Every time a mass murder happens in this country there is an almost knee-jerk reaction in some quarters that the NRA is to blame. While it is that there are too many automatic weapons in the hands of those who only use them to kill other people, the bottom line is that guns in the hands of those without the intent to harm others are of little danger. What makes guns lethal in these events is the coming together of guns and hatred.
The tragedies of Columbine, Oklahoma City, 9/11 and now Virginia Tech do not share guns as the instrument of murder. What they do share is the killers' hatred for and a willingness to kill those who disagree with them. Beating up on the NRA and giving a pass to America's violence cottage industry that exists solely to foment hatred and glorify violence against others is an inappropriate and incomplete response to the Virginia Tech tragedy.
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DON'T BLAME THE NRA
Submitted by Steve Love on Tue, 04/17/2007 - 14:46.»
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no, I disagree
the NRA has made it way to easy for anyone to own a gun. Just look at yesterday, it took too many hours to find the killer's identity because he had a gun where it was not traceable. Guns are dangerous and people need to go through training and background checks before being able to handle a lethal weapon.
It is harder to get a driver's licensce or vote then it is to buy a gun. This is wrong. I blame the NRA all the way. Laws and scrutiny needs to be tighter.
NRA
So, we eliminate all guns. Will we eliminate all fertilizer because that's what McVeigh's bomb was made of?...and all box-cutters because that's what the 9/11 terrorists used? You see what I am driving at, is that if we address the violence problem from a weapons standpoint there is no end. [Cain killed Abel with a stone. Want to ban stones or require a license to own a brick?] All I am suggesting is that a more comprehensive appoach to this sort of event, as we had at Virginia Tech, is to consider the possibility that there is more to this event than a guy with a gun.
After all, there were hundreds if not thousands of people in that university town who owned guns and none of them attacked and killed 32 people. Wouldn't it be helpful to know what might have made this guy do what he did and perhaps the societal pressures that contributed to it? If he had used a fertilizer bomb instead of a handgun what PAC would we be beating up on this morning? Are these people more dead because they were shot instead of blown to small pieces by a bomb? Think about it?
We know how this event happened but, if we don't learn the psychic and social forces behind it, will we be better able to PREVENT such acts in the future? And shouldn't THAT be the goal of any investigation? Shouldn't we be learning how to defuse such human timebombs instead of just waiting for the next one?
Gun Control
I don't believe any gun control laws will stop the kind of acts that occurred yesterday because America is one big black market and guns will always be available, but I do believe our society is overly obsessed with guns and getting rid of them would do no harm and might do some good. I have never owned one and intend to finish out my life that way. I try to encourage others to do likewise. It is all one person can do.
__________________________Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change -- Andre Gide
Why do we need the NRA?
Can't think of a good reason - unless I sell guns. Americans can speak for themselves over the rules they think fair - the NRA is just another (and one of the largest) of the Special Interest Groups making sure Washington is not ruled by the people - but by the Special Interests...
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