Interesting: Many people, on reading of the slaughter of school children, rush to buy guns
I truly do not understand the public “mind”: we have a terrible slaughter, and people stampede to buy as many of the weapons as they can. I simply cannot understand what they are thinking. Are they planning slaughters of their own? I understand that they fear the guns, which have killed many, may be restricted, but what exactly are they planning to do with all those weapons that they are in such a hurry to buy? That is, beyond the upcoming restriction, why are they buying these guns? They are not hunting weapons.
People are frightened, and gun buyers probably think they will be able to protect themselves and their families if somebody starts shooting at them. The statistics about how much more likely it is that they will shoot a family member or a bystander instead? When you’re scared, you don’t rush to statistics.
Linda McConnell
29 December 2012 at 3:33 pm
That could be it, given that extreme fright short-circuits thinking—how many times have we seen the girl escape the terrifying monster in the dwelling only to return to save a kitten/favorite doll/recipe/etc.? Alien is only one example. But still… (as someone used to say a lot): are they thinking that if they are at work and a madman starts mowing down people including their children at a local school/mall/movie theater, that they will drop everything, rush home, retrieve their assault weapon, and drive to the slaughterhouse and save the day? None of it makes sense to me. Indeed, it seems mostly a morbid desire to own the very gun that killed so many innocent people. It’s hard to believe that people are so frightened that they have come to this. If so, I truly don’t understand what is going on—though that, of course, is a condition with which I am quite familiar.
LeisureGuy
29 December 2012 at 3:42 pm