DefenderAO

This hasn't happened to my family so impossible to empathize. I ache for the families that lost children. I cannot imagine. We differ on objective vs evolving truth. We differ on multiple other topics. Your last take is uncalled for.

It isn't fixing the issue

Go after handguns too. They're the predominant means for shooting others and used vastly more than an AR. And we're going to expect the criminals to follow the laws while 99.99% of the law abiding are restricted/disarmed/pick your regulation?

Not sure you're reading the updates. I'm against the act and the progressive movement to condone, promote, and/or champion it. A trans person sure did impact lives recently. And not because they're trans, but that is how the real issue manifested. Before the shooting, does your relativism say all was well as that persons truth was being fully realized? Then truth became people need to die. It infringed on other people's truths they want to live. It's all so terribly tragic. The shooting, paramount to anything, and then the systems arising in the thread.

I didn't say it is prevalent. It is certainly relevant to the thread and a representative symptom of a root cause. What do the suicide rates say?

Straw men? Kids are being mutilated to change genders. That's reality. Objective truth isn't a high ground, it's understanding subjective truth is chaos. If this point makes you upset or contemptuous, I cannot help you there. I'll take the America I'm in today with all of its good and bad.

HBO documentary "Transhood." The examples are not hard to find even through media that generally celebrates it as good. It's filth and now normalized. Gun control - take the guns, make sheep of the law-abiding, and the criminals get more brazen... Gun violence is a symptom. Treating the symptom doesn't bring reform. Transgenderism is another symptom. In this recent shooting case, we have both prevalent. Mutilated kids and gun violence will continue if the root is not understood and worked through.

Current housing policies, reliance on aid vs. empowering those to change their lives etc. It's so deep seated now I'm not sure what massive reform looks like. There is a dependence on government to aid... for a culture there could be an ambivalence of "I'm owed" with contempt they're there in the first place. I fear it's been so ingrained, outside of personal responsible to change, I am not sure it can. And I don't believe it's by accident.

Surprised that was the lone point you pulled from my reply. Human brokenness is the problem. Systems like relativistic truth and "live and let live" manifest from that fracture. North is what you believe it is today. There's nothing good or bad...it's what you feel it is. A city on sand. Should kids get to play in traffic because that's what they feel is good for them? How about a five year old having his genitals lopped off because his mom saw him play with a barbie and he said he likes pink that day? The slippery slope becomes a free fall into the abyss.

Cultural issues as I've raised. And I'd posit the policies in those areas propagate a further push to those ends.

A majority-view doesn't make something more aligned with truth. Something widely practiced doesn't either. The irony on integration, progressivism is so broken you're now seeing demands of segregation from the individuals whose parents and grandparents fought for rightful integration. Some of the oldest books written were, in part, informational and others instructional - "this is what was happening" vs "this is what is good." Just because something was happening doesn't make it right. Truth is no person has more or less value than another. Women and men, other races...all valuable. Where we're at today? Celebrating sexualizing and mutilating children, blaming a tool for a horrific tragedy vs. the responsibility of the individual (and others). Men are competing as women and destroying records. Men are "woman of the year" winners. Where's the line? You can identify as literally anything you want? My kids want to play in traffic. That's their truth that it could be fun. Allow it as to not infringe on individual (child...smh) liberty? The four year old wakes up and says "I'm a different gender!" Cut them up because that's what's good for them? "Live and let live" is a huge reason why we're here. North isn't North. It's wherever you say it is. Looking forward to these tragedies making your list of finally moving towards what is better.

Good to meet you. The politicians are sold out. Both sides. Too many want a neo-feudalistic dystopia where they are served by the "peasants." Neither side is the answer

My comment was unfairly hyperbolic. My apology and not fair. I agree, especially on the mental health part.

To be calling California a flagship or model to follow is a rough stance. I'd say that much of the issues in those cities are cultural issues, not a mayoral/other issue. I'm grateful to be able to use my freedom for my family's safety. And more grateful I've never had to.

I'll re-address the point I tried to make earlier. If they have so decreased, why the trumpeting of "grab all the guns?" We're safer there now, according to the data. And, I don't look at violent crime as the principle indicator of societal health. It's a component, trending favorably, but by no means is the whole story.

We all seem to be. I guess it's hard to focus on everyone when I am chief broken and looking to grow

Shootings (and many other actions) manifest from a morally decaying America which is made up of broken individuals. America celebrates much of what was considered immoral just years ago...and the slippery slope seems to have been slicked further.

This gun ownership thread is active due to a tragic shooting. Who did it? Why? The why gets to the root vs. blanket statements "take all the guns" and "let people continue to be who they feel they are that day." Suicide rates by group show the problem. And when does the slope stop? All this is good but bestiality is not; but then it is because enough people feel like marrying a cat? If the root isn't addressed, you'll continue to see immoral manifestations like these examples. I worry less about whether I'm right or wrong here and look for ways to grow individually, as a dad, husband, son, friend in ways to try and serve. I'm grateful for the freedom I'm given to struggle as well...

Feel free to break it down further. Eventually you'll get to an individual fracture. City data has much more integrity than saying a state's voting color is driving a societal downfall.

Joe Biden on former KKK member Robert Byrd: "He was a mentor and a friend, and for a lot of us, he was a guide." Both sides seem a bit broken, huh?

A don't view violent crimes as the measuring stick for decay towards ruin. How is the trend for child abuse through genital mutilation trending? If violent crimes have drastically decreased, why not put even more focus on the isolated (and lessening) conditions where they do occur vs. punishing or restricting the law abiding of this country?

Those countries don't have the cultural (vastly different than racial) issues our country faces as well. A plurality of violent crimes, if not majority, show this to be the case. I also provided higher fidelity, and more relevant, data to your assertion red states are the problem.

A little deeper. Top 10 cities by murder/manslaughter rates: 1. St Louis 2. Baltimore 3. Detroit 4. New Orleans 5. Baton Rouge 6. Kansas City 7. Cleveland 8. Memphis 9. Newark 10. Cincinnati But, again, party lines as they exist today aren't going to fix this IMO.

The country is in a moral free fall, yes. It's due to a broken human, individual condition. When these broken conditions become a mob, it operates as a democracy though, by definition (not how it currently looks) we're a Constitutional Republic. Because we're defined as such does not mean we're actualizing it as intended. Holding those two points is sympathy, not pluralism. Had my children been victims in that school, or I had been encamped watching others thrown into ovens, I could say empathy. I'm grateful I cannot go to empathy for those tragic events.

Also, to note, although it seems I'm the contrarian on many points I do appreciate the general sense of civility. These are difficult, emotional topics that aren't started or contained solely here...good to see each other's views and change/strengthen our own through them being leaned on.