My Thoughts on the Aurora, Colorado Shooting | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

As the local guy in Denver, I wanted to share my thoughts and frustrations around last night's shooting. I have been to that theater and my Dad works across the street. I know the area well.

I know it is not related to personal finance, or Narrow Bridge, but it is timely and I wanted to share it with my friends (and I include many of you on that list).

Enough with the Guns Already

Ditto everything Jason said. 

I worked with a woman yesterday who lives near the shooter's home and whose sons had planned on going to that theater but the older got called into work for the next morning and the younger decided not to go alone.

While I don't see the point in the average person possessing a gun, I do subscribe to the belief that "if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns."

Even before the shooting, I was thinking about the school shooting at Columbine High School almost a decade and a half ago. Aside from all of the pain and sadness related to the incident itself, the major issue that arose from it was that it became "acceptable" for bullied students to respond with extreme violence. There have been several copycat shootings since.

I think that, as a society, we have to change the narrative. Instead of highlighting stories of people getting bullied and develop serious issues, I think more work needs to be done highlighting stories of people getting bullied but overcoming it. I was bullied as a kid, but over time developed the right connections to get it to stop and grew past it. I have a friend who used to get bullied worse than me; physically bullied. He went on to join the army for the GI Bill and now works as a programmer in Oklahoma. By changing the narrative, we stop making violence an acceptable way of getting attention.

I have to respectfully disagree, while commending you for having the courage to speak your mind. The problem isn't guns, however, it's people.

As humans, we must accept the fact that we aren't perfect. If you gather 1000 babies in a room, a few of them are going to grow up to be stone cold killers, rapists, pedophiles, or just plain violently mentally ill, regardless of how hard their parents try. In the past these people would have likely been culled from society by less than pleasant means, but now we are fortunate to have a (generally) humane mental health care system that can help. Unfortunately most mental health programs are underfunded, and some people slip through the cracks. And there are others who are normal on the outside and just snap. 

The point is that we can never stop this from happening. You can ban every gun and make the penalty for murder 10,000 years in prison and three death penalties, but that isn't going to eliminate murder and violence. You can't legislate happiness and rainbows, and demanding perfection from government leaves no one – liberals, conservatives, Democrats or Republicans, Independents, etc – satisfied.

We are allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

We are allowing mass media to take isolated incidents and conflate them to the point of panic. Almost every single American is safe from violence every day. That is something we should be proud of. As Jason said above, yes, small arms have made it so gangs of men don't come and rape your wife and kill your family. That is a good thing. And yes we should always keep working to end violence and murder, while also recognizing the fact that this mission is impossible. 

I am saddened by the story in Colorado, but I am not scared by it. I don't feel any less safe than I felt yesterday. If we want to take an isolated incident and try to wring some sort of cultural significance from it (I hate doing it but will play along), I am more concerned about why parents had their kids at a movie theater at midnight for a very violent film. Good parenting can fix more of our social ills than demanding perfection from imperfect politicians.

An IPSOS Public Affairs poll from earlier this year showed that an overwhelming percentage of Americans support gun rights, including that 75% of people support conceal and carry of firearms. Gun ownership and gun rights is one of the few areas where most Americans agree, yet the minority who oppose fight with vigor. That is how America should be, where the minority opinion is allowed to state their case and have it be judged on the merits. But we must also recognize the nature of our republic, and democracy, where the majority governs and gets to set the rules. We must respect our system enough to accept the reality when most of our peers do, in fact, judge our ideas on their merits and reject them.

Instead of perpetrating unworkable ideas, let's have a revolution of peace and respect. Let's stop watching TV shows that vilify people and make fun of them. Let's tone down our rhetoric, and instead of saying that people deserve to be punched in the face for rational beliefs, let's work together, respecting the fact that most Americans support our unique system of gun rights.

Someone above touched on bullying. Bullying in America is an epidemic, and it's not just a problem for kids. I write more about it here. Unfortunately not enough people see bullying as a problem, because it is not uncommon to see parents cursing out sports referees or making fun of other people's children. 

Once we can get support for ending bullying and disrespect up and above the widespread support of gun rights, we will move faster towards achieving our true potential.

[sorry this turned into a blog post :) ]

Eric, I'm sorry if I seemed attacky…I really was just trying to express a differing opinion.  I'm from Texas…so I was likely to disagree, lol.  But I totally did not want to make you feel bad.

I agree with what Jason said. I am not against guns at all.