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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 14, 2012 at 8:08 pm
My own thoughts on this go back to my own teen years. Puberty is tough on anyone, but when you're transsexual it's even more difficult because your body is changing in ways that feels so horribly wrong. What's worse, the emotional state testosterone put me in had me feeling extremely aggressive and violent on a regular basis. I was also raised by parents who have always been extremely liberal and they've never much liked guns. In fact, I don't think I ever even touched a gun until I was 32. I can't help but think, had I been raised with guns in my house and knew how to get guns easily, I can quite easily see that being me. If this weren't an atheist forum, I think the phrase is "There but for the grace of God, go I."
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 14, 2012 at 8:21 pm
(December 14, 2012 at 7:47 pm)Shell B Wrote: Syn, life is full of stresses and this is the kind of thing that makes everyone stressed. You're cool by me. I wish I enjoyed being me right now. Edges are appearing on everything and it's getting hard to live and let live. :/
(December 14, 2012 at 7:47 pm)Shell B Wrote: Napo, I read today that more school shootings have occurred in the UK in the past decade by far. Sorry. I'll try to find some stats on that. Also, obviously there is an agenda. Raising a point where you obviously have an opinion is promoting an agenda. It's not to say that promoting an agenda is bad. I simply think a lot of us think it is bad timing. A lot of people aren't even taking a breath to say how sad it is. It's just straight to, "Oh, the guns! Those fucking guns!" /observation
I tried to find stats on that too. Unfortunately, Wikipedia couldn't sort a data table to save it's webserver funding. They don't sort ranges appropriately, making it hard to read and extrapolate.
Anywho, a lot of us cope with the tragedy of an event by re-examing and debating.
Demeaning it is tantamount to stopping discussion because someone has decided they get to be the arbiter of 'taste'.
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 14, 2012 at 8:33 pm
(December 14, 2012 at 7:44 pm)Annik Wrote: Human violence and horror existed long before guns were even invented.
This is about "efficiency," Annik. Guns give every 98 pound weakling the power of life and death over many.
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 14, 2012 at 10:28 pm
(December 14, 2012 at 8:21 pm)Moros Synackaon Wrote: I tried to find stats on that too. Unfortunately, Wikipedia couldn't sort a data table to save it's webserver funding. They don't sort ranges appropriately, making it hard to read and extrapolate.
Anywho, a lot of us cope with the tragedy of an event by re-examing and debating.
Demeaning it is tantamount to stopping discussion because someone has decided they get to be the arbiter of 'taste'.
Which is, of course, why I only state my personal preference and try to do nothing to stymie conversation.
I hope things start going better for you.
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 15, 2012 at 12:13 am
(This post was last modified: December 15, 2012 at 12:22 am by Whateverist.)
(December 14, 2012 at 3:59 pm)Annik Wrote: I'm more worried about the families than about the fucking NRA, which did not personally put a gun in his hand, switch off a person's empathy and convince him to hurt people. This is my opinion and only that.
No, but they sure have worked hard to make sure every tortured soul that suffers a psychotic episode will be armed well enough to inflict maximum harm on their neighbors. I suspect we will not agree on this one.
(December 14, 2012 at 6:16 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: There is no criminal intent in owning a gun.
There need be no criminal intent in possessing nuclear warheads either, but we have the national will to prevent sovereign nations from seeking to possess them. If we had a shared urgency about automatic weapons, we could take these out too. Not as easily by a long shot, grant you, but we could make them so scarce that the odds would be against someone going through a psychotic break from getting his hands on one. If we had the national will to move in this direction we could hope they would become more scarce over time. (No reason to decide the issue on what difference we could make in one year's time.)
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 15, 2012 at 12:35 am
My Facebook news feed is currently about as appealing as a mass grave.
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 15, 2012 at 1:29 am
Again.....
Condolences to the families and friends of the "little ones" and their teachers. So very very sad 
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 15, 2012 at 1:52 am
(December 14, 2012 at 8:33 pm)Minimalist Wrote: (December 14, 2012 at 7:44 pm)Annik Wrote: Human violence and horror existed long before guns were even invented.
This is about "efficiency," Annik. Guns give every 98 pound weakling the power of life and death over many.
Yeah, so do a lot of other things. Sad fact. Why people choose guns over the many other ways probably has to do with presence. They want to be there. Fuck. There I go trying to find a reason again. No reason.
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 15, 2012 at 2:05 am
I disagree as well. It was the NRA that made it possible for this highly disturbed individual to get his hands on a Bushmaster .223 semiautomatic assault rifle with a 30 round clip and slaughter school children.
I was out all day helping a friend move and just read the news. I was just thinking that there are no words to describe what happened today, but there is one word that comes to my mind. STUPID. Stupid of him, and stupid of us. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, SHAME ON US!
My friend has the most beautiful 6 year old daughter, the sweetest little human being you can imagine, someone who has become my little friend in recent days while helping her mother and father, and I shutter to think that something like this could happen to her and her family. It is an utterly chilling thought to consider.
My heart is broken with sorrow for the families and friends of the victims, for the senseless slaughter of the most innocent among us, for how completely unnecessary it is for such evil events to occur in this world.
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RE: Again....But it's never the guns!
December 15, 2012 at 2:19 am
Quote: Fool us twice, SHAME ON US!
We have been fooled many more times than twice, Oro.
Tonight on the news here in AZ - almost as predicted - some self-proclaimed libertarian declared that we should arm kindergarten teachers.
The answer to gun violence from these morons is always "more guns."
What we then get is more bodies.
Fuck them all.
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