The shooter in the second Fort Hood shooting spree was reportedly angry because his supervisors refused his request for days off in order to attend his mother’s funeral. Would it be so bad for bosses to think all their workers might be packing, and about to go off?
The Case Against Gun Control
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Ted,
I think we should test this hypothesis of yours. At the very worst, we’ll lose a few bad bosses. It’s a risk I’m willing to take on their behalf.
It’d work the first few times, but soon after the HR folks would be packing bazookas.
Tain’t no way they’d put up with a level playing field for long. HR isn’t there to protect the humans, it’s there to protect the biz from the humans.
HR would declare their offices gun free zones.
I know this will irritate the irate employee with a gun because there is no way he is going to break the law before he kills a boss.
Tee Hee
Back in a place where I used to work, they’d send out an email every year at Halloween, reminding the employees that they weren’t allowed to bring toy weapons.
No problem, I didn’t bring a toy weapon…
Isn’t this the second military terr’rist that has murdered on his base?
If the GOP were consistent they would insist that Obumma invade (with same or different kind of “military”?) that base which was obviously “harboring” terr’rists.
Of course, not missing a beat, Obumma chimed in with the utterly sincere, if pathetic, notion that “we” must do more to protect our troops … on our/their own soil.
I thought we spend upward of a $trillion a year for the military to protect us?
Have I missed something?
“I thought we spend upward of a $trillion a year for the military to protect us?”
The problem is you mistake the trillion they collect in their “protection racket” with money they supposedly spend to protect you.
Like the “protection racket” guy who comes around selling you “insurance” because, ” It would be a shame if something would happen to your window or if your house caught fire.”
Every time I hear of a workplace shooting I think back to the threats and harassment I endured for being overextended both in keeping a loved one alive and in keeping the job that kept the medical bills paid.
Actually warned, not about failing to get my work done (because I did get it done), but about the appearance of my leaving and arriving at irregular times while on my lifesaving mission. The shithead suggested that the sick one either had to get well or die so appearances could get back to normal.
Just like the “Wise Men” Cold War warriors, I have to reserve judgement about murders in a murderous society. I am happy that they, and and so many others like myself, did not find the resort to Mutually Assured Destruction the final remaining option with their last nerve.
But when they do, I understand.
The gun nuts love that old Heinlein quote, “A well armed society is a polite society”
Doesn’t an army base constitute a “well armed society”? How about Afghanistan? Is that a well armed society as well?
Years ago my wife and I found ourselves trapped in a a closed store’s recessed doorway with two men blocking our way to the street, suggesting that we give them 25 dollars to get past them.
Yet, without pulling a gun and that although it would appear that they had the tactical advantage, I conveyed to them that it was I who was,in fact, in control of the situation.
As I wordlessly listened to their harangue, I slowly moved my hand toward my non-existent concealed weapon and they broke, running away, saying how awful it was that I should threaten them with a gun.
I can only thank the people who do carry concealed guns for providing me with a credible defensive threat that stopped a disaster before it really had a chance to begin.
And yet, that could have taken an awful turn had they been “packing.”
True,
And an awful turn if they thought I would be easy, too.
Dogs smell fear and it emboldens them.
I have a relative who was on a highway with her husband–who got his face shot off, dead–after a suspicious accident. Her arm was broken and she came out of the car waving it around hysterically. When the asshole shooters saw that, they fled thinking she had a gun.
Once again, shooters aren’t so brave when they think they might be shot. She lived because they fled.
The problem is, like atomic bombs, guns can’t be disinvented.
1One can only act in a situation as one’s instincts tells one to act at the time.
I have armed-forces training that tells me, “This is what you should do.”
I also have a bit of common sense, as a soon-to-be seventy-one-year-old fart, that tells me, “Fake a heart attack and see if it works to save your life.”
.
Just a couple of days ago, I saw a video of a murder – a young black male (possibly a case of mistaken identity) shot dead on the street at point-blank range.
.
One never knows when it’s time for “check-out|”!
I just stumbled over this gem – a related Ralltoon from 1993.
I’ve nothing against gun ownership, I own a few of my own. But the atmosphere in most gun shops is downright scary. Lots of cartoons posted on the walls all about shooting people the owner disagrees with, you know, liberals, presidents, hippies…
We’re wimps here in Europe (and I *don’t* mean Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), preferring as we do unions. Guess things are different in the land of the free and the home of the brave….
Henri