Connecticut School Shooting

[Shelley & Beans]

Hoping and praying that none of my fellow Doodle Lovers are effected by this, but wanting to send my thoughts and prayers to those that are and to let you know your Canadian friends are feeling for you. How heartbreaking that society (and lost individuals) can be so cruel. Children under 10 years old don't deserve this fate for any reason.. God Bless!!

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Karen, now one of my favorites too.  Thanks for sharing.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

:-)

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Nicky, to give you a perspective on the gun issue in the U.S., only 1.4 percent of white Americans owned slaves (according to the 1860 U.S. census) and the attempt to change that mindset was the major (although not only) reason for the Civil War here in the U.S.  Now compare that to 88% (or since that statistic as been called into question, say even 50%) who own guns and you can get an idea of the enormity of the issue and how a gun ban could unravel the social fiber of this country.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Youmean there is a social fiber? This is such a diverse society, and parts of the country and the way people think there are almost foreign to me and I'm sure vice versa.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Indeed. A loosely woven fiber that could come apart easy.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Ricki, where are you getting those numbers? I have an extremely hard time believing that 88% of all Americans own guns. As was mentioned earlier in this discussion, some of us here have never even known a person who was not a police officer who owned a gun, and we've known a lot of people in our time, lol. I don't believe that every single adult I know personally falls into that remaining 12%.

 I know the figures are hard to get, but the most recent Gallup poll shows the figure at about half that; even if it is inaccurate, I don't think it could be that far off. http://www.gallup.com/poll/150353/self-reported-gun-ownership-highe...

I know that people have guns for protection, but I also know you will be hard-pressed to find statistics on how often that works. Let's see some actual statistics on incidents where the guns helped protect the owners. On the other side of it, we do have very real statistics on how many innocent people have been killed and irreparably hurt by them. Even within the privacy of people's own homes, there are children killed every year in their own homes by the guns their parents failed to make unavailable to them.

Yes, this is a very emotionally charged issue, but I would put the rights of those children who were killed yesterday way far ahead of the rights of the gun owners. That's where my emotions lie.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I got the numbers from the chart that I will attempt to post (wish me luck). It may be small and you may need to use your control/+ to get it big enough to see. In any case I know that statistics can be used and manipulated to make any case the information gatherer intends to make so...I always take statistics with a certain grain of salt.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

It might get bigger if you click on it...try that.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

But 88 firearms per 100 people doesn't mean that 88 of 100 people have firearms; there could be 44 people who each have two guns, and 56 who have none, or any other combination. There could be 1 person with 88 guns and 99 people who have none, lol.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

That's true. It doesn't equate to 88% of the population. I made that assumption but it was wrong.

The other issue is the ownership is going to vary widely between geographic locations within the U.S.  So in some areas perhaps 20% might own guns while in others it could be 75% depending on the demographics.

[F, Calla & Luca]

88 out of 100 own guns. Beyond belief. I believe in far more stringent gun laws and I think the Constitution is a living document which has changed before. I think certainly some kind of weapons may be necessary but far fewer than are allowed or are out there illegally. I realize there are responsible gun owners. But in the metropolitan area around New York there are shootings daily. In fact there was a noteworthy day recently when no one was shot, stabbed or slashed in New York for the first time in who knows how long.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-11-28/news/35393526_1_tom-repp...

In just the very recent past, the NFL player shot his girlfriend and himself, the mall shooting in Oregon occurred and now Connecticut. I think this has gotten to be a far too regular event and only high profile cases even make the news. I would be afraid to own a gun for protection, just something else an attacker could use against me. There has to be some more control I do believe.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Another good point; in the scenario where you are sound asleep and there is an intruder with a gun standing over you, even if your gun is loaded and under your pillow, my money's on the intruder.