NRA claims guns don't kill people, people kill people. How about that.

My response to Nigel: In the blog post linked to at the very end of my post is this pull quote from a writing by William Saletan: “This morning, a madman attacked more than 20 children at an elementary school in China. As of this writing, there are no reported fatalities.

A few hours later, a madman attacked an elementary school in Connecticut. As of this writing, 20 of those kids are dead.

The difference? The weapon. The madman in China had a knife. The madman in Connecticut had three semi-automatic guns.”

Dick Bernard, Woodbury

On wonders how long a time of reflection there should be on this: three days? A week? A couple of years? I recall there was something of a rush to judgement after 9-11-01. Wasn't much time taken for reflection then, best I recall. A good friend sent me an e-mail this morning with the following "we need to ask ourselves what would our governments and our fellow citizens be doing now if the Newtown killer's name was Abu Abdallah?" The time for reflection on rational regulation of guns has long passed....

Fran G: Those who want us to "reflect" now and talk about gun control later know how short the attention span of the average American is, unfortunately. They know if we wait, once again it will never happen.
Mr. St. Martin (who of course has never been known to be "soap-boxy"): This should not be anyone's "pet political agenda." This is a matter of common sense. This deranged shooter did not pick his victims based on politics. The kids belong to us all. And referring to someone who has expressed sorrow about what happened in CT as being "insensitive" and "coarse" strikes me as, well...

This is my second attempt, my first is still pending in the land of waiting to be approved. My apologies if it posts twice.

Dick, it's always nice to read your blogs - we seem to agree on so much. :-)

Of-course we are discussing this in our ongoing (never-ending) conversation on the other thread. I have come to a couple conclusions after having read more about the people that commit these heinous crimes.

1. The vast majority are men
2. Most have dealt with mental illness
3. They have withdrawn from society
4. Most have seen and fixated on violence against humans in our overly-glamorized world of violent entertainment.
5. They have easy access to fully or semi-automatic guns.
THIS IS THE DEADLY COMBINATION.

This could be fixed but it won't be. I have my theories as to why, but will let everyone come to their own conclusions.

My love, thoughts, and emotional support go out to all those hurting and who have been hurt by these senseless and horrendous acts of violence...

Now the knee jerk fixation is on firearms. What concerns me is another reaction that will start or already has started to occur. Picking on, bothering, humiliating, and bullying the many quiet unassuming male introverted nerds that are in the classrooms!

Guns were made by people to kill. That is its only purpose. Knives, cars, and everything else that somehow kills was made for different purpose. We need to remember that and control those killing instruments. The slogan "guns don't kill people do" is just a slogan to cloud an issue and deny responsibility. It's a statistical fact that living with a gun in your home is a health risk not only to you but to those you live with.

What about the talk of limiting the number of rounds in clips? Does that sound like a middle ground?

No trying to reason with Yomammy....he doesn't want to listen to any common sense. Did you use an assault weapon when you went target shooting and hunting?? I really doubt that you did, plus tell me who needs these assault weapons and for what use, other than to kill people. I'm all for people having their hunting guns and rifles,but only the military and the SWAT teams should have assault weapons. Let's try to reason instead of being ignorant,

Obama...the greatest gun saleman in history. lol.

I think if mental health care were as affordable and acceptable as say a gun we might not be having this conversation.

I'm always most intrigued by the people who comment with aliases - "yomammy", for instance. I give them as much credit as their anonymity deserves, which is no credit.

Couldn't agree with you more Dick! If they were so adamant in how they felt, why use an alias. I call them cowards.

It saddens me that some find that target shooting with these ridiculously deadly weapons is more important than children's lives. There is no logic in this particular argument in regards to freedom, only the child-like, stamping their feet and saying "because I want it!"

It will be interesting to see what the Republicans in Congress will do....take a chance at losing their NRA money, or stand up and say enough is enough, we need some boundaries.

Susan, go to hell.

I can't believe that cans are more important than our children's lives. What a ruthless people we have become. There are just some people that do not want to reason with anything....someday some of these people may have a family member killed by these guns that they so want to keep in their lives. Maybe then will they change, but I doubt it.

Guns not "cans" in my statement above....sorry about that.

And when you finally pass these laws and libs dance in the streets, with church bells ringing...The criminals will form a line to turn in their weapons and "clips" as the left call them.
Criminals are known for strictly obeying "laws" that are passed.
Maybe someday we will make murder illegal, and then we wont have to worry about being killed anymore!!!! ( I am soooo writing my reps to get on this serious "murder" issue!!)

Yomammy, so people don't agree with you but don't worry. There are still some of us who support you in Woodbury.

News flash, "Yo mammy accidently kills best friend with his assault rifle , his next best friend, mistakenly thinking he was an intruder. He just stopped by , he said, to drop off some hollow points I asked for. I will put them to good use the next time I shoot my, new best friend, my assault rifle, he elaborated.

Dick posted another blog today: http://patch.com/B-cHGC

Let's keep it clean everyone. No person attacks please. See our terms of use: http://woodbury.patch.com/terms

yomammy rocks.