I want to start this off by saying that I do not, myself, own a firearm,
but technically I do as I was bequeathed an antique non-functioning
pistol a few years ago. I am not a "gun nut" or a member of The NRA. In many
respects I would be considered liberal, but not in any card carrying
sense, even as I am in no way to be considered a neo-con.
I caught Michael Moore talking with Piers Morgan on CNN
about gun violence in reaction to the Aurora, Colorado nightmare. To
watch that show you might think the U.S., which boasts the highest
incarceration rate of any country, was also the worst nation on earth
for gun violence. How you frame the question makes a difference.
According to Wikipedia, the highest rates of gun deaths by nation
are South Africa, Columbia, and El Salvador, with the U.S. coming in at
number 12 just under Mexico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence If you want to say
that we are number one as Moore clearly does, you have to say that we
are the number one "developed" nation for gun violence, those other
countries not counting apparently because they are embryonic and/or
fetal. According to the National Institute of Justice website, as
I suspected might be the case, most U.S. gun related deaths are
perpetrated by gangs in the inner cities.
http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/research/famhist/PDF_Articles/Springer/V%2015.pdf
While Moore mentioned
pointedly that most guns in this country are owned by white people in
the suburbs, you can hardly expect him to speak out against gangs.
Obviously what happened in Aurora was not gang related, but more
importantly, for Moore, or for that matter, Piers Morgan, to mention
this fact would be politically "incorrect."
Should there be
restrictions on people under psychiatric care being able to purchase
weapons, and specifically assault rifles? As mentioned on the show,
should some sort of alert go out when a person like Holmes is clearly
stock piling
ammunition online? Absolutely. Such a remedy would be
fairly easy to implement and effective, and it would bypass any need for
violation of patient confidentiality in a case like Holmes.
One
thing I've wondered about Aurora is whether this nightmare might have
any connection to so-called antidepressants and other psychiatric
drugs. You know, the meds they love to dole out to a large segment of
the population that are associated with suicide (How anti-depressing is
that?), and for which we see legal ads on a regular basis now in their
connection to birth defects. In the Virginia Tech Massacre, shooter, Cho
Seung Hui, was on antidepressants.
http://www.naturalnews.com/021798.html There was also a connection to
antidepressants in the infamous Columbine shooting.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Columbine-Survivor-Warns-o-by-Janet-Parker-111002-783.html
None of these factors fit into Moore's far
left agenda, however, so no mention of them was made.
When white people are injured, traumatized, and killed, it makes
headlines. In the inner city, well, that's just life, I guess. How many
inner city gun deaths, injuries, and trauma involve kids who are not
criminals but who had the audacity to go to school? How many Columbines,
Virginia Techs, and Aurora Theater horrors unfold in this nation's
inner cities every week, and involve innocent children caught in the
crossfire, with nary a peep from the corporate media? Who cares about these
innocent victims of gun violence? Not CNN or Piers Anthony, or,
apparently, that liberal champion of truth and justice, Micheal Moore.
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