AMEN!!!
Kinda nice to see after the weekend my post grew by 3 pages.
Lots of good points.
17 dead, many more injured.
Finger pointing solves nothing, yet started immediately, before the blood cooled.
NRA first, then the FBI.
Some of you ain't gonna like what I'm gonna say here.
I hope those that teased, harassed and bullied this kid realize that they played a part in these murders as well.
Who knows what the outcome would have been if one special young person would have shown kindness when this kid needed it?
Kids can be brutally unmerciful. I know, I was one.
I took part in teasing and bullying, and it's one of the largest mistakes and regret I have from my youth.
I wish someone would have set me straight back then. I would love to look back at those times with pride instead of shame.
Looking back, the teachers knew what was going on, they talked to us as a whole class about it which did no good. They should have talked to us one on one and shamed the hell out of each and every one of us.
Thanks a lot for this comment.
I was generally on the bullied end of the spectrum, but there were a couple of times I recall saying something that can only be characterized as cruel. More than 20 years later, I still wish I could go back & take back what I said.
The other thing in this discussion - and why I brought it up in the first place - I actually changed my mind significantly on this whole issue 6 or 7 years ago in the wake of, I think, the Sandy Hook shooting. Listening to all the hype & knee jerk reactions of "take away the assault rifles." It got me thinking about the 2nd amendment in an entirely different way. If the GOVERNMENT is allowed outrageous weaponry, should not the CITIZENRY be able to have access to the same materials?
This is The perspective I used to take on the 2nd ammendment:
Time and time again I see and hear people bringing up the second amendment and not having a clue of why or how it came about or what it really means. Here's a clue. Read the first four F***ing words.
A Well Regulated.
To control or maintain.
Militia.
A military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency....
This is what I remember from my eighth grade history class.
The phrase "A well Regulated Militia" has been tossed around an awful lot to say it isn't the citizens' right, but the government.
The whole thing reads:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The next 9 words - "being necessary to the security of a free State"
Meaning, we need weapons if we want to maintain freedom.
Then next 10 words "the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms." Sure sounds like the citizenry to me.
and the final 4 words:
"shall not be infringed." That part seems pretty darn cut & dry. (that's the phrase that made me change my mind on gun control about 120 degrees.[no not a full 180].)
I realize I'm interpereting it according to the way I read it & I am also willing to agree that it can even seem a little self contradictory there too. I also think relying on what you learned in 8th grade history is a matter of being told what to think. That's what our school system is built on. What to think, and sometimes, when to think, but SELDOM
HOW to think. When we think for ourselves we find our own principles & priorities.