Instead of Christmas,
we are stuck on mass murder,
because of the shooting
on 12/14/12
at the Sandy Hook school
in a quiet,
remote suburb
of New York City.
I'm writing this a week after the event.
Here are some comments I wrote
recently,
musing,
thinking about
this diary:
I thought about the bigger picture,
the grief over small children,
taking over the headlines,
and the break room buzz
here in Wichita,
and the topic of your haikus.
And I'm thanking you
for words that fill my ego,
and asking for more.
Makes me seem evil and cold,
but that's the way we live;
we think about tragedy,
then,
within a few seconds,
we think about Christmas,
eating dinner
at our favorite Chinese restaurant.
I have a lot to say
about the shooting;
I don't have time to say it right now.
I wonder if I'll put some of it
in my Christmas diary,
or in a separate diary.
No,
in the Christmas diary.
I have so much to say.
I love you so much,
anyone who reads
anything I write,
I love you.
Most Daily Kos members won't like
what I write about the shooting,
and guns,
but one important point
of the debate
is stated so well
in this diary:
People kill people,
But it's much easier with
an assault rifle.
Thank you so much
for writing those words.
I might make those words
a jumping off point
for what I have to say.
Thanks again.
This diary is mostly quotes,
quoting comments
I've already written.
Welcome to Indigo Kalliope:
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................................
This quote is from Wikipedia,
from an article about the shooting;
the description of Newtown, Connecticut:
Violent crime is rare in the town of 28,000 residents, and there had been only one homicide in the town in the ten years prior to the school shooting.
This is also from Wikipedia;
information about the type of gun used in the shooting:
As of 2012, there are an estimated 2.5-3.7 million rifles from the AR-15 family in civilian use in the United States.[11] The rifles are favored for target shooting, hunting, and personal protection.[12]
In December 2012, the Bushmaster rifle was subject to controversy in the United States after it was used by Adam Lanza to kill 27 in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.[13]
If there are 3 million of these
in the USA,
with 300 million Americans,
that means there is one of these
for every 100 Americans.
This is a link to a Daily Kos diary
that has maps,
showing where the guns are,
and where the shootings are.
It shows that America
has way more guns per 100 people
than any other country.
Way more.
We have nearly one gun for each American,
nearly 300 million guns.
Here is the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Here is my comment from that diary:
I don't see what you see in those maps.
I see the USA
and Brazil
opposite from each other
between the first map
and the second map.
The USA has by far the most guns
per 100 citizens,
nearly one gun for each American.
But Brazil
has a much higher gun homicide rate.
The rate in the USA is:
• But the US does not have the worst firearm murder rate - that prize belongs to Honduras, El Salvador and Jamaica. In fact, the US is number 28, with a rate of 2.97 per 100,000 people
I live in Wichita,
Kansas,
population 500,000.
That gun homicide rate means
that,
on average,
15 of my fellow citizens
of Wichita
will die each year
by way of guns.
Given the huge number of guns here,
that sounds reasonable.
I know people here,
personally,
who drew guns and fired on each other,
just recently.
No one was hit.
I'm not a gun person myself,
I don't like the glut of guns all around me,
but folks will kill each other,
always.
And guns make it easier,
but comparing the USA
with Brazil,
makes it seem that Americans
are very restrained,
in general.
I can live with this.
Let's say 25% of my fellow Wichita residents
have all the guns,
meaning these gun owners
have an average of four guns each,
with 75% of us having none.
When anyone here in Wichita gets in a situation,
illegal business situation,
or emotional situation,
or defensive situation,
I have confidence
that if such a Wichitan
has no gun,
he or she can't get a gun very easily
from someone who has one,
and those who have them
are very restrained
in using them.
That results in only
fifteen gun deaths per year,
in a city of 500,000.
A similar sized city in places such as Brazil,
with much fewer guns in that city,
has much more than that.
I don't know why they kill more,
with fewer guns,
in Brazil,
but I feel as if I understand
my fellow residents of Wichita.
We could always do better,
but I feel no urgent need,
and I have no specific ideas,
for big changes here,
where I live.
Here is a link to a diary
written by someone
who thinks like me:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The idea that we can do something to prevent this from happening again is fantasyland. Even the idea that we can do something to make it less likely is dubious at best.
I'd very much like to hear, and respond to, any legislative proposals to prevent this.
Other than, of course, the hopeless making of guns illegal for everyone.
Here is the comment I wrote in response to that diary:
My dear HUGE, even though it would,
theoretically,
make some kind of logical sense
to pass at least one law,
or maybe a complex batch of laws,
or maybe a Constitutional Amendment,
or maybe have a new Constitutional Convention,
and start again from scratch,
and write a whole new Constitution,
and scrap the old one,
however.........
You are simply the closest
to my thinking
in what you have written here.
My thinking goes like this:
1. How likely is it that anyone I know personally
will ever be even injured,
much less killed,
in such an incident,
compared to,
for example,
injury or death by motorcycle accidents?
Or cancer?
Or obesity related illnesses?
The causes of tragedies
that really hit home,
in the lives of nearly everyone,
should get more attention
than 9/11/01,
Oklahoma City,
or other mass killings.
When an event is in the news,
and it makes the people feel intense emotional pain,
it makes the people think
it's the most important thing
in the world.
Whatever is most important,
is most important,
regardless of what just happened,
most recently,
or how it makes people feel.
The actual percentage of humans affected
by such things as mass killings
is very tiny,
therefore,
it's not truly a high priority.
That is my first point.
2. What,
exactly,
should we do about it,
anyway?
And that is your point.
And I agree.
You are probably wrong
in thinking that there is no way
to reduce the numbers
of deaths
from mass killings.
But you didn't say,
no way,
you said,
it's dubious.
And,
you asked for
specific
legislative
proposals.
I agree with you
on asking your readers
for exactly that.
I wonder if I'll find the time,
and find the balls,
to write a diary of my own,
linked to yours,
and supporting yours.
Maybe.
Anyway,
thanks for writing.
Whatever is most important,
is most important,
regardless of what just happened,
most recently,
or how it makes people feel.
That little quote,
that's my point.
Contraception
is more important
than gun control.
I know,
we can walk and chew gum
at the same time.
We can increase contraception,
and still,
somehow,
reduce gun violence
in the USA.
But if you've read a few
of my other diaries,
you know I'm concerned
that capitalism,
in control of the soil,
will ruin the soil in the short term,
with irrigation,
that leaves mineral salts in the soil,
and fertilizer made from natural gas,
that will run out in just a few centuries,
and then what?
I'm worried that capitalism,
which never has the greater good
as it's goal,
only profit,
and only short term profit,
that short sighted capitalism
will eventually lead
to so much ruined soil,
and so many people,
wanting to eat,
that we'll have famines,
even in this country,
and then the guns
will be used to hunt down our fellow Americans,
and cannibalism
will be common.
We need contraception;
the family with four kids,
that's the lethal bomb.
If we have one child per five couples,
for two generations,
we might have hope.
Otherwise,
the food riots,
and the killing,
and neighbor eating neighbor,
that will be the future
of humankind.
Maybe I should have written
a nice diary
about going out to eat,
with my family,
on Christmas Day,
(I'm not at the computer,
to respond to you live)
maybe I should have written
about my family,
and the security I feel,
safe in the arms of my wife,
and in the company of her family,
my family.
Maybe I should have written
about only that.
But the world around me
is falling apart,
and the big things jump out at me,
and the smaller things
dominate the news,
dominate Daily Kos.
These things are on my mind,
and I usually write
what's on my mind.
Here is the calendar for the next month.
Please consider hosting,
on one of these dates.
New Years Day: MichiganChet
January 8: cassandracarolina
January 15: open date
January 22: open date
January 29: open date
Thanks for reading.