Another school shooting

Yup... because it sounded to me like "if people were more nosy and fucked with someone who was having a bad day more....". Shit like that would make me want to shoot someone.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Yup... because it sounded to me like "if people were more nosy and fucked with someone who was having a bad day more....". Shit like that would make me want to shoot someone.

I see your point, rkz, but I also have come to believe that more intervention-esp. among the fringe-(identified mental health folk and assorted other identified) is really needed in this country. We've thrown a lot of nuts out on the street in the name of saving a buck (those bucks aren't really saved, just spend elsewhere) and cut mental health reimbursments/services down to the nubbin. Watching a paranoid-schizophrenic walk down the street carrying all her earthly possessions into nowhere is a sad sight. I've seen it many a time--crazies get discharged into a no-win situation and end up doing a crazy thing.
I don't know for a fact that mr. shoot-up-the-Amish was crazed but I suspect he was.

[Pangloss62]

they prefer to keep their licences.

But at the core, they REALLY LOVE their guns. Most every gun owner in this country doesn't really "need" his gun/s, for self-defense or otherwise. They just LOVE them sooooooo much. The guns are substitutes for their essential insecurity and self-loathing.

Then some kid yesterday in AZ steals an AK-47 from his parents house. I hear the gun people say "They did not store the gun properly...blah blah blah." That may be true, but why do these people have an AK-47 in their house? For self defense? I doubt it. It's because they love the power they feel when they hold it in their hands. Eventually, if life becomes too much to deal with for them or their children, they will use it on others. I fear gun owners because they all have a bit of that gun lust in them, and it's bound to come out eventually.

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

Eventually, if life becomes too much to deal with for them or their children, they will use it on others. I fear gun owners because they all have a bit of that gun lust in them, and it's bound to come out eventually.

Yeah, I bet the Finns with their 50% of all households owning guns are going to declare war on us any day. And your neighbor who's such an expert cook with all those sharp knives in her kitchen? I'd keep an eye on her if I were you. Sure, some people love their guns. Some people love their cars, too. So what? I love animals. Does that mean that one day, I'm going to set a pack of snarling Rottweilers loose on a two-year old? You're just showing your bias against gun owners, not making a coherent argument.

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

I fear gun owners because they all have a bit of that gun lust in them, and it's bound to come out eventually.

That's called hoplophobia, on your part.

Could it be that you feel *you* harbor anger that is ultimately uncontrollable, and since that feeling is unacceptable you project it onto others? Since you're so into psychoanalysing, try this on for size.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

But at the core, they REALLY LOVE their guns. Most every gun owner in this country doesn't really "need" his gun/s, for self-defense or otherwise. They just LOVE them sooooooo much. The guns are substitutes for their essential insecurity and self-loathing.

There is a lot that you don't understand about the "gun culture."

An awful lot.

[Trilby]

"When I held that gun in my hand, I felt a surge of power...like God must feel when he's holding a gun." ---quoth Homer S., NRA member--for a brief time.

[Pangloss62]

[Undertoad]

You don't really think of yourself as a bigot, do you Pan?

[Pangloss62]

You don't really think of yourself as a bigot, do you Pan?

To some degree, yes. But I think there's a little biggot in everyone.

More to the point, having encountered many gun-owners, I do see that they tend to fetishize their weapons. And sure, I fetishize things too; but there is something inherently scary about the way people obsess over their guns. And yes, people kill people...with their guns.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

To some degree, yes. But I think there's a little biggot in everyone.

More to the point, having encountered many gun-owners, I do see that they tend to fetishize their weapons. And sure, I fetishize things too; but there is something inherently scary about the way people obsess over their guns. And yes, people kill people...with their guns.

There are more vehicle related deaths than gun related. People love their cars, and "fetishize" them as well. In the last year I have been in two wrecks and I know of 3 other ppl at my work who have been wrecked. When I was in HS I knew of 5 kids who were killed or paralyzed in a car wreck or had a close relative killed or seriously injured. I knew of none who were injured by a gun during that time. Sorry I knew of one...he accidently shot himself in the leg when he had gone bird hunting...fortunatly it was just birdshot. He couldn't run track for a while though.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

People love their cars, and "fetishize" them as well.

Observation: cars have a primary purpose which is not violence-related...

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Flint

Observation: cars have a primary purpose which is not violence-related...

Observation: There is no call to ban cars every time a drunk driver kills a family of five.

I do not carry a gun for the purpose of going out and randomly shooting people. I carry a gun for the purpose of defense.

[Trilby]

Gulp. This isn't about gun owners (god rest them) it's about nuts--right?

PS--re: Finns. WTF? The Finn's are like--like, comparing the US to Greenland! Come ON!

[morethanpretty]

I can see the reason to own rifles, shotguns, and even small handguns but after a point it is simply to give themselves a sense of domination. You see this type of behavior with other things such as cars, houses, even education...the more the bigger the best. Everyone exhibits this kind of mentality, and we can't just accuse or condem gun-owners for it. Most criminals who commited a crime with a gun, used an illegally attained or stolen gun.

Offenders

According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from -

a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%
a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%
family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80%