
I suspect some of the problem is caused by new posters that delight in sowing discord wherever they land as they surf the web, I hope they will return to the sites they migrated from, and I will promise not to follow them or disrupt their playground.
Dennis: Excellent analysis and there’s nothing that I can add.
I would just like to wish all here a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas celebrates the birth of a wonderful man who has profoundly affected the world for 2,000 years (and going) regardless of who you feel his ancestors were. Christmas promotes good will, caring, family and remembrance of times past in spite of of religious leanings. Ill say it again to everyone: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I found this on the web. I cant add no more than whats said here. Hope yall enjoy reading. Idid! He is the father of a victim in the columbine shooting! http//www.urbanlegends.about.com/library/bldarrellscott.htm
Mas:
An anti-gun group put out a Newtown anniversary video. I found their ticking clock motif to be highly evocative of the pro-gun observation that when seconds count the police are minutes away, so I added my own voice over. It came out pretty good I think, much more effective than the original. Feel free to post!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Ls3NxzHkU
I also blogged some related commentary, like:
http://errortheory.blogspot.com/2013/12/evil-is-coming-ticking-clock-newtown.html