I have some thoughts and ideas and I'm sure others sitting around this campfire do as well. We have all been impacted in many ways by the recent shooting. A new bar was set for horrific and follows an escalating pattern. Mainly, younger, white males committing mass murder. Most of us around this fire have some gray in our hair (if we have any hair left) and this is not something we grew up with. I think most of us agree there are many things headed in the wrong direction in our society and there's no sign of it getting better. Quite the opposite in fact. If anyone asks me, "what can I do" my basic answer is to first LEARN as much as you can and then take as much positive action as you can. For example, "mental illness" has been a frequent theme in these shootings and appears to be a factor with yesterday's shooter. Most people know what they know about mental illness from TV and movies. This means that what most people know about mental illness is erroneous. A significant percentage of our population has some form of mental illness. Few of us do not know someone who has a mental illness. It is common malady and hence, worthwhile to learn more about. People who are seriously mentally ill exist in large numbers in our society. None of them choose this fate. They are often outcasts, people are uncomfortable with them, they usually aren't on the, "guess list" and so on. There is tremendous stigma toward mental illness and for most who have it, they find this more harmful than the illness itself. My next suggestion, after you have picked up some knowledge is to go out and make a difference. I'm talking about helping others. I'm sure this suggestion sounds confusing. Perhaps you are thinking, "ok, you're suggesting I go out and help 'deranged' people - what do I do, find someone on the street who is talking to himself and invite him for dinner?" Fortunately, there is some existing organization and infrastructure you can work with. For example, "drop-in centers" for people with serious and persistent mental illness are fairly common. Volunteer your time there. Play cards with the people there, have a supportive conversation, learn about who they are. Another suggestion - find an Alliance for the Mentally Ill meeting in your area. These meetings are primarily comprised of parents who have children with serious and persistent mental illness. You can learn a lot from these people. These are people that were thrown into a world they never expected to be in. The typical age of onset for major mental illness such as schizophrenia/bi-polar disorder is young adulthood. Many of these parents had wonderful, bright children for whom there was no reason to suspect that their lives would be tragically derailed. For some, their children were maybe the high school valeditorian, they had a college scholarship and so on, only to have it go horribly wrong. These people all have stories to tell that are worth listening to. Each of us has an opportunity to add to the dimension of who we are and make a difference in the lives of others. "Faith without works..."

we can only control our own lives, and not all of us are even successful at that.
Living your life in the most moral, ethical and correct manner, is about the most important contribution an individual can make.

good points. thanks for the post.

if we could just figure out how to increase the voting percentages of eligible voters, it'd be a step forward. they'd need validated id of course. we find ourselves electing candidates that a small percentage of the legitimate voters chose.

nothing, people have been killing others since the beginning of time , just a fact of life

Kill everyone who disagrees...

get the liberals their own island..........

then sink it to the bottom of the sea

I would bet everything I have that people around this campfire have helped others out in ways they may ever been aware of. While we are painfully aware of horrific events such as yesterday's, to flip it around, I wonder how many events have been averted because someone made a difference in someone else's life? Over the years here, I have met several members who have spent a significant amount of their time mentoring young people - sharing their experience and talents to teach them fishing, hunting and outdoor related crafts. How can you know how much others have benefitted from your actions? The only way you can know for sure is to never do anything for anyone - then you can be pretty assured no one has benefited from knowing you. The concept, "faith without works..." makes sense to me, whether you have a religious orientation or not. The easiest thing to do is to barricade ourselves. Hmmm... I take that back... it is equally easy to not challenge ourselves and keep the same ideas, opinions and perpectives day after day. Open yourself to new experiences, take yourself out of your comfort zone and you will become a better version of you. As an example, I am a member of the local Rotary Club. There are occasional opportunities for overseas trips (e.g. building a dental clinic in a third world country). I've yet to see anyone return from one of these trips without having a changed perspective. And always an invigorated perspective. This isn't an ad for Rotary Clubs but there are all kinds of service clubs out there that have as their agenda, to help improve their communities. Don't assume these clubs are overly populated by Democrats either

Make it a requirement that each adult is armed, carrying, has firearms handling training, and practices with their firearm.

An armed society is a peaceful society.

Follow the Constitution as originally written.

As suggested by Joel Osteen, strive to be happy 7 days a week.

When you wake up every morning, tell yourself you will be happy.

I've worked with "Troubled Youth" for the last 30 years. While nothing is true for every person, 99% of the kids that avoided prison time by coming to us were unwanted by their single parent. Many were born for the simple reason abortion costs money and state/Fed programs don't pay, others simply for the extra $400/month plus food stamps and section 8 housing. I don't want to open up an abortion can of worms but I will say anyone that doesn't make enough money to pay taxes doesn't make enough to have kids. Part of any contract where someone takes gov. money should have a mandatory contraception clause.

I'm sure many unwanted childred grow up to be normal, healthy adults but I've seen what happens to a large percentage of them.

reinstitute glass-spiegal and put the FCC certificates on a 3 year max with only 50% renewals.
remove the electoral college and require voters reg cards to be photo-ID.
increase import tariffs.
overturn 2010 decision regarding financial contributions and corporations.
require churches to pay taxs on investments and revenues.
Audit the fed.
tie nancy pelosi to the hood of a explosive filled GMC and drive it thru the front door of the UAW.

Bowbldr's comments above working with troubled youth reminds me that there is an organization called the Boys and Girls Club that has branches throughout much of the country. They are quite appreciative of people wanting to volunteer their time.

If like me, you are not in law enforcement, another suggestion is to contact your local law enforcement and ask to do a, "ride along." I have done this many times. Prior to doing this, most of what I knew about law enforcement was from movies and TV. At least for small-town America, what I saw didn't have much resemblance to what Hollywood produces. I've done several ride-alongs and the VAST majority of what law enforcement deals with falls in three categories: mental illness, alcohol/drug abuse and addiction and domestic violence (which usually involves alcohol or drugs). Take these three categories out of the equation and at least smaller-town law enforcement would have very little to respond to. It was also a very illuminating experience to spend a full shift in a squad car chatting with an officer - about what he (or she) experienced, felt, concluded and so on. It was interesting as clearly some ended up with a career that they had not fully understood would be the outcome - that is they ended up being a community social worker more than any other role. The other highly educational piece was riding with officers who had been on the force for 25+ years as contrasted to some who were very early in their career. I have a much enhanced understanding of the community I live in from this experience.

Impeach Nobama!!!!!

Human nature has not changed significantly since, well since ever. What has changed is our values, or lack thereof. The first half of the 20th century was the greatest literary period since the writing of the Constitution. When the media became movies, then tv, then video games, the socal values of the nation were althered. Remove the filth from hollywood and video games and slowly the USA will return to a normal society. That and getting the children off drugs and just giving them the attention they need.

Return public education to education and not indoctriation.
It has to start at home and in the schools.

Abide by the ten commandments and end gun free zones.

That would be a good start!

so, abortion on demand is the answer? Kill the unborn to prevent them from becoming 'troubled yutes'?

What a sick bit of 'logic' THAT is.

My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of those involved in this senseless act. Something has changed in are society and we are all trying to figure out what it is. Who to blame and why this happens. Nobody is born a killer. Its life events and circumstances that form are personality's and and how we react to life's events.
We all have emotions and feelings, anger, sadness, joy. What makes one of us go off and be a shooter is what we need to focus on. What as family, friends,co-workers,neighbors. Can we do before this happens is where we need to focus. There has been a breakdown,a failure in our everyday lives and we are all responsible in keeping this from happening again. We must not turn this into a political issue or guns vs anti guns. We have to work together to change things in are everyday world as a community and individuals to make a difference. Do not look for new laws and rules to do it for us. WE MUST MAKE THE DIFFERENCE AND NOW THE TIME TO START ! BE RESPONSIBLE.

i just wanna buy me a big truck, and upgrade to some really big wheels. sorry, off-topic.

My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of those involved in this senseless act. Something has changed in are society and we are all trying to figure out what it is. Who to blame and why this happens. Nobody is born a killer. Its life events and circumstances that form are personality's and and how we react to life's events.
We all have emotions and feelings, anger, sadness, joy. What makes one of us go off and be a shooter is what we need to focus on. What as family, friends,co-workers,neighbors. Can we do before this happens is where we need to focus. There has been a breakdown,a failure in our everyday lives and we are all responsible in keeping this from happening again. We must not turn this into a political issue or guns vs anti guns. We have to work together to change things in are everyday world as a community and individuals to make a difference. Do not look for new laws and rules to do it for us. WE MUST MAKE THE DIFFERENCE AND NOW THE TIME TO START ! BE RESPONSIBLE.

at least a percentage of us are wired to kill. sorry, i know that's not current pc talk.

there was a time that being wired to kill allowed the survival of our wives, family, and children. i'm not really sure we're past that point in time and space. i hope we are.

our two-stranded DNA structure got us, in large part, to where we are. i hope our environmental understandings can allow us to "override" our double-helical underpinnings. sounds like a debate between genetics and environmentalism is beginning to emerge?

it's taken us Humans a long time to reach this point in our development. But, now, how do we best choose to move forward??

drilling more oil, will that help?

2 Chronicles 7:14 New King James Version (NKJV)

14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

What we have to do as a country is do a complete 180, traditional values weren't something to become outdated or evolved out of, they were values set inside us by our creator. We need to stop letting the media's forms of sex,violence and justice into our homes and becoming the new reality. I don't see how any sane rational human can look at this and blame guns, this country is ill and this overt violence is just a symptom of the sickness. We need to unplug as a whole and turn to each other and figure out how we are supposed to live. God didn't give us commandments and values because they are simply his idea of what is right, he knew what was best for his children and wanted the best for them. We all need to pray, pray for this country to look back to God and return to sanity. And we need to keep praying until it happens.

God save us,

MM

Put God back in schools. Children are being taught that there is no absolute truth, and no personal responsibility. We take the ultimate authority out of children's lives and then wonder what went wrong.

true enough.

at this point in the development of the process, there'll be competitive Gods on the stage.

the Judastic group will want to include judaism. the islamic people will want to include allah. the Christians of course will choose to encourage the ldrshp of Christ.

we're to the point that competitive religions have surfaced upon the stage, for better or worse.

until we can narrow down the number of Gods to one, then we'll be in continuous conflict. i know the Greeks allowed any number of God's. but we're way past the Greek viewpoint, nowadays.

Mannlicher, I said I didn't want to open the abortion can of worms. Birth control is my first choice & adoption would be fine with me but how many people are waiting in line to adopt crack babies. As horrible as abortion is imagine being a drug addicted crack whore with another unwanted baby on the way. You probably already know what it's like to pay for that baby for the next 18 years.

Unwanted children are the basis of our prison system, gangs and trouble in our schools.

I didn't read the thread but pretty good chance all the answers can be summed up with mine.

Stop trying to appease.
Stop trying to reach across the aisle and get along.
Stop trying to be tolerant.
Stop making deals with the devil.

All of America's current problems are a direct result of the above. People have become lazy and complacent and have let down their guard. They set aside their diligence.

The only thing required for the triumph of evil is good men do nothing.
Darkness grows.
There is no sitting still in the stream of life. You're either adrift with the current washing down towards the drain or you are rowing against the tide.

1.GET RID OF LIBERALS
2.LET GOD COME BACK INTO SCHOOLS AND PEOPLES LIVES WITHOUT THEM BEING THREATENED BY ANYONE OR ANYTHING.
3.BRING MORALITY BACK TO THIS COUNTRY
4.LET IT BE KNOWN FAR AND WIDE,EYE FOR EYE AND TOOTH FOR A TOOTH TO ANYONE WHO THREATENS US OR COMMITS CRIMES AGAINST US CITIZENS.
5.COMPLETELY CLOSE ALL BORDERS AND MAKE PEOPLE GO THRU THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A CITIZEN
6.NO FREE HAND OUTS FOR ANYTHING,IF YOU DON'T BRING SOMETHING TO THE TABLE TO BETTER THIS COUNTRY YOU DON'T GET ANYTHING.
7.DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL PEOPLE PERIOD,NO EXCLUSIONS.
8.NO MORE THAN 2 TERMS FOR ANY ELECTED OFFICIAL 6 YEARS MAX.
9.ALL POLITICIANS GET THE SAME BENEFITS AS THE PEOPLE THEY SERVE,NOTHING ELSE,PERIOD.
10.ALL SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE NO LONGER UNIONIZED AND ALL TEACHERS WILL TEACH NOT INDOCTRINATE OUR CHILDREN.
11.NO MORE FOREIGN AID TO COUNTRIES THAT DON'T HAVE THE SAME IDEAS AND VALUES AS US.
JUST A START.

Amen plinker....Amen

What if principles, professors, postmasters and mall cops were allowed to carry concealed weapons to work?

Gun Free Zones=Mass Murder Crime Scenes

Quit wasting time looking for a political or economic solution to what is truly a spiritual problem. Maybe everyone should read Jeremiah and Lamentations an see how God feels about these things. Look what happened to Israel then. The world is getting very close to the bottom of the bowl and trusting in the Lord and believing His word is the only solution. This life is short and eternity awaits all. Choose wisely.


Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!

If there was a father in every home, and if that father was backed by a mother in every home, and if that father made every aspect of his children's lives his business, and if that father was the spiritual leader of his family, and if he garnered the respect and love of his family by making hard decisions and sticking to them, and if he led by example, and if he were moral and righteous and fair and ethical and true to Morality and Godliness, and if his children were taught to follow the Ten Commandments of God, and if ......... then.

Alan

I agree. 31 years as an LEO with 5 as an amature pscychologist (School Resource Officer) in a large Highschool. Personal responsibility by the would be parents and by the student would go a long ways. Unfortunately, when the government decided to become the parent with welfare programs, personal responsibility went away.

I agree, if you are not paying taxes, then you need to be on the pill or sterilized until you learn personal responsibility and pay some taxes. Giving birth to child after child without being willing to focus on the child and his or her needs until the baby reaches adulthood is NOT a civil right. It's a civil responsibility. kwg

Amen, Amen and Amen.

John

My wife stopped taking our kids to Mass when she realized that the church was filled with child abusers. We see the same in other non-catholic, Christian faiths as well. Don't tell me that is "ultimate authority and absolute truth". We have to protect our Children EVERYWHERE from predators.

Bushmaster? Who keeps a f'n Bushmaster around.?

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2012/11/starve-beast-how-to-go-galt-and-avoid.html