San Bernardino, Ca. Shootings

[Ron Duke]

About 10 miles from my home. 22 minutes.
14 dead and 14 wounded so far. Still developing.
Several City police departments involved along with County Sheriffs, FBI and ATF!

Yikes!

[gwpriester]

Have we all died and gone to hell? This madness has to stop.

[stygg2003]

Very sad indeed to see in the news another mass shooting and killing of the innocent yet again in America. Why does the US Congress block all gun control efforts? Surely you must have to have some stronger gun controls in place to help stop this madness. My thoughts go out to all those who have lost someone in this latest madness.

Stygg

[MarcT]

It's sad, the frequency of those events are staggering.

Maybe it's because more and more people are left aside, a by-product of an increasingly individualist society.

[mikeymopar]

and it's only gonna get worse. It's progressing from the single person who feels that there's a wrong-doing that they personally need to correct to now recruiting others to help, as in this California shooting from the looks of it. And tougher gun laws won't do a single thing except increase the number of guns stolen or illegally purchased. There are thousands of legally purchased and registered firearms in northern Michigan and very, very few assaults, homicides, murders. It's the mentality of the younger generation that is the issue. There will always be a weapon. Guns, knives, vehicles, bombs (what I fear will be on the uprise), sticks, stones....if there's the will there's a way

And watch the many videos of high school-ish aged kids and their total lack of respect for another person let alone an authority figure or even the law in general. In a weird way, it's good that video is everywhere because cameras don't lie. These kids, and their parents of course, declare innocence but video clearly shows the opposite.

An event that still has me wondering how kids are being brought up these days was the annual pillow fight at West Point; a tradition since supposedly 1897. In the last couple of years, students have been putting hard objects in the pillow cases. This past summer besides broken bones, 24 students received concussions. The academy at first said "no worries" but has just recently banned any future pillow fights. LINK Why would anyone want to inflict so much pain and possibly kill a classmate/friend?

Just wait until this narcissistic, self-righteous younger generation become adults and will use other means to knock down anyone who gets in their way.

my apologies for the rant. very sore spot with me. i don't talk politics, religion, or really anything else for that matter. live and let live; you won't hear me complain. but for the life of me, i can't understand this total disrespect that people have towards others.

[gwpriester]

I do not want this discussion to get political even though we all have our opinions. I think it is enough to express our sorrow at the shootings a express our other feelings in a more appropriate forum.

[Big Frank]

nm

[Cloud]

I think mikey that most people when they are teenagers they will behave in an anti-establishment way, and will hopefully grow out of it. The problem is that we give them (the tiny minority of mental unhinged individuals) the tools to take that anger out on other people, such acts are unheard of here in the UK because other than to the criminal element, guns are not easily available.

Everyone I know is shocked whenever we hear of such atrocities committed over there and can't believe that people still bring up the right to bear arms even when that particular right was written down in the time of looming war and was very specifically was a thing of it's time.

[mwenz]

Cloud,

Though this year may/will skew the statistics, the USA is about in the middle of what are categorized as mass shootings in a list of the top 10 nations when adjusted on a per capita basis. Norway leads the list. France is at the bottom of the list--though again this year's atrocities may/will likely skew those statistics.

The history of Britain has also had more than its fair share once one goes back a dozen years and more.

I find it funny that people criticize the US' loose adherence to its Constitution when they do not live here nor actually studied its formation as a rebellion to who/what up to then was in control--all the while they adhere to what we consider odd rule. The Constitution is as valid today as it was written.

Guns themselves are not the problem. How those guns are bought and by whom is a larger problem that needs to be addressed in light of the Constitution. It should be done but there is a lack of political will to do so. One also needs to understand that for people who want to kill other people, guns are not necessary. Poison gas has been done in France and Japan, likely elsewhere. Bombs? Easy to make as has been proven a few times in the US and elsewhere. Taking the access to guns away will do nothing as regards stopping those intent on mass killings. It will possibly help in more domestic violence areas--but I doubt it.

This incident in the US and the one in France have ties to world terrorism, it's proof that it is spreading. Soon enough no where will be immune to such idiocy. We, the US, have enough issues with our normal lunacy.

[pauland]

We, the US, have enough issues with our normal lunacy.

Absolutely, as demonstrated by those who stand against Obama's very moderate attempt to stop the guns free for all.

I remember telling someone on a trip to the USA some years back that I had never seen a gun in real-life that was not in the hands of a policeman or a soldier and I didn't know of anyone that actually owned one.

The reaction was a dropped jaw.

Anyway school-kids will continue to pay the price for people's bizarre wish to walk around like cowboys with no restraints on their ability to tool up with lethal weapons.

When you want to talk about gun-violence just being the preserve of a few unbalanced people and nothing to do with the liberal, legal supply of guns, compare it with the UK whose gun violence statistics for the whole of the country would be the envy of many American cities.

I feel a thread-closure coming on.