Coping with the 'natural disaster' of firearms crime in America

[ejbr]

BEFORE the dead had even been carried from the cinema in Colorado on Friday afternoon, a CBS broadcaster said in a solemn radio editorial: ''We'll eventually find out who James Holmes is, but he's not a terrorist, we're told, and thousands of other showings were peaceful, so really we have to start seeing these things as natural disasters, like an earthquake or a tornado.''

That this view was swept away in the deluge of sad commentary on Friday was surprising to me as an outsider. By this standard, James Holmes was not a young man armed more heavily than US soldiers in Afghanistan, but an event, an act of God, to be weathered rather than countered.

This, even though he was carrying two semi-automatic pistols, a shotgun and an assault rifle with a clip that let him fire 100 rounds without reloading, and though he was wearing body armour from head to toe, and a gas mask, and though he carried a tear-gas grenade to disorient his victims, and though he bought all this equipment legally from discount stores and websites.

After mass killings in schools, universities, offices, restaurants and even a military base there is no real debate, let alone political action, to restrict the free sale of any guns - even military weapons - in America. It is difficult to understand how a country that so truly values its citizens' rights to life can tolerate such a situation.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/coping-with-the-natural-disaster-of-firearms-crime-in-america-20120722-22i79.html#ixzz21PcBuVrg

A foreign perspective.

[Tsiyu]

1. Basically that CBS broadcaster is saying "Give Up."

what a tool.

A natural disaster is something we cannot control.

We can, as a society, do things to minimize the chance of mass shootings. But the 1% - including the owners of CBS News - want to hoard all of our wealth so that we are not allowed to do any prevention, any screening, any mental health counseling, any adequate checks on who buys firearms and what they buy.

Sick.

This is why I have no TV. The idiots on the radio are bad enough. CBS should be ashamed. They are absolutely disgusting in their disdain for the 99%

K&R

[Skittles]

2. if that broadcaster had been in that theater with his family

he'd be singing a different tune - they are HYPOCRITES too

[Reasonable_Argument]

3. Human nature

It's human nature to desire to control your environment. Doubly so after a tragedy such as this. Where the author shows his bias is that he trumpets American's respect for their rights, while ignoring that owning firearms is another fundamental right in this country. We can do more to prevent mass shootings in the future, like an expanded mental health care system tied to the instant background check for firearms but it won't prevent every tragedy. Those of you wanting to disarm the American public are letting your emotions get the better of your reason.