| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
15 Mar 2005 11:20:19 PM |
| Object: |
Gun victims need more than prayers |
Gun victims need more than prayers
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | March 15, 2005
A MAN fires away at a church in suburban Milwaukee, kills seven people and
himself, and a county district attorney says it was ''heartbreaking,
overwhelming, and an unbelievable tragedy. Surreal is probably what comes
to mind.''
An inmate in Atlanta who was headed to court brutally beat a courthouse
deputy for her gun, kills four people, and Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor
temporarily turned the state Senate into church by saying, ''If there ever
was a day we need a devotional and prayer, it is today.''
A man in Chicago kills the husband and mother of a judge, eventually kills
himself and leaves behind a note boasting about having a ''.22 with a
noise reducer, relatively quiet and effective'' and another gun of
''greater force.'' A city maintenance worker in Los Angeles, apparently
angry after being told he was late for work, returned with an AK-47 and
killed two co-workers at the office.
These killings over the last month follow a spate of other multiple
killings. In Columbus, Ohio, a man came onstage at a heavy-metal concert
and shot dead a guitarist and three other people before being killed by
police. In the northern woods of Wisconsin, a hunter killed six people and
wounded two others after being told he was trespassing. The total: more
than two dozen people killed in a wide swath of Americana -- a forest, a
home, an office, a club, a church, and a courthouse. The victims get
devotionals and prayer. But that is all they get. There is certainly no
political action.
The level of carnage by these depressed or angry people was only possible
because they had their hands on a gun. At the heavy-metal shooting, the
assailant had so much ammunition that one music fan, who was trapped in a
corner, said, ''I have no doubt that if that cop wouldn't have killed him,
we would have all been dead.''
Yet, nearly six years after Columbine and other mass shootings, the nation
seems even further away from any serious control on guns. Congress is
hearing testimony on new resolutions to shield gun makers from liability
lawsuits. Leading the effort, of course, is the National Rifle
Association, which shamelessly links liability immunity to patriotism.
Saying ''the entire gun industry is at risk of being eradicated'' and
''Americans remain one antigun judge or jury away from seeing the firearms
industry destroyed,'' the NRA says on its website, ''Remember, too, that
this is the same industry that provides firearms to our fighting men and
women in the US military.''
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the
firearms industry, adds that such lawsuits ''are meant to eliminate a
segment of the manufacturing industry and the jobs of tens of thousands it
employs. ... These businesses not only provide materials our men and women
in uniform need to win the war against terrorism, but also the goods that
40 million Americans use to enjoy recreational shooting and hunting with
firearms.''
A key pro-gun politician, Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, has
said, ''These outrageous lawsuits attempting to hold a law-abiding
industry responsible for the acts of criminals are a threat to jobs and
the economy, jeopardize the exercise of constitutionally protected
freedoms, undermine national security and circumvent Congress and state
legislatures. They must be stopped.''
It is of course of no interest to the pro-gun politicians that the gun
industry tries to outdo itself to pump out guns that have ''greater
force'' than the next. A new handgun that can fire bullets capable of
penetrating body armor recently was found during a drug bust in New
Jersey.
But with the assault-weapons ban expired even for machine guns, stopping
the proliferation of potentially cop-killing guns seems a long ways away
on Capitol Hill. That is even with the police commissioners protesting the
guns. In a post-9/11 United States, where a president was reelected
partially on lingering fear of international terrorism, it still does not
register with Americans how we do ourselves in with everyday domestic
terrorism.
Without any help from Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, we take out
30,000 of our own people a year with firearms through homicide, suicide,
or accidents. Yet, The Boston Globe just this weekend had an article on
the growth of target shooting by women from 2.7 million in 1998 to 3.9
million in 2003, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. I
have no qualm about target shooting or seasonal hunting. But inevitably,
as statistics show, some women who go on to purchase a handgun for the
home will eventually be killed with it in a domestic violence dispute. The
gun lobby says we need the firearms industry to win the war on terror.
They could care less that we are losing the war on violence right here at
home.
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
Scientology murder: http://PerkinsTragedy.org
Improving the herd: http://www.rightard.org/
.
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| User: "Dale" |
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| Title: Re: Gun victims need more than prayers |
16 Mar 2005 01:07:04 AM |
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"Fredric L. Rice" <FRice@SkepticTank.ORG> wrote in message
news:113fha6jsf8qo3a@corp.supernews.com...
Gun victims need more than prayers
Yeah, they needed guns.
.
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| User: "Fredric L. Rice" |
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| Title: Re: Gun victims need more than prayers |
17 Mar 2005 10:13:02 PM |
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"Dale" <dmgreer@nspm.airmail.net> wrote:
"Fredric L. Rice" <FRice@SkepticTank.ORG> wrote in message
news:113fha6jsf8qo3a@corp.supernews.com...
Gun victims need more than prayers
Yeah, they needed guns.
Believers in gods already have massive body counts.
Look at this mass murdering Christian named Bush, for example.
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
Scientology murder: http://PerkinsTragedy.org
Improving the herd: http://www.rightard.org/
.
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| User: "Yang, AthD h.c, Kicking AWOLs Cocaine Snorting Ass" |
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| Title: Re: Gun victims need more than prayers |
16 Mar 2005 10:07:07 AM |
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On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 07:07:04 GMT, "Dale" <dmgreer@nspm.airmail.net>
wrote:
"Fredric L. Rice" <FRice@SkepticTank.ORG> wrote in message
news:113fha6jsf8qo3a@corp.supernews.com...
Gun victims need more than prayers
Yeah, they needed guns.
Yes, what that 2-year-old boy needs is a gun so he can shoot back at
his 4-year-old brother!
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka aka Yang's little poltregeist *****)
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.6 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -1517 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
.
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