Sam Smith
It appears from the evidence so far
that the killer had serious mental problems. Could some of the time
spent arguing about guns be turned instead to how we deal with mental
problems in the military?
The last two mass murderers spent a lot of time playing violent computer games, Why is this mentioned and discussed so little?
There have been a number
of these incidents on military bases. Could one reason be that the
military teaches people to solve their problems by killing other people?
According to the FBI
the number of U.S. murders dropped 39% between 1992 and 2011. Between
2006 and 2010, gun murders dropped 14%. Murders by rifles and shotguns
declined 21%.
Dan Baum - We have a tendency to say, “There oughtta be a law!” Why would you ever
think that someone who’s bent on homicide is going to obey any of these
laws?. . . Once you have made a consumer decision for 100 million
gun owners that they can’t have these magazines because they are too
irresponsible, you have now driven them out of the conversation.
Half the ten states with the
worst 2011 murder rates were in the south. None of the ten states with
the lowest murder rates were in the south. Four of the ten states with
the lowest murder rates were in New England. None were in the South. You
are nearly nine times more likely to be murdered in Louisiana than you
are in New Hampshire,. You are four times more likely to be murdered in
Mississippi than in Maine. What do guns have to do with these facts?
After DC passed
a handgun ban in the 1970s, the murder rate almost tripled, One
possible reason that few mention: the violent side effects of the war on
drugs
After Britain passed a gun law in the
1960s, the murder rate increased by about 60%. When another gun law was
passed in the 1990s murder deaths increase by about 25%.
At least 85% of gun owners
support background checks which presumably would have prevented the
Navy Yard killer from purchasing a gun legally in Virginia. What gun
owners object to are more intrusive regulations and bans.
Liberals are hurting all
sorts of causes by being so belligerent about guns. You can't piss off
80-100 Americans on a cause they believe in and still get them to
support the rest of your agenda.
As the Civil War officer told his troops, "Elevate your guns a little lower."
