[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Of course its not acceptable what kind of question is that?

Though it did seem to me it was perfectly acceptable to many hootin and a hollerin for the terrorists ... err I mean rebels, during Arab Spring. Encouraging war, famine, displacment in the name of freedom and democracy, oh ya that was without a doubt totally acceptable.

What has that got to do with dead American children?

Now the frenzy over a murderer and the tools he used to commit such a henious act has everyone blasting away at each other. Touting statistics and how much more enlightened they are over the other knowing exactely what the other should be doing about it. How noble, go ahead pat yourselves on the back for caring. But how many of us have ignored their own neighbor, the one right next door to you, who is in need? Hell, how many even know your neighbors real name?

I've known every neighbour we've lived next door to, for better or for worse. The thing is, there is clearly a problem and identifying the cause is far from simple. We've named a few in this thread, and sure there are plenty more problems in society as a whole...but should we, as society, work towards fixing these problems rather than just ignoring them and hoping they'll go away?

IMO the best each one of us can do is live our lives in peace and set a good example for others to follow. Realize nobody can answer the actions of others nor prevent them from doing what seems right in their eyes.

Not all people are as inflexible as that, some are malluable, able to be molded into different beliefs based upon those around them. Peer pressure, society, any number of things can change a person and not always for the better. I mean once upon a time under-aged sex was a perfectly permissable activity, and now it's strongly frowned upon, and illegal. The norms of society change, and they change when people want them to change. There is a growing movement in America that wants the norm of regular school shootings to change, and whilst at the moment it is pushing against a large wall of inertia, do you really think that so long as the shootings continue that the movement will just go away? The way I see it is that it would be better to seek a compromise now than to continue to stonewall it until someone does take the nuclear option and tries to ban firearms which will lead to the sort of mess that takes a country a long time to recover from.

But I tell ya when people start thinking they know whats best for me on account of the actions of others worries me a heck of a lot more than gettin shot by a handgun.

That's fair enough, I can respect that, no one wants to live in a nanny state, but chances are that the things that I've put forward are things that you do anyway if you're a sensible and respectable gun owner, so at the end of the day it wouldn't have any effect on you. Unless one day you decide that you want to give a toddler a loaded handgun to play with or something stupid.