My great uncle, his wife and son were all gunned down in cold blood back in 1963.

[Ikonoklast]

Uncle Bob was a postman, Aunt May was a nurse, and their son Mark was two years older than me. Uncle Bob was a veteran of WWII, was in North Africa and Italy.

He had a Purple Heart.

Aunt May could whistle songbird's calls. Mark was a kid like me, just a kid.

We always visited them when we went back to Connecticut on vacation, where my father was from and where we still have many relatives living to this day.

That evening in June the young man that lived next door walked up to their front door and knocked, and when the door opened, shot my Uncle Bob point-blank with a .38 revolver, then shot Aunt May when she came running to help her husband, then shot Mark in the face.

He killed all three instantly.

He then sat down in their parlor with three blood-spattered bodies on the floor at his feet and called the New London police and told them what he had done.

He waited there until they came for him.

I still vividly remember the look on my father's face when my other great uncle, Robert's oldest brother, called with the news the next day.

Another legal gun owner...right up to the moment he committed a triple homicide, and wiped out an entire family.

[barbtries]

1. i'm so sorry.

did your family ever get any kind of "why"?

[Ikonoklast]

4. The shooter told police there was a long-standing fued between them.

No one else in either the family or the neighborhood was aware of it.

He also told them that the Post Office spied on him.

[closeupready]

49. That's a classic symptom of paranoid schizophrenia.

I'm sorry that this happened to your family.

[nanabugg]

2. No words.... nt

[Tumbulu]

3. I am so sorry! (nt)

[Odin2005]

5. :-(

[Fumesucker]

6. K&R

[Lionessa]

7. So what is the poinnt? No way any gun reform that's ever been on the table in the USA would've

restricted a .38 revolver. So though a touching story, if not a tad confusing relating to ages of personages with apparently your grand uncle Mark being the same age as you, the final comment confuses me. Are you trying to suggest that no one should be able to own guns of any kind any time? You also say it wasn't a stranger shooting and the shooter didn't run or steal or any other crime which makes me curious what the feud was about.

In other words, a really heartfelt story that has nothing to do with guns per se, but instead animosity between neighbors gone awry that could and sounds like would've ended up in deaths regardless of the weapon.

[baldguy]

8. Get rid of the guns.

To toss your hands in the air and say "Well, we just can't do anything about that" is both cowardly and stupid. OF COURSE there's something we can do! We can grow up and get rid of the fucking guns!

[Daemonaquila]

10. A childish, feel-good sentiment.

Except that won't fix anything. Then the bow, the crossbow, the hatchet, the bomb, the taser, gasoline, you name it becomes the next weapon of choice.

There are 30,000 auto-related deaths per year, 16,000 of those related to alcohol. Heart disease kills 599,000 per year. By comparison, the 12,000 gun homicides per year are not as serious a threat. So shall we ban cars? Alcohol? Bacon? All those would prevent more deaths. This ban-the-guns nonsense is as ludicrous as the right wing's call to arm everyone. It's time to stop blaming the tools and do the actual work to deal with WHY people go over the deep end, and WHY our nation's favorite answer to conflict is violence in a myriad forms.

[Blanks]

22. Are you seriously saying that someone...

...who died because they have poor eating habits (a choice they have made) is equivalent to someone gunning you down?

While automobile accidents are tragic, and especially so when an innocent person is killed by a drunk driver. Millions of people drive millions of miles every day; performing a function that is required in order to obtain necessary supplies. Nobody needs guns, if people weren't allowed to own guns; most police officers wouldn't even need guns.

Why people go off the deep end isn't really the issue; why we insist on allowing someone to do so much damage when they do go off the deep end is the issue.

We need cars, we need food, we don't need guns. We require driver education before granting a license, we have food education in school.

We don't have gun education in schools; because we don't need guns.

[jaysunb]

26. Needs and wants....

pretty clear cut from my perch.

[Blanks]

37. Now when I was a member of the 'well regulated militia'

...known as the United Stares Army and another militia known as the Kansas Army National Guard; weapons 'education' was a necessary part of my schedule.

Interestingly, when we weren't using the weapons; they were locked up. I always assumed that was because when you don't 'need' weapons they should be secured.

I think the old saying shoud go: "When they outlaw guns, only the well regulated militia will have guns; anyone else with guns is a criminal."

[Lionessa]

12. I will not give up my guns. Not happening, where I go and how my life is just now,

no way at all I will be entirely unprotected. And when I have hunted with my rifles/shotguns back in the day we ate every ounce and used every part we could of the animals I shot, saved us $1000 in meat costs and were probably 100 times better for us in that they aren't hormone raised livestock. All guns are not bad, sorry not going to happen.

[annm4peace]

31. no one is looking to take your gun

what we are looking for is some kind of common sense registered gun or licensed.

Is that such horrible thing????

How about a person can't buy a bunch of guns over the internet or at a "show".

How about getting a license after a through background check.

How about being able to report some one who is abusive or mentally ill.

[Lionessa]

33. The person to whom I was responding doesn't have your opinion.

As to your other options, "report" someone who is abusive or mentally ill by whose standards? And with what judicial, penal, or police response? Hell, can I just call 911 and tell them a neighbor is mentally ill, and get them out of my way for a while just because I want to? Or do I have to know they have a gun?

You all seem to like to throw out "solutions" without recognizing how some of them are just plain invasive and unnecessary, kind of like making welfare recipients take drug tests because a few might use drugs, regardless of whether there's evidence of using the welfare for such, or that it is causing chronic welfare due to making employment impossible.

[annm4peace]

55. when you report it

then the police, doctors, qualified officials can determind if they should have a gun. Or... if the house or car should be searched to find their gun.

Yes I think there should be regulations. Just like there are regulations to drive a car. Regulations to practice medicine.

regulations to serve food to the public.

We have regulations or licenses for many things. Why not guns.

I have worked in LA County rehab and they had 90 beds of spinal injuries, 90 beds of brain injuries.
60 bed for both of children

i have seen all kinds of gun injuries. many weren't the intended victim. a 3 year old paralyzed. A father of 6 who was quadraplegic, a 17 year old who was training to swim in the olympics ended up paralyzed. Vegetated state of someone because of being shot in the head Some there it wasn't the 1st time they were shot. One guy I worked with (therapy) it was the 4th time.. this time he was paralyzed. a young mother who's fetus was killed and she ended up paralyzed. It is more than killing people.

I have had a cousin who's gun was used against him by a friend and his mother had to make the decision to take him off life support because he was brain dead. my cousin like to go target practicing with his dad. Now he followed the law he just had a jealous and addict friend. My cousin did everything in the law.. so he story isn't what we are talking about gun laws.

I had a friend who was also my boss killed by her husband and then he killed himself. He had depression and was going on and off his meds. Another co-worker had a boyfriend who often beat her.. and even after he choked and the police came to the home as he had her against the wall.. and she was 8 months pregnant.. they gave him back his 3 guns after he spent 2 nights in jail. they were in their mid twenties and she had 3 year old and they lived in a trailer in a trailer park. I moved about 6 months after my boss was killed and don't know whatever because of the abused girl. We all worked a driver's license station..

Should I have the right to have keep plutonium ? I think nuclear weapons will protect me.. maybe I should get an atomic gun to carry around.

[Archae]

34. How?

"Get rid of the guns?"

Same way we "Get rid of the drugs?"

Outlaw guns and only criminals will have them.

The guy who shot my cousin's son in Crandon, wounding him and killing 6 of his friends was a sheriff's deputy.

[bluerum]

9. And your touching display of compassion is part of what endears

the gun community to us all.

Bless your loving soul.

[Lionessa]

11. The OP appears to be making a statement on guns rather than requesting compassion.

So it is logical to ask how he thinks any recommended gun control would have made a diff. Now had he not put in his last comment, perhaps the OP would not be about guns but about tragedy and my response would be different.

[Lex]

14. "requesting compassion" - is that when you give compassion?

wow, I guess that explains a lot

[Lionessa]

16. Actually it explains nothing at all along the lines you suggest.

But if you really feel you're qualified to read a few lines and think you know something about me, then you're delusional.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. You've nailed a cold and selfish person to the wall

It's interesting to see her squirm.

[laundry_queen]

56. +1 nt

[AllyCat]

39. +1

[xtraxritical]

17. How about a six shot clip instead of 100 shot canister?

That's what the law was in the '90s. Maybe only six people instead of 70.

[Lionessa]

20. In this OP it was a 6 shot cylinder. So exactly my point which was

except as a tragic story, what does this have to do with the massacre at hand?

[Travis_0004]

27. Its a tragic story, but the OP is the one who started the conversation on gun control.

If this was an anniversary of the death, and the OP wanted to tell the story, with no editorial comment, then I agree with you, but the OP can't make a thread about gun control, and then not expect a reply.

As the story stated, the gun used was a 38 revolver. You will never see those banned, it simply can not happen without overturning the second amendment, which I don't think even the brady campaign is trying to overturn.

Also, there are many countries with a total ban on guns, and it does not prevent all gun violence.

[Chorophyll]

28. +1

Just wow.

[whathehell]

51. LOL!!...n/t

[dsc]

18. actually the uncle was bob

marc was presumedly their child.

[Lionessa]

23. He said great uncle, OH......DUH! He may have meant a great guy who's his uncle, not

Great uncle like grand uncle or grand father. DUH! Totally misread that, I bet.

[dsc]

29. It isn't all that hard for a great uncle or aunt to have kids about the same age as their

great niece or nephew. To take one example from my family, my brother's oldest child is about 9 years younger than my sister. He recently had a child and my sister is still in child bearing years. Any child she were to have would be younger than her great niece. Heck I could have children as well since I am male and those kids would also be younger than my great niece.

[pnwmom]

19. A gun reform that kept guns out of the hands of crazy people would be a good start.

Chances are, someone knew that boy was disturbed, and he shouldn't have had access to any gun.

[Ikonoklast]

21. The only animosity was in the mind of the shooter.

Try to follow, if you can.

He thought the Post Office spied on him.

Uncle Bob was a postman.

Can you connect the dots, or do you need a map?

How can there be animosity between neighbors if only one neighbor is aware of it?

The killer could have used any method to murder them, but he didn't.

He chose the most efficient tool for murder at his disposal, a handgun.

[Lionessa]

25. I don't see that in the OP and I don't read every entry.

If it hadn't been a gun, it'd have been something else. There are currently mass killings that involve no guns, I'm thinking machetes. .. Guns aren't the problem, just one of the many indications of symptoms. The disease is and always has been inequality that leaves folks without healthcare, mental care, education, employment, and therefore without personal esteem or integrity.

[Blanks]

38. I'd like to see an example of someone wielding a machete and killing...

...12 people and wounding 70. Do you have a link for that?

Guns are the problem. None of the recent massacres involved a health care shortage; the most recent one involved an extremely educated person.

I recommend you modify your standard spiel so that it actually involves motives for recent massacres.

[Lionessa]

44. Here you go, I think instead you just need an education.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide

An entire genocide provided by...... machetes because....

Many members of the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi were armed only with machetes. Even after the 1993 peace agreement signed in Arusha, businessmen close to General Habyarimana imported 581,000 machetes from China[15] for Hutu use in killing Tutsi, because machetes were cheaper than guns.[16] I

[Blanks]

45. Wow, one guy killed all those people?

Oh, I see, that's not the case, and not what I asked for.

There is a huge difference between a whole bunch of people killing a whole bunch of people, and one person killing a whole bunch of people.

The fact that the article starts with the words 'many members' should have clued you in to the fact that it didn't meet the criteria that I had asked for; which was one person killing a whole bunch of people with something other than a gun. A whole bunch of people could kill with sharpened sticks, rocks or even drowning.

However, you won't find such a story because it doesn't exist. One person wielding a machete in a dark movie theater probably couldn't have killed the two guys who got in the way of the bullets to protect their girlfriends; he certainly wouldn't be able to wound 70 people. The guys in Columbine would have been put down quickly if all they had were machetes.

I understand that you like your guns, but surely you can see that there is no comparison to the kind of damage that can be done with machetes with the kind of killings we've seen in the last couple of decades from guns.

[bongbong]

53. Answers

You won't get straight answers from gun-religionists.

They're assigned to waste your time, run up their post count (to become reputable), and to move the gun-Overton-Window to the right.

[mrmpa]

35. Pretty callous comment, don't you think? eom

[Lionessa]

36. Reality is callous.

[abelenkpe]

48. No only you are callous

Selfish and paranoid. Worried more about your guns than those murdered. We need regulations to keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people. That's abundately clear to most rational humans.

[AllyCat]

42. I interpreted the OP a different way as more of the "guns don't kill people" argument

Actually, I don't see that the OP is telling anything more than a story that sounds like many others in our history. It is terrible what has happened to his family.

Then you come along with your defenses up for no reason, questioning the truthfulness of the story and showing disdain for what the OP has put out there. It doesn't matter how many people die, as long as the rights of people who want to have guns at any cost or price are upheld is the message I get from the over-the-top pro-gun supporters (not talking about pro-gun folks who are not scared to death that someone will "take their guns&quot

I hope you find some peace in your life because it is attitudes like yours that worry me in the hands of gun holders.

[Lionessa]

43. You sure read way more into a post than is there,

so I'm stunned you aren't chastising yourself for such an over the top and personally directed post, which mine was not.

Perhaps before you worry about my safety and sanity, you should consider your ability to read and comprehend.

[magical thyme]

50. a killer claiming an ongoing feud is not evidence of "animosity between neighbors"

That the killer also believed the post office was spying on him suggests, as others have posted, some kind of mental illness.

Animosity between neighbors does not normally include the guy next door showing up and shooting your family to death.

And there is no proof there was such a feud; only the killer's word.

On the other hand, a background check that showed a history of mental health issues could prevent at least some murders.

[Go Vols]

13. I am truly sorry for your loss.

My oldest boy would have been 27 today had he not been killed by an elderly reckless driver 5 years and 11 months ago.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. 1963 was when I saw my first real gun

I was visiting a neighbor's house when one of the kids who was a couple of years older than I was told me he had something to show me. He opened up the drawer of an end table, and there was a handgun. He took it out, and suddenly his father started yelling and I got out of there as fast as I could, never to return.

At that young age, I had no idea how destructive guns could be. I'm sorry for your great uncle and his family

[Atypical Liberal]

30. Tragic, but fortunately, rare.

The idea that most homicides are committed by people who "just snap" is a myth. Criminologists know that most people who commit homicide have extensive prior criminal histories. And this should not be surprising. Few people develop a callous disregard for the lives of other people overnight. Rather, it is usually years of escalating victimization and violence that culminates in murder.

http://www.cardozolawreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=138:kates201086&catid=20:firearmsinc&Itemid=20

"In 2009 Clayton Cramer and I published an article21 describing some of the studies subsequent to those Professor Elliott summarized. Like the prior studies, the later ones continue to demonstrate his point that “virtually all” murderers have prior criminal records. A few examples:

MASSACHUSETTS: “Some 95% of homicide offenders . . . [in a Kennedy School study had been] arraigned at least once in [Page91] Massachusetts courts before they [murdered]. . . . On average . . . homicide offenders had been arraigned for 9 prior offenses.22

ATLANTA: Eighty percent of 1997 Atlanta murder arrestees had previously been arrested at least once for a drug offense; and 70% had three or more prior drug arrests—in addition to all their arrests for other crimes.23

DELAWARE: Reporting on shootings, including many in which victims had only been wounded rather than killed, 80% of shooters had arrest records going all the way back to their juvenile years; 57% had been charged at least twice with drug offenses.24

NEW YORK CITY: A New York Times study of the 1,662 murders in that city over the years 2003-2005 found “[m]ore than 90 percent of the killers had criminal records . . . .”25

ILLINOIS: Over the years 1991-2000, the great majority of murderers had prior felony records.26"

The single biggest determinating factor in whether someone is going to commit murder or not is their past criminal history. If they have no criminal history, they are extremely unlikely to commit murder. It does happen as happened to your family and to those families in the recent mass murder, but fortunately, it is rare.

[Tsiyu]

32. You never get over that and I am sorry

just as those in the Gabriel Gifford's shooting, those at Columbine, at VA Tech, at Aurora, at Eaton Mall, at Scarborough, in Norway, will never get over that kind of violent end to life.

The blase attitude of many here is stunning, really

The "I got mine so fuck you if it hurts" mentality is so GOOD for community-building, isn't it?

You can't even relate what happened ( I'm sure these shootings force you to remember it every time ) without some asshole clutching their gun to their bosom and accusing you of trying to grab it.

It's time for gun owners to have a serious soul searching, in many cases here.

[xchrom]

40. du rec. nt

[Irishonly]

41. I am very sorry

My heart breaks for your family and all the people who loved them.

[Liberal_in_LA]

46. How horrific

[Ikonoklast]

47. To all of you that expressed their regrets, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

To all of those to who believe that no horror such as this will ever visit any of their friends or loved ones, consider yourself only one slip of fate away from tragedy.

Do not think for one minute that you are exceptional.

You aren't.

[lunatica]

52. I'm sorry for the horrible death of your family members

It's a terrible thing to live with.

[bongbong]

54. My family had a run-in with guns

Not nearly as bad as yours, but bad enough. Naturally it was "law-abiding" gun-relgionists who attempted the murder.

My condolences to you.