Gun laws

[btownmeggy]

So I am done with this discussion.

Probably for the best. You seem to be too emotionally invested in it.

[Jgood]

Two of the biggest attacks on US soil were done with box cutters and manure (911 and Oklahoma bombing)

Crazies will find ways to take lives.

[Anarkistsdream]

Two of the biggest attacks on US soil were done with box cutters and manure (911 and Oklahoma bombing)

Crazies will find ways to take lives.

And I felt the bomb go off the morning that it happened...

I was in Mr Gardners American History class... I was 60 miles from the bomb, and you could still feel it.

[salr15]

How about the video games that are being created today? how come no one blames those games (Grand Theft Auto being a great example) where killing civilians with shotguns and gernades is glamourized?

You are kidding right?

There's been people blaming those since the first generation ones where you couldn't really tell what was a person and what was a box.

I don't think looking at the issue is as ridiculous as you make it out to be. I don't think it is entirely out of the question that a young kid sitting and playing violent games for hours and weeks and months would possibly become desensetized to violence.

I don't think you can compare commando for Nintendo to a game come Xbox360 or a PC. The games are becoming more and more realistic, detailed guns and even detailed graphics of killing someone.

[2dimes]

I meant the "no one is blaming them." part.

I agree they probably play a role in making people desensitized to violence.

[vtmarik]

I don't think looking at the issue is as ridiculous as you make it out to be. I don't think it is entirely out of the question that a young kid sitting and playing violent games for hours and weeks and months would possibly become desensetized to violence.

I don't think you can compare commando for Nintendo to a game come Xbox360 or a PC. The games are becoming more and more realistic, detailed guns and even detailed graphics of killing someone.

Violence in media (and I mean any media including video games, movies, and the evening news), has an effect on disturbed or trouble kids. Normal kids glide right though it.

And back in the day, the same rancor that is piled onto GTA and Hitman was piled onto the proto, 4-bit Atari games. When the Texas Chainsaw Massacre game gave you the ability to chainsaw kids up it pissed off parents across this great nation. And what did it look like?


The whole "video games causing the downfall of society" shit is as old as video games themselves. Why don't you climb down off the cross, use the wood to build a bridge, and get over it?

[salr15]

And you point is what? That the parents were wrong?

[2dimes]

I'm sure the dude with the bazooka shaped outsy belly button is the cause of the shootings!

[vtmarik]

And you point is what? That the parents were wrong?

My point is that the parents can be offended all they want, it's up to them to raise their kids so they know the difference between fantasy and reality. The parents are the ultimate teachers of what media their kid sees and how the kid learns to perceive it.

The issue video game violence is completely ridiculous. If playing violent games for hours on end makes you some kind of zombified killing machine than why haven't I ever picked up a gun and killed a cop because I saw it on a game? I've been playing games ever since the Coleco Vision was en vogue.

Maybe the defect is in the kid's brain and not in the fact that you can set a pixelated crowd on pixelated fire with a pixelated flame thrower and get shot at by pixelated cops?

[salr15]

That's what I was implying...parents don't have control over what their children are doing. I am not against the video games themselves, as I said I used to play Counterstrike and Hitman. It is more about the fact that these type of games get into the hands of the wrong kids specially young kids. Where are their parents to control what their kids do? It is more a statement about our culture. Usually these wacky kids come from families where the parents are never around, they feel alone and isolated. Obviously in this case the kid also must have some chemical inbalance as well.

Basically what I am saying is you can't just look at the gun law and blame that. There are alot more important factors.

[Anarkistsdream]

That's what I was implying...parents don't have control over what their children are doing. I am not against the video games themselves, as I said I used to play Counterstrike and Hitman. It is more about the fact that these type of games get into the hands of the wrong kids specially young kids. Where are their parents to control what their kids do? It is more a statement about our culture. Usually these wacky kids come from families where the parents are never around, they feel alone and isolated. Obviously in this case the kid also must have some chemical inbalance as well.

Basically what I am saying is you can't just look at the gun law and blame that. There are alot more important factors.

Amen, Salr... I hate you, but I agree here.

[2dimes]

Could be often children are an inconvenient by product of going to the bar and scoring.

[Anarkistsdream]

Could be often children are an inconvenient by product of going to the bar and scoring.

And that is a whole different debate about sterilization, and being required to have a license to have a child...

[2dimes]

Could be often children are an inconvenient by product of going to the bar and scoring.

And that is a whole different debate about sterilization, and being required to have a license to have a child...

Looks good on paper but it would be miss handled like the "war on marijuana".

[Anarkistsdream]

Could be often children are an inconvenient by product of going to the bar and scoring.

And that is a whole different debate about sterilization, and being required to have a license to have a child...

Looks good on paper but it would be miss handled like the "war on marijuana".

I concur, bro.

[unriggable]

I think te gun laws should be very limiting. Anybody who owns a gun should be required to own a lock for the trigger.

[luns101]

In the UK, I could get hold of any drug you fancied within an hour of you asking me

After just spending a week and a half with my new in-laws, I just might take you up on that.

[beezer]

So many good points made here by both sides of the equation.

My general feeling is that people should be allowed to own guns. It's a part of our constitutional law. Yes, there should be rules that gun-owners abide by to ensure proper safety and minimize risk, but it's impossible to totally stop all crime with guns. The focus should be more on the person who used the gun to commit the crime.

People use cars to run over other people and murder them. I don't want to start banning cars. People use knives to stab other people to death. I don't want to start banning knives. I don't want to even start making strict laws about the use of cars & knives.

It seems that when a tragedy like this takes place, the debate gets all stirred up again. What happened at VT campus is the exception, not the norm here.

[unriggable]

Yeah beezer but see a car has a practical use of transportation, a knife has a use of cutting (for kitchenwork) but a gun is meant for killing which means that it should have at least mild regulations.

[Jgood]

I have been looking into owning a gun lately (I have wanted my own for some time now) for protection, sport and to get one before they are all banned. But reading this thread has opened my eyes a little bit.

I am definitely pro NRA. Having been looking into owning a gun I was amazed, It is just a 30 question test (multiple choice), and the background check. This is way easy. The problem is that if you give an inch, the liberals would take a mile so this scares the NRA to fight for everything. I believe that most of the true NRA people do know guns, and respect them and their power. They also have children that do the same.

It is true that If it was tougher to get a gun It would discourage many people from getting guns. This seems right, There should be manditory training classes for new gun owners.

That being said, there would still be guns out there. Criminals would be emboldened by knowing less people had guns in their houses, and I see crime going up. My cousin lives in Idaho, and that town has no violent crime, because everybody owns guns, and many people carry them daily. You just have to look at the city of Washington DC to know that when a city bans guns, crime rates go up there.

The guy who shot those people probably got those guns legally, but you can't stop the crazies. Especially with the news showing other kids when times get tough, don't just kill yourself, take out as many others as possible. This kid locked the doors so people couldn't leave, learning from Columbine. It is a sick world, and getting sicker. I am getting a gun, but I will lock it up, I will teach my wife to shoot it, and when I have kids that are old enough I will teach them too.

Guns don't kill people, people do.

[Anarkistsdream]

They had their SN erased..

I own over 15 guns... I will continue to own them and shoot them...

I have a HUGE possibility of going to jail forever, because if you own a gun and do drugs, the punishment is VERY harsh... But I would not shoot someone juts becasue I was stoned... Matter of fact, that would STOP me!

[Gnome de Guerre]

They had their SN erased..

I own over 15 guns... I will continue to own them and shoot them...

I have a HUGE possibility of going to jail forever, because if you own a gun and do drugs, the punishment is VERY harsh... But I would not shoot someone juts becasue I was stoned... Matter of fact, that would STOP me!

Word up! It's nice to see other responsible gun owners (who enjoy a bit of herb). Now, cocaine and firearms -- there's a recipe for trouble.

[Anarkistsdream]

They had their SN erased..

I own over 15 guns... I will continue to own them and shoot them...

I have a HUGE possibility of going to jail forever, because if you own a gun and do drugs, the punishment is VERY harsh... But I would not shoot someone juts becasue I was stoned... Matter of fact, that would STOP me!

Word up! It's nice to see other responsible gun owners (who enjoy a bit of herb). Now, cocaine and firearms -- there's a recipe for trouble.

AMEN dude!!!

It IS good to see others like me!

[nmhunate]

So what guns do you own? I just have a couple of baby guns that I use for sport and target practice. I have a .22 Winchester lever action rifle, a .22 Semi-Automatic Marlin (this is a cheap one, but its a lot of fun to shoot,) and a .22 Luger single action revolver. I find that .22 is super cheap to shoot and a lot of fun.

There is nothing like loading up some food and your guns and taking them to the desert and just shoot away at the targets you set up on the side of the road.

The only problem that I run into is that there is a lot of reservation land around Albuquerque, which limits the options, but there is plenty of public land out West.

[jay_a2j]

Whitehouse spokesman Dana Perino quoted in my newspaper today:
"the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed"

I am sure this is a great comfort to all. If only the gunman had thought about his responsibilites as a gun owner beforehand.

So one apparently love-crazed kid can murder 32 random students and kill himself before he is stopped. Could he have done this without his arsenal?

Are these seemingly oh-so-frequent and terrible massacres the price you pay in the US for your right to bear arms?

Um yeah..... and do you know why we want "the right to bear arms"? Among other reasons..... Protect ourselves from our government. Do you realize how easily a free nation can slip into a dictatorship or communist forms of government if the people were defenceless? If our military and police force were the ONLY one's "bearing arms"? No thanks. You can keep your English laws in England.