WN: Obama: America needs "soul searching" on gun violence - R

[MorningGlory]

On this topic, I'm going to agree with the President. We do need to do a little soul searching, maybe a little figuring out how to better spot trouble in the making, but we don't need more gun laws, just a better application of the ones that are already on the books. Like not allowing one person to buy 100,000 rounds of ammunition and questioning why a citizen needs a rocket propelled grenade launcher (these examples are for illustrative purposes only). Yes, as one of you pointed out, there will always be crazies. The trick is to keep them from killing crowds of people.

Let me ask you this, what happens when we see tattooed skinheads calling for the death of the Jews, blacks, hispanics and their white sympathizers??? We claim that such things are "protected" speech. These people send out red flags all over the place, but we ignore those flags because they have a protected right to voice their bigotry and calls for the elimination of other races. But when one of them acts on thier ideaology and carries out an atrocity, we sit around and wonder what warning signs we missed. I mean, come on.

The fact is that this is not empty rhetoric they are spewing. They mean what they say. They are not playing around. They will kill those of other races and they will act on what they preach. They exploit our freedoms to carry out their bigotry and there needs to be modification of how we apply the first amendment to make it a crime to call for the deaths of any group of people. You can't yell fire in a crowded movie theatre as a joke, you can't threaten people's lives on the Internet or in any other context without facing major prosecution, and you should not be able to use the first amendment as a shield for calling for the deaths of other people in any public venue. We can limit what consitutes protected speech without censoring legitimate protected speech.

There are groups of people who should not be allowed to promote violent ideaology like skinheads do on our soil.

You raise the core question, Shiloh. How do you stop these people from preaching hatred and intolerance when our Constitution guarantees their right to do so? I think the only thing our society CAN do is stop the selling of large quantities of arms and ammunition. That might slow them down and make acquiring these things much harder but I don't believe it would stop them completely. We all need to look at the things that are happening in this country and try to figure out what to do.

[GojuBrian]

MorningGlory,

Your stance is unconstitutional.

You'd have to define 'large quantities'

Arms are already regulated, you see.

[Matthitjah]

On this topic, I'm going to agree with the President. We do need to do a little soul searching, maybe a little figuring out how to better spot trouble in the making, but we don't need more gun laws, just a better application of the ones that are already on the books. Like not allowing one person to buy 100,000 rounds of ammunition and questioning why a citizen needs a rocket propelled grenade launcher (these examples are for illustrative purposes only). Yes, as one of you pointed out, there will always be crazies. The trick is to keep them from killing crowds of people.

I have but one response to that.

Obama has some soul searching to do over his Justice Department refusing to investigate Black Panther thugs intimidating at the election polls last Presidential Election.

Did that not send up red flags?

Why is only gun violence a cause for concern?

[Mark2005]

Anyone come up with a solution?

How do you identify who the next shooter will be or how to keep guns with only the right people? Any ideas?

No matter what solution you come up with, it will never be full proof. There is simply no way that you can ever provide an environment that is free of this kind of thing. We can take measures to reduce it, but never eliminate it altogether.

Oh, I agree. I would suggest that until we learn to see the future, limiting access to weapons --- any kind of weapon --- is a step.

[Burning_Ember]

On this topic, I'm going to agree with the President. We do need to do a little soul searching, maybe a little figuring out how to better spot trouble in the making, but we don't need more gun laws, just a better application of the ones that are already on the books. Like not allowing one person to buy 100,000 rounds of ammunition and questioning why a citizen needs a rocket propelled grenade launcher (these examples are for illustrative purposes only). Yes, as one of you pointed out, there will always be crazies. The trick is to keep them from killing crowds of people.

As examples of gun laws that are not universally applied, background checks. At a gun store, applied. At a gun show? Technically you don't need to run a background check.

If all people purchasing guns required background checks period, that would certainly help.

[Mark2005]

Some of these shooters pass a background check fine because, hey, there has to be a first time for everything. It helps, but still a long way to go.

[Guest shiloh357]

I think what we need to do is hire some of those Israeli personnel that work at EL AL airport terminals. When you go through their terminals they ask you probing questions and because they all have advanced degrees in behavioral science, they pay careful attention to your response and they look you in the eye. That is how they weed out potential threats without embarrassing and invasive pat downs.

We need them at gun stores to ask questions to customers about why they are purchasing this weapon what they intend to do with it and why 7,000 pieces of ammunition are necessary to carry out their plans. We need gun shop personnel that are not afraid to meddle in the affairs of those intending to purchase guns and ask invasive questions.

[Guest shiloh357]

We need a database that tracks someone' gun and ammuntion purchases. I know guys with lots of rifles, but they collected them over a period of 15-20 years. When someone is tracked purchasing say 5 or 6 guns over a 4 week period and seems to be buying an inordinate amount of ammunition.

[Steve_S]

I think what we need to do is hire some of those Israeli personnel that work at EL AL airport terminals. When you go through their terminals they ask you probing questions and because they all have advanced degrees in behavioral science, they pay careful attention to your response and they look you in the eye. That is how they weed out potential threats without embarrassing and invasive pat downs.

We need them at gun stores to ask questions to customers about why they are purchasing this weapon what they intend to do with it and why 7,000 pieces of ammunition are necessary to carry out their plans. We need gun shop personnel that are not afraid to meddle in the affairs of those intending to purchase guns and ask invasive questions.

I'm not sure how this isn't an infringement upon a constitutional right. Realistically, guns aren't going to be banned and even if you have a mandatory ammunition quantity cut off all folks would have to do is go buy smaller amounts at several different places. Pretty much every sporting goods store, every gun store, every wal mart, etc. sells ammunition. So if you'd want to limit that then you'd have to put folks' who bought ammunition's names into a federal database and ID them every time they did it in order to confirm their identity before adding that purchase, which raises all sorts of new constitutional issues. Quite frankly, gun shop personnel are running a business and selling more product equals making more money, anyway, so that line of reason doesn't really flow as a potential pragmatic application anyway.

And if we are going to do it, why stop there? Far more people yearly are killed by drunk drivers than are killed by people who buy 7000 rounds of ammo at a time. Why don't gas station attendants have to run background checks to ensure that the people they're selling gas too don't have a history of drunk driving? Should people have to sign a written statement every time they get their oil changed that they won't text while they're driving? Maybe we should go even farther with it. Should the cashier at McDonald's request medical records to ensure the person they're selling that milk shake doesn't have diabetes?

[other one]

Well, I am for manditory gun laws....... everyone should have one...... or two, and be forced to take classes to safely use them.