I want to say something about the Newtown and other school shootings:
I care more about kids (I have a ten- and a twelve-year-old) than I care about guns (I don't possess any.). But I still believe in the 2nd Amendment. That's because it helps prevent a takeover of our society by a totalitarian government and prevents the future harm to millions of children (and their parents) that a totalitarian government would cause. Totalitarian governments have already existed many times in the past, with millions of children undergoing death and destruction in their hands -- even used in heinous medical experiments. What should we show for these children? Can't we learn from the past, and so help prevent this from happening to kids in the future?
Nobody wants kids shot up in schools. But that is an unfortunate pain we have to endure to help ensure that our kids will have a good world to live in for their future. I don't like having to admit that humanity needs an insurance policy like the 2nd Amendment in order to ensure the maximization of our happiness, but I'm afraid that it does. There are just too many people out there that want to transform our government to one that controls everything, and has disdain for individual liberty and even individual lives. I just don't think this looming threat will ever go away, and thus we will always have a need for the 2nd Amendment.
Dry your tears, and have some Kleenex on hand for the next school shooting. It's going to happen again. We will not be able to prevent it. But consider that these children were sacrificed for the betterment of all the other children who will grow up and live in a free society, maintained by the ultimate check -- the 2nd Amendment -- that will help prevent an overbearing and evil government from existing. Their deaths might have allowed millions or even billions of people to live in freedom and harmony. Their deaths were not in vain, as they died for a good and noble cause (prevention of a tyrranical government).
With this, the children of Newtown, and others like them, should be referred to as "Heroes" that were the unfortunate ones that were sacrificed, and not, simply, "Victims". To call these children "victims" and consequently calling for the curtailment or abolishment of the 2nd Amendment, means that the 2nd Amendment is an evil concept that needs to be destroyed. Nothing could be further from the truth. In truth, they are the victims of individuals and groups and governments that brazenly use unwanted force on other individuals and groups for some kind of perverse personal gain, at the expense of their victim's freedom and liberty. It is these people and groups and governments that need to be destroyed -- not the 2nd Amendment.
I, at least, shall honor these children as heroes. How shall you honor them?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.More than that, it's restriction of the second amendment that makes them so terrible. If not for "gun free zones" those teachers who have concealed carry permits would end the shooting more quickly, and one school in Texas that allows this trains the teachers alongside the police to avoid the "police might think you're the shooter and kill you" problem.
Janus819
Level 7
Sep 19, 2018
0
They are victims. They are victims or apathy, neglect, inattention, sloppiness, and disregard. The guns used to slaughter them did not create themselves. Someone did not regard their guns custody as a priority. Someone did not raise their children to respect life and property. Someone did not pay attention to their children's mental health. Those children were not heroes. Heroes have an active role. The children killed were lambs to the slaughter because people still think guns are the problem.
It is often said that locks are to keep honest people honest. Gun safes are not fool proof. When I grew up guns were just a fact of life. We'd fight without having to kill each other. We didn't kill groups of random strangers because we were bullied or felt insignificant. We knew from a very early age that our actions had consequences. That is the major difference.
Ignostic
Level 4
Aug 4, 2018
0
I haven't cried over any school shooting.
I 100% blame the school shootings on bad parenting, lack of respect for firearms, and the "don't spank your kids" and "give everyone a participation ribbon" generation. Furthermore, it's been shown the the greatest percentage of "drugged" students -- drugged on pharmaceuticals by their parents -- are white males for ADHD and other made up issues.
So they throw pharmaceuticals at developing brains and then they wonder why these kids go crazy? Duh. STOP DRUGGING KIDS. ((read the link below))
It's also a fact that 80% of high school seniors can't pass a basic military entrance physical.
Seriously....80% can't pass the general physical to get into the military.
Soft and weak.
It's a combination of lazy parenting (junk food and lack of physical activity) and stupid people breeding as well as our public schools failing to require physical fitness classes.
The right things aren't being valued anymore. Honor, duty, respect, physical fitness, mental toughness, and integrity have pretty much flown out the window.
SkotlandSkye
Level 8
Aug 1, 2018
3
But the shot-at kids might have been well-raised. The deaths of those kids should not be in vain, and especially not be used to promote evil (abolishment of the 2nd amendment).
Even without changing kids' minds and bodies to prevent behavior like this, we shouldn't use the 2nd amendment as a scapegoat, or abolishment thereof as a fix. Thinking of those victims as heroes for (rather than victims of) the 2nd amendment is a better way to think of them.
@GlyndonD right, so the parents of the "well-raised" kids need to demand that their schools monitor who is medicated and provide safeguards....they also need to demand that physical education is brought back into schools as well as learning how to deal with LOSING and disappointments....and conflict resolution. It's also time to demand that taxpayer money is buying healthy food and not junk full of sugars and additives that screw up young brains. For example, sodas should be banned from schools....BUT, instead, schools sign advertising and product placement contracts with Pepsi and Coke just to get new scoreboards on the football field. That's insane.
@SkotlandSkye, yes, but unfortunately, schools are dominated and monopolized by government. School boards are dominated by politicos sympathetic to liberal or conservative thought, and must also follow statutes.
No man, or family, is an island, especially in a non-libertarian society. I don't have the Atlas Shrugged mentality of letting the society drown in its own cesspool, but I do feel a little meanness npw and then when I believe society will soon be punished by the totalitarian state or collapsed economy that will result from the government they have supported and let loose. But I'm not unleashing my wrath on the kids. It's not their fault.
@SkotlandSkye, yes, but unfortunately, schools are dominated and monopolized by government. School boards are dominated by politicos sympathetic to liberal or conservative thought, and must also follow statutes.
No man, or family, is an island, especially in a non-libertarian society. I don't have the Atlas Shrugged mentality of letting the society drown in its own cesspool, but I do feel a little meanness now and then when I believe society will soon be deservedly punished by the totalitarian state or collapsed economy that will result from the government they have supported and let loose. But I'm not unleashing my wrath on the kids. It's not their fault.
@GlyndonD While I agree with most of your points, can't say I go along with the sacrifice mentality. Our very culture has become toxic, and when you throw poor parenting a lack of education and medications into the equation, negative results are bound to occur. We have a people problem. While I may have shaken my head in dismay over the school shootings, I never wept over them. I'm glad to hear you defend the 2A, as that is a safeguard against potential tyranny. Diehard 2A defender here, and I started a pro gun rights group on here to counter the gun control one and are thinking about starting a group on another site I'm active on. Regarding the liberal/conservative politics, please keep in mind that not all of those who identify as a conservative are attached to a political party. I identify as conservative, but do not associate with any political party, at the present moment anyway. You and I have quite a bit in common Glyndon, as we both believe in individual liberty.
@SkotlandSkye I agree with your points and couldn't have put it better. What you mentioned above more of our fellow Americans should take into deep consideration. At times on this site some of the posts and comments I come across make me want to give up on my fellow atheists and skeptics, so much for freethinkers, but it's good to know there are some who are aware of what's really going on behind the scenes. That "progressive" mentality hasn't taken over yet, and I hope it never does. More parents should opt to homeschool, and in the meantime the public school system needs a total overhaul. Or perhaps maybe we need to get rid of it altogether, why does the government have to be involved in education anyway? Then again, that might just be me as I'd like to see more entities like the public education system be privatized. Many factors to take into consideration when thinking about the problematic issues plaguing society, and you named most of them.
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