Saw Sicko

[Confed]

I believe the framers of the Constitution were brilliant. I believe the citizens of Canada have a right to healthcare....when they can get it.

[millrat7]

Haven't seen it yet, but plan on it. The health care industry really isn't about health care, it is about making money treating illnesses. Preventive care continues to lag far behind what it should. Any health care reform, and I do think there should be reform, cannot depend on private insurance and the pharmaceutical companies as a framework: this is how we got to where we are now. One of the plans out there uses a 3% payroll tax on business to fund universal health care. This doesn't sound like a bad idea for big businesses who still offer health insurance, since it is much less for them than they now pay for employees' insurance plans. The problem with it will be the smaller businesses and those who hire illegals or just don't pay a living wage, who will balk at having to pay their share. We, the taxpayers are now subsidizing what those businesses don't pay for (the Wal-Mart example of employees who can't afford their health insurance and so taxpayers pay is what I mean). Something has to be done.

As for the Second Amendment crap, it continues to be taken out of context, and the gun people always fail to make mention of the first part of the amendment, which states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..." Guns were meant to be available for defending the country, not for personal uses. This amendment was ratified in 1791. Read the history of guns in this country, and you'll find out that gun ownership didn't become so prevalent until after the Civil War, at which time it was glamorized by such as Buffalo Bill Cody. We've gone way past the point of sanity of many gun issues.

[peady2]

At the time the 2nd amendment was ratified we depended on a militia to fight if needed, not having a dedicated military. Therefore citizens were needed for the militia and these men needed to know how to use a gun because there was no basic training when war was declared. They also needed to police themselves. In that agrarian society it was a necessity for a man to own and know how to use a gun. Our forefathers couldn't have forseen the Industrial Revolution and the society we live in today, where citizen militias have become obsolete.

I happen to agree that the 2nd amendment refers to the individual right of the people to own guns, in order to be available for a militia. It also states "well regulated."

I don't believe that gun control is a violation of our 2nd amendment rights and I think that stricter controls would result in less criminal use of guns. But of course I also don't think that people should be free to shoot "intruders" in Texas.

[leigh]

I knew of a nurse ( she taught one of our ICU training classes ) at a hospital who , along wth her husband, was a real gun enthusiast. They took their young son out for a day of target practice, and the child shot and killed his mother accidentally. She was airlifted DOA to our hospital.

This level in our gun culture is crazy. No one should be taking their kids out to practice shooting. WE need to severly restrict this type of nonsense. WE don't need gunshows, and we don't need to entertain ourselves with target practice.

The kids at Columbine got their guns from a gunshow ( part of the collection )WE don't need to walk around armed. If our society ever degenerates to the point that we need to be armed before we leave the house, then we have more problems than a gun will ever fix.

[PaulaJo]

I thought the kids at Columbine stole the guns from one of their grandfather's. Am I thinking of another incident?

I totally disagree with everything you say about guns. You will never disarm the criminals, gun control only takes away guns from law abiding people like me.

To remain free we have to be armed, our forefathers understood this and America was founded on this principle. The first thing Dictatiorships always do is take away the weapons from the citizens; this predates the invention of guns. Americans have always been armed, you are getting your facts from biased information without facts to back it up.

That is a sad story, but I do not believe the parents knew gun safety. (If parents were teaching a teenagers to drive and he killed them, would you blame the car?)

I was taught gun safety first and then to shoot at age 6. I taught my daughter at age 8 and my son at age 5. Educated kids are the least likely to have gun accidents. We have taught 100's of Cub Scouts. The statistics of children accidently shot are skewed; they list young men up to age 21 as CHILDREN.

[PaulaJo]

I was wrong about where they got the guns. But a gunshow is not mentioned in this account, that may have been where Anderson originally got the guns. Note that these purchases were already illegal, what would more gun laws have done?

In the months prior to the attacks, Harris and Klebold acquired two 9 mm firearms and two 12-gauge shotguns. A rifle and the two shotguns were bought in a straw purchase in December 1998 by a friend, Robyn Anderson.[14] Harris and Klebold later bought a handgun from a friend, Mark Manes. Manes was jailed after the massacre for the offense of selling a handgun to a minor,[15] as was Philip Duran, who had introduced the duo to Manes.[16]

With instructions from the Internet, they also built 99 improvised explosive devices of various designs and sizes. They also sawed the barrels and butts off their shotguns in order to make them easier to conceal.[4] The two perpetrators committed numerous felony violations of state and federal law, including the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968, even before the massacre began.

Harris carried a 12 gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun (Serial No. A232432) and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm semi-automatic rifle with thirteen 10-round magazines, fired 96 times. Harris' other weapon, the shotgun, was fired a total of 25 times. Harris committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with his shotgun.

Klebold carried a 9 mm Intratec Tec-9 Semi-automatic handgun manufactured by Navegar, Inc. with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine. He also carried a 12 gauge Stevens 311D double barreled sawed-off shotgun (Serial No. A077513). Klebold's primary weapon was the Tec-9 handgun, which was fired a total of 55 times. Klebold would later commit suicide via a shot to the left temple with the Tec-9.

[peady2]

"To remain free we have to be armed..."

I totally disagree with this. I have never been armed and have never even held a gun. I have seen one up close because my mom's friend was a cop and he used to leave his gun on a high shelf in my kitchen when he came to visit until my mom told him to leave it home.

Our law enforcement and our military are armed and I think they do a damn good job of securing our freedom. I think we should leave it to them.

[bryan]

until-------- that intruder enters YOUR home - and you will be completely helpless and at his mercy. And he wouldn't think twice knowing all weapons had been banned and confiscated.


Just thinking - in this crazy world - especially in this day and age when our forefather's could not have possibly envisioned what could happen and what is happening in other countries--having a weapon may be even more prudent than ever!

There aren't enough cops or military to protect all us. We have to count on ourselves first.

[insenescence1]

Freedom is not reinforced by the mere fact of actually owning a gun, but because we have the right to own guns.

If you don't think it makes a difference, maybe you'd like to put a sign in your yard saying there are no guns in your house.

And if I fail to shoot an intruder who came into my home, I would only be ashamed of myself.

[millrat7]

I'd like to put such a sign in front of my house, but I can't.

But why, if we can have guns, can't we have nunchuks?

[PWhite]

With regard to dustys earlier comment regarding "public health".

In the "old days" (in my memory), there were "Visiting Nurses" who came to see each mother who had a "newborn" to "assess, teach, and advise".

I remember one coming to my home after the birth of my youngest brother. Unfortunately this practice has gone the way of Physicians who make house calls.

A "true" health care system would encompass all "facets" of health instead of corporate economics.

Now just watch this happen for a "wake up".

Glaxo Smith Kline, a British pharmaceutical firm, has also developed a vaccine against cervical cancer.
However, NOW, only the Merck vaccine is approved for use in the USA.

Now, try to guess just how many lobbyists, paid very comfortable salaries, have been at work on this.

These folks are laughing all the way to the bank.

[rnbsn]

I haven't seen the movie nor will I. I detest Michael Moore.
It's true that our health care leaves a lot to be desired, but the USA healthcare is the best in the world. Why do you think so many come here for it?
My relatives in Canada have a terrible system. You wait and wait for treatment and possibly die in the process.The treatment (when received) is substandard. My friend there needed a holter monitor, but because so many other did, too, she never got it. that's just one problem.. I could go on and on....