The thing about the US is it's all about where you live. Some places you live, you're going to feel unsafe, and other areas, you will feel totally safe (maybe too safe). This country is so expansive with so many types of areas to live in, that you can't really lump them all together.

This is craziness.

Huckabee: Schools "Become A Place Of Carnage" When "We Systematically Remove God"

http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/12/1 ... hen/191864

HUCKABEE: Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. We ask why there is violence in our schools but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? Because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability -- that we're not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment. If we don't believe that, then we don't fear that. And so I sometimes, when people say, why did God let it happen. You know, God wasn't armed. He didn't go to the school. But God will be there in the form of a lot people with hugs and with therapy and a whole lot of ways in which I think he will be involved in the aftermath. Maybe we ought to let him in on the front end and we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it's all said and done at the back end.

The answer to crazy people with guns is more guns? I do not get this response. To me it screams of blinders on. How about we try for a change in our culture and attack the root instead of further weaponizing and arming our schools.

I agree with this. I give people a hard time when they try and label California as one thing let alone our entire country.

In Italy the presence of cops is way lower than ours and even with the mafia influence the murder rate is 1/4 of America's. How do you breed that culture in the United States? What is driving us to these acts of mass violence?

I think it's the food. After eating italian food, I don't even want to move let alone go kill someone

Europe came out of world war II horrified by violence. Speaking with the Germans in my courses they all say that non-violence is preached to the point of being overkill. The Italian constitution was modified to ban war. When I took about dropping bombs in Afghanistan the reaction is people wincing at the idea.

Totally different mindset developed in the arc of 60'ish years.

I posted this in the other thread but realized it's more relevant to this topic:

I do think you should have to take a safety class and pass a mental evaluation to own a firearm, but guns are not the problem, sick people are. People who attack others do so with what is available, if a gun isn't then they will just attack with knives or whatever else they have. Stopping crazy people is what we need to work on, because there will always be the human mind there to figure out how to hurt someone with what they have available to them. I also agree with having a police officer on duty at all schools. There were always four Sheriff deputies on duty on my high school campus at one school, and at the other high school I attended they had police cadets and police officers on campus at all times. And thinking back on it now, neither my middle school or elementary schools ever had police.



And it's not just America that has violence against children at schools. Norway, Russia, China spring to mind immediately but I bet you every country on Earth has had terrible and senseless violence like school shootings or bombings.

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"Are we rockin' and rollin' or what?!''

-- Seattle coach Pete Carroll, celebrating with his coaches after the Seahawks pulled off a trade with the Jets, netting running back Leon Washington on Saturday, via Seahawks.com

Every teacher should be armed? Do you really think all teachers are capable of shooting another human being? And who pays for the the guns, ammo, and 'customized small arms training? We have enough trouble now funding our schools and finding decent teachers!

Since you feel it's sooooo easy to get into a fire fight, may I ask how many people you have shot?

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If you're walking on thin ice, you might as well dance.................................................Mom

I feel you on this. And for that I am thankful to live in Washington state.

My childhood/teen years involved living in Florida and then moving to Washington. Later, 2 years in Vancouver where I went to grad school and now I am in Arizona quite a bit for work.

I truely feel that ideologies are a lot more similar regionally (nortwest) tha n they are nationally.

Just from my experience Washington feels a lot more like Canada than it does Florida or Arizona, and that is a good thing. The breakdown, from my experiences, felt like:

British Columbia
Washington


Florida



Arizona (this place just feels "off")

Bri

I didn't say the suggestion would ever actually happen. Do I think all teachers are capable of it? No, but I'd be willing to bet those that would pass a program as I mentioned, most (as in, over half) would be able to. So, if you have say, 5 other classrooms in easy earshot of a gunman that has started firing, the chances are good that at least one of them would act.

Also, you sound kind of stupid when you say that I feel it's "sooooo easy to get into a fire fight". I never said, nor implied that. Also, I've shot zero people. I've been shot, but never shot anyone. I don't think I'd have a problem doing so under circumstances even close to what happened in Connecticut today, but one never knows for certain until they're in that situation.

As far as who pays for it, I think most Americans would be fine with paying a good deal more in taxes for schools if we actually made our education system not suck total ass.

The fact of the matter is most people, armed or not, will run away from a fire fight, rather than jump in.

I also believe most Americans would bitch about paying more taxes for armed teachers. We already miss people who could be great public school teachers because the pay is only average. Now you want them to be commandos too? Please, be realistic.

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If you're walking on thin ice, you might as well dance.................................................Mom

WTF???

I'm a teacher (in a different country, granted) and find this idea absolutely abhorrent. Elementary and kindergarten teachers need to learn to kill people as part of their job spec? I sure as hell wouldn't sign up for that.

And also, what type of halfwit puts a load of loaded guns in a school (ie in the vicinity of children) on the infintesimal chance that some tragic event like today's happens?

My personal opinion is that I agree that more must be done to recognise and address mental health issues, but that many young men (mostly) in other countries have similar problems yet don't often get hold a gun and take out a whole lot of innocent people before killing themselves. My suspicion is that due to a lack of access to firearms that these people probably tend to kill themselves without killing anyone else. I don't know anybody apart from a couple of farmers who own guns. Nobody. And in the 3 countries I've lived in gun crime, especially involving schools/mass killings etc is relatively rare.

Criminals will always be able to get guns if they want them, but I think that they are less likely to kill innocent victims than they are other criminals if they were to use them. I personally doubt that many of these disturbed young men who've committed these school/shopping mall shootings would have actively approached criminals in order to buy themselves a gun. Some would, I'm sure, but I doubt it would have been many.

I really don't know how there is even an argument about whether shootings are more commonplace due to a lack of gun control legislation.

Gun control will not stop gun crime, but I'm pretty sure it would reduce it.

Really. The constitution says "the right to keep and bear arms" this was written in 1776, long before the advent of anything but a single hand loaded shell.

Now, with the modern use of firearms employing scopes, night vision, semi and automatic, special tactics,
saturday night specials, sawed off shotguns, personal permits to carry these weapons anywhere you go.

It was not even envisioned in the constitution. So, as long as it says it is ok, it is ok. Wrong to me, but what the fuck?.....I don't own guns, I hate them and I have very little respect for people that "need" them for protection.

Way too many guns have been manufactured for too long. If a law was passed today stopping all manufacturing of guns, the amount still out there would not stop anyone that wanted to get one from getting one.

We will NEVER solve this. Unless the Mayans were right, then it won't matter anyway.

Roland's solution to gun safety is that everyone has one.

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

That's funny... except you're wrong.

Homicides per 100,000 citizens:

United States: 4.4
UK: 1.2
France: 1.1
Japan: 0.3


Facts are a bitch.

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

If a guy is gonna freak out and kill a bunch of people...he'll do it.

Murder happens. Lets just deal with it and move on. We can spend all this time and money and energy playing captain hindsight and figuring out how we can prevent shit from happening in the future...or we could spend our resources trying to be better people and continuing to work hard and generate wealth and fulfill each others needs.

FWIW, the homicide rate in the US is actually pretty low.

It's 4x other advanced countries with stricter gun control laws.

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

You don't wanna go down this road.

You can show examples of countries that have low homicide rates with stricter gun laws, but I can show you countries that have much higher homicide rates with stricter gun laws. Without looking it up, Mexico and Russia come to mind.

Also, those countries don't have the same protection against unreasonable search and seizure that we do.

Funny how liberals flat-out dismiss this sort of statement when attacking the Patriot Act, but use it to their advantage when advocating gun control.

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Who do you think we're more like as a country... the UK or Mexico and Russia?

Do you think Mexico would be better off with... looser gun laws?

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012