Posted by shar on October 31, 2002, at 22:48:53
In reply to Re: gun control, posted by Dinah on October 27, 2002, at 10:48:37
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> > Yes, but if there was a National Ballistics Database, which the NRA and many oppose, they could have much sooner tracked down the person(s). A further number of lives COULD have been saved.
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> How? Please forgive my ignorance, but how could a National Ballistics Database (which I do not, by the way oppose) have helped track down the current owner of an illegally obtained weapon? I could understand if it was the weapon used in the Alabama murder, since it would have provided a link to the fingerprint earlier. But the weapon used in the Alabama murder was not the same weapon used in the sniper attacks
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> > If these things don't change, the U.S. is going to dwindle to being a 'former' empire, and turn into a war raveged and very poor country.>But how do you suspect we will go from where we are now to a war ravaged and very poor country? It would seem that there would be a few steps along the way. And how long a time frame are you envisioning? Ten years? Fifty?
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> I would be interested in hearing some examples of countries that have adopted the policies that you propose to save the United States from the upcoming disaster. Are there any? And how are they faring?
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>These ideas and concepts give me pause. The gun roots of the U.S. run deep, and it is hard to refute (in my opinion) that the U.S. is a very violent nation, and that we glorify violence in a lot of ways. We began, as a nation, through violence; and we grew and expanded as a nation that way, too. These are just my 'takes' on the situation.
It does not mean we will definitely fall into ruin, but we might. And I believe it could happen more quickly than we think. How long would it take for all of us to feel unsafe if 20 large cities in the U.S. had one sniper each? It doesn't take massive amounts of violence to create a fearful atmosphere. 20 snipers make all those citizens feel unsafe, and the families of all those citizens have families who feel concern for them, and the citizens in the next town over feel unsafe....it can spread quickly, I think.
Plus, it makes me wonder why people think it will get better. I believe, it will only escalate. If we could stop all violence right now, that would be the new baseline for us in the U.S. We would not go back to some seemingly safer point in time.
And, I believe there is a lot to do about it. There are SO many countries that match the U.S. in their ability to have as much violence (they have the means and opportunity to obtain weapons, for example), but they DON'T have as much killing as we do. There is, somewhere, somehow, a reason for that. I bet we could identify some of those reasons, and put the concepts into effect here. If the interest was there.
I live in Texas, a very gun oriented place, and have learned some gun safety in my life, owned some, shot some. I understand people wanting to have a gun for protection, but there is a growing population of predators that need to be dealt with, who don't want guns to protect themselves, they want guns to control others, and, they have gotten the message we send over and over and over again--life is not really worth that much. Our killers are getting younger and younger, the violence more and more bent. The violence we see and hear on the news is just a tiny fraction of what happens every day in the U.S. It is not a good situation, and we don't have a very good way of handling it right now, at all. We need, I believe, to change some things before things start changing us.
[There is an excellent indicator variable for violent behavior, one that is almost a perfect predictor (according to Margaret Mead) and that is animal abuse, learning young that life is nothing to respect. The next time there's a story of animal abuse in your own back yard (so to speak) that's a heads-up.]
I've been off the board for awhile, so I guess I had all this typing in me that needed to get out. Just put these thoughts aside as the musings of one rather uninformed but opinionated babbler.
Semi-standard disclaimer: These are only my own ideas and opinions, and I know not everyone will agree with them, and I am not trying to express all possible thoughts or opinions or positions on this issue in this post. Only my own thoughts and opinions, and others are welcome to have their very own, which I expect will differ from mine, and that is just fine and dandy with me.
Shar
poster:shar
thread:31596
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20021022/msgs/31888.html