I want to keep my guns.

[TheFriscoKid]

I also want to see an end to mass shootings, school massacres and suicides.

What is the common thread? Declining mental health.

I don't think we have a gun problem but a mental health problem.

Anyone that makes a verified* threat towards another human, (including themselves), a school, a workplace, society at large, etc. should have their weapons taken away and undergo mandatory court ordered treatment.

When they are of 'sound mind' they can have their weapons returned. This won't be a 100% effective program but it will help to reduce the number of shootings and deaths we experience each year.

I want to keep my guns. I want my son to have the same rights I have for his entire life, but I want him to be safe while at a school, a shopping mall, a theater, etc until he is old enough to be a responsible gun owner.

We will need to spend money on mental health as a nation but it may solve our root problem and pay for itself. Most studies show a range of 4-1 to 7-1 ROI on mental health expenditures.

* verified = documented, witnessed and sworn to, and/or admitted

[rp_photo]

Call me insensitive, but as responsible and law-abiding AR-15 owner who got my CHL 7 years ago, I had nothing to do with this tragedy and should not be punished in any way for it.

[rp_photo]

I also want to see an end to mass shootings, school massacres and suicides.

What is the common thread? Declining mental health.

I don't think we have a gun problem but a mental health problem.

An untended consequence I see is gun owners being unwilling to seek help for mental issues out of fear of losing their rights. And I can't say I blame them.

[TheFriscoKid]

If you're sane and not threatening anyone then you would have nothing to worry about.

I am a lifelong shooter with a Texas CHL.

I am starting to see that if we don't make some compromises of our choosing we will find ourselves compromised in ways we don't want and wouldn't choose.

[TheFriscoKid]

An untended consequence I see is gun owners being unwilling to seek help for mental issues out of fear of losing their rights. And I can't say I blame them.

There is a lot of leeway here for someone to get help - "I don't like my boss" "I am depressed" "I don't have the same sex drive as when I was 18" etc.

Absent any malicious thought "I want to kill my boss" "myself" "a hooker in a bathtub" then there is no reason to take your guns while getting mental health treatment.

Start looking at the other side's POV and you'll begin to see the tide is turning.

We are living in the 'definition of insanity' territory now because what we are doing isn't working. It's time to try some new ideas in order to preserve our rights.

[carlson1]

People say mental illness - I say plain EVIL!

[flechero]

I am starting to see that if we don't make some compromises of our choosing we will find ourselves compromised in ways we don't want and wouldn't choose.

Yes, they have been crying for common sense gun control for years.

I already submit to background checks
I already have my fingerprints on file
I already pay to be registered and regulated
I already know the justice system is broken
I already know NICS is flawed
I already know you can't make people follow the law by adding additional laws
I already know that the FBI messed up
I already know that the local sheriff's office was called 20 times on that kid.
I already know he telegraphed his plan many times over and
I already know he was reported to law enforcement dozens of time
I already know he had been expelled from the school

all of this and yet they still think I need to [willingly] further compromise my rights and freedoms????

Lets enforce what's on the book and lets actually do something when people that "see something, say something" instead of just saying gun owners and law abiding folks need to keep bending further.



Here is what I'm fully willing to do.... and do happily:

I'm willing to pay more taxes to put LEO's in every school
I'm willing to personally share the cost to train school employees to carry and be able to intervene
I'm willing to volunteer and take a shift 1 day a week (off work) to be a trained and armed good guy at my kid's school
I'm willing to take additional training(at my own expense) beyond what our LEO's have, so that I am well prepared to defend our schools
I'm willing to help pay to secure/convert the school into a controlled access facility (although that's not a very complete solution)
I'm willing to get involved- with my time and money to whatever extent I can, to help protect all of our children in the school environment.

Now, what are the democrats willing to do????? All I see them doing is trying to organize to take my rights and property [guns] away, while further reducing the actual safety and security of the schools and public at large in any GFZ.

No more compromising. (at least until I can carry my single stack low capacity CC into my son's school and continue to carry when I'm on vacation, whether in TX, CA or DC.)

Sorry for the long winded response.

[crazy2medic]

If you're sane and not threatening anyone then you would have nothing to worry about.

I am a lifelong shooter with a Texas CHL.

I am starting to see that if we don't make some compromises of our choosing we will find ourselves compromised in ways we don't want and wouldn't choose.

You cannot compromise a Right! Gun owners have compromised enough, actually too much! Not one more inch! NFA, 1968 gun control act, 1986 ban, the hoplophopes will never stop until there is no private ownership of firearms! NO COMPROMISE! Every compromise they win incrementally and we lose incrementally until they win totally and we become subjects of the United State of Amerika! I WILL DO MY BEST TO FIGHT THEM IN LEGISLATION, because if we lose there, the only battle left will far worse for both sides!

[bigtek]

Anyone that makes a verified* threat towards another human, (including themselves), a school, a workplace, society at large, etc. should have their weapons taken away and undergo mandatory court ordered treatment.

How about we try it out on government employees first, including lawmakers and law enforcement, to see if it's effective. After 15-20 years we should have enough data to know whether it makes sense to expand it or drop it. If it saves just one life...

Think of the children!

[carlson1]

I am starting to see that if we don't make some compromises of our choosing we will find ourselves compromised in ways we don't want and wouldn't choose.

Yes, they have been crying for common sense gun control for years.

I already submit to background checks
I already have my fingerprints on file
I already pay to be registered and regulated
I already know the justice system is broken
I already know NICS is flawed
I already know you can't make people follow the law by adding additional laws
I already know that the FBI messed up
I already know that the local sheriff's office was called 20 times on that kid.
I already know he telegraphed his plan many times over and
I already know he was reported to law enforcement dozens of time
I already know he had been expelled from the school

all of this and yet you think I need to [willingly] further compromise my rights and freedoms????

Lets enforce what's on the book and lets actually do something when people that "see something, say something" instead of just saying gun owners and law abiding folks need to keep bending further.



Here is what I'm fully willing to do.... and do happily:

I'm willing to pay more taxes to put LEO's in every school
I'm willing to personally share the cost to train school employees to carry and be able to intervene
I'm willing to volunteer and take a shift 1 day a week (off work) to be a trained and armed good guy at my kid's school
I'm willing to take additional training(at my own expense) beyond what our LEO's have, so that I am well prepared to defend our schools
I'm willing to help pay to secure/convert the school into a controlled access facility (although that's not a very complete solution)
I'm willing to get involved- with my time and money to whatever extent I can, to help protect all of our children in the school environment.

Now, what are the democrats willing to do????? All I see them doing is trying to organize to take my rights and property [guns] away, while further reducing the actual safety and security of the schools and public at large in any GFZ.

No more compromising. (at least until I can carry my single stack low capacity CC into my son's school and continue to carry when I'm on vacation, whether in TX, CA or DC.)

Sorry for the long winded response.

Well said.

[anygunanywhere]

[TheFriscoKid]

Sorry for the long winded response.

It's a good response. I am here to learn from others.

[TheFriscoKid]

Slightly off topic but apparently the school money is already there but is being mis-allocated.

In one PowerPoint slide, Whitley noted that for the last 10 years, the state’s share of local school financing has decreased by almost the same amount lawmakers deposited into their now-$10 billion “rainy day fund” piggybank.



http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/op ... 23554.html

[treadlightly]

You would think this would be a great time to pass national reciprocity. The gun grabbers want background checks, us license holders volunteered to such a strict standard we don't need no stinkin' gun counter check. Been there, done that.

We registered ourselves on a list and got fingerprinted. We further demonstrated exemplary behavior, compared to the general population (including, I assume, any gun-grabbers with integrity).

There need to be more of us, not fewer.

Of course, licensing is an unfortunate compromise. I'm not going to complain, save in private, but until Piers Morgan gets a pie-hole license, I'd just as soon carry as an upstanding, law-abiding, decent sort.

[flechero]

Sorry for the long winded response.

It's a good response. I am here to learn from others.

Glad to hear that. and I hope my post didn't come across as personal towards you because it wasn't meant specifically to you. I wrote "you" at one point and should have put "they." I've edited that.