Sandy Hook

greener · Post by **greener** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:45 pm

I don't think that video games do it. Some of us older guys grew up with firearms before we were 12. My brother-in-law bought a shot gun from the 8th grade shop teacher before class and carried it from class-to-class the rest of the day. All the movies we saw were deep in killing: westerns and war movies. We all had cap pistols and Davy Crocket flintlocks. All the kids in my neighborhood killed each other every day playing army and Cowboys and Indians. Later, I ran in formation with a 100 of my closest friends singing songs about jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, killing and being killed (glory, glory what a hell of a way to die). I don't recall that many of us turning into mass murderers and stone killers.

I've had a gun for about 60 years. The last time I killed anything with a firearm was about 40 years ago: two Landrace hogs on the family farm with a .22. Something else is going on, but video games and access to guns seem to be a bit simple.

Post by **Bullseye** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:40 am

I concur that these mass killers are driven by a highly complex combination of mental issues. Desensitization of compassion of other human beings leading toward homicidal psychotic tendencies could be enhanced by exposure to all this mass-media style representations of killing, like FPS video games and CGI enhanced violent movies, but there must also be some other deep seated mental problems too. In a population of 300 plus million people we have only had a very small handful of mass killers but access to instant 24 hour news makes these events even larger in the scope of peoples every day lives. Perhaps even all the attention to these heinous events is driving certain deranged individuals toward committing acts just like this one. I don't believe that greater restrictions on firearms is the solution to this problem but I may be in the minority of the country on that opinion.

R,
Bullseye

greener · Post by **greener** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:54 am

Bullseye wrote: I don't believe that greater restrictions on firearms is the solution to this problem but I may be in the minority of the country on that opinion.

R,
Bullseye

In polls taken immediately after the tragedy the majority believes in some sort of increased gun control. After all you don't need such a high powered rifle with semiautomatic and high capacity clips for hunting as a Bushmaster AR15.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:12 pm

What you hear about many of these mass shooters is tbhat they were "extremely bright" people. Some of the folks I have met with high IQ's were some of the most socially maladjusted people. Because they are unable to channell that IQ they turn into sociopaths where the only thing that matters is them . I've heard that this latest shooter targeted the kids at that school because his mom volenteered with them last year as kindergartners and he felt she loved them more. Nothing to do with the gun culture or movies or video games.

Magazine capacity, rifle type, has no bearing on what occurred if he was limited to 10 round mags he would just have to reload more. He could have used a single action army and a lever gun and still been as deadly.

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:21 pm

A complex combination of mental issues indeed. I think you chose the right words, Bullseye, when you said violent video games and movies could enhance homicidal feelings in certain individuals. Some sort of rare predisposition type thing. I don't think that it is by any means a cause though.

It's obvious that more restrictive firearms laws are the main focus (a poll I saw yesterday said something like 57% of Americans want tighter restrictions on firearms), but I hope they devote a good bit of effort getting these type people help sooner. As far as I know, all of the recent ones have had some mental issues going on that were spotted well before the atrocities were committed. In this most recent case, it sounds like the mother might have been trying to avoid getting her son help (though, seems like speculation at this point).

Greener, I think you mean Bushmaster AR74 with high-speed clips.

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 5:46 pm

We live in a society that pushes God out. Guess who moves in.

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:25 pm

Local paper reported that VA gun shops did booming business over the weekend. Some "evil assault rifles" ( I guess buy 'em while you can?) but mostly handguns.

Either lots of folks still see a need for guns, or they were a bunch of liberals buying up new guns to throw in the river?

greener · Post by **greener** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:29 pm

ruger22 wrote:Local paper reported that VA gun shops did booming business over the weekend. Some "evil assault rifles" ( I guess buy 'em while you can?) but mostly handguns.

Either lots of folks still see a need for guns, or they were a bunch of liberals buying up new guns to throw in the river?

I'm thinking about buying a few this weekend and putting them up to sell for great profit after the ban. I suppose that I'm a day or two late with that idea

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:40 am

I've heard some interesting things included with the proposed ban. All of which have no rational basis.

"If it looks scary then it must be scary.". I think that is the anti's motto.

Yleefox · Post by **Yleefox** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:28 pm

Personally, I despise the news media. During my working career, I had numerous contact with them and my experience is that they seldom, if ever, get the story right. They are quick to exploit whatever they can, if it will make for a more dramatic story. In fact, it was so bad that the government agency that I worked for hired a former news anchor man, to train us on how to deal with the news media and recognize and avoid the common tricks they use to trip one up.

My biggest issue with addition gun control is that these politicians want to throw needless and ill-concieved at the problem, instead of thinking outside the box and coming up with something effective that will keep guns out of the wrong hands and perhaps improve safety. What would a one gun a month law do to stop gun crime? Micro stamping is a joke. High Cap mag bans, means having to change mags more frequently. etc, etc, etc.

They need to start putting some restrictions on the news media, after all, if they politicians can beat the heck out of the second amendment, why not slam the first amendment too.

Y

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:37 pm

The current proposed legislation is a clone of the California style ban that went into effect in 1989 but with a few of the loop-holes tightened up. Gun ban Diane has experience with this type of legislation and and is not shy about twisting the facts, as necessary, to pass them through the process. These folks have just been biding their time for an incident just like this one to ramrod a highly restrictive firearms ban through federal legislation. We only have to look at the current state of firearms availability in California to see where this could be headed if we don't mount a strong defense against it.

R,
Bullseye

greener · Post by **greener** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:21 am

Bullseye wrote:The current proposed legislation is a clone of the California style ban that went into effect in 1989 but with a few of the loop-holes tightened up. Gun ban Diane has experience with this type of legislation and and is not shy about twisting the facts, as necessary, to pass them through the process. These folks have just been biding their time for an incident just like this one to ramrod a highly restrictive firearms ban through federal legislation. We only have to look at the current state of firearms availability in California to see where this could be headed if we don't mount a strong defense against it.

R,
Bullseye

They are shamelessly riding the wave of a tragedy. My "A-rated NRA" senator just came out for gun control and will vote the way Reid tells him to. The Democrats in the State legislature are making a gun control charge. We'll see how the Republicans withstand the charge.

I've written my Senator and Congressman (Cantor), but figure it is a pretty useless waste of electrons on Warner. I haven't written my State Senator because he doesn't like firearms at all. Going to be interesting.

Post by **Bullseye** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:01 am

I think Warner's got his eye toward the White House in 2016. He's been playing both political sides since gaining his Senate seat, however he hasn't shunned the President's agendas but has found some ways to schmooze the opposition without angering his base. A very unctuous individual indeed and one to watch out for in the future!

R,
Bullseye

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:42 am

Texas Congressman Ted Poe was on Glenn Beck radio this morning. Very knowledgeable and supportive of firearms and concealed carry. One of his best comments was how a private citizen can't buy a gun in Mexico, but they had over 50,000 firearms deaths in the past year.

A July article from the NY Times about Mexico's ONLY gun store:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/world ... d=all&_r=0

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:35 pm

ruger22 wrote:Texas Congressman Ted Poe was on Glenn Beck radio this morning. Very knowledgeable and supportive of firearms and concealed carry. One of his best comments was how a private citizen can't buy a gun in Mexico, but they had over 50,000 firearms deaths in the past year.

A July article from the NY Times about Mexico's ONLY gun store:

Indeed, but as a steward of the 2nd amendment, and really freedom, you should look at it from the anti-self-defenser point of view. They argue that Mexico's large amount of deaths from firearms are directly caused by availability in the US.