Americans And Gun Control
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-12-18/americans-and-gun-control
The horror and outrage in the aftermath of last week's mass shootings in Connecticut are galvanizing new efforts to ban assault weapons. Diane and her guests discuss Americans and gun control.
Guests
James Fallows
national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine.
Laura Meckler
White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
Adam Winkler
law professor at the UCLA and author of "Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America."
Congressman John Yarmuth
U.S. Representative from Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District.
Comments
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'Outdated' ..... I am sorry but our government's need for a complete totalitarianism form of government has grown exponentially since 911.....outdated? Right! Ha!
THX $11.38
If a confiscatory gun control bill did pass how would you react?
Would you load your long magazines and...
(Guns, the gun economy and gun thugs are on your side of the debate. Justice seekers and peacemakers oppose you. How 'bout that?)
While I understand the call for increased gun control after the Sandy Hook tragedy, I want to correct the impression many people have of those on the side of gun rights. Arguing against gun control right now comes across as insensitive -- a lack of concern for the victims -- but it is actually the opposite. They want to be able to prevent these tragedies. They believe the bad guys will always be able to get weapons if they want them, and they want to make sure some good guys are armed as well. My father and my husband both have concealed carry licenses, but they don't carry guns to flaunt their rights -- they do it to save lives. I know without a doubt that if either of them were in the theater in Aurora, CO, or the Sandy Hook Elementary, they would have put their own lives on the line to save others. They are not insensitive to the many victims we have mourned in this country. They want to make sure there aren't more.
Funny how the lame stream media fails to report the real news...that psycotropic drugs have been instrumental in almost every single mass shooting?
Nope, big pharma won't allow this news to go reported or they'd cut their sponsorship...fascist!
May I refer your discussion to the blog post by Dr. Brene Brown. This is the most sense I have heard on our public responsibility and deep compassion for one another. Www.ordinarycourage.com
http://www.ordinarycourage.com/my-blog/2012/12/17/our-stories-matter-bec...
I feel that 1) eliminating high capacity magazines, 2) tax sales of bullets and guns to cover the cost that they inflict, 3) Make gun owners responsible for their guns, from manufacturers to gun stores to individuals at gun shows, and 4) require, like Canada, two other people to vouch for the purchaser. All sales must be registered.
Killing kids in the U.S. is not ok
Killing kids all over the world with un-manned drones is Cool!
Kind of a disconnect don't ya think?
Fascist!
Given the extreme difficulty in classifying types of guns; why not focus on the one thing they all have in common? Gunpowder.
The most successful public health campaign to date has been taxing tobacco; which lowers consumption. Why not put a *huge* tax on gunpowder? Millions of empty guns are not a problem.
Currently a box of bullets is around $25 - $50; seems this should be closer to $100 - $200 or more. It should be a very expensive hobby, and all the revenue should go to gun safety/school protection efforts.
A tax on gunpowder rather than bullets also side-steps the self-loaders.
If urbanrage is serious (in his fear of Obama) I think his only solution was suggested by Romney: self-deport. I'm gonna try with others to change corporate dominance of government, without firearms. Gun advocacy is a pro-corporate thing which helps the 1%.
Diane,
I have less freedom today than I did last week. I no longer have easy access to the school where I take my autistic son in the mornings and evenings. I am an engaged parent and not a gun owner. My freedoms are being constrained because the gun violence in our society. I have absolutely no sympathy for gun enthusiasts who complain about their freedom being violated when they have to get a license or endure a waiting period or cannot get a high capacity magazine for their assault weapon.
No law was passed to restrict my freedom. My freedom is restricted because of the actions of others. I think it is high time for the gun owning and enthusiast segment of our society to take responsibility for the gun violence in our society.
Thank you,
Itrel Monroe
I understand the discussion about gun control. The discussion is necessary... I haven't fully figured out where I stand. But what I don't understand is why there hasn't been any discussion about the safety of our schools. Why do all schools need to be so "fancy" looking by having walls of glass? Why is it that I can ring the buzzer at my son's elementary school and without looking or asking who I am, I'm buzzed right in? How did this horrible person get into the elementary school? I'm afraid the availability of firearms is going to be very difficult to reign in, not that we shouldn't try, but it might be easier to increase the security of our schools!
I have a question. Are gun owners required to have insurance in the case that someone is hurt or killed by a gun that they own?
I am tired of the argument, "guns don't kill people, people do". The truth is people with guns kill people. The fact is it is just to easy to pull the trigger for some. Life to some is just an extended version of the video games they play.
The second amendment was created at a time when the country was defending itself through the use of private militia. This is not the case and if people want to be part of defending this country they have many ways of doing that without returning the country back to the wild west.
We either protect the children or we protect the lobbyists. Put it to a vote. This is a democracy, let America decide!
Urbanrage makes the Ron-Paulist observation that drone killing is the same as domestic mass shooting. But he fails to comprehend that drone control and gun control amount to the same strategy. I say we should melt both in the same retort.
Feel free to move to any country that is ruled as such!
Ok...maybe I'm missing something here. Everyone is clamoring about gun control as if the weapons used in this tragedy were illegally obtained. As cliche as it is, 'guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people', so to effectively remove a threat like the one that happened in CT., ALL firearms would need to be banned for purchase by 'civilians'.
What puzzles me is the fact that there is a common thread for all of these tragedies...an over-privileged, self-entitled individual that for whatever reason, had a 'bad day' and decided to go on a murder suicide spree; no one is screaming 'ban crazy kids' or 'ban parents that don't pay attention to their kids before they go on a shooting spree'...it's always the guns that are to blame. I am not an NRA member, nor do I intend on becoming one, yet the rush to blame the gun for the acts of individuals that had to show signs of 'being off' (do you really think that these kids were perfectly fine on a Monday and mass murderers on Wed.?? This doesn't happen in a vacuum...)
The alleged shooter, Adam Lanza, had a history of questionable behavior (some reports claim that as a youth he needed to be watched because he'd 'turned off' his pain receptors to the point where he wouldn't realize when he hurt himself while playing little league sports), was not happy about a divorce, and was generally described as a dark and strange child. Now, being 'moody' or 'emo' is not reason enough to commit someone, yet there are a lot of similarities between Mr. Lanza, the CO movie shooter, the Columbine shooters, etc., but until we start looking at the real problem and stop playing the 'easy blame game', we will never really correctly address this horrible problem...just my $.02
Michael Anderson makes the quintessential argument above:
"We live in a society today that is different from when the constitution was written."
Yes, we do. Instead of living in a society built upon the Constitution and the Second Amendment as written and recently upheld as written by the Supreme Court, Michael and his society now prefer a different Constitution with a different Second Amendment, one that determines rights to keep and bear arms based on how Michael assesses their "needs":
"No one I know needs an assault weapon to go hunt deer. No ones needs an assault weapon to protect their house."
The problem is this game can be played with any portion of the Constitution - who really "needs" any protection from random search of vagina or anus for drugs or bombs by any passing police cruiser? Michael doesn't, because I just decided that he doesn't for him. No woman I don't care about needs any such protection, because I just decided that they don't for them.
Yes, I believe Michael is correct: we live in a far different society than the one founded for us, one now populated by little more than bleating food animals like Michael incapable even of understanding how the society they now enjoy ever even came to be.
Here's the answer, Michael: the Second Amendment was written so that ordinary citizens, men and women, could own highly lethal, military grade weapons in order to kill people, including their government officials, if they became too oppressive, for example, if they decided citizens no longer "needed" limitations from authorities shining flashlights up their orifices on a whim.
I have friends who cling dearly to their guns and their anti-government conspiracy rhetoric. I haven't yet seen any benefit in their actions to protect themselves as citizens. I have seen many innocent citizens harmed by the very guns intended to protect them.
We in this country are suffering from an auto-immune disease.
My husband and I recently almost bought the Skylander wii game at Target UNTIL we saw the demonstration video which showed one character called "Trigger Happy" shooting willy nilly TWO double barrelled machine guns - one in each had. We were sickened. Incredibly, this game is rated 10 an older. The Skylander makers should be ashamed - there is NO reason to have such a character on a children's game or ANY game.
Parents NEED to check games (and movies!) out before exposing their children to this dreadful stuff.
Thank you for all you do with your invaluable programs.
Ok...maybe I'm missing something here. Everyone is clamoring about gun control as if the weapons used in this tragedy were illegally obtained. As cliche as it is, 'guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people', so to effectively remove a threat like the one that happened in CT., ALL firearms would need to be banned for purchase by 'civilians'.
What puzzles me is the fact that there is a common thread for all of these tragedies...an over-privileged, self-entitled individual that for whatever reason, had a 'bad day' and decided to go on a murder suicide spree; no one is screaming 'ban crazy kids' or 'ban parents that don't pay attention to their kids before they go on a shooting spree'...it's always the guns that are to blame. I am not an NRA member, nor do I intend on becoming one, yet the rush to blame the gun for the acts of individuals that had to show signs of 'being off' (do you really think that these kids were perfectly fine on a Monday and mass murderers on Wed.?? This doesn't happen in a vacuum...)
The alleged shooter, Adam Lanza, had a history of questionable behavior (some reports claim that as a youth he needed to be watched because he'd 'turned off' his pain receptors to the point where he wouldn't realize when he hurt himself while playing little league sports), was not happy about a divorce, and was generally described as a dark and strange child. Now, being 'moody' or 'emo' is not reason enough to commit someone, yet there are a lot of similarities between Mr. Lanza, the CO movie shooter, the Columbine shooters, etc., but until we start looking at the real problem and stop playing the 'easy blame game', we will never really correctly address this horrible problem...just my $.02
What about bullet proof vests? If a civilian buys this kind of military equipment, Shouldn't the police have a record of it?
How about a really, really high tax on all assault weapons and guns and ammunition? That may be a deterrent in the mad rush to buy more weapons.
Look out: Our kooky pro-corporate Supreme Court majority may declare guns to be persons and give them the vote.
The gun industry is loading the phones, Diane.
Calls are not a representative sample of public opinion.
Lobbying drowns out the overwhelming thoughtful majority.
It's a wonder the nuts don't get on air and then fire an automatic burst into the phone.
I think that as a response to this latest shooting, people are thinking about this in the wrong way. My children's schools have always had a full time, Police Resource Officer on campus. It not only greatly improves the safety of our children, but they are also a wonderful educational resource. Some people have been saying that if the teachers were armed, or we take away people's guns this tragedy could have been averted. I really don't buy that. If that school had a police officer present, I am certain this could have been averted, or provided a strong deterrent.
I guess I'm confused about this issue. The only thing, in my opinion, that more gun laws will do is affect the LAW ABIDING citizens of this country. These people are not the ones that are creating havoc or doing these gruesome crimes. It is the lawless, selfish, and morally irregular that are doing this. As you can see from this last incident they guns didn't even belong to him! And in Columbine the guns were not theirs (the shooters) either. It doesn't make sense to me at all.
Sooo....how're those talks with your representatives working for ya?
My 'representatives' seem more intent on listening to the voice with the money and I find the last thing they actually do is represent my interest.
The fact is, the cities with the highest gun control have the highest crime rate....
Regarding the culture of violence in this country, as a parent, I feel I am under continual pressure and constantly bombarded by advertisements, toys and movies that are marketed to children and yet promote or glorify violence. I think that for most children as they become teens, the result of this is not as dramatic as the results in connecticut, but is a more insidious and gradual acclimatisation to violence that only adds to the sense of inertia and passivity displayed by wider society in response to the epidemic of gun violence in this country. Again, as a parent, all I can do is turn off the tv, vet the movies they watch and not allow violent toys in the house, while trying to instill values of compassion and kindness in my kids. But it seems so upside down that the messages kids recieve from society are often in direct opposition to these values.
I have a comment and a question. In this interesting and profound discussion, I was shocked to notice that the panelists refer to the mass *murder* of children in Connecticut as "mass shooting", "slaughter", "massacre", "killing" etc. None of the debaters used the proper term "murder". One of the panelists went as far as to make a distinction between "ordinary crimes" and "mass shootings". This treatment is also found in the media. Very few people criminalize this act with strong, accurate wording, which leaves the impression that the criminal behind the murders is being acquitted of his crime through a distorted public perception.
Words like "mass shooting", "slaughter", "massacre" are also used in many video games, history books, fiction and non-fiction literature, associated with "martyrs" and "liberators". I believe that most of the mentally ill that commit the crime of mass murder, like we have recently seen, seldom see themselves as potential criminals. They see themselves as heroes, or martyrs. Perhaps that perception is fueled by the way we refer to their acts.
Wouldn't a proper use of the words "mass murder" instead of "mass shooting"; "murderer" instead of "shooter" and so on create the appropriate public perception that murders have been committed, their perpetrators are criminals, and in this way act as effectively as gun control laws to prevent these crimes from happening?
Mom 23: Yep, video games and movies (some sponsored by the Defense Department) are becoming ever more violent and nihilistic. Some of the commentators advocating guns on this blog probably have a joystick in the other hand as they type. We have a frenzy of violence addiction plaguing public discourse and civil society. Dismemberment and torture media are extreme forms of pornography. We do not want children, or anyone, exposed to such filth.
indeed, the guns belonged, legally to his mother. How many times do we need proof that unfortunately, law abiding citizens don't maintain proper security of their guns? If you allow people to arm themselves as if they are going to war, don't be surprised when they do indeed go to war.