All you here on the
news these days is about the Aurora ,
Colorado
Although there are
many discussion threads about this bizarre and terrible event, many people are
dancing around the gun issue as is the norm after a shooting incident like
this.
Obama and Romney are
not touching the gun issue at this juncture of their campaigns because it is
such a volatile subject in our society and they are smart to do that.
My friends are also
divided with some urging others to stock up on guns and ammo while they can.
Obama has shown no indication that he would ban weapons of any kind so why the
worry…but gun sales are way up before the election anyway.
Other friends and
family are asking why we allow the purchase of “assault rifles” since they
cannot be used for hunting. Well they can be used for target practice by people
that want to play being special ops commandos. The assault rifles are not like
real assault rifles in that they cannot fire on automatic but must be fired one
bullet at a time each time the trigger is pressed BUT they can have very large
ammo clips which would allow someone to keep firing for a long time without
reloading.
Would banning the
sale of assault rifles have kept James Holmes from doing what he did? I think
not especially when we find out his assault rifle actually jammed early into
the massacre and he had to rely on secondary, non-assault type, weaponry.
Could anything have
stopped this man? Well, under current gun regulations, probably not since he
had a clean police record and bought his weapons legally. He did amass a great
amount of ammunition and explosive supplies on-line, delivered by probably UPS
or FedEx. Should ammo manufacturers or sellers have a maximum purchase amount
after which they notify authorities?
If we are to protect
this country from terrorists, shouldn’t we have some type of reporting system
in place when a large amount of explosives or ammo is purchased?
Many are saying that
we are the only modern country that allows basically unregulated sale of guns
to any and all who want them. The regulations that we do have are supposed to
keep guns out of the hands of convicted criminals but they somehow always seem
to be able to get their hands on guns when they want to.
Some are saying that
having more gun owners with concealed weapon permits may reduce these types of
crimes but others are saying that having more people carrying guns may mean
more innocent bystanders killed by indiscriminate firing of all those weapons…Dodge City ?
There is a TV show
where a giant computer tracks all residents of a city as to their potential for
committing a crime and when the computer kicks out a name, a special agent goes
out to stop them. This may be the only way James Holmes could have been stopped
but that is all fiction at this stage; maybe someone is already working on such
a computer.
James Holmes did
send an account of what he is about to do to a professor at the school he was
attending but the package remained in the mailroom unopened. Some say that
these types of guys always send out signals about what they are about to do but
no one listens or picks up on those signals. I think since a number of these
massacres have already occurred, we as a public are more sensitive to certain
clues that people give off but obviously, in this case the ball was dropped
again.
Do we ban all guns?
We have many examples of countries that have done just that but are they free
of such massacres?
Are movies and games
just too violent for our impressionable youth? I think to some extent that is
true and we have banned our grandson from playing such games and have noticed a
difference in his behavior but what about adults that play and watch such
violence…I do and I don’t feel like killing scores of people…
Obviously the last
Batman movie made an impression on Holmes and especially the Joker character
that was so brilliantly portrayed by Ledger as totally, uncontrollably
maniacal; Holmes even dyed his hair orange just like the Joker in the movie.
The fact that Holmes targeted the premier of the new Batman movie makes it a
part of the puzzle?
The fact that he had
body armor covering his entire body adds to the mystery and points out an
oddity in the usual behavior of such people who normally kill themselves at the
end or have police kill them as they charge towards them; Holmes obviously
wanted to live another day…why?
I don’t know the
answer but blaming it all on guns just does not seem like the way to fix this
problem and maybe there is no way to fix this problem and we will have mindless
massacres every so often by people that are apparently deranged in special ways
unlike criminals who are criminals and lead criminal lives; Holmes was normal
until he snapped and that makes him special.
Should be
interesting to see how this case develops…I would like to hear more about this
guy’s parents and family life…
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