if it were up to me, I'd take away the guns

[primroseburrows]

I haven't really heard what the Arizona shooter's politics are, but there seems to be a lot of polarization (surprise!) between the right and the left about the whole thing, and I think everyone's completely missing the point. No matter what crazy leftist or rightist theory he may have ascribed to, he still killed or injured a bunch of people. And remember, this guy was rejected from refused entry into the Army (thanks, writergirl423, for the clarification), dropped out of junior college because they wanted him to have a psych evaluation, was the "loner kid" in school, and was obsessed with violence. Etcetera.

So it seems to me that the most important thing isn't about right or left. What we take away from all this should be this: with all of the screaming red flags that the Arizona shooter had, how the heck did he own a legal gun?

(That being said, I'm really, really glad he's not connected to the Tea Party, because that would be horrible. Or any lefty organization, for that matter. Because the minute something becomes political these days the situation tends to get way worse.)

Comments

[newleaf31.livejournal.com]

I am, in general, freaked out by guns. I can't even stand to hold them when I know for certain that they're not loaded. My friend Ann has two; they terrify me. I know skillions of people like them and know how to use them, so my dream of making them completely and totally illegal will never come to pass. But why, oh, WHY can't we go back to the assault-weapons ban??! Why is that so controversial? What civilian needs an assault weapon, and why? Ugh.

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Also, why is it that people with the kind of instability the shooter had are allowed to legally own ANY gun? Seems to me if a guy is discharged from the army (probably for psych reasons, although the Army isn't saying) and then was asked to get an eval by his school before coming back wouldn't be allowed to own a gun of any sort, concealed or unconcealed. I bet there are card-carrying members of the NRA who would agree with not giving crazy people guns (or domestic violence perps, either, but that's another discussion). MAJOR FAIL, Arizona.

FYI

[writergirl423.livejournal.com]

He was not discharged from the Army. He tried to get in, but was rejected (for as yet unrevealed reasons).

Re: FYI

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I meant to say, my bad. He still shouldn't legally own a gun.