This Modern World: Don't go blaming guns

[meegbear]

The shooter in Tucson could just as easily have used something else -- like, maybe, lawn furniture



http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2011/01/10/this_modern_world

[PassingFair]

1. Nails it.

Sad but true.

[blondeatlast]

2. That left a well-deserved mark (pardon the "violent" rhetoric.

:thumbsup:

[aikoaiko]

3. Tomorrow is basically right. The gun control debate is mostly settled

but the pro-gun control side will try to use the emotionality of the deaths and injuries in Tucson to reduce everyone's access to gun accessories (like magazines) instead of supporting more mental health interventions (which may have had an even greater chance of preventing this violence).

[enuegii]

5. That is the saddest thing I've ever heard...

To think that just because six people got killed by a loon with a gun people might have trouble having access to gun accessories! Oh, it's so goddamned UNFAIR!

[Patiod]

8. I know - my heart is aching

We NEED to be able to waltz into Walmart and get our accessories on demand - ASAP. It says so right there in the BOR.

Have you noticed that even on DU, there is no discussion allowed of ANY sort of regulation on guns - if you're not for allowing 100% access to any type of weapon by anyone all the time, you're shouted down here. Or un-recommended. MAYBE folks will concede that if you're legally adjudicated as ravingly insane by a full judge and jury (and we all know how easy that is to do), maybe then your access might possibly be slightly curtailed temporarily, because the second amendment is crystal clear about everyone's right to carry whatever they want wherever they want - into bars, churches, schools and political rallies.

I'm honestly and sincerely surprised that gun fans here and elsewhere aren't agitating about those "unconstitutional" metal detectors at courthouses - why shouldn't everyone be allowed to bring any type of firearm they want into courtrooms?

I should note that I own a handgun, and actually enjoy taking it to the range and shooting at targets. So I'm not against having guns in your home, I just think that there are places they do not belong. Like bars. And political rallies.

[aikoaiko]

10. My real point is that the Assault Weapons Ban was useless.

But some around here and a few Democratic legislators want to try to send up new legislation quickly to capitalize on the emotionality of the assassination deaths and injuries instead of deliberating with thought and care for effective legislation.

[TBF]

6. Why not both? Some of us can think about more than one issue at a time.

I'd also love to hear about what sort of intervention you would've proposed for Jared Loughtner. He had been ordered to have a mental health eval by his school if he wanted to return, but he didn't do it.

[aikoaiko]

9. I believe anyone (not just a family member) can force the issue for mental health review in AZ

It didn't happen in this case (that I know of).

We have the existing law to get someone who is an mental health crisis out of society, but we really need to the resources to house and treat those who are deemed mentally ill.

[TBF]

14. Agree on that assessment - we have Ronald Reagan to thank for that one.

With the austerity measures that are looming, however, I think we'll be lucky to come out of this Congress with Social Security somewhat intact, much less additional services. It is mind-numbing how callous folks can be in their quest for the mighty dollar.

[CTyankee]

7. Of course access is a huge problem.

If common sense doesn't tell us that then our experiences in life should.

My two experiences with gun deaths were all about access. The first, many years ago, our next door neighbor (in a nice section of Dallas) pulled her gun out of the glove compartment of her car and shot her unfaithful husband dead in the driveway. Rage + easy accessibility to a loaded gun = homicide.
The second in my own family: rage+alcohol+easy accessibility to loaded gun=one dead, two wounded and shooter then turned gun on himself in a suicide.

In both cases, the guns were kept at the ready for "protection."

Funny thing I've noticed when I travel in western Europe: I never fear those shots ringing out near a campanile or the Pont Neuf or Las Ramblas...had a petty theft in Turin but it was a classic pickpocket situation...Uniformed men with long guns guarding embassies in Rome and Madred, yes...but no fear of being gunned down in broad daylight or even at night (I once got lost in Rome but I wasn't afraid of anyone around me even tho it was at night). Interesting...

[Enthusiast]

4. One of the best-ever! nt

[onehandle]

11. 'Delicate Flower' Perfect. nt

[Euromutt]

12. I just remembered there's a reason I can't be bothered to read most political cartoons

Especially if it's in the format of a dialogue in which the side to whom the author is unsympathetic talks in straw men. This is about as funny and as accurate as "Mallard Fillmore." Or given that Mallard Fillmore usually talks in monologues, maybe "Day by Day," as an example of a strip in which the straw man is delivered by a character who functions as the straw man.

It's a curious affliction among American gun control advocates to think that mass murders and political assassinations simply couldn't take place if only the gun laws were more stringent. Less than three years ago, a guy in Tokyo inflicted a similar number of casualties (7 dead, 10 wounded) using a rented Isuzu truck and a knife. I shouldn't need to point out that severely restricting firearms ownership (as Japan does) is still going to leave access to items that are a damn sight more lethal than "lawn furniture" (words fail me to describe how lame that false dichotomy is). And as a citizen of the Netherlands (dual nationality along with my American citizenship) I can point to the assassinations--by means of handguns--of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh as examples of how restricting private ownership of firearms isn't guaranteed to stop anyone intent on committing an assassination and acquiring a firearm to that end, even illegally.

[Atypical Liberal]

13. Well the cartoon is right about one thing...

The gun control debate is all but settled, and my side did win.