My money's on joe bloe

Is the point you're trying to make that you don't need guns to protect yourself? Originally Posted by Doove

No Doofus, and once again you are being your wormy self. The point, Doofus, is that your doppelganger in Colorado would have used a different weapon(s) had he not been able to acquire guns. In fact, he already deployed such weapons in his apartment, and had your doppelganger not forewarned the police, there might have been additional casualties.

Actually, we don't live under either the Old Testament or New Testament, nor do we live under the Koran, the Tao de Ching, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah or any other writings of humans trying to explain God, whether such a being exists or not.

We are supposed to live under the Constitution. God help us if we try to govern our society according to any religious dogma.

Actually, we don't live under either the Old Testament or New Testament, nor do we live under the Koran, the Tao de Ching, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah or any other writings of humans trying to explain God, whether such a being exists or not.

We are supposed to live under the Constitution. God help us if we try to govern our society according to any religious dogma. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

I'm certainly not advocating a theocracy or anything resembling one. I'm just pointing out, that at the foundational level, our legal system is a reflection of how we want to live our lives. It's a reflection of what we believe is good and what we believe is evil. Those are subjective judgements, that are tied to our culture, which is Judeo-Christian. If the founding fathers had been Hindus, our legal system would be different than it is.

Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

We have Holmes in custody. He won't be killing again. He should be studied, so we can find out what the hell went wrong in his brain that caused him to do this. It is a unique opportunity. Too often these people kill themselves, leaving us with nothing but questions.

If we insist on "eye for an eye" retribution, we will miss a golden opportunity to take this tragedy and possibly have something meaningful come out of it. Something that may give us a clue how to prevent this from happening again.

WOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO ..... PUBLIC LABOTOMY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Town square 1pm sharp ... be there or be square !!!

Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

We have Holmes in custody. He won't be killing again. He should be studied, so we can find out what the hell went wrong in his brain that caused him to do this. It is a unique opportunity. Too often these people kill themselves, leaving us with nothing but questions.

If we insist on "eye for an eye" retribution, we will miss a golden opportunity to take this tragedy and possibly have something meaningful come out of it. Something that may give us a clue how to prevent this from happening again. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

What about the deterrent effect of punishment? Most people refrain from crime because they fear punishment. If someone is considering, committing a murder, and knows that the worst that will happen is that he will be treated like a psychiatric patient, surely that person, in most cases, will be more likely to murder, than if he knew he would be executed for his crime.

Severe punishment for murder is not always effective as a deterrent, but more often than not, it is.

I think the minimal standard of knowing right from wrong is an appropriate standard for the insanity defense. If you start going beyond that, before you know it, nobody will be responsible for their actions. By the strictest standard, everyone is somewhat nuerotic. If imperfect mental health always mitigates guilt, how can we hold anyone responsible for anything?

The possible gain from psychiatric study of Holmes, is more than offset by the loss of deterrent effect from not executing him.

Well if it makes you feel better, joe, the RIGHT honorable Rep. Louie Gohmert of Mars (er, Tyler) has said that this never would have happened had we not forgotten about God.

Maybe you ought to run for Congress joblo

We went to war with Iraq in March of 2003 and 9/11 occurred in 2001. Note exactly a knee jerk reaction is it? Iraq was invaded because Hussein violated the deal he made, he supported terrorism, and there was the question of WMDs which seem to have ended up in Syria.