I lived with a man who turned out to be an Israeli agent. I made the mistake of mentioning “revolution” at the dinner table once. I was shocked at the response. He was compelled to say to our guests (his son), Oh, she always says ridiculous things! As if to cover for me. It was an extremely revealing moment. He thought I was a secret agent OR a witch (he told me so)!! Because: I seem to know things. None of this is dinnertime conversation, folks!

Fascism is so close you could reach out and grab it (except you don’t!)

How do I know what I know? Because I try to keep an open conversation with nature. Trees tell me that they are working too hard to compensate for all the forest destruction. I smell the air and I know there is toxic abuse. I have suffered. I recognize when others are suffering. Gazans are suffering. It goes on and on.

Peace on Earth, folks.

Good will towards all.

The question I would ask is: why don’t the people of America rebel against their leaders? They have the guns, they have the right, and they have the anger. What percentage of Americans feel the way you do?

Jeannie, while the indoctrination goes on, the gun culture will go on and while Americans are afraid of their own government so will the urge to own guns. It’s a Catch 22 situation.

It seems that America has become a basket-case, one that is a danger to itself and the world! The solution is in the hands of the American people.

Not only am I for an armed militia to protect the people from the State, but I am totally against registration BY the State. Why tell them what you have?

The people who SHOWED the child a GUN and told him not to use it WITHOUT locking it up–separate from the ammo (kept somewhere else)–in a secret place sound like total idiots. I’m sorry that they lost their child, but come on now! That’s like me showing my dog a meaty bone and saying, “NO!” and then being surprised when he’s gnawing on it.

I would NOT give my child or grandchild a toy weapon–of any type. I would give them SAFE toy tools and build things with them–birdhouses, bird feeders, cold-weather stray cat shelters, etc.

My hard-earned money is being spent on the mass murder of Iraqi, Afghani, Pakistani (and who knows who else by covert ops, foreign AND domestic?) CIVILIANS. If these people are willing to kill unarmed people THERE, what makes you think that they have one moral fiber in their being to STOP at killing unarmed people HERE if they thought that that person was “in their way” of gaining total control of the world? They wouldn’t. And that’s what the Founding Fathers KNEW. Any State, no matter how well-designed, is manned by HUMAN BEINGS. Hitler was elected, not the beneficiary of a coup. So they created an amendment to assure citizens that they could keep the means of their protection, from all enemies, foreign or domestic. I do not find it odd that this Amendment is near the top of the list.

Do you fear Iraqis or Afghanis more than people on the Beltway? I don’t. And the latter have EASY ACCESS to me. I never met a Vietnamese, an Iraqi or an Afghani in a dark alley. I don’t expect to, as I laugh at the fear mongers.

I live in Indiana’s poorest community per capita. I have had 2 cars and my house shot up by drive-by gang-bangers shooting at the young men standing in front of the tavern next door–which I had closed two years ago. A young boy whose father was a reputed gang lord on my block was shot in the head by assassins who tried killing the father. In retaliation SIX HOUSES within one block from my home were torched that summer–one belonging to a police officer.

You have to be here to understand why some people feel that they need to take measures to protect themselves.

Our current mayor is under federal indictment. Our last mayor was told by a judge recently to pay back over 100 million dollars mismanaged (read, “stolen”) by his administration. His lawyer said that he had no money and that he couldn’t comment because he was in his spare home in Mexico. Cops have been suspected of assassinations.

Life goes on–sort of.

Best wishes in your neighborhood.

Yes, times have changed. For the worse. We have had two consecutive administrations that have systematically shredded the American Constitution, and I truly believe that Obama is considerably more dangerous than Bush,if only because the former is an obvious idiot and the latter can disarm a nation of trusting buffoons with a gilded tongue. His administration has openly endorsed the targeted killing of an American citizen–a cleric living abroad–and there are rumors of a list of CITIZENS that are up for assassination by the State. He refuses to release KNOWN innocent parties from Guantanamo. He hasn’t flinched against the practice of torturing untried prisoners, or prosecuted the Bushies who DID break this international law with gusto and no remorse. A Congressional committee just PASSED along the bill which gives Obama a KILL SWITCH to turn off the Internet in “times of crisis,” whatever that means. Well, we KNOW what that means. Stop the Davids and Teds of the world from communicating. Stop the media from covering events like the massacre on the high seas of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla (this bill is Mad Dog Senator Joe Lieberman’s baby from hell).

Maybe you might recall when Serbian paramilitaries were marching from one village to the next killing everything in sight, raping along the way. Ditto for the “other side.” If you were there and your village was surrounded and some rabid, rapacious beast was three blocks away, then two, then one, you would WANT to do what EVERY SPECIES INSTINCTIVELY KNOWS WHAT TO DO DURING TIMES OF ENDANGERMENT–you FIGHT!

I waged Peace against Vietnam, animal abuse, etc. for four decades in the streets and on paper. I’ve seen the Beast, beating unarmed people at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, at open housing rallies, etc. People mistake me for a Pacifist because I want the original peaceful human that we once were and are designed to be to enter our collective spirit. But NEVER mistake me for a martyr or a pacifist. I couldn’t play the Ghandian role if I wanted to–a tight solar conjunction to Mars makes me essentially a reluctant warrior. If that Beast is now on my block and my elderly mother and sisters are in the cross-pubic-hairs of this rapist, heaven forbid that he go man to man with me and without arms. As long as he IS armed, why should people lie down and stretch out there necks on the chopping block? A mother robin fights off–to the death if need be–any threat to her nestlings. Are we any less? Taking out evil and being willing to sacrifice yourself in the process is a noble deed. And I am not talking about the Empire’s storm troopers fighting some made-up terrorist bogeymen to extract more tax treasures from the cowering citizen to expand the Empire’s holdings.

I am glad that Australian culture is less inclined toward gun violence. May it spread elsewhere. But knowing WHO and WHAT has commandeered the levers of power in the USA at the highest level makes me convinced that we are a stone’s throw from the NECESSITY to take back our freedoms “by any means necessary,” because the ballot box has an empty bottom. There is no pledging allegiance to the Republic. This is empire, impure and simple, and it never gets prettier, only uglier, until it is brought down. Yes, there are the Martin Luther King, Jr.s, but would civil rights have been assured without the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, or Malcolm X? I think not. The instinct for survival is close to the top of the list of our instinctual proclivities. Were the armed Jews who fought back when the Warsaw Ghetto was “closing for business” wrong or right?

You have to be here to FEEL how near the fascist boot is from stepping down on your face. Bless Australia if it never knows this feeling.

This really scares me! I try to tell him about how dangerous guns are and how they hurt people, but the culture he is growing up in, that celebrates guns, is much too strong for my words or those of his parents to have much if any effect.

Recently a 2 year old boy shot himself in the head while playing with his parents loaded gun that they kept in a dresser drawer. This was after he had been told not to play with that same gun.

It is simple guns kill people!!!

Now the US Supreme Court has ruled that cities and states cannot limit and control guns.

This is insane!

We don’t live in an ideal world but guns and killing ensure it never will be.

Grace, I found your comment interesting. I guess with both Ted and yourself, you have been brought up with guns occupying a rather sacrosanct place. I wasn’t.

Few people in my country own guns and those who do face severe restrictions. The thought of Australian citizens having to be prepared to fight their own government is something that is beyond the comprehension of Australians (except perhaps for a few wackos).

It’s a clear example of two very different forms of indoctrination, one benign, one dangerous. And let’s face it, when the American Constitution was drawn up, there was a need to bear arms. But times have changed!

If my son were ever interested in guns, I would take him to the sheriff office and the morgue to learn about the bad side. Then I would take him to a Range and have a professional teach him properly – and then all guns would be stored at the range (which they allow). Guns would not be allowed outside of the range unless there is a national emergency – like the government turning on the citizens!

I was raised in an intellectual environment. Music, reading and multi-culturalism were all encouraged.

Reno 911 is a parody of the popular police reality shows. When I watched COPS one day, I thought it was a parody – but it wasn’t! They bust into some guy’s trailer and he the cops found a gun hidden in the toddler’s toys!!!!!

We had some neighbors a few years back. Their son was four years old – just like our son. They let their kid play with toy guns and yet did not teach him about the rules. He would point the gun at people! I said something to his mother and it never crossed her mind that one day he could pick up a real gun, treat it like a toy, point it at somene, shoot, kill probably another kid and then go to prison!!! I tell my son that all guns – even toy guns must be treated as though it were a real gun.

Discipline. Self control. Never hold a gun in anger – unless it is aimed at an attacker!

I don’t like guns. However, I cannot make them go away, nor do I think that would be wise – under the current political climate..

I am not crazy about armed humans, but I am less enamored with a fascist state armed to the teeth amidst a vulnerable, disarmed populace. Yes, too bad when people turn their guns on each other. But when the State grabs more and more power, it is inevitable that sooner or later people will need to rid themselves of the State.

Humans shed human blood because they shed animal blood. Both are unnecessary, preventable and they harm both sides of the relationship in every instance. The first people ate tree crops and had no interest in harming anything. We lack claws and fangs. Our gastric chemistry is not akin to felines, who can digest dense parts of the prey. Tech-less, what creatures would we even be able to catch, besides a few insects?

We BECAME what we are, we were not made this way. But we have created the concept of the State replete with borders, nationality, patriotism, etc. This is all artifice, not natural. To cement these things together people created gods that demand sacrifice–ritualistic blood sacrifice. Generational warfare. The blood of the turkey at Thanksgiving, the pig’s ass (ham) at Easter, the liquid “blood” for baby calf after an Indianapolis 500 win (the bottle of milk ritual–will we ever allow ourselves to finally end being the only mammal that doesn’t wean itself?). A different animal (un)made a different way for all occasions. State fighting State. Sacrificing its youth to perpetuate this foolish bending of the knee to divine beings that live only in the minds of fools.

Surrender our weapons to the State? They’d love that. It would make enslavement a lot easier. Better that the STATE be disarmed.