3 ms·

Barack Obama: Guns Are Our Shared Responsibility

4 points by ust 11y ago

Mendenhall 11y ago
My personal favorite line was the president of United States calling it a democracy. It is a republic as written in constitution. The framers of constitution wrote much about the dangers of democracy, and here we are, where presidents call the United States one.
lsh123 11y ago
"30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns" To put it in perspective (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm): Heart disease: 611,105 Cancer: 584,881 Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 149,205 Accidents (unintentional injuries): 130,557 Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,978 Alzheimer's disease: 84,767 Diabetes: 75,578 Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,979 Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 47,112 Intentional self-harm (suicide): 41,149 Note that Accidents or Unintentional Injuries include (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm) Unintentional fall deaths: 30,208 Motor vehicle traffic deaths: 33,804 Unintentional poisoning deaths: 38,851 Overall, I think we need to have Executive Order to cure Heart diseases and Cancer before we go after the guns.
- zarify 11y ago
  To give more consideration to that argument than it's worth for a second, is there no government funded medical research into these medical issues in the US then? Add to the fact that you'd be talking about prevention, not cure for it to be a parallel to the gun issue. Shame that no government can try to do something about more than one issue at once, though. Imagine what it would be like if we could keep dangerous drivers off the streets, give those with mental illness the treatment they deserve, conduct medical research into preventing and curing life threatening illnessess, and stop deadly weapons from getting into the hands of those who would use them to harm others, but all at the same time!
  - lsh123 11y ago
    "federal funding for cancer research is at the lowest point in decades..." http://www.asco.org/sites/www.asco.org/files/cancer_resarch_threatened_small.pdf http://www.asco.org/sites/www.asco.org/files/cancer_resarch_...
    - DrScump 11y ago
      That page doesn't give cancer research spending, just overall NIH budgets, and it ignores cancer research spending from outside of the NIH budget.
DrScump 11y ago
The problem that the media utterly ignores is that the Obama administration does nothing with the failed checks it has NOW. In 2010, for example, there were over 73,000 gun purchase attempt denials[1], of which over 48,000[1] were known to be felons and/or fugitives from justice [2]). The number the Obama administration attempted any prosecution of? 44. [1] Just think: in the first two years of the Obama administration (the most recent data in the WP article), there were over 25,000 fugitives that were identified trying to purchase handguns and over 67,000 felons trying to purchase handguns... and the Obama administration only even attempted to prosecute 121 of the total 92,000+. Note that fugitive number: that's 25,000 fugitives that could have been caught and taken off the street just by having law enforcement show up at the gun store when the would-be buyer attempted to get a handgun. -- 1. Washington Post Fact-checker blog, 4/11/13 2. NCJRS

4 points by ust 11y ago

My personal favorite line was the president of United States calling it a democracy. It is a republic as written in constitution. The framers of constitution wrote much about the dangers of democracy, and here we are, where presidents call the United States one.

lsh123 11y ago

"30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns" To put it in perspective (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm): Heart disease: 611,105 Cancer: 584,881 Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 149,205 Accidents (unintentional injuries): 130,557 Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,978 Alzheimer's disease: 84,767 Diabetes: 75,578 Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,979 Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 47,112 Intentional self-harm (suicide): 41,149 Note that Accidents or Unintentional Injuries include (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm) Unintentional fall deaths: 30,208 Motor vehicle traffic deaths: 33,804 Unintentional poisoning deaths: 38,851 Overall, I think we need to have Executive Order to cure Heart diseases and Cancer before we go after the guns.

zarify 11y ago
To give more consideration to that argument than it's worth for a second, is there no government funded medical research into these medical issues in the US then? Add to the fact that you'd be talking about prevention, not cure for it to be a parallel to the gun issue. Shame that no government can try to do something about more than one issue at once, though. Imagine what it would be like if we could keep dangerous drivers off the streets, give those with mental illness the treatment they deserve, conduct medical research into preventing and curing life threatening illnessess, and stop deadly weapons from getting into the hands of those who would use them to harm others, but all at the same time!
- lsh123 11y ago
  "federal funding for cancer research is at the lowest point in decades..." http://www.asco.org/sites/www.asco.org/files/cancer_resarch_threatened_small.pdf http://www.asco.org/sites/www.asco.org/files/cancer_resarch_...
  - DrScump 11y ago
    That page doesn't give cancer research spending, just overall NIH budgets, and it ignores cancer research spending from outside of the NIH budget.

DrScump 11y ago

The problem that the media utterly ignores is that the Obama administration does nothing with the failed checks it has NOW. In 2010, for example, there were over 73,000 gun purchase attempt denials[1], of which over 48,000[1] were known to be felons and/or fugitives from justice [2]). The number the Obama administration attempted any prosecution of? 44. [1] Just think: in the first two years of the Obama administration (the most recent data in the WP article), there were over 25,000 fugitives that were identified trying to purchase handguns and over 67,000 felons trying to purchase handguns... and the Obama administration only even attempted to prosecute 121 of the total 92,000+. Note that fugitive number: that's 25,000 fugitives that could have been caught and taken off the street just by having law enforcement show up at the gun store when the would-be buyer attempted to get a handgun. -- 1. Washington Post Fact-checker blog, 4/11/13 2. NCJRS