tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post548245492125990464..comments2023-10-26T22:06:11.166+11:00Comments on Metamagician3000: The Connecticut school massacre - the news is still crazy (and horrible)Russell Blackfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12431324430596809958noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-11182552344585913762012-12-16T22:41:22.047+11:002012-12-16T22:41:22.047+11:00I would agree with John Fox, if all of those hypot...I would agree with John Fox, if all of those hypotheses were equally plausible and reasonable. But the arguments for stricter gun laws in the US are so clear and reasonable, it is actually a little offensive to tell people they should shut up about it, even if only temporarily. Americans have a right to be angry with the NRA and its supporters, and that anger should not be silenced, especially not when it is most inflamed.Jason Streitfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06950357341620206095noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-65629803487677646952012-12-16T22:15:31.034+11:002012-12-16T22:15:31.034+11:00^Yup. As may become clear later, I do actually sup...^Yup. As may become clear later, I do actually support gun control laws, But we get all these different axes to grind, some of them seemingly crazy (such as the "God's punishment" ones), and so much undignified ranting.Russell Blackfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12431324430596809958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-89369099310629939882012-12-16T21:13:49.743+11:002012-12-16T21:13:49.743+11:00I don't claim to have exemplified the virtues ...I don't claim to have exemplified the virtues you commend, but I approve entirely of your call for dignity and restraint. I commented on another blog, which blamed the massacre on a host of things the blogger considered, not unreasonably, to be wrong with American society, as follows:<br /><br />I have read stuff blaming the massacre (via God's punishment) on Connecticut legalizing same-sex marriage; on removing Christian prayers from public schools; on guns being too available; on guns not being available enough; on maleness; and now, it seems, on cuts in education, about computer games and television violence, among other things. A few of these things I don't like myself. But whether I agree with the politics or values or not, I feel queasy about this rush to enlist all these children's corpses to promote one's cause. Surely it's a time for shared grief and compassion, a time to unite in this. Rather, it seems, there is an outpouring of highly condemnatory polarising, of intensifying the blame we attach to people who disagree with our analyses or preferences or causal hypotheses, by telling them they are obliquely responsible for mass murders of little kids. Even if we think that without realising it they were, surely the decent thing might be to shut up about it for a week.John Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05935797236707982151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-13665905869647274152012-12-16T13:00:11.569+11:002012-12-16T13:00:11.569+11:00There was an excellent essay by Jeff Sparrow on Ov...There was an excellent essay by Jeff Sparrow on Overland, some months ago, which analyzes the mass-shootings problem in terms of political paradigms... AND examines the issue of gun control in the U.S. It's a very nuanced piece:<br /><br />http://overland.org.au/blogs/new-words/2012/08/when-the-burning-moment-breaks-gun-control-and-rage-massacres/M. F. McAuliffehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13166078483711803172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-29463233394026161992012-12-16T10:14:48.922+11:002012-12-16T10:14:48.922+11:00Three comments deleted above - not one person amon...Three comments deleted above - not one person among them wrote something dignified and on topic. One even accused me of being personally implicated in "spreading the madness". I don't know whether this referred to my involvement in the atheist movement, my involvement in the Terminator franchise, or something else entirely.<br /><br />But really, people, surely this is a time to show some dignity and restraint.Russell Blackfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12431324430596809958noreply@blogger.com