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Editorial: The Newton, CT, Shooting

12/16/2012

7 Comments

 
By now I'm sure all of you have heard about the 20-year-old man who took his mother's high-powered assault gun, killing her, and then going to an elementary school in Newton, CT, and killing 20 little kids and several adults.

Pundits and talking heads on TV, radio, and the Internet, and the president himself, have noted that this goes on far too often in this country. We keep asking about the solution and the cause. I may be oversimplifying things, but I would propose two things be done right away.

1) The shooters in all the cases that have come about this and other years were all emotionally or mentally disturbed. Our "wise" government has repeatedly chosen to cut mental health care and counseling services, leaving these people with nowhere to turn for much-needed help. The result is that we now have more people who are not in their right minds wandering the streets and committing crimes, hurting themselves and others, winding up in already-crowded prisons or in hospitals. Let us restore funding for these services to what they were back in the 1980s and before.

2) Guns. The U.S. Constitution provides rights for us to bear arms "in a well-regulated militia." This is to protect ourselves from the possibility of hostile attacks where no immediate government help was available (back then, I think they were thinking of native attacks or possibly British invasions on unprotected territories) and against our own government should it become despotic (almost there, by the way). Also, the Founding Fathers would never have conceived of the advanced weaponry we have these days that is capable of shooting hundreds of rounds per minute. They had muskets.

The solution is not to take weapons out of citizens' hands. The solution is to regulate weapons better. Why did this shooter's mom own military-style guns? Adam Lanza had tried to buy a rifle at a sporting goods store but was turned away, so he just stole his mom's gun, which became the weapon that killed her. While the law prevented Adam from getting a gun himself, a law should be in place where entire households should not have guns should one or more family members not be eligible to possess one themselves. In other words, to get a gun license, every occupant of the household must also qualify, even if they do not plan to use the weapon.

Private citizens should not possess guns that even police officers don't go near. Single-shot rifles for hunting and possibly home defense should be enough. Australia is one country that bans automatic weapons from being privately owned. When was the last time you heard of a mass-shooting in Australia? That's right, never.

A Congresswoman recently made a good point: she noted we regulate things like food and cigarettes and liquor for the protection of citizens. Why don't we do the same for guns? Adam Lanza was not even old enough to legally drink, yet he could get his hands on a weapon a terrorist would enjoy.

You cannot protect the world from itself, but our "leaders" need to screw their heads on straight and realize that the "right to bear arms" is not a blank check to do whatever we want with them. They assumed we would be wise enough to put some regulations on gun ownership. Guess they were wrong.

We have a lot of dead, innocent kids on our hands now. It's not just Adam's fault or his mom's fault. It is the fault of a society that is crazy for guns, that glamorizes violence, and that refuses to help those in need and stigmatizes them as "moochers."

Papabear
7 Comments
Dumarsi
12/16/2012 01:32:14 am

I agree with you entirely here..

Reply
Nivis
12/16/2012 03:57:23 am

Where I sligtly disagree is when you said to remove the right of the family to have a "fire arm" is 1 member is not eligible...

If the US government go that way, you can be sure there will be a other "clinton gun ban" like (probably worst)... If that idea pass the Citizen will have to "fight" to get this right that is in YOUR CONSTITUTION.

NB: Cliton gun ban did NOTHING of what it was supposed to do (reduce crime).

I'm more toward EDUCATION before "regulated"...

To tackle the issue at hand... How in the **** the young one got access to the weapon in the first place?!!? Here in Canada, the weapons must have 2 locks (at least), 1 on the "safe / container" and 1 on the trigger. And that's the MINIMUM you need to have... (I talking about hunting and low power hand guns; what have been used is at the other spectrum).

The new era doesn't have no respect for firearms... the PARENTS do NOT educated their children anymore (on most subjects sadly).

Here in Canada just to have the POSSIBILITY to own a firearm you need to pass a course, can be easily done if you study. Then you CAN TRY to get an firearm (talking about hunting and low power SEMI AUTO pistol). To get some of the "better stuff" (ALWAYS semi Auto) you need to pass a second permit (special weapons) that is a lot more strict then the first one.

Results, only 2 kinds of shoot out like we're talking about in many years...

My point is EDUCATION is KEY, I see the result with 1 children of a Ex Military officer I know. Trust me she was only handling a PAINTBALL pistol and most of the time she was checking where her muzzle was, safety and so on. When I see adult not doing it ...

I digress and I think I've made my point.

Reply
Papabear
12/16/2012 11:24:52 am

Education, eh? Well, Adam's mother was quite an expert on guns and taught her boy how to use them. THAT kind of education? He was able to use a gun well enough to kill dozens of innocent people.

America is very different from Canada. Here, you can leave a loaded gun with the safety off lying around your house if you want to. You don't need more than one permit for a gun, either.

Sounds like Canada has better regulations--the result, as you note, less violence. How can you be against regulation if it is shown to be effective? Maybe President Clinton's efforts were not done the right way and that's why they didn't work as well as they do in places like Canada and Australia.

Reply
Nivis
12/16/2012 07:43:17 pm

Papabear calm down a little and read the way you do when you read a letter for your collum.... You read at the first level instead of reading also between the lines...

Education is how to you use and WHEN / FOR WHAT PURPOSE; see it as a whole.

I was pointing clinton gun ban as a example of what YOUR gouvernement could do. Remember that YOU said that your gouvernement was nearly "despotism"... What better way to control a country then to "disarm" it...

A simple steps that could be done is mainly to change the way weapons are stored, that would be a good start.

In Canada, cannot say anything about Australia, it's NOT in our constitution to have a weapon. We are not a "weapon" oriented country and so on. This is a HUGE factor toward the fact we don't have the situation that started this discussion. Because of all this It's nearly impossible to make parallel between the 2 country at this level.

In summary I agree for a better "control" but drastic thing will not help in the short / middle run. Simply because it will not tackle the source of the issue.

papabear
12/17/2012 01:13:43 am

Hi, Nivis,

Yes, there are all kinds of education. Point is I don't think education would prevent a crazy person from killing. Also, as you point out, Canada does not allow guns like the U.S. does, and yet the government has not become despotic.

I am not against guns for citizens. I am against unnecessarily nasty guns meant for military purposes, not for things like hunting and protecting one's home, which are really the only reasons an American should have a gun. I am not in favor of "drastic" gun control (meaning taking all guns from citizens), I am for safe and sane policies, combined with reinstating budgets for mental health in this country back to 1970s levels before Reagan started cutting them.

Thanks!

Reply
Nivis
12/17/2012 02:26:44 am

Hi PapaBear,

That's more something I can say that I agree.

Just for the "fun" of it, how can you tell somebody need mental help without having them consult...

True that mental help budget increase will help a good lot of peoples but I doubt it will prevent this kind of incident to appear again. Not until the society decide to take action to prevent those in the first place.

Thanks for the argumentation, I'm happy that this discussion gone back to a more "friendly" tone.

Take care,

Reply
papabear
12/17/2012 04:32:28 am

Hi, Nivis,

Wasn't being unfriendly before, just emphatic. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Would be interested in what you feel a sound federal policy would be to prevent these incidents in the future.

Cheers,
Papabear




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