I know Pierce Morgan can be a controversial fellow here, and we also have differences of opinions about gun control. I don't want to stir anything up on a calm Saturday,{Update:Sunday changed to Saturday} morning when I'm trying to stay on my diet, but I couldn't help noticing this article Piers Morgan Delivers One Final Blow To Gun Violence In Last Show. Whether you like him or not, you have to give Morgan credit for maintaining the courage of his convictions against a lot of criticism for expressing his horror and disbelief that Americans are willing to let ourselves be victims of so much gun violence without responding with greater efforts to protect ourselves with gun control legislation.
Piers praises the U.S. as "a land of true opportunity," and says "The vast majority of Americans I've met are decent, hardworking, thoroughly dependable people," so we know we're about to get blasted for something.
Piers notes that 100,000 Americans per year are hit by gunfire.
Morgan expressed frustration with reaction to the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting and the Newtown, Conn., school shooting: "I assumed that after 70 people were shot in a movie theater and then just a few months later 20 first-graders were murdered with an assault rifle in an elementary school, that the absurd gun laws in this country would change, but nothing has happened." He added: "The gun lobby in America, led by the NRA, has bullied this nation's politicians into cowardly silence. Even when 20 young children are blown away in their classrooms. ...
Morgan argued Friday night: "More guns doesn't mean less crime, as the NRA repeatedly tries to tell you. It means more gun violence, more death and more profits for the gun manufacturers."
He concluded, "Now it's down to you. It is your country. These are your gun laws. And the senseless slaughter will only end when enough Americans stand together and cry, 'Enough!' I look forward to that day. I also look forward to seeing you all again soon. Thank you. And God bless America. Oh, and while I'm at it, God bless Great Britain too. Good night."
The author of this article asserts that a study published in the American Journal of Public Health found states with more guns had "higher rates of gun-related murders."
I know we have a 2nd Amendment, but we also have a 4th Amendment that we have pretty much given up. It seems to me that we should have reasonable controls on assault weapons, high capacity and high velocity magazines, and licensing, but I don't want to get into arguments about whether these things are already banned, or into details I do not have sufficient understanding of to make intelligent comments about. I am not a hunter and do not own any guns.
I do have dreams of self-sufficiency and dream of one day owning hundreds of acres in the wilderness where I go off grid, with solar power, gardens, with a Mahatma Gandhian-like self-sufficiency, I might have bows and arrows and spears and hunt wild game, like possums, for "viddles" like the grandma on the Beverly Hillbillies. So I do not have any moral issues with hunting.
Right now I have a splitting headache, am starving, have a long list of chores to do, and have had too much controversy, and mindless bickering, with my S.O. these last few days to get involved with any intense debates, so I will invite others to have as much discussion as you like. If I could ask some of my friends to help moderate these comments I would be greatly appreciative. I'll be working on several other posts that are more in my areas of expertise, and will drop in occasionally to see how you all are doing. - Cheers.
9:19 AM PT: I had to correct some extra and missing words as I unintentionally posted this prematurely, while being constantly harangued and emotional abused by someone who needs to urgently get her meds checked but will not. Sorry for any error. The only way I've found I can maintain my sanity and avoid my usual compensating eating binges is to obsessively focus on writing so you may notice a few more posts and comments from me this today and this week. Sorry if the quality is uneven, or I show any signs of emotional lability, or snappiness.
11:24 AM PT: Changed "calm Sunday morning" to "calm Saturday morning" for those of you still on the other side of the international date line, and in the interest of maintaining peace. Sheesh, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition! Heck, You guys are so picky. You people don't know where I am. So it has to be the date where you are and not where I am, is that how it is? I could be on the international Space Station as far as you know. I could be using a different calender you ethnocentric complainers. What about diversity?
I already told you I'm having a bad day, a migraine, a week long of unjust harranging from my S.O., and lots of other problems, but do you have any sympathy? No! You bust my chops over every little thing. Well I've had just about enough of this, I can tell you that right now.
On a lighter note, what do you think about this poll? Does it reflect choices everyone can choose largely expressing your view? I hate those kinds of slanted polls that only give one choices constrained by the writers bias, so I put extra effort into attempting to understand everyone's point of view, and give them choices they are comfortable with, even if I disagree with them, and even if they are in different time zones, are are experiencing alternative days, or realities.
If you don't see a choice you feel comfortable with, please write in, or comment, and I will include it in a future poll. Also, I believe having a more accurate understanding and explicit depiction of reality, as viewed by other people makes us more effective communicators and agents of progressive change. .... Because that's the kind of HoundDog I am. That's the way I roll. Woof, woof!