Incoming NRA president: 'Disease' is violence, not the 2nd Amendment

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 05/20/18 09:29 AM EDT

Incoming National Rifle Association (NRA) President Oliver North said in a Sunday show interview that the problem facing America is a culture of violence rather than the 2nd Amendment.

“The disease in this case isn’t the 2nd amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence,” North told “Fox News Sunday. “They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male.” North said many kids have been taking the drug Ritalin, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), since kindergarten.

“And they’ve come through a country where violence is commonplace,” North said.

North’s remarks come after 10 people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Texas last week.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/388500-incoming-nra-president-disease-is-violence-not-the-2nd-amendment

[beachbum bob]

1. so better weapon laws not an answer? Seems if violence is a cause, should we keep weapon out

of the hands of those prone to violence???

NRA knows their days are numbered

[Igel]

19. 30k die from guns.

Violence is a crime and it kills. Remove the tool.s

64k die from drugs. Addiction and dependency are crimes and they kill.

If addiction and dependency are causes, should we keep drugs out of the hands of those prone to dependency?

We won't discuss cars and bad drivers or alcohol and alcohol dependency. It's overkill.


But in the case of dependency we want to class it as a pathology, a sort of disease. In fact, we even know that in some cases there's a genetic predisposition to dependency (not all cases, but I don't know there are good estimates on percentages here).

And yet many deaths by drugs aren't classic addicts but "recreational" users who are just stupid. Or returning addicts who don't know what a safe limit is. Or there are tainted drugs, but the addicts and users know there are tainted drugs out there and don't care. Many share, becoming complicit in another's death. (That's murder.)

With guns, it's a tool we don't like. So ban it. This mirrors those who don't use illegal drugs and don't understand why others do, so their attitude is to fight the "drug culture" and just ban the tool.

Of course one problem is there isn't a single "drug culture." Some drug shop, some buy on street corners; different drugs, different cultures. Once you're around people using drugs, you spot the differences in attitudes, conventions, culture, etc. It's the same with guns. There isn't a single "gun culture". There's a difference between some of the kids doing school shootings and punks doing gang shootings or killing because a crime goes wrong. But we only know what we know, whoever much we think what we know is all there is to know. It's a nice cognitive bias.

[olegramps]

24. Isn't just ducky that the NRA president is a disgrace to the Marines. Liar and thief.

[Liberalagogo]

2. Treasonous criminal says what?

n/t

[TimeSnowDemos]

3. Lol.

Of course every country on the planet has kids exposed to endless violence... Often via imported US TV, movies and games, and yet only the US has endless gun carnage.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Going through my yearbook from 40+ years ago, I remember a certain # of bad ass kids.

The worst demonstrations of behavior were smoking, cutting school, an occasional fight in the hallway, and some experiments with explosives (boys bathroom and press box at football field).

It's possible (albeit not entirely probable) that any one of them would have used weapons if they had been available 1973 to 1975.

Kids haven't changed. They're still controlled by the frustrations of impulses, hormones, and the naivety that comes with youth.

What's different is the array of tools available to them to resolve conflicts, both external and internal. Consistent in these shooting tragedies is the belief that a weapon will make the hurt and anger go away.

It's the guns, not the kids.

[former9thward]

28. Weapons were far more available 73-75 than now.

And even more available 10 years before that. The background checks were not nearly as developed as they are now. It was extremely easy to get guns through ads in any city newspaper. Can't do that now.

Kids at my high school (64-68) used to bring guns to school frequently to go hunting or target shooting after school. Do that now and there is a SWAT team. We did all the BS that you do in HS and never thought for a second about using a gun even though we all had them.

[no_hypocrisy]

29. I had no idea. I was referring to an affluent community in NJ.

Where was your school located?

[former9thward]

33. David Douglas High School in Portland , Oregon.

It was the largest HS in the state.

[Yupster]

35. That's my question too

Fifty years ago guns were much more available than they are today. They weren't locked up. Kids got them for Christmas from grandpa. Yet mass school shootings were unheard of.

Schools had virtually no sex ed and birth control was much more limited yet the percentage of kids born out of wedlock was a fraction of what it is today.

Kids took off to play and parents assumed they were behaving with no cellphones to find out where they were or what they were up to.

What the heck is going on out there? Are people today just not as responsible as they were in the past?

[NickB79]

31. You could mail-order guns until 1968, no questions asked

Handguns, shotguns, military surplus semi-auto carbines, etc. Gun ownership was WAY more common then too, albeit few people owned arsenals like gun nuts do today.

Background checks weren't even a thing until the late 80's.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Are other forms of violence escalating? No.

Ollie should be in jail.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. So, lets just continue handing out more guns eh, to fight off these disease-ridden pieces of scum,

eh? If guns weren't so easily available, lots of gun deaths would be avoided and the escalation of violence would drop a notch or two. Guns promote the ongoing committing of violence, not the other way around.

If there were no guns in the mix, a de-escalation of violence w/ no harm to all involved (including our police officers and other relief workers) could occur. W/ guns, too easy to go the violence way...

[underpants]

7. The Dublin comparison

I'm calling it that. I heard this once and thought it really hit the nail on the head.

If two kids get in a fight in Dublin Ireland, one might use a rock a bottle or a pipe
If two kids get in a fight in Dublin Ohio, one might use a gun

[Yupster]

36. Used to be like that in America too

We had lots of fights in school. No one ever used a gun that I heard of though probably more families had guns back then than today, and guns were less likely to be locked away back then.

[cvoogt]

8. guns generate violence

There are no 'peaceful' gunshots; all on-target shots cause trauma and suffering. Even the ones that are in self-defense. How he can talk about Ritalin and not talk about gun culture / gun worship is pretty interesting. The widespread availability and glorification of guns reminds me a lot of cigarettes; they're death sticks. Cigarettes are a public health hazard with somewhat delayed ill effects, but guns have immediate effects, yet are somehow A-OK. Guns and the debate surrounding them should be framed in a public health lens the way cigarettes were. The Houston police chief and other public officials are giving me hope that that tide is starting to turn.

p.s. I met Ollie North ones. He had (maybe still has) an office above an office I was renting, and he once held the door for me. I still think he belongs in jail.

[RainCaster]

9. It's the NRA who has been preaching the glory of assault rifles

That's where the disease came from.

[ananda]

10. If a person is suffering from this "disease," ...

I'd rather they NOT have a gun in their hands.

[turbinetree]

11. Hey North.......................your a fucking LIAR, remember, you went into a congressional

hearing with your dress greens on and LIED and now your playing fucking Doctor, your a fucking traitor..................I know a lot of human beings will write stuff like I am doing, but your one sick fucking puppy and shouldn't have a fucking gun, and even be disqualified from getting a taxpayer government retirement, because of the shit and you and your fucking Reagan buddies did, but a Russian backed Terrorist organization made you president.........................go fucking figure...................

Do you remember what happened on your fucking watch.....................here your listed as number fucking four asshole.......................in your traitorous Reagan administration

https://listverse.com/2015/01/15/10-reprehensible-crimes-of-ronald-reagan/


And George Carlin pretty much summed up your fucking murderous team...................

and just think you used a Irish Passport to go into Iran.............................

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/nra-oliver-north-irish

[csziggy]

12. The disease is valuing guns over lives

Like the idiot that showed up at the school in Texas with his Trump hat and his gun.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Yes. The disease is gun ADDICTION. That is the real drug involved. . . . nt

[Yavin4]

13. It's easy to spread bullshit propaganda when no one challenges it.

North can go any show and tell lies, and the media feels that it did its job by presenting "both sides" as if North's side has any validity to it.

[BeyondGeography]

14. IOW, librulls

Fuck off, Ollie.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Drugs & video games bullshit. As if hammers aren't used to pound nails. . . . nt

[Roy Rolling]

17. Short version.

Blah blah blah problem, blah blah. Blah, blah, blah buy more guns.

[nolabels]

18. Well then, maybe Olie should keep with the business of importing more cocaine

Why not be more productive with the efforts in your life

[Stryst]

20. Traitor says what?

This guy will literally do or say anything to anyone for a little taste of the master's boot.

[truthisfreedom]

21. Someone needs to plot a takeover of the NRA and turn them into

an organization committed to firearms education, gun safety, gun violence research and protection of children and the public from gun violence.

Perhaps this could be done by forming a competing organization called the RRA, the Rational Rife Association, and obviating the NRA by outspending them on political contributions and lobbying.

[keithbvadu2]

22. Traitor Ollie knows about giving weapons to terrorists.

[roamer65]

23. North is a fucking disease.

[Initech]

25. The disease is the republican party. The disease is the National Rifle Association.

The disease is that there are too many fucking guns in this country and people don't give a fuck. The disease is that we don't do a god damn thing and a month from now we will have the exact same fucking conversation. The disease is American insanity when it comes to guns.

[Thomas Hurt]

26. When haven't our youth been steeped in a culture of violence....

slavery
white supremacy
genocide of native tribes
lynchings
two world wars
a civil war
religious violence
racism
violent alcoholics/drug addicts
the conservative/reactionary manliness gender role is in itself violent
rape apologists
beating of children in schools
social darwinism

spare us the bee ess.

[hack89]

27. Ignorant. Violence has been steadily falling for two decades.

He needs to talk to the FBI and get some real facts.

[NickB79]

32. Bingo. A master of talking out both sides of his mouth

"We don't need more gun control, violence is at a 30-yr low."

And:

"We don't need more gun control, the problem is rampant violence in our country."

[reggaehead]

30. Ollie North

mastermind of Iran Contra. Brought crack to the streets of America. Quite a role model

[andytheteacher]

34. Oliver North

I always thought the NRA was politically smart, even if I found most of what they do disgraceful. Hiring Oliver North exposes them for exactly what they are. I guess Ted Nugent wasn't available.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

37. So, what's his SOLUTION to a "culture of violence"?

........ ......(crickets).......
.