HERKIMER, N.Y. — The man killed by police after a shooting rampage that left four people dead was a mystery in a small town, a stranger to his neighbors and a man of few words, even at a bar where he regularly drank Coors Light and listened to, but never sang, karaoke.
A former boss who worked with gunman Kurt Myers for 20 years described him as a quiet and nervous but intelligent and congenial man who was a fan of World War II trivia. But a recent encounter with his old employee left him unsettled.
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Hmmm...no mention of an "assault weapon"??? Nor of a "large capacity magazine"?? But, wait...NY has the strictest gun laws in the country...how could this happen?? It happens because its about the person, not the implement he chooses. And until we realize that, and focus on mental health, we will continue to see these violent sequences play out.
He used a shotgun, our vice president told everyone to go buy a shotgun.
What is your point, Richstan? That shotguns also kill? That is, if anything, an argument against owning any gun at all. Maybe you think death by shotgun somehow makes banning assault weapons futile.
Countless more may have died if he had access to an assault weapon.
What this story shows is that everywhere there are guns, there is a higher incidence of death.
What other stories tell us is that the more powerful the gun, the higher the number of grieving families.
@Richstan?
What is your point? That shotguns also kill? That is, if anything, an argument against owning any gun at all. Maybe you think death by shotgun somehow makes banning assault weapons futile.
Countless more may have died if he had access to an assault weapon.
What this story shows is that everywhere there are guns, there is a higher incidence of death.
What other stories tell us is that the more powerful the gun, the higher the number of grieving families.
Kate, one of the problems with your statement is that it is based on what you are reading everyday.
The MSM does not report any incidents in which people defend themselves with guns. It does not fit their agenda.
Guns can be used for good or bad purposes. What appears in the media is only the bad. After a while a normal person starts to believe that they only serve bad purposes. Interestingly, even anti gun senators sometimes use them to defend themselves, like Sen Soles from NC two years ago at his home.
The problem is that we have guns, bad people, crazy people, good people, untrained people, and children in this mix. It is apparent that the evil types are not going to turn in their guns anytime soon no matter what laws are passed. Obviously those who believe the best way to protect themselves from a criminal with a gun is to shoot back is not interested in turning in any guns either.
Then we have to figure out what to do about accidental shootings, especially in regards to children. To top it all off, we have people that think they can go buy a gun and there is nothing to learn about using it properly.
The stories we are hearing are very lopsided, that is not helping with figuring out how to formulate an approach to dealing with guns, self defense, criminals and insane people.
I think we should ban backyard pools. Do you know how many kids die in backyard pools every year?
I think we should put fences around backyard pools-- oh, right. We do.
They don't seem to be doing a good job. Let's just ban the pools.
The real point of this story is that sometimes people just go looney tunes (yea, I know, not a great scientific term).
When I was a kid, one of them wired up his house with dynamite, blew himself and family to kingdom come, wife and six kids. No warning.
Of course there is the worst school massacre in history, in Michigan, guy used explosives cause he was upset. A loon.
Then we have our new version who have been using automatic rifles of late.
One thing no one ever seems to consider is that the AR15's (modern sporting rifles) have been the most popular selling rifle for a long time now. So there are a lot of them out there. Could it be they are used mostly because they are the ones that are primarily available? I am saying this, because in this case, the guy did not have one obviously, so he just used a shotgun. Others have used dynamite. If memory serves me, the Virginia Tech shootings were done with pistols, not rifles. The aurora shooter used a shotgun, a rifle and a pistol. The rifle malfunctioned after 30 rounds.
I am thinking that it is not the weapon, it is the weapon at hand in conjunction with the nutjob and a desire to kill.
What is also troubling is that I don't think any mental health system would have tweeked to this guy either.
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Right wingers and 2nd Amendment extremists form very peculiar syllogisms. They tell us there's no sense in outlawing assault weapons or firearms because people go nuts and will kill anyway. Another version of that argument is that people will find other instruments with which to murder so gun control is a useless endeavor.
So, I guess we shouldn't outlaw smoking in restaurants because there are always going to be people who smoke.
Just as they believe that an individual right to buy and possess any fire arm they choose to buy is a 2nd Amendment right that is more important than the collective right of individuals to be safe and secure in public places, they believe that an individual's right to smoke trumps the rights of the group who do not wish to breathe second hand cigarette smoke .
I've never been able to accept their reasoning.