Atheist kills muslims and Gun Control a bad thing?

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What I find appalling is that the media is making a headline out of the fact that he is an atheist. He is a paranoid Second Amendment activist gun-nut who had a hard-on to find something to take umbrage over, and his nasty, defensive attitude toward religious people is just part of it.

I am an outspoken atheist, but outside of an ongoing feud between myself and my father--which is more personal than ideological--I am pretty polite toward religious people. Even when Jehovah's Witnesses come by, I make polite conversation with them, and I demonstrate myself to be knowledgeable and conversant in regard to their beliefs...and open to hearing their own views...while neither endorsing nor condemning them. I am clear in my skepticism but try not to be pushy, at least in person.

I am also a gun-owner, yet I realize that our country has among the most permissive gun laws in the world, and I do not consider my ownership of any of the guns in my possession to be under threat. I think that someone who waxes paranoid because of possible restrictions on the sale of military equipment (there is a difference between disagreement and paranoid imbecility) is a misguided idiot and probably dangerous. Although I think you are weird to think it's important for you to be allowed to buy and sell military equipment on the civilian market, for you to hold the view that you ought to be is one thing. To talk like a paranoid maniac over it makes you come across as a mentally unbalanced moron...you know, like the clown in Chapel Hill who murdered his neighbors over a stinking parking space. That is how you make yourself sound when you act like a dick over the possibility of the government interfering in your stupid hobby. Being a gun-owner, having a point-of-view about gun-ownership, and being a delusional paranoid lunatic are three very different things.

A person who is obsessed over finding something to take umbrage over or to be outraged over--whether it's parking space, gun-ownership or religion--is dangerous. That is the important thing to transmit about what kind of person this man is, regardless of his religious affiliation or lack thereof or what his views are on gun-ownership.

Some people are just determined to have their gunz-r-bad thread........

Crazy people should not be allowed anywhere near guns, but the irony is, you probably wouldn't know they were crazy till they actually hurt or kill someone, as with the shooter in this case.

I'm part of a loose confederation that I won't name specifically in this post to avoid an sort of unnecessary controversy. We only have one real rule. That rule is basically this: It is absolutely unacceptable to engauge in any sort of aggressive or deliberately coercive behavior. We also can't steal, even if it isn't via the use of any sort of threat or physical force as we consider any interaction where anything exchanges hands that is not based on informed consent of all parties involved to be no better than mugging them. We have a few guidelines that aren't agreed upon by all of us, but that's about it. Everything else is acceptable. Just to gve a couple random examples, if one of us decides to become a drug dealer or launder money that was attained using any means other than aggression towards other human beings, the rest of us are forbidden from trying to stop them. Literally everything except for aggression is permitted. While we don't have many rules, the one we do have is taken VERY seriously.

Now that you know that about me, I'll have you know I'm not a fan of restricting gun ownership. The sad fact is that the law of the jungle is inexorable. By proliferating firearms, you democratize the realm of physical force. The alternative is to ban guns so that only criminals and government goons (who are just as bad as or worse than even most organised cime groups in many parts of the world) have them, leaving the rest of the population at their mercy.

Personally, I don't carry a gun for self-defense. In fact, I don't even own a gun. I don't believe that I have the skills to defend myself effectively with any sort of weapon and typically either run and hide or try to surrender when situations become violent. If I need a gun for sporting purposes, I know a few people who'd be more than happy to let me borrow theirs. That being said, I tend to feel more comfortable in the company of people who do carry concealed firearms. For a while, I had a reputation for being something like a pacifist (even though technically I never was and still don't consider myself to be one because the group I identify with does allow for self-defense under certain specific circumstances) which proved to be quite dangerous for me. To a lot of people, someone who would rather appease an aggressive party than fight with them is a very attractive target.

As of one unfortunate incident last November, it's well known in my community that there's a difference between non-aggression and pacifism. Still, I know from experience that people are much less likely to try to use physical force (or verbal threats of physical force in the future) against me when I am seen in a group. This has also proven to be the case when it's known that I have access to guns. Those two things simply make somebody a less attractive target to those who might choose to initiate the use of physical force. I have surmised based on those things that I am safer when I'm with a group of responsible people with guns, even if I personally choose not to carry one.

There are exceptions though. I'd rather not use his name, but I know one person in particular who drinks more than he should at times and routinely violates the four basic rules of firearm safety even when uninhibited by alcohol. Being around him when he has a gun probably would not make me any safer. In fact, it put me in danger on one particular occasion. However, the vast majority of gun owners that I know are very responsible men and women who take great care to ensure the safety of themselves and those around them.

That's especially the case for those I know who carry concealed weapons. I'd be very upset if they were made to give up their guns as the people that we really should fear would still have them. That being said, most of society's criminal element still has a moral compass that most could at the very least find understandable if not agreeable. I'm acutely aware of the fact that there are many things that are illegal but that don't involve being aggressive towards other people. I know of a few people who are already enguaged in peaceful criminality and who would probably carry illegal guns or even sell them, but who would never dare start any sort of conflict with another person verbally, physically or in any other fashion.

Edit: Of course, I am very much aware that there is a certain portion of society's criminal element that does choose to enguage in aggressive, even violent behavior and that's a very unfortunate thing.