Obama: America must grapple with gun violence

[onehandle]

Source: MSNBC

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President Obama on Thursday mourned the shooting deaths of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, saying it rekindled “a dark part of our history.” He also bluntly tied the massacre to the proliferation of guns in the U.S., saying his time in office has been marked by too many tragedies caused by firearms.

“I’ve had to make statements like this too many times,” Obama said in a televised statement at the White House, Vice President Joe Biden standing by his side.

“We do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” Obama said. “But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”

Thursday marked the 14th time Obama has addressed the nation after gun-related tragedy.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-america-must-grapple-gun-violence

[closeupready]

1. And yet, everyone in Switzerland (basically) is armed.

And yet, they don't have people going off like this, in relative terms.

So I'm confused - he says it's in our power to do something ... so, what, exactly?

Everyone would like less gun violence and massacres. Everyone. But the fact that they keep happening is the conundrum. Making a statement is important, but so is suggesting solutions (once the problem is identified).

[onehandle]

2. Don't believe the NRA propaganda.

In 2005 over 10% of households contained handguns, compared to 18% of U.S. households that contained handguns. In 2005 almost 29% of households in Switzerland contained firearms of some kind, compared to almost 43% in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

Additionally, Switzerland doesn't treat guns like a religion. You have to have training, observe tight regulations, and get restrictive permits.

[closeupready]

5. On edit, never mind.

Thanks.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Propaganda is lies cloaked with authority, as you have so ably pointed out. The NRA is evil.

[samsingh]

16. agreed

[lovemydog]

4. I look at it like this. Some people drive home from a bar drunk

and don't injure anyone. Some people smoke and don't get cancer. But in the past thirty years or so, through groups like Mothers Against Driving and Lung Cancer awareness and education, we've significantly reduced drunk driving fatalities and smoking and lung cancer in children.

Where there's a will there's a way.

I think we must work on all fronts. And not criticize any efforts anywhere to reduce gun violence. Try different things in different states. Try federal legislation. Try non-legal avenues. Try seminars. Try marches. Join a church. Join a nondenominational meeting group. Join the southern poverty law center. Try it all. Don't oppose any effort to reduce gun violence in this country. If you oppose gun control, try helping in some other manner with which you feel most comfortable.

Switzerland is a different place. Very different from the USA.

[samsingh]

18. what do people not understand? no country in the world has the gun violence seen here

and no other country has the nra.

[lovemydog]

32. I don't know.

I would expect every person with some sense of conscience would want to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of racists, hate mongers, fucked up kids, whatever one wants to call them.

I would think that even those who value and cherish the second amendment would want to do everything we can in all sorts of ways and wouldn't discount or diminish any effort anywhere to reduce the violence of people shooting people.

[One_Life_To_Give]

40. Lots of Hell Holes with far worse gun murder rates

Venezuela and Argentina come to mind. They have their own specific problems associated with the Why just as we do here. Certainly there is no shortage of Myths dating to how the West was settled and won. The six gun being way over-hyped and the arrival of women, families and schools failing to be mentioned. I find it curious that NYPD didn't require officers to carry guns until the year after Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show started a several years engagement in New York City.

Was a curious time when the Arizona Territory was setting records for Murder Rates, England was lower than today and places like Boston and New York were much closer to the English rates than the American West.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Some countries handle the freedom to own killing devices better than others

We obviously suck at it.

[closeupready]

8. Well I don't suck at it - I've never even used one.

Maybe you have, but my freedom to speak shouldn't be abridged because, for example, Sarah Palin uses her same freedom irresponsibly.

So, what are our solutions, if any?

[lovemydog]

12. Every single interaction.

Starting locally. Every single interaction, be conscious of love. Conscious of peace. Dinner party discussions on peace.

I'm not here to advocate for or against gun control. Just to say that for me everything starts first from within and then expands outward toward our interactions with others, then discussing how to help locally. There are so many great volunteer organizations locally. You can find them if you're so inclined. It's a genuine blessing.

[hollowdweller]

9. I believe in Switzerland

The guns provided by the gov't are kept with the idea of protecting the country from invasion rather than with the idea we may have to overthrow our own gov't like too many here believe.

Also if I am not mistaken you have to have a permit to own most modern firearms.

What we could do here?

I think we could make it harder for people to get guns who are crazy.

You could also make a tax on clips that held over say 8 rounds or maybe on semi autos. Revolvers are fine for self defense and that way if you had to pay a big tax to own guns that are capable of mass shootings less people would have them.

But the bottom line as far as what we could do is something that will never happen. The gun culture could stop pushing paranoia about being attacked or fighting off the government and focus on the sport of hunting and target shooting.

[Hoyt]

27. You need to do a little more research. Very difficult to buy a gun or carry one legally. Even ammo

Even ammo is restricted.

[lancer78]

29. Ammo is highly restricted in Switzerland

I think each person is allowed 20 rounds max with random checks to make sure none have been used.

[calimary]

3. As they say these days... NOT "yeah." HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

HELL YEAH!!!!!!

[cosmicone]

7. Send gun violence perpetrators to Guantánamo

It already has well-trained staff

[DustyJoe]

10. Grappling

No !

The police need to grapple this waste of oxygens father and arrest his ass for giving his waste of DNA a .45 auto. It was an obvious straw purchase for a person that could not have legally purchased a handgun if he answered the firearms questionairre honestly about his drug use and drug arrests. This father besides moron of the year belongs in a cell besides his son.

[Rossi]

11. Step 1: stop shooting people in the Middle East.

That would put an end to the most substantial amount of US gun violence.

[hack89]

15. That would stop both suicides and criminal violence? Interesting theory. nt

[Rossi]

17. It would stop the great majority of gun crimes caused by Americans.

And you know it.

[hack89]

20. Why?

how is violence in the ME linked to inner city violence in Chicago, DC, Philly and every other major city with a high murder rate?

[brett_jv]

22. He's counting the dark-skinned people killed by US guns IN those places ...

As part of the total number of US gun deaths.

e.g. if we stopped doing that, 'gun deaths' would go down drastically.

[hack89]

24. I see. nt

[deathrind]

14. Amazing

This type of event happens on a regular basis and we can't even get loop holes like background checks closed. This is a "right" that has obviously wrong in today's world.

[Rossi]

19. Amazing?

How about some background checks and loop hole closing on US hired mercenaries in the Middle East? That would go a long way toward reducing gun violence.

[deathrind]

21. Yes....

Doing that and checking local fishing licenses would certainly make an impact....

[Beauregard]

26. Are you comparing THIS to "fishing without a license"?

[deathrind]

31. No,

I am replying to an irrelevant reply to my original post with and equal amount of irrelevance.

[awoke_in_2003]

35. This is the second time

you have compared apples to Volkswagens. Welcome to DU

[Rossi]

42. Back it up or shut it.

.

[One_Life_To_Give]

41. Confiscation Paranoia is Fed a Constant Diet

The Likes of the NRA and the Brady Campaign do an excellent job of keeping millions of Americans convinced that the ultimate goal is complete confiscation. Hence any common sense regulation is DOA.

[Hulk]

23. Nothing to grapple with...the cow has left the barn, long ago.

What did I read?...300,000,000 guns in our society today? In a way, the nra is right; regulations aren't really going to put a dent in our sick society. We are saturated with the damned things, and background checks, and all that other "touchie-feelie" stuff isn't going to stop anything.

Jump all over me if you like, but reality is what it is. We have more guns in our society today that if ANYBODY wants a gun, they can get one. We let this fester too long, and the gun nuts have seen to it that there is no turning back.

If we want to do back ground checks, fine. It won't make a damned bit of difference anymore. You think this lame, racist piece of white trash that murdered the folks in SC wasn't going to get his 21st birthday present from his sick ass father because of a background check? I've got a couple nice bridges for sale.

We are sunk. There is no turning back. We can put a band aid on the cancer if you want, but it is fruitless. The cow has left the barn. Our society is doomed to be filled to the eyeballs with these heinous toys, and kids will kill kids, parents will kill friends and family accidentally, and the mentally challenged will go on rampages and murder who ever comes across their path when their mind snaps.

We just bow our heads and live in fear that everytime a loved one leaves the house, there's a chance they may not come home because of some insane bastard with "his right to bare arms". One sick ass society, passed the point of no return.

[Hoyt]

28. Let's do nothing. In decade we'll have another 100 million gunz to deal when we finally bite bullet

and do something like Australia did in 1996. The sooner we do something, the quicker we'll see results even if it takes decades.

[Hulk]

30. Reality-check time.

[awoke_in_2003]

36. What was done in Australia

is exactly what needs to be done here, gungeoneers be damned. Gun deaths are an epidemic in this country, and a bunch of armed yahoos do not constitute a "well-regulated militia".

[Hoyt]

37. I agree completely. The tough Aussies sucked it up and moved on. Our gun whiners

would have to be institutionalized or something.

[awoke_in_2003]

38. One day we may grow up...

I hope we do before I die, but won't be holding my breath. Buying a car in this country is more difficult than buying a gun.

[GGJohn]

50. ...

Buying a car in this country is more difficult than buying a gun.

Gee, last time I bought a car, I didn't have to go through a background check, I plunked down a cashiers check, signed the papers and drove away with it, however, last time I purchased a firearm, I had to go through a background check.

[awoke_in_2003]

52. And you can go to a gun show

and get around the background check. If I sell a person a car, they must register it before they can use it. But you can buy and sell guns privately with zero oversight.

[GGJohn]

53. Only if it's a private sale, otherwise, all firearms sold at a gun show

are sold through an FFL dealer who has to do a BGC, no exceptions.

If I sell a person a car, they must register it before they can use it

That's false, unless you plan to drive it on the public roads, you don't have to register it or even have a driver license to drive it on private property.

[awoke_in_2003]

56. OFFS

How many people buy a car only to drive it on their property? A few thousand farmers maybe? Don't worry, this country will never do anything to regulate your precious murder machines.

[GGJohn]

58. ...

precious murder machines.

Is this the new, oh, never mind.

[awoke_in_2003]

63. Yes it is, just made it up...

I have a question- how would you feel if every gun sale in the country had to be recorded by local authorities?

[GGJohn]

51. Sorry Hoyt, but that horse left the barn a loooooooong time ago,

and we have something the Aussie's don't, you know, the 2A, which confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.

[Hoyt]

57. Doesn't mean you have to keep multiple gun vaults full to fulfill your sordid needs.

The 2nd Amendment, even the way it is interpreted by gun fanciers, does not require you to love and promote gunz,and pollute society with the dang things. That's a personal, albeit immoral, decision.

[GGJohn]

59. ...

Doesn't mean you have to keep multiple gun vaults full to fulfill your sordid needs.

You said sordid needs.

Sorry Hoyt, but your not convincing anyone but yourself.

[Skittles]

64. 2A needs to be rewritten so it doesn't cater to GUN HUMPING COWARDS

[Beauregard]

25. Obama needs to grapple with his own gun violence.

Almost 2,500 Now Killed by Covert US Drone Strikes Since Obama Inauguration Six Years Ago

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/02/almost-2500-now-killed-covert-us-drone-strikes-obama-inauguration-six-years-ago

[Psephos]

65. +100000 n/t

[davepc]

33. So we take away the guns and hope they're too lazy to build pipe bombs or Molotov cocktails?

So we wave a wand and make firearms disappear but the anger and hate is still there, then what? Hope these kinds of people can't be bothered to spend 10 mins on goolge to learn how to make an IED?

[SansACause]

34. Then make them do that.

Nobody is going to give a 21-year-old a pipe bomb for his birthday.

If they're going to commit mass murder, they should at least have to work for it. Guns make it easy.

[Hoyt]

39. Some might, but it would impede others like Zman, Dun, even some mas shooters.

Maybe gun nuts would find a saner outlet for their issues.

Nothing is going to stop all tragedies. But restricting the heck out guns would be a start.

[GGJohn]

54. ...

But restricting the heck out guns would be a start.

Sorry Hoyt, but with the advent of 3D printers, gun control is now a moot point, however, I think I know why you want to restrict the heck out of guns.

[Hoyt]

60. But, GG, you can't print the kind of lethal weapons you need, nor can you print enough to fill

your multiple gun vaults. I don't think crudely printed, plastic gunz will fulfill your needs.

[GGJohn]

61. Keep flailing Hoyt.

Why don't you tell us the real reason you want to restrict the heck out of guns?

[GGJohn]

62. Why would I want to 3D print weapons?

I'm fairly well off, I can afford to buy the weapons of my choice, however, I could use a 3D printer to manufacture some of the parts for my farm equipment.
I might just go out and buy one.

[romanic]

43. True.

There are plenty of good gun owners out there who own firearms (not Uzis or Ak-47s) only to protect their home from criminals and intruders and themselves when they venture out. A lot of people in my old "hood" own firearms due to crime; we take their legally owned guns away and guess what happens - even more violence.

IMO the accessibility of powerful rifles and ammo is the main culprit.

[DCBob]

44. I hope gun control becomes a major issue during the campaign.

[hack89]

45. No - both HRC and Bernie want to actually win

too many purple states with independent voters to win over.

[DCBob]

46. Many said that about gay rights a few years ago.. I think the country is ready.

[hack89]

47. I would have to see some solid polling on the issue

on a detailed enough level that I could compare it to the electoral battle field.

[DCBob]

48. I agree with the President on this issue..

“It is in our power to do something about it. I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now,” the president said. “But it’d be wrong for us not to acknowledge it, and at some point, it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.”

========================

Its time we do something instead of just saying its too difficult or politically dangerous.

[hack89]

49. Says the man who will never run for elected office again. nt

[GGJohn]

55. Hmmm, didn't we hear the same thing in 2012-13?

How well did that work out?
Especially in 2014?