Gun owners - Have you apologised for a spree killing recently?

From the President of the NRA after Columbine - me thinks he did as much as than "the Muslim Community".

Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. I am very happy to welcome you to this abbreviated annual gathering of the National Rifle Association. Thank you all for coming and thank you for supporting your organization. I also want to applaud your courage in coming here today. Or course, you have a right to be here. As you know, we've cancelled the festivities, the fellowship we normally enjoy at our annual gatherings. This decision has perplexed a few and inconvenienced thousands. As your president, I apologize for that. But it's fitting and proper that we should do this. Because NRA members are, above all, Americans. That means that whatever our differences, we are respectful of one another and we stand united, especially in adversity. I have a message from the mayor, Mr. Wellington Webb, the mayor of Denver. He sent me this and said don't come here, we don't want you here. I said to the mayor, well, my reply to the mayor is, I volunteered for the war they wanted me to attend when I was 18 years old. Since then, I've run small errands for my country, from Nigeria to Vietnam. I know many of you here in this room could say the same thing. But the mayor said don't come. I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for the newspaper ads saying the same thing, don't come here. This is our country. As Americans, we're free to travel wherever we want in our broad land. They say we'll create a media distraction, but we were preceded here by hundreds of intrusive news crews. They say we'll create political distraction, but it's not been the NRA pressing for political advantage, calling press conferences to propose vast packages of new legislation. Still they say don't come here. I guess what saddens me the most is how that suggests complicity. It implies that you and I and 80 million honest gun owners are somehow to blame, that we don't care. We don't care as much as they do, or that we don't deserve to be as shocked and horrified as every other soul in America mourning for the people of Littleton. Don't come here. That's offensive. It's also absurd because we live here. There are thousands of NRA members in Denver, and tens upon tens of thousands in the state of Colorado. NRA members labor in Denver's factories, they populate Denver's faculties, run Denver corporations, play on Colorado sports teams, work in media across the Front Range, parent and teach and coach Denver's children, attend Denver's churches and proudly represent Denver in uniform on the world's oceans and in the skies over Kosovo at this very moment. NRA members are in city hall, Fort Carson, NORAD, the Air Force Academy and the Olympic Training Center. And yes, NRA members are surly among the police and fire and SWAT team heroes who risked their lives to rescue the students at Columbine. Don't come here? We're already here. This community is our home. Every community in America is our home. We are a 128-year-old fixture of mainstream America. The Second Amendment ethic of lawful, responsible firearm ownership spans the broadest cross section of American life imaginable. So, we have the same right as all other citizens to be here. To help shoulder the grief and share our sorrow and to offer our respectful, reassured voice to the national discourse that has erupted around this tragedy. One more thing. Our words and our behavior will be scrutinized more than ever this morning. Those who are hostile towards us will lie in wait to seize on a soundbite out of context, ever searching for an embarrassing moment to ridicule us. So, let us be mindful. The eyes of the nation are upon us today.

originally posted by: boymonkey74

I soppose I could learn something from them.

Like how to spell?

a reply to: neformore


I do believe all vest owners and manufactures should apologize for wearing and making vests. I am doing my part by refusing to wear vest with formal wear. Wont wear one with a tuxedo.

Gun owners aren't a community you moron, they are a bunch of people who some rhetorically group together because of one arbitrary commonality, owning a firearm.
You know this and you're being delibrately deceptive, or you're an idiot.

a reply to: waynosHow many deaths by government officials, police and armed services are their both in amerika and oversea where the collateral damage(inocent civilians) is about 90%. The amount of killings by western governments to achieve certain political objectives or force their point of view onto others far outways the amount of killings by genuine muslim terrorists. Do we take the guns and weapons of all these government people. The world would be a significantly safer place if it was not for unsanctioned invasion of others countries. Many of the events that you describe have many strange circumstances surrounding them which may qualify them as false flags and not events done by actual terrorists. Besides is it alright to kill people in middle eastern countries ( many of whom are simply refered to as collateral damage and are totally innocent) in their own country but not have some of them come in the defence of their countries and kill westerners in our countries
One of the main reasons that the right to bare arms is the defence of america against tyranical government although this with modern weapons would probally only amount to the annialation of both sides and a foreign power invading when america was at its weakest.

a reply to: Forensick

Your right I have horrid spelling but thatthat is dyslexia for you.
Plus fat fingers and a small phone.
Well done bet you are really proud.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
a reply to: Forensick

Your right I have horrid spelling but that is dyslexia for you.
Plus fat fingers and a small phone.
Well done bet you are really proud.

originally posted by: neformore

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: hillbilly4rent
In my opinion, this is a classic troll thread.

Since when is making an anaology to discuss societal trends about how people generalise when they react to controversial issues trolling?

.

A lot of people use the term not like how it was originally. Now it can mean anything a person doesn't like = trolling.

OP doesn't come across as anything near that.

The Islamic terrorists were gun owners.

And they murdered 132 school children in Pakistan, and 18 people in Paris, because of their religious beliefs, not because they were gun owners.

a reply to: Domo1

There are tons and tons of good Muslims. Problem is, there are tons and tons of BAD Muslims, and they seem to get a free pass because no one wants to insult the good ones.

How exactly do they get away with it?

Over 1 million Muslims have been killed by the War on Terror.

Seems to me that the situation worth noting is this: There's some bad Muslims, problem is tons and tons of good Muslims are killed trying to get to them.

a reply to: neformore
Looks like you where right on that with the bottom comment, happy I read full post be for moving on. Sure it takes me longer to post and most times I don't get to be the first unless I start a topic. But at least I don't fall for baiting, well at least too often.

a reply to: neformore

Well done. the same argument offered to muslims.

Same situation. the media will not show the "common man". Messes up the narrative.

a reply to: Answer

The biggest difference is that there is not a sizable sect of 2nd Amendment supporters who recruit/indoctrinate/encourage people to become mass murderers because of a twisted idealistic interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.

Sure there is. They are called militias. Militias train to hone their skills to kill people, so they can take part in a civil war and kill obama.

Trying to restrict the usage of guns only makes it harder for law-abiding citizens to get them. It does nothing to keep them out of the hands of criminals, as there will always be ways to purchase them illegally. Take a look at the recent shooting sprees in France for a perfect example.

Also by the OP's logic, we should be banning cars because more people die in car accidents than by guns every year in the US. What about knife violence? Should we ban steak knives too? I could go on.

originally posted by: Domo1


I actually deeply respect the religion, just worry there is an issue of people abusing it.

Yes. I worry about this too. I don't worry about the religion. The religion is not the problem.

I admit I'm not as well-versed on this subject as I should be, but from where I'm sitting, it seems to me that predominately Islamic countries have had problems like civil wars for thousands of years. Lots of wars, lots of killing, lots of suffering. Basically, hell holes. Then you have other countries coming in and making problems, causing more death and destruction. This makes for people who aren't very happy - can you blame them? When you have a hell-hole situation like this, for as long as it's been like this, it's not hard to see how you could get a group of people who start to get medieval. I'm talking extremely conservative, strict by the book (Quran), type of mentality. There's some violent and angry stuff in that book (just like there is in the Bible). When you live violent horrible lives, those parts of book starts to make a lot of sense to you.

There really isn't a whole lot of difference between the Bible and the Quran. There some violent stuff in both, and there is some kinder gentler stuff in both. The difference between our culture and theirs, is that our culture, for the most part has stopped all the civil wars, all the horrible torture, suffering and violence. While we do have our conservatives, the western world doesn't live in hell-holes anymore, so we are not as angry a people. Overall, we relate more to the kinder gentler stuff, and not as much to the angry violent stuff.

There is also the element of these extremists recruiting otherwise peaceful Muslims. They are pretty good at it, it appears to me. The problem is, we're helping them when we separate ourselves further and further from the peaceful Muslims. We are fulfilling what the recruiters warn: the west doesn't care about you, they hate your religion, they want you to follow their evil ways instead - they make fun of your God, and of your prophet. I know, everyone's religion gets made fun of. But, when you add it to everything else that's going on (the wars, death, destruction, other countries' involvement in those wars, etc.), it's easy to see how a peaceful Muslim could start to turn towards the dark side.

I don't really know what the solution is. I think we should stay out of those countries (yeah, good luck with that), and I think we should crack down on the extremists who want to kill anyone who doesn't follow them. But I also think we should publicly show support for the peaceful Muslims. We don't have to be best friends, but we have to send the message that it's okay for you to follow your religion - as long as you let us follow ours - there's no reason why we can't live together in peace. But until their countries start to find some kind of peace, there will always be angry violent people coming from there, trying to spread their dark message.

originally posted by: Jhugener
ohhhh so that why my drill sergeants corrected me way back, I never understood why they wanted me to refer to my gun or firearm as a weapon. It's because they were prepping me for a future in crime. a reply to: intrptr

War is a crime.

a reply to: neformore

Well done. I see what you did here. Every poster in this thread talking about gun control didn't get it.

a reply to: Qspeedyrock

I really, I mean REALLY, don't see how that was a reply to me. I didn't raise one single point that you supposedly replied to. Funnily enough, neither did the OP.

a reply to: circuitsports

a reply to: Forensick

a reply to: truckdriver42

Here is a tip put the self righteous indignation to one side and actually READ the post beyond the first line or two without going red faces and angry and walking off in a huff.

1) The OP never mentioned banning guns

2) There is a hidden satirical point in this thread that has doing to do with guns.



Man Americans are so easy to bait