"NewsWeek" gun-control special edition

B

Bruce in West Oz

New member
NewsWeek has released a "special" edition on America's gun "problem".

While it appears they have made an attempt to listen evenly to both sides of the coin, their ultimate response is "more control", including national registration/licensing.

The attitude is probably best summed up in this quote from an article:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Besides fanatics and mentally disturbed people (Furrow appears to be both), many ordinary Americans have also become caught up in the cult of the gun. For them, it is not a jarring source of violence but as much an accepted part of the landscape as forests and rivers. Such people often resist controls over the objects they revere. But human beings are capable of modifying their own mythologies. After the tragedies in Littleton, Colo.; Atlanta, and now Los Angeles, Americans have shown signs of a change in their feelings about guns, seeing them increasingly as more dangerous than sacred. That kind of collective psychological shift is necessary if we are ever to transcend the crippling fraternity of the gun.

Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at John Jay College of the City University of New York. His new book, "Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism," will be published by Metropolitan Books in October.

Newsweek, August 23, 1999[/quote]

Emphasis is mine; I did it to draw attention to the very careful vocabulary choice and emotive phraseology. I'm sure I don't need to draw pictures for you.

The editorial/special, titled "Guns in America: What Must Be Done" (I like that "Must" imperative!), can be read online at:

http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/so/na0108_1.htm

B
 
Interesting that as I read your selected quote, I was struck at how the writer was essentially casting any appreciation for the RKBA as a mental problem. Then, voila - written by a psychiatrist.

The anti-self defense lobby is really working overtime now. I'm sure many of them see this as an exciting time, pulling together, working shoulder to shoulder to find the right combination of tragic events, charismatic speakers, celebrities, and media support to push their team past the goal line. I hope we are as committed to stop them.
 
I've always found it amusing that practioners of a subjective and fractious field of study insist on the mantle of sacred writ and there are so many laypersons willing to accomodate them.

He should have stayed in real medicine and contributed to society in a real sense

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
They have that "sacred wit" until some zero they are treating as an out-patient goes out and vaporizes a half dozen people.

Then we hear,"Well, this isn't an exact science" and "It's impossible to predict human behavior" yadda,yadda,yadda.
 
The author automatically lost all credibility with me when I noticed that he is a psychiatrist. Those emotional words used in the article are very sneaky: that's a very deceitful and underhanded way to write an article, but then again I wouldn't expect anything else from his type. (I f@rt in his general direction!!!)

The phrases that really get me are "cult" and "crippling fraternity of the gun." As if we gun owners are all in need of his leather couch to lay down and discuss our relationship with our mothers...
It definitely casts gun owners as a buncha' "fanatics" and weirdo people. Sounds as if he thinks we set up little shrines to our "sacred objects".... DOH! Gave myself away!!!!! ;)

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"...What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?... Fight, and you may die, run and you'll live, at least a while. And dying, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that, for just one chance, to tell our enemies, that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!!!"
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je suis prest
 
A psychiatrist is an MD who has also gotten a PhD in Psychology.

People major in Psychology in order to figure out what's wrong with themselves. Some never do, and write articles for Newsweek.

Anybody who goes to a shrink oughta have his head examined...

Ciao, Art
 
Why am I not surprised? "professor of Psychiatry and Psychology", 'eh? This field of, ahem, "science" that attempts to turn human behavior into a disgustingly complex web of id, ego, potty training, pavlov's dogs, fish slapping, monkeys hugging terry-cloth wireframes, and your momma's underwear holds no water with me- not even water vapor.

I only read the first page of this pseudo-journalistic piece of doggy-poop, and couldn't go any further. A whole page and not one fact, not one rational argument. Just more of the same.

Sen. Richard Bohica: "We are all saddened by this Xth tragedy in Y days. We must do something to stem the tide of violence. And now for something completely different- more gun control."

Note how he wrote his "article" to sound moderate, like he doesn't want to take away our guns and paints people who would once have been called "patriots" as a bunch of knuckle-dragging thugs. As a psychiatrist, he is an expert at manipulating people's emotions. I like this not. "America, or at least the sensible center where most of us stand, has had enough", indeed! Pah!

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"Is fhe'arr teicheadh math na droch fhuireach"
-Sarabian Oomodo

If it isn't Scottish, it's CRAP!

A firearm isn't a weapon until it is used as such.
 
That's why both lawyers and doctors refer to their profession as a "practice"... :)

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John/az

"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!

http://www.countdown9199.com
 
As I have I always said, i don't want to be treated by some one that is still practicing, I want some one that KNOWS what he/she is doing. LOL


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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
I found an interesting passage in the lead article ("What must be done") when I followed Bruce's link to the Newsweek site. "For millions of us the whiff of cordite is intermingled with the smells of home and family: of hunting dove, ducks or deer..." First off, my wife won't let me shoot in the home, and the author must be referring to the millions and millions of us who are shooting dove, ducks, and deer with our .303 Enfields, .455 Webleys, and .416 Rigbys loaded with really old ammunition. I believe cordite was last manufactured in the late 50's. Heck, I was even a kid then. I believe there is still a propellant called Cordite-N, but it is not the same thing and only used in aircraft guns such as the 20mm.

And when a gungrabber like that author tries to be reasonable and conciliatory it really chaps my big texan sicilian behind. Who does he think he's fooling?
 
Who does he think he's fooling?

This is a rhetorical question, right?

If it ain't, he thinks he's fooling some 67% of the people in the US. The sad part is, he's succeeding.

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A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil.
Vote Libertarian - For A Change.
 
This is why I haven't read News Week for several years... they are slanted...

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"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
The Critic formerly known as Kodiac
 
Coinneach, I guess you wouldn't call my "Who does he think he's fooling" a rhetorical question, but just a silly one. It is sad that propaganda, psychobabble, and flatout, self-serving, condescending lies can influence so many good folks.
 
Art,

I will damn well take issue with you and your statement that all Psychologist go into the field "to figure out what's wrong with themselves." To me it just shows you ignorance.

I am a Marine Corps Korean veteran AND a retired clinical/school psychologist. Have you ever helped a veteran with long term "combat fatigue" (we didn't have post trama stress syndrome back then) that lead to his alcoholism and help him put his life back together? Have you ever figured out why a child couldn't learn to read and figure out a way to help the teacher to teach him so he could? I doubt it.

I originally went into the profession to help other veterans, and branched out from there. I knew where my head was at...but evidently you don't know where yours is to make a stupid statement like that.
 
Give a man a title and now he's an expert qualified to comment on it. If the medical or other profession don't like what's going on out on the streets, let them police it instead. There's no easy answer and the difficult line to draw is between the rights of the citizenry and the safety of the public.
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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt



[This message has been edited by 4V50 Gary (edited August 18, 1999).]
 
So, John....we are required to take a shrinks' word and interpretation as gospel?

Yours is a subjective field...its not science and it sure as hell isn't accurate. Admittedly, some good is done, albeit damage is as well. Guess no one is 100%, huh?

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
Hey, John Foley! I "grew up" in the Psych Dept at UT. My mother got her doctorate there in 1942, and taught there until 1950.

Granted I should have said "Some", but one of the older campus jokes (UT, FSU, U of Fla) about Psych Majors goes as I said.

Rest assured I know better than most how much good is done by knowledgeable, competent and caring psychologists and psychiatrists.

But relax! I don't get bent out of shape when Aggies make UT jokes, nor when people disparage "all" engineers as not being able to spell...

Regards, Art
 
Hmmmm, interesting.
An "engineer" makes a somewhat humerous remark about psychologist.
A "Psychologist" takes immediate offence, and responds with words blazing.
The "engineer" responds in a civil manner.
That alone speaks volumes about "Psychologists" in general.

FWIW, my own take on "Psychologists" is that the vast majority of them are the modern day version of snake oil salesmen.

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Want to feel your age?Check it out. http://web.superb.net/boy/age1.html
 
Hal,

Sorry about that, after reading that jerks antigun article I was seeing RED! It appeared, at least to me, that you were " tarring" the entire profession with the same brush. I reread the "joke" a couple of times and almost decided not to respond. But taking the entire thread into consideration I concluded it was a "cheap shot" and decided to defend my profession. 'Nuff said.

A women when to see a Psychologist. Psych," whats the problem"? She, "my husband won't eat anything but dog food". Psych, "my, that is unusal but outside of tasting bad there is nothing in it that should hurt him".

Two weeks later she's back, dressed in black and crying. psych, "what wrong". She, "my husbands dead". Psych. "my god, was it the dog food"? She, "no..he was sitting in the drive way licking his balls and I backed over him with the car"!

And so it goes...
 
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