Sent one to the local paper...

jeweler jim

[color="#099000"][size="4"]Submitted one to the local birdcage liner and was rejected because it had to be 250 words or less. So I resubmitted 250 words on something that can't begin to be covered by 250 words. Probably won't get published anyway but... [/size][/color]<br />
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[color="#000000"][size="4"]Looking for Answers?<br />
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Then move on and stop reading this as I give you questions.<br />
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As you wrap the last Christmas presents you might reflect on the direction we take and/or give to others. Do we continue to be part of the problem or part of the solution?<br />
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Have you been around long enough to remember the start of cutting back on mental health and its treatment? About the same time do you remember the starting of gun control? Can we become any more concerned about being Politically Correct and limiting our speech? Can we afford to waste or not exploit the political opportunities presented by any future tragedies as they occur? Will the village continue to raise the child instead of the parents? Do we continue to treat symptoms instead of the disease?<br />
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The day after Connecticut a man in China committed a similar act with a knife; so will they now ban the knives? Spoons wont make you fat, but will some discipline and moral training aid you in the decisions you make in the use of any tool or implement? <br />
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The next time you see Harvey Homeless walking the street talking or yelling at him who is not there please ask yourself, who put him there? I feel better after writing this; do you feel better after reading it? Reread this and give me some of the answers if you have any or have you wasted two minutes of your life reading this diatribe the first time? <br />
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[color="#099000"][size="4"]These say it much better...[/size][/color]<br />
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[color="#000000"][size="4"]http://townhall.com/columnists/rachelalexander/2012/12/15/rampage-shootings-its-the-moral-decay-of-society-not-guns-n1467549<br />
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http://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/6065056-Newtown-shooting-Stopping-the-active-shooter/<br />
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[color="#099000"][size="4"]And finally, the other side of the coin...[/size][/color]<br />
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[color="#000000"][size="4"]http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/15/a-second-mass-shooting-avoided-on-friday/[/size][/color]

jeweler jim

Pulled from my wanderings on the net...<br />
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'David Gill, expressed it best: "We remove God from our Schools and our Nation's public places to the best of our ability. We build a society that tells us that there is no definitive moral standard of what is right or wrong...what's right for me might not be right for the next person. We teach that one culture or society is no better than any other. We create areas where we advertise no effective defense is allowed. We sell and distribute violent computer games that glorify crime, assault, and killing. Our culture tells us that fame is what is important and our media makes murderers famous. Considering all our modern society does to discourage ethical behavior, maybe rather than asking why these tragedies occur we should ask why we don't have more of them."'

jeweler jim

Lots of gun ban talk going forward as they want to strike while the outrage is high. They better ban mental illness first...<br />
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[url=&quot;http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html&quot;]http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html[/url]

Snidely Whiplash

Good job on writing to the newspaper. I've been posting pro-gun stuff on the Janesville Gazette web site.<br />
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I ran across a link to this petition http://wh.gov/R75p on a gun manufacturer's forum:<br />

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Refrain from imposing further regulations on the ownership of firearms.<br />
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Inasmuch as the Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed the individual right of gun ownership, and the President has agreed that it is an individual right and not a collective right, we ask that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms be recognized and that no further restrictions be placed upon ownership of those firearms with respect to function or capacity.

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"If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response."<br />
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I doubt it will change anyone's mind in the White House, but at least they (and the public reading the web site) will be aware of the numbers supporting the petition. It's interesting to note the White House has posted responses to petitions about:<br />
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Protect consumers, create jobs and generate revenue by licensing and regulating online poker.- 9,816 signatures<br />
End discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity/exp<b></b>ression - 7,509 signatures<br />
Legalize raw milk sales on a federal level - 6,078 signatures<br />
Recognize the men and women who are occupying wall street - 12,613 signatures<br />
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Strangely, there is no response to:<br />
Peacefully grant the State of Texas to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government. - 120,048 signatures<br />
https://petitions.wh...rnment/BmdWCP8B<br />
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Somewhere in my web-surfing this past week, I ran across a comment that, back in the 1950's and 60's, one could order firearms by mail, and even weapons such as anti-tank rifles and mortars. There were no school massacres back then. It's not the availability of firearms or state of gun laws, it's the current lack of treatment/restraint/confinement of dangerous mentally ill people which is the problem.<br />
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Snidely<br />

dd

[font=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif][background=rgb(192, 161, 84)]Commentary from [/background][/font]Roger Ebert[font=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif][background=rgb(192, 161, 84)]:[/background][/font]<br />

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about 'Basketball Diaries'?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.<br />
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The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."<br />
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In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

jeweler jim

They ran the "To allow this tragedy to pass without any substantial changes to our country's laws on assault weapons would be a mistake."<br />
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Couldn't help myself and sent one the senior editor as the it would be way to long for the editorial page...<br />
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Wanted to write this from work, but we’re a little too busy to get that done and are putting in seven days a week until Christmas Eve night. So if I can take the time in the evening when I finally get home PLEASE do me the courtesy of trying to get through this even if it is fairly long. At least you can attribute this to being part of or doing your job.<br />
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Wondering if this was a group effort, but kind of doubt that you can write this by committee. Do believe that it comes from “in house” or you would have given credit to the AP or other source. Note that no one individual is given credit or signs their name to it. This is probably a good thing as there could be the same nut jobs from the “gun rights” side as from your side of the issue or as I would choose to paint you with that brush. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/12/18/professor-i-want-nra-vice-presidents-head-on-a-stick-n1469395<br />
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Will try to put into words what thoughts and emotions you have stirred in me with your editorial. Doubt that I will be able to communicate what disgust I am currently feeling and further suspect that neither I nor your editorial board will ever come to understanding or believing the others point of view. Understanding in that neither side can comprehend the wrong headed thinking that is the perception of the other’s ideas. I am now more disgusted by the knee jerk response and posturing from all the talking heads than by the incident itself.<br />
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Short of doing away with the 2^nd Amendment and national confiscation of weapons, what you want to accomplish isn’t effectively going to happen. There’s already millions of what you call “assault weapons” out there and getting those picked up would be impossible short of and causing a revolution. Sorry to break your bubble, but any semi automatic weapon can be made to accept or be made to function as what you might call an “assault weapon.” So now you have to confiscate all the “semi’s.” For that matter I’ve seen a number of individuals that can operate revolvers and utilize speed loaders faster than most could empty a fully loaded semi automatic. Need I continue? I think you can see where I’m going with this. So again, all guns and no more 2^nd amendment. Besides the fact that the previous ban ran for ten years with no effect other than causing the manufacturers to tweak the “look or configuration” to meet with the requirements. But more than anything all the verbiage will create massive increases in sales of the guns and ammo. Happens every time. Tell any American that “broken arms” are now illegal and they can’t have one and they will immediately hold out both arms and say, “Break both of them.” Even before the tragedy there was a massive ramp up in sales with just the reelection of Obama. Even in our jewelry store we sold over nine thousand in silver bullion the day after election. <br />
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So as I tried to impart in the letter to the editor that I believe you might be printing in the immediate future; this is part and parcel a mental health issue. (Or if you wish “EVIL” which will always be with us.) Certainly you have seen or read the numerous articles that put forth the idea of our degrading society and the desensitizing of the youth as they come up into adulthood. Yes there are many contributing factors, but simply put, if a fraction of the money this country throws away were put towards mental health you might have a chance of improving things. Again, prohibition has never worked: Immigration, Drugs, Alcohol, etc., etc. So without going into the carnage of other things and their causes (although you might bring up that the things involved are necessary to life or society and I’ll again bring up the 2^nd amendment.)<br />
http://www.cchr.org/videos/psychiatrys-prescription-for-violence.html<br />
http://www.nramemberscouncils.com/lifeclock/<br />
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Pretty confident you won’t approve, but…<br />
http://www.examiner.com/article/texas-school-district-will-allow-teachers-to-carry-guns<br />
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http://www.ignatius-piazza-front-sight.com/2012/12/14/front-sight-special-blog-when-will-we-wake-up/<br />
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http://audio.cbsradionewsfeed.com/2012/12/18/00/18NOTJUSTANOTHERSTORY_1801_2315072.mp3<br />
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Again, side issues or perhaps leading away the power base that is and would be “gun control” for all the politicians to carve up among themselves. Besides the fact that many if not most in the education system probably shouldn’t be “packing” as I do everyday at work.<br />
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Also, while I’m on my rant, may I suggest that all your editorial board and/or reporters might avail themselves to a little education and investigation regarding the terms and weapons that everyone so freeing discusses and usual gets wrong on description and understanding on a consistent basis. Doesn’t add to your credibility with anyone, especially to those from the other side of the issue. I’m thinking that new gun range in Crystal Lake would probably be more than happy to help out on that one and probably do it for free if it means that the “press” might get it right a little more often. And if you’re going to report with a better understanding, when will you be giving the apposing view a shot at your editorial page? Think somebody from the IL Rifle Ass. Or the NRA might be happy to help you on that one?<br />
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And finally the clipping that you might have seen a number of years ago… This one might grab you in some small way if you were to take it even slightly serious. So as I said in the letter for your editorial page, I feel much better now. Maybe I should just stop reading all print and watching any TV for the next few months. Suppose I could reread all my Capstick books or perhaps just clean all my guns. Again, I digress…

Push the Button Wyatt

We are told that God made the planets,the stars , the birds nd the bees,he even forsaw into the future, and made those big monsters, so they could rot and give us oil.What a guy huh???Then he made man, he's been kicking him self in the but ever sence.

jeweler jim

Update... They called to say they are running the letter to the editor and in today's paper the "sport's writer" pretty much gave me his column with a letter that I sent him last week. If I get ambitious I'll try scanning it and printing it here.