Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Dennis Henigan on the Ohio Shooting





Let's face it. Chardon happened not because an Ohio teenager was so troubled that he became violent. Chardon happened because a troubled, violent Ohio teenager was able to get access to a gun.

Remove the gun from the equation and there may have been a violent incident involving T.J. Lane. But it is doubtful that three young people would have died and two been seriously injured. The nature and scope of the Chardon tragedy was determined by the nature and lethality of the weapon.
Gun availability, that's the problem.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

12 comments:

  1. "Let's face it. Chardon happened not because an Ohio teenager was so troubled that he became violent. Chardon happened because a troubled, violent Ohio teenager was able to get access to a gun."

    No, millions of kids did not steal a gun and commit murder that day. It is the nutcase that is the problem. Kids have had greater access to guns for decades yet kids killing their classmates at random is a new phenomenon.

    If access to guns were the actual reason, then there would have been hundreds of these killings when kids could walk into any hardware or Sears store and buy a rifle.

    I am afraid there is something a lot more troubling at work in our society that blaming the tool will not cure.

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    1. That's not necessarily true FWM. That's your interpretation of the history which supports your pre-conceived and self-justifying decision about guns.

      The argument that millions of kids did not do this on the day this kid, and maybe a couple of others, did, is bullshit. It's happening too often and with simple cooperation on the part of gun owners it could happen less.

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  2. Give these violent individuals baseball bats or knives instead of guns and everything changes.

    He says nothing about intervention or prevention, just change the murder weapon and it's all better. It's ok if only two people die instead of three. That's a true class act right there.

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    1. Bill, multiple killings rarely happen with weapons other than guns. Don't bother to list some noteworthy exceptions, they are anecdotal. Guns make killing too easy and they need to be better controlled.

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    2. And your reporting is anecdotal. Our point is that the numbers don't add up to justifying your proposals.

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    3. What numbers, what proposals? The hundreds of people who are shot each day? The requirement that we require background checks on ALL gun sales?

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  3. FatWhiteMan has it right. Guns have been available for a long time, and yet, events like this happen only rarely. In this school year, there are some fifty million high school students. Let's see if the gun grabbing side can perform basic maths.

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    1. It's happening too often, I don't care if you divide by all the stars in the known universe, it's still too many.

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    2. Too many for what? Too many to allow private citizens to own a gun? That's really what you mean, and we disagree.

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  4. It speaks to their relevance that a news aggregation site is the main outlet of the gun banners these days.

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    1. It is kinda funny. They are doing the job that MikeB is trying to do... only better.

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    2. That's right. That's why I quote them.

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