The Tipping Point

[3" 870 Shell Shucker]

The Tipping Point

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I once read a book titled, "Tipping Point". The author said the tipping point is the point at which forward momentum has built up enough for something new or different to happen among the masses.

If / When enough of the electorate screams loudly for something, they will reach a Tipping Point and change will happen.

Are we at / are we quickly approaching a Tipping Point on Gun Control? Is the population about to petition the U.S. government to save them from themselves?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/gun-control-petition-clears-white-house-response-threshold-232717126--politics.html

"The goal of this petition is to force the Obama Administration to produce legislation that limits access to guns," it says. "While a national dialogue is critical, laws are the only means in which we can reduce the number of people murdered in gun related deaths."

"Powerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution's intended purpose of the right to bear arms. Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment intends to achieve," the measure urges.

"The signatures on this petition represent a collective demand for a bipartisan discussion resulting in a set of laws that regulates how a citizen obtains a gun," it says.

[chatterbox]

I understand that in the face of such an evil act, this is going to be a hot topic of conversation.
Simply put, the guns this young man used were owned legally by his mother. The one used in the mall shooting was stolen.
I think there is a deeper, more disturbing problem at work here.
Every time a young child is labled ADD, or is a disruptive, hyper child, there is immense pressure form the school to put this child on drugs to "calm them down."
The bigger problem is, we have kids on these drugs, and don't know the long term effects on the brain.
Alot of the drugs given have warnings that have suicide high on the warning label. Well, in a 20 something young man, it isn't much of a flip from suicidal to homicidal.
I think we are seeing the long term effects, and it sickens me.
Please don't think for one minute I am protecting or sticking up for these maniacs. I just think the warning signs are being ignored, and someone needs to be held accountable for the fact that a police officer and clergy have to look a parent in the eye and tell them their baby has been violently ripped from their lives forever.
It has to stop, and I for one don't feel gun control is the answer.

[Woodsman4God]

Very sad day in America, but a knee jerk reaction to a nut job shooting in schools is not how/why you want to go about changing things in this country with gun control laws, truth be told, schools are a target for people because in many of them the teachers are not allowed to carry, they really need to ease the laws some or change them in ways to allow a responsible law abiding citizen the right to carry even in schools. Right now the only people with guns in school area are nut jobs bent on easy targets. If even a couple teacher had cpls and allowed to carry this might be very different.

[alclark2]

I enjoy Malcolm Gladwells books. I hope this isn't the tipping point. Being post-election he has 4 years to push his true agenda now.

[Eric Gregg]

I am scared that we have now crossed a point where the balance has tipped over. Obama is going to get pressure to have more agressive gun control laws passed. He already has been notorious for gun grabbing in his home state, now with a national tragedy he can go for the juggular.

I pray for those that lost children and hope and look forward to a day when we won't hear of these things anymore.

[Neill_Prater]

Am I wrong in thinking that if guns were not available, these same individuals would come up with more creative ways to murder? Who is doing the bulk of suicide bombings in the Middle East? If I'm not mistaken, the bulk of them are young males, just like the bulk of the ones doing the shooting here. How much carnage would there have been at Aurora or Newtown if the killers had chosen explosives over firearms? Does anyone else think it isn't much of a stretch to see this start happening here in the US? I'm guessing a reasonably bright individual could access enough information on the web to make a dandy IED capable of killing lots of people in a crowded area.

Personally, I'd rather take my chances with an armed gunman rather than a walking bomb.

[Turkey Trot]

I'm concerned about it too, even though recent polls had indicated Americans were more inclined toward ownership and self-defense.

The population has gotten a long way from the farm and has gotten progressively dumber.  It is highly influenced by media and pop culture.  For those reasons, it's easier to convince those people that raising livestock, eating meat, hunting, owning guns, etc. are all "bad" and that only kooky people want to do so.  The media is clearly aligned with the liberal gun grabbers, and will do everything it can to help Barry Sotero push the agenda.  In fact, they are already pushing it with the way that cover these events.  Even the medical examiner in CT was pushing gun control with subtlety in his press conference by talking about multiple shots and how bad the injuries are.  Did the families need to hear that in their time of grieving?  Why else would he opine about how bad they are and them being the worst he has ever seen (and who can qualify how much bad stuff he has seen in his jurisdiction in the first place?).   

[lightsoutcalls]

It doesn't take much more than a look at popular media culture to see why society is in such a pitiful state as it is today. 

   I was born in the mid 60's.  Popular shows when I was growing up were things like The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Carroll Burnett.  We loved reruns of Leave It To Beaver, Little Rascals and Ozzie and Harriet.  Mention such shows in an online discussion and many will laugh and call you a variety of names, the nicest being "old-fashioned".  Most of these shows involved families.  Although the Brady Bunch involved what we now call a "blended family", there was an over-riding theme of connection and support amongst the members of the family.  The dads in the families all worked, but they also came home and showed support and respect for their wives.  The kids got into mischief, but it seldom amounted to more than breaking a neighbor's window or exacting a juvenile form of justice towards a sibling.
   Take a look at the media fodder of today.  Shows like "Modern Family" and "Family Guy" sadly demean the primary source of support and encouragement for individuals - the family.  "Normal" has become a politically correct mish-mash of adultery, homosexuality and a pervading mindset of "ME-NOW".  I think the phrase "if it feels good do it" was coined in the 70's.  I suspect there is a more modern version of verbage, but the mentality remains. 
   I share the concerns that have been expressed that media and government will use this tragedy to further their push for gun control.  The saddest part of the whole tragedy is that the real underlying problems will likely go unnoticed by most and completely un-reported by the media. 
   I wish I had spent more time with my kids as they were growing up and less time trying to make an extra buck.  We lived very modestly and often had more month at the end of the paycheck than we had paycheck at the end of the month.  That said, I am much more concious today of what I say and the time I spend with my kids and my wife, even if it is just sitting down in the same room to watch what I think is a silly movie rather than going to my own room to watch a hunting show or the history channel, etc. 
   Until the men of America step up and take responsibility for raising the "fruit of their loins" I suspect things will only get worse.  Government over the past 4 decades has established programs to reward women for having illegitimate children.  "Assistance programs" are available to those who are not married to the father of their children.  Other government assistance is made available for housing, food and medical care for unwed mothers and their offspring.  Government has tried to make the role of men little more than that of fertilizing an egg. (trying to keep it PG rated here)  Men have been all to happy to oblige. 
   If it weren't bad enough that government has let men opt out of their responsibilities as fathers and husbands, the current administration is taking it a step further.  It seems to be the natural progression.  If the idea of "family" has been so watered down, the obvious next step is to dilute the concept of "marriage".  Society in general has little respect or concept of either family or marriage.  Again, you need to do little more than watch a couple of hours of network television to prove this statement.  When the leadership of a country refuses to support the traditional role of families... when they flatly refuse to defend traditional marriage... when they make funding of the killing of innocent unborn children the legal responsibility of taxpayers...  what do you really expect?

[teke]

agreed