DS, appreciate you stepping in with such high quality work.

OT, what’s good for the goose is evidently NOT good for the gander. NRA Annual Meeting: No Guns Allowed

While I certainly agree that more guns equals less crime and that private gun ownership prevents many shootings, …

While I agree that more ideologically-based arguments prevents reality-based solutions to real problems,

… I don’t agree that conservatives and libertarians should view government legislation, especially at the federal level, as the solution to violence

it is important to remember that many conservatives and libertarians have yet to fully evolve to the level of the rest of humanity and that some of them created a group called the NRA, which represents people who are happy to sell guns to both sides.

Libertarians are selfish.

William Spengler’s Note Before Killing Webster Firefighters: ‘Do What I Like Doing Best, Killing People’ (12/25/2012):

WEBSTER, N.Y. — An ex-con killed two firefighters with the same caliber and make military-style rifle used in the Connecticut school massacre

William Spengler, Killer Of 2 New York Firemen, Had Bushmaster Semiautomatic Rifle (12/25/2012):

WEBSTER, N.Y. — Police say the man who lured firefighters in Webster, N.Y., into a deadly ambush had the same make and caliber semiautomatic rifle as the one used in the Connecticut school massacre.

Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said Tuesday that 62-year-old William Spengler was armed with a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, a .38-caliber revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun in Monday’s ambush. Spengler killed two firefighters and wounded two others before fatally shooting himself.

Would RP object to the Big Corporate gun lobby funding armed guards in schools while we continue to do nothing about regulating assault weapons and gun shows? No way.

Officials: NY gunman William Spengler — a [murderous]felon who wasn’t allowed to possess weapons — set ‘trap’ for firefighters.

http://t.co/66ZN5dKQ

You have forgotten how the government gets its missions. If I have a problem and my Home Owners Association cannot satisfy it, then I go to the City, if the City cannot solve my problem then I go to the County, if the County cannot satisfy my problem then I go to the State, if the State cannot satisfy my problem I go to the Federal Government. That is how the fed gets all of its missions. They are all based upon need, or demand, just like a business. Without a need, or demand there is no mission. If you do not want the feds to do something then do it at a lower level. If they are presently doing the job then zero based budgeting will reduce the funding of that mission to zero and the feds will not do it. So if you don’t want the feds to do it just like my wife’s self cleaning laundry room then you have to do it yourself.

Ehhh. I never thought Ron Paul was all THAT outgoing…

If more guns equal more safety, then the United States must be the safest place in the world. It is safer than many places, but I don’t see the correlation that Paul does between the quantity of guns and the degree of safety.

I’m *guessing* that RP may not measure the overall safety of society at a moment in time, for example the year 2012. Rather it may be measured over a period of time, including the period of time that theoretically involves a second revolution… say 1776 to 2076.

If you accept the notion that our former POTUS tortured people and conducted warrantless searches… and our current POTUS institutionalized these things by way of ignoring them… then ramped up the imperial presidency with assassination of American citizens and undeclared “kinetic action”… is it really unreasonable to believe that our Congress is content continuing down the path to an elected dictatorship? And if we get there, will the ugly side of world history repeat itself on our shores? I certainly don’t want it to happen. But could it?

And if it could… or if one could reasonably hold that world view… then could one reasonably want broad gun ownership? I certainly wouldn’t want to see Syria replayed in America. But would Syria be experiencing the current bloodshed if, for decades (or as far back as Hafez Assad began his rule) Syria had universal (or widespread) gun ownership?

I don’t condone violence. But I also think it’s not unreasonable for some to be concerned — not about today, but — about where we will be 100 years from now.

If safety is not measured in years, but rather measured in centuries… we *may* eventually conclude that America was safer over several centuries than most countries.

I obviously don’t know what Paul means exactly. But I think this is a reasonable explanation of the views of some gun owners.

Paul had one cautionary contention to which we should all take heed ,a witch hunt to involuntarily commit people who are mentally ill .Throw a profit motive into a mix of preventative detention ,and the previously horrid record of snake-pit institutionalization,i.e. ,Willowbrook ,and GS will be commodifying ,collateralizing and securitizing all the lost souls they fucked into homelessness via mortgage fraud .We have devolved into 18th century biological determinism ,so we are returning to the low-brow profile of Lombrosi’s “” criminal man”. Add biological criteria for commitment to an asylum ,and this reeks of future fascistic nightmares.

The old pyro killed his grandmother in an argument ,so on what day was he determined to no longer a threat to public safety ?

For a great analyses of how alienation is linked to these recent mass murders ,I give the highest endorsement of Gabor Mate on Democracy Now ,12-26 .

The calls for addressing mental illness are very concerning to me for the same reason. How do we define mental illness?

I’ve dated several girls who IMO had more problems after they began taking SSRIs.

And in the 60s & 70s my mom had a persistent ringing in her ear. During that time she saw many medical doctors, some of who diagnosed her with “neurotic housewife syndrome.” By the 1980s, it was determined that she had a brain tumor.

I think there is real value in psychiatry, but I’m not convinced that diagnoses are always consistent and for an individual’s best interest. And if it’s not, how does one contest it?

Expanding access to / use of mental health services needs to be done extremely cautiously… and the profit factor is always a concern too.

Ron Paul is not for either the “liberal” or “conservative” version of the police state that both corporatist parties want so much.