Posted on 04/14/2009 3:51:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
You're more likely to be blown away by a fellow American than by a terrorist from the more exotic parts of the world.
Terrorism begins at home. Long before 9/11 occurred, America was rocked by the occasional wave of domestic terrorist violence, from Columbine High School to the Oklahoma City bombing. Our history—like that of all countries—is littered with the bodies of people killed as "collateral damage" to some "higher" ideology or government policy. Slavery, it could be argued, was a form of terrorism, as was the slaughter and forced relocation of Native Americans. And so on.
Lately we seem to be following in that tradition with a vengeance as we've been rocked by a flurry of waves from our homegrown "suicide bombers." Ours don't strap explosives to their bodies and walk into crowds. They simply arm themselves to the teeth with an arsenal of "legal" weaponry and walk into crowds and start shooting until someone shoots them or they turn the guns on themselves.
For every news story that begins, "an Iraqi insurgent walked into a ____ (fill in the blank with market, mosque, restaurant, newsstand, train station) "and detonated the bomb...", we've had one that begins, "A lone gunman entered a _____ (fill in the blank with church, nursing home, trailer park, mall, high school, counseling service, city hall, courtroom) "and began shooting."
In the past two weeks, we've witnessed one man entering a nursing home in North Carolina, exercising his "right to bear arms" as "guaranteed by the Second Amendment" by seeking out his wife. Not gaining the satisfaction of finding her, he killed seven residents (one old lady aged 98) and a nurse and then wounded a cop before being subdued like a rogue elephant. Another man in Pittsburgh, railing against "the Zionists controlling the media," believed Obama was going to take away his "right to bear arms" (specifically assault rifles) and gunned down three police officers. A man in Alabama exercised his Second Amendment rights by killing 10 people, including family members, before shooting himself. Another man in Washington took revenge on his wife by entering his trailer and shooting all five of their children. Then he shot himself.
A new list of similarly violent and depraved acts could be compiled next month or the month after that, but it does seem like we are in the middle of a freakish patch. Some might blame the poor economy; others might point to our Greek chorus of right-wing pundits whipping up the hate. Or, as a British paper put it after the Pittsburgh shootings, "The killer's views echo the increasingly violent and apocalyptic tone taken by some conservative commentators to a changing America on conservative radio and television networks, where they believe the Obama administration are a bunch of communists and socialists waiting to destroy America internally." I don't subscribe to the latter view; right-wing idiots are always whipping up the hate, in good times and bad.
Here's a clue: April 16 is the second anniversary of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, when a Virginia Tech University student killed 32 before killing himself. Right after that event, there was talk of closing the "gun show loophole"—the rule that, insanely, lets any adult buy guns from dealers at gun shows with no background checks.
An ABC-TV affiliate in Virginia, commendably, decided to test the loophole last week. They sent Omar Samaha, whose sister was one of the Virginia Tech victims, to a Richmond gun show with $5,000. Samaha was able to buy ten guns in less than an hour, including three assault rifles, four shotguns and a Glock pistol like the one that killed his sister.
As he said, "I don't want to think about how gruesome it was and how somebody used this type of weapon on my sister and so many innocent people. It's devastating."
Samaha did not have to fill out background checks or even show any legal form of identification. Show them the money in America and you can get your hands on an arsenal of "legal" weaponry within an hour in 33 different states. Expect more carnage.
But if you want to talk about pirates, it's on like donkey kong!!
And just to restate what’s been stated in other posts, many if not almost all of these mass killings are in areas that are deemed as gun free zones. The gun free zone wasn’t too safe apparently.
Criminals kill people!
Guns do not!
Criminals will ALWAYS be able to get guns!
I can defend myself if I have a gun. I may not win, but I stand a better chance if I also bring a gun to gun fight!
I cannot defend myself, and nobody else is going to either, if I do not have a gun!
I want a gun! (actually, I want a S & W 50 cal 12 inch barrel revolver)
Maybe he should visit Virginia Tech, Ground Zero and Binghampton, NY and re-think his retarded Leftist immigration policies...maggot.
articles like the one by this pinhead is why next to islamic fascism ,the press is the biggest danger to the Bill of rights and democracy/ other the professorial politicians
Back in the 90’s, and Air Egypt plane crashed into the Atlantic on a flight to Egypt from the US. The flight recorder has the co-pilot yelling “Allah Akbar” as his last words before they hit the water. The media was quick to declare that this wasn’t “terrorism” or radical Islam, and that the pilot, rather than being a crazy Muslim, was just crazy.
Fast forward to Pittsburgh, where some nut job ambushes three cops, everyone knew he was a wack job, but because he makes some crazy claim that he feared Obama was going to take away his guns, we have to presume that it was his “right wing radicalism” that caused him to kill.
Makes no sense to me.
Left-wing liar! NO ONE can buy ANY gun from ANY dealer ANYWHERE without submitting to the NICs background check.
An OUTRIGHT LIE! No FFL can sell a gun to an individual without a background check.
They sent Omar Samaha, whose sister was one of the Virginia Tech victims, to a Richmond gun show with $5,000. Samaha was able to buy ten guns in less than an hour, including three assault rifles, four shotguns and a Glock pistol like the one that killed his sister.
In Virginia a person without a concealed carry permit can buy ONE pistol every 30 days (with a CCL you can get as many as you want) and as many long guns as you want. NO LAW was broken here.
What they failed to mention is if Omar was able to locate ANY AMMO for ANY of the guns he bought (he probably could get shells for the shotguns, but not the rest).
Gee, isn’t April 19 the anniversary of the day the Feds burned a bunch of women and children to death?
I’ll take my chances with the crazies, but not with the Feds.
Domestic terror, you bet! And don’t forget Waco and Ruby Ridge.
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