Gun Control

[notorious]

We have all heard about what happened in Aurora, Co, and I think that Gun Control is going to be a huge topic in the following months.


What measures need to be taken? Do you have any ideas that will help prevent this kind of thing from happening again as it pertains to guns?

[BIG_DADDY]

One more stat for all you left wing gun hating liberals:

When anti-gun activists list the number of deaths per year from firearms, they neglect to mention that 60% of the 30,000 figure they so often use are suicides. They also fail to mention that at least three quarters of the 12,000 homicides are criminals killing other criminals in disputes over illicit drugs, or police shooting criminals engaged in felonies. Subtracting those, we are left with no more than 3,000 deaths in the entire country that I think most would consider valid.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by Bane

Objectively,how would you suggest the issue be handled?

Handled? You just take the bad with the good. The good far outweighs the bad, it's not even close.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

All due respect, but I'm passing on your question. I've already done the "gun controls I'd prefer thing" a hundred times on this forum. The only reason I'm continuing the discussion here is because (a.) we're talking about somebody else for a change (in this case, yourself), and (b.) people go hysterical in conversation when somebody advocates stricter gun regs. It's come off the rails a bit already in this thread, so I'm keeping it at arm's length this time around.

Okay, so you just wanted me to give my opinion on gun control for the hundredth time without actually revealing your own opinion.

You gutless wonder.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Brock

Okay, so you just wanted me to give my opinion on gun control for the hundredth time without actually revealing your own opinion.

You gutless wonder.

Oh well.

This is what I mean by people getting bent out of shape faster than anything, though.

Originally Posted by Brock

Too bad about that constitution, huh?

Originally Posted by Brock

I'm sorry you can't get your head wrapped around it, Shirley.

Originally Posted by vailpass

Go ahead, make my day.

Originally Posted by Brock

People like you advocate lessening freedom.

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Did you really just type all of that underneath a "black for palestine" sig?

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Talk about a wet fart in white pants.....

Originally Posted by vailpass

FAIL

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Which type of semi automatic weapons do you think only your Palestinian freedom fighters should have that Iowans shouldn't?

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Like most gun control nuts, you're uninformed at best.

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Ironically, direckshun is found hopping up and down in support of the armed "freedom fighters" around the globe, using semiautomatics to stand up to their totalitarian governments.

Originally Posted by Iowanian

It's only foggy to far left liberal douchebags.

Originally Posted by Brock

You gutless wonder.

And this is a pretty mild conversation over gun regs, by DC standards.

There's really no point if you're going to be an asshole about it. I enjoy a good beatdown as much as the next but there's a difference between that and simply being unable to have a conversation about an issue, a description which this forum clearly fits.

Meh.

[Bane]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Handled? You just take the bad with the good. The good far outweighs the bad, it's not even close.

"It's not all crystal clear for me. I support the right to own guns. I own guns. But I can't help but examine those beliefs when you recognize the amount of firepower any person has within reach these days, and see the harm that can be done"


That statement just made me curious about his opinion on the solution.Clearly he believes in our rights to bear arms,it just kinda seems to me that there's an opinion about what kind of guns we should be allowed to own in there somewhere and I'd like to hear it if so.

[Iowanian]

I wish I could say I was surprised to see that the only part of any quotes you actually read were the zingers, and not the legitimate discussion.

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Oh well.

This is what I mean by people getting bent out of shape faster than anything, though.














And this is a pretty mild conversation over gun regs, by DC standards.

There's really no point if you're going to be an asshole about it. I enjoy a good beatdown as much as the next but there's a difference between that and simply being unable to have a conversation about an issue, a description which this forum clearly fits.

Meh.

[Aries Walker]

I, personally, do not and will not keep a gun in my house; they're dangerous and prone to escalation. I believe our national system of gun control is a mess, and things like extended clips and full auto conversion clips should be flat-out outlawed, and we need a simple-as-possible national no-guns list to try to keep madmen from buying them. It's altogether too easy for the wrong person to buy guns, and having a gun makes it so easy for one person to kill another, I think it's in the nation's best interest to limit that as much as possible.

However, I also recognize that guns are a backbone of this society. Like it or not, the Second Amendment (and subsequent judicial clarifications) exists. I do plan (finances willing) to take a class on firearm use and safety, because you never know. If I'm nearby while a crazed gunman gets taken down, for example, I don't want to be That Guy who doesn't know where the safety is, or how to eject a shell from a semi-auto.

As for the Denver movie theater guy, it will be interesting to see where he got his gun (or guns), and considering the high-profile massive fails that were the Columbine kids (who used a straw purchase) and the Virginia Tech shooter (who bought his guns despite being insane). If that really was him on Reddit, he just bought it recently, and for this specific purpose, and my research shows that most spree killers either bought their guns themselves, or stole them from someone who did (the exception being Jeffrey Weise, the Native American kid from Minnesota, who stole his from his grandfather, a tribal policeman). We'll see if this incident elevates the election year gun control national discussion. I hope it does.

[HonestChieffan]

All the usual crap in the thread . Can anyone say they have any idea that would have prevented a deranged nut job from being a deranged nut job?


Its always the same fight on GC and the same end.

[mr. tegu]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

All the usual crap in the thread . Can anyone say they have any idea that would have prevented a deranged nut job from being a deranged nut job?


Its always the same fight on GC and the same end.

Plenty of things could have done the job. Unfortunately, on the surface, this kid never "needed" the type of intervention that would have prevented this.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by Bane

Objectively,how would you suggest the issue be handled?

Honestly, I dont know. I don't have the answers.

Its just situations like this that make me question the importance of protecting someone's assault rifle or handgun hobby. And to be clear, I own handguns.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

The ONLY gun control I will support is training and education requirements. I have no problem with requiring drivers ed and a test to get a license to drive... I see no reason why this shouldn't be applied to guns as well. Of course, this is already the case here in Texas with concealed carry requirements.

So who sets the standards for the training requirements in order to qualify to be able to exercise the right to a gun? Seems like the govt could just set requirements such that it is extremely difficult to qualify if they wanted to restrict gun ownership.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Bewbies

Think about how many people are killed by cars. Or falling out of bed. Or tripping on stairs. We should get rid of cars, beds and stairs to keep that from happening.

None? Now THAT is an excellent comparison.

[alnorth]

Another reason nothing will or should happen, mass murderers are not easily dissuaded. Someone doesn't just decide that they want to kill a dozen people, find out that getting a gun is a little more difficult, and then call it off. They will make all the applications, jump through any hoop, or steal one as a felon.

The only way to really make a dent in this sort of thing is a full handgun ban, possibly coupled with a full shotgun and long gun ban. Thats it, full ban of everything that shoots, no guns, only cops and some provision for people who need a gun for a competition. I know people like to talk about how stabbings are high in the UK and how thugs over there moved on to carry knives, but a full gun ban does have an impact, and its a lot more difficult to mass kill with a knife.

We'll never do that (nor should we). Guns are deeply ingrained in our culture, always will be, and ownership enjoys the protection of our strongest law. We recognized a long time ago that gun ownership has a price that must occasionally be paid in blood. We're willing to pay that price, and other countries are not.

If you aren't willing to ban guns, then gun control is a useless response to mass murder. A gun ban might be the goal for some of the Brady people and the motivation might be to slowly get us there, but those who say "oh I don't want to ban guns, we just need more gun control to cut down on these tragic events" are spouting a bunch of feel-good nonsense.

[ILChief]

Originally Posted by Bewbies

Think about how many people are killed by cars. Or falling out of bed. Or tripping on stairs. We should get rid of cars, beds and stairs to keep that from happening.

Alot of mass murders are commited using cars, beds, and stairs

[Aries Walker]

One (more) fallacy that shows up in these debates is that the world is comprised of two kinds of people, blackhearted villains and honest citizens. Of course, the world (and the human psyche) is much more complex than that, and there are good men and women who snap, flip, or degenerate into killers, whether it's because their synapses start misfiring, the lose their job/spouse/home/business/fortune, or they just have a couple of stiff drinks. We'll never be able to keep guns in the hands of the White Hats while denying them to the Black Hats, because of the uncountable shades of gray.

What we can do, however, is to limit how much ridiculous firepower one person can buy. Guns, more than anything, make killing people incredibly easy - they're fast, they're accurate, there's no physical confrontation required, there's a pretty simple learning curve, there's very little chance that they'll blow up in your hand, and they're not impractically expensive. No other method of killing people has all of those qualities, and that's not even counting in the cultural 'coolness' factor.

I just read some of today's articles on this shooter. He had an AR-15, with a drum. You'll have a hard time convincing me that any private citizen needs that for home defense or hunting, and I think a sportman's right to have that death machine available for entertainment can be foregone in favor of society's right to not have their midnight movie theaters shot up by deranged psychos.

If anything good comes out of these 12 deaths, I hope it's that.