love & security or leadership & authority?
There is a crisis in our country and it’s really not about guns, it’s about leadership, role models, and authority. It often does begin with boys in fatherless homes, deprived of any masculine leadership. (Insanitybytes)
Insanitybytes isn’t alone in this belief, it seems to be quite a common theme in the USA. Yet there’s something about the claims made here that simply don’t ring true.
its not really about guns
When people are being killed at the rate they are in the USA, it’s about the weapon that kills them so easily. And that weapon is the gun. You might have another type of crisis with stricter gun control and unarmed police in place, but it wouldn’t involve regular mass killings, and murders by members of your police force.
It really, really, is about guns. So, I propose an experiment for the good citizens of the USA. Why don’t they do a 10 year experiment where they submit to normal levels of gun control that one sees in countries with significantly lower murder rates? After the 10 year experiment period, the people can evaluate whether the resulting drop in murder rate is something they might appreciate.
it’s really about absent fathers
Studies in the USA have shown that people raised in households without a father present are more likely to be criminals. But it’s that old chestnut: does correlation equal causation? It appears not, as a similar study in the UK has demonstrated that:
female-headed families were found to be similar to the traditional families on a range of measures of quality of parenting and young adults’ psychological adjustment. Where differences were identified between family types, these pointed to more positive family relationships and greater psychological wellbeing among young adults raised in female-headed homes. (oxfordjournals)
Because, believe it or not, decent role models for male children aren’t restricted to adult males. Children flourish when they are raised in secure, loving environments – regardless of the gender of the caregivers. The tendency to misattribute a lack of assumed gender stereotypes to poor outcomes for a child is wildly speculative at the least, but more probably agenda driven. Who by? Wayward Christians and their obsession with ‘traditional family values’ that have actually never existed.
Insanitybytes may well be right about something in her wayward musing above. Maybe there is a crisis in her country that’s affecting families and young people. Maybe it’s a crisis that relates to unplanned parenthood and a lack of financial security and opportunities. And the irony of that is that Christians like Insanitybytes regularly campaign to increase both these problems – by attacking valuable public resources that make family planning accessible, and by attacking the welfare security net that can help families facing tough times.
Violet, I tend to agree with you more than Insanitybytes.
LikeLike
That’s a relief. 🙂
LikeLike
“Family planning” is a euphemism for the prenatal genocide called abortion.
The prenatal genocide became legal in the United States over 40 years ago in 1973 Anno Domini.
If “family planning” were really family planning and not genocide, then everything would be just peachy keen, right?
Guns are not the problem. Poverty is not the problem.
If human life may be extinguished on a genocidal scale, why then human life has no value.
That’s why people are being slaughtered, not because of guns.
LikeLike
You’re right about something here SOM. I realised after I posted it that family planning needs to be in conjunction with a serious improvement in sex education for all children. In isolation, it’s first intervention would be in terms of an abortion, which would be an unnecessary procedure if people were properly educated on sex and pregnancy, and provided with easy access contraception options. But, yet again, this is an area that many Christians try to undermine. Their blindness is boggling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
violet,
Sex education has been part of public education for decades.
Yet the situation gets worse with time.
The problem is a moral one, no one concerning knowledge of how to.
LikeLike
I agree, especially in regard to guns. The Constitution was written hundreds of years ago, reflecting a different era, and guns have changed considerably in that time. The ease with which they can be acquired by virtually anyone shows a complete ignorance for their lethal potential, and it would obvious that money is the primary motivation for a failure to act on this problem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Human rights are for all eras and never go out of date.
The right to bare arms is absolutely essential to liberty.
LikeLike
“The right to bare arms is absolutely essential to liberty.”
Really? Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, not only do we not have a “right” to carry arms, we don’t have a “right” to carry any weapon. Not even a pocket knife, or a screwdriver for that matter. Using your argument we would have little or no liberty. Yet when it comes to freedom, we have as much freedom, and in some respects more, than the good citizens of the USA. Here’s one article to support that claim: The Greatest Nation On Earth Isn’t Us. Or check out Wikipedia.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Barry, for those of us fortunate enough to live without weapons and who feel no need to possess them, it’s very difficult to get someone to even imagine what that might be like. Once experienced, of course, the state of being unafraid is so obviously superior to living in fear that it sometimes boggles the mind that there really are people who prefer the fear and who believe that possessing even more weapons is the right way – nay, the only way – to deal with that fear!
I have a large family with many branches that lives in the US, Canada, and Australia so I get the differences (including a close friend and neighbour from NZ). In all cases, we agree that the US gun culture (for a well regulated militia, don’t forget) has evolved into a real life example of the mythical Ouroboros.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yet tighter and more thorough regulations around gun ownership across Europe is not restrictive to our rights here. If a lethal weapon (it is designed to kill) is a symbol of freedom, that’s very sad and unfortunate for freedom.
LikeLike
Barry,
Human rights are timeless and totally independent of situation.
Human rights come with the human package.
Thank God every day that you live in peace and don’t need the power of the gun.
Most of humanity from time immemorial was never that lucky.
LikeLike
darth,
Go out an try to buy a gun and see for yourself how NOT easy it is.
LikeLike
Here in the UK it is absolutely difficult. I can’t go to a gun show and leave that same day with a firearm.
LikeLike
darth,
You are just parroting leftist, anti-gun propaganda.
It is difficult to buy a gun in the United States, even at a gun show.
LikeLike
Yeah absolutely. Citizens of the USA have to consider the history of their gun laws. Something that made sense hundreds of years ago obviously probably won’t make sense now …
LikeLiked by 1 person
violet,
The human right to bear arms is like the human rights of free speech and religion.
It is timeless and completely independent of situation.
Freedom of the individual can never last unless it is backed up by lethal force wielded by the individual in defense of his freedom.
We live in an orderly, peaceful civilization because lethal force won the day.
LikeLike
A shame you were just pipped to the post for comment of the month. This is a tongue in cheek humdinger. You’re a true master!
LikeLike
Also, “family planning” includes the systematic butchering, harvest and sale for coin, of human baby body parts.
Blaming mass death on guns is really TEH Stupid on steroids, let loose to infest the Earth.
LikeLike
Don’t be silly, SOM. Family planning means a person who can’t care for 8 children doesn’t have 8 children *by accident*. Family planning is before anything else birth control.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mr. Merveilleux,
Reality is not silly.
The reality of “family planning” is a tragedy far beyond human imagination.
LikeLike
So people shouldn’t plan to only have enough children that they can support and care for?
LikeLike
You want to see what over-population looks like? Go to India. When you get back, we’ll pick up this conversation…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent example, John!
Now lets institute mass murder to fix the problem!
LikeLike
A strain of E. coli is already resistant to colistin. Across India, a “tsunami of antibiotic resistance” (Global antibiotic consumption 2000 to 2010) is presently killing tens of thousands of new-borns every quarter because once-miraculous cures simply no longer work, and in their 2014 report, The Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy researchers warn of having already found India-specific superbugs such as New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase 1 (NDM1) around the world, including France, Japan, Oman and the United States.
I’m afraid to say SOM, that floodgate is already open.
LikeLike
Guns don’t kill guns; people kill guns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right!
And when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns!
That bit of Democrat Party and leftist wisdom leaves innocent people with nothing left to do but bend over, grab their ankles and beg for gentility.
LikeLike
I agree again SOM that if the USA finally comes to its senses and tightens up on guns it’s going to be a long road to limiting access for criminals, given how saturated your country currently is. I think it’s a road worth travelling. But try and use your vast imagination to think about what life is like in other countries, where we don’t have guns and people are murdered a lot less frequently. There’s less fear of criminals (who are unlikely to have guns), less fear of the police (who can’t accidentally shoot you) and less fear for our lives generally. We don’t need guns.
LikeLike
violet,
The entire world is saturated with guns and weapons of all sorts.
Europe has not been immune to mass killing.
My goodness! Don’t you have any access to real news?
LikeLike
Here violet, try this ten year experiment:
Place any gun on a table, and next to it, a glass of rat poison. See if you can figure out WHAT led a person to pick up the gun………or to drink the glass of poison, or to mass produce the poison and force it down the throats of others.
In your ten year wait, you may discover that both the gun and poison did not jump up and say ‘ooh ooh, take me.’
Exaggeration? No. Your last line shows clearly that you do not understand how America has fallen. Welfare was never meant to be a way of life, which model btw, has done far more damage to the minds of youth, than a million loaded guns just minding their own business in the homes of law abiding people.
If you have any sense of fairness, you must agree. Also, both the gun and the poison are found innocent of all charges. You should be really against outlawing hammers though. Yep, are you aware of how many people are clubbed to death by wayward spouses? Once more, the hammer is found innocent……….but that darn heart………guilty!
And by the way, the recent mobs and riots in Dallas, Louisiana, etc, have NOTHING to do with guns. You just do not get it violet. It is the crooked heart which you are conveniently avoiding. Yeah, but welfare creates model citizens…………….uh huh, sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Goodness, the imbecility of it. Now try a reasonable scenario: seatbelts reduced car accident deaths by 50%. Smoke detectors reduced deaths in fires by over 60%. What can we do to reduce gun deaths? Or should we do nothing because gun deaths are grrrreeeeeaaaat? We should applaud gun deaths because they represent liberty? Justice? Rights?
Your comment goes to show what sort of sectarian jackass you are. You don’t care innocent people are dying, all you want to do is *hooliganize* your team’s path to a very temporary victory.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Not so marvellous a comment, and suffering miserably from myopia.
If your spouse was crushed to death in a car because of a seat belt, because she/he could not escape……….if your son was burned to death because the seat belt was jammed and he couldn’t escape…….the shrieks of his life ending may be a reminder to you that yes, you are a bit shortsighted where one size does not fit all.
Furthermore, perhaps you would prove how loving and liberal you are when making a sandwich for a killer who slaughters your family while you watch……….because there are no arms available……….then after he eats………he will no doubt kill the remaining witness, and smile and walk away..
Your utopia is only a dream, where people who live in the real world are not fearful of power tools.
But this truth will sail right over your head, and you will continue to perpetuate your delusions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Seriously? That’s your logic? 50% of car accident deaths are reduced by seatbelts and your interest is the minority? Your immorality is showing like never before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No pinkie,
I’m merely pointing out to you the hypocrisy of your so called logic.
‘One’ spouse, ‘one’ son lost………..is excruciatingly worse than a thousand deaths unrelated.
Now WHO is stone cold in the heart? Your judgment is impaired, and you should not type while inebriated, like most of your friends who boast of the vodka.
(Immoral though? Tks for the laugh though, coming from someone who has no standard to measure)
And sorry violet for the side trip.
LikeLiked by 1 person
An immoral and disgusting human being you are.
Not one spouse, not one son- but many dead. Every single day. Meanwhile an undereducated imbecile like you who has contributed nothing of value to society continues to pour your venom and hate into the world in a pointless effort to feel your pathetic existence is worthwhile. It isn’t. Light as many candles as you may, click your heels and kill chickens- and you’re still the farce you were before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Colorstorm, it’s an interesting aside. Are you a fan of not wearing seatbelts?
LikeLike
It’s like anything else Vi-
There are some laws that produce bad results; so not a fan, but it is the law.
It would be cruel to create a law that says motorcyclists should be belted. Then there is the helmet law. Some states do not require it, and rightly so. Me? I wear one every time.
(btw, if there is such ‘concern’ for passengers, did u ever notice how school buses are missing seat belts………for the chiiiiiiillllllllllldren?)
Back on point though, I find power tools most helpful.
LikeLike
You do seem to be completely disconnected from law making. It’s based on evidence. People die in much bigger numbers in cars when there are no seatbelts. Not so in buses:
“Overall, travel on a school bus is the safest way to travel – 40 times safer than riding in a car – with only a handful of deaths occurring to passengers on school buses every year.
The explanation for the safety of school buses is explained by a concept called compartmentalization. In compartmentalization, the seats on the school bus are placed very close to each other and have high backs that are very padded. As a result, in an accident, the student would be propelled forward a very short distance into a padded seatback that in a way is like an early version of an airbag.”
http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Safety/a/Why-Don-T-Buses-Have-Seatbelts.htm
It’s kind of depressing that you spout things like this without having the first clue. Or that you don’t know that laws are based on evidence, subject to change as society changes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
From your link:
—with only a handful of deaths occurring to passengers on school buses every year.—
Your own ‘facts’ hang your premise violet. If this was YOUR child, you would be tooting a different horn, and you may even start a campaign that ALL buses be commanded to have belts.
‘Society changes.’ Interpretation: As things suit your world view. Maybe you should read my post ‘evolution is true………….’
LikeLike
It’s true that there are no seatbelts on the what are called ‘Big Yellows’… but for very good safety reasons. For other school purpose vehicles, seatbelts and other restraining belts for wheelchairs are mandatory.
In your rush to pretend you already know why, you once again stay true to form and avoid informing your opinion with knowledge.
LikeLike
Hey Tildeb-
I used to drive a school bus. So once again, you speak from a lack of knowledge, and voice an opinion (which certainly you may) that avoids WHY kids should stay in their seats, and not act like animals in cages.
Perhaps you are not aware of the vice in the public school systems, which occurs daily………on buses.
LikeLike
If this were true, then why didn’t you know about the safety reasons for seatbelt absence rather than spout idiocy as if seatbelts would reduce harm in school buses when the opposite is in fact true?
I notice you’re now switching away from the issue of seatbelts to the dangers of kids not in their seats. This is a legitimate concern and ongoing safety issue. If you were a driver, then you’d know you’re not supposed to continue driving if kids are out of their seats.
LikeLike
Geezo Tild-
It was pinkie who drove the bus off the cliff with his diversion.
Read my first observation, and notice how your friends derailed the substance. Classic diversion.
LikeLike
Just an aside tild-
The very first day on my bus, I stood up and made an announcement, while walking up and down the aisle. I told the kids (all ages, all bus runs) they could make as much noise as they wanted; but they had to stay in their seats, and their heads inside the windows!
Guess what? They self policed themselves and I had zero issues, while other drivers had daily problems. They respected common sense and authority, and upon my leaving, I received gifts and letters of appreciation.
And many of the boys carried pocket knives too. OOOOh, call the cops!
LikeLike
Driving a school bus and designing a school bus (for safety) are not the same thing, you idiot.
LikeLike
Once more you strut your ignorance in knowing nothing about the public school system whereby unbridled children act like ravaging pack dogs.
Not on my bus though.
By the way, (and I will not call you an idiot) the ‘safest’ bus built is but a dangerous and lousy machine in the hands of an unskillful driver.
(Don’t you have work to do on your 2nd edition of the ‘evil God.’
LikeLike
Were you, the bus driver, consulted before the automative engineer got to work? No, you weren’t. Therefore, you cannot talk about the safety mechanisms of the bus.
Please limit yourself to the subject you are expert at: being wrong.
BTW, why don’t you drive buses anymore, John?
LikeLike
hey john
In front of a world wide audience…………
Do you wake up and dream of how many ways you can ply your evil craft daily?
Were you ever acquitted of the rape charges?
You see john, the mere SUGGESTION proves evil intent. If I left this comment alone, others would not know whether this was true or not.
I am offering you a gift here. Take it under advisement.
(and to others, this is purely to make a point, and to my knowledge, zande here was under no such charge)
LikeLike
I’ve deleted his silly questions ColorStorm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tkx Violet for showing decency, but truth be told, he has said far worse. 😉
LikeLike
Oh look, I edited a comment. Does that make me like Insanity? I suddenly feel shame creeping round my body.
But please don’t make such insinuations, it’s not becoming.
LikeLike
It’s a valid question… Why isn`t Colourstorm (John) allowed to drive children anymore?
LikeLike
I left that question, he can answer it if he wants. But jokes about abuse aren’t funny, nor are accusations.
And I don’t recall him suggesting he’s ‘not allowed’?
LikeLike
Banned, perhaps, is a better, more legally accurate word?
LikeLike
Lord Edit, can you fix the formatting on that last comment?
LikeLike
And now look what you’ve made happen! I’m an ally of common sense with ColorStorm. This will look very bad on my CV …
LikeLiked by 2 people
Evidently, by interfering with mischief, you upset Veles (Blessed Be He). If I were you, I’d stay indoors for a few days…
LikeLike
Yay for me, I have an ally of common sense in ms wisp! You are correct, Violet, it was a job many moons ago, and jz must have missed the place whereby my conduct was exemplary, and I received accolades from the school as well as parents and their kids.
It’s a shame that I even need to address this……….good on you though for slapping the hands of zande.
LikeLike
Comparing guns to seatbelts is not logic.
In fact, such a comparison is a famous logical fallacy commonly called comparing apples and oranges.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unless one is educated, in which case we look at all deaths and try to find methods to decrease the numbers.
LikeLike
When SOM goes off his meds and starts commenting like this, good reasons become like water to his duck-back mind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pinky,
I learned about logical fallacies at the university…
…while I was getting an education.
LikeLike
Well, we can only hope that my meds don’t go the way of guns.
LikeLike
Mr. Merveilleux,
Neither smoke detectors nor seatbelts are guns.
Smoke detectors didn’t free the simpering, gutless Europeans from the Nazi’s or the Soviets.
If you want to see idiot, look in the mirror.
LikeLike
I hope you’re smarter than this comment.
The Nazi taking of Europe was successful due to tactics. Before the Nazis there was Napoleon. Before Napoleon there were many, many others.
LikeLike
Pinky,
The use of force is best and most efficiently applied with tactics.
Tactics, by themselves are just games.
LikeLike
“Christian” in name only, these Evangelicals. Do remember, they have their special bible now, written by Andy Schlafly, and he created Republican Jesus®.
LikeLiked by 2 people
When did atheists start hallucinating that Ronald Reagan was Jesus?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve never really liked guns. I don’t see the appeal. Then again, I wasn’t even in High School when Columbine happened. After that, a new type of drill was added to the schedule: Code Red. Every few months we’d practice closing the classroom doors, locking them, turning off the lights, and hiding in utter silence. Then when the all-clear is given, we were to report to our home-rooms so that we could be accounted for. Anyone who was missing / didn’t make it in time was to be considered a hypothetical fatality. That’s the plan for the next mass shooting when it happens at any given public school. We practice that now, whereas my parents generation never had to.
Male role models? Authority? I suppose there could be some slight connection there, but it wouldn’t really make much of a difference. A kid from a perfectly authoritarian home could just as easily be the next guy to pull the trigger. All it would prove is that shooters come from all types of backgrounds and a seemingly perfect kid really wasn’t. We’ve had lots of mass-shootings and the odds are slim that every single one of them had absent fathers. But that’s statistics for you, they don’t lie as readily as unfounded suppositions do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my goodness! Is that true? Do school kids really do drills for mass shooters? I think that is the saddest thing I’ve heard. As I understand it, filling kids with fear of death is common in the American school system, were these kind of drills not used in the 1950s for fear of nuclear attacks? Honestly, I’m shuddering.
I’m convinced kids need love and security way more than they need anything along the lines of authority. Respect comes from trust and security. People who don’t feel good about themselves have difficult feeling good about others, and caregiving is never restricted to what one stereotypical gender assumption can give a child. Just ask all the widows and widowers who single-handed raised kids they adore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
http://www.today.com/parents/code-red-drills-prep-kids-school-shootings-tmi-1C7398347
Yeah – there are even some videos on YouTube of them, they all seem to go under the name Code Red drill.
There’s been a rash of Christian books about Authority and Submission that describe them as parallels of Love and Respect, respectively, so in her book Authority equals Love (as God is both Love and Authority) and Submission equals Respect, those who respect authority will obey them, and therefore there will be no shootings (if so ordered by the authority, unless the authority is God who is sovereign over every bullet that flies). But for those of us who haven’t read those books, there’s no correlation there.
LikeLike
I know the Code Red procedure is mandatory in many provinces’ schools for a host of reasons and not just in the event of shooters… although this is the prime reason and it has already proven to be very effective clearing the halls and allowing police tactical units and bomb squads to do their jobs quickly and efficiently. It has already saved lives when a killer is loose in the school (the latest was a knife-wielding woman) or a weapon report is made and a search conducted immediately. Students and teachers think of it along the lines of a fire drill but with so much connectivity, the fog of the unknown is dispelled almost immediately when and if something does happen and the Code initiated.
LikeLike
Pingback: Wayward Christians? | See, there's this thing called biology...
Pingback: comment of the month – guns and fear | violetwisp