What a Difference a Gun Makes

What a Difference a Gun Makes

By Marian Wright Edelman | HuffPost | 04/13/2012 4:09 pm

“On April 16, 2007, our nation suffered its deadliest shooting incident ever by a single gunman when a student killed 32 people and wounded 25 others at Virginia Tech before committing suicide. Five years later, have we learned anything about controlling our national gun and gun violence epidemic? A look at just a few of the sad headlines across the country so far this year suggests we haven’t learned much or anything at all.

In February 2012, a 17-year-old high school senior, who other students described as an outcast who’d been bullied, shot and killed three fellow students and injured two more at Chardon High School in suburban Ohio. Would this have happened without a gun?

In Washington state, three children were victims of gun violence during a three-week period in February and March 2012.

A three-year-old died after shooting himself in the head with a gun left under the front seat of the car while his family stopped for gas.

The seven-year-old daughter of a police officer was shot and killed by her younger brother after he found one of their father’s guns in the glove compartment of the family van.

And an eight-year-old girl was critically wounded at school when her nine-year-old classmate brought in a gun he found at home that accidentally went off in his backpack. Would this have happened without a gun?

In Chicago there already has been a rash of shootings this year, including the especially violent weekend in mid-March when 49 people were shot and 10 were killed.

One of the victims was a six-year-old girl who was sitting on her front porch with her mother getting her hair brushed before a birthday party when she was killed by shots fired from a passing pickup truck. Would this have happened without a gun?

And in Florida, unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed walking home from the store in February after being followed by self-appointed “neighborhood watch captain” George Zimmerman, who contrary to all generally accepted Neighborhood Watch rules was patrolling his gated community while armed with a gun. Would Trayvon’s death have happened without a gun?

Now that George Zimmerman has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, Trayvon Martin’s family is finally moving forward in their quest for justice.

As a nation we can’t afford to keep waiting for common-sense gun control laws that would protect our children and all of us from indefensible gun violence. It’s time to repeal senseless gun laws like the “Stand Your Ground” laws enacted by 21 states that have grabbed so much attention in Trayvon’s case and allow people in Florida to defend themselves with deadly force anytime and anywhere if they feel threatened. More than two million “people have signed online petitions saying they want to repeal these laws.

It’s time to require consumer safety standards and childproof safety features for all guns and strengthen child access prevention laws that ensure guns are stored safely and securely to prevent unnecessary tragedies like those in Washington state.

And in a political environment where the too-secretive and powerful advocacy group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) pushed “Stand Your Ground” laws in other states along with other “model bills” that benefit some corporate bottom lines or special interests like the NRA, it’s time for all of ALEC’s corporate sponsors to walk away from enabling or acquiescing in destructive laws that protect guns, not children.

It’s a tragedy that five years after Virginia Tech so little has changed.

How many years must we wait until tragic headlines about school shootings, children dying, and people using the “shoot first and ask questions later” defense to take the law into their own hands go away? When will we finally get the courage to stand up as a nation and say enough to the deadly proliferation of guns and gun violence that endanger children’s and public safety?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/what-a-difference-a-gun-m_b_1424522.html
.....

I can safely predict that when this article is read, heads will explode, republicans will scream, yelling about every person’s right to carry a gun because in the Constitution it was written that men would form a ‘militia’ to protect their families, serve the 13 colonies if there is in an uprising with the Indians, but how does that figure in the Wild Wild West scenario we all can see as we are out and about on any night of the week. And, like, I haven’t seen an Indian in weeks...

As republicans are notoriously for citizens roaming around with guns, I wonder if the fact that they are such fervent pro-life people, hopelessly entwined in the unborn fetuses of unknown women everywhere, just how do they reconcile their obvious lack of involvement or interest in the lives of children that are already born.

Do they think of the millions of children that are murdered by guns each year?

That many thousands of men, women and children are murdered by guns each year in the United States, and apparently republicans think that is ok, as they are for the NRA and will defend it with their guns if necessary. Do I see a conflict in this scenario in being for guns, and against any gun laws restricting crazies from buying them over a weekend when they may feel the need for a gun.

Laws must now be passed to outlaw guns for everyone; let’s give the republicans a chance to show their great depth of pro-life agenda by saving lives by banning guns.

 

What a Difference a Gun Makes

By Marian Wright Edelman | HuffPost | 04/13/2012 4:09 pm

“On April 16, 2007, our nation suffered its deadliest shooting incident ever by a single gunman when a student killed 32 people and wounded 25 others at Virginia Tech before committing suicide. Five years later, have we learned anything about controlling our national gun and gun violence epidemic? A look at just a few of the sad headlines across the country so far this year suggests we haven’t learned much or anything at all.

In February 2012, a 17-year-old high school senior, who other students described as an outcast who’d been bullied, shot and killed three fellow students and injured two more at Chardon High School in suburban Ohio. Would this have happened without a gun?

In Washington state, three children were victims of gun violence during a three-week period in February and March 2012.

A three-year-old died after shooting himself in the head with a gun left under the front seat of the car while his family stopped for gas.

The seven-year-old daughter of a police officer was shot and killed by her younger brother after he found one of their father’s guns in the glove compartment of the family van.

And an eight-year-old girl was critically wounded at school when her nine-year-old classmate brought in a gun he found at home that accidentally went off in his backpack. Would this have happened without a gun?

In Chicago there already has been a rash of shootings this year, including the especially violent weekend in mid-March when 49 people were shot and 10 were killed. One of the victims was a six-year-old girl who was sitting on her front porch with her mother getting her hair brushed before a birthday party when she was killed by shots fired from a passing pickup truck. Would this have happened without a gun?

And in Florida, unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed walking home from the store in February after being followed by self-appointed “neighborhood watch captain” George Zimmerman, who contrary to all generally accepted Neighborhood Watch rules was patrolling his gated community while armed with a gun. Would Trayvon’s death have happened without a gun?

Now that George Zimmerman has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, Trayvon Martin’s family is finally moving forward in their quest for justice.

As a nation we can’t afford to keep waiting for common-sense gun control laws that would protect our children and all of us from indefensible gun violence. It’s time to repeal senseless gun laws like the “Stand Your Ground” laws enacted by 21 states that have grabbed so much attention in Trayvon’s case and allow people in Florida to defend themselves with deadly force anytime and anywhere if they feel threatened. More than two million “people have signed online petitions saying they want to repeal these laws.

It’s time to require consumer safety standards and childproof safety features for all guns and strengthen child access prevention laws that ensure guns are stored safely and securely to prevent unnecessary tragedies like those in Washington state. And in a political environment where the too-secretive and powerful advocacy group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) pushed “Stand Your Ground” laws in other states along with other “model bills” that benefit some corporate bottom lines or special interests like the NRA, it’s time for all of ALEC’s corporate sponsors to walk away from enabling or acquiescing in destructive laws that protect guns, not children.

It’s a tragedy that five years after Virginia Tech so little has changed.

How many years must we wait until tragic headlines about school shootings, children dying, and people using the “shoot first and ask questions later” defense to take the law into their own hands go away? When will we finally get the courage to stand up as a nation and say enough to the deadly proliferation of guns and gun violence that endanger children’s and public safety?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/what-a-difference-a-gun-m_b_1424522.html
.....

I can safely predict that when this article is read, heads will explode, republicans will scream, yelling about every person’s right to carry a gun because in the Constitution it was written that men would form a ‘militia’ to protect their families, serve the 13 colonies if there is in an uprising with the Indians, but how does that figure in the Wild Wild West scenario we all can see as we are out and about on any night of the week. And, like, I haven’t seen an Indian in weeks...

As republicans are notoriously for citizens roaming around with guns, I wonder if the fact that they are such fervent pro-life people, hopelessly entwined in the unborn fetuses of unknown women everywhere, just how do they reconcile their obvious lack of involvement or interest in the lives of children that are already born.

Do they think of the millions of children that are murdered by guns worldwide each year?

That many thousands of men, women and children are murdered by guns each year in the United States, and apparently republicans think that is ok, as they are for the NRA and will defend it with their guns if necessary. Do I see a conflict in this scenario in being for guns, and against any gun laws restricting crazies from buying them over a weekend when they may feel the need for a gun.

Laws must now be passed to outlaw guns for everyone; let’s give the republicans a chance to show their great depth of pro-life agenda by actually saving lives by banning guns.

 

Guns will never be banned, it's a pipe dream.

 

Ah, its so refreshing when the leftist loser media and the lap dog constituency gathers it collective incompetence to stand against our civil liberties and limit our freedoms. If the students had been armed there would have been fewer deaths, and the fear of God would be instilled in the souls of the psychotic losers who would commit sich acts as they would be dead and their goals of terror unmet.

 

Authoritarian leftists. On an interminable quest to figure out how to legislate guns away from those who follow no laws...

No better evidence of insanity can be found.

 

Thats true, only law abidding citizens follow the law, the rest follow chaos. But lefists love chaos, it gives them something to strive for, peaceful existence in a nation of laws can not, and should not be tolerated.

 

And this article advocates for an outright ban on guns, basically disarming all law abiding citizens and leaving guns only in the hands of the criminals.

 

As the article stated, we need common sense gun control laws. A good law would be to reaffirm the second amendment in the truest sense. The right to bear arms is supposed to not be infringed upon when a well regulated militia is in place.

According to the Militia Act of 1903, such a well regulated militia's reserve force includes all able-bodied citizens from ages 17 to 45. This statute should be amended to include all able-bodied citizens 14 or older, and require such citizens who own firearms or will buy firearms to learn how to use their weapons for national defense purposes. Doing so will teach responsible gun usage.

To safeguard such weapons that are primarily for national defense purposes, all gun users should be mandated to properly store their weapons.

Unfortunately, the black market for firearms is a tough issue to deal with. Cracking down on the borders would be a start.

 

The War on Guns would be equally as futile as the War on Drugs.

 

You can have my Gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers...

Guns are the great equalizer. As for the accidents you cite, that is just poor Gun Ownership.

And as for crimes being commited with Guns. Outlawing them will not stop criminals from using them. You just stop law abiding citizens from being able to defend themself.

 

You described the leftist position without even breaking a sweat.

 

*shrugs* Both sides make the mistake of trying to control people's personal lives. The left likes to attack guns, while the right attacks drugs.

I just prefer letting people make their own decisions.

 

Lighten up man! I was making a joke. But, I see your point, and agree.

 

If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words?

Think about it.

Good, law-biding people need guns to protect themselves from career criminals who would have guns and use them even if all guns were outlawed.

Everyone knows the district of Columbia is a good example. They have the strictest gun laws in the US and their homicides rates by firearms are higher than almost anywhere else. The violent street gangs in DC can obtain guns anytime they wish, and there is nothing the cops or city officials can do about it!

 

Keep your laws off my trigger finger.

 

Bwahahahahaha, I just spit coffee all over my screen, now I gota clean it, thats fricking funny right there.

Leftists are as immune to truth as cats and water, they avoid it all costs. Agenda is primary and truth is not a factor.

 

If OP bloviates about the difference one gun makes, perhaps the OP should lobby for allowing 2.

 

Just as the OP predicted-the right starts frothing at the mere mention of gun control!

 

Its the Huffington post, you expect too much.

 

I predict that you respond to this thread again.

 

try googling homeowner shoots intruder

Tell those people they shouldn't have had guns when criminals broke into their houses. Your occasional school shootings and accidents don't even get close to the number of homeowners protecting their homes and families against intruders across the country.

 

Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance From Citizens

 

In America we are real men, not sniveling European socialists that the leftist losers in this country want emulate for some ridiculous reason.

 

Agenda informed by theory. Fail.

 

Americans object to the totalitarian left's efforts to trample on their constitutionally protected rights....

what did you...or she...expect?