You may have missed the headline because it has become so horrifically commonplace: children shot at school. The dateline was the small town of Perry, Iowa. Last Thursday, a high school student opened fire in his school cafeteria, killing one person and injuring seven before dying by suicide. We’re barely a week into the new year and already four,
Andrea, I respect your opinion but also disagree with it. There exists in our laws a long standing tradition that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. If you were arrested and jailed on suspicion of having committed a serious crime, how would you like going into a courtroom presumed “guilty” and having to prove your innocence? That is precisely the condition in many countries around the globe, and a condition we lack in the US thanks to our Constitution. People who have previously been convicted of a serious crime or involuntarily committed to a mental facility have gone through a fair criminal trial or other proceding procedure to protect their right to due process before losing their rights to keep and bear arms.
Please understand that I do not condone or diminish the seriousness or horror of a mass shooting, but I abhor our citizens’ loss of their rights to due process more.
At present I don’t know how we can perfectly predict in advance the mental inclinations of a prospective criminal or mental patient but we should continue our efforts to do so. Why?
Because circumstances like October 7 exist and whether the bad guys are Arab terrorists, home grown terrorists, or criminals breaking into our homes or places of work the immediate need to defend ourselves and others we care for is paramount in that instant! Police and/or military forces are not immediately available and returning to Israel that unarmed people suffered murder, rape, torture and burnings alive with no cut of protecting themselves. All they could do is flee or hide in their so called safe rooms praying to God for a divine miracle to save them from death or worse! Regrettably not all societies are “civilized” and until that fact of life is changed, responsible, good citizens must have the right to keep and bear arms or their “civilized society” won’t be around long enough to have its history written!
Is there a problem in this country that money is not at the root? We are so far from a democracy when what the polls show time and time again the public does not get what they need and want. Why? dah - money dominates our elections and legislation. I think that is the definition of oligarchy.
Harvey, it should bear no surprise that we are "far from a democracy" when our Constitution established a "Republic" with very substantial aspects of democracy already being present in the governance of the 13 colonial states that comprised the republic. There exist checks and balances throughout the system to protect the smaller or less populous states from the larger or more populous states. The operational differences and functions of the House, Senate and Electoral College are all a part of that balancing act at the federal level. There are similarities present in the separate states. So far it has worked - imperfectly but worked. No pure democracy has come close to lasting this long, and the US is still operating on a short time. As I said before, it ain't perfect, but so far it beats anything in second place!
Many of our countrymen/women are having difficulty dealing with the changes the nation is experiencing. They want to have someone to blame for the imbalance in their lives. Government seems to be the whipping post many choose to pound away on. Then of course we revert backwards to accost the ghosts of white supremacy that continue to haunt us. Then throw in the LGBT community and spice the concoction with immigrants and, well, you’ve got your plate full. And along comes a pseudo-messiah spewing forth the garbage of hated, division, and blamesmandhip,
You are right the worst president ever! My meaning of fake president is the fact that he was like a cardboard cut out with no depth or real knowledge of the office he held. He seems a greedy human intent upon his own power and gain.
I don't believe Trump was a fake president, but he most certainly was a very bad one! Thanks in no small part to January 6 and a few other intentional missteps there is no longer any meaningful competition for the title of "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!"
I certainly was aware of the school shooting in Iowa but was not aware of Trump’s comment about the need to “get over it”. That’s probably because I don’t listen to or read about anything Trump. I wish I could say I was shocked that he had said something so awful, but that would be a lie. I will never understand why anyone thinks this man has the character needed to be the President of the United States. We get the government we deserve.
Get over yourself, Trump! Get over the fact that you did not win the last election. I am angered that he speaks so nonchalantly about something as horrid as a school shooting. Americans, young and old, do something to make this country safe for schoolchildren. Vote, protest, talk to your friends and neighbors. It is not beyond our reach to help make a change in gun laws.
Shocking? Yes, but becoming increasing more truthful!
America is becoming a vagabond/savage land, that no longer supports human existence and growth. And, I find it so hard to believe that close to half of all the voting population in America, stands for this increasingly decreasing quality of life! What will it take for Americans; especially those who now call themselves "maga," to realize the carnage, is getting closer and closer to their own backyards?? Do they think trump will protect them? If so, they're completely insane!! Or, do they think their guns will save them? That's ludicrous; because if/when the country collapses into anarchy, and it will if we continue on the trajectory that we're on, you won't know when the enemy is coming for you! That's right! You'll be facing a warfare that you've never experienced and can't escape - guerilla warfare!! And, the average person has no idea deal how to defend themselves against such tactics!!
Now, all that I just wrote, may sound crazy! But, so does contemplating allowing a "madman" to re-enter the WH, and the proliferating gun problem in the un-United States of America! So, you folks out there who still have your brain cells intact, start sharing this message; because if you don't do it now, it may be too late for you and anyone else left in America, in just a little while!
Not really. The NRA was once an honorable and entirely different organization that supported the 2nd Amendment AND reasonable control of firearms to keep them out o the hands of unsupervised children, criminals and the mentally infirm. The present NRA, like Donald Trump, is simply (and unforgivably) taking advantage of the many voting adults whose sole unifying characteristic is the vacuum between their ears!
I agree, but we can take reasonable and probably imperfect steps to keep firearms out of the hands of unsupervised children, criminals and the mentally infirm. That will save lives in the future and is a worthwhile goal in its own right. it is also a lot easier, less time consuming and less expensive to focus on the relatively few bad users of firearms than its would be to procedurally eliminate the 2nd Amendment from the Constitution.
The only response the right appears to have had to the Iowa shooting, other than "get over it," has been to ooze out from under its miscellaneous baseboards and slither online to suggest the shooter was trans: an allegation not proven, and in any case so staggeringly irrelevant as to be dizzying, but a reverberation of the campaign launched by the likes of Christopher Rufo, Chaya Raichik, and other allies of Trump and Trumpism, alleging that most shooters are LGBTQ and that LGBTQ individuals are by nature violent, dangerous, a menace to an orderly society.
Rufo, of course, has moved beyond sexual obsession to the more ambitious project of eliminating women, LGBTQ individuals, enlightened progressives, and people of color from representation in US society (as judges, as prosecutors, as educators, as the presidents of universities), but Raichik remains to poison the American well with endless sexual cruelty.
I suppose we shouldn't have mocked the Republicans out of "thoughts and prayers." In retrospect that, at least, paid a nostalgic kind of lip service to humanity, a sort of faint, shadowy homage to whatever memory of human decency the American right once possessed.
Now there's nothing but this tribal evil, the language of genocidal contempt, right out in the open in a heavily armed society in which the one thing Republicans will not do is call for the sensible regulation of firearms.
I'm not saying there can be no improvements in our laws, but if you examine the existing statutes quite a few that impose harsher sentences for using firearms in committing a crime or possessing firearms until a criminal sentence, including probation and parole have been fully served. Similar restrictions exist for juveniles and the mentally infirm. A large part of the present problem is certain states that do not share their criminal and firearms records with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (FBATF). Having a fully functioning database of firearm restricted individuals would be of significant benefit to those who wish to keep firearms out of the hands of persons most likely to misuse them.
Really good point. The technology is straightforward: what's missing is the political will. There's been considerable lobbyist-sponsored legislative interference (under a smokescreen of concerns about privacy or, at the paranoid end of the scale, confiscation) with periodic, sporadic attempts to create a coherent, comprehensive database, both within states and nationally.
Thank you willoughby. I'm a retired atty, classical liberal, and old style Republican centrist with a visceral dislike of Donald Trump and anything MAGA. Consequently I can support the 2nd Amendment, improved border control, full rights for women and minorities, and reasonable environmental regulations in the same sentence and get shot at fronm both nut fringe extremes of the political spectrum. A couple of years ago I encountered a 60 Minutes TV program (I think) that covered the lack of cooperation by some Western states on sharing data with the BATF. I couldn't understand then and can't now why the feds didn't go to court and enforce cooperation. No one really wants the bad guys or the nut cases to have firearms, and all but the rare few miscreant dealers will sell to them. I was born and raised in north central PA where the deer, bear and other wildlife outnumber the people. I never got into hunting (although I enjoy venison) and my wife and I still enjoy target shooting with three pistols and one AR-15 all of which are well maintained, kept safe and used carefully. One thing about the back woods, with the exception of a couple local morons gun safety is taught early and hard, strictly no nonsense. Basically the approach is much like driver education. You learn to respect the tool you are using whether it's a Chevrolet, a chain saw or a Smith & Wesson. Misuse any one of them and someone gets badly hurt or dies. Kill someone with a car (vehicular homicide) and they take your license and possibly confiscate your car. but they don't stop manufacturing and selling all cars or power tools to citizens. There is no perfect solution of which I am aware. If someone really wishes to kill other people driving a car or truck through a crowded sidewalk woks fine. So does a IED bomb using AMFO, basically agricultural ammonia and diesel fuel. The list of lethal tools and commonly available substances is practically endless, which is why I personally prefer an approach that focuses on bad users rather than eliminating or banning one lethal tool. Anyway, hope you are enjoying a pleasant day wherever you are.
Although I'm a wild eyed liberal lady and I've never owned a firearm (I'm in the "you'll shoot your eye out, kid" category), I've known too many responsible gun-owners to have any particular interest in campaigns of confiscation, or even just in fighting a rhetorical war over what I regard as an overbroad interpretation of the Second Amendment. I do think the late Justice Scalia jumped the shark with Heller, but that is, of course, purely a matter of opinion, and I know many people who disagree with me for reasons I can respect.
My introduction to responsible firearm use began decades ago with my vegan, pacifist cousin, a petite, angelic individual who looks more like a ballerina than a sportswoman, and who has a gift for marksmanship. She has never killed a living creature in her life, but she does love to shoot, and she's amazing at it.
I've known skeet shooters, clay shooters, target shooters, and some dedicated hunters who hunt with respect, not for the "thrill" of the kill, but for what you might almost call the tradition. They eat or share what they bring home. They're all good people, and they're all law-abiding. One of my sons medaled in marksmanship in the service, the other--on the advice of a friend in law enforcement--acquired and learned to handle a firearm when he ran a recording studio in a somewhat dicey neighborhood (luckily he never had to use it). So despite my own personal discomfort with firearms, I just don't have a problem with others owning and enjoying them.
I'm not doctrinaire on the topic. I don't want to see bans. I would like to see more licensing, more education, more limits, more consistently enforced laws (a 50-state rather than a piecemeal, patchwork approach) and more awareness that an invitation to talk in a public forum about responsible gun ownership is not an attack on a constitutional right or an invitation to a shouting match, but an attempt to bridge the political gap and learn what we value in common as citizens, including the fact that we all want to tamp down on gun injuries and deaths, including suicides and accidental deaths.
I enjoyed reading your perspective on this, and very much appreciate your intelligent and focused commentary. Broadly speaking, I believe we agree on some pretty straightforward commonsense reforms, as I think most Americans do (or could) even across party lines and differing political perspectives.
Thanks Willoughby. I enjoyed your comments as well. Intelligent, reasonable people are where you find them, and that can be just about everywhere, unless one is simply to prejudiced to look for them. Have a nice weekend.
Needless to say, if a white guy shot up a school full of black kids, the MAGAts and Trumpetoons would say the shooter was not evil, just “troubled,” and the victims’ families should get over it.
That’s in public.
In private, they’d say the shooter should get the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross (Luftwaffe fighter pilots got that for 30 kills, along with a free hunting trip at Goering’s estate at Karinhall), and the black kids and families got what they deserved.
The deplorables don't care, and will never care.
Andrea, I respect your opinion but also disagree with it. There exists in our laws a long standing tradition that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. If you were arrested and jailed on suspicion of having committed a serious crime, how would you like going into a courtroom presumed “guilty” and having to prove your innocence? That is precisely the condition in many countries around the globe, and a condition we lack in the US thanks to our Constitution. People who have previously been convicted of a serious crime or involuntarily committed to a mental facility have gone through a fair criminal trial or other proceding procedure to protect their right to due process before losing their rights to keep and bear arms.
Please understand that I do not condone or diminish the seriousness or horror of a mass shooting, but I abhor our citizens’ loss of their rights to due process more.
At present I don’t know how we can perfectly predict in advance the mental inclinations of a prospective criminal or mental patient but we should continue our efforts to do so. Why?
Because circumstances like October 7 exist and whether the bad guys are Arab terrorists, home grown terrorists, or criminals breaking into our homes or places of work the immediate need to defend ourselves and others we care for is paramount in that instant! Police and/or military forces are not immediately available and returning to Israel that unarmed people suffered murder, rape, torture and burnings alive with no cut of protecting themselves. All they could do is flee or hide in their so called safe rooms praying to God for a divine miracle to save them from death or worse! Regrettably not all societies are “civilized” and until that fact of life is changed, responsible, good citizens must have the right to keep and bear arms or their “civilized society” won’t be around long enough to have its history written!
Is there a problem in this country that money is not at the root? We are so far from a democracy when what the polls show time and time again the public does not get what they need and want. Why? dah - money dominates our elections and legislation. I think that is the definition of oligarchy.
Harvey, it should bear no surprise that we are "far from a democracy" when our Constitution established a "Republic" with very substantial aspects of democracy already being present in the governance of the 13 colonial states that comprised the republic. There exist checks and balances throughout the system to protect the smaller or less populous states from the larger or more populous states. The operational differences and functions of the House, Senate and Electoral College are all a part of that balancing act at the federal level. There are similarities present in the separate states. So far it has worked - imperfectly but worked. No pure democracy has come close to lasting this long, and the US is still operating on a short time. As I said before, it ain't perfect, but so far it beats anything in second place!
Many of our countrymen/women are having difficulty dealing with the changes the nation is experiencing. They want to have someone to blame for the imbalance in their lives. Government seems to be the whipping post many choose to pound away on. Then of course we revert backwards to accost the ghosts of white supremacy that continue to haunt us. Then throw in the LGBT community and spice the concoction with immigrants and, well, you’ve got your plate full. And along comes a pseudo-messiah spewing forth the garbage of hated, division, and blamesmandhip,
I am speechless...
tRump should get over it how he lost the election how he was a fake president.
You are right the worst president ever! My meaning of fake president is the fact that he was like a cardboard cut out with no depth or real knowledge of the office he held. He seems a greedy human intent upon his own power and gain.
I don't believe Trump was a fake president, but he most certainly was a very bad one! Thanks in no small part to January 6 and a few other intentional missteps there is no longer any meaningful competition for the title of "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!"
I certainly was aware of the school shooting in Iowa but was not aware of Trump’s comment about the need to “get over it”. That’s probably because I don’t listen to or read about anything Trump. I wish I could say I was shocked that he had said something so awful, but that would be a lie. I will never understand why anyone thinks this man has the character needed to be the President of the United States. We get the government we deserve.
Thank you, Dan!
Get over yourself, Trump! Get over the fact that you did not win the last election. I am angered that he speaks so nonchalantly about something as horrid as a school shooting. Americans, young and old, do something to make this country safe for schoolchildren. Vote, protest, talk to your friends and neighbors. It is not beyond our reach to help make a change in gun laws.
I agree that gun murders of people of any age need to be stopped, not ignored. Thank you for posting this!
Janet Ruth Heller, author of seven books for children and adults
My website is https://www.janetruthheller.com/
It will be a bizarre election season with all kinds of unexpected words, actions, and outcomes. I am focusing on staying STEADY.
Ridiculous response especially from someone who can’t even get over losing the election
AMERICA IS NO LONGER SAFE FOR HUMAN BEINGS!
Shocking? Yes, but becoming increasing more truthful!
America is becoming a vagabond/savage land, that no longer supports human existence and growth. And, I find it so hard to believe that close to half of all the voting population in America, stands for this increasingly decreasing quality of life! What will it take for Americans; especially those who now call themselves "maga," to realize the carnage, is getting closer and closer to their own backyards?? Do they think trump will protect them? If so, they're completely insane!! Or, do they think their guns will save them? That's ludicrous; because if/when the country collapses into anarchy, and it will if we continue on the trajectory that we're on, you won't know when the enemy is coming for you! That's right! You'll be facing a warfare that you've never experienced and can't escape - guerilla warfare!! And, the average person has no idea deal how to defend themselves against such tactics!!
Now, all that I just wrote, may sound crazy! But, so does contemplating allowing a "madman" to re-enter the WH, and the proliferating gun problem in the un-United States of America! So, you folks out there who still have your brain cells intact, start sharing this message; because if you don't do it now, it may be too late for you and anyone else left in America, in just a little while!
RJ
beaconwear.etsy.com
Maybe things will change with the NRA dissolved.
Not really. The NRA was once an honorable and entirely different organization that supported the 2nd Amendment AND reasonable control of firearms to keep them out o the hands of unsupervised children, criminals and the mentally infirm. The present NRA, like Donald Trump, is simply (and unforgivably) taking advantage of the many voting adults whose sole unifying characteristic is the vacuum between their ears!
I realize that. And without their money and lobbying, laws may change.
The damage has already been done! Can you restore lives?? NO!!
But we may be able to change laws without the NRA lobbying against thing that even most responsible gun owners want.
I agree, but we can take reasonable and probably imperfect steps to keep firearms out of the hands of unsupervised children, criminals and the mentally infirm. That will save lives in the future and is a worthwhile goal in its own right. it is also a lot easier, less time consuming and less expensive to focus on the relatively few bad users of firearms than its would be to procedurally eliminate the 2nd Amendment from the Constitution.
Exactly. So very sad.
The only response the right appears to have had to the Iowa shooting, other than "get over it," has been to ooze out from under its miscellaneous baseboards and slither online to suggest the shooter was trans: an allegation not proven, and in any case so staggeringly irrelevant as to be dizzying, but a reverberation of the campaign launched by the likes of Christopher Rufo, Chaya Raichik, and other allies of Trump and Trumpism, alleging that most shooters are LGBTQ and that LGBTQ individuals are by nature violent, dangerous, a menace to an orderly society.
Rufo, of course, has moved beyond sexual obsession to the more ambitious project of eliminating women, LGBTQ individuals, enlightened progressives, and people of color from representation in US society (as judges, as prosecutors, as educators, as the presidents of universities), but Raichik remains to poison the American well with endless sexual cruelty.
I suppose we shouldn't have mocked the Republicans out of "thoughts and prayers." In retrospect that, at least, paid a nostalgic kind of lip service to humanity, a sort of faint, shadowy homage to whatever memory of human decency the American right once possessed.
Now there's nothing but this tribal evil, the language of genocidal contempt, right out in the open in a heavily armed society in which the one thing Republicans will not do is call for the sensible regulation of firearms.
I'm not saying there can be no improvements in our laws, but if you examine the existing statutes quite a few that impose harsher sentences for using firearms in committing a crime or possessing firearms until a criminal sentence, including probation and parole have been fully served. Similar restrictions exist for juveniles and the mentally infirm. A large part of the present problem is certain states that do not share their criminal and firearms records with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (FBATF). Having a fully functioning database of firearm restricted individuals would be of significant benefit to those who wish to keep firearms out of the hands of persons most likely to misuse them.
Really good point. The technology is straightforward: what's missing is the political will. There's been considerable lobbyist-sponsored legislative interference (under a smokescreen of concerns about privacy or, at the paranoid end of the scale, confiscation) with periodic, sporadic attempts to create a coherent, comprehensive database, both within states and nationally.
Thank you willoughby. I'm a retired atty, classical liberal, and old style Republican centrist with a visceral dislike of Donald Trump and anything MAGA. Consequently I can support the 2nd Amendment, improved border control, full rights for women and minorities, and reasonable environmental regulations in the same sentence and get shot at fronm both nut fringe extremes of the political spectrum. A couple of years ago I encountered a 60 Minutes TV program (I think) that covered the lack of cooperation by some Western states on sharing data with the BATF. I couldn't understand then and can't now why the feds didn't go to court and enforce cooperation. No one really wants the bad guys or the nut cases to have firearms, and all but the rare few miscreant dealers will sell to them. I was born and raised in north central PA where the deer, bear and other wildlife outnumber the people. I never got into hunting (although I enjoy venison) and my wife and I still enjoy target shooting with three pistols and one AR-15 all of which are well maintained, kept safe and used carefully. One thing about the back woods, with the exception of a couple local morons gun safety is taught early and hard, strictly no nonsense. Basically the approach is much like driver education. You learn to respect the tool you are using whether it's a Chevrolet, a chain saw or a Smith & Wesson. Misuse any one of them and someone gets badly hurt or dies. Kill someone with a car (vehicular homicide) and they take your license and possibly confiscate your car. but they don't stop manufacturing and selling all cars or power tools to citizens. There is no perfect solution of which I am aware. If someone really wishes to kill other people driving a car or truck through a crowded sidewalk woks fine. So does a IED bomb using AMFO, basically agricultural ammonia and diesel fuel. The list of lethal tools and commonly available substances is practically endless, which is why I personally prefer an approach that focuses on bad users rather than eliminating or banning one lethal tool. Anyway, hope you are enjoying a pleasant day wherever you are.
Although I'm a wild eyed liberal lady and I've never owned a firearm (I'm in the "you'll shoot your eye out, kid" category), I've known too many responsible gun-owners to have any particular interest in campaigns of confiscation, or even just in fighting a rhetorical war over what I regard as an overbroad interpretation of the Second Amendment. I do think the late Justice Scalia jumped the shark with Heller, but that is, of course, purely a matter of opinion, and I know many people who disagree with me for reasons I can respect.
My introduction to responsible firearm use began decades ago with my vegan, pacifist cousin, a petite, angelic individual who looks more like a ballerina than a sportswoman, and who has a gift for marksmanship. She has never killed a living creature in her life, but she does love to shoot, and she's amazing at it.
I've known skeet shooters, clay shooters, target shooters, and some dedicated hunters who hunt with respect, not for the "thrill" of the kill, but for what you might almost call the tradition. They eat or share what they bring home. They're all good people, and they're all law-abiding. One of my sons medaled in marksmanship in the service, the other--on the advice of a friend in law enforcement--acquired and learned to handle a firearm when he ran a recording studio in a somewhat dicey neighborhood (luckily he never had to use it). So despite my own personal discomfort with firearms, I just don't have a problem with others owning and enjoying them.
I'm not doctrinaire on the topic. I don't want to see bans. I would like to see more licensing, more education, more limits, more consistently enforced laws (a 50-state rather than a piecemeal, patchwork approach) and more awareness that an invitation to talk in a public forum about responsible gun ownership is not an attack on a constitutional right or an invitation to a shouting match, but an attempt to bridge the political gap and learn what we value in common as citizens, including the fact that we all want to tamp down on gun injuries and deaths, including suicides and accidental deaths.
I enjoyed reading your perspective on this, and very much appreciate your intelligent and focused commentary. Broadly speaking, I believe we agree on some pretty straightforward commonsense reforms, as I think most Americans do (or could) even across party lines and differing political perspectives.
Thanks Willoughby. I enjoyed your comments as well. Intelligent, reasonable people are where you find them, and that can be just about everywhere, unless one is simply to prejudiced to look for them. Have a nice weekend.
I’ve heard his supporters say the he makes them laugh and he’s entertaining so he’s like so a clown is literally what you want as a president.
Needless to say, if a white guy shot up a school full of black kids, the MAGAts and Trumpetoons would say the shooter was not evil, just “troubled,” and the victims’ families should get over it.
That’s in public.
In private, they’d say the shooter should get the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross (Luftwaffe fighter pilots got that for 30 kills, along with a free hunting trip at Goering’s estate at Karinhall), and the black kids and families got what they deserved.