Originally Posted By DDMAN26 <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/26/tonga-crips-gang-utah/9463661/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/...9463661/</a>
Originally Posted By Dabob2 < it seems that many wish to eliminate guns from anyone except law enforcement. I was speaking in context, not reaching for extremes.> Well, I don't know about that. You shouldn't leap from "no one really needs to be toting a gun around every day" to "no one should be able to own guns." Those are two separate thoughts. I haven't seen anyone here express the second thought, and even if they did, they're not exactly sitting in Congress or anything. The context that matters is that, as I said, no one of any political consequence is advocating anything like taking guns away. So "fighting" for the right to keep them would be kind of like fighting for the shaving blade... except that too many people (not including you here, Josh) use "fighting for gun rights" to mean fighting for things like assault rifles or cop-killer bullets or large-capacity magazines that have no purpose other than killing as many people as quickly as possible... Too many people are just paranoid, frankly, and paranoia never makes for good public policy.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan This country loves its guns. It loves its guns more than it loves its children. That's not hyperbole: after Sandy Hook, our national priorities were made clear for all the world to see. We love our guns more than anything. Almost daily gun slayings don't affect that love, in fact, it seems to make us even more passionately in love with guns. The phony argument that anyway is taking any guns away from anyone is just laughable based on all evidence. Even the most moderate and basic gun reform laws stand no chance of passage. Horrific crimes keep getting portrayed as the anomaly, even though they happen very regularly, again and again and again.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Being Canadian I will say that there really should be a ban on guns. It makes me sick how many people are getting killed everday for something that can be prevented. I have never seen a gun, know anyone that has or would even want one. I cant imagine going shopping or at the movies surrounded by nut jobs with guns! some posters pointed out a lot of other Countries think poorly of the U.S because of all the shootings and sadly they are right.
Originally Posted By utahjosh < It makes me sick how many people are getting killed everday for something that can be prevented.> You think banning guns would end shootings? Just like banning certain drugs got rid of drug use, right?
Originally Posted By ecdc >>You think banning guns would end shootings?<< It would end a lot of them, but that's a red herring. That'll never happen here, so why not focus on sensible gun control?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Cracking down on drunk driving DID reduce its frequency. Didn't get rid of it entirely - that's a false argument. There are things we can do to mitigate the problem without infringing on anyone. "Horrific crimes keep getting portrayed as the anomaly, even though they happen very regularly, again and again and again." It's like that great Onion headline: "How Could This Have Happened?" says Only Country Where It Happens Routinely.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Cracking down on drunk driving DID reduce its frequency. Didn't get rid of it entirely - that's a false argument. There are things we can do to mitigate the problem without infringing on anyone. "Horrific crimes keep getting portrayed as the anomaly, even though they happen very regularly, again and again and again." It's like that great Onion headline: "How Could This Have Happened?" says Only Country Where It Happens Routinely.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Maybe banning guns would stop a teenager from killing a school filled of little kids. Or maybe it would stop a kid from killing themselves from the loaded gun found under their paranoid parents pillow. You can also look at most other non third world countries and see the difference of gun related deaths.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>You think banning guns would end shootings?<< There's nothing even close to banning guns being discussed. I do know that the NRA solution of MORE guns is not likely to result in less shootings. That's like saying what a drowning man needs is a drink of water. But really, it's just life in America now. Guns and shootings daily, with all of us hoping and praying that no one we know or care about is hit. Not a thing being done about it. Nothing at all. Banning? LOL as if.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan A quick look at You Tube can give you countless videos of numbskulls with guns. You can see untrained people with heavy firepower and the "comical" results of that. Imagine how many similar incidents are not captured on video every day. More stringent training, retraining, at least once per year, would be a step towards the "well trained" part of the 2nd amendment so many choose to ignore. Simply getting more gun owners to quit playing with guns and storing them properly would reduce a large number of gun deaths. But even this basic, reasonable step will never be taken, because the NRA foamers won't have it. Stopping crazed mental patients is difficult. But taking steps so that responsible gun owners don't add to the misery is something that would be smart and easy to do. Yet, we won't, because right away someone says "you wanna ban all guns, don'tcha!??" without thinking it through.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance My ex-father in law was a police officer, and even when he'd come to my kid's birthday parties, he'd bring his gun and put it on the top of my refrigerator. Really? You need to bring a gun to my house for a kid birthday party? Used to annoy the heck out of me. His butt has since been divorced, so I don't have to deal with him anymore.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder No idea of course where your ex-father in law worked or what their policies were, but there are more than a few police departments that require their officers to always have their weapons on their persons or at least very close. Leaving it in the car is not an option for some of them.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I think it's a bad idea for adults to carry weapons, for the same reason I won't let my son have the Lightsaber he's always wanted. You know what he does when he has one in his hands? Runs around like an idiot, hitting people and things with it. He gets a total power trip and acts as if there will be no consequences. That's probably the same way most gun owners who feel the need to carry it around everywhere with them feel. It's nothing to do really with safety or statistical facts of the dangers, they just feel powerful and like the way a gun makes them feel.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "No idea of course where your ex-father in law worked or what their policies were, but there are more than a few police departments that require their officers to always have their weapons on their persons or at least very close. Leaving it in the car is not an option for some of them." Even if they are not on duty? That's weird. He worked in Oregon. And I don't think he had to have his gun, but I could be wrong.
Originally Posted By utahjosh <It would end a lot of them, but that's a red herring. That'll never happen here, so why not focus on sensible gun control?> Exactly. Sensible gun control sounds great to me.
Originally Posted By utahjosh I was responding to tashajilek, who said: " I will say that there really should be a ban on guns."
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 While sensible gun control would hopefully prevent or at least lower the amount of mass shootings, I'm not sure if the effect would lessen in our inner cities. Then again I'm not sure this country gives a s*** if brown people shoot other brown people.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***<You ought to be scared out of your gourd if they are armed at work. That's ridiculous.> I have no fear*** You should. One of them could be secretly seething, ready to go postal any day now and dreaming of using his "secret weapon" to go to town on the rest of you. Sure, the same thing *could* happen to me here in Japan, with a knife for example - but I like my odds a lot better than yours if we both end up in such a circumstance and have to try and fight our way out of it.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "Even if they are not on duty? That's weird. He worked in Oregon. And I don't think he had to have his gun, but I could be wrong." Yes, off duty. Ironically, among many reasons, in case for example, they are confronted by an armed person say who's going crazy in a Walmart. That off duty at least has the training.
