Small world — filled with tough moral choices — isn’t it?
The New York investment firm that controls Steward Health Care System — the largest community hospital network in Massachusetts — also owned Freedom Group Inc. — the country’s largest seller of firearms, including the semiautomatic rifle used in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.
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It is not just these current horrific murders that is the issue but the larger problem of all types of murder in the United States. Every day we lose 30 citizens by violent means. If any attempt is made to find solutions cries go up from gun manufacturers, gun organizations, and citizenry who have a heightened fear they will be assaulted in their own home. Responses can be myriad but will have to be more than single. It is going to take a number of sea changes to bring about a less violent society. Along the way as those who have the perception their toes are being trampled on will mount resistance. Well entrenched fears and beliefs are difficult to remove even in the face of overwhelming evidence as to their falsehood. Most pressing is our view of what a safe society means and a clearer definition of what freedom means. Interpretations have run amok. Freedom is not a loose term but it is a reconciliation between societal norms, individual capacity and choices, and fellow citizen's tolerance codified in our laws. It is true that banning assault weapons will have little impact given that most murders occur in other places than schools and between people that know each other. The astounding number of firearms in this country also makes this the proverbial drop in the bucket. This is not to say it should not be done. It may start the march towards wiser solutions. The United States stands alone in the number of fellow countrymen killed by their own and until this is understood without excuses but admitting something is very wrong nothing will be done.
The line between morality and business is indeed complex. How many innocent people have died at the hands of President Obama's Predator Drone attacks? Would it be immoral to profit from owning stock in the companies that manufacture these death machines?
Apparently this is one conservative who believes that stateless terrorism should be allowed to operate with impunity. I'm sure he/she also believes that Seal Team Six violated Pakistan's sovereignty. The drone attacks were fine under a GOP president, but under President Obama, they are murderous? No contradiction here.
Well said, mean_willie.
I look forward to the day that the Boston Globe stops selling ad space and/or distributing circulars for entertainment that glorifies violence.
Oh how high and mighty. If you don't like the Globe stop supporting it with your paid subscription.
Violent movies have been around since the silents. Books filled with violence were common even earlier. I'm not convinced. Before violent games, there were violent comic books and even cartoons (Roadrunner anyone?). Some people are prone to violence. There have been studies that indicate there may be physical differences in the brain that cause some people to be violent, but it's not definitive yet.
Literally *millions* of people are exposed to violent entertainment of one sort or another and do nothing violent. I'm among those millions and I'm about as pacifist as one can get.
All this is hand-wringing about violent entertainment is based on supposition that may have no validity -- another idea based on flawed common sense instead of scientific proof.
Ban private gun sales. Guns only through registered dealers. All guns and gun owners registered and licensed federally. Federal licenses vetted by local law enforcement. Regulate guns like we do cars, only more. Civil and potentially criminal liability for mis-use of your gun, even if you are not the one firing the weapon. If someone gets access to your gun and hurts or kills someone, you have to take responsibility for allowing the access. Annual inspections. If you cannot demonstrate that you can control access to your weapon, you should not have one.
Check out www.helenbousquet.com
Steward Health Care System should be shut down.