Friday, December 14, 2012

UNNECESSARY TRAGEDY

Drove up to The Berkshires this afternoon with nothing on the radio but repeated news with an occasional new revelation about the terrible atrocity committed by a young man armed with guns.

I drove up a highway that passes an exit to Danbury Connecticut where there's a hospital I had an operation for cancer at just a week before 9/11 and now held the bodies of massacred children who hadn't died at the school in Newtown. This time my youngest son and I passed news trucks heading for Newtown where the shootings occurred.

I had woken up this morning to NPR news and a story about a deranged man in a small town in China who had gone to an elementary school there and overwhelmed the old woman who guarded the gate with his knife and stabbed her and then proceeded to stab what I remember as around twenty little kids, all of whom survived though some were in critical condition in the hospital.

Then only hours later the news comes in about a young man in the USA going into an elementary school with three guns and killing twenty little kids and six teachers. And too many of my fellow citizens and their political leaders are still cowering before the National Rifle Association and their distorted interpretation of the Second Amendment which clearly state that the right to bear arms is in order that citizens might make up a militia when needed to defend the country, which is what we now call The National Guard, or reserve forces.

Ignorant rightwingers whose experience with guns is much like Dick Cheney's and other chickenhawks who never were in the military try to push the idea that if teachers and the rest of us were all armed then the shooter would have been killed before he could shoot so many kids. Have they ever handled a semi-automatic? Or tried to shoot a moving target or even a still one that's live and armed and shooting back with a semi or even a pistol?

When the well trained and often military veteran New York City cops open fire anywhere near innocent bystanders Innocent bystanders almost always end up dead, as well as sometimes a cop. This isn't a video game. Gun licenses should be harder to get than any other kind of license (like driver's or marriage or fishing etc.—and by the way most mass shootings in the USA are done with guns legally purchased and most single murders are committed by family members, so the whole argument that criminals will get guns illegally and kill us is specious) and automatic repeating style guns of any kind should be banned. Period.

As I've written before, just the idea of "the Sullivan Law" that we heard of as kids believing that if you were even caught with a gun you'd go to prison for a long time kept guns almost nonexistent when I was a kid in the New York area. Time to go back to the days the rightwing Republicans pretend to love so much (except for the strong unions and high taxes on the wealthy and strict gun laws) when it comes to gun laws.

30 comments:

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

They say that the darkest hour is just before the dawn and that one must absorb the worst in order to illuminate the path. This is the worst, so let us hope and pray that perhaps there will be a change in which guns are not so readily obtainable, and our media culture will stop the unchecked proliferation and dissemination of imagery of gun violence and of the use of guns against other living beings. Along with the sin of murder is the sin of espousing and promoting the need for and bogus "right" to bear arms.

tom said...

Last year the school I work in had training for what to do if you had a shooter in the school. It was training for police and for staff. Believe me, not one police officer or administrator suggested that armed teachers would be able to prevent someone with a gun from a killing spree. The emphasis for staff was on keeping students safe and making it difficult for someone to enter your classroom or even to see into it. I have heard all the talk from the right that if teachers had guns they could have prevented this or that. No thanks. Give these families and their community support, not guns.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Amen Tom. That there even needs to be this "training" and safety preparedness reflects the sad and deranged state of things. Time for a big sea change, starting with zero tolerance gun laws. I will be hounding the White House about this and also all major studio and network heads. I gonna be a big pain in the butt to all status quo big salary collectors.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Robert for being the pain in the butt for the status quo to end, I love you for that.
Michael's daughter and mom to a 10 year old doll, Caitlin

JIm said...

I believe it was during the time of the Reagan administration that it became harder to institutionalize mentally deficient people, which led to an explosion of numbers of street people. In order to protect the rights of the mentally ill we have maybe have swung to far.

Somewhere it was mentioned that the NRA wanted to limit background checks. Sometimes good organizations make errors. In fact it might be good to have some sort mental evauation exam as part of the application process.

The fact is evil people will still do harm to innocents. The more we can do to have volunteer teachers be the last line of defense the better. Concealed carry makes sense for those teachers who are willing and able to go through proper training.

tpw said...

Dear M: The left and the Democrats have been such wimps re gun control, thanks to intimidation by the NRA, that the right, with the messaging all to itself, has whittled down the number of people who believe we need serious gun control. It seems like the only politician with the guts to speak out is Bloomberg, and he's protected by his billions. Maybe a mad gunman will have to mow down the top echelon of the NRA before anything improves. As for the 2nd Amendment, it has "well regulated" right in its language. A system in which any unhinged psycho or anyone listed on the terrorist watch list can buy automatic weapons, thanks to the greed of the gun manufacturers whom the NRA serves, is one in which we are all in mortal peril, and one for which our politicians and our gun junkies bear the blame.

JIm said...

TPW, hopefully you are not advocating that NRA leaders be killed. Of course that would be the liberal way; to wail against an evil then wish that evil be visited on people whom you disagree with.

tom said...

In Michigan most of the public mental health facilities were closed by Republican Governor Engler and a Republican legislature. I am too angry at the current Republican legislature and governor to even talk about what changes to laws they have rammed through in the last week.

JIm said...

Tom, I thought you liberals like choice. Choice is fine when the choice to kill or let live is about an infant born alive or a fetus, but a choice on whether to pay union bills or for parents and children should have a choice in the schools they may attend is beyond the pale.
The liberal mind is wonderous to behold.

tom said...

What choice are you referring to? Is pushing bills through a legislature without committee hearings or debate a choice that conservatives believe in? And choice... well, let us see - the union negotiates the benefits and wages, but I don't have to join and pay union dues. I can just mooch and not pay.

However as we will not agree and I don't want to descend into name calling and other trollish behavior I have said what I will say to you and will not respond to any more trolling from you.

JIm said...

Tom, The legislation was passed by lawfully elected representatives and was signed by the governor. The legislation was pushed in response to a failed union amendment drive. If Wisconsin is any indication the fight is far from over. Already, union thugs have threatened the governors soccer playing daughter.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Here they are...their blood is on your hands Jim, and on all of our who to some degree allow the availablility of guns and the culture of violence to continue...but much more on you Jim, far more.





CHILDREN
Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female (age 6)
Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male (age 7)
Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female (age 6)
Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female (age 7)
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female (age 6)
Dylan Hockley, 03/08/06, male (age 6)
Madeleine F. Hsu, 07/10/06, female (age 6)
Catherine V. Hubbard, 06/08/06, female (age 6)
Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male (age 7)
Jesse Lewis, 06/30/06, male (age 6)
James Mattioli, 03/22/06, male (age 6)
Grace McDonnell, 11/04/05, female (age 7)
Emilie Parker, 05/12/06, female (age 6)
Jack Pinto, 05/06/06, male (age 6)
Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male (age 6)
Caroline Previdi, 09/07/06, female (age 6)
Jessica Rekos, 05/10/06, female (age 6)
Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female (age 6)
Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male (age 6)
Allison N. Wyatt, 07/03/06, female (age 6)

ADULTS
Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female (age 29)
Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65, female (age 47)
Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female (age 52)
Lauren Russeau, 1982, female (age 29)
Mary Sherlach, 02/11/56, female (age 56)
Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female (age 27)

May they rest in peace and may their deaths not be in vain.

JIm said...

Robert,
Indeed there is blood on people's hands. The obvious one is the dead Mr. Lanza. The other bloody hands are the liberals like your self who would take away the Constitutional right of self defense and oppose the last line of defense for innocent and helpless school children; an armed and trained teacher.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

you are so blind. you would treat cancer with cancer. Get off of this "liberal" crap Jim. This is bigger and deeper than that. Get real for once.

JenW said...

Anyone who suggests arming and training teachers to fire a gun is insane. Very bad idea with no rationale. I heard it took about 3 min to wipe out those beautiful individuals with the deadly automatic weapons used. Plus the fact that teachers are peaceful and gentle souls- no teacher would agree to that "training". Stupid idea . Robert thank you for all you say and do. God bless.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Jim is completely, certifiably insane. He does not deserve a voice on this forum and his family should commit him to an asylum and throw away the key. But first he should be made to spout his blasphemy to the parents of the murdered children....his one way ticket to Hell is a foregone conclusion.

tom said...

Jim, I see is trolling still. I wrote a long response just to make myself feel better, But I won't waste my time posting it. Jim is like the Westboro Baptist church.

I've worked in schools since 1969 and would never bring a gun to work, no matter how dangerous.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Guns must be outlawed in and eliminated from our land. Period. We a already have a "well regulated militia"...similarly, gratuitous violence in media must be outlawed...I hate to say it because I make my living and support my family working on films rife with gratuitous violence, but Hollywood is an accessory to the murders in Newtown.

JIm said...

Guns were outlawed in Nazi Germany,Italy, Stalinist Russa and Castro's Cuba. It did not work out so well. My wife,Loyeen is dedicated Democrat NEA member, a teacher at gang ridden middle school,an NRA member and I might add an excellant shot. I asked her what she thought about a concealed carry for willing and able trained teachers. She was fine with it as long as it was concealed carry and not guns that were locked up in a desk where students could break in.

tom said...

In a fight a kid can get your gun and use it on you or others. I've broken up fights and know what can happen. Kids will know who is carrying and who isn't. The gun will be an attraction. And what happens the first time a teacher shoots a student who she thinks is threatening her? What if she misses and hits a bystander? Oh, well. Too bad the kid shouldn't have been in the way? There are so many ways that this whole idea is nuts that there is no room to add them all here. My wife and I have worked many different schools. There have been gang issues. A visiting principal saw kids throwing gang signs outside the middle school I was at. Her school had gang issues. They simply had a no tolerance policy. Caught throwing signs, out. Caught writing gang symbols in your notebook, on a locker, whatever. Out. Come in to school with an slash in one eyebrow, one pant leg rolled up, or any of the other gang emblems. Out. Of course to an anti-public school conservative they might say - hey, look this school is failing because so many that started didn't finish. We need to have the state take over and appoint an emergency manager and layoff all of the teachers and staff so we can bring in cheaper labor to fix the problem. Of course the problem was already fixed. Of course this principal was black and a liberal so what did she know about schools.

JIm said...

Gun free zones have become magnets for killers around the globe. Banning all guns will not work since only the bad guys will be armed. Also, history has shown that banning all guns can encourage governments to do bad things when it comes to civil liberties.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Bullsh*t and you know it.

JIm said...

Robert, I love your succinct and reasoned logic.

Lally said...

I haven't been keeping up with this thread until now because I'm out of town so I will leave that stalker's comments because some responded to them and I want the exchanges seen because they make so much more sense than his. But the stalker's comments once again have reached that point of total lying. All statistics dispell his claims, so from here on he will be deleted.

JIm said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Lally said...

anyone needing to be reassured that the stalker's comments are full of lies need only go into the archives of this blog to find refutation after refutation, all based on facts not rightwing spin, for almost every point the stalker has ever made (though on occasion he has conceded a point here or there) or on the web to din statistical refutations of his claims in this comment thread. Ad nauseum actually.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Good thanks Michael cuz I"m running low on disinfectant.

tpw said...

Dear Robert et al.:
The stalker, whoever he is, is the perpetual voice of untruth on this blog. I never read anything he posts, haven't for years, nor should you. Engagement with people like him is pointless, and, in any case, who of us wants to give our precious time and attention to someone like him? His obsession with Michael and Lally's Alley is creepy, IMO.

tom said...

Here is a link to an article that some of you might find interesting.

http://www.nationofchange.org/america-s-teachers-heroes-or-greedy-moochers-public-trough-1355674260

I am one of those moochers and proud of it.

JIm said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.