12 killed, 50 wounded at Aurora movie theater

[uno]

These paranoid worries about the government seem so strange to me. I don't respect a lot of the things my government has done recently but stockpiling weapons at my home has never crossed my mind.

not living in this type of culture. makes sense.

 

[Forster]

These paranoid worries about the government seem so strange to me. I don't respect a lot of the things my government has done recently but stockpiling weapons at my home has never crossed my mind.

Paranoid is such a charged word... personally I don't think it accurately portrays your average American gun owner/stockpiler.

 

[led.boots]

Well, if you anticipate that the goal of the government is going to be to eradicate its citizenry, then yes.

It strikes me that a much more reasonable and rational response to a fear that the government is going to eradicate or trample its citizenry is to exercise one's voting and free speech rights to make sure that kind of government does not come into being. And if you're in the minority because too many of your fellow citizens are too complacent, too ignorant, or too self centered, then the guns aren't going to help you, because you are going to be vastly outnumbered by those same complacent, ignorant and/or self centered fellow citizens, which is exactly what happened in Germany and Italy.

Nsfw (language)

 

[uno]

Paranoid is such a charged word... personally I don't think it accurately portrays your average American gun owner/stockpiler.

agreed. very much so.

we're talking about it on here, and being honest. for me, it's a part of everything else in my life. i rarely to ever think about this stuff.

 

[Moll Flanders]

The US people I have met have been very anti-gun.

 

[mlp]

The US people I have met have been very anti-gun.

I think the culture here is very bifurcated on the issue of guns, a lot of strong feeling on both sides.

 

[Moll Flanders]

I think the culture here is very bifurcated on the issue of guns, a lot of strong feeling on both sides.

Yes, exactly, but lots of US people aren't stockpiling weapons and blaming the American culture.

 

[uno]

The US people I have met have been very anti-gun.

interesting. like MLP stated, the opinions are all over the board. and i know many people who don't own guns, but are ok with ownership.

 

[mlp]

Yes, exactly, but lots of US people aren't stockpiling weapons and blaming the American culture.

That's because they lack the element of paranoia.

Seriously, there are a lot of elements that form any culture. One can choose to either opt into or out of any number of them. There's an even stronger meat eating culture here, which everyone on this board has opted out of.

 

[uno]

Yes, exactly, but lots of US people aren't stockpiling weapons and blaming the American culture.

that's also because lots of folks dont' want to know the truth.

a very easy explanation i know personally:
i served vegan food with Food Not Bombs in northern Cali about 15 years ago. At that time, it was listed by the FBI as a top ten terrorist group. and for what? feeding people vegan food. We had our pics taken daily by the police, were followed by them regularly and had weird phone calls and hangups all the time. we were told that for every pic we were in, it would go towards our jail time.

paranoid?

 

[Forster]

Yes, exactly, but lots of US people aren't stockpiling weapons and blaming the American culture.

Define "stockpile". Where is the hypothetical line between "acceptable" gun ownership and omg lock the nut up.

BTW, I consider myself an enthusiast.

 

[mlp]

that's also because lots of folks dont' want to know the truth.

a very easy explanation i know personally:
i served vegan food with Food Not Bombs in northern Cali about 15 years ago. At that time, it was listed by the FBI as a top ten terrorist group. and for what? feeding people vegan food. We had our pics taken daily by the police, were followed by them regularly and had weird phone calls and hangups all the time. we were told that for every pic we were in, it would go towards our jail time.

paranoid?

And guns solve that issue how?

 

[mlp]

Define "stockpile". Where is the hypothetical line between "acceptable" gun ownership and omg lock the nut up.

BTW, I consider myself an enthusiast.

My personal opinion? Guns make it easy to kill. After all, that's the sole reasonwhy they were invented,why there's one sitting in my drawer - I could bring myself to shoot a critically ill or wounded animal to put it out of its misery. I don't have what it takes to cut its throat, and, if its of any size at all, I can't count on crushing its skull efficiently and painlessly with one blow (as I've had to do with small animals).

IMO, making it easy to kill is not a good thing (other than in the context of euthanasia). It makes it easy to kill on the spur of the moment, in passion, in unreasonable fear, etc. And that's true whether one is killing another or oneself. The people I've known who have hung themselves - I know that they really, tuly wanted to die, they were committed to it. The one's who shot themselves - I don't have that certainty. Killing remotely, even in putting a gun to one's own head - it doesn't have the same reality. It can, and all too often is, undertaken too lightly, too much in the spur of the moment.

So, while I am not freaked out by guns, don't mind handling them, don't mind shooting them, I would be happier if they weren't in the hands of any civilian, and would be even happier if they didn't exist.

 

[das_nut]

The point of the post was really about the expired ban, not so much about what the gun is called.

That's my point - the ban was more or less useless.

Here are two guns:

To the left is the TEC-9, a weapon that was specifically banned in the assault weapons bill.

To the right is the AB-10. Took the same ammunation as the TEC-9. Was basically a TEC-9 with a few minor changes. It was legal under the assault weapons bill, and was on the shelves the day the bill took effect.

The gun to the left was an "assault weapon" under the bill. The gun to the right was not an "assault weapon" under the bill.

See a major diffference? No. That's because the bill was bloody useless. It was a horribly written bill by people who were afraid of scary-looking guns and tried to ban them.

It doesn't matter if you're pro-gun control or anti-gun control. The bill was a bad law, very ineffective, and should have never been passed in its original form.

To me, the question is, "Why does anyone (absent the military or law enforcement) "need" any weapon other than something that requires 6-8 bullets and then must be reloaded like a revolver?

Just FYI, practice can make reloading a revolver, especially with a speed loader, very, very fast.

Check this out, he manages to fire off all six rounds in the revolver, reload, and fire off all six rounds again in under three seconds.

 

[Forster]

My personal opinion? Guns make it easy to kill. After all, that's the sole reasonwhy they were invented,why there's one sitting in my drawer - I could bring myself to shoot a critically ill or wounded animal to put it out of its misery. I don't have what it takes to cut its throat, and, if its of any size at all, I can't count on crushing its skull efficiently and painlessly with one blow (as I've had to do with small animals).

IMO, making it easy to kill is not a good thing (other than in the context of euthanasia). It makes it easy to kill on the spur of the moment, in passion, in unreasonable fear, etc. And that's true whether one is killing another or oneself. The people I've known who have hung themselves - I know that they really, tuly wanted to die, they were committed to it. The one's who shot themselves - I don't have that certainty. Killing remotely, even in putting a gun to one's own head - it doesn't have the same reality. It can, and all too often is, undertaken too lightly, too much in the spur of the moment.

So, while I am not freaked out by guns, don't mind handling them, don't mind shooting them, I would be happier if they weren't in the hands of any civilian, and would be even happier if they didn't exist.

I'm more concerned about what governments have done with them than citizens. But yeah, there main function is to kill. I do enjoy shooting targets, don't know why exactly, but I do. I don't even take them with me when I'm out in the hills in bear country nor do I have one ready for protection in case of break ins or whatnot. I'm just not that concerned about those things but I'd probably flip out if there was a concerted effort to disarm people.

 

[led.boots]

interesting. like MLP stated, the opinions are all over the board. and i know many people who don't own guns, but are ok with ownership.

I fit into this category.

 

[mlp]

Just FYI, practice can make reloading a revolver, especially with a speed loader, very, very fast.

Check this out, he manages to fire off all six rounds in the revolver, reload, and fire off all six rounds again in under three seconds.

Yeah, but this holds true for a very limited number of people. How many of the mass/serial/spree killers of the last two decades have had that skill? There are also people who are incredibly good with a bow and arrow. Not many enough, and not enough of those nuts enough, to do a lot of damage.

 

[uno]

Define "stockpile". Where is the hypothetical line between "acceptable" gun ownership and omg lock the nut up.

BTW, I consider myself an enthusiast.

good point. i don't really know anyone that i'd deem to be stockpiling weapons. i have weapons that are heirlooms as well as some i've bought myself. none YET for the apocalypse.

 

[das_nut]

Yeah, but this holds true for a very limited number of people. How many of the mass/serial/spree killers of the last two decades have had that skill? There are also people who are incredibly good with a bow and arrow. Not many enough, and not enough of those nuts enough, to do a lot of damage.

Although in this case, it appears he already broke the law with the 100-round magazine he had, so I doubt a law limiting him to 6 or 8 round magazines or revolvers would have done any good at all.

And a speed loader may not be as fast in the hands of someone else, but with a little practice, reloading a revolver is remarkably fast.

Although in this case, if you could limit him to revolvers, he might have just decided to use bombs instead, since he seemed rather fond of those as well.

 

[SuicideBlonde]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...mes-holmes-appear-court-monday-111006043.html

He looks out of it and almost stoned.