Texas Church Shooting Leaves 26 Dead

[deljzc]

eh, the old gun law debate. Seems that there is no right or wrong answer. There never will be a full proof plan to keep the guns away from the dangerous, violent and mentally ill people. Replace "drugs" with "guns" and will come by the same issues and problems. Laws, laws and more laws don't seem to work. I'm not saying not to make an effort, but I have yet to hear a valid plan to be put in place to stop mass killings or keep the bad people away from guns. People valuing life and others would be a good start.

We have stopped, as a culture and promoted by our media, to hold people accountable for their morals. We have allowed a much greater range of moral behavior to be acceptable and we have decided to excuse immoral behavior using a plethora of excuses.

And I'm not talking about sexual "what happens in the bedroom" religious-right stuff.

I'm talking basic, 10 Commandments, 7 deadly sins ideals that have been with humanity and civilization for 1000's of years.

Simple things like honor you mother and father (show respect for elders in our society), not worshipping false idols (like money or power or fame), murder, stealing, bearing false witness (lying under oath or in very important circumstances), adultery, wrath/anger, gluttony, vanity, laziness, lust, envy/covetousness.

You know, there is just a growing number of people that seem to blow off these tenets of virtue as "old fashioned" or "religious" or outdated/not relevant in today's world. But I would really like us as a society to start revisiting them in a meaningful way without getting preachy/religious. There is a reason these teachings used for moral guidance are so basic and spoken/taught for thousands of years.

If you TRY hard to follow them (and most really aren't that hard), you would be surprised how much nicer you'd be to people around you. How much better civilization seems to function.

 

[Troglodyte]

eh, the old gun law debate. Seems that there is no right or wrong answer. There never will be a full proof plan to keep the guns away from the dangerous, violent and mentally ill people. Replace "drugs" with "guns" and will come by the same issues and problems. Laws, laws and more laws don't seem to work. I'm not saying not to make an effort, but I have yet to hear a valid plan to be put in place to stop mass killings or keep the bad people away from guns. People valuing life and others would be a good start.

There is no way to end gun violence whether it be due to mental illness or a lack of morals. But the blanket statement or anecdote “gun laws don’t work” is just that as there are both gun and drug laws that no rational, well thought out person wants to see repealed. We don’t want OxyContin in vending machines, we don’t want RPGs for sale at any Walmart no questions asked.

 

[Superman]

There is no way to end gun violence whether it be due to mental illness or a lack of morals. But the blanket statement or anecdote “gun laws don’t work” is just that as there are both gun and drug laws that no rational, well thought out person wants to see repealed. We don’t want OxyContin in vending machines, we don’t want RPGs for sale at any Walmart no questions asked.

I'll go out on a limb and say you didn't read delz's response posted 53 minutes before yours.
If you had, you'd have not posted something as ridiculous as you normally do.

 

[Troglodyte]

I'll go out on a limb and say you didn't read delz's response posted 53 minutes before yours.
If you had, you'd have not posted something as ridiculous as you normally do.

The Ten Commandments are all well and good, but I don’t know that the country is any more immoral than it was before the Civil Rights movement. I don’t expect a person of your high moral character yet limited sensibilities will understand that.

 

[thesteelcity]

There is no way to end gun violence whether it be due to mental illness or a lack of morals. But the blanket statement or anecdote “gun laws don’t work” is just that as there are both gun and drug laws that no rational, well thought out person wants to see repealed. We don’t want OxyContin in vending machines, we don’t want RPGs for sale at any Walmart no questions asked.

I didn't imply that gun laws don't work. I was saying that with all the laws there are, there is no full-proof plan or law to keep the guns away from the ones that shouldn't have them. The harder the laws are on people, there will be ways around it. If something is illegal, banned or hard to get, I will find a way to get it. That is the mindset of a criminal, mentally unstable or an addict, or just human nature. I want, therefore, I will have.

 

[Superman]

The Ten Commandments are all well and good, but I don’t know that the country is any more immoral than it was before the Civil Rights movement. I don’t expect a person of your high moral character yet limited sensibilities will understand that.

there is a lot you don't know and even more you refuse to accept as fact.

you're aware that years ago, a person could just walk into any place that sold guns, throw cash down and walk out with a gun, right? I don't mean to question your limited knowledge on such a far-reaching topic, but that is true. Are you seriously going to suggest that today's country is EXACTLY as moral as it always has been and absolutely nothing at all has changed, less the melting snowflakes standing to pull their manbuns for attention? Were there more or less of these mass shootings then or now?

are you suggesting that the Civil Rights Movement is what kick-started a decline in morality? That's a rather disgusting supremacist stance, you're taking, Cotton. I guess you and LBJ share the same integrity.

I'll say that the Civil Rights Movement was very much needed. I'll also say that what is going on NOW is absolutely NOT what the Civil Rights Movement was about. What we have now serves no meaningful purpose, is ill-defined and has no end game. It's ever-evolving and lacks substance. We now have millenials yanking at their arm pit hair over Steve Martin's King Tut sketch.

 

[Troglodyte]

there is a lot you don't know and even more you refuse to accept as fact.

you're aware that years ago, a person could just walk into any place that sold guns, throw cash down and walk out with a gun, right? I don't mean to question your limited knowledge on such a far-reaching topic, but that is true. Are you seriously going to suggest that today's country is EXACTLY as moral as it always has been and absolutely nothing at all has changed, less the melting snowflakes standing to pull their manbuns for attention? Were there more or less of these mass shootings then or now?

are you suggesting that the Civil Rights Movement is what kick-started a decline in morality? That's a rather disgusting supremacist stance, you're taking, Cotton. I guess you and LBJ share the same integrity.

I'll say that the Civil Rights Movement was very much needed. I'll also say that what is going on NOW is absolutely NOT what the Civil Rights Movement was about. What we have now serves no meaningful purpose, is ill-defined and has no end game. It's ever-evolving and lacks substance. We now have millenials yanking at their arm pit hair over Steve Martin's King Tut sketch.

I’m well aware of how easy it was to buy guns. Where I grew up, every hardware store sold guns, even Sears and JC Penny sold them, you could even touch the display models.

I used the Civil Rights Movement as an example for how people of supposed high moral character behaved in a very immoral way. What is considered immoral has changed. For example, homosexuality and Sadomasochism, were almost universally considered immoral and largely unmentionable. Today, they make for best selling books and tv show hosts. Do you think they’re immoral?

I’ll agree people are overly sensitive and seemingly preoccupied with finding thing for which to take offense. We’ve empowered victims and let people cry victimization because they were offended.

 

[deljzc]

The Ten Commandments are all well and good, but I don’t know that the country is any more immoral than it was before the Civil Rights movement. I don’t expect a person of your high moral character yet limited sensibilities will understand that.

I absolutely believe that we are afraid, as a society, to publicly decry immoral behavior (especially of minorities) for fear of being labeled racist, bigoted or hypocritical. And that it has become all too easy to just let whatever happens on the other side of the fences surrounding our houses to occur and ignore it.

Our interactions with people are constantly "guarded" to prevent any kind of moral offense. We don't talk about our beliefs anymore. We don't talk about morality anymore except in very close-knit circles of like minded people. The media especially does not talk about morality anymore and those that do seem to be secretly the most immoral of the bunch (and consistently hide their immoral behavior). We give fame and adoration to people that don't deserve it based on moral, ethical, or societal contribution. We give fame and adoration based on very superfluous qualities: looks, sex appeal, the ability to act, the ability to play sports, the ability to speak well in front of people, humor. This HAS gotten worse.

Hypocrisy is seemingly at an all time high because so little is "hidden" in today's social media world so the public has grown more and more cynical of morality in general.

There's a lot of psychology that goes along with all this. Cynicism often leads to depression. Not interacting with people honestly leads to depression. Hiding behind computer screens leads to depression. In our effort to give everyone "space" to be who they are, we have actually retracted inward and stopped functioning as a civilization should.

All things that I think contribute more to mass violence than gun laws.