@PattyHanson @cdarwin But he didn't have that right. It was his delusion that's at fault here, not his rights.
@LouisIngenthron @PattyHanson @cdarwin but he /did/ have a people killing device.
Just because society might be doing the right thing here doesn't mean the point is wrong.
@ketmorco Maybe I missed the point, then. What do you think it was?
@ketmorco Yeah, if that's all it is. I think we can all get behind the idea of lunatics harming innocents due to delusions being "bad".
But when the concept of "rights" get invoked, there's usually a little more to the message.
@LouisIngenthron @ketmorco probably the point was that it would have been better for the public and government to work toward the prevention of killing children than to be satisfied with punishing those who do so.
@kevinbhayes @ketmorco And that's a great goal. But we also need to be realistic and realize that prevention will never be an absolute solution. And it also doesn't hurt to recognize just how much prevention society already has built-in that we take for granted.
@LouisIngenthron @ketmorco This can go far into the weeds, so I’ll conclude by saying it doesn’t have to be an absolute solution to try it. Maybe study other countries and see what they do too?
@kevinbhayes @ketmorco Yes, I'm not opposed to that. But on the flip side, we need to acknowledge that we *already are trying it*. We do tons of prevention that escapes most people's notice. No matter how much you do, there will always be tragedies that break through, and there will always be someone responding to that tragedy with "we should do more prevention." At some point, you've got to take a step back and recognize that not every tragedy is preventable and we already live in a remarkably peaceful and just society. That doesn't mean there isn't still room for improvement, but vague calls for "we should have prevented this" aren't really helpful.
@LouisIngenthron @kevinbhayes but it doesn't mean we should be anything short of vehemently opposed to the status quo.
@ketmorco @kevinbhayes I disagree. The current status quo is that the vast majority of citizens will never directly experience armed violence in their entire lives. Looking at most of human history (and even contemporary hotspots like Ukraine and Gaza), that's an incredible accomplishment. A lot of work went into getting us here.
As I said before, of course there's still lots of room for improvement, but "vehemently opposed"? Nah.
@LouisIngenthron that people believe they have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner. And that's bad.
which... seems like that's not a hard thing to get behind 🤔