Newtown Truthers Follow The NRA’s Playbook

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Newtown Truthers Follow The NRA’s Playbook

January 23rd, 2013 12:00 am Gene Lyons

Conceived in a dream of reason, what the Internet too often reveals is mass credulousness and fathomless irrationality. According to Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald, a video depicting the Newtown, CT elementary school massacre as a government-sponsored hoax has drawn 8.5 million views on YouTube.

No doubt many viewers were drawn by idle curiosity or sheer incredulity. What would “evidence” for so transparently preposterous an allegation consist of? Nevertheless, there appear to be thousands of True Believers.

Try googling “Emilie Parker alive,” to sample the crazy.

Adepts claim that a photograph of a young girl sitting in President Obama’s lap reveals that six-year-old Emilie Parker was not murdered along with 19 classmates at Sandy Hook elementary as reported. Supposedly, the photo reveals a telltale blunder.

In reality, the child in the photograph is Emilie’s little sister, Madeline.

But why go on? There’s plenty more in the same dogged, delusional vein. Debunk one aspect of the conspiracy, and a dozen absurdities replace it. To anybody capable of imagining that staging the Sandy Hook tragedy would even be possible—requiring, as it would, the active cooperation of half the population of Connecticut—mere evidence and logic are beside the point.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. Apart from religion, more Americans appear to be nuts on the subject of guns than all other topics. The National Rifle Association has raised and spent millions in recent years peddling scare stories about President Obama’s secret plan to abolish the Second Amendment, confiscate everybody’s deer rifles and set up a gun-free dictatorship.

Newtown conspiracy theories are only incrementally madder spinoffs of the NRA’s master narrative. Yet its leaders are treated as VIPs in newsrooms and TV studios. Why?

To Believers, guns have become fetish objects in American popular culture, having magical potency. Witness Bushmaster Firearms’ advertising its .223 caliber AR-15—Newtown killer Adam Lanza’s weapon—with the slogan: “Consider your Man Card reissued.”

Viagra ads are more subtle.

Hence conversations with gun cultists tend to be conducted in the dualistic, all-or-nothing terms of fundamentalist theology. Although polls have shown that large majorities of gun owners favor, for example, improved background checks to make it harder for criminals and severely mentally ill people to acquire deadly weapons, cultists see all such legislation in apocalyptic terms. All regulation amounts to total confiscation.

Hollywood’s equally to blame. About half the emails I get on this topic invoke the Red Dawn fantasy, although it’s not foreign communists people imagine taking to the hills to fight. It’s mainly tyrannical US government SWAT teams intent upon seizing their personal arsenals and making them eat arugula that they’re determined to repel by force of arms.

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Tags: Gene Lyons, gun control, gun culture, guns, newtown, Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

The NRA playbook evolves around the Second Amendment, arms industry interests, and the conviction that our society is under constant threat of extermination by nefarious criminals and a government intent on imposing tyrannical rule on them. It feeds on paranoia to advance and protect the interests of their sponsors.
Unfortunately, after decades of not too subtle brainwashing, it is unlikely that much will change. The best we can hope for is a ban on high capacity magazines, more effective background checks, and improvements in mental care from those who oppose not only restrictions on gun ownership, but government sponsored healthcare.
In the meantime, shootings remain the order of the day and will continue unabated regardless of what the government decides because, in the end, the arms complex and the NRA are more powerful than most of our elected officials.

iamhe

The problem is the sociopaths in society, not the firearms…

one needs to deal with the fact that so many people are born into society never able to form a fully functional social conscience. -natural born anti-social personality disorders.

not only can they obtain firearms, worse, they are allowed to hold public office… look at the GOP, it is a magnet for them.

should their rights be limited? should their freedoms and liberty be limited by law?

answer.. yes, Yes, YES!

GOP sociopaths are writing America’s laws…. and are obstructing socially responsible, conscionable agenda.

http://twitter.com/MortAlcoil1 Mort Alcoil

Sorry, you’re wrong, it’s access to firearms that’s the problem. The USA had 9,732 murders by firearms in 2011 (murders, not total gun deaths which is higher).

The next 22 civilized countries in the World, such as Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland etc, had a TOTAL COMBINED of 764 murders by guns.

Think about that for a second. With a combined population of 680 million people in those countries they had 764 murders by gun; the USA had 9,732!! That’s OBSCENE.

Put another way, the USA has a population of 300 million, so lets call it 9,732 gun murders per 300 million, the rest of the civilized World had 336 gun murders per 300 million population.

9,732 : 336 when you equalize for population. Why does the USA have such a MASSIVE tally of gun murders vs. the other 22 countries?

For a start, the USA has a 4.8 per 100,000 general murder rate, compared to the UK at 1.2 per 100,000 and Denmark at 0.9. So the USA has a 4 x higher rate of murder… With 4 X the general murder rate, it has a 29 X GUN murder rate. Why the discrepancy between murder and GUN murder? Easy, it’s GUNS… more appropriately, it’s having far too easy access to guns that’s the problem.

Again: 9,732 gun murders in the USA vs. 764 gun murders COMBINED over the next 22 civilized countries in the World and a 29 X higher gun murder rate.

iamhe

millions of firearms in US society, 9,732 sociopaths got access to firearms, and used them…

The problem is very sick people are able to buy firearms.

the public knows nothing of the natural born sociopath problem in America..

these antisocial personality disorders are enjoying their “freedom and liberty” to be unconscionable.. there is nothing to stop them…

for your own safety it is better to be armed..

http://twitter.com/MortAlcoil1 Mort Alcoil

The more armed you are, the more likely you are to be shot accidentally with your own weapon, commit suicide with it, or have an intruder take it from you and kill you with it. FACT. Look it up.

You addressed NONE of my points above.

The mentally ill are a small part of the whole picture of gun murder in the USA.

You seem smart; tell me what YOUR ideas are to cull this slaughter. 9,732 murders by gun in the USA vs 764 combined on the next 22 civilized countries in the World. What’s the reason??? Are Americans just 29X more mentally ill?
http://profile.yahoo.com/HJIWONQOW4EAYMCA4QH2DDJMBU MARK

Oh no,I have owned guns all my life and now I find that I am in danger of killing myself.Seriously,I think I’ll live with the risk.
http://profile.yahoo.com/HJIWONQOW4EAYMCA4QH2DDJMBU MARK

I forgot to mention that I am no fan of the NRA.
iamhe

there are more firearms in America, with no regulation to keep them out of the hands of those who are born with a genetic/psycho/social, anti-social personality disorder.

these people do not have a functioning social conscience.
grammyjill

Not all those murders were carried out by nutjobs. Alot were pissed off people that thought they could get away with it.
iamhe

thought they could get away with it?

that is a sociopath…

they lack a fully functional conscience…

I suspect your idea of “nutjobs” are the sociopaths with the crazed look.

most sociopaths do not look crazed… most look just like you and I.
grammyjill

hat I was saying is that there are people that shoot other people just cause they got pissed off at them. Not nuts, just mad. And what about the crooks? Are they all nuts too?
iamhe

most of those in prison are sociopaths

all of this is new to you, and I can tell it hast sunk in yet, you don’t get it..

natural born sociopaths have no conscience… and will do unconscionable things….

in your vernacular, a sociopath is a “nut case” and you can’t identify them by what they look like… they are everywhere… possibly as much as 1 in every 25.
iamhe

I suspect your idea of a “nutjob” is the person needs to have the insane crazed look…

I assure you most sociopaths -anti-social personality disorders- people who will never have a fully functioning social conscience… do not have the crazed look, in fact, most of them look just like you and me. You can’t tell by their looks…
http://profile.yahoo.com/XPL7LVHHKZXB3BKEJZNTKRMBYY Susan

Do you have a plan to identify these “natural born sociopaths” to keep guns outof their hands?
iamhe

Natural born sociopaths, will be sociopaths for their entire life. There is no treatment, no cure for them. They will regularly use unconscionable tactics to accomplish unconscionable agenda. They see conscience as their enemy. They are blind to their lack of conscience.. They will disrupt every social relationship in which they participate. You have to know such a person over time, and know what to look for to be able to see their sociopathy for sure.

testing can spot them, written, and professional interviews…

A MRI of their brain can identify a specific physiologic structural abnormality. A FMRI of their brain while challenged with a moral problem will reveal a functional abnormality in their brain, both are characteristics of the person with the genetic/psycho/social pathology.

For the lay person, you would be on the lookout for regular use of unconscionable tactics to accomplish unconscionable agenda, over a broad range of social relations and situations.

DNA tests are being researched….

properly trained, even a lay person can learn to identify them… however I would recommend follow up testing and secondary confirmational testing.

the big problem comes when we identify one…. what to do then?

are you ready to have a body of law written to limit theses persons right? Like as an example: not allowed to have access to firearms, not allowed to run for political office, not allowed emplyment in any government agency, not be allowed to teach children, not allowed access to the public via media.

For sure, one day, civilized society will bring all this about, and society will be more civilized. But now is very early in the problem recognition… and restrictiong the person’s rights is in conflict with “all persons are created equal” and “equal rights for all persons”.

These are generally seen as unAmerican … our Ideals can blind us to the truth..

do you think we should hold on to these ideals and by doing so allow natural born anti-social sociopaths to disrupt civilized society?

The problem is in the human genome.. it is a genetic disease.
http://profile.yahoo.com/XPL7LVHHKZXB3BKEJZNTKRMBYY Susan

Your “science” is suspect. My question was sarcastic, but your reply scares the heck out of me.
iamhe

“My “science” is suspect”? and what do you know about the science of which I spoke?

your “sarcasm” was so thinly veiled as to be undetectable, sarcasm or not you actually touched on the major issue concerning doing something about the problem.

I don’t blame you for being scared… there are a huge number of sociopaths out there and you you can not always recognize them especially if you are not trained.

Sociopaths in your personal life are nothing but big trouble. You don’t want to be married to one, or have one as child, or worse, have one as a parent, or boss.

I want them kept out of government office….. the last thing we need is a sociopathic government…. there are many in both houses of our congress..

I do not want them teaching our children, I do not want them to have fire arms. I do not want to be on national media talking to the public.. Sociopathic speech can and does cause a lot of anti-social behavior in society.

The Human Race has to deal with this problem which is in our human genome. It is a genetic problem that effects brain wiring, which effects the psychology of the person, which effects the social systems in which that person operates.

the sociopaths in the human race keep us from achieving a more civilized society.. and are involved in the starting of all wars, and acts of social violence..

They need to be identified, or at least abled to be identified, and a body of law written to specifically protect them, and to protect society from them. _their rights need to be rstricted_

example, can you imagine having sociopaths educating our children, or being involved in international nuclear politics?

misterpinkey

Suicides are included in the murder numbers. How many of the “murders” were suicides?

http://twitter.com/goodfornuthin Ginga Ninja Avenga

How does that change a thing?
http://twitter.com/MortAlcoil1 Mort Alcoil

NO, I SPECIFICALLY excluded suicides from those figures, that’s why I used the word MURDER and I also pointed out that total gun deaths was different; but the USA has a 17 X higher rate of gun suicide than the next worst country (Sweden). American Men kill themselves with guns 7 X more often than Women (who use pills or cut themselves).
misterpinkey

Do you have a link to these stats?

Thanks,
MP

Sweeeny

Very interesting stats. It is much more impersonal to shoot someone than to stick a knife into them and therefore much much easier to shoot. Kind of knocks back the old guns don’t kill people line. Also, you’ve got to get much closer and therefore it is far more dangerous for the attacker and, if one runs from a guy with a knife, chances of escape are enormously better – can’t outrun a bullet! Last, as many people in the UK could have a gun as in the US – could but don’t bother… why is that. Socialism I guess.

robertblair3174

But guns DON’T kill people… It’s those little lead projectiles that do the killing
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan-Maurer/100000910841619 Joan Maurer

Actually it is that small explosion within the firearm that hurls the small projectile at speeds fast enough to harm..

We will not address this problem untill the GOP comes out of the bubble they built to protect them from the truth. The demise of FOX would be helpfull.

http://profile.yahoo.com/7FQJPH4623QDEKXNLV5FULBJ6E Frederick

Years ago in the united states, some well meaning person, decided that it would help society as a whole, to pass a law that gives the children more rights than parents. The teachers, and others, told the children that if your parents beat you it is against the law, and we can put them in jail for that. Now the kids said, hey if you spank me I will call the cops, and you will go to jail. Then as would happen, everyone jumped on the band wagon to jail the evil parents. No longer could you spank or correct your child, for fear of being put in jail, and going to court to explain to the judge, just why you gave your kid a spanking, not to mention how others thought about you. Even though you were trying to raise your child right by correcting them when they were bad, it was to late because others thought you were abusing your child.
Now that law did help some children, don’t get me wrong. When I went to school, before we opened our books we said the pledge of allegiance. We respected our elders, and knew that if we messed up or caused trouble the principle would spank us and when we got home our dad would wail the hell out of us, so yes, we for the most part grew up with knowing you had to take responsibility for what you did.
I heard someone out their yell what the bleep has this got to do with gun control?
Glad you asked. How do you expect a child to learn the lesson of taking responsibility for what that child does if the child is never corrected when they do wrong? Still don’t get it?

OK, real simple.
step one: kid does wrong and gets corrected( a good healthy spanking ) child learns what it did is not acceptable, and you get punished for doing wrong.

or kid does wrong you go to correct them and the tell you if you spank them they will have you put in jail and you walk away muttering to yourself. child learns, I can do as i please and can’t be touched.
the end of this is, bullying, disrespect, uncontroled rage, and a general feeling of hate for anyone who won’t let them have their way.
you want to compare stats? compare them from five years before that law was passed,( by the way, you could get guns a lot easyer then compared to now) to how kids are raised now days.
And in answer to the other person assault wepons are select fire full auto in compared to single fire one pull one discharge that are being called assault.
Oh yes, food for thought. The uk is now considering baning all kitchen knifes over nine inches. guess that will bring down the crime rate stats.

Rick2101

I agree with the paranoia that surrounds some Americans but self-defense is a completely legitimate concern. Trying to eliminate guns is impossible. I believe that most American would agree that the best way to control gun violence is to not allow guns to fall into the wrong hands. I also believe that some gun owners do not take the responsibility to safeguard their guns seriously enough. There are circumstances where a gun owner might be carrying their weapon and someone with a bigger weapon takes it away and uses it in another crime. Regardless of how the gun owner failed to keep his or her guns out of the wrong hands, it is in my opinion they share in the responsibility of any crimes that are committed with their unsecured/lost/stolen guns. I don’t mean that the owner of a murder weapon should get the death penalty, perhaps a $10,000 fine would send a message that gun owners must accept responsibility for their failure to safeguard their guns. There is too much talk about rights and not enough responsibility for gun owners.

http://profile.yahoo.com/EOOP2CLTD4BKLDVZT6QW7PDOCI Robert M

I’m flabbergasted, I mean really? Really? At what point does reality slap the fascist idiots in the head? Will they wait until a couple of billion people are dead? Will they wait until they get to see first hand what forced labor and true perpetual war is? When will they figure out that they are just being used? When will they see that the real danger isn’t from poor people or people with different color skins, or even different religions?

The danger is when we allow or petty prejudices to cloud the truth long enough for the majority of the wealth to be consolidated in the fewest hands, that we’ve allowed our government to become a giant controlling power for the enhancement of wealth at the expense of the people.

awakenaustin

The problem is that reality never slaps them in the head. They inhabit a separate reality. It is not so much the world as it is, but the world as they wish it were and with them in a starring role. I think for most gun owners a firearm is a tool they use for hunting or sport shooting or as a part of their occupation. But for many others, it is an integral component of their personality, an element of their vision of themselves. How else can you explain a slogan such as “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands”? This psychological component allows, stimulates, requires the creation of all types of fanastic scenarios for why guns are necessary and vital to one’s very existence. It is consistent with a heightened and unrealistic sense of how dangerous a place the world and everyday life is. It misidentifies the primary sources of danger in everyday life. It compels the creation of bogeymen to arm oneself against. If guns were viewed solely and simply as tools, then folks would not have any more trouble with licenses and registration for them than they have for cars.

Eleanore Whitaker

The NRA loves to ignore the first 4 word of that 2nd Amendment…A well regulated militia..They jump to “a right to bear and keep arms.” Why on earth would the writers of this amendment bother to mention a well regulated militia if the only intent of the amendment was to hand the right to gun ownership to every man, woman and child in the country?

At this point, the US has the world’s largest unregulated militia who hate the government and so fear it that they build mini arsenals for “protection.” Or is it for government overthrow? How easy will it be for these gun owners with such morbid fear of the government to take up arms against anyone who disagrees with them and their narrow minded ideology? 88.8 guns for every 100 people…that’s the facts as the gun lobby poll now shows. In their minds, it should be 100 guns for every 100 people.
http://profile.yahoo.com/RCV6PTTSY3NRJKVOBMMRXMJ6NA Barbara

Mentally disturbed people supposedly cannot own guns and yet I hear these people
with all there insane theories about Newtown and the government coming after them
and wonder how they obtained their weapons. There is no way they could pass a test
for mental stability.
iamhe

reality: there are two large and powerful factions of America that are engaged in a war of survival against each other.

one reactionary… the vast majority of middle class Americans, a pity they did not believe it or see it coming. prevention could have prevented it, they were ripped off and continue to be ripped off.. and their vital interests undermined.

the others? the unconscionables, in pathological -anti-social sense- Represented by GOP leadership. US style Capitalism, driven by the unconscionable tactics and agenda of anti-social greedy personality disorders.

capitalists VS middle class

the capitalist want the most money they can get out of American society, any way they can get it.. welfare, medicare, social security, education, all take money out of the system, and that is money they the capitalists can not have.. so they have distorted being social, social responsibility, social conscience, as the enemy… “Socialism” it takes a sociopath to make social conscience into an enemy. The GOP is antiSocial in the pathological sense. and it is trying to take over the government of the US..

there are relatively few sociopaths in society… and it is a disaster to let them take over our government and social systems of humanity, Humans are social animals, social is a virtue not the enemy.

So what happens if capitalist gain control of an armed force to violently attack the social middle class…

Capitalist GOP? to direct the government, police, the military, black-water against middle class america? how will middle class america defend them selves? how will they arm themselves?

The 2nd Amendment allows Americans to prepare for this and create a deterrent… don’t worry about hunting. worry about getting caught up in a shooting war with capitalistic pigs..

people sense this and want their militaristic weapons.. not to go hunting.. but to defend them selves.. from groups of armed people who would do them harm.

The second amendment is our birth right.. and it is a good thing…. but no person who uses unconscionable tactics to accomplish unconscionable agenda -sociopaths- should be allowed to a fire arm.

There is way to scale this problem down to size… and make things more civilized and less dangerous…. but that is another topic..

highpckts

You live in a world of non facts and paranoia!!

iamhe

you criticize me, and offer a big and obvious nothing, to support your position… I consider your criticism to show zero merit, and merely an expression of one of your many personal prejudices.

To bad we can’t have a discussion here, I would love to see inside your thinking processes and conscience.

but if you support the GOP and it’s antisocial tactics and agenda, it’s selfish rip off greed and fraud of the middle class… you are the enemy… of the best and vital interest of America’s middle class.

http://www.facebook.com/debbie.kieselryan1 Debbie Kiesel-Ryan

These people are just crazy and probably many should be locked up!!!!!

http://twitter.com/LostAnarchist S-3

I prefer stopped and silenced – they don’t deserve the civil rights we know to protect and cherish, because people like these abuse them.

http://profile.yahoo.com/VTV55S5BALQIDBQFOLH7WIZNSA Don B

Its almost as if the “gun nuts” and the “preppers” and the “end of the worlders” want some form of catastrophe or chaos to happen so they can go “shoot it out”, go on militia maneuvers etc. Why do they crave a post-Apocalyptic world?

Countrybumpkin

Testosterone!
Church on Sunday morning (just in case ), target practise after lunch. The all-american, white, southern male.
blueindy1

Why? My opinion, all such End-of the Worlders, preppers, etc have, very simply, a death wish. Look at all the comet impact movies, ELENIN was supposed to hit the Earth, and all the 12-21-12 crappola, how else do you explain it? They all want to “STAR” in one last great personal disaster film of their own. They WANT to die, for real, and they want the whole world to die with them. After all, it wouldn’t DARE go on without them, would it?…would it?…

iamhe

1. limit what guns can be in society… example no automatic weapons allowed, no chemical weapons, no electronic weapons, no atomic or nuclear weapons… neither, civilians or armed forces… -police etc.-… limit what firearms can be in society.

2. everyone who wants to buy a weapons undergo psychological and genetic testing, no anti-social personality disorders -sociopaths- allowed to own a fire arm.
iamhe

We all agree mentally disturbed people should not be allowed to own or access a firearm.

But now lets define who are those mentally disturbed people? most of you will say there are certain obviously disturbred people who should not be allowed access to a fire arm. All will agree with that. But what about those who are not obviously mentally disturbed, rather they are natural born sociopaths -people who will never have a fully functioning social conscience, people with no conscience…. how do we detect them positivly identify them, and limit their 2nd amendment rights? that is the problem America is not ready to face.. America allows natural born sociopaths a genetic/psycho/social illness into political public office…. -they shouldn’t be there! and they should not be allowed access to fire arms either.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Myers/100001512942781 Jim Myers

The NRA has become the ARMS CARTEL of the United States.

Unfortunately, the membership has no real organization that they can call home, because the NRA has too much money and power at the top.

The sane members of the NRA are unwitting pawns to the extremist views espoused by Wayne Lapierre and the arms manufacturers.
http://profile.yahoo.com/A6FGVJSKGNACEUCPISWKSG3PRI george sanders

Not all gun owners are conspiracy theorist and “nuts” like you would read in the following comments. This door swings both ways. There is the extreme “Right” and the extreme “Left” in our society and both sides are idiotic in their diatribes and so called demands upon society. I am stupified that so called “intelligent” educated human beings are so blind that they cannot or will not conceded that there is a very real reason to own firearms in this country. Firearm ownership by the general populace is what keeps our government in check..this is the truth. Whether you wish to believe it or not the government is not your “friend” they will not take care of you and if possible “they” will control every aspect of your day. So, with this in mind is it not feasible that owning firearms can and does protect liberties that would be swept away by your friends the government?
use deeper intelligence than the gut level surface gut/reaction which drives the emotion of thought. THINK….

highpckts

That’s not extreme thinking?? Tell me when was the last time Marshall Law was imposed in the States. Tell me when you felt threatened by the government?? You are paranoid! Put down your gun pamphlets and live your life!
http://profile.yahoo.com/X2KKGDYW2F5T5XUT6233KBNWSI robert

If you fear the government you live under, you should pack your bags and leave. You have that right too.
neeceoooo

I really feel so sorry for you Mr. Sanders. You life in such a paranoid world that “they” are out to get you. Please, “they” could care less.

ObozoMustGo

The same idiots that think 9/11/01 is a conspiracy are the same idiots that think Newtown is a staged conspiracy. Not worth the time to talk about.

[click image to enlarge]

Have a nice day!

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Ben Franklin
HeraSentMe

I like guns. I’ve owned one or more since I was 17. I have a concealed carry permit. I think the NRA leadership is nuts, and I think the yobbos who believe that when the time comes they’ll be able to fend off “tyranny” with deer rifles are, as the article calls them, fetishists. Also fools.

The scary part is a lot of them REALLY REALLY believe the paranoid nonsense abetted by the NRA and even loonier “gun rights” groups. I fear a self-fulfilling prophecy – some of them go off the rails, begin a campaign of armed insurrection and sabotage, and have to be dealt with by the military, with all the evil that will bring.
Rick2101

Everyone seems to agree at some point that a gun in the wrong hands is the problem. The second amendment:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Some argue that “well regulated” does not mean the same today as it did at the time of the founding fathers. For example according to Brian T. Halonen, “well regulated” meant something was in “proper working order”. If that is the case then today’s’ gun owners must be, according the 2nd Amendment, in “proper working order” to be protected by the constitution. Does anyone believe that gun owners who allow either by direct action or through negligence are “functioning as expected”, when their guns are used to commit crimes? Gun owners are not “well regulated”, “in proper working order”, or “functioning as expected” when their guns are used to commit crimes, unless we “expect” gun owners to somehow lose their guns, either though negligence or theft. The safekeeping of all guns is the direct responsibility of all gun owners.

I also believe that some gun owners do not take the responsibility to safeguard their guns seriously enough. There are circumstances where a gun owner might be carrying their weapon and someone with a bigger weapon takes it away and uses it in another crime. Regardless of how the gun owner failed to keep his or her guns out of the wrong hands, it is in my opinion they share in the responsibility of any crimes that are committed with their unsecured/lost/stolen guns.

Perhaps the insurance industry could offer “Gun Insurance”. If a gun owner’s gun is used in a crime the insurance company would pay all damages. The insurance industry could then come up strategies to let gun owners know how to safeguard their guns. If the gun owners fail to comply with insurance company instructions, the gun owner would be liable in civil law suits. As Uncle Ben Parker said in the Spiderman movie “With great power comes great responsibility.” Why not simply hold gun owners responsible for their guns? I believe that would be a good start.

http://profile.yahoo.com/X2KKGDYW2F5T5XUT6233KBNWSI robert

Very well stated. Rick2101. A very lucid argument that many, many will disagree with.

nhgal628

This proves more people need psychiatric exams!!! Bunch of ignorant crazies!!
http://mohammeddressup.com/ I Zheet M’Drawz

I’m so tired of the same old arguments & bumper sticker slogans being bandied about. Can’t you people come up with anything original like a thought?

The idea being put forth by the mentally ill is that they need their guns to protect themselves against a gov’t action.

That’s a load of manure. In nations where private gun ownership is banned how do they get their hands on guns eh? Ever ask yourself that question? They get them by jumping a couple of armed soldiers, killing their asses dead & taking their equipment & so it goes.

Plus anyone that really believes, that is so paranoid that they expect the gov’t to come down on them well, we need to put you on the special ‘rubber gun squad’ for assessment. You shouldn’t have guns if you’re really this deluded.
HistoRet

After 77 years I am convinced that for many gun cultists that piece of steel embodies the fantasy of a permanent erection endlessly ejaculating. Remember the opening of every RIFLEMAN episode?
docb

The weapons and magazines availability are the issue….slaughter of multiple children and teachers in MINUTES..would not be possible if they were not!

Sensible laws on background checks would not have stopped the Aurora, Sandy Hook, V Tech or Columbine massacres…
http://profile.yahoo.com/V76SOFAXAIZRWC6MNAX5Z3DLAM mothermaybe

Now that we found the crazies or mentally ill where do we put them? Load them up and send them to Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, Russ Limbaugh, or maybe the NRA group? Maybe they could rehab each other with their license assault guns. Then the rest of us could go on our way leading a normal life and pretend nothing ever happen.
http://profile.yahoo.com/HHQ74TL3JV7SXEHUQGEDGRWV4Q Sharyn

The way that people communicate with each other on line makes me sad. The rudeness, hatefulness, willingness to believe the worst in anyone with different viewpoints is just aweful. The name calling and debasing that goes on is terrible. Unfortunately, I fear that common courtesy is gone. That anger and hatred flows over for those who would believe that the President of the United States would either plan for the the murder of little children or perputrate a hoax, which caused so many of us real pain, just to further his agenda to destroy/disregard the 2nd Amendment. Also, statistics show that more guns increase the chanches of gun violence. I just don’t understand why we can’t have an honest, open dialogue about this issue. Why can’t we remove the anger, hatred and hyperbole and just for a moment take a deep breath, relax, acknowledge that no one “side” is 100% right and realize that we should be all on the same side: Americans working together to make their country better…
Pamby50

These crazy people who are truthers, need to stay away from Newtown. To imply that these children are alive is insane. I wouldn’t even give them a gun. Not mentally stable. I wish they would go away & take Wayne Lapiere with them. No more tv time to these idiots. The media needs to keep telling us every day how many people were murdered by guns. We need to rip the bandage off. We need to keep getting shocked. Then and only then will something get done.
http://twitter.com/SAJP Sa Janes

It appears a large number of US citizens suffer from a mass psychosis abetted by that peculiarly American combination of Revenge TV, the ill-educated and thus disenfranchised everyman ‘heroes’ screeching unhindered from AM Radio soapboxes–replete with corporate sponsorships, religious fundamentalists frightened to death of becoming one of the ‘Left Behind’ nursing shattered realities destroyed by con-men like Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert, Oral Roberts, Earnest Angely and the Bakkers (to name a mere few), fatherless young boys seeking identity in games like Counter Strike in which one’s sole purpose is to kill as many ‘bad guys’ as quickly as one can, an all-too-plentiful supply of ‘Mother’s Little Helpers’ along with the loaded weapons she has in her closet, and Fox *News*.

Our favorite heroes (Jax Teller and/or Jack Bauer–c’mon really?) get boxed in by bad guys who are SOOOOO bad we want them to die in hideous agony–we even tell ourselves ‘I would definitely kill those guys myself and probably torture them first’–BUT–we must wait until next week to see how Jax/Jack deal with it all. In the meantime, we sit in our cars, our classrooms and lie awake at night with feelings of frustrated revenge-on-hold. As if this isn’t enough to totally overpower the weaker minded among us, a movie theater full of people watching yet another phony hero get his revenge is attacked by one of our fallen wearing full body armor and armed to the teeth with the latest weaponry and all the proper Soldier of Fortune bling, killing and maiming dozens.

Ultimately, we are not really so frightened of raging commies amassing on the Alaskan ‘Land Bridge’, or even Islamic Terrorists beheading our reporters on Youtube–we are, in reality, terrified of each other–of ourselves–and of our often rather twisted culture. We are not only addicted to fantasy drama, we try to live in it by actually recreating it on our streets, while slowly and steadily becoming our own victims.
johnygo

“The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life” 700 club , Pat Robertson, G W Bush , Glen Beck, Rush Limbooo. – Adolph Hitler – Proclamation to the German Nation at Berlin, February,1935
Hitler use Christianity to unite the German people,and to kill the Jew. this was the platform of the Republican party and the N R A , to unite Americans for their purpose. the reason in the Constitution we have separation of church and state. the reason he wrote this.There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.” ~Thomas Jefferson
1bythebrooks2

Yes, I suppose all those people killed in the last several mass shootings, including the children in Newtown, are now living together on a beautiful island somewhere together, sponsered by the U.S. Gov. in order to get more gun laws in place! They were a hoax?? Try and sell me another one!
http://profile.yahoo.com/VOMVFNUHPOVW7UTSPNJMVWC6BY jimmy w

i agree sociopaths are the problem. we can’t control the abundance of them, however they can not use assult look alikes with high capacity clips if these weapons don’t exist.
daffodilly

The gullible nature of the NRA followers is very sad to see. Does it border on mental illness or is it just a product of poor up-bringing that makes them slip the bounds of reality? Who knows, but the reality of this situation is that the 4 million NRA members are kicking-up dust that has nothing to do with the freedoms of the 314 million residents of our country. Granted, the ideas of minorities are to be considered in our society, but to let the fuzzy thinking 0.127% endanger the lives of the approx. 99.9% remaining is a bit of a stretch.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000207901994 Cindy Graham Greenberg

It would not surprise me at all if it were to be discovered that the NRA was behind the creation of this “conspiracy theory” and that they set the wheels in motion to get it out to the crazies, knowing full well that it would be eaten up and taken as the gospel truth. I would not be surprised, because they are just that desperate.

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Newtown Truthers Follow The NRA’s Playbook

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