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Newspaper That Published Gun-Owners List Hires Armed Guards

inode_buddha writes "Not long ago we ran a story about how a NY newspaper published lists of gun owners. Now, it seems the same newspaper has hired armed guards in response to unspecified threats to the editor, amid 'large volumes of negative response.' From the article: 'The editor, Caryn McBride, told police the newspaper hired a private security company whose "employees are armed and will be on site during business hours," the report said. The guards are protecting the newspaper's staff and Rockland County offices in West Nyack, New York.'"

163 of 1,435 comments (clear)

  1. Mommy... by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... is that what irony looks like?

    1. Re:Mommy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The irony of 2nd amendment proponents threatening 1st amendment practitioners? That's not irony, it's bullshit.

    2. Re:Mommy... by Montezumaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are no known threats. The FBI has laughed off the bullshit claims by the idiots that posted people's information. The newspaper is looking to demonize people exercising their rights. Fuck them.

      The irony is that the newspaper, looking to demonize people exercising their rights, is looking to armed guards to protect them. The irony is extremely thick.

    3. Re:Mommy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is "Gun owners are incredibly poor at introspection." modded "insightful"? Sounds overgeneralized and condescending to me...

    4. Re:Mommy... by Montezumaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Government has no rights. It most certainly doesn't have any right to know what I own or possess, until said government obtains a warrant. That is why we have the Fourth Amendment. So, until some asshole obtains a warrant, you best believe I will never register my property, nor seek a license to exercise any of my rights.

    5. Re:Mommy... by shentino · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. The lesson learned here is "don't piss off people with guns" rather than anything noble about the constitution.

      The cold hard facts that force of arms and intimidation decides things instead of merit.

    6. Re:Mommy... by thaylin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I read the entirely of the post and I agree it is overgeneralized and condescending.

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
    7. Re:Mommy... by thaylin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The irony of 2nd amendment proponents threatening 1st amendment practitioners, over their invasion of the 2nd amendments proponents right to privacy..

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
    8. Re:Mommy... by rockout · · Score: 4, Informative

      They have no right to the privacy of their handgun permit, which, by state law, is public information, which they knew when they applied for said permit. Oh, they didn't know that was the law? Well, you know what our founding father TJ said about ignorance and the law.

      --
      I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
    9. Re:Mommy... by ZipK · · Score: 4, Informative

      It also should not protect your ability to publish whether or not I legally purchased a gun, since that is very likely to result in me being unjustly harassed by anti-gun nuts like you.

      Could you draw a line between which publicly available information (such as New York gun registrations) shall be reprintable and which you'd like the government to suppress?

    10. Re:Mommy... by SomePgmr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It was also bullshit rhetoric, but let's just skip past that...

    11. Re:Mommy... by davydagger · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wonder if any of the guard's they hired are on the list they published.

      If they wanted to practice what they preach, why not get only government guards, i.e. law enforcement to protect them?

      Whats a matter, doesn't law enforcement protect you at all times?

    12. Re:Mommy... by ahabswhale · · Score: 2, Informative

      It has the right to tax you, so therefore it does have rights. Consequently, the whole premise for you argument falls apart.

      --
      Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
    13. Re:Mommy... by atriusofbricia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What a twat. The archetype of what's wrong with America.

      The archetype of what's wrong with America is someone who doesn't roll over and give up their rights on demand by some government bureaucrat? There is exactly nothing wrong in what the previous poster said. Government has no rights and they absolutely have no right to know what I, or anyone else, do or do not own.

      Who is the twat I would say?

      --
      I was raised on the command line, bitch

      "Nemo me impune lacesset"

    14. Re:Mommy... by atriusofbricia · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It also should not protect your ability to publish whether or not I legally purchased a gun, since that is very likely to result in me being unjustly harassed by anti-gun nuts like you.

      Could you draw a line between which publicly available information (such as New York gun registrations) shall be reprintable and which you'd like the government to suppress?

      I suppose the difference comes from why they wanted to print it and make such a big deal about it. All things considered it was another attempt to demonize a segment of the population they don't care for and would like to go away. It wasn't news. It was an attempt at intimidation.

      --
      I was raised on the command line, bitch

      "Nemo me impune lacesset"

    15. Re:Mommy... by arkane1234 · · Score: 2

      What good is buying a gun for protection if nobody knows you are armed?

      Possibly to... protect ones self? Concealed weapon?
      A weapon is a benign object, it is the person that wields it that can either use it as a weapon of good or evil. Of course you knew this, and I'm just reiterating it to make a point...

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    16. Re:Mommy... by kwiqsilver · · Score: 5, Informative

      Are you seriously trying to associate a statist quote like ignorance of the law is no excuse with Thomas Jefferson? Thomas Jefferson?

      The Thomas Jefferson who said The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive?

      The Thomas Jefferson who said, Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny?

      The Thomas Jefferson who said, I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master?

      The quote you allude to is from some Briton a few decades earlier.

      However you are correct about it being public information. Yet another reason to not live in New York.

      Incidentally, here are some other Jefferson quotes:

      No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

      The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

      Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.

      What country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.

      Oh yeah, Jefferson was a mega-gun nut, but then all the founding fathers were in favor of unrestricted civilian gun ownership, since they had just survived a war started when the British began confiscating arms from the colonies engaged in peaceful protest, and won primarily by the effort of civilian militias.

      I'm soooo getting on a DHS watch list for this.

    17. Re:Mommy... by kwiqsilver · · Score: 2

      So is it better for an accountable person to kill an innocent due to negligence, indifference, or malice, or for an unaccountable armed "nutjob" (although I consider the threat of death row and civil suits pretty damn accountable) to not kill someone?

      It is perhaps also significant that a comparison of police to civilian shootings of alleged criminals shows police to be 5.5 times more likely to have shot an innocent person in the belief that he was a criminal .

    18. Re:Mommy... by davydagger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      names and addresses of all people listed in a phone book, and elsewhere are public information.

      In fact, there is no evidence of anyone committing a crime against the scaredy pants editor of the news paper. The reason you don't publish people's personal information is because people will harass you.

      The fact that this backfired in the face of little Ms Caryn McBride, should be a stern warning to everyone not to write checks with your mouth your ass can't cash. Now if we can all settle down, and release the newspaper got exactly what it bargined for. It got the exact same harassment they intended for the gun owners. Thats irony.

      The bigger problem is that this hyper partisanism where people actively think this sort of harassment is justified when they do it, and not when its someone else.

    19. Re:Mommy... by dark_requiem · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You seem to be confused between the drastically different concepts of "what government does" and "what government has a right to do". By your "logic", the government has the right to do anything the government says it has the right to do. Believe that's called "tyranny".

    20. Re:Mommy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Who said anything about mass shootings? Only you. Mass shootings kill about as many people in this country as terrorism. They are that rare. So attacking people with mental illnesses makes about as much sense as profiling Muslims.

      The real gun violence that kills significant amounts of people is due to the War on Drugs, high value property thefts, and domestic violence. All of these are due to easy access to guns and have no relation to mental illness. They are cultural.

      I would have hoped that people on Slashdot would be smart enough to realize that if it has been studied and established that the rate of violence by people with mental illnesses or Muslims is no higher than that of the general public, then they shouldn't be ostracized and attacked. Most people are too stupid to realize this, but I would hope those of us here are smart enough to get past the scary news hyperbole and focus on the actual problem. If you want to save lives then you need to minimize the stigma on mental illness, not increase it. And you need to focus on the poor, disenfranchised, but mentally healthy youths who are being gunned down in our streets every day. From their point of view, gun violence is entirely logical. It is how they survive in a society that doesn't give a shit about them.

    21. Re:Mommy... by uncqual · · Score: 5, Informative

      I assume you are not from the U.S. so perhaps a quick US Civics lesson is in order.

      In the U.S., the Federal government has limited powers -- ONLY those explicitly ceded to it by the United States Constitution. The Federal government has no rights whatsoever. We elect politicians to administer those powers that we ceded to the Federal Government - and that is IT.

      --
      Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading /.
    22. Re:Mommy... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It has the right to tax you

      Would you kindly point to us where in the Constitution of the United States (or the Bill of RIghts) that gave the right to the government to levy tax?

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    23. Re:Mommy... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Informative

      In a black and white world, true. But I tend to vote democrat because on the whole, they are more useful to me, but on guns I totally agree with republicans. Because no party represents my interests uniformly, I sometimes have to vote for the guy who will screw me on gun laws.

      But not having to register property that I legally purchased strikes me as an important part, in particular, of gun ownership. For exactly the reasons the "victims" in this article highlight (not that I support threats, if they are indeed real). Someone just compiled a list of law abiding gun owners, and published it for everyone to see, in spite of it not being anyone else's business.

      I fully support people who break laws in which there is no victim. From marijuana, to gun ownership, to speeding on the highway. Let the government bear the significant financial burden of policing this nonsense and paying for the necessary discipline.

    24. Re:Mommy... by flaming+error · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In enlightenment philosophy, rights were those self-evident truths that all men had the same freedoms to life, to liberty, to self-determination. Governments don't have such "rights". Democratic governments have responsibilities. Other governments have force and caprice.

      As to "the right to tax you", If we were to read the original constitution we'd see that congress was delegated the power to tax imports, exports, and the states themselves. It provided a formula for how to share taxes among the states, which was based on the state population, broken down by indians, slaves, and everybody else. But nowhere was Congress delegated authority to tax individuals, until the 19th amendment.

      That new power to tax individuals was (and is) considered unconstitutional by many, because they believe the 19th amendment was not properly ratified - snuck through the system with The People largely unaware, with dubious and incomplete records of many of the requisite elections.

      Even if we accept the 19th amendment as legitimate, that tax regime is not a self-evident truth, it's a human invention, an arbitrary method of funding the government.

      Our government is just a glorified home owners' association that the home owners themselves formed and chartered, and can also revise, re-charter or (with some difficulty) disband.

      The federal government has the job of doing exactly what the States (via Senators and Representatives) tell it to do, nothing less, nothing more.

      I am pleased to support it when it provides me services, because I feel I share a duty. Not because the US government has a "right" to my labor and property.

    25. Re:Mommy... by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's a simple arms race. There's nothing ironic or hypocritical about favoring mutual disarmament while not be willing to disarm unilaterally.

    26. Re:Mommy... by fldsofglry · · Score: 2

      Oh yeah, Jefferson was a mega-gun nut, but then all the founding fathers were in favor of unrestricted civilian gun ownership, since they had just survived a war started when the British began confiscating arms from the colonies engaged in peaceful protest, and won primarily by the effort of civilian militias.

      I'm soooo getting on a DHS watch list for this.

      Unrestricted might be a little hyperbolic. The constitution didn't even apply to everyone. Yes, yes, I am sure we can dig up some case where slaves were allowed guns, but I'm going to go out on a limb to say that Jefferson wouldn't like that too much.

    27. Re:Mommy... by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The archetype of what's wrong with America is someone who doesn't roll over and give up their rights on demand by some government bureaucrat?

      No, it's the "conservative" pricks who spend more than the "liberal" pricks, when elected (claiming fiscal conservatism while being fiscally irresponsible). The "pro-freedom" pricks who want to register everyone for things that don't apply to them, but certainly not their favorite fetish. When they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up. When they came for the mentally ill, and I did not speak up. When they came for the gun owners, there will be nobody left to speak out for you. How far will you get against the government if you stand alone with all the guns you could carry?

    28. Re:Mommy... by dbc · · Score: 4, Informative

      People have rights. People delegate *powers* to the state. The state does not have rights. Con Law 101, or maybe Con Law 1.

      How in blazes did your ignorance get modded +5 informative? Oh.... I guess the mods need to take Con Law 1, too.

    29. Re:Mommy... by macs4all · · Score: 2

      Governments DO have the rights that we vote to give them

      Governments have no "Rights". Only "Powers". There is a BIG difference.

    30. Re:Mommy... by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What threats? This is simply a perfect example of those that say "Oh you don't need guns" showing why THEY don'y need guns....because they can HIRE guns! What, you don't have the money to hire guns? Then get robbed or killed you filthy peasant! We shall drink our fancy coffees with our private armies and laugh at your misery...hah!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    31. Re:Mommy... by Kymermosst · · Score: 4, Informative

      Article I Section 8:

      "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;"

      That seems pretty clear to me... As to whether te expenses to be paid for are justified is a different matter...

      --
      "Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
    32. Re:Mommy... by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How, exactly, does this qualify as 1st Amendment speech?

      The 1st doesn't assure people of saying anything they want without repercussions.

      Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

      Nowhere throughout this have I seen the government restrict the press in any which way. I do see, however, a possible legal case for a class action lawsuit, (or maybe even a criminal case ?) to be made against the paper for their actions. Reasonably, the subjects of this 'news' would be at least allowed to "petition the Government for redress of their grievances" due to the fact that the press is a state-established and protected institution in the United States.

      What the paper did has more akin with a newspaper in the South during the Civil War publishing a list of "Northern sympathizers". "Oh, we're just reporting the news!" No; no, you weren't: you were publicizing a list which you hoped would serve as a hit list, "outing" them in a politically hostile environment to try to muster public sentiment (aka violence) against them.

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    33. Re:Mommy... by starworks5 · · Score: 2

      Rights and powers are about the same thing, and the constitution gives the power of government to pass laws, in order to provide for the general welfare.
      Each delegation of a power restricts rights, each declaration of a right restricts powers
      A right my be expressed as a restriction on a power, and a power as a restriction of a right.

    34. Re:Mommy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      GP's car analogy was also absolutely wrong from the start.
      You do not need a license to drive a car, nor do you need one to do so legally. You need it to drive on public roads. MANY farms have people under 16 driving vehicles all over their farms. It's quite similar with vehicle registration.

      The analogy should follow that to wield a gun in public (ex. concealed carry), a license should be required (assuming one believes that all things are equal to a car and that the laws on cars are all spot on). That's also the norm in most places. If anything, this analogy supports concealed carry in more places with well defined and easy to use licensing facilities (ex. NYC).

      So again, no, the government has no rights.... well, we can just stop right there :-)

    35. Re:Mommy... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      By your logic, if the US Congress passed a law outlawing any and all forms of speech deemed "too liberal" (as defined by to-be-written FCC guidelines), and the President signed it into law, and the US Supreme Court rejected a challenge to that law, then our government has every right to come to your home and haul you to prison for however long it pleases.

      I'm quite happy I don't live in your world. It sounds like Hell.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    36. Re:Mommy... by penix1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But not having to register property that I legally purchased strikes me as an important part, in particular, of gun ownership.

      So you would apply that to your land? It is registered in the form of a deed. How about your car? It is registered as well as has a license and in most, if not all states an insurance requirement.

      Personally, I believe we need to treat guns the same as we treat automobiles. Require that the owner is trained and licensed to use them. Make sure they are insured for when they are used on a person that that person or their survivors can get something more than they currently are getting (nothing). Identify each guns ballistic characteristics at the time of manufacture and tie it to the last registered owner for easier identification of the responsible party. In short, take it from a right to a responsibility with real world consequences when that responsibility is violated.

      --
      This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
    37. Re:Mommy... by tsa · · Score: 2

      What the government says it has the right to is defined in the law. The law is made by democratically chosen people. You have several possibilities at your disposal to have the law changed if you so desire.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    38. Re:Mommy... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I assume you are not from the U.S. so perhaps a quick US Civics lesson is in order.

      When you're done with him, could you please provide said lesson to the US Congress, the President, and the US Supreme Court?

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    39. Re:Mommy... by hawkinspeter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That says "Power" which is not the same as a right.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    40. Re:Mommy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The purpose of the government is to preserve its citizens' rights. All rights pale against the right for life, since you can't exercise any of your rights any more once you are dead. Restraining access to lethal weapons for everybody increases the chances for people to live.

      Who will survive a gun fight? The person who carries a gun "just in case", or the person who is used to killing people on a whim?

      "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." With what consequence? That they no longer need to apply lethal force preemptively in order to ensure their survival.

    41. Re:Mommy... by tftp · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just because a group of thugs calls themselves a "government" does not grant them some magical rights apart from those possessed by the citizens who consent to be ruled by that government.

      The consent is not a factor here. Most governments on the planet operate without consent of the governed. Mao was correct: the power comes from the barrel of the gun. The government can shoot you and get away with murder. You cannot. That's how it works.

      Are you suggesting that might makes right? That if you can get 50.1% of a group to agree with you, then anything you and your representatives do is legitimate?

      I don't like it, but that's exactly how the world works. As soon as a group has enough power to do what it wants, it goes ahead and does it. The 50.1% is often not a requirement; you could have 30% and rule over others - as long as those "other" are three distinct groups with 23% each. USSR was ruled by the educated elite who did not number more than 10% of the population. That was more than enough to keep the rest scared or imprisoned. As a recent example of the USA shows, 50.1% of voters can force their choice of the President onto the remaining 49.9% (I'm omitting the comparison of candidates here, it would be depressing in itself.)

      To me, that sounds more like hell on Earth than civilization.

      Welcome to the club. Machiavelli and de Montesquieu were not contemporaries, but someone put together their dialogs when they met in Hell. The enlightened de Montesquieu was unable to come up with a model of the society that would work any better than the tyranny postulated by Machiavelli. Here is the formula:

      bad dictator < democracy < good dictator

      Democracy is just an insurance against the bad dictator. But the premiums are killing you. It's mediocrity forever, as opposed to highs and lows of monarchies and dictatorships. In Deus Ex merging with Helios is the wisest ending because the two other endings (giving power to humans) will only result in recurrence of the struggle.

      Unless you redefine "right" to mean anything one group can do to another with minimal fear of reprisal due to greater number and/or better armaments,

      That's exactly how ZANU-PF komissars understand the word. They are not alone in this interpretation - victors are usually merciless. In the USA the victorious left is already laying claim on your income and your guns - the stuff that separates a free man from an indigent.

    42. Re:Mommy... by chthon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is a background history to guns that U.S. citizens tend to forget, because they do not seem to understand the middle ages.

      The initial development of gunpowder lead to to weapons, specifically for war. The later development of portable guns was always in the function of killing people. It is probably only in the 18th century that guns became easy enough to be used as hunting tools (can't find references about this).

      People on the North American frontier needed guns to defend and to feed themselves. This was probably the first and last time in history that guns became a tool for personal support.

      I think that is the main difference in culture between the US and Europe. On the European continent, guns have mostly (99.99%) been part of the armies, which were directed by the kings and nobility. I think that there is a deep, unconscious suspicion against gun ownership in Europe. In Europe, guns have never been the tools of liberation, but always of oppression. In the U.S., this became the opposite.

      However, I would warn those people who think that their gun ownership make them safe for criminals or can be used against their government.

      In the first case, if a criminal wants to get you, he will take more time planning and be prepared to use means that he can get to, but you can't. In the case of petty criminality, citizen gun ownership will probably make a difference, but in the case of heavy criminality, you will almost certainly lose.

      In the second case, I suggest that people who think they can use their guns successfully against their government, study the Boer Wars. Yes, it was not easy for the English to succeed, but succeed they finally did. It is just a case of planning, time and means. Then compare the former English army at the end of the 19th century with the current U.S. Army.

    43. Re:Mommy... by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's nothing ironic or hypocritical about favoring mutual disarmament while not be willing to disarm unilaterally

      Says you. I'm having trouble thinking of anything more hypocritical than declaring that other people shouldn't enjoy the right to defend themselves with guns, while defending yourself with guns.

      Maybe you could suggest something - I'm at a loss.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    44. Re:Mommy... by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Human beings have rights. Governments have powers that they exercise. When the exercise of the latter interferes with the former, that is the simple definition of tyranny.

      Precisely.

      This is the radical concept on which the US was founded that sets it apart from every other government on the planet. In fact, the only government built on this principle in 5,000 years.

      That is why I blow-off those who say things like "Well, $FOREIGNCOUNTRY/REGION runs things this way, why doesn't the US?". Because the US is based on concepts and principles unique to the US. If there wasn't such a difference in basic principles, there wouldn't have been an American Revolutionary War.

      If the US goes down, the last bastion of, and only real positive force for, individual freedom in the entire world in 5,000 years of human history will be gone. There will be no place left to flee to. Hell, it's already gotten so bad that now people in the US are looking around vainly trying to find someplace to escape the ever-more-tyrannical US government.

      Why is it becoming ever-more tyrannical? Because people have fallen to the notion that the US can be governed successfully based on the principles of other nations' and regions' governments, instead of the principles laid out in the US Constitution and the writings of it's authors. The further the US has strayed, the worse things have gotten, and the worse they will get if this course is not halted and reversed.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    45. Re:Mommy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If the US goes down, the last bastion of, and only real positive force for, individual freedom in the entire world in 5,000 years of human history will be gone"

      You really need to get out more. There are many more countries out there that have done more for freedom than the US has. I can think of plenty of countries I would "flee" to in preference to the US.

    46. Re:Mommy... by Montezumaa · · Score: 3

      No, it is our job to defend ourselves and defend our rights. Government has no responsibility to respond to any calls of assistance from you, no matter how many movies and TV shows lie to you. Read the abundant case law to clear this up.

    47. Re:Mommy... by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Informative

      The US is in trouble because of mindsets like yours - the belief, brainwashed into children from birth, that America is somehow a shining beacon of freedom, unique amongst the world. And in particular the belief that the Constitution is somehow better or more powerful than other countries equivalents. Reality check: many countries have constitutions. And most of the ideas that form of the basis of US government were formed by, gosh, foreigners!

      It is especially a problem for you because as far as I know, there is no punishment in the United States Code for passing laws or regulations that are unconstitutional. Or if there are, they're apparently ineffective. The result is that the US Government, quite independent of any other nations, routinely wipes its ass with the entire document and passes laws that they know full well flatly contradict the constitution (in spirit, wording or both). Here are a couple of blatant examples from recent history.

      (1) The Magnitsky bill. This is a bill of attainder - it enumerates the people it intends to punish. Bills of attainder are explicitly forbidden by the constitution because they were abused throughout history. The constitution says "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed". Doesn't get any clearer than that.

      (2) ITAR. This was a law that censored free speech by cryptographers, in a ham-fisted attempt to stop knowledge of cryptography from spreading (apparently the USG believed non-Americans were too stupid to develop the maths themselves). It was struck down by the courts and then re-passed as EAR, which was struck down again. The constitution says "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech". Doesn't get any clearer than that. Yet what was the punishment for the Congressmen and bureaucrats who, on learning that their law was unconstitutional, immediately re-passed it? Nothing!

      And that's ignoring all the other obvious problems like the abandonment of the warrant system (4th amendment).

      You blow all this off as if it can be blamed entirely on "them". Get over it. The "us" versus "them" mentality that typifies US thinking will eventually cause your country to slide ever further into authoritarianism.

    48. Re:Mommy... by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

      The government has the right to do, whatever its elected officials decide to do, and is not deemed unconstitutional. I believe its called democracy

      That's not democracy, that's tyranny. Verbatim.

      which makes you a lawless teabagger.

      Oh, cute, an ad hominem attack. I take it, then, that you fail to realize attacking the messenger instead of the message implies that your own argument holds no water.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    49. Re:Mommy... by godefroi · · Score: 2

      I believe they have that in the UK. Offend someone over twitter, get thrown in prison. Indeed, it sounds like hell.

      --
      Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
    50. Re:Mommy... by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2, Informative
      Piece by piece:

      So you would apply that to your land? It is registered in the form of a deed. How about your car?

      Apples and oranges - There is no Constitutionally guaranteed right to own land or cars. There is a Constitutionally guaranteed right to own and carry guns.

      [a car] is registered as well as has a license and in most, if not all states an insurance requirement.

      Right, registered and licensed... by the states. I shouldn't have to explain to a fellow American the difference between state government and federal government, assuming said American actually passed 9th grade Civics.

      Personally, I believe we need to treat guns the same as we treat automobiles.

      You can believe a banana is a yacht for all I care - your opinion doesn't change Constitution law.

      Require that the owner is trained and licensed to use them.

      And the government does such a fantastic job of ensuring every motorist is fully qualified to take the wheel of a 2-ton death machine, right? That's why we have so few traffic deaths, right?

      See what I did there? Yea ya do.

      Make sure they are insured for when they are used on a person that that person or their survivors can get something more than they currently are getting (nothing).

      Like in California, where a criminal can walk into your house and rape your daughter, but if you shoot him he can sue your ass into oblivion. Great concept.

      FYI, there is a bevy of civil case law in which a person was wrongfully killed (i.e., not in the process of breaking the law), and their estate made out like bandits. The OJ Simpson civil suits are a prime example of that. Therefore, the idea of "gun insurance" is not only asinine, it's redundant.

      Identify each guns ballistic characteristics at the time of manufacture and tie it to the last registered owner for easier identification of the responsible party.

      Protip: Stop getting your 'facts' from cable dramas - the vast majority of 'forensic science' is fraud and not based on anything scientific, save DNA evidence (and they tend to fuck that up from time to time, somehow).

      In short, take it from a right to a responsibility with real world consequences when that responsibility is violated.

      Taking it from a right to, well, anything else, would require a Constitutional Amendment. Good luck getting 2/3 of the states to sign on for that one.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    51. Re:Mommy... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 2

      How, exactly, does this qualify as 1st Amendment speech?

      The 1st doesn't assure people of saying anything they want without repercussions.

      How is this not -5, Flamebait?

      The "repercussion" you're discussing is an illegal threat to kill people for perfectly legal speech. That is not protected speech. It has never been protected speech.

    52. Re:Mommy... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      the Constitution doesn't enumerate citizen rights

      This is false. The Constitution doesn't enumerate all rights of citizens, because so-called "natural" rights (e.g. those we all agree on, which is to say pretty much none... er wait, that's my own rant, back on topic) do not need to be enumerated. This is why it's so inexplicable that people argue that "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" do not appear in the constitution. Yes, they are examples of inalienable natural rights enumerated elsewhere and the idea was that the constitution did not need to do that. But, I digress again. The constitution does indeed enumerate citizen rights, specifically as a means of prohibiting congress from infringing upon them. It simply does not enumerate them exhaustively.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    53. Re:Mommy... by inject_hotmail.com · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The government has the right to do, whatever its elected officials decide to do, and is not deemed unconstitutional. I believe its called democracy, or in otherwords 'the social contract', which makes you a lawless teabagger.

      WRONG. GOD DAMN WRONG. YOU are the reason the government has been able to incrementally erode our natural born rights. Let me ask you something. If the government decides you have to report your whereabouts every day, or else you go to jail, I bet you'll do that too, right? No questions asked, "I'ma lay on my back for the greater good because I was told to"...

      You are a shill of the -worst type-. Worst motherfuckin type! Read a history book, like, ever? Look up, yes, the Nazi takeover in Germany. The communist takeover in Russia, China, East Europe...that is a motherfuckin terrible way to live...under the boot of one guy who is simply obeyed because...what...he "has the right"? Ok, so let's say the government says that the constitution doesn't apply to you...or certain people anymore...then what?

      Oh...they already did that... Give yourself a round of applause...go ahead...thank yourself for it. You deserve the praise. Don't be shy.

      And the funny thing is that you won't save your loved ones...or even yourself...it's the motherfuckin "teabaggers"...the libertarians...the guys and girls that stand up for motherfuckin LIBERTY that are fighting for YOUR motherfucking rights, too. Fighting so you have a right to be a douche all day long.

    54. Re:Mommy... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People have rights. People delegate *powers* to the state. The state does not have rights. Con Law 101, or maybe Con Law 1.

      How in blazes did your ignorance get modded +5 informative? Oh.... I guess the mods need to take Con Law 1, too.

      It's very interesting how different definitions of political words get used.

      "Right" is a particularly tricky one. Despite American Jingoists insistance that the mid-18th century Enlightenment definition is the only possible one, and that anyone using it any other way should shot, it has multiple meanings.

      An older definition is that a 'right' is specific to an individual or group of individuals. Medieval rebellions in defense of "rights" were not demanding everyone have the exact same rights, they were demanding the King respect the right of different groups of people to be treated differently. It's a perfectly valid use of the term, but it's also the exact opposite of the pseudo-intelectual definition you just gave. It's even perfectly valid in some American legal contexts. For example, you don't have the right to practice medicine in Ohio unless you get the approval of a group of people who do have that right. The right to sell Star Wars DVDs do not belong to everyone in the entire world equally, they belong to the one guy who has the Copyright.

      Since this is all very confusing, with right on one hand meaning something literally anyone can do and on the other hand meaning something only one person (or a handful of people) can do, in common usage "Right" just means legal ability to do something. I have the right to sue your ass because there isn't a Court Order that says otherwise. The Government has the right to tax your ass because you can't get a court order telling them to stop. I have the right to call your ass stupid because the First Amendment says so, not because some 18th Century French Baron thought it was only natural and a generation of thinkers every American reveres agreed.

    55. Re:Mommy... by NicBenjamin · · Score: 2

      That's exactly how ZANU-PF komissars understand the word. They are not alone in this interpretation - victors are usually merciless. In the USA the victorious left is already laying claim on your income and your guns - the stuff that separates a free man from an indigent.

      And if the other guy had won he'd be laying claim to your retirement and your medical care; which are also things that separate a free person from being indigent.

    56. Re:Mommy... by poity · · Score: 2

      But isn't that one of the arguments we hear from the pro-gun side -- that gun control only takes guns away from law-abiding citizens, and leaves criminals and an ever more authoritarian state untouched? Gun control would be a type of UNILATERAL disarmament, and NOT a mutual disarmament (which, when you think about it, is a utopian impossibility).

      No wonder gun owners want to hold onto their guns.

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    57. Re:Mommy... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      The problem is, gun control isn't mutual disarmament, it's unilateral disarmament. It doesn't disarm the criminals.

    58. Re:Mommy... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      American Exceptionalism overpower mode ENGAGE!!

      LOL keep thinking that those sweet words originally intended to give power only to land-owning white men are so very, very special, and haven't been routinely shat all over and ignored since the days of the civil war.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    59. Re:Mommy... by coinreturn · · Score: 2

      Perhaps not in a fortnight (due entirely to politics), but I fully expect that one of two things will happen in the next two years in the United States:

      Either one or more states will leave the United States or the states will pass at least one amendment to the US Constitution all by themselves. In either case, they aren't going to sit idly by and allow the Federal government to run roughshod over them forever.

      Not a chance. First, there is no process for leaving the Union. Second, the last time that happened, it didn't end well for those trying to leave. Third, if this were to happen in the next two years, which you pose, I presume they'd be red states (since blue states got their candidate for pres.). The red states are generally the ones that get more from the feds than than they give (look it up) and they know it. Just a small, very vocal group are even proposing secession, no legislatures or even legislators. There was no talk of "Federal government running roughshod over them" when Bush was in power; it's just sour grapes over the last two presidential elections. As to "the states will pass at least one amendment to the US Constitution all by themselves," I presume you mean that the amendment would come from the state legislatures (as opposed to from Congress). Ratified within two years? Not likely.

    60. Re:Mommy... by gknoy · · Score: 2

      Like in California, where a criminal can walk into your house and rape your daughter, but if you shoot him he can sue your ass into oblivion.

      Can you provide some more information on this? I was under the impression that stopping an assault (including rape) in progress was considered one of the few times where using lethal force is allowed.

      CA penal code (section 197) [ http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=187-199 ] seems to indicate that homicide is justifiable when resisting attempts of a person to commit gross bodily harm, or to protect family members from the same.

    61. Re:Mommy... by BlueStrat · · Score: 2

      Reality check: many countries have constitutions.

      Many countries have armies, too. What's your point? That all constitutions are the same? Really?

      The US Constitution is unique in that it starts out in declaring and then working from the idea that men are naturally free, that they can rule themselves by peaceful general agreement without a king or supreme dictator/ruling party/etc, that the powers granted government come solely from the consent of the governed, that those powers can be rescinded/amended at the people's pleasure, and that the Constitution is a list of negative rights that constrain government against the people, and that the people retain all rights and freedoms not expressly forbidden, and that the government has no more powers than what is expressly written in plain language.

      Whatever your opinion of the US Constitution and/or it's basis and meaning, I say that it's a hell of a lot more than simple correlation that the more the US Government has ignored/exceeded/violated, and just plain walked all over the Constitution, the worse things have gotten for the US, it's economy, it's level of government corruption and crony-ism, it's foreign relations, it's justice system, it's opportunities for people to make a better life, and it's citizens' freedoms, rights, and privacy.

      As to your examples, they are exactly the point. When government power and control grow, it becomes a target for corruption. The larger and more powerful, less Constitutionally-constrained the legislative/regulatory apparatus, the more corruption there will be. Until a tipping-point is reached, whereupon corruption and government experience a singularity event, and tyranny takes control.

      At least, that's *one* of the paths to tyranny, among others, that the US is well-nearing the end-game stages of. It's not the only one, nor the only one well on the way to the end-game, by a long-shot. However, there is much "overlap" in that reining in government power, size, and control will have a crippling effect on those other paths to tyranny that mostly depend on the existence of a powerful central government to take over.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  2. Good Guys With Guns? by phantomcircuit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So what they're saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns. Gee where have I heard that recently....

    1. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by sribe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, shit, here I am sitting with mod points and you're +5 before I ever even see the article ;-)

    2. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Swampash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seems to me that the point has been proven: when irresponsible unstable people are allowed to own guns, bad shit happens.

    3. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      When irresponsible unstable journalists are allowed to publicly release private citizens' information, bad shit happens.

    4. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Informative

      So what they're saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns. Gee where have I heard that recently....

      Well, they may be saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is trained, licensed, regulated guys with guns, who can only carry on duty, don't take their firearm home, etc. Just like most of the civilized world do.

      --
      There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
    5. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Informative

      Said information is publicly available. If the second amendment protects gun owners, the first amendment protects this newspaper.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Squiddie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      trained, licensed, regulated guys with guns

      You mean like CCW permit holders?

    7. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by 1u3hr · · Score: 2

      So what they're saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns. Gee where have I heard that recently....

      And so what you're saying is that the gun owners who were mapped and are now making threats are "bad guys". A gun is what makes the difference between a blowhard you can ignore and a real threat of death.

    8. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by jittles · · Score: 2

      So what they're saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns. Gee where have I heard that recently....

      And so what you're saying is that the gun owners who were mapped and are now making threats are "bad guys". A gun is what makes the difference between a blowhard you can ignore and a real threat of death.

      No one said that it is the gun owners on the list who have made these threats. Hell, they could be non-gun owners from Seattle for all we know. For all we know they are also doing this to further garner media attention by claiming the reaction was more threatening than it was. Either way, there are plenty of responsible and irresponsible gun owners, and not everyone of those gun owners may be law abiding in the first place.

    9. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 2, Informative

      You mean like CCW permit holders?

      No, entirely unlike CCW permit holders, because you misquoted me, specifically leaving off the end of the line you quote. Here it is bolded for your benefit.

      trained, licensed, regulated guys with guns, who can only carry on duty, don't take their firearm home, etc.

      Are CCW permit holders only allowed to carry on duty (whatever that might mean in the context of a private citizen) and (more importantly) not allowed to take their firearm home?

      --
      There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
    10. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by torkus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The larger problem is determining who is the good guy and who is the bad guy often enough.

      Sure, someone shooting children is most likely the bad guy.

      Sure, the FIRST guy running through the mall with a guy is most likely the bad guy...what about the second one that's behind him? Savior or coconspirator?

      Sure, the guy in the uniform is probably a good guy, but there are plenty of examples when that's not the case - be it fake uniforms or unscrupulous security/police.

      You know...now that I think about it there's only one single person I can be sure is the good guy. Me. Therefore I should be armed at all times in all places. Then i'm 100% sure a good guy is armed to protect my interests. You all should do the same. It worked in the recent mall shooting even though the media declined to focus on it as it doesn't suit their "neutral" agenda.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    11. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One of the local gun stores also offers training to both security firms and concealed carry holders (well, potential ones). They joke that most of the holes in their ceilings are from the security guards that come in for training. The "training" that most security firms are willing to pay for is to send the guys to the range and have them fire off a few dozen rounds from a revolver and then be sent back. Many security guards have never fired a gun before that and unless they're a gun owner outside of their job, many never will again.

      Now take the gun enthusiasts. Most people I know that are really into guns visit the range at least monthly. I personally do at least 2 practice sessions per month, 3 USPSA pistol matches, and 1 Steel Challenge match. Generally that's 800-1000 rounds per month. I've been through concealed weapons training, hunter's education, and NROI Range Officer training. I know a ton of people in the hobby who practice and train to similar degrees.

      Do you honestly think because they wear a roughly law-enforcement-esque uniform that a security guard is magically more capable of handling a weapon?

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    12. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Squiddie · · Score: 3, Insightful

      who can only carry on duty, don't take their firearm home, etc.

      Cops do take their firearms home, mostly since they buy them themselves a majority of the time. Apparently uniforms give you magical powers of gun or something. But I guess armed security is just as good. We should all just be rich and hire an armed entourage to follow us around and that way we can protect ourselves. Oh, you're too poor for that? Too bad. Security is only for us rich people.

    13. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by torkus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...A gun is what makes the difference between a blowhard you can ignore and a real threat of death.

      Yes. Exactly this. If you read the constitution and the words of our forefathers about it one of the fundamental reasons behind gun ownership being a right in the USA is to allow citizens to FORCE the government to listen. It's to ensure the citizens have a voice and a means to ensure that voice is not only heard, but acted on.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    14. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ....the gun owners who were mapped and are now making threats...

      RTFA, please. One person said something so vague the police declined to label it an explicit threat.

      A gun is what makes the difference between a blowhard you can ignore and a real threat of death.

      Roughly one-third of murders in the U.S. are carried out without a firearm. If you think lack of a firearm means that someone cannot make a credible threat to kill you, you are a fool; if you think mere ownership of a firearm means someone is a threat, you are also a fool.

      Was the paper within its legal rights? Yes, the info is public. Was it a dick move by the paper? You bet. Should the info be public in the first place? No, it should not be.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    15. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by vux984 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Do you honestly think because they wear a roughly law-enforcement-esque uniform that a security guard is magically more capable of handling a weapon?

      No. I agree. But there are many many law enforcement (and -esque) groups that do have at least cursory gun handling standards and require time on the range.

      Now take the gun enthusiasts...blah blah blah

      Ok, now take that minority of well trained enthusiasts and set them aside.

      Now take the majority remaineder all the people with guns who don't do any of that. At all. Ever.

      What about them?

      I can't really follow what your argument is, it seems to be trying to argue that random civilians can handle weapons better than law-enforcement-esque types and sure that's true for some handful of carefully screened and cherry picked group of civilians.

      So what exactly?

    16. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by Intropy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It was the newspaper's right to publish the data they published. It was still a bad thing to do. The first amendment would also protect their right to publish lists of suspected communists or records of purchases of prophylactics and pregnancy tests. The first amendment protects their rights to publish that information. It doesn't make it not a violation of privacy and all around dick move. The second issue, of course, is the existence of the list to begin with. They got the list from the government, which compiled it through fairly straightforward violations of the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments.

    17. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by MagusSlurpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nope, still not quite right.

      How about:

      When anyone makes public information easy to read and understand, someone puny feels threatened.

      Yeah, that's better.

      Any person is puny when harassed by a media entity, whether it be gun owner, a teacher that put herself through school by doing porn, or a celebrity harassed by paparazzi.

      --
      My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
    18. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by colin_faber · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hi,

      I think you need to reexamine the history here. Based on historical writings, as well as years of SCOTUS rulings it was very much the intent of the founding fathers that gun ownership, above all else is to prevent the tyranny of the government over the populous.

      Here's a great read on the subject:

      http://ia601204.us.archive.org/14/items/Pre-revolutionaryOriginsOfTheSecondAmendment/Pre-revolutionaryOriginsOfTheSecondAmendment.pdf

    19. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by kwiqsilver · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except for the a higher percentage of bad people are gun owners than compared to good people, therefore if you want to correlate bad persons its easier to check the gun registry.

      That might be the most retarded thing I've read on /.

      While a higher percentage of bad people are gun owners, you won't find them on the CCW lists or filling out 4473s at the local gun shop. They illegally buy illegal guns illegally imported from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

      The projection bias, bravado, paranoia, necessity that sometimes leads to gun ownership, is a pretty strong indication that the person is bad or crazy.

      And how many case studies did you perform before pulling this conclusion out of your ass?
      The fact that so many bad guys have guns, and they're so easy for bad guys to buy, despite all of the laws against it (I'm confounded as to why these criminals keep violating the gun laws), would prompt a rational person to look for a form of protection. Therefore I conclude that the number of guns a person owns is directly proportional to his sanity.

      I cannot count the number of times I have seen John Wayne or 'gangasta' wannabes flash their weapon, as if they are somehow the just and righteous parties (mass killers are included), but end up just being either dumb, ignorant, or mentally ill.

      I can't count the number of times a unicorn has bought me lunch, and probably for the same reason.
      I'd wager I know a few more legal gun owners than you do, and we as a group do not flash our guns. We are normal middle-class people who know that the cops can't be everywhere and that there are evil, crazy, or otherwise dangerous people in the world.

      Without guns there are no bad people with guns, and no need for good people with guns, or bad people who think they are good people with guns.

      So when a 250lb. man without a gun rapes a 110lb. woman without a gun, that's okay to you? That's sounds like a situation where a good guy with a gun would be really damn useful. Incidentally, a woman who carries a firearm is 310 times more likely to successfully fend off a rapist than a woman who does not.
      And that's according to FBI crime data.

      People who want to ban guns in America fit into one of the following categories: would-be tyrants, rapists, murderers, muggers, or the useful idiots who allow the previous groups to be successful.

    20. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by dbc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Now seems like a good time to inject some uncomfortable facts. According the the latest FBI statistics, law enforcement officers are perpetrators of violent crime at *exactly* the same rate as the general population. This is not counting "police brutality" or any other duty-related charges, real or imagined. CCW holders on the other hand, are perpetrators of violent crime at about 1/20 the rate of the general population, and therefore at 1/20 the rate of law enforcement officers, also.

      So, using FBI statistics, the chance of a law enforcement officer using his firearms for nefarious ends are about 20X that of your neighbor with a CCW license doing likewise.

    21. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by PlusFiveTroll · · Score: 2

      >They got the list from the government, which compiled it through fairly straightforward violations of the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments.

      This, here.

      It seems people want to create registration lists of just about everything. Who has guns, who has fertilizer, who has metal widgets, etc, etc. Then 10 years later the list gets out and used in an unexpected (but most of the time predicted) way, many times negating the 'safety' reasons for having said list in the first place.

    22. Re:Good Guys With Guns? by IceNinjaNine · · Score: 3, Informative

      No flamage intended, do you have a cite for that? There are some libruhl assholes that need clobbering with this in my workplace.

  3. Good thing they have all those guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wouldn't want their employees to feel threatened by the angry gun-owning proletarians they chastise and demean on a daily basis.

    So, basically, you should only get armed protection if you're a politician or a sleazeball newspaper editor. What a great strategy to disarm your opposition so you can oppress with no fear of retribution!

    1. Re:Good thing they have all those guns by ae1294 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I am compiling a publicly-accessible list of all Slashdot members. Please provide your full legal name and address for entry into the records.
      What's that? You don't want to? Well, what are you afraid of? Clearly if you've done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to be afraid of...

      Noooooooo! My girlfriend will leave me if she finds out I'm a recovering basement dweller!

  4. Re:Publish the guards names by wgoodman · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's a good chance they already did.

  5. They are assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While I'm in favor of banning guns, I'm not in favor of violating the privacy of thousands of people. What this paper did was, while still legal, incredibly unethical. It was a vindictive attack on gun owners to try to inspire fear in the public.

    1. Re:They are assholes by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

      Will they be allowed to publish lists of prescription patients for anti-depressant and personality-disorder medication?

      This seems to be another common feature of Lanzas, Loughners and assorted other Klybold wannabes.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    2. Re:They are assholes by Montezumaa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you are in favor of violating an explicitly stated amendment(the Second Amendment explicitly protects citizens' rights to arms equal to our military, considering the portions "A well regulated militia..."(the word regulated meaning equally or well equipped, as used during the inception and passing of the Second Amendment) and "...the right of the people..."(while "The People" and "the people" both refer to the citizenry, from whence the authority of the various government is derived from, "The People" is termed to discuss the wider authority(our governments); "the people" directly refer to the citizenry). The whole "...shall not be infringed." part would cause any bans to be severe violations of the Second Amendment) to the US Constitution, for a protection that isn't explicitly stated but decided through case law? While both protections are important, and I support both, I fail to see how anyone, of any intelligence, would advocate violating the highest and most important document in the United States.

      There were close to 100 million firearm owners in the United States that have not used their firearms to commit any crimes, nor knowingly commit any crimes, of any kind, either recently, nor at any time in the past. So, considering the odds, legal firearm owners are the most law abiding citizens that exists. Those are the people that should have arms, considering the reason our rights were protected(The Second Amendment protected an already existing right; that Amendment didn't create any new right.).

    3. Re:They are assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are a fucking idiot. I don't say that lightly. There is no such thing as personality disorder medication. This is because you can only treat the traits of a personality disorder with medication, not the personality disorder itself. Things like depression, anxiety, and psychosis can be treated with medication. But that doesn't treat a personality disorder itself. A personality disorder is treated by changing the way a person thinks and responds to the world. This is because a personality disorder is primarily a malformed way a person learned to deal with stress in the world, partially due to biological reasons and partially due to environmental reasons. For example, a child who was repeatedly raped by a parent or guardian might learn than you can't trust the ones you love and that people that you love are secretly trying to hurt you. They might have incredible abandonment fears while still rejecting everyone around them due to fear. No medication can fix that. That is what a personality disorder is. Actual mental illness isn't the funny or nutcase stories you hear. It is incredibly painful and tragic. Finding out you have a personality disorder is no more fun than finding you have cancer.

      So, lets take this one step further. Many people with mental illnesses have been victims of serious trauma, before or during their mental illness. Your desire to publish these lists will also include tons of child abuse, rape, and PTSD victims. You also punish people for trying to get help in their lives and reinforce the massive stigma associated with mental illness. If people had a list of those with mental illnesses, they would be able to refuse to rent to them or employ them. This already occurs, but you would take it to the next level. And because of that, people who think they have a mental illness would refuse to try to find treatment (which already occurs 2/3rds of the time).

      Here's a secret: people with a mental illness are no more violent than the general population. You only think they are because you are stupid and haven't read the research. Stop attacking people with mental illness. It is bigotry and should be treated as such.

  6. Would that not be protected information? by s.petry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally, I would be upset with both the Newspaper and the State. The only reason the State knows legally that you have a gun is by registering, which is frankly unconstitutional in itself. The State acted irresponsibly with the information releasing it to a Public source. I hope they get sued.

    The Newspaper on the other hand should know better. Publishing this was strictly for propaganda purposes to further the current massive push to disarm Americans. I won't tell you if I own guns or how many, but will say this. Any American not concerned with the push for gun bans should be extremely alarmed. Read some fucking history books and notice what happens when tyrants in control have nothing to fear from the peasants. Yeah, it always works out so well, which is why the article is in the US Constitution.

    Sue them both, and boycott the Newspaper to put them out of business! I'm sick of propaganda agencies supported by the Government. And bet your ass they got a check from the Government for running that article.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Would that not be protected information? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      By state law, it is public information. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/01/local-government-refuses-give-local-newspaper-data-its-gun-owner-map/60498/

      Actually, there's a county trying to stop the release of the information with which I have a bigger problem. Fix the law if it's bad, but I don't expect county officials to violate state law on their own discretion.

    2. Re:Would that not be protected information? by UnanimousCoward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why is this comment modded up?!? It is public information, so, yeah, it can be published by a "Public source..." If you want to debate the fact that it's public information, that's one thing, but you're not.

      --
      Twelve-and-three-quarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.
    3. Re:Would that not be protected information? by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Informative

      What "numbers" are you looking at?

      You can't compare crimes from 2 different countries where one has lax gun laws and one has strict gun laws because those two countries are vastly different in their culture, their reporting of violent crime, and the people that make up those countries. If you compare those 2, you will end up with skewed data.

      Instead, you can look at the data at a country that has gone from relatively lax gun laws to strict gun laws such as Australia. Depending on the source you will either find a slight increase in violent crimes or no major change.

      Guns are not the problem. The problem is, unsurprisingly, people. Violent people will find ways to commit violence no matter what tools are in their disposal. Just look at the school stabbing in China, or the epidemic of knife violence in the UK.

      Indeed if you look at the places where mass murders took place (Columbine, Sandy Hook, etc.) you find a distinct theme: the attacker is the only one with a gun. If you want to have a massive body count, you don't attack someplace where people can defend themselves. Instead, you find places where law abiding citizens cannot legally defend themselves, places like schools. You look at attempted mass shootings like the one at the Oregon mall and you find it stopped by someone who was legally armed.

      And you can't buy fully automatic (where you hold down the trigger and the gun fires until it runs out of bullets) weapons in the US easily (you have to have a massive background check and pay a large "tax stamp" to buy one, not to mention the price of the gun itself). What you are most likely talking about are semi-automatic rifles (where when one round is fired another is loaded in the chamber) which are used in many, if not most modern hunting rifles (personally I use a semi-automatic 30.06 for deer hunting, although for big bore rifles bolt action or a break-open design is better for example a .416 Rigby or .404 Jeffery).

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    4. Re:Would that not be protected information? by dougmc · · Score: 2

      The only reason the State knows legally that you have a gun is by registering, which is frankly unconstitutional in itself.

      Can you cite the part of the Constitution that makes this Unconstitutional?

    5. Re:Would that not be protected information? by andytuna · · Score: 2

      Since Australia moved from from relatively lax gun laws to strict gun laws there has been a reduction in mass shootings. The same happened in the UK. Less guns in circulation results in less mass killings. Simple.

    6. Re:Would that not be protected information? by BasilBrush · · Score: 2, Informative

      Guns are not the problem. The problem is, unsurprisingly, people. Violent people will find ways to commit violence no matter what tools are in their disposal. Just look at the school stabbing in China

      The one the same day as the Sandy Hook massacre? Where roughly the same number of people were attacked, but not a single one died?

      How the fuck can you imagine that says guns are not a problem?

      The truth is you want to own guns, and you'll make up any stupid argument to support your desire.

    7. Re:Would that not be protected information? by Darkness404 · · Score: 2

      But mass killings does not equal reduced death. Mass killings are only a small subset of murders and even a smaller subset of deaths. By my calculations ~88 people died in a mass shooting in the US in 2012. Out of the 311,000,000 people who live in the US, the odds of getting shot in one of these mass shootings is virtually zero.

      Instead of focusing on such an insignificant portion of US deaths. Why not focus on curing "rare" diseases which kill many more than 88 people a year in the US? Instead about debating about such an insignificant figure, why not work to cure cancer something that will kill over 6000 times as many Americans?

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    8. Re:Would that not be protected information? by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 2

      Any idiot who thinks a well-armed populace easily resists the government should try actually learning something about all those middle eastern dictatorships they keep voting to bomb. Pro-tip: AK-47's are literally cheaper then cigarettes there.

    9. Re:Would that not be protected information? by Bremic · · Score: 2

      What's funny to me is the same people who want guns based on an amendment to the constitution so they can change the government if it's ever needed... are the same people who get furious at people who want to stop people from getting the government to make change.

      Pro-Gun: "I need a gun in case I ever need to protest against my government and change the laws."
      Anti-Gun: "I want to peacefully get my government to change the laws."
      Pro-Gun: "You are anti American."

      From an outsiders perspective it seems all the people who are pro guns want to use them to stop people from making the changes that are exactly the reason they say they need to have them. It seems like just pure insanity.

    10. Re:Would that not be protected information? by Loki_1929 · · Score: 2

      'Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun'
      - Maybe you're right. Lucky that police have guns.

      Police in Newtown, Connecticut have guns. They had them on December 14, 2012, but they didn't use them because there was no need. You see, by the time the only people legally allowed to carry guns within the grounds of Sandy Hook Elementary school (the police) arrived 2-3 minutes after the first call came in, the shooter was already working his way through the building. He proceeded to murder 20 children and 6 adults with no interference from police at all. With a 2-3 minute response time. At the end of his rampage, he shot himself in the head.

      The only people who could legally carry guns in that place got there in 2-3 minutes and found 27 bodies to clean up. The people who were actually there dealing with the shooter had only two legal options: try to run away and hope for the best or try to hide and hope for the best. Defending one's self or the children in that school were not feasible options, legally. Let me repeat that: there was no legal, feasible way for any adult at that school to defend the lives of those children from the maniac stalking through the halls intent on murdering them. None.

      This is one of the saddest cases where the old saying is proven so terribly correct: "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." Believing that the police should be the only ones legally carrying guns is akin to believing that what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary is what should happen everywhere there's a maniac on the hunt. The truth is, these "gun-free" school zones are sitting duck zones. Every person there was robbed of their God-given right to fight for their lives and the lives of the children in their care.

      When the day comes that there are no more maniacs, no more violent mentally disturbed individuals, no more violent psychopaths, no more violent criminals, no more oppressive police, no more oppressive governments, no more wars, no more rapists, no more murderers, no more bad drunks that get crazy and want to slice people up with broken bottles, no more violent drug addicts, and no more animal attacks on people anywhere in the world, it'll be time to get rid of all the guns. They won't have any good use at that point, so any reasonable person will be happy to be rid of them. But we don't live in that time. So while a 15 year old girl can use her mother's gun to stop a home invader's attempt at brutally raping her, while a 12 year old boy can use the family shotgun to defend his baby sister from two psychos that broke down the back door of his house, while an 83 year old grandmother can use a gun to chase off two large young men who've broken into her home, they do have good uses in the right hands.

      In the right hands, a teacher or staff member could have stopped that maniac at the front door of Sandy Hook Elementary. Or maybe they couldn't have. But they would have had something they definitely did not have on December 14th: a chance.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  7. Compare and Contrast Arguments by Revotron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "If everybody just didn't have any guns, crime wouldn't be nearly as bad... except us, we need them!"

    "If everybody just used public transportation, these roads wouldn't be nearly as crowded. Except me, of course. I need my car!"

    Striking similarity, eh?

    1. Re:Compare and Contrast Arguments by RandomUsername99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Would the person you're quoting happen to be made of straw?

    2. Re:Compare and Contrast Arguments by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 2

      "Shut up the WBC or prevent them from picketing, as we don't want to hurt the families of soldiers. But don't take my rights away, I need my free speech."

      "Make terrorist and predators online names associated with their real person to protect the children. But don't take away my privacy, I need my privacy."

      Yep, strikingly. Though, it sounds different when dealing with rights instead of material property. That is, gun rights vs the physical guns. And when you pose it as "owners should willingly give up for the greater good", vs what is being discussed as "government should take away".

      Phrase your car analogy as "right to buy a car" without taxes making them unaffordable or restricting you to only driving Toyota Prius', and the gun owner argument doesn't seem so hypocritical.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
  8. Irony.. by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Irony at its finest. It always baffles me that those in favor of banning guns are the very ones that use them. Of course its perfectly alright to have people with guns protecting them, yet it is entirely unacceptable for others to use them to protect themselves and their family.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Irony.. by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or for angry gun owners to make threats to said newspaper.

      I was going to point out that you missed the deeper, sadder irony, but then read your sig and decided that would likely be a waste of time.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Irony.. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      I honestly don't know a person with guns who wants to ban them.

      I know people like that. They have a "Well, I just own a revolver or a hunting rifle/shotgun, but I want to ban YOUR guns. You know, those semi-automatics" mindset.

      When my neighbor has a gun, it means the people robbing houses in the neighborhood may feel they need to carry guns too, or they may acquire one when they rob my neighbor, putting me at greater risk.

      Your neighbor should put this sign in his front yard.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    3. Re:Irony.. by torkus · · Score: 2

      Of course not all gun owners are the perfectly rational people we'd like them to be. Neither are car owners. Neither are doctors. Neither are POLICE and MILITARY.

      You can take any population and show a portion that's 'unfit'.

      Now when you meet one of those unfit people would you prefer to have a method of self-defense (be it knowledge, a gun of your own, or something else) or forced to rely on a 3rd party that will be there "as soon as possible after you call and explain the situation.

      mutually assured destruction works on small scales too.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    4. Re:Irony.. by MimeticLie · · Score: 2

      Irony would mean that it was contrary to the expected result. A paper that engaged in anti-gun activism using armed guards to defend itself is ironic. A paper doing something that could upset a bunch of people and some of them getting angry and making threats isn't ironic, just sad.

  9. public records by ebonum · · Score: 2

    Why on earth would the state make the list of registered gun owners public?

    1. Re:public records by tranquilidad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why would the state require registration of guns?

    2. Re:public records by Loki_1929 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It makes it a lot easier to collect them once they're banned. Gives you a sort of checklist.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  10. Irony by strikethree · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'The editor, Caryn McBride, told police the newspaper hired a private security company whose "employees are armed and will be on site during business hours," the report said.

    So the newspaper is against guns and publishes a list of gun owners... and then hires a bunch of folks armed with, yes, guns. When push comes to shove, the reality is clear. Guns are effective as a defense measure. Criminals do not care about laws so outlawing guns will not take the guns from the criminals. This mean that all gun laws are for the explicit purpose of making law abiding citizens defenseless against criminals.

    Guns can be used to make committing crimes easier and to make defense against crimes easier. Seems like a null proposition and that all guns should be abolished. Right? Well, not quite so fast there. Guns equalize the situation. Without a gun, crimes and defense against crimes depends purely on physical characteristics of the aggressor and the intended victim. A large and fit criminal can pretty much do whatever they want. Everyone else gets to suffer. Guns change this equation. Anyone who can shoot can defend themselves against aggression as long as they can aim and pull a trigger. This rebalances the equation in favor of having guns around for self defense.

    I do not even personally own a gun (kids in the house and such) and yet I feel safer knowing that people around me could be carrying guns. Criminals always perform their crimes when the police are not present.

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    1. Re:Irony by strikethree · · Score: 2

      I would be interested to see if that is true. How does that statment work with countries other than the U.S.?

      I believe what you are trying to get at is an argument based on availability. The more guns that are around, the more crimes that will be committed with them. Yes?

      My reasoning concerning that very valid question is that crime will happen regardless of the availability of a particular weapon and that it is more important for people to be able to defend themselves than to worry about whether or not you get shot or beaten on for twenty minutes with a baseball bat. Defense is defense. Taking away defense is not reasonable based on the type of death you would like to experience.

      Hm. I think that could be worded better.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    2. Re:Irony by LordLucless · · Score: 2

      I live in Australia. We have laws outlawing semi-automatic weapons. A couple of years back, someone was trying to sell some illegally-obtained shoulder-fired missiles. So yeah, like locks, laws are only there to deter honest people.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    3. Re:Irony by strikethree · · Score: 2

      That can indeed happen in specific instances. What can also happen is that someone uses a gun to commit a crime against me, say a mugging, and someone else pulls out a gun and defends me. We should discuss the general class of crimes and defense rather than get bogged down in specific scenarios.

      Regards

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    4. Re:Irony by gnoshi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I live in Australia too and although gun violence does happen here, it is the exception rather than the rule. I'd say current system of gun laws is working reasonably well.
      Being an island does make importing guns illegally more difficult, which helps.

  11. Obviously there is an irony to all of this.. by log0n · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But think about this a step further. Presumably, the people who are doing all of the threatening (clearly highly intimidating threats otherwise guards wouldn't be called in) are supposed to be the 'good guys' gun carriers, not the bad guy criminals who aren't supposed to have guns in the first place. This whole thing says a lot about the perceived power a gun holder has over someone without. Good guy or bad, own a gun and you start to feel power enough to turn into a thug.

    And aren't the thugs what the good guy gun owners want to defend against?

    1. Re:Obviously there is an irony to all of this.. by jittles · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But think about this a step further. Presumably, the people who are doing all of the threatening (clearly highly intimidating threats otherwise guards wouldn't be called in) are supposed to be the 'good guys' gun carriers, not the bad guy criminals who aren't supposed to have guns in the first place. This whole thing says a lot about the perceived power a gun holder has over someone without. Good guy or bad, own a gun and you start to feel power enough to turn into a thug.

      And aren't the thugs what the good guy gun owners want to defend against?

      As I said in a comment above, we have no idea who (if anyone) made these threats. The way that they published the information before makes me think they are attention whores. We all know attention whores do what they can to get more attention. But lets assume they were threatened. We still do not know who the people threatening them are, whether they own guns, whether they even live in the same time zone as the newspaper, etc. There are plenty of crazy people out there who would get a kick out of making such threats. I would agree making such threats would not qualify one as a responsible gun owner, however.

  12. First amendment by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The founding fathers did not in any way think of the internet, therefore we shouldn't have a right to free expression on the internet. The founding fathers didn't have a clue about Mormonism, therefore Mormons shouldn't have a right to practice their religion. Etc.

    It is a misconception that the second amendment was written to allow for hunting or even just private home defense. Instead the second amendment was written to allow private citizens to own the same weapons that the government had access to, therefore assuring that if the republic would turn to tyranny the citizens could stage an armed revolt and change the government.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:First amendment by joebagodonuts · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not quite. The Amedment doesn't grant a right - it prohibits the Government from infringing on a right we already posess. Much discussion on this matter sems to be from the unspoken point of view that we get rights from our government, like a gift. Our constitution was written to restrict the power of the federal government.

      --
      "Give a woman two glasses of wine and some pad thai, and they'll agree to just about anything." the Sports Guy
    2. Re:First amendment by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      There is a misconception that you can just put whatever shit into the Founding Fathers mouths and have it accepted as truth. Guys were progressives, much more progressive than the people of the time let them be. If they were around today they would ask why health care having advanced to a stage where it is both effective and plentiful, isn't as available as books in libraries.

      And they'd be mystified that negroes and women are free to own property.

      I have long since grown weary of the canonization of the founders.

      They were human beings, just like the rest of us, they were flawed and imperfect.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  13. Re:Employees, Friends and Family by thedarb · · Score: 2

    The author of the article actually removed himself from the list. So yes.

    --
    This sig intentionally left blank.
  14. Assault Rifles by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Disclaimer: I'm a card carrying NRA member, and I'm also a card carrying ACLU member.

    Right now, no matter if one stressing the 1st amendment or the 2nd amendment, or both, it is already way too late.

    The so-called "Freedom of Speech" is but a damn charade - for it's the so-called "freedom" allowed by tptb.

    Same thing as the "Right to bear arms" --- you think with your pissy little semi-automatic assault rifles you can fight the army?

    America is no longer the land of the free - although there are still a lot of very brave people living there.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:Assault Rifles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Same thing as the "Right to bear arms" --- you think with your pissy little semi-automatic assault rifles you can fight the army?

      Hey, at least you still have semi-automatics, you should try living in a country which is about to criminalise anyone who doesn't register/license their fucking air weapons..

    2. Re:Assault Rifles by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Same thing as the "Right to bear arms" --- you think with your pissy little semi-automatic assault rifles you can fight the army?

      If -- and it's a big if, total hypothetical here, but if -- a dictatorship took power in the U.S. and an armed resistance composed of armed citizens opposed it, the experience of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as the example of resistance groups in Nazi-occupied areas during WWII suggests that a resistance force armed with rifles (even ones not capable of fully automatic fire) could put up significant resistance, yes. Hell, look at how much trouble the Branch Davidians gave the feds, and they were a bunch of frickin' nutcases.

      More importantly, though, armed citizens can protect themselves not only against criminals but against corrupt governments on the state and local level. Armed groups played a key role in winning civil rights for African-Americans during the 1960s, both by standing up directly against racist cops and by defending black citizens against violence when the police would not respond.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    3. Re:Assault Rifles by Lord+Kano · · Score: 3, Informative

      Same thing as the "Right to bear arms" --- you think with your pissy little semi-automatic assault rifles you can fight the army?

      There is no such thing as a "semi-automatic assault rifle".

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    4. Re:Assault Rifles by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If -- and it's a big if, total hypothetical here, but if -- a dictatorship took power in the U.S. and an armed resistance composed of armed citizens opposed itThat will happen only if all the Americans are true red-blooded citizens, and in reality, it just ain't the case.

      As we are already witnessing, even without a Saddam Hussein like dictator taking over the USA, there are already groups of citizens campaigning to take away whatever pissy weapons that you are allowed to own.

      the experience of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan,

      Look at the 3 places that you've name - Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan ... What do they have in common?

      * Poverty

      * People who are not afraid to die for whatever cause they think is right

      * Cultures which encourage vigilantism

      Does USA fit the above 3 criteria?

      How many of the US citizens will willingly DIE for freedom?

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    5. Re:Assault Rifles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      They've made pellet and bb guns illegal in various jurisdictions within the US too. There's no limit to what we'll try when told we should be very afraid.

      Costly foreign wars that span a decade, blood spilt and trillions spent, TSA insanity, warrantless wiretaps, suspension of habeas corpus, thousands of various gun control measures tried all over the US... none of which have done anyone any real good. It's all just political theater, and we're suckers for it.

      It's easier to pass a law, spend some money, claim victory, and forget you ever cared, than it is to solve real problems. Even if you have to take a Sharpie to the Bill of Rights. It's politicking of the worst kind.

    6. Re:Assault Rifles by dryeo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Syria, Liberia and to a lesser degree Egypt show how hard it is to overthrow a well armed dictatorship. India and the Soviet block show another way to overthrow a government.
      Besides for America to turn into a dictatorship would take the support of a good chunk of Americans. The dictatorship would probably be right wing religious with the majority of gun owners backing up the dictatorship as it is needed to stop those horrible liberals who only won the election due to immigrants or some such excuse.
      Most western countries that have descended into dictatorship have done it with the support of some of their citizens. I believe the usual ratio is approximately 1/3rd for, 1/3rd against and 1/3rd indifferent.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    7. Re:Assault Rifles by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      An "assault rifle" is an unofficial term for a scary-looking (military in design) carbine rifle with more magazine loading capabilities.

      You seem to be using "assault weapon" which is a contrived term that can include semi-automatic firearms. That's not the same as "assault rifle".

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    8. Re:Assault Rifles by MagusSlurpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Except that only people who are mowing down schoolchildren or watermelons for a youtube video use full auto. Burning through your full magazine in four seconds in any sort of conflict zone is the best way to get sent home in a pine box.

      --
      My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
    9. Re:Assault Rifles by tsa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, let's turn the USA into an African country where rebels fight each other for power at the expense of the rest of the inhabitants.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    10. Re:Assault Rifles by swillden · · Score: 5, Informative

      Note that military M16 has select-fire which can choose between semi-automatic, 3 round burst, & full-automatic.

      This is incorrect.

      The most widely deployed version of the M16, the M16A2 had three positions on the selector switch: safe, semi-automatic and three-round burst. There is no full auto setting, because the US military has decided that except in the hands of highly-trained troops full auto wastes ammunition to no effect (note that this is not the case for real machine guns, like the M60 and M243, which also burn through the ammo but can use it much more effectively).

      The M16A3 does have full auto rather than three-round burst, but it's used only by very small numbers of highly-trained troops. SEALs and such.

      The new M16A4, now standard issue for the Marine Corps and some Army units, has safe, semi and three-round burst. No full auto.

      No M16 variant has ever had a four-position selector switch, which is what would be needed to provide semi, three-round burst, full auto and a safety position.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    11. Re:Assault Rifles by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Informative

      How many of the US citizens will willingly DIE for freedom?

      Would you die to prevent your children, wife or siblings from being gang-raped?

      Would you die to prevent them from becoming slaves?

      I would.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    12. Re:Assault Rifles by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Most western countries that have descended into dictatorship have done it with the support of some of their citizens. I believe the usual ratio is approximately 1/3rd for, 1/3rd against and 1/3rd indifferent.

      Hitler was elected.

      Sorry for the Godwin, but this is appropriate.

      Tyranny is often the tyranny of the majority. Turkey massacred Armenians. Germans massacred, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other despised minorities. The Chinese and Soviets slaughtered millions of their political opponents.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    13. Re:Assault Rifles by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Same thing as the "Right to bear arms" --- you think with your pissy little semi-automatic assault rifles you can fight the army?

      If -- and it's a big if, total hypothetical here, but if -- a dictatorship took power in the U.S. and an armed resistance composed of armed citizens opposed it, the experience of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as the example of resistance groups in Nazi-occupied areas during WWII suggests that a resistance force armed with rifles (even ones not capable of fully automatic fire) could put up significant resistance, yes. Hell, look at how much trouble the Branch Davidians gave the feds, and they were a bunch of frickin' nutcases.

      Additionally, in such a worst case scenario, one must remember that a good portion of our military forces is made up of Army and Air National Guard troops. When push comes to shove, the Feds may find that a large portion of those guns wielded by the citizen soldiers of the various States will be pointed in the other direction instead of at the civilians that they have sworn to protect. Chances are, if civil war broke out here in the U.S. due to the federal government plunging us into a totalitarian dictatorship, even some of the state governors (who are the primary C&Cs for the Army and Air National Guard units in their jurisdictions) could very well throw their support behind their citizen troops instead of casting their lot with the federal forces.

      Suffice it to say, a 21st Century civil war here in the U.S. would be one of the most horrific events imaginable. Either that, or all troops, State and Federal, would suddenly remember their oaths to defend the Constitution and the people from all threats foreign and domestic, recognize the tyrants in D.C. as a domestic threat, and resolve the issue with a minimum amount of bloodshed.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    14. Re:Assault Rifles by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sure, like they wouldn't shoot Americans at Kent State? Or mace calmly sitting protesters, releasing statements about the violent actions of the protesters directly contradicted by hundreds of eye witnesses and extensive video coverage(though that was cops, not military, is still government lackeys)?

    15. Re:Assault Rifles by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The reason why we're picky about the words is because they carry implications. If you say that you have an "assault rifle", someone who's not familiar with the topic will go and look up the definition on Wikipedia, and scream bloody murder because a civilian has a full auto weapon. Indeed, the press and anti-gun legislators love to confuse that issue by talking about "assault weapons", and then quietly shifting to "assault rifles" and describing the carnage that can be unleashed with automatic fire from one...

    16. Re:Assault Rifles by phantomfive · · Score: 2
      In my experience watching in Latin America, it's closer to 25%-30% for, 60% indifferent, and the rest in varying degrees of opposition.

      The dictatorship would probably be right wing religious

      It's rather amusing, in America, members of each party always think the other party is plotting some sort of dictatorship, when in reality there are few principles that unite Americans more than opposition to dictatorship.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    17. Re:Assault Rifles by dunkelfalke · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, he wasn't. His party didn't even have the majority in the parliament. He was appointed as the chancellor by a senile president. A huge difference.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    18. Re:Assault Rifles by Montezumaa · · Score: 2

      I "own" 417 select-fire/full-automatic capable firearms( call them assault...firearms, if you must, as not all are rifles, such as the wo Glock 18s), but I refuse to use the term "assault rifle" or "assault weapon"(in my state(Georgia), an assault is a term that describes a threat, not a physical interaction, so those two terms have always seemed dumb). I am a 07/02 FFL/SOT(federal firearm licensed manufacturer that has paid his 02 Special Occupational Tax; don't dare call it "class 3", as that is a bullshit term, too. I manufacturer Title II firearms, which included suppressors, short barrel rifles/shotguns, and "machine guns". Title I covers most all others, such as semi-automatic handguns and rifles), so my ownership of all "post samples"(select-fire firearm made after 19 May 1986, which is a stupid provision) ends when I stop sending checks towards the BATFE(well, sort of towards that agency) for $500 a year($1,000, if I exceed $500,000 a year in sales).

      After that, I have to destroy my post samples, sell them to another FFL/SOT(which almost always requires a demonstration letter, save for special dispensations, which can be rare), or give them away to a law enforcement agency/qualified(export authorized, save for our own) military organization. It is thoughts like that which make me dislike our national government.

    19. Re:Assault Rifles by Gr33nJ3ll0 · · Score: 2

      Sorry, this is a common myth, but Hitler was NOT elected. Instead he used a combination of backroom deals, politics, and outright thuggery to seize power. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-hitlerdemo.htm

    20. Re:Assault Rifles by sycodon · · Score: 2

      Well, everyone killed in the Revolutionary War for one.

      If you want clear cut examples, I'd throw in WWII also.

      Certainly, those who fought in the Civil War were passionate about their cause.

      I think you underestimate the propensity of the average American to take up arms in defense of their cause.

      As to your last point, General Patten said it best:
      “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.”

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    21. Re:Assault Rifles by Cederic · · Score: 2

      Crossbows are indeed easy to acquire, but I think they're clumsy, heavy, unwieldy and ugly. Given me a longbow or compound bow any time.

      Unless it's this:
      http://www.talismancrossbows.co.uk/crossbows_beast.html

      I want that crossbow. I WANT that crossbow. :(

    22. Re:Assault Rifles by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Keep in mind that these guardsmen did not like these protesters AT ALL.

      Same as any civilians the military is pointed at. Sure, they didn't all shoot, but enough for it to be a little one sided.

      Now imagine if these "terrorists" were shooting back. How many people in the military would shoot back?

    23. Re:Assault Rifles by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Yeah, go look for the full videos.

      I have.

      The protestors barricaded the police in, threatening them, and the police gave them multiple opportunities to let them go, and asked several times, politely, to move.

      Wait, so there were some sitting protesters that never got up and made no threats or baracades. The police, upon drawing a crowd, decided that the crowd was threatening, so they maced the sitting protestors who had not moved, and ignored the threatening crowd.

      Got it. When I've had a bad day at work, I kick the dog rather than beat the wife because the wife keeps calling 911, and the dog just cries and takes it. Gotta take the easy target, and we all know she deserved it (wife or dog both).

      police gave them multiple opportunities to let them go, and asked several times, politely, to move.

      Yeah, like "don't tase me bro" deserved it because he didn't honor the parlimentary procedure of the public government meeting, so he was silenced by the governemnt and attacked. He deserved it because he was rude, even if non violent and, at the time of the tasing, 100% compliant. He was tased as retribution for not complying fast enough. Much like the guy who was arrested for resisting arrest when two cops approached him and one ordered him to raise his hands, the other said "freeze" and he asked for clarification of whether he should freeze or raise his hands.

      How many times should the police request non-violent people to move before they start shooting, whether mace, tasers, or bullets?

  15. Sigh by kenp2002 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gun control advocates love to indicate the 'logic' that less guns correlates to less homicides. But Logic, also requires that negation hold true. More guns = more homicides... right? However when gun sales have surged in the last 10 years, increasing nearly 40% in the last 10 years, homicides, especially gun related homicides, are down. Funny how "a clear correlation between guns and homicides" breaks down when applying basic statistics. .0003% of guns used in homicides... clearly a problem with guns, if and only if you lust after leaving people defenseless and powerless. Of course if less gun = less homicides then more guns = more homicides which... well isn't true.

    Wait it isn't linear... wait there are more regressors... wait there are more excuses and attempts to over-fit a model... Did you know that the price of gasoline correlates to the number of homicides committed between the hours of 9 PM CST and 11:41 PM CST. Of course the question is how strong the correlation is. Good lore you would be surprised what you can make correlate to something.

    The USA doesn't have a gun problem, it has a gang violence problem. You take out gang related homicides and guess what, were are nearly identical to Canada, England, France, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Germany, and the rest of the top 30 peaceful nations per 100,000. The problem is inner city poverty, broken homes, and poor childhood development which is the American cocktail for gangs.

    Keep your head in the sand and keep ignoring the gang violence problem. Yeah ban the last line of defense citizens have against those lawless gangs...

    --
    -=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
  16. Just doing what the NRA suggested for schools by dbIII · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's right kids, they are just following the gutless NRA nanny state suggestion - the one where the government is supposed to protect children by hiring a lot of armed guards.
    Doing the right thing and helping to control military quality guns requires more courage than the NRA has. Asking for the government to get a lot bigger and protect all the children in a nanny state solution is a cowardly way to avoid responsibility.

  17. What if these guards were on their map / list? by thedarb · · Score: 2

    Did they check to see if any of these armed guards were folks they'd outed with their map of addresses? Don't want any of the people you victimized being your protector...

    --
    This sig intentionally left blank.
  18. Re:If they didnt attack US citizens rights to bear by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Interesting

    because dropping one clip and loading another takes so much time!

    Indeed. For anyone that thinks that loading a magazine is some major roadblock, take a look at the video I'm linking below. It's of Max Michel drawing his gun from a holster and firing 18 rounds - reloading twice (every 6 rounds on 3 targets) all in under 5 seconds. Granted, he's a grand-master ranked pistol shooter, but even the most ham-fisted idiot won't take more than 3-4 seconds to perform a mag change.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QhmSg3UjEU

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  19. Re:The Sickening Underbelly Of Slashdot by ageoffri · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And the tolerant left shows itself once again. One of the reasons the USA is a great country is because we allow close minded people like you to have a voice. Gun owners who have legally obtained their firearms are far less likely to break the law.

    --
    -- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
  20. Slight difference. by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They have no right to the privacy of their handgun permit, which, by state law, is public information, which they knew when they applied for said permit.

    There is a difference between something being "public information" but requiring specific action to discover and a 3rd party collecting that information and publicly publishing it.

    I think that the newspaper did that in an attempt to intimidate those people and anyone thinking of getting a similar permit.

    Which is where the "irony" part comes in.
    Now the newspaper people are the ones intimidated.
    Now the newspaper people have turned to OTHER armed people (not the government or police force) for protection from the people they attempted to intimidate in the first place.

    It's still stupid on both sides.

  21. True, to a degree. by khasim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They're significantly more innocent than the violent assholes threatening them.

    First off, I wouldn't say they were *significantly* more innocent. They attempted intimidation first. They are more innocent than the people threatening them with deadly weapons but that it for that part.

    Secondly, they did not just post the names of the people who threatened them. They also posted the names of innocent people who had exercised their 2nd Amendment rights and who have NOT threatened them. They are less innocent than those people.

    So the final question should be whether 50%+ of the people they "outed" have threatened them or not. I'm going to guess not. But that's just based upon the people I know who own guns.

  22. in this matter by doginthewoods · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the gun owners demonstrate why they should not own guns. They lose their cool and react in hate and threats. People who are that uncontrolled can't be trusted to operate a firearm under stress or for the right reason. They should have their guns taken away until the grow up. The paper published what was on public record, so the gun owners try to intimidate the press - threaten death and violence- for publishing something they didn't like. but is readily available. W T F

    --
    Republican leadership = Idiocracy
  23. What about the non-gun-owners? by LF11 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is outrageous. What about all the NON-gun-owning homes? This newspaper just posted THIS HOME IS A GUN-FREE ZONE signs on all non-gun-owners' houses.

    If you think for an instant that this list will not be carefully inspected by criminals seeking to minimize occupational hazards, you have another thing coming. Thanks to Sandy Hook, homeowners without guns will not likely be able to purchase guns for some time (many stores are sold out due to sudden demand). Therefore, this list will remain accurate for some time to come.

    From a security standpoint, this list is really terrible, and is almost worse for non-gun-owners than for gun-owners, at least in terms of immediate personal security.

  24. Its never about the level of Firepower.. by ami.one · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Governments being overthrown by the citizens is never ever about the level of firepower.

    It is always about so many of the citizens being pissed enough to be willing to die in protests or go to jail in such large numbers that the Government is no longer sure of the support of large sections of its police, army, administration etc.

    Doing that with assault rifles or unarmed like Gandhi is no different. An individual in both cases has to be willing to die, even if the overall fatalities as a group may be less or more.

    How many US Citizens with assault rifles have ever protested against the TSA ? Can you even imagine them doing so ? Its probably better to protest unarmed against Governments. As a rule, the Government can't back down from an armed conflict till it has expended all its resources. Its quicker and cleaner, relatively, for hordes of people to protest, go to jail, get hurt, few even killed to make a sufficient impact.

    In the end it is only about Numbers. Off course,

  25. Re:you must be a mind reader by IceNinjaNine · · Score: 2

    Get a nice 16 gauge pump shotgun. Just aim in the general direction and you are gonna hit something with one shot.

    Yeah, maybe your kid if you're that inept to believe what you just wrote.

    I couldn't let this one fly just in case somebody reads this and takes it seriously. The shotgun does not throw a basketball-sized ball of death down the fucking hallway. At 3-4 meters it's more than likely going to be the size of a tennis ball depending on the ammunition used, as well as the choke and other aspects of the weapon in question.

    And if you don't think that double-aught buckshot can't burn through an interior wall and whack little Timmy, I've got a bridge to sell you.

    In addition, the whole First Amendment issue: I've got friends of mine in the NRA and other firearms organizations who are receiving death threats from left-wing morons. Thoughts on inciting violence? Hmmm??? Was the purpose of the article to inform or inflame? You mentioned that many interpretations are valid. I think the article was written for sensationalism and page hits.

  26. What about example? by tensigh · · Score: 2

    Shouldn't the newspaper live to its "no gun" ideals and live by example? They should just protect themselves with kindness and understanding.

  27. Re:The difference by czth · · Score: 2

    Fort Hood was - yes, this seems odd to me too - practically a "gun-free zone", that is, "The Army prohibits soldiers from carrying personal firearms inside Fort Hood and other bases." (Wikipedia). So it's rather that the disarmed members of the military were unable to prevent the murders at Fort Hood, and rather argues for allowing people to carry firearms on the base.