How to reduce the toll from US gun violence

[nebula]

How to reduce the toll from US gun violence

16:30 20 December 2012 by Peter Aldhous

<snip>

While political rhetoric focuses on gun control, the strongest evidence comes from community-based law enforcement. Best studied are the "focused deterrence" strategies promoted by the National Network for Safe Communities. These involve police and community leaders meeting with the criminal groups – not necessarily formal gangs – that in many cities are responsible for more than half of all gun violence.

These encounters deliver a clear message: "We know who you are; we're not going to tolerate what you're doing, and here's what will happen if you don't clean up your act." Help is also offered to street criminals who want to change their ways.

In Boston, where the approach was pioneered in the 1990s, "Operation Ceasefire" was credited with a 63 per cent reduction in youth homicides. Similar efforts have spread to several dozen other US cities. Of 10 rigorous studies of their effectiveness, nine show statistically significant reductions in crime (Campbell Systematic Reviews, doi.org/j3d).

Full article here

[rjp34652]

The entire issue of gun control is a distraction, like the sort of thing used by sleight of hand magicians, con artists and the US government. Apart from America becoming a nation of God haters, the social issue at hand is Mental Health Care.

We have abandoned social programs on a massive scale including but not limited to mental health.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. King uttered those words in 1966. At the time the nation was fast approaching a crossroads in morality spirituality and government power. That point has been long passed and America is now a nation under divine judgment. We have abandoned, on a national level, all mercy and kindness and sense of duty toward the aged and infirm. Like 1930s Germany, America is now using its remaining financial resources to fund war, to support defense contractors and the financial cartel.

Mental health is the primary medical and social issue that led to the Sandy Hook tragedy. To this day, NO ONE is addressing it - not even considering that this is one of the contributing factors. Long before the gun man pulled the trigger something went wrong with his thinking. Those around him knew it. That's the worst part. Yet nothing was done and his life, which might have been a productive one, was snuffed out along with twenty innocents and six heros.

The weeping for our national sins has only just begun.

but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

[gdemoss]

The thinking that mental health can ever be addressed properly without Christ is error as Christ is the answer. Reducing the toll from gun violence is rooted in the propagation of the true Gospel of Christ which is the ministering of the Spirit of God unto the people who hear it. Upon receiving the Gospel and learning how to walk with God, pleasing him alone, people will have their minds established where they do not do such wicked things.

As it is written, Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. And the Scripture cannot be broken. I once had a mind fully capable of doing violent things unto others and a gun in my hand would have been disastrous. After receiving and learning to walk in Christ, a gun in my hand simply might mean dinner for my family instead. Their is a spirit that is in the world which has also invaded the church buildings around the globe. That spirit moves men and women, even those who claim Christ though they know him not, to do wickedly and will continue to do so until Christ return.

I do all I can to reduce gun violence in my life. I preach the Word being instant in season and out of season. I explain to the ignorant that there is a God and they can partake in the divine nature through the receipt of His Holy Spirit and direct fellowship with him if they so choose. Only God knows if I have had any affect.

I once shared with a man that relationships were the root of all my troubles. That I needed to simply seek to repair the damage that I had done in them by admitting my part in the matters. I did not know Christ but was studying psychology instead. Everything was based upon my own will to make things right. The man thanked me profusely and set out to make things right in his own broken relationship that he had. That night after trying to make right what he had done wrong and being rejected, he stabbed the one to death who refused to receive his apologies. Christ is the only answer, ever. I wish I had known him then and given the man Christ instead of empty worldly garbage that has no true power backing it up.

[JustinM]

The entire issue of gun control is a distraction, like the sort of thing used by sleight of hand magicians, con artists and the US government. Apart from America becoming a nation of God haters, the social issue at hand is Mental Health Care.

We have abandoned social programs on a massive scale including but not limited to mental health.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. King uttered those words in 1966. At the time the nation was fast approaching a crossroads in morality spirituality and government power. That point has been long passed and America is now a nation under divine judgment. We have abandoned, on a national level, all mercy and kindness and sense of duty toward the aged and infirm. Like 1930s Germany, America is now using its remaining financial resources to fund war, to support defense contractors and the financial cartel.

Mental health is the primary medical and social issue that led to the Sandy Hook tragedy. To this day, NO ONE is addressing it - not even considering that this is one of the contributing factors. Long before the gun man pulled the trigger something went wrong with his thinking. Those around him knew it. That's the worst part. Yet nothing was done and his life, which might have been a productive one, was snuffed out along with twenty innocents and six heros.

The weeping for our national sins has only just begun.

but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

Taking care of the elderly and infirm begins with the family.

Anecdotal: I have a friend here in Korea, who's mother just passed from pancreatic cancer, and who's father is suffering from pancreatic cancer too. My friend spends all day, when not working, to look after and care for her father. She moved in with him so she could provide even greater care of him. She will be there, caring for him, until the day he dies. She does that, because she loves him, and it is the right thing to do. We here, in America have taken everything for granted, freedom, wealth, professional success, Christianity, and importantly, family.

So many families, these days, are too busy to care for their own. They put them in retirement homes, or hospice care (I know sometimes that's the only choice they have). But, if we can't care for our own flesh and blood because we are busy pursuing superficial pleasures, why would we expect our country to be governed any differently?

[Burning_Ember]

This is a multi-faceted problem.

The top three things are the lack of any real mental health system in America, a Culture of Lethality where pulling a gun out can be considered an acceptable solution to a violent confrontation, and a situation where you can get an AR-15 and be able to fire off 30 rounds, or a Semi-Auto Combat Shotgun, or 30 round clips for a pistol, or a 100-round drum magazine.

All of which have been used in mass shootings in the last few years. None of those devices serve any purpose but to kill more people faster. Can't buy them, or any gun for that matter at a retail store? You can easily buy these through private sellers at gun shows or over the internet, even if you say you probably wouldn't pass a background check.

As for mental health in America, it's a broken and more or less non-functional system.

Posting armed guards in every school won't magically save the day in a lot of circumstances either. There was an armed guard at columbine. Virginia Tech had armed Police Officers. Fort Hood was A Military Base and the shooter was confronted by someone armed before the police arrived, and that person got shot.

Even if there was at least one armed Officer in every of the 140,000 schools in America... You can discharge a semi auto rifle at 45-60 rounds a minute. How long does it take to run to the other side of the school?

[Steve_S]

The entire issue of gun control is a distraction, like the sort of thing used by sleight of hand magicians, con artists and the US government. Apart from America becoming a nation of God haters, the social issue at hand is Mental Health Care.

We have abandoned social programs on a massive scale including but not limited to mental health.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. King uttered those words in 1966. At the time the nation was fast approaching a crossroads in morality spirituality and government power. That point has been long passed and America is now a nation under divine judgment. We have abandoned, on a national level, all mercy and kindness and sense of duty toward the aged and infirm. Like 1930s Germany, America is now using its remaining financial resources to fund war, to support defense contractors and the financial cartel.

Mental health is the primary medical and social issue that led to the Sandy Hook tragedy. To this day, NO ONE is addressing it - not even considering that this is one of the contributing factors. Long before the gun man pulled the trigger something went wrong with his thinking. Those around him knew it. That's the worst part. Yet nothing was done and his life, which might have been a productive one, was snuffed out along with twenty innocents and six heros.

The weeping for our national sins has only just begun.

but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

Taking care of the elderly and infirm begins with the family.

Anecdotal: I have a friend here in Korea, who's mother just passed from pancreatic cancer, and who's father is suffering from pancreatic cancer too. My friend spends all day, when not working, to look after and care for her father. She moved in with him so she could provide even greater care of him. She will be there, caring for him, until the day he dies. She does that, because she loves him, and it is the right thing to do. We here, in America have taken everything for granted, freedom, wealth, professional success, Christianity, and importantly, family.

So many families, these days, are too busy to care for their own. They put them in retirement homes, or hospice care (I know sometimes that's the only choice they have). But, if we can't care for our own flesh and blood because we are busy pursuing superficial pleasures, why would we expect our country to be governed any differently?

I don't think this is only the family's fault, though. I think some of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the parents as well. Starting with the baby boomer generation you have a generation of older people who were taught that the government will take care of you when you retire. That disincentivized having a strong connection with their family and children, because prior to the early 20th century in the united states someone's children WERE their retirement plan. The majority of homes had more than two generations living in them, a lot of times even with 4 generations. I think that children who put their parents in homes, etc., are doing what they have been conditioned to do, both by those parents and the state. When you're growing up, most parents send their kids off to school every day, to be taken care of by the state, and they do their own thing during that time period, whether it be work activity or recreational activity. At school the kids take classes that teach them that the state is generally the caretaker of the people in a subtle manner. When those kids hit their 50s and put their parents in a home because they can't completely take care of themselves anymore, I think a lot of them are simply doing what they've been conditioned to do.

[rjp34652]

Taking care of the elderly and infirm begins with the family.

Anecdotal: I have a friend here in Korea, who's mother just passed from pancreatic cancer, and who's father is suffering from pancreatic cancer too. My friend spends all day, when not working, to look after and care for her father. She moved in with him so she could provide even greater care of him. She will be there, caring for him, until the day he dies. She does that, because she loves him, and it is the right thing to do. We here, in America have taken everything for granted, freedom, wealth, professional success, Christianity, and importantly, family.

So many families, these days, are too busy to care for their own. They put them in retirement homes, or hospice care (I know sometimes that's the only choice they have). But, if we can't care for our own flesh and blood because we are busy pursuing superficial pleasures, why would we expect our country to be governed any differently?

I agree. Family responsibility extends to housing, feeding and the care that only relatives can provide. But, and this is a big but, untrained family members do not EVER substitute for trained professional care givers.

Wet nurse care is necessary, but many cases require sophisticated trained experienced care. In the instance of the Sandy Hook murderers, the killers mother attempted to do what she could for her sick son. She failed and paid the price with her own life.

In many cases HOSPICE care is provided in the home. Please note that in the US, a home care family member cannot even enter the date and time of death of a person. Most municipalities require a licensed person to determine death and to document the event.

Professional care is required and necessary to preserve community health and the US government no longer wishes to do its part in providing these basic social services. It's quite good, however, at funding military expeditions that result in murder and property destruction. It's excellent at providing the financial foundations for the richest of the rich, but totally unwilling to cough up money for basic human needs.

One can lay a certain amount of blame on families that discard their children and seniors in the name of selfish interests, but in doing so one must not forget that the government too has a responsibility TO PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON WELFARE as one obsolete US document states.

America stands before God and has been found wanting. Judgment is upon us and until Americans stop making excuses for themselves and waving the bloody flag in hypocritical patriotism the actions of the Most High will become more and more severe. America is a sick society and its high time some old fashioned repentance was recognized as a national panacea.

but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

[rjp34652]

I think some of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the parents as well

Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

You think? Or do you know?

Jesus Is Lord.

This is a true saying and worthy of adoption of all families in America. Except that Americans no longer give a twit about the Bible or the wisdom it imparts. The nation has become a community of God haters, scriptural scoffers and Christian bashers.

And you know it.

When parents aren't able to properly train or care for their children they ought to be able to avail themselves of knowledgeable persons who can help them. For the most part the Federal government is neglecting its social responsibilities. By that, I don't mean the issuance of free lunch and free lodgings and free money. I mean the support of licensed persons and venues for treatment of ailments.

My daughter works in the mental health field and constantly complains about the dwindling amount of funding necessary to help adults live something approaching a normal life. There are millions of people who are partially able to function, but need help in simple things - like balancing their budget, taking medications, etc. Mentally dystunctional people CAN be helped to live a somewhat normal life and to be good contributors to society. It's not about gun control, its about governmental social responsibility. As I've said before, the American government seems to always be able to find enough money to assassinate somebody or to purchase a robot bomber to blow up somebody's house. It is hypocrisy to claim the government doesn't have social responsibility to its own people and to the world at large.

America has largely abandoned all sense of responsibility in all things and that is our sin.

When resource are lacking the community suffers.

but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

[Matthitjah]

This is a multi-faceted problem.

The top three things are the lack of any real mental health system in America, a Culture of Lethality where pulling a gun out can be considered an acceptable solution to a violent confrontation, and a situation where you can get an AR-15 and be able to fire off 30 rounds, or a Semi-Auto Combat Shotgun, or 30 round clips for a pistol, or a 100-round drum magazine.

All of which have been used in mass shootings in the last few years. None of those devices serve any purpose but to kill more people faster. Can't buy them, or any gun for that matter at a retail store? You can easily buy these through private sellers at gun shows or over the internet, even if you say you probably wouldn't pass a background check.

As for mental health in America, it's a broken and more or less non-functional system.

Posting armed guards in every school won't magically save the day in a lot of circumstances either. There was an armed guard at columbine. Virginia Tech had armed Police Officers. Fort Hood was A Military Base and the shooter was confronted by someone armed before the police arrived, and that person got shot.

Even if there was at least one armed Officer in every of the 140,000 schools in America... You can discharge a semi auto rifle at 45-60 rounds a minute. How long does it take to run to the other side of the school?

The reason there is no real mental health care in the U.S. is because in the late 70's the Looney Lefty's passed laws to insure that you could not hold someone against their will, despite their mental state. This also served to create the Homeless problem that we have here which the Left quickly blamed on Ronald Reagan in the early 80's. LOL

There is something else that happened at Fort Hood that most don't know. President Bill Clinton disarmed all Military personell while on base. That is why Fort Hood was a massacre. That and the insane Left demanding protection for Radical Islamists in our midst and denying the absolute satanic evil that is found in that Religion. Fort hood happened because of alot of good people were cowed into Leftist Political Correctness in the culture under which they were employed. Which was the Federal Government, by the way. Isn't the Federal Government supposed to be our only safe haven? LOL All hail the Beast!

[Matthitjah]

I learned something interesting the other night.

Does anyone know why the 45 caliber was invented?

Look into it, you might find yourself as shocked as I was and it puts to silence all these Lefty's rants about Gun control.