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They'll just censor Q33 NY then.

there are a LOT of people who's way of life and experience require some form of protection. A gun is one of those things.

Another thing, when you're talking about the number of gun deaths, what about the crime rate? You quote VIOLENT crime... but what about overall crime. Hmm lets look!

http://www.gunsandcrime.org/auresult.html ... wait that can't be right it says the crime rate INCREASED... in fact it says the crime rate exploded... lets look at more references... this one must be flawed...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=AU+crime+rate+gun+legislation&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

The first link off the google search you provided is: http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/australiaguns.html I'll list a few stats for you.
Armed robberies:
1995 - 27.8%
1996 - 25.3%
1997 - 24.1%
1998 - 17.6%
1999 - 15.2%
2000 - 14.0%
There was a shocking 10% decrease in the space of 2 years? how can this be explained?

The most shocking statistic (for you) is that criminals are now targeting those who cant fight back in a fair fight. Criminals are cowards so crime against the elderly has increased whilst crime overall has decreased.

Also firearm hospitalisations have decreased. http://www.aic.gov.au/media/2001/20010402.html

The number of crimes against People and households is decreasing. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/bb8db737e2af84b8ca2571780015701e/8D4BD468F3B92E33CA2573D2001089F8?opendocument
The relevent info is under "13.4 Victims of Crime 2005" Overall crime has dropped, the only form of crime to increase are assaults, assaults are up whilst gun related deaths and gun related hosptial adminssions are down. The rise in this statistic also means that more assaults were reported to police, I tend to like the fact that if I'm attacked I'm going to live to tell about it. My wallet can be replaced, knife wounds heal, a gun shot is forever.

It's littered with the same thing. You are WRONG. Your violent crime might be down but your crime went through the roof!!!!!

*Cough*

The US has laws in place that pretty much screws anyone who shoots their gun without using their brain.

Which laws are these pray tell.

Gang violence is rife amongst many of your cities and you continue to protest that people who cant keep their guns under control are punished. Gun crime is a daily occurrence in the US, a single gun related murder is national news here in Australia

But this is exactly my point, contrary to the opinions of many uninformed Americans, guns are not banned in Australia they are restricted. I have a license, I can go and get myself a hunting rifle during lunch if I wanted to, I used to own guns but I sold them when I quit my blue collar job to further my education (they were for sporting purposes). American gun nuts tend to like bringing up the point that guns are no more dangerous then cars (which is total BS, guns are orders of magnitude more dangerous then cars, most people involved in car accidents survive while firearm accidents tend to ki

Not to mention all those people who think . . .

bad luck will happen to them for not forwarding this message to 20 people

(insert business name here) is going to send them a $30 gift certificate for forwarding an email

etc, etc, etc

These 2 links are funny (kinda crude), but really sum up the whole subject of forwards and the like.

The SAME thing applies to spam; use your brain!

http://www.breakthechain.org/awards/9912.html

http://www.breakthechain.org/awards/0005.html

Here are sites detailing this myth...

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/keycards.ht m
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/keycards.h tml
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoaxDetails .asp?HName=Hotel+Key+Card+Hoax&Page=4

I'm surprised this one passed thru Slashdot's editorial staff.

At least they aren't trying to patent ones and zeroes yet.

I sure hope this study falls into that category :)

I love when people scream "censorship" for absolutely no good reason... Couldn't find the Flexon ad anywhere? Try Google! Enter the words "flexon ad" (without quotes), and click "I'm feeling lucky". Poof, there it is. Or just click here

What's next, start patenting the AND, NOT, OR family of operations?

You know, when I first read this a long time ago, I just thought it was a funny story, but now I'm realizing how prophetic it was:

True, but you you can patent numbers. I have applied for a patent for 69. Man, I am go ing to be rich...

• Websites Fighting the Nigerian Scam/419
• Nigerian Advance Fee Scam
• US Secret Service on 419
• Break The Chain
• 419 Coalition (as noted in the article)

• 419 Eater
• Scam Joke Page
• ScamOrama
• the spam letters
• spl's soapbox

Nope - what I said was that if takes place outside of school hours (including yes, 5 minutes before the bell rings, but that's really pushing it), then it is fine. And this case has nothing to do with state-maintained classrooms - those prayer clubs use 'em just fine - or state-paid teachers during their unpaid hours.

In other words, the only thing wrong with having the pledge in schools is that teachers don't make it clear that it's voluntary? This case argues that pledges are wrong even if they are clearly voluntary because it somehow "harms" the child who chooses not to partcipate.

No, what makes it wrong is that it singles out the child that doesn't participate. That, indeed, harms the child.
However, whether or not the child is harmed matters little - this is about whether school-led prayer (and whether the Pledge is prayer) is Constitutional.

Say, for example, that you don't own a gun (I don't know whether you do or not) and that you have no interest in owning a gun. I pass a law saying that you cannot own a gun. Have I harmed you? No, I'm preventing you from doing something you weren't going to do anyways. Is it un-Constitutional? Yes. This violates the Constitution, and would be struck down. In the Supreme Court, harm is not the deciding issue - Constitutionality is.

Bzzz, incorrect. Schools have repeatidly suppressed and censored student-led acts related to religion. The most famous one which I can't find a link to at the moment involved a high school student who wanted to thank god in his graduation speech. The school told him he could not and if he did mention God in his speech he would not graduate. It was a big stink. The day of the speech, he got one or two sentances into it and then went "ah...ah...choo!" at which point nearly the entire student body shouted out "GOD BLESS YOU". But again, this is semantics. If students can lead a pledge but teachers can't, then can teachers invite students to lead a pledge? Can they have a sign on their desk saying "Pledges welcome here"? There is no compromise position in this case.

Oh, come on now! This took all of 30 seconds in Google:
The commencement ceremony described was for the Washington Community High School class of 1991. Class valedictorian Natasha Appenheimer and the American Civil liberties Union won a court injunction the day before graduation that banned any type of prayer at the event. Even though the Benediction and invocation were suggested by the students and intended to be student-led, U.S. District Judge Joe B. McDade ruled that, since the prayers were subject to teacher review and would be promoted in school-printed programs, that the prayers violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
During the ceremony, Ryan Brown, a fellow student and one of the scheduled speakers, paused on his way to the podium to bow in silent prayer, which was greeted with cheers. During his speech, he faked a sneeze, and a few students, with whom he had previously arranged, shouted "God Bless You" in response. (http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/sneeze.ht ml)

(bolding mine)
The issue here wasn't the student-led prayer... rather it was that the school was reviewing them and printing them in the program - and thus condoning them. If the student simply wanted to have that in his speech, it would have been fine - and it was! Was the student expelled because of that? No.

-T

Love that one. But do take a look at this:
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/spacepen.h tml

I just read the story on a homosexual news site. It doesn't mention many details but says Slashdot's founder Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda has been found dead. He murdered himself after being caught by his wife, Kathleen Fent, while in a circle jerk at the local pool. News has it that CmdrTaco was with fellow Slashdot editors when the incident with Kathleen occurred.

Whether or not you were a fan of his openly gay attitude and right wing political views, you cannot deny CmdrTaco's contributions to the alternative sexuality community.

As a memorial, he will be fucked repeatedly in his gaping anal cavity by fellow geeks. Then his pasty white body will be burried, along with the many "extra-small" sized spent condoms.

It is indeed a black day as he will be sadly missed by his former gay geek friends and male prostitutes. Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda was truely a homo-geek icon, and I am sure the "Open Sauce" community was proud that he was once their own.

Sorry, the problem *is* the guns. Take away the guns, and nobody would be dead.

This seems so logical, and yet I encourage you to present any real world example proving what you claim. The truth is that only law abiding citizens obey laws in the first place. If someone is willing to commit murder, they are certainly going to be willing to break any gun law.


Some things to consider:

New Jersey adopted what sponsors described as "the most stringent gun law" in the nation in 1966; two years later, the murder rate was up 46 percent and the reported robbery rate had nearly doubled.

In 1968, Hawaii imposed a series of increasingly harsh measures and its murder rate, then a low 2.4 per 100,000 per year, tripled to 7.2 by 1977.

In 1976, Washington, D.C., enacted one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Since then, the city's murder rate has risen 134 percent while the national murder rate has dropped 2 percent.


Now these will surprise you:

In Kennesaw, Ga., the city passed a law requiring all households to possess a gun. Within seven months, the burglary rate dropped by 89 percent.

In Orlando, Fla., the police department set up a program teaching 600,000 women how to handle firearms. Subsequently, the rape rate dropped by 88 percent.

Among the six million Swiss, there are an estimated two million guns -- including 600,000 fully automatic assault rifles, and their murder rate is 15 percent of ours.



I challenge you, go ahead and give us an example of what you claim. You won't find too many. It would seem to make sense that if you take away the guns you stop the killing, but take a look sometime at a country like England that has stringent gun laws and look at the rate of murder and rape, in almost every case it increase with gun control. When you outlaw guns all you do is remove the right of law abiding citizens to protect themselves and the criminals have free reign. If, however, a person was going to break into a house in a neighborhood notorious for its gun advocacy, they might think twice as there is a higher risk of them losing their life.

Some sources and good references:
Article by the National Center for Policy Analysis
Article at the Independence Institute
Capitolism Magazine Article
Article on Heartland.org
An Article on Australia's Gun Control mistake, cut with some humor.

Now I wouldn't post a problem without a solution, so here is an article detailing an alternative to making all guns illegal.