Well, there's the theme for the day -
Mar. 14th, 2005 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgAnd it's nothing but a damned shame.
Police say Ratzmann walked out of a church meeting two weeks ago, apparently upset about a sermon, reports CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella. They also say he was about to lose his job.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday the Feb. 26 sermon that upset Ratzmann had made the point that people's problems are of their own making.
According to the paper, police trying to piece together a motive for the rampage are studying encrypted files from Ratzmann's three computers, seized from the home he shared with his mother and sister in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
The newspaper says police also found a .22-caliber rifle and a box of bullets that matched those used in the killings.
What they have not found is a suicide note, or anything else unusual in the house.
I'm not going to state that having a gun is wrong. It's not my preferred method of self-defense, and I think I can support the decision.
Rifles are pretty cool things, actually. There are some pretty impressive handguns out there, but don't ask me to own one. Don't want it.
You can't legislate morality - and that's at the heart of the 'gun control' issue.
You wouldn't need to restrict access if nobody wanted the things, after all. I have much the same opinion about abortion. (Stop demand, and you'll stop the process.)
Add a gun to a volatile situation, and it instantly becomes deadly. A shouting match turns into a fire fight - and what for?
Dead is dead. Dead ain't never coming back again.
I've lived in Southern California ALL my life. Before, during and after all the highway shootings - BOTH of the LA riots - in areas you'd recognize from the papers as the haven for drive-by shootings...and the only shooting I've had any direct knowledge of, was a pellet gun someone discharged through the floor of a condo into the unit below (there were twenty-somethings or younger in both, squatting was an issue) - that's it, folks. No injuries.
Have I dealt with my share? Oh very yes. Let me tell you about the drug dealer I sent up the river. Look Ma, no gun.
And the scariest thing I sense from a lot of gun owners is that false sense of security carrying gives them. I have a gun. I'll be fine no matter what. Then the situation comes up where a gun isn't indicated - but it's used - and the results are tragic, permanent and absurd.
Me, thinking that everyone out there is a potential gun-carrying threat, is something that hasn't been substantiated. Yes, there are some. I read about them all the time.
Most of the time, they're like this poor schmuck. And a gun simply becomes the 'nuclear' option to dealing with what bugs you.
As a culture, if we want to do anything about the issue of 'control', this HAS to be dealt with. Not restricting access. That didn't do diddly.
I keep going back to the Swiss, who have more guns and less problems than anyone I know -
"Small men deal with their problems with handguns." And you never confront someone in anger by using a gun. EVER. It's simply barbaric, and you'd find people horrified at the thought. (That sort of thing is for children and Americans, y'understand.)
They also have a lot less privacy, and far more societal pressures to 'behave' than you do here. But everyone of them has a gun and HAS to be good with it at the same time.
But I think, they're also expected to be thinking, rational adults as well. And get rewarded for it.
A culture is made up of individuals - more so in the USA than anywhere else. I insist on other means to solve violent issues than shooting them. That's my contribution to gun control.
My opinion - that, and five bucks will get you a meal at Starbucks.
Police say Ratzmann walked out of a church meeting two weeks ago, apparently upset about a sermon, reports CBS News Correspondent Kelly Cobiella. They also say he was about to lose his job.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday the Feb. 26 sermon that upset Ratzmann had made the point that people's problems are of their own making.
According to the paper, police trying to piece together a motive for the rampage are studying encrypted files from Ratzmann's three computers, seized from the home he shared with his mother and sister in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
The newspaper says police also found a .22-caliber rifle and a box of bullets that matched those used in the killings.
What they have not found is a suicide note, or anything else unusual in the house.
I'm not going to state that having a gun is wrong. It's not my preferred method of self-defense, and I think I can support the decision.
Rifles are pretty cool things, actually. There are some pretty impressive handguns out there, but don't ask me to own one. Don't want it.
You can't legislate morality - and that's at the heart of the 'gun control' issue.
You wouldn't need to restrict access if nobody wanted the things, after all. I have much the same opinion about abortion. (Stop demand, and you'll stop the process.)
Add a gun to a volatile situation, and it instantly becomes deadly. A shouting match turns into a fire fight - and what for?
Dead is dead. Dead ain't never coming back again.
I've lived in Southern California ALL my life. Before, during and after all the highway shootings - BOTH of the LA riots - in areas you'd recognize from the papers as the haven for drive-by shootings...and the only shooting I've had any direct knowledge of, was a pellet gun someone discharged through the floor of a condo into the unit below (there were twenty-somethings or younger in both, squatting was an issue) - that's it, folks. No injuries.
Have I dealt with my share? Oh very yes. Let me tell you about the drug dealer I sent up the river. Look Ma, no gun.
And the scariest thing I sense from a lot of gun owners is that false sense of security carrying gives them. I have a gun. I'll be fine no matter what. Then the situation comes up where a gun isn't indicated - but it's used - and the results are tragic, permanent and absurd.
Me, thinking that everyone out there is a potential gun-carrying threat, is something that hasn't been substantiated. Yes, there are some. I read about them all the time.
Most of the time, they're like this poor schmuck. And a gun simply becomes the 'nuclear' option to dealing with what bugs you.
As a culture, if we want to do anything about the issue of 'control', this HAS to be dealt with. Not restricting access. That didn't do diddly.
I keep going back to the Swiss, who have more guns and less problems than anyone I know -
"Small men deal with their problems with handguns." And you never confront someone in anger by using a gun. EVER. It's simply barbaric, and you'd find people horrified at the thought. (That sort of thing is for children and Americans, y'understand.)
They also have a lot less privacy, and far more societal pressures to 'behave' than you do here. But everyone of them has a gun and HAS to be good with it at the same time.
But I think, they're also expected to be thinking, rational adults as well. And get rewarded for it.
A culture is made up of individuals - more so in the USA than anywhere else. I insist on other means to solve violent issues than shooting them. That's my contribution to gun control.
My opinion - that, and five bucks will get you a meal at Starbucks.
