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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRand Paul: Shootings Like Charleston Can't Be 'Fixed By Government'
Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) kept his comments on the shooting in Charleston, S.C. brief on Thursday, saying that the "sickness" in America that gives rise to such killings cannot be solved by government.
"What kind of person goes into a church and shoots nine people?" Paul said in the middle of his speech to the Faith & Freedom Coalition Policy Conference, broadcast by C-SPAN.
Theres a sickness in our country, he continued. Theres something terribly wrong, but it isnt going to be fixed by your government.
"It's people straying away, it's people not understanding where salvation comes from," he added.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/charleston-shooting-rand-paul-government
mcar
(42,390 posts)Just shut up.
BeyondGeography
(39,385 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)are Trump and Paul starting a comedy teem ?
Rex
(65,616 posts)OF COURSE the government can fix the problem, but it would require looking at some ugly truths most people like to ignore.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)I guess it's strictly a coincidence in Rand Paul's world that mass gun violence is an extreme rarity in these countries (C Hebdo & Norway notwithstanding).
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)all will be right with the world?
The apple did not fall far from the tree.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Why run for President? You just contradict yourself AND its your type of religion that fuels the hatred.
deathrind
(1,786 posts)That is equivalent if back in the 80's saying government can't do anything to solve the problem with DWI's,... we are just going to have to accept that people are going to drink and drive and hurt others.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)bigwillq
(72,790 posts)That way, no one would ever use drugs.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I was hoping to hear Sen. Paul's free market solution to this sickness. Who can make a buck off of stopping this sickness? Unless and until there's money to be made doing that, I guess we're just stuck eh Senator?
GeorgeGist
(25,324 posts)I would have stopped Dylann Storm Roof.
GeorgeGist
(25,324 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)That was easy.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Johonny
(20,896 posts)less Rand Pauls please.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)The last person I need to hear from today is that slimeball and his kook father.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)There is nothing government can do about individually bigoted and hate-crazed people. Zip, zero, nada. That would require some sort of nightmare Philip K. Dick world where "precrimes" are detectable and may serve as the basis for arrest and, most likely, permanent "disappearance." No one wants to live in a dystopia like that.
What government can do is provide universal access to health care, including mental health, and it is to be hoped that the professionals in the mental health professions would be able to get the loonier and more dangerous ones into secure facilities, and yes, against their will if it's necessary. The government could also impose some sort of mental health requirements or meaningful investigations a priori for ownership of firearms. It is far easier these days to get a firearm than to purchase a house or drive a car. Something is profoundly upside-down about that to say the least.
And what the fuck kind of father gives a deeply disturbed kid a fucking GUN for a birthday present??!!?? That silly shit should be locked up with his son as an accessory before the fact
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Can you pass a law that makes people stop being racist?
Sure you can do things to make incidents like this harder to commit with gun control and such. But can our government change the way Americans think? If someone out there hates black people or hates homosexuals or Muslims or whatever... I don't think there is anything the government can do that can change that mentality.
The cold, hard reality is the human race is not advanced enough to put this kind of thing behind us. What we were fighting in the 1960s is the same thing we are fighting today. The Civil Rights Act didn't stop racism. I don't know if any law can. America is a violent society. There is no two ways about that. We as a society have to find a way to convince change on that level...the societal level.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)We are definitely on the same wavelength.