jimmydanger wrote:Come on Yod, of course you can never prevent murders (or any of the other red herrings you tried to use). But you can help prevent the extreme mass killings by banning semi-automatic weapons. The type of weapon used in this atrocity was exactly that: a semi-automatic assault rifle that was banned until the law expired. I challenge you to make a meaningful suggestion to prevent these tragedies. But I don't expect one; you are happy just to parrot the NRA talking points. This makes you part of the problem.
1. I don't own a gun
2. I support the rights of law-abiding citizens to have guns.
3. The NRA is made up of law-abiding citizens who do as much as possible to prevent nut-cases from having guns.
4. I don't trust the government; not this one, not the last one, not the next one, not any of them anywhere.
5. This case, tragic as it is, is being exploited by leftists to divide you and I on the more basic issues of liberty.
Did you know that the worst example of murdering school children happened in your backyard and they didn't use a gun?
On May 18, 1927, a part-time caretaker at a school in Bath, Michigan, killed 45 people, including 38 children, when he blew up a school and then killed himself, along with two first responders at the scene. Another 58 people were wounded.
The 38 children were in grades three through six.
The Bath School Bombing faded quickly from history. What media there was in 1927 left the town after about a week, since aviator Charles Lindbergh had started on his flight to Europe.
However, there are parallels between the Sandy Hook and Bath disasters that are worth discussing.
The killer in the Bath School Bombing, Andrew Kehoe, spent months placing explosives inside the school. He used his job as a handyman to wire together two types of explosives, in an elaborate plan to bring down the building while it was occupied with students and teachers.
Kehoe also rigged his car with explosives and shrapnel, as well as his house.
Once Kehoe blew up his own house, he used a detonator to blow up part of the school. School Superintendent Emory Huyck performed heroically, rescuing children and adults from the disaster scene. After about 30 minutes, Kehoe drove up to Huyck and motioned him over to his truck.
Kehoe then blew up the truck, killing himself, Hucyk, and several others, including a child who survived the first blast.
Investigators later found more than 500 pounds of unexploded dynamite under the school. Kehoe had intended to kill hundreds of people, mostly students, but his wiring was faulty.
Kehoe had financial problems and was upset about having to pay taxes. He had killed his own wife before blowing up his house.
But the parallels to Sandy Hook are not in the method and motivation behind Kehoe’s madness. They come from the stories of heroism and compassion.
Bath was a small town, so all pitched in to clear the rubble, find the victims, and offer assistance. Help streamed in from the neighboring town of Lansing.
Michigan’s governor arrived that afternoon and helped to cart away the rubble. During the rescue efforts, the Michigan State Police had to disarm the huge cache of explosives that never went off.
In the days that followed, contemporary accounts said more than 50,000 people descended on Bath, either to offer help or to see the disaster scene.
“Relief workers could not get in or out of the village unless accompanied by motorcycle policemen and even then they made slow time,” said one newspaper account.
In the end, the state set up a relief fund for the school, which received numerous public and private donations. One politician wrote a personal check for $75,000.
And the population of Bath, once the outsiders left, went back to farming and grieved. Unlike today, there were no 24-hour TV news cameras remaining on the scene or talk shows debating the merits of the Second Amendment.
So now you're going to tell me that we should outlaw dynamite. Oh wait, it has always been illegal to own dynamite without a Federal License. You can't go down to the dynamite store and get a few pounds of it, yet this guy not only obtained it, he spent weeks placing it into the school.
We should pass laws that no one can use dynamite to blow up a school! That will stop it.
If I thought for a minute that gun control would be heeded by criminals, I'd be all for it. But the common sense that God gave a horse will tell you that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have them. Law abiding citizens will then be at their mercy.
I remember the concealed carry debate in Texas during the 80s. Dallas and Houston had been in competition for the Murder Capitol of the USA for several years before people were allowed to carry.
You know what? Violent crime dropped immediately and drastically once the criminals didn't know their victims were defenseless. Dallas and Houston both dropped off the Top 10 List immediately.
In fact, violent crime has been dropping all over the USA since states began allowing for concealed carry. For a while there, only tourists leaving the airport were being mugged in Florida because they obviously weren't carrying protection.
So what is the answer? In times past we were a more moral people but there were still nut-cases mass murdering people. The only real difference now is that we have a media with a liberal agenda who sensationalizes these events for political gain.
I don't see any way to put the genie back in the bottle. But I do know that making law-abiding citizens defenseless is NOT the answer.
Last edited by t-Roy and The Smoking Section on Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
It is what it is until it isn't