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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Gun toll; America 9,369 dead, Great Britain 14 -- get the picture? Obama should attend all the funerals in Newtown after massacre

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Gun toll; America 9,369 dead, Great Britain 14 -- get the picture? Obama should attend all the funerals in Newtown after massacre

Posted on Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 07:21 AM

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A vigil was held in front of the White House on Friday night for the victims of the Connecticut shooting.

Here are the statistics; Murders with a firearm in one year: Great Britain, 14; Australia 59; Canada, 144: USA, 9,369.

Are we crazy or has the rest of the world got lucky?

The fault lies in ourselves it seems. Gun violence is out of control.

I think President Obama should attend the funeral of every one of the 27 killed in Newtown, Connecticut.

That way he might show he is serious about efforts at gun control.

His spokesman Jay Carney made one of the dumbest comments in presidential press secretary history when he said on Friday, the day of the tragedy, that this was not the day to talk about the guns issue.

If not Friday, when? Before the next massacre happens?

At a time when the very heavens are screaming for action, Obama and his risk averse staff don’t get it.

The country wants action on this issue and they want it now.

It is appalling to see foreign leaders including the Queen line up and offer sympathy to the U.S. government.

I understand a gesture like that after 9/11 but the foreign leaders should be saying, “Hey America, get your gun house in order.”

The killer had legally held guns, he broke no law. We gave a complete psycho free access to guns -- where did we go so badly wrong?

That is the lesson here, the image of the U.S. worldwide once again is of a cowboy nation where they shoot school children, don’t they, in defense of their Second Amendment rights, a Second Amendment by the way, that is heavily qualified by its caveat sentence at the beginning.

I don’t think Thomas Jefferson and company intended for the right to kill little innocent children to be part of the plan. Amazingly, we have been suckered in these past few years into that position.

But it is time to cry halt now, before another lunatic somewhere decides he wants to top what happened in Newtown and kill even more of our children.

Obama must know there are issues that he must tackle before they fester and bleed and damage America’s soul even more.

The gun issue is now the key one of those.

He should listen to Mayor Bloomberg, the voice in the wilderness these past few years, and follow his plan.

At least then we might have some common sense applied.

The murder of more children seems to be the trade-off for keeping the gun lobby happy.

Can we really live with that? We know this country can do a lot better.

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79 comments

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darragh S | Dec 17, 2012, 10:31 PM EST

These days you know that mental illness is often a temporary state caused by something in the environment or social sphere. I was reading the Finanical Times review of work place statistics and one thing that took me by suprise is the rate of work related psychosis. One think no one has touched on is that this shooter was a A student in a high level core discipline. This same kind of psychosis often has other consequences and we are familiar for example with Suicide by Asian Students whom are pushed to far. Its not so much that this guy was influenced by the preper scene or the gun lobby and its not the constitution but more that he snapped.

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Joe Glackin | Dec 17, 2012, 10:11 PM EST

These statistics can be misleading regarding the pro/anti gun control. How many murders were carried out by legally held weapons. Legally owned that were stolen and those bought on the streets are mainly used .A nutter with a legally held is frightening but if he hadnt one Im sure hed get it easily enough. No disrespect to the Army or Police generally, but how many of them, serving or ex, fully trained etc committed murders.The US has experienced this in Fort Bliss Texas. That is also a fact when it comes to the Occupied 6 of Soldiers /Police shooting dead children counties of Ireland

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dublinduke | Dec 17, 2012, 09:10 PM EST

While you are talking about the loss of innocent young lives in the US don't forget the 1.5 million babies slaughtered by their mother's in abortion mills in the US so far in 2012.

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Donegal6 | Dec 17, 2012, 09:03 PM EST

When radical islam takes over in England make sure to call the bobbies! The hell with that I want to protect myself. How many gun deaths in the US were dirtballs getting killed dealing drugs or attempting to rape someone that was armed? The US also has a much much larger population and most of the crimes occur in large urban centers with very strict gun control ensuring law abiding citizens are easy marks for the parasites. Why do think Bloomberg and all the hypocrites carry guns! They know that if you want to rob someone all you have to do is convince yourself they are not an off duty cop or a ghetto person and they will definitely not be armed. Bingo! easy mark. When Goetz turned around and plugged those animal on the subway for attempting to rob him everyone in New York cheered!!!! But he went to jail for a mandatory 1 year for simply having the gun. You will never erase over 200 years of history justifying a revolution and armed revolt! Our Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. The trick is how do you keep the guns out of the hands of criminal and crazies? No law to date even in essentially total gun controlled cities and states has eradicated that. It's like automobile deaths 30, 40 50,000 dead a year including small children. How do you legislate against morons driving too fast and too aggressively. Darwin takes care of it. Obamacare should equal major psychiatric care and if religion works for many people and it helps to hold families together it shouldn't be mocked. Intact families that get help when they need it, can show kids that there is a society that is caring and structured and it starts with the fundamental building block. The family.

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seanomelb | Dec 17, 2012, 05:59 PM EST

The gun lovers like Lanza's mother have one thing in common a siege mentality.

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SeamusMartin | Dec 17, 2012, 05:41 PM EST

Someone suggested that President Obama attend all the funerals. I think all representatives, senators should attendalso; Charleton Heston too. Ya got a Problem, right there in the USA, with a capital "P" that rhymes with "G" and stands for GUNS!!!

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aloistmartin | Dec 17, 2012, 04:29 PM EST

STEVENSTAR@ " Even the Devil can quote scripture"

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Happyhippo | Dec 17, 2012, 03:04 PM EST

What the hell was a mother doing with a deadly fully automatic assault rifle firing 60 rounds a minute in the first place,people make an issue from the fact he was refused a gun licence and blame the shooter not the weapons,its ironic that the gun he used to kill his mother was actually her own legally held weapon,but in America the freedom to carry arms is inshrined in the consitution, so the killing sprees will have no effect until the laws are updated,and if the powerfull NRA have their way there wont be any change ever,the price of freedom is murder on a large scale until the people that matter are hit.

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YellerBelly | Dec 17, 2012, 01:53 PM EST

Amen! That piece of paper called the constitution is outdated and some of it does not apply to our world and society today. If you are so fearful of and paranoid about this wonderful democracy we live in then I suggest ya move out. But it might be hard as many countries do not allow the ownership of weapons. Perhaps its best like in Roman times to put every nut owning a weapon to show off their bravado and play the John Waynes they believe to be and have them shoot each other. Not our children. Who needs an automatic weapon for hunting answer me that? A civil society is one based on mutual trust and respect not living not threatening each other with carry to conceal. Have faith in our country's laws and justice system. Plus if you are in a situation where you feel you need to use a friigin weapon, stay away. Like dad says, nothing good happens after midnight so go home.

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maryosullivan | Dec 17, 2012, 10:14 AM EST

This morning MSNBC TV reported 10 young Afghan girls were killed by an exploding mine, over 1 million Iraqi children have died for want of medicines since 1991, medicines which the US refuses to sell to them. One must come to the conclusion ,given the little interest shown for these facts ,the lives of Afghan and Iraqi children are worth close to zero

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IrelandNorth | Dec 17, 2012, 08:24 AM EST

What's with the GB comparator, Niall! Surely a comparison between Irish and US stats would have been more consonant. Notwithstanding our very own slow motion civil war apres IRA/BA ceasefire in 1994.

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JayFay | Dec 17, 2012, 05:16 AM EST

Darragh - overall homicide by any means for the UK is 1.2 per 100,000 population. The same figure for the US is 4.8 per 100,000 people - 4 times higher than any Western European country. So it's hardly the case that blunt trauma accounts for equal amounts of murders in the UK when there are simply 4 times less murders overall in the UK - end of story. As I said below, somebody on a rampage with a knife won't kill so many as somebody on a rampage with a gun. And knife weilding youths in London during the Afghan war? I live in London - can't say I ever met one of them.

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stanchaz | Dec 17, 2012, 05:09 AM EST

Words well written, sir,

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darragh S | Dec 17, 2012, 04:28 AM EST

Please! UK Stab Force and Blunt force Trauma statistics thanks. If you remember the knife happy teens of london stories we were getting at the peak of the Afghan war for example. This is what happens, and in the future when were carrying around laser guns and homing laser beams etc they will be complaining about that to back on earth with there guns.

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JayFay | Dec 17, 2012, 02:54 AM EST

Yes Schlomo you're right, guns don't kill people - people with guns kill people. How many does an unarmed person kill? Maybe one. How many does does a person with a knife kill? One, maybe two. How many does a person with a gun kill? 10, 20, 50 if he's 'lucky' How many people are killed accidentally every year by their own bare fists? How many are accidentally killed every year in handling a knife? And how many are accidentally killed every year in handling a gun You just keep telling yourself that classrooms of kids need to die so that you can keep up your pastime - if it helps you feel better.

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