Discussion: 'They Talk About Gun Rights... What About Chris' Right To Live?'

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Discussion for article #236686

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Good luck Mr.Martinez. If you can’t even get anyone to comment on a “liberal” website, good luck with changing the gun culture folks

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I met Mr. Martinez at a Moms Demand Action meeting this year. He is a powerful advocate for sensible gun laws. I joined the group because a shooting at a mall by the school where I worked traumatized several students who were hanging out in the food court after school. Holding a sobbing, terrified child with no way to comfort her is not something I want to do again, nor do I want others to experience it.

Thanks in part to Mr. Martinez’s advocacy, Oregon has closed a major loophole in gun sales and is about to pass a law to remove guns from some domestic abusers. So, I’d say he was doing pretty well.

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Thank you very much for your perspective and experiences. It makes it real for the rest of us.

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“They talk about gun rights,” he growled between sobs. “What about Chris’ right to live?”

The only time Republicans profess to care about the rights of victims is when they’re defending the death penalty.

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I am glad to hear that

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Gun rights advocates resent being called gun nuts but isn’t it crazy to not advocate for keeping guns out of the hands of the certifiable?

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Republican and NRA response: “Well it’s too bad about yer’ kid, but I need more guns fer’ when them black helicopters drop in the gummit’ troops and the UN comes a-knockin’ at muh’ door.”

If you live your life in fear and feel you need an arsenal in your home, you need a prescription for a couple of testicles.

http://f.tqn.com/y/politicalhumor/1/W/G/L/6/425567_532186313459018_580797789_n.jpg

GOP and Righties’ logic in response to gun violence and people killed by a gun: “That wouldn’t happen if everybody had a gun.”

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I’m a gun owner in a state with probably the loosest gun laws this side of Afghanistan. We can carry openly (or concealed) into a bar (of all places). My state (Arizona) doesn’t even have a permit req. for CC. I am in favor of such a permit and 36 hours of safety training (the way it was in 1996). And I don’t want guns where alcohol is served. OR in public buildings or schools. And I’d like a stronger background check too.
I admire Mr Martinez and his advocacy.

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GOP “logic” makes no sense to me

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Guns kill indiscriminately, they kill gun lovers and the gunless, they kill babies and adults and sometimes they turn on their owner. Guns can not be trusted and even when the very best trained among us come up against the biggest fools among us with guns, the very best often lose.
Guns don’t know time or have a sense of enough, they just keep killing.

Guns teach death and do it well, guns are freedom and if you don’t like that, they’ll blow you to Hell!

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GOP ‘logic’ is a near oxymoron and is as twisted as a pretzel and as useless as proverbial teats on a boar. And yet is makes perfect sense to their low/no info base and is accepted as truth without any challenge at all.
I’m reminded of Mitt Romney speaking to a Tea Party audience and stating loudly and clearly that “…marriage has been defined as between one man and one woman for three thousand years. It logically follows that we can not sanction same sex marriage.” That from a man whose great grandfather had 12 wives!
Admittedly Mittens’ pronouncement was liberally sprinkled with breathtaking ignorance, irony and hypocrisy as well!
: -)

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It’s raining? Better buy another firearm.

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America. First world technology. Third world attitudes.

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“They didn’t used to happen,” he continued with grim resignation. "They don’t happen in other countries.

Mr. Martinez is clearly a grief stricken man, but sadly for him and the rest of us he’s mistaken. In Norway in 2011 a crazed gunman killed 69 children at a camp on an island, and before that he bombed the government center at Oslo and killed eight people. In February of this year there was an incident in Copenhagen, two people and the gunman were killed. We cannot expect there to be any gun restrictions put in place here, we’ll just keep counting.

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Many maniacs killing a few each or a few maniacs killing many at a time equals the same.
My analogy works with boundaries as well. Guns have no boundaries or nationalism, they just go off.

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I have Twitter conversations with members of the gun enthusiast community, now and again. During these chats, two points become abundantly clear:

  1. It’s not their problem. From their perspective, they’re law-abiding folks who just want to be left alone.
  2. Their rights trump all. Not that it’s the entire community’s viewpoint, but “Joe the Plumber” gave it voice this way: “As harsh as this sounds – your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.”

And they’ve built a wall around themselves, and their attitudes just will not change. They see themselves as under siege, instead of as a community who should be counted on to lend special expertise.

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Thanks to Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Roberts and Alito the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment now allows anyone to keep and bear arms – forget the bother of the “well-regulated militia”. I wonder if the original writers of the Bill of Rights would have accepted that interpretation. Of course, in those days, not many people owned guns and the guns that were available were expensive, notoriously slow to load and inaccurate.

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What else needs to be said?

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NRA already have their answers to the “right not to be shot” line of reasoning worked out. They argue there’s no “right to live” promised under the Constitution. They also argue that the police have no responsibility to protect citizens. These are their actual arguments.

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