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Guns sprout like flowers in spring
- Thread starter PDinDetroit
- Start date
lil_freak_66
Regular Member
imported post
In Detroit, it's become common to speak about gun violence as if it were weather.
In a May this bloody, you could tally the shootings by the bullet storms. They came in bullet hail, bullet flurries, even random bullet sprinkles.
That last would include the man who last week stationed himself downtown on Lafayette Boulevard in front of WDIV-TV, across from The Detroit News office, and pulled out a long gun.
He shot into the air, puncturing nothing but a feeling of safety, reminding those of us in the vicinity that this is Michigan, and weather is unpredictable.
We are still human enough to be horrified by an inexplicable surge of homicides in May -- the "worst nightmare" of a 7-year-old, Aiyana Jones, picked off by a police officer's bullet; or of Avondre Donel, a Ferndale honor student shot May 9 on the street, or the weekend death of Clinton Township mother Carrie Seils, who was shot Saturday night at her home. Seils' fiance has been charged with killing her and fatally stabbing her 4-year-old son, Skyler.
What we're complacent about is the fact of guns as a fact of life. We don't only take their presence for granted but act as if they're controlled from far above, a force of nature and an immutable fact of life.
Guns are gaining ground as a lifestyle, a right, a cultural imperative of true patriots. To suggest otherwise has become tedious or even fatuous. Glenn Beck told the National Rifle Association that the people who might take away guns are "revolutionary Marxists."
Over the last 10 years, the gun-as-weather people have made huge inroads in the national consciousness.
"Open carry" -- the freedom to carry an unconcealed weapon -- is all the rage in some states, where advocates strap guns on their hips and head to the local Starbucks, daring interference.
(In Michigan, this is tricky: The state doesn't prohibit you from carrying a gun on your hip, but you can't drive that way.)
In Georgia, a gun-lover's haven, legislators recently decided to update their gun laws, passing bills that would eliminate the no-gun safety zone around schools and allow weapons in bars, proprietors permitting
Even nuclear arms control is more in vogue with policymakers right now than gun control.
Issuing concealed pistol permits provides a nifty revenue stream for Lansing, which issued 66,646 such permits in fiscal 2009. In Wayne County, the number of permits issued has tripled every year since 2002, when the state changed the law to enable more people to carry pistols. In 2009, Wayne County issued 12,656 such permits.
The gun population may be the state's most noticeable demographic bulge. Like flowers in May, it's growing, although nobody knows by how much: Legal guns get stolen and then added to the criminal stockpile.
In this bloody May, it wasn't the legality or nonlegality of the guns that were at issue in the deaths of Aiyana Jones or Carrie Seils. In one case, a police officer's bullet shot a little girl. In the other, a mother of two young children got caught in an adult's emotional tempest.
I know it's kooky these days to question guns as a fact of life. But it doesn't seem nearly as crazy as accepting so many violent deaths as something that must happen, like weather.
lberman@detnews.com (313) 222-2032
In Detroit, it's become common to speak about gun violence as if it were weather.
In a May this bloody, you could tally the shootings by the bullet storms. They came in bullet hail, bullet flurries, even random bullet sprinkles.
That last would include the man who last week stationed himself downtown on Lafayette Boulevard in front of WDIV-TV, across from The Detroit News office, and pulled out a long gun.
He shot into the air, puncturing nothing but a feeling of safety, reminding those of us in the vicinity that this is Michigan, and weather is unpredictable.
We are still human enough to be horrified by an inexplicable surge of homicides in May -- the "worst nightmare" of a 7-year-old, Aiyana Jones, picked off by a police officer's bullet; or of Avondre Donel, a Ferndale honor student shot May 9 on the street, or the weekend death of Clinton Township mother Carrie Seils, who was shot Saturday night at her home. Seils' fiance has been charged with killing her and fatally stabbing her 4-year-old son, Skyler.
What we're complacent about is the fact of guns as a fact of life. We don't only take their presence for granted but act as if they're controlled from far above, a force of nature and an immutable fact of life.
Guns are gaining ground as a lifestyle, a right, a cultural imperative of true patriots. To suggest otherwise has become tedious or even fatuous. Glenn Beck told the National Rifle Association that the people who might take away guns are "revolutionary Marxists."
Over the last 10 years, the gun-as-weather people have made huge inroads in the national consciousness.
"Open carry" -- the freedom to carry an unconcealed weapon -- is all the rage in some states, where advocates strap guns on their hips and head to the local Starbucks, daring interference.
(In Michigan, this is tricky: The state doesn't prohibit you from carrying a gun on your hip, but you can't drive that way.)
In Georgia, a gun-lover's haven, legislators recently decided to update their gun laws, passing bills that would eliminate the no-gun safety zone around schools and allow weapons in bars, proprietors permitting
Even nuclear arms control is more in vogue with policymakers right now than gun control.
Issuing concealed pistol permits provides a nifty revenue stream for Lansing, which issued 66,646 such permits in fiscal 2009. In Wayne County, the number of permits issued has tripled every year since 2002, when the state changed the law to enable more people to carry pistols. In 2009, Wayne County issued 12,656 such permits.
The gun population may be the state's most noticeable demographic bulge. Like flowers in May, it's growing, although nobody knows by how much: Legal guns get stolen and then added to the criminal stockpile.
In this bloody May, it wasn't the legality or nonlegality of the guns that were at issue in the deaths of Aiyana Jones or Carrie Seils. In one case, a police officer's bullet shot a little girl. In the other, a mother of two young children got caught in an adult's emotional tempest.
I know it's kooky these days to question guns as a fact of life. But it doesn't seem nearly as crazy as accepting so many violent deaths as something that must happen, like weather.
lberman@detnews.com (313) 222-2032
detroit_fan
Regular Member
imported post
Another garbage article out of a detroit paper, suprise!
Another garbage article out of a detroit paper, suprise!
Glock9mmOldStyle
Campaign Veteran
imported post
Below is all you need to read to know where she stands. I'll try to be the better human and offer aid to her if she ever being attacked in my view :banghead:
"Open carry" -- the freedom to carry an unconcealed weapon -- is all the rage in some states, where advocates strap guns on their hips and head to the local Starbucks, daring interference.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100518/OPINION03/5180354/Guns-sprout-like-flowers-in-spring#ixzz0oIvh3tPT
Below is all you need to read to know where she stands. I'll try to be the better human and offer aid to her if she ever being attacked in my view :banghead:
"Open carry" -- the freedom to carry an unconcealed weapon -- is all the rage in some states, where advocates strap guns on their hips and head to the local Starbucks, daring interference.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100518/OPINION03/5180354/Guns-sprout-like-flowers-in-spring#ixzz0oIvh3tPT
cm2624
Regular Member
imported post
And the newspapers wonder why they are failing. I have not bought a det news for probably over a decade. It is all garbage.
And the newspapers wonder why they are failing. I have not bought a det news for probably over a decade. It is all garbage.
PDinDetroit
Regular Member
imported post
The comments are more interesting than the story.
The comments are more interesting than the story.
scot623
Regular Member
imported post
If you look close in the comments, you'll see some guy named scot623 wrote a dissenting veiw point. I wonder who that guy is?
If you look close in the comments, you'll see some guy named scot623 wrote a dissenting veiw point. I wonder who that guy is?
autosurgeon
Regular Member
imported post
scot623 wrote:
scot623 wrote:
:uhoh:
lil_freak_66
Regular Member
imported post
yes they are!
They are practically cussing out the journalist for such a misguided BS story.
yes they are!
They are practically cussing out the journalist for such a misguided BS story.
Glock9mmOldStyle
Campaign Veteran
imported post
Well done Sir!
scot623 wrote:
Well done Sir!
scot623 wrote:
PDinDetroit
Regular Member
imported post
scot623 wrote:
scot623 wrote:
And just one of the reasons I posted it here...
lapeer20m
Regular Member
imported post
every single comment on the first page was pro-gun. There is hope!
every single comment on the first page was pro-gun. There is hope!
Jblack44
Regular Member
imported post
My fav was the reference to the SNL skit "Jane, you ignorant s&*t" Of course the poster took out that naughty part :lol:
My fav was the reference to the SNL skit "Jane, you ignorant s&*t" Of course the poster took out that naughty part :lol:
detroit_fan
Regular Member
imported post
I sent her an email discussing her using the paper as a way to push her opinion, expressing my beliefe that this is exactly why newspapers are becoming obsolete- they are too biased.
I also took the opportunity to point outto her than hardly any of the comments agree with her view. Interested to see if I get a reply,butnot holding my breath.
I sent her an email discussing her using the paper as a way to push her opinion, expressing my beliefe that this is exactly why newspapers are becoming obsolete- they are too biased.
I also took the opportunity to point outto her than hardly any of the comments agree with her view. Interested to see if I get a reply,butnot holding my breath.