USA Guns

[Bruce]

I think Jehova has been described as " one of the most unpleasant characters in all fiction... vindictive, petulant, genocidal, intolerant... you could add more but that's a start.

 

He bears quite a resemblance to how you would imagine a bronze-age tribal leader.

 

 

[red750]

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[Litespeed]

Don't forget. You have to burn down the gunshop and regularly threaten the life of the owner and his family.

 

And remove any government funding for any state or aid to any country that dare teach about gun safety.

 

 

[facthunter]

In Dog's name, you can make up the bigotry and hypocrisy as you go. Nev

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.

 

Steven Weinberg - Freedom From Religion Foundation

 

 

[Marty_d]

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg - Freedom From Religion Foundation

I'd argue that if good people do evil, no matter the excuse, they're not good.

 

 

[Marty_d]

In the US, the terrorists take out people with easily sourced assault rifles. Multiple fatalities.

 

In Australia today a terrorist tried to wreak havoc with a knife. Apart from the woman at his home who he killed, he only managed to wound a woman before being taken down by members of the public including firies.

 

All this sh*t the NRA spouts "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" is so much hot air if the crazies can't get guns.

 

 

[old man emu]

And it wasn't a terrorist. It was a poor soul with mental health problems who, no doubt, could not obtain suitable treatment for his condition because the Government stopped providing mental health facilities.

 

If you have a look at who commits the murders and serious assaults with weapons (usually knives) you will find that a high proportion are those with diagnosed mental health illness. Guns off the streets? OK. Provision of mental health treatment? Not on your Nellie.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Once again, this government shows it has no idea of the value of anything, just the cost.

 

The money saved on cutting back mental health services would be tiny compared to the cost of the crimes committed as a result- and the cost of tracking down, prosecuting and gaoling the perpetrators.

 

But... they don't care about how much it costs to pay back their big donors. Big mobs of taxpayer money is spent keeping irrigators, weapons makers, financiers, religious corporations, etc. happy while welfare and foreign aid are cut back.

 

It's been proven that an ounce of prevention can save a tonne of cure. A few million dollars spent helping Indonesia get rid of Foot and Mouth disease gave security to our billion-dollar meat export industries.

 

The same investment helping them combat Saudi-financed extremist indoctrination might have saved lots of Aussie lives.

 

 

[old man emu]

The worst thing is that the Law treats mental health sufferers as criminals. There is a tenet of Law that one must have the intent to

 

Mens rea (Law Latin for "guilty mind") is the mental element of a person's intention to commit a crime; or knowledge that one's action or lack of action would cause a crime to be committed. The standard common law test of criminal liability is expressed in the Latin phrase actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, i.e. "the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty". Mens rea needs to be proved by prosecution. (Except for crimes of strict liability - drink driving etc.)

 

How can the Crown prove that a person whose illness impaired mind is directing the body to carry out actions that the Law says are crimes, show that the person could form mens rea just as well as a person considered "normal"?

 

A stitch in time saves nine. Provide adequate protection and medical services for these people in government-run places which are designed to handle mental illness by 21st Century standards. No more Bedlams. Renovate places like Callan Park so that they facilitate the care and possible treatment of these sick people. Don't throw them out onto the street to fend for themselves.