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Re: [OM] Too close to home

Subject: Re: [OM] Too close to home
From: <r.burnette@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2013 3:45:39 -0500
Cc: Tina Manley <images@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Tina:

You know your family best, but your extrapolation to the larger population is 
faulty. Numerous studies have shown that communities where gun ownership is 
legal are actually safer than those where they are banned. Ever compare the 
crime rates of Detroit and New York City with the crime rate in Birmingham or 
Tallahassee? Gun ownership over the past ten years is higher than any time 
since the wild west era, yet FBI statistics show the crime rate actually 
dropping over that period. 

Most of the Concealed Weapons Permit carriers are not gun "nuts." (A few are!) 
As a rule, law-Abiding people don't commit crimes. Many CCW or CDW holders are 
people who recognize the inability of police officers to prevent most crimes. 
As a former military policeman and police officer, I am all too aware that in 
the majority of the cases, law enforcement personnel usually arrive on the 
scene after a crime has been committed, as in the case of all the recent mass 
shootings. FYI--the Supreme Court has ruled that police have no legal 
obligation to protect any given individual or group. They have a 
"responsibility to the community" in general.  The responsibility for personal 
and family protection is up to the individual. 

Are the armed citizen's that trouble you making something out of nothing, or do 
they have reason to be alarmed? Anyone who does not recognize that the moral 
underpinnings and subsequent moral behaviors of our citizens have taken a 
drastic turn for the worse in the past 25 years or so has been living under a 
rock somewhere. Even the rural communities are no longer totally safe from 
violent crimes (often drug-related). Any society that could murder 53,000,000+ 
unborn children since Roe V. Wade has lost both reverence and respect for life. 
Self-centered, immoral attitudes are the real root of the gun violence, and all 
other forms of violence, in our nation. We just don't want to acknowledge it.

We need to stop blaming the weapons used to harm people and start concentrating 
more on the morals and the motives that create and propagate misuse of them. It 
is true that guns don't kill people. but people with guns kill people. As do 
people with clubs, knives, stones, automobiles, etc. More people are killed 
with automobiles every year than with guns. Why don't we ban automobiles? We 
need to stop focussing on the means and shift our focus to the people 
committing the violence and the reasons why they do so. (Morals and motives.) 
What fosters such behaviors? Is it our moral climate? The media? Our world 
views? What? 

You know the pro-gun arguments. Gun bans effect only law-abiding citizens, the 
ones who would not misuse them anyway. (Most revocations of concealed weapons 
permits are due to domestic disputes and DUIs. Less than 2% nationwide commit 
crimes involving guns.) Every reasonable person knows that criminals are not 
going to comply with a gun ban. They do not obey laws. That's why we call them 
criminals. And gun bans do not eliminate or curb criminal behaviors. Look at 
Australia, Canada, and England for example. Their crime rates, including gun 
violence, increased after their gun bans.

My advice to those who don't like or are afraid of gun: Don't buy one or own 
one. Don't attempt to force your biases upon law-abiding citizens who hold 
different opinions. 

As for assault-type weapons. We have taught our citizens to use them in our 
military forces. They are familiar with them. In many cases their lives have 
depended upon them.  In my day, anyone who wanted a rifle for hunting or 
defense would have bought a bolt-action or an semi-automatic rifle. Today many 
are purchasing what they trained with--an AR-15. Does that mean that they have 
secret plans or ambitions to shoot up their neighborhoods, or that they want a 
weapon that they know and can trust?

Does anyone really need a high capacity magazine for a weapon. Not 
really--until you really need the extra ammunition. Then you need all the 
firepower you can get. That's why so many law enforcement agents now have 
assault-type weapons with high capacity magazines. They are just being prepared 
for a worse case scenario. So are those civilians who purchase such--with the 
fervent hope that they will never have to use them.

As for your bow and arrow--before guns were invented, people killed each other 
with arrows (or hatchets, or knives). As for me, I would never take a bow and 
arrow to a gun fight.  ;o)

Just my two cents tossed into the jar.

Robert

---- Tina Manley <images@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> As a resident of the southern USA, I can say that, as much as I would like
> for that to happen, it will never be.  There are too many gun nuts here who
> think that any infringement on the right to bear any arms is violating
> their rights.  Automatic machine guns, multi-shot clips, hand-guns,
> anything should be allowed and we should all have them to defend ourselves.
>  It's too depressing.  Every time we visit our relatives in Alabama, I say
> it will be the last time.  This is a typical family scene as they pass
> around loaded guns at the dinner table:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/152934358
> 
> I don't know what the answer is, but I would just as soon not have any guns
> at all for any reason.  If we need to shoot deer, we could use bows and
> arrows.  Do away with guns totally.
> 
> Tina
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 8:28 PM, John Hudson <OM4T@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > This will be an everlasting problem until such time as the 2nd Amendment is
> > completely done away with !
> >
> > jh
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ken Norton" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 8:32 PM
> > Subject: [OM] Too close to home
> >
> >
> > > Today's school shooting was at the high school that my daughters would
> > > have gone to if I didn't come back to Iowa.
> > >
> > > Just sayin...
> > >
--
> > > Ken Norton
> > > ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > > http://www.zone-10.com
> > > --
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> >
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> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tina Manley
> http:// <http://tina-manley.artistwebsites.com/>www.tinamanley.com
> -- 
> _________________________________________________________________
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> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
> 

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