Another young boy shot and killed in North Mpls

[ranger]

A police inspector confirmed the 5 or 6 year old boy was killed by a stray bullet. Where do all these thugs come from anyway?
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/06/2 ... nneapolis/

[Lunchbox]

The more then likely correct answer is racist. So I'll just say Chicago?

I didn't read the article but the little blurb started a mental rant I know will get me an unwanted vacation so I'll just keep it to myself.

[photogpat]

Antis are ranting and raving on Twitter.

ProtectMN:"...we have to get guns off the street!!!!111leventy!!!!"
Everyone else: "How about getting criminals off the street?"
ProtectMN:"Think of the children!!!!111!!!eleventy!!!11!!"

[Heffay]

I fully support the anti's drive to get illegal guns off the streets.

[photogpat]

The operative word there is "illegal". Their tweets omitted that word.

[ijosef]

The more then likely correct answer is racist. So I'll just say Chicago?

I didn't read the article but the little blurb started a mental rant I know will get me an unwanted vacation so I'll just keep it to myself.

I understand, and your comment about Chicago is not far from the truth, if any distance at all. You'd be surprised at the amount of thugs in prison who have their birthplace listed as Cook County, IL. From what I'm told (I didn't live in MN at the time), there was a big influx of human refuse from Chicago in the late 80's and early 90's. Many of the young folk brought up by their parents entered the gang lifestyle and naturally found themselves in prison. Minnesota is a welfare magnet, so many come up for the handouts and freebies. Also, as I've been told by more than one inmate, you can make a lot more money slinging rocks and selling dope here in the Twin Cities than in Chicago due to the comparative lack of competition.

[westhope]

I fully support the anti's drive to get illegal guns off the streets.

By using the anti's term "illegal guns" you are shifting the responsibility from the person to an physical object. Exactly what the anti's want to do to; shift the arguement from people to guns. People obtained or used the guns illegally. The gun did nothing other than what a person using it intended.

As with any controversial discussion, do not let the opponents define the terms used. The world / media today is all about the words used in an arguement rather than basing the arguement upon data. Political correctness.

Yes many of the criminals in the metro originated from Chicago. I have known several jailers in the metro area, and they commented on this observation from the 1990's. They were amazed that many of the inmates' prior addresses stated the Chicago area. And they followed the welfare benefits too.

[Heffay]

I fully support the anti's drive to get illegal guns off the streets.

By using the anti's term "illegal guns" you are shifting the responsibility from the person to an physical object. Exactly what the anti's want to do to; shift the arguement from people to guns. People obtained or used the guns illegally. The gun did nothing other than what a person using it intended.

As with any controversial discussion, do not let the opponents define the terms used. The world / media today is all about the words used in an arguement rather than basing the arguement upon data. Political correctness.

I disagree. Keeping guns out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them should be something we work on. There is nothing wrong with using the terms they are using, as long as we define them in a way that doesn't affect people who legally can possess firearms.

We know those guns are out there, and figuring a way to minimize the impact of them is something we should look at. However, if we even refuse to acknowledge the issue, then we can't steer the conversation to ways to deal with it without impacting our rights to use them.

You're arguing about the terms used instead of the issue itself. You're creating a red herring, which detracts from the discussions and doesn't lead to a productive discussion. It is a logically unsound way of proceeding. Take control of the debate and you undermine their position far better than arguing about silly things like the terms themselves.

[ex-LT]

By using the anti's term "illegal guns" you are shifting the responsibility from the person to an physical object. Exactly what the anti's want to do to; shift the arguement from people to guns. People obtained or used the guns illegally. The gun did nothing other than what a person using it intended.

As with any controversial discussion, do not let the opponents define the terms used. The world / media today is all about the words used in an arguement rather than basing the arguement upon data. Political correctness.

I disagree. Keeping guns out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them should be something we work on. There is nothing wrong with using the terms they are using, as long as we define them in a way that doesn't affect people who legally can possess firearms.

We know those guns are out there, and figuring a way to minimize the impact of them is something we should look at. However, if we even refuse to acknowledge the issue, then we can't steer the conversation to ways to deal with it without impacting our rights to use them.

You're arguing about the terms used instead of the issue itself. You're creating a red herring, which detracts from the discussions and doesn't lead to a productive discussion. It is a logically unsound way of proceeding. Take control of the debate and you undermine their position far better than arguing about silly things like the terms themselves.

OK, explain to all of us here what EXACTLY makes the gun "illegal". Was it a sawed-off shotgun? A rifle with a barrel length less than 16"? Fully automatic? I contend - as I beleive westhope does - that in 99.99% of the cases, there is NOTHING illegal about the gun. What is illegal is either a) possession by the person wielding said gun, whether they be under age, a convicted felon, or what have you; or b) the ACTIONS of said person.

[Stradawhovious]

I fully support the anti's drive to get illegaly obtained guns off the streets.

There. fixed it.

[Pinnacle]

Another case of a young child hit in their home by a bullet and killed. Damn

This is not the first time that this has happened in Minneapolis.

[Heffay]

OK, explain to all of us here what EXACTLY makes the gun "illegal". Was it a sawed-off shotgun? A rifle with a barrel length less than 16"? Fully automatic? I contend - as I beleive westhope does - that in 99.99% of the cases, there is NOTHING illegal about the gun. What is illegal is either a) possession by the person wielding said gun, whether they be under age, a convicted felon, or what have you; or b) the ACTIONS of said person.

"The" gun? I don't know about "the" gun that was used in this particular crime. I am, of course (and as has been mentioned by others) referring to guns in possession by those who shouldn't own them, such as illegally obtained guns.

So, in order to keep people from jumping off bridges with all the angst whenever someone uses the term "illegal gun", I will say that when I say "illegal gun" I am referring to the ones that were obtained illegally. I personally don't see any reason why guns should be illegal based on cosmetic or functional reasons (such as sawed off or barrel length), and those are not the guns I am referring to. Just the ones that were obtained through illegal methods.

Now, can we get on to discussing effective ways of preventing these illegal guns before someone jumps off a bridge?

Or, as stradiwhoviously keenly observed and corrected (although we're talking about the same thing:

I fully support the anti's drive to get illegaly obtained guns off the streets.

[Jeff Bergquist]

Now, can we get on to discussing effective ways of preventing these illegal guns before someone jumps off a bridge?

There's the problem isn't it? We can either accept that the ability to do bad things is a necessary side effect of the blessings of liberty, or we can decide how much liberty we will surrender in hopes of controlling the culture that is fomenting this mindless violence. I admit that I've thankfully never had a child killed by random gunfire, but I believe the scales should tip to freedom before security. IMO in a free society, the only hope of preventing these occurrences while still maintaining personal liberty is by hoping that education and criminal punishment will eventually make a difference. In the meantime we'll have to take the bad with the good.

[Humphrey Bogart]

HERE WE GO AGAIN

OK, I don't want to say it...but we're going to have another news- photo-op in a street in North Minneapolis. The Mad Dads will be there and the Mayor and Police Chief will be standing behind a Microphone.

My position is that Mayor Ryback is a rock star. and Tim Dolan the Police Chief is a 9-5er (he's retiring but you could argue he retired a few years ago)

I'll make this into a question rather than a statement and no replies are even necessary:

WHAT IS THE ONE THING THAT NEITHER THE MAYOR NOR THE CHIEF CAN PUBICLY STATE THAT REMAINS AS THE OBVIOUS TRUTH?

Making it a multiple choice wouln't be helpful....ya'll know the answer....It's just not for public consumption.

[Humphrey Bogart]

Suprise!

I googled "mealy-mouth-pablum" and came up with the Mayor's response !

Mayor R.T. Rybak said enough is enough.

“It’s an outrage,” he said. “Yeah I’m pissed off, I’m plenty pissed off. But I’m not a parent of a child who’s dead. And I think every person in this community needs to feel that pain that a family member feels when their kid dies to be able to take the extreme action it takes.”

He said the unfortunate part is that it’s a problem that begins with us.

“The sad fact of the matter is what we know about guns is that a lot of those guns are coming from this state,” he said. “This is a homegrown problem.”

And this Blather from Don Samuels the Council Member:

“We got to call 911; we got to call 311; we got to call each other; we got to form a phone tree; we got to reach out to the kids passing by,” he said. “And we’re going to tell the bad guys to go somewhere else because we don’t tolerate this order here.”

And finally Words-That-Need-To-Be-Etched-in-Granite from Tim Dolan, Top Dog for MPD:

it’s an issue that everyone needs to care about.

“It seems like the larger public really doesn’t care what happens in the inner city,” he said. “It’s a population they don’t care about.”