GREAT speech by President Obama tonight, from Newtown, CT (Al Gore, regular, weapons)
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He's still giving the speech now, as I type this. But I am greatly moved by what he said.
There was the usual fluff, the slow-motion enunciation, the downcast eyes, the chewing of the lower lip. I was eerily reminded of an odd blend of Al Gore and Bill Clinton.
But that aside, the SUBSTANCE of the speech is what made me pay attention. The President asked if he (and we) in good conscience could wait any longer before "doing something about this", referrring of course to the horrible shootings at the elementary school in Newtown, and he also mentioned other shootings in Aurora, and Columbine High School.
Bravo, Mr. President. I fully agree, and support what you said. We cannot wait any longer, and Government *must* do what it can to reduce or stop such horrors from happening any longer.
We have seen the things that have been tried so far. Gun-free zones - a complete failure. Nearly every such shooting has taken place in exactly such "gun-free zone". In fact, there is reason to believe the shooters planned it that way, knowing their victims had been disarmed in advance, and were unlikely to shoot back. Assault-weapons bans - another failure. We had one in place for upwards of ten years. How many of these mass shootings took place while it was in effect? Cities and states have also had restrictions on such "assault weapns", however vaguely defined or undefined. And these are exactly the places where, time and again, these shootings took place. They have likewise been a complete failure.
And in this latest horrific mass murder, what was the only thing that prevented it from being EVEN WORSE? Many news outlets have pointed out the answer. This insane whacko had some ten or fifteen minutes in that room with those terrified, screaming children - time enough to walk up to each one, the medical examinerts have said, and shoot them at point-blank range, more than once, and ensure they were DEAD. Have you noticed how few "wounded" there were? This guy was able to shoot virtually EVERY victim, and KEEP shooting them, until they were DEAD.
And, some authorities have said, he might well have gone on to shoot others, except for one thing that finally occurred: Men with guns showed up to stop him. When he saw they had arrived (however belatedly), only then did he stop firing at the small innocent children. And he turned his gun on himself. And the slaughter finally ended. Due entirely to the arrival of men with guns.
But before that happened, he had a relatively long time, during which NO ONE AROUND HIM HAD A GUN. And he knew it. And he used that time, to leisurely kill 27 people.
Mr. President, THANK YOU for finally taking the gloves off. As you said, it is clear that we can no longer continue to let what has gone on far too long, to continue. It is time for government to act. Thank you for bringing up this hard, harsh reality. Because ignoring it, and letting things go on as they have for so many years, only lets these horrors continue. Nothing could be clearer, especially now, with the bodies of those twenty small children and seven adults barely cool.
It is time to engender safer surroundings for our children - the kind of surroundings so callously denied them by for 10-15 horror-filled minutes that morning a few days ago, when a crazed lunatic had time to mercilessly gun down AN ENTIRE CLASSROOM full of our most precious and innocent, knowing no one could stop him. Thos useless "gun free zones" that gave the lunatic the assurance he wanted, must end. The worthless "assault weapons bans" that did nothing to prevent other such horror-filled times, must be swept aside.
Thank you, Mr. President, for declaring that now, finally we must do something that WORKS. These insane, murderous wretches must be denied the assurance that law-abiding people will be disarmed and left helpless before them. Obviously these insane freaks are not afraid to die themselves - this latest one calmly took his own life, and clearly planned to do it from the very beginning, and many of the other insane freaks have done. And just as clearly, this insane freak wanted to rack up a huge enough body count, commit such a horrible crime, that he would be assured of weeks of gory headlines, moths of bloodcurdling reports and analyses and hand-wringing on a nationwide scale, far more than he could hope to get by "merely" shooting one or two people. Ne needed the time and opportunity to shoot a LOT of people before taking his own life... and we gave it to him.
No more.
Mr. President, as you said so eloquently tonight, we can't let this go on. We must do the only thing that PREVENTS such insane murderers from getting the lurid headlines and infamous legacy they so desire. We must let any responsible persons at these most precious repositories of our most precious children, arm themselves if they so desire, and make themselves ready to deny people like this mass murderer the fame he seeks, before or after his own death.
The benefits are multiple, and the risks... well, how can the risks be any worse than the ones you so eloquently described tonight? Insens murderers like the Newtown shooter must be aware that, if/when they start on their horrible rampages, they will NOT have 10-15 minute to rack up their headline-making body counts before responsible people with guns show up. Instead, they have only seconds... not nearly enough time to methodically walk up to child after child and deliver multiple, carefully spaced shots into their terrified, pleading faces.
These insane murderers know that people with guns are right there, inside the same locked gates they themselves forced their way through. And the murderer must know that a bullt that will end his rampage is only seconds away... and might come from any of the people outside (or even inside) the classroom he is in. Most people at the school will still not be armed, of course. But a few will be... and he will have no idea which ones they are, nor what direction the bullet might come from. Only that it will come... and QUICKLY, not after 10 or 15 minutes.
Mr. President, thank you for your decision to not let the status quo remain. Thank you for finally deciding to change course, and do what will finally WORK. Thank youu most of all, for deciding to set up a situation where these insane murderers know, BEFORE THEY EVEN START, that their dreams of luring, workld-gripping headlines will never materialize. These insane murderers are obviously unafraid of dying. But finally we will be able to deny them what they DO want: Horrible, infamous fame, even in death.
These murderers are undeniably insane... but they still have enough cognizance left to plan how to get through locked gates, plan to accumulate and bring enough weapons and ammunition to do what they set out to do, etc. And they clearly have enough sanity, however fleeting, to know what they want, and to make elaborate plans to get it... and to react when they find it is not possible any more. And there is a reasonable chance that, even as insane as they obvuiously are, they might decide that since they will be unable to kill the dozens of people they want to... perhaps they should no longer bother to try. And maybe they should simply turn the gun on themselves in the few second we have left them, instead of taking away our most precious.
Thank you, Mr. President for finally deciding to change course. Thank you for deciding we have had enough of "responses" that have not worked. Thank you for declaring to the nation, in the moment of our greatest grief and outrage, that we will change course and do soemthig that reduces or PREVENTS these rare, insane whackos from doing these things to us.
I await your efforts to campaign against, sweep aside, and repeal the useless, unworkable schemes of the past, which have failed so regularly while our precious children keep dying in these horrible massacres they did nothing to prevent. Thank you for working to get rid of laws that disarm the only people who can save us from these monsterswho would murder us. Thank you for finally providing what the authors of the 2nd amendment knew all along: that ordinary, law-abiding Ameican citizens are the last - and indeed the only - real defense against the insane monsters in our midst. Thank you for repealing things like "may issue" restrictions that keep our only real defenders from helping us. Thank you for pledging to sweep away paranoid gun bans in cities like New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, and your own native Chicago that disarm only the innocent victims while the insane murderers go right on arming themselves and killing us and our children.
Even after you sweep aside these restrictions on our defending ourselves, you know and we know that most of us will still not bother arming ourselves in our everyday comings and goings. But a few of us will... and the occasional insane monsters lurking among us, will never know which ones we are. And this very knowledge may be enough to stop some of them from doing their horrible deeds. For the few that are still insane enough to try anyway, these new provisions will ensure that the insane ones will be kept busy enough - and soon, wounded or incapacitated quickly enough - to reduce the body count from dozens to far smaller numbers. Still horrible, but not as horrible as what happened where you are presently giving your speech: The elementary school in Newtown, CT where 20 precious children lie dead along with 7 adults who tried to save them. But could not, in part due to the very laws that we must now acknowledge did far more harm than good.
Thank you, Mr. President. I admire your courage in this change in course. And I fully support your efforts to get rid of the laws that have allowed so many massacres to continue... but hopefully will not longer be allowed to do so.
Let no great speech stand in the way of bloviating insanity on the part of the nutburger right-wing.
TRANSLATION: I can't refute anything the OP said, but I hate it anyway, so I'll attack him personally instead, call him names, and try to pretend there was something wrong with his post, and hope somebody believes me instead of him.
That phony b@stard cares nothing about the shooting, he is still campaigning, trying to make people like him so he can push his evil agenda. What he likes is American body count, he like watching good American's die, usually on closed circuit.
The man is maniacal, he has no heart..
Plus, he screwed up the start of the football game with his lies...
If I was a big gun supporter, I think I'd be REALLY, REALLY quiet about now.
I think any sane person would re-examine their position in light of these lives snuffed out much too soon. I live in Connecticut. I grew up about 15 minutes from Sandy Hook. A childhood friend's wife teaches at this school. I'm glad the OP from San Diego, California feels this is the opportunity to seize to push his/her pro-gun (and apparently pro-death agenda). I feel like it's time to reflect a reevaluate.
Bloviating insanity is right. Not to mention extremely poor taste.
That phony b@stard cares nothing about the shooting, he is still campaigning, trying to make people like him so he can push his evil agenda. What he likes is American body count, he like watching good American's die, usually on closed circuit.
The man is maniacal, he has no heart..
Plus, he screwed up the start of the football game with his lies...
Jesus. OH NOES NOT YOUR FOOTBALL GAME TO ADDRESS THE FACT THAT A BUNCH OF FIVE YEAR OLDS WERE SLAUGHTERED YOU ARE SO RIGHT TO BE SO UPSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TRANSLATION: I can't refute anything the OP said, but I hate it anyway, so I'll attack him personally instead, call him names, and try to pretend there was something wrong with his post, and hope somebody believes me instead of him.
You didn't say anything, you plagiarized what someone else wrote and did not provide a link to it.
Typical wingnut behavior, to say nothing of your predictable pro-gun nuttery.
If I was a big gun supporter, I think I'd be REALLY, REALLY quiet about now.
.
You mean we should stay quiet and not question like we were expected to do after 9/11 less we be called unpatriotic and a wussy toward terrorists. The problem with that under emotional distress after the incident and later into a super charged atmosphere of patriot correctness laws and responses to 9/11 were allowed to be pushed which later was realized to be not thought out in the long term.
Obama is a homicidal maniac, nothing to be learned from him.
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