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The Forum > Article Comments > Are mass killings becoming a new norm? > Comments

Are mass killings becoming a new norm? : Comments

By Robert Mclean, published 28/12/2012

Many shocked by events at the Newtown school see themselves as pacifists, but stand with a government that commits similar, or worse, atrocities in other countries.

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A culture that glorifies violence and clings tightly to weapons, whatever they may be, will always be doomed to suffer atrocities. It is inevitable. But the issues at play are larger than if a society does or does not keep guns.

Issues such as why Adam Lanza's mental ill health not identified? And how could, in a country with a population 12 times larger than Australia but the same land mass, someone drop-out of society so much as to get to a place where they would do this?

But I do note with interest, and some not inconsiderable respect, the authors note about the civilian 'casualties' that go unreported and unmourned. "Are some children automatically more valuable than others in our eyes?" The answer - of course. If we do not know them and cannot see them then they are valueless to us. If they die, well it doesn't affect me so why should I care? Maybe this explains the issues above - out of sight, out of mind. Even within our own neighbourhoods.
Posted by Arthur N, Friday, 28 December 2012 10:43:27 AM
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Robert Mcclean you are so right in what you are saying, my first reaction to the American children killed was,well what about all the other children that have been killed through American wars, all children are very valuable regardless of what country they live in. The press frustrate me to their one eyed viewpoints,there are many people now who do not go along with this style of reporting, it all depends which side of the fence you are sitting on, they repot on how good Western society is, doing no wrong and always right, it is utter rubbish. Being such a God given country, American people have along way to go to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, when killing seems to be very high on their agenda. I always thought the Bible said " though shall't not kill" .
Posted by Ojnab, Friday, 28 December 2012 12:25:42 PM
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Out of sight should never be out of mind, but beware of those gun freaks who are using the out of sight out of mind as a pretext to press for in sight out of mind as well. They really are! Along with the gunnies who ask that attention be switched away from gun homicide to tackling mental illness. All countries have problems of mental illness including that tiny subset of the mentally ill who will use a gun if they can get hold of one. (The vast majority of mentally ill people have no more inclination to violence than anyone else). In one of these - the USA - gun homicide kills nearly 10 thousand people a year. By contrast Britain's tally is now 41. There is no evidence that America has that much more mental illness than Britain, even allowing for the bigger population. The difference is that America is awash with privately owned guns because corrupt judges, corrupt politicians, a clamorous minority of gun freaks and a voracious firearms manufacturing industry have decreed that it be so.
Posted by EmperorJulian, Friday, 28 December 2012 2:37:30 PM
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The lame excuses for killing the unborn certainly is a far greater crime in numbers than that of a mentally disturbed individual.The more secular America becomes the more violent. The fact that this young man seemed to live without a father at home again escapes any sort of analysis.
Posted by runner, Friday, 28 December 2012 3:15:35 PM
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I object to the statement the the US is the statistically the most violent country in the world. This is simply far from true. A quick look at the wiki page listing countries by their homicide rate shows the US somewhere like half way down the list. Honduras, at the top of the list, has a murder rate twenty times that of the US. Nearly all South American and African countries have much higher murder rates. Russia has over twice the homicide rate of the US. The US does have the highest gun ownership rate in the world, but this does not translate into the highest murder rate and far from it.
Posted by Rhys Jones, Friday, 28 December 2012 3:36:29 PM
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I liked the article though don't agree with everything in it. I too find the double standards with regards to people being killed highly offensive. We send our soldiers to Afghanistan and Iraq for the purpose of killing people. We never seem to consider that these people may mourn their loved ones just the same as we do. Every time an Australian soldier is killed there is a great outpouring of grief. No grief for the Afghans who have died fighting the foreign invaders. Nor for their children who die in the cross fire.
However, to blame the gun lobby and arms manufacturers for the proliferation of weapons in the US does not tell the whole story. America is a democracy and the Americans love their guns. They want the ability to protect themselves and I have some sympathy for that. Although I do not feel vulnerable myself, my wife does. She has no way of protecting herself should she ever be attacked, whether in the home by an intruder or on the street. Whilst statistics would tell us that owning a gun does not make you safer, it certainly makes people feel safer knowing they have the means to protect themselves from people who are younger and stronger than them.
Posted by Rhys Jones, Friday, 28 December 2012 3:36:36 PM
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