I will say that I am troubled by recent trends with these shootings and the call for a ban on assault weapons. I have seen people say the Bill of Rights is now an ancient document, and implying it should be done away with. The reaction is horrible to me. I was wondering if Libertarians and Republicans can address what I see are problems with some responses and arguments, and please provide others that would end up not causing the second amendment, and the rights of the citizentry to arm and protect themselves against all enemies foreign and domestic, that seems to be going on now. And note, I am not saying both are one and the same, just their views overlap, but also I have a mix of views that can belong to one group or another. Also, after this, I am curious what the solution should be to reduce these shootings, or is the idea to just live with more innocent people getting gunned down, because that is the price of freedom.
Ok, onto the responses and arguments, and flaws I see with them:
* Ignore the issue: These shootings will go away and we don't need to worry about it. The idea is to bury one's head in the sand and not believe they would continue. Anyone here believe that that this is the case? Do you see these shootings as a quirk and they will stop?
* Arm the police, get tough on crime, make life harder for criminals and pass capital punishment: The usually Republican line is that we need to arm the state more and have the government crack down more on bad people. Make the government the biggest bully, but in the hands of right people and deter criminals from doing things. You want to put the fear of righteousness in the minds of criminals, so they don't do that are are deterred. You also want to preemptively shoot them down before they do anything more. The NRA called for arming all police. The issue I have is you are getting a number of shooters, after they do their shootings, end up turning their guns on themselves. Exactly how does deterance work when the person doing the crime will practice capital punishment on themselves?
* We must win the war on terror: This is advocating more government monitoring for our safety. This means more watching everywhere, and less privacy.
* We must stop the corrupting of our youth: This is a call for censorship and reducing certain literature. So, I am curious if preventing me from playing Black Ops 2 is the answer.
* Arm everyone: We had shootings in schools. Are we to arm all the students with guns? Would giving students their own handguns make for things that are safer, or are you more likely to have an angry student in an a heated argument, go off on their kids.
* Implement checkpoints everywhere and keep guns out of places they are at: Does Ft. Hood allow people to freely go about with guns? And heck, where does the money come from to turn schools
* Home school the kids. Keep them out of school and that way noth clustered together: Apparently the shooter in Connecticut was home schooled. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_lanza#Perpetrator
Ok, so those are a number of concerns I have. I was wondering if they could be addressed, and what a possible solution would reduce these, or if it is just something to live with. And there is also calls to slash spending by Washington. Is the problems solvable by reducing funding?
