Peace & goodwill dept., US style

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    msspeaks Forum Index -> THE NEWS
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:56 am    Post subject: Peace & goodwill dept., US style Reply with quote

In a large shopping mall not far from where I live, a gunperson started shooting the civilian version of an M16 killed two people, then himself yesterday. Some details are here.

Meanwhile, there's the debate about weapons in church, some details of which are given here.

Elsewhere, some congregations are offering concealed firearms training classes to their members--for instance, in San Angelo, Texas.

I'm not sure just where Jesus advised selling your cloak and buying a sword, but I need my cloak more than I need a sword just now....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another horrendous incident, this time resulting in the deaths of 26 people, 20 of them children in school. Some details are available here.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Correction to the above: Ms. Lanza, the shooter's mother, did not work for the school.

There is an updated account here.

It includes this:

Quote:
She was “a big, big gun fan,” [an acquaintance of Ms. Lanza's] added on his Web site.

There are many gun enthusiasts in this area, residents said.

When some people who live near the elementary school heard the shots fired by Mr. Lanza on Friday, they said they were not surprised.

“I really didn’t think anything of it,” said a resident, Ray Rinaldi. “You hear gun shots around here all the time.”



“You hear gun shots around here all the time.”

And there you have it, the typical US neighborhood, described in the news as a "Norman Rockwell" town....

I'm reminded of a song that's been around for decades:

Quote:
I really have a yen
To go back once again,
Back to the place where no one wears a frown,
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town.

...

I remember Dan, the druggist on the corner, 'e
Was never mean or ornery,
He was swell.
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well,
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split.

...

That fellow was no fool
Who taught our Sunday School,
And neither was our kindly Parson Brown.
We're recording tonight so I have to leave this line out.
In my home town.

I remember Sam, he was the village idiot.
And though it seems a pity, it
Was so.
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow,
And nothing could be done,
Because he was the mayor's son.

The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife,
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown.
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
In my home town.



[Some stanzas omitted.]

--by Tom Lehrer
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:47 pm    Post subject: Dr. George Lundberg's plea: Turn in your guns Reply with quote

From MedPage Today, December 18, 2012 (originally published in September 4, 2012):

Quote:
I Want You to Turn in Your Guns

By George Lundberg, MD, Editor-at-Large, MedPage Today


This At Large column from George Lundberg, MD, Editor-at-Large, MedPage Today, was originally published Sept. 4, 2012. Following the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we decided it would be worthwhile to republish at this time. --The Editors

Tran1:

Hello and Welcome. I'm Dr. George Lundberg and this is At Large at MedPage Today.

Doctor, Patient, Public Citizen: Do you own a gun or many guns?

If you do, I want you to turn them in to your local police department.

Be adult; be brave; be mature; be sensible; go gunless. You don't need guns. There is more danger for you and for us if you have them than if you don't have them.

OK. You protest mightily and say you must keep your guns. Here is your appeal process. Why do you need your guns?

1. I am a gun collector; I run a museum and make my living collecting, showing, and writing about guns.

OK. You may keep your guns, but you may not have any ammunition. Not needed for your line of work.

2. I am in the Army National Guard so I sometimes bring my Army guns home overnight.

OK. Be sure they are locked up without easy access to ammunition for the other occupants of your home.

3. I am a police or other peace officer or fireman or public defender criminal investigator and must use guns in my work.

OK. Be sure they are locked up without easy access to ammunition for the other occupants of your home.

4. I own and manage a "Shooting Gallery" as my occupation.

OK. Same safety instructions as with 2 and 3.

5. I like to do target practice for sport, Olympic training, discipline, and fun.

OK. Rent your firearms at the practice facility and leave them there.

6. I like to hunt for food -- you know, quail, dove, squirrel, venison, moose meat, even bison.

Come on. Buy your food at the supermarket. Or rent guns from your hunting guide, if you have one.

7. I always carry, so I can protect myself, my wife, my family, and the public from attacks by criminals at the mall, at my children's school, or on the freeway.

I respect your motivation but believe that you watched "High Noon" or "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" too many times. Get real. You are more likely to kill yourself, your family, or other innocent people than you are to kill a mall bandido by carrying. Gun permit denied.

8. I keep firearms in my home to protect all Americans from the tyranny of government, just like in 1776.

What? You are a certifiable lunatic if you believe that you, and others like you, could defeat the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps in a revolution. Trust me. I was a regular officer in the U.S. Army for 11 years. You have no chance.

9. I need my guns because they make me feel like a man.

How sad. But not a good enough reason. You would probably feel even more like a man by shooting up a theater full of normal people. Psychopath city.

Convinced? Of course not. The current version of the Supremes says you have "a right." I say you have a responsibility. Turn in your guns. Make all of us safer, especially you and your family.

And this essay has not even touched the question of assault rifles, semi-automatic handguns, and large ammunition magazines, all intended ONLY for killing large numbers of humans quickly. There is absolutely no reason for normal, ordinary citizens of any developed country to possess any of these weapons.

That's my opinion. I'm Dr. George Lundberg, At Large for MedPage Today.



Quite a number of states are offering gun buyback programs.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Sun Dec 23, 2012 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More shootings --this time in Hollidaysburg (!), PA. Three dead, three wounded. An account is available here.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:53 pm    Post subject: In gun debate, misguided focus on mental illness (NYTimes) Reply with quote

This New York Times article (December 17, 2012) makes some important points:

Quote:
In Gun Debate, a Misguided Focus on Mental Illness

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D.

In the wake of the terrible shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., national attention has turned again to the complex links between violence, mental illness and gun control.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, has been described as a loner who was intelligent and socially awkward. And while no official diagnosis has been made public, armchair diagnosticians have been quick to assert that keeping guns from getting into the hands of people with mental illness would help solve the problem of gun homicides.

Arguing against stricter gun-control measures, Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and a former F.B.I. agent, said, “What the more realistic discussion is, ‘How do we target people with mental illness who use firearms?’ ”

Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, told The New York Times: “To reduce the risk of multivictim violence, we would be better advised to focus on early detection and treatment of mental illness.”

But there is overwhelming epidemiological evidence that the vast majority of people with psychiatric disorders do not commit violent acts. Only about 4 percent of violence in the United States can be attributed to people with mental illness.

This does not mean that mental illness is not a risk factor for violence. It is, but the risk is actually small. Only certain serious psychiatric illnesses are linked to an increased risk of violence.

One of the largest studies, the National Institute of Mental Health’s Epidemiologic Catchment Area study, which followed nearly 18,000 subjects, found that the lifetime prevalence of violence among people with serious mental illness — like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder — was 16 percent, compared with 7 percent among people without any mental disorder. Anxiety disorders, in contrast, do not seem to increase the risk at all.

Alcohol and drug abuse are far more likely to result in violent behavior than mental illness by itself. In the National Institute of Mental Health’s E.C.A. study, for example, people with no mental disorder who abused alcohol or drugs were nearly seven times as likely as those without substance abuse to commit violent acts.

It’s possible that preventing people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other serious mental illnesses from getting guns might decrease the risk of mass killings. Even the Supreme Court, which in 2008 strongly affirmed a broad right to bear arms, at the same time endorsed prohibitions on gun ownership “by felons and the mentally ill.”

But mass killings are very rare events, and because people with mental illness contribute so little to overall violence, these measures would have little impact on everyday firearm-related killings. Consider that between 2001 and 2010, there were nearly 120,000 gun-related homicides, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Few were perpetrated by people with mental illness.

Perhaps more significant, we are not very good at predicting who is likely to be dangerous in the future. According to Dr. Michael Stone, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia and an expert on mass murderers, “Most of these killers are young men who are not floridly psychotic. They tend to be paranoid loners who hold a grudge and are full of rage.”

Even though we know from large-scale epidemiologic studies like the E.C.A. study that a young psychotic male who is intoxicated with alcohol and has a history of involuntary commitment is at a high risk of violence, most individuals who fit this profile are harmless.

Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University and a leading expert in the epidemiology of violence, said in an e-mail, “Can we reliably predict violence? ‘No’ is the short answer. Psychiatrists, using clinical judgment, are not much better than chance at predicting which individual patients will do something violent and which will not.”

It would be even harder to predict a mass shooting, Dr. Swanson said, “You can profile the perpetrators after the fact and you’ll get a description of troubled young men, which also matches the description of thousands of other troubled young men who would never do something like this.”

Even if clinicians could predict violence perfectly, keeping guns from people with mental illness is easier said than done. Nearly five years after Congress enacted the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, only about half of the states have submitted more than a tiny proportion of their mental health records.

How effective are laws that prohibit people with mental illness from obtaining guns? According to Dr. Swanson’s recent research, these measures may prevent some violent crime. But, he added, “there are a lot of people who are undeterred by these laws.”

Adam Lanza was prohibited from purchasing a gun, because he was too young. Yet he managed to get his hands on guns — his mother’s — anyway. If we really want to stop young men like him from becoming mass murderers, and prevent the small amount of violence attributable to mental illness, we should invest our resources in better screening for, and treatment of, psychiatric illness in young people.

All the focus on the small number of people with mental illness who are violent serves to make us feel safer by displacing and limiting the threat of violence to a small, well-defined group. But the sad and frightening truth is that the vast majority of homicides are carried out by outwardly normal people in the grip of all too ordinary human aggression to whom we provide nearly unfettered access to deadly force.

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
agate
Site Admin


Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 5694
Location: Oregon

PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

An interesting article in Mother Jones is called "The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys" (December 28, 2012). The article can be seen here.

I have heard cops say at community neighborhood block group meetings that anyone who thinks acquiring a gun is going to make self-defense possible should think again.

As they stated, "The chances are you aren't going to be very experienced with that gun, and even if you're adept with it, your assailant will undoubtedly be far more adept with it."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    msspeaks Forum Index -> THE NEWS All times are GMT - 7 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You can post new topics in this forum
You can reply to topics in this forum
You can edit your posts in this forum
You can delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Create your own free forum now!
Terms of Service Purchase Ad Removal Forum Archive Report Abuse