The Orlando mass shooting that left 50 dead is the 15th mass shooting that has happened since President Obama took office. Although his remarks to reporters called primarily for solidarity with victims and survivors, he didn't shy away from questioning the ease of access to assault weapons in the U.S. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a high-powered assault rifle,” Obama said. “This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, in a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.” http://www.cltampa.com/news-views/florida-news/article/20782392/obama-calls-for-sanity-on-guns-after-horrific-shooting
Very rarely does some need a gun. Lot's of people don't have guns and get by just fine. A gun won't prevent an abusive or corrupt government. I am guessing that more accidents or intentionally harming theirself or someone else happens more than any heroic scenerios.
President Obama didn't even mention gun control yesterday, and he had a look of defeat on his face when he made his public comments. He knows nothing is going to change, except that gun sales will soar again for a while. Mass shootings are now an accepted, routine part of life here. The only option for those who don't like the law of the jungle, kill or be killed, is to stay home. I used to think something could be accomplished someday by rational debate about guns in this country, but not anymore. There's nothing left for either faction to do except work as hard as possible to defeat the other side. And we know who's always going to win. In some states and cities, we may actually see some reductions in gun regulations as a result of this incident.
It is so sick how gun sales skyrocket after tragedies like this. And i also call bullshit on these people actually caring about their constitutional rights. If tha t were true they would express the same level of outrage over biased journalism and media conglomerates. they dont really care, they just need a convenient excuse to explain their obsession with killing machines. I am not even strictly anti gun, per se....but I do think America's collective consciousness is fucked in the head when the slaughter of school children by gun, or gay people by gun inspires people to go out and buy up all the guns they can get their grubby little hands on.
[SIZE=12pt]Here in the south, pro-gun hysteria is the norm. In Orlando, we see the results [/SIZE] [SIZE=12pt]David Ferguson[/SIZE] The attack on Orlando LGBT club Pulse on Saturday night was carried out – like so many mass shootings before it – with an assault rifle, of the “AR-15 type”. These weapons have the ability to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, spraying waves of hot lead and fire, giving the shooter the power to mete out death on an industrial scale. The NRA and its supporters have fanatically lobbied to keep these weapons cheap, legal and easy to obtain, in spite of the fact that there is no sporting use for them. You can’t hunt deer with an assault rifle. And small animals would be vaporized from a single AR round. Their utility in stopping a home invasion is questionable, but this is true of all guns. According to the FBI, for every case of “justifiable homicide” with a firearm in the US – that’s to say, a self-defense shooting – there are 32 murders, suicides or accidental gun deaths. The overwhelming weight of evidence says that the high rate of gun ownership in this country makes us less safe, not more. Here in the south, pro-gun hysteria is the norm. Men and women who have never gone hunting for anything more challenging than bargains at the mall believe that they are not truly safe until they have amassed their own home arsenals. My home state, Georgia, passed legislation last year making guns legal everywhere, including churches and schools, under one of the most radical pro-gun laws in the country. That doesn’t make me feel particularly safe, especially given the lengths to which Fox News and other rightwing media have gone in the last year to demonize LGBT people and convince the world that w e are child molesters who are lurking in every Target store restroom. There are many people who insist they “need” a gun – particularly an assault weapon – to feel safe. But unless you are a marine in Fallujah or a Chicago Swat cop, you don’t “need” anything of the sort. You want it, and not in any kind of reasonable way. It’s either because you’re a sociopath or you’re unreasonably afraid. Neither one of those states is a valid place from which to make the decision. Perhaps this moment will be a kind of tipping point where the US comes to its senses and starts placing some reasonable restrictions on the owning and trafficking of firearms. My hopes, however, are not high. After Sandy Hook – when we as a nation heaved a deep, sad sigh over the deaths of an entire schoolroom full of children, then looked away and did nothing – I’ve come to see my countrymen’s gun obsession as an unreasoning dependency, like an alcoholic steadily drinking herself to death. I would like to believe that we’ll learn something from this, but in truth, the thing I think we’re mostly likely to learn is that when we’re in public – especially in previously safe spaces like gay bars and churches – we need to keep one eye constantly on the nearest exit and always be ready to run. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/12/gun-culture-american-south-second-amendment-orlando
It was not that many years ago that we had a ban on the sale of assault weapons, and very few people had a problem with it. If you go back a few decades, the NRA itself often advocated in favor of specific gun restrictions that made sense to almost everybody. In poll after poll, 70% to 90% of Americans favor such basic things as better criminal background checks, mental heath restrictions, and denying gun permits to people on the terrorism watch list, but the NRA continues to block everything, even though more than half of their own members are in favor of some increased restrictions. The hardcore fringe has just completely drifted off into outer space on this issue, with some saying such loony things as "The mentally ill have just as much right to defend themselves as everybody else." Not too long ago, I got behind a car with a bumper sticker, "Gun control advocates have the constitutional right to be shot in the face." On talk radio, they're saying anybody who wants gun restrictions of any kind should be deported, even if your family has lived here for generations, because you're not a "real" American unless you love guns.
Hillary Clinton has called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban in the wake of the worst mass shooting in American history that left 49 people and the gunman dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. In forthright comments a day after the massacre at the Pulse Club, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic party issued a call for a return to “commonsense gun safety reform” and lambasted the Republican-controlled Congress for what she called a “totally incomprehensible” refusal to address the country’s lax gun laws. “We can’t fall into the trap set up by the gun lobby that says if you cannot stop every shooting you shouldn’t try to stop any,” she said. Clinton’s tough stance on gun control sets up a torrid fight with her Republican rival for the White House Donald Trump, who has positioned himself as a champion of the second amendment and dismissed any calls for greater gun controls as weakness. She insisted that while she did believe that law-abiding American citizens have the right to own guns, it was also possible to see that “reasonable, commonsense measures” could be taken that would make people more safe from guns. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/13/hillary-clinton-commonsense-gun-safety-reform-orlando-attack
If we all had fully loaded assault weapons with large magazines and carried them about everywhere we went the world would be much safer. I am also in favor of rocket launches and hand grenades, per 2nd Amendment.
Regarding the Mass Shootings in Orlando By Ramon Diaz I along with the rest of the country mourn for the victims of the mass shootings in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. As a resident of Central Florida, this incident strikes particularly close to home. To my many friends in the LGBT community, my thoughts and prayers are with you. It is hard to imagine anybody would carry so much hate and contempt in their heart as to kill and injure so many innocent people. It is incomprehensible why anyone would judge, shun, hate or kill someone because of their choice of whom they love. When I started my business, I made a conscious choice to be an advocate for LGBT rights. Even though I am not gay, as somebody who was bullied as a child, I can empathize with my brothers and sisters who have the courage to be who they are, despite persecution and discrimination. Although I come from a conservative family background, I realized very early on in my adulthood, that all the fear mongering about homosexuality had no basis in reality. I learned that sexual orientation had nothing to do with whether you’re a decent human being or not. To the chagrin of many in my family, I became a very public advocate through my website for everyone to have the freedom to be who they want to be, to love who they want to love and not have to hide in shame or fear. I always knew, from very early in my childhood, whom I was sexually attracted to. In my teenage years, I struggled with religious guilt every time I masturbated. I know from experience that sexual attraction is something one is born with and is almost impossible to control. To realize that homosexuality, in its many forms, is something you are born with, seems like an obvious conclusion to anyone that has any empathy. Homosexuality is not a choice, and people should not be punished, made feel guilt, or shame, or be treated differently because of who they are. When it comes to guilt, shame and condemnation, it mostly stem from one main source: religion. Religious text, whether the Bible or the Koran, had one very basic agenda: to make more converts and have control over them. What better way to control humans than to make them feel shame and guilt of their carnal desires? These text were written in a world in which the number of followers decided which religions or sects would rise to power. It is hard to gain followers by conversion. It is much easier to have your followers procreate and multiply to gain power in numbers. In this type of world, homosexuality is a direct threat to the power and influence of the religious leaders, since homosexual sexual relations do not lead to procreation and increasing the number of followers. That’s why the Catholic church is against both homosexuality and contraception. That’s why the church seems more concerned about human procreation issues than by poverty, human bondage, justice, greed, war and human suffering. In this indictment, I do not want to promote intolerance towards any religion. I just want to shed a light on what I believe is the truth, and end the relentless religious intolerance towards the LGBT community. Ancient religious text have been quoted throughout history as an excuse to slavery, lynching, genocide, and many other crimes against humanity. I exhort all readers of this article not to give up personal judgement to adhere to ancient text. Take the wisdom, compassion and empathy that these text have to offer, but leave behind the bigotry and hate within these texts. Beware of the people who interpret these writings to promote their own prejudices.
That's why Iraq is the world's number one vacation spot, and all the rich and famous are moving there. Gun manufacturers are owned and managed by human beings. How can they be content to turn the US into a giant shooting range? Where do their kids live? Iceland? Trump is now calling for an expansion of his original ban on Muslims entering the US, extending the concept to all geographic areas with a history of terrorist activities, regardless of an individual's stated religion. Would that not include most of Europe? Certainly, it would cover France and Belgium.
What a ma roon. He doesn't realize that terrorism doesn't know national boundaries. He would have to include Pakistan, Afghanistan, the entire Arabian peninsula, Kenya, West Africa, Israel, Turkey, and the entire area of South East Asia including Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Let's remember that all of these countries have terrorist elements yet many are our allies such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and so on.
They don't care. Besides I'm sure their kids already know how to shoot before they can walk, and they are salivating, waiting for the day their kindergarten kids get to have a gun in their lunchbox.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/oct/02/mass-shootings-america-gun-violence I'm just going to leave this here
Four dead in Charlotte, two days ago? I didn't even hear about it. It's become so routine and accepted.
Quite ironic Obama would say something like that considering how many arms he's given to terror groups and drug cartels in his term of office.
You can argue gun control all you want. But please remind me, how did Paris's gun control laws prevent a similar attack from happening?
I listened to an interview with the surgeons that worked on the gunshot victims in Orlando and one of them was asked about the type of wounds. He remarked about the devastation caused by the type of high velocity weapon used. He then went on to comment on the "normal" shootings they get in Orlando on a regular basis. He said they used to typically be from lower power, lower velocity "civilian" types of guns but are increasingly coming from high powered assault weapons as the general public is now using military style guns to shoot each other. https://youtu.be/QAHIa-I0Rv4?t=1m38s
If you follow the logic, "these laws are pointless because they aren't 100% effective", then you would end up abolishing every law.
