Paul Ryan Criticized over "Thoughts and Prayers" Comment

[Jackalope]

No.  That is what I'm saying.

Perhaps one of you would care to list all of the legislation that Ryan has authored or supported which would actually have an impact on this particular problem - which is, after all, what we're talking about here.

Ok, my bad.

In his case, I don't think it's an either/or thing. He's a Republican politician, so he's going to be for gun ownership rights. In other words, he's not substituting prayer for doing something politically. He wouldnt have done anything anyway.

That's kind of the point. He's not doing shit to solve the problem.

Being for gun ownership rights doesn't mean he can't do anything about it. He could, for example, champion something to do with treatment for mental illness. What do you figure the odds of that are? In addition lots of people who are for gun ownership rights want gun control tightened up.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Personally I do not give a good Goddamn whether Paul Ryan is praying or not. But a universal background check would have stopped this as the guy that committed the Texas shooting was kicked out of the military for assaulting his wife and family. So that would be nice.

[The Grand Nudger]

Nope. For whatever reason the AF failed to report. He passed the background.

[Fireball]

Talking with guys I know who may know more about what the military reports to civilians, they may not be required to by statute. In this case, I'd say that there should be a way for that reporting to happen. If he got a BCD from the USAF for beating his family, that should weigh on his ability to possess any firearm. If there is a domestic disturbance where I live in California, the police may confiscate all the firearms in the home. There is a method for getting them back, but it costs money. In any event, he brought that discharge on himself.

[The Industrial Atheist]

I didn't know about that. But maybe you could have as part of a universal background check that that stuff gets reported.

[The Grand Nudger]

It was supposed to be.  The AF is currently doing an internal investigation as to how this mistake occurred. Just another example of why gun regs need to be tight, one little monday morning mistake and two dozen people are dead. Imagine what would have happened if this was two amtrak trains colliding, 30 dead... because of a reporting mistake? Bet that -won't- happen in this case.

[Rev. Rye]

Let's face it; the way I see it, the Republicans have something of a vested interest in keeping mass shootings going. If we have people killing each other with assault rifles, it's a sign of moral decay within America. And, naturally, since the Republicans are all about crowing about moral decay, they can claim they have the cure: the agenda they've already been pushing. And, of course, since restricting sales on guns would likely have an effect on the number of civilian gun massacres America sees every year, it's in their best interest to keep the train rolling, and if they can keep things going by shifting the conversation elsewhere and blame anyone but themselves, it makes it all the better for them. Or it could just be that several jackasstic lines of thinking within conservative thought (such as it is) are converging to create a situation where they just keep happening, the people in power do to something refuse to do anything, and they can just pat themselves on the back for it.

[Minimalist]

No.  That is what I'm saying.

Perhaps one of you would care to list all of the legislation that Ryan has authored or supported which would actually have an impact on this particular problem - which is, after all, what we're talking about here.

Ok, my bad.

In his case, I don't think it's an either/or thing. He's a Republican politician, so he's going to be for gun ownership rights. In other words, he's not substituting prayer for doing something politically. He wouldnt have done anything anyway.

Now you're catching on.

And neither will any of the rest of the bastards.

[Cecelia]

Prayer works?

Then why haven't the mass shootings stopped yet?  And for that matter, why haven't we just banned guns because you can just pray for god to protect your homes.

[FFaith]

President Barack Obama -"Number two, what you said about murder rates and violent crime generally is something that we don't celebrate enough. The fact of the matter is that violent crime has been steadily declining across America for a pretty long time. And you wouldn't always know it by watching television, but overall, most cities are much safer than they were 10 years ago or 20 years ago."

I suppose we can't absolutely prove that it's not divine intervention that is lowering the numbers as time goes by, so maybe prayer does work. It's about as likely as God existing in the first place, but can't entirely be ruled out I suppose.