bggamers Loc: georgia

There needs to be a data base where people on anti depressants ect can be identified when they to try buy a gun.eagleye put out another thread about the people who do these mass shootings all were on psychiatric drugs. a lot of people would scream about invasion of privacy but in this case personal privacy be damned the price of privacy is beginning to cost way to much.

PLT Sarge Loc: Alabama

I have been preaching this for years. How many 18 year olds have no idea what they are going to do with their lives. Having spent 38 years in the military training young recruits, instructing at a Military Academy for future Officers, I have seen allot. So many young people have no idea what or where they can go with their life. I think that when a person turns 18, they should do at least 2 years military service. I think that we are losing so much potential by not doing this. These kids are smart, grew up on video games. Can I say, Cyber Warfare. Not only can we tap into a new generation, but give these kids a direction, a skill that they can use in the civilian world. I believe that with so many high tech fields that we have now that only require sitting behind a screen, we should allow certain handicapped kids in. Why can a person not serve their country in a wheel chair ? Also, from training we have a Nation of first responders. Civilians that through Military Training know what to do and how to react. I am all for a 2 year stint for any and all 18 year olds. It will make us a stronger Nation.

GmanTerry

I so agree with you Sarge. The worst thing we did was remove military service as a requirement. It turned aimless boys into men. It taught self reliance, respect, work ethic, teamwork and patriotism. Those are all good qualities in a citizen.

Semper Fi

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Like all able-bodied young Swiss men who must serve a tour in the Swiss army.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

I remember the days when court judges gave teenage delinquents a choice in punishment, go to a reform school or join the Marines.

king hall Loc: Tucson,AZ.

I was hoping someone other than myself had listened to Tucker tonight. He truly did 'slam his argument home'.

When Bush invited the private sector to offer proposals regarding 1) privatizing SS 2) how to better attract enlistees to the armed services I addressed both. As to the military, I proposed (and maintain); 1st, mandatory high school graduation, 60 days report for induction physical/state desired service affiliation 6yr obligation. 2nd, with approval of readiness the individual enrolls 2yr. community college/class schedule compliments 1yr boot-camp training. 3rd, w/2yr. successful CC inductee reports 2yrs active 4th, w/edu. & duty credits established inductee has earned access to the higher-education venue or specific special training balance of time commitment. During this 6 yr. commitment the inductee earnings are tax-free, college tuition 100% specific service supported. With a re-enlistment of 4 yrs., earnings maintain tax-free, exit w/$500,000. secured credit line w/interest rate cap of LIBOR plus 2pts. Vets of 10 yrs. exit 28/30 y/o fully trained/educated, financially secure. While none of the proposals offered ever matured this one had legs with the DOD. Liberals boo-hoo this because it removes the vulnerable teen from their grasp. Not to mention the probability of stabilizing middle-class over ten years.
Who didn't see that coming?

bggamers Loc: georgia

when I was growing up when boys started getting into trouble if bad enough the judge gave them a choice prison or the military

S. Maturin

Great idea.

It'll be a 'hard sell' with today's parents and kids.

pafret Loc: Northeast

You have a "Rose Colored Glasses" view of what will happen to young people who are suddenly conscripted. From my personal experience I can tell you that none of the desired effects will be provided by the military. I enlisted at age seventeen and went from being a boy to a man overnight. At least that is what the military told me when among the first lectures I got were the military code of justice, in which they enumerated all of the things for which they would severely punish me. They capped that off with article thirteen which essentially said "Do anything we don't like and we will punish you for it, even if it wasn't listed in the previous articles".

Plain enough but we had a number of young men who were given a choice of 'enlist in the Army or go to jail' by some local Judge. Most of those fellows didn't make it through basic before they were in the Stockade. An additional group of people also fell afoul of Military Regs during my three year stint and in each case it was people who had little to no discipline in growing up. They were incapable of accepting authority and obedience was the last virtue they ever practiced. If they came in with the mind set of privilege, intolerance for any authority and insistence on their own views they ultimately ran into problems.

The Army is not a finishing school and they demand absolute obedience. No one will be pampered or heard out or allowed to express their opinion in any way. They are quick to punish any infraction and nothing destroys your life more than a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge. I obtained my first "Secret" clearance at age seventeen and had high level clearances through most of my working career. A bad or dishonorable discharge would have shut me out of the life I have enjoyed.

The behavior exhibited by many eighteen year olds would guarantee them a life of misery after the military found them unfit and discarded them. There is no rehab in the military.

Consider also how many wars we are engaged in at this moment. What do you think would happen if we suddenly had a huge standing Army? Politicians would undoubtedly find some other nations which need to be invaded to protect the folks at home. There has to be some justification for the huge budgets required. Maybe rationing will come back for those at home.

Some other countries such as Switzerland have such policies and it is part of their way of life. Being neutral does not mean you won't be invaded and every Swiss youth is required to be militarily trained for protection of his nation and there after to maintain a military weapon in his home for most of his adult life. Despite being armed, the Swiss murder rate is 0.5 per one hundred thousand and the majority of these murders were committed with knives (3 to 1) by about 80% foreigners, including mostly asylum seekers. This indicates a very law abiding mind set among Swiss citizens which is totally lacking in our youth.

My Swiss son-in-law has told me that the military weapon is never touched except for periodic, required, requalifying in its use. Any other use would result in severe penalties and most Swiss regard the presence of that weapon as a necessary nuisance only. Given our current societal state with its anything goes mentality, do you think our young have the discipline to survive the military? Such discipline begins in the home and is inculcated by schools and by his or her peers long before a young person reaches the end of high school or it never will take root.

We need to begin expressing moral outrage at the behaviors of our iconic public figures and we need to show our young how a moral life is lived, with all the the traditional virtues emphasized. Disrespecting the flag is symptomatic of the contempt our society has for what used to be normal behavior.

This rant is beginning to become endless so I will end it here with the statement that conscripting all youths into the current military would be a disaster for both and would not produce the desired effect.

GmanTerry

I remember those days too. Now, however, unless you are a minority and qualify for a minority enlistment with a GED, you must have a high school diploma. And I'm sure, under the present political environment, the left would consider going into the military, "cruel and unusual punishment".

Semper Fi

S. Maturin

Schools have been issuing diplomas to warm rocks, the standards have slipped so. Lots and lots of those warm rocks are eagerly swept up by even Ivy League colleges (to meet quotas, PC points), and then what--- those warm rocks drop out like, well rocks.

That is warm rock abuse!

Happishark

Why single out people on anti-depressants? What about people taking sedatives, antipsychotics, antianxiety meds, mood stabilizers, ADHD meds...? Depending on which report you believe, that's between 1/6 and 1/4 of the US population. What about people who are being treated for psychiatric problems, but aren't on medications? And how about the millions of people with psychiatric disorders that aren't being treated at all? Maybe everyone should be required by Federal law to take an MMPI (a popular standardized test that assesses psychopathology). I'm sure we could find a way around that pesky 4th amendment.

It will always be challenging to protect people's safety and privacy at the same time, but that doesn't mean we should abandon one for the sake of the other. When I think about the reasons I love my country, our Constitutionally guaranteed individual rights always top the list. I will never condone taking away those rights from any group or class of Americans--only from particular individuals under very specific circumstances defined by the law. (How "the law" differs from "Executive orders" is a conversation for another day.)

Violence of all kinds, including gun violence, is a complex problem for which there is no simple solution. As with cancer, no cure can ever be found, but we can make tremendous strides by trying multiple approaches at the same time. We know that poverty, ignorance, untreated mental health problems--including addiction--all breed violence, so we must fight poverty, improve education, build and staff more treatment centers, and make treatment more widely available.

And though I agree that we need to make it more difficult for people to enter the country illegally from Mexico and points south, I am a hundred times more concerned about stopping the flow of weapons across our borders. No one I know wants to take guns away from legally licensed, civilized gun owners. But I could visit any city in America and, even though I'd never been there before, buy a gun illegally on the street in the course of an afternoon. With a little more time and money, I could custom-order a collection of virtually any kinds of weapons I wanted. So could any local criminal or crazy person with deadly intent. THAT'S THE PROBLEM THAT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME AND MY LIBERAL FRIENDS. THAT HAS TO CHANGE BEFORE ANY OF US CAN FEEL SAFE.

Again, I recognize that the fact that almost everybody has easy access to lethal weapons is not the whole problem, and stopping these weapons from coming into the United States is not the whole answer--but it would help a whole lot.

There are many, many measures we can try in order to combat the violence epidemic before we resort to revoking people's freedom. And the only way you'll ever take away my right to privacy will be by prying it out of my cold, dead hands.

Happishark

Vefy well said.

bggamers Loc: georgia

I'm not picking its a fact that these meds can cause in some people suicidal and homicidal tendencies and most mass murders were on these drugs its called a side effect

Happishark

It's true some antidepressants, as well as some sedatives and hypnotics, can cause
violent impulses in patients who had none previously. There needs to be more responsible prescribing of these meds and more careful monitoring of patients who start taking them. (And don't get me started on big Pharma.) But you missed my point, to wit: the answer is not allowing some government functionary access to our medical records. That would be dangerously reckless and manifestly unconstitutional.