No, because anyone planning to murder 50 people is just going to shoot the guard(s) at the metal detector and walk in anyway.
It may prevent other crimes, crimes of passion and other such drunken disputes (however I suspect this is somehow less of a problem at a gay bar, but I have no numbers and could be wrong).
Metal detectors might keep people from bringing in a concealed weapon, saving the occasional life when a fight escalates. They would do nothing in a situation like Pulse, as the shooter wouldn't try to pass through undetected. He'd just storm the place, shooting the guards at the entrance if need be.
Quoted for truth...
My local school has tried to reassure parents by pointing to the double locked doors, the front desk staff, the required sign-ins, etc...
I pointed out to the Principle one day that the two main front doors are made of full size sheet glass... the locks are for appearance, a gunman could simply shoot the glass.
She looked at me with a blank expression like that thought had never occurred to her.
---
Side note, at the front desk, the two ladies who sit there and sign people in, they have a buzzer behind the desk to unlock the second set of doors and let people in. What stops someone from shooting them and pressing it themselves?
Sadly, security is a joke, but one one really seems to care.
At the time it was authored, automatic guns which would allow one man to shoot 100 or more didn't exist. At the time the Old Testament was authored, it was mandated to stone women to death and slaughter entire tribes, but we've now decided those rules are no longer appropriate. To come full circle, a similar fundamentalist, unbending adherence to old laws (and a big dose of crazy) has ended up with today's events.
While you're busy being proud of yourself, you should ask yourself WHY there is a second amendment...
I do not want a car that has wireless access to start it, or eventually hack into it. I don't believe I'll ever want one that can update OTA. I'll stick with my old fashioned 2014 car that only connects to my Bluetooth phone.
What is with all the Luddites on SlashDot?
Where did the people who embrace and understand Tech go?
Side note: You can not want it all you like, you will simply have no cars to pick from in the next few years.
This should put you drone advocates' and self-driving car advocates' faith in your ideals to the test: Would you step into one of these and let it fly you away somewhere? I wouldn't!
Sure, I'd be happy to, once it has actually been developed and the kinks worked out.
This is a totally solvable problem, it just requires time and money.
I've been flying for 15 years, the computer is a better pilot than a human is, in terms of control. Then it just becomes decision making ability. That needs to be worked on, but for fixed flights from point A to point B, known locations, that is totally doable.
As for "emergencies", yes they happen, but the reality is, not actually that often. For example, the number of pilots who have real engine failures in helicopters is actually lower than the number of injuries and deaths from training for them.
Frank Robinson (of Robinson Helicopters) actually proposed to the FAA that auto-rotation practice be stopped, because so many people were getting hurt doing it in his R22 compared to the few that actually had an engine quit.
I did try... we had a referendum on a better system, but people were too dumb to understand it.
This is why I said you need guns, lots of guns...
Referendums don't work, tell me how many times in history that has ever really worked...
The sad reality is that what does work is to take the current leaders out behind a barn and shoot them. That isn't politically correct to say, but it is true.
Our electoral system is badly broken. Every five years you get one vote to select a local MP, on a first-past-the-post system. In other words, whoever gets most votes in your area wins, and all other votes are discarded.
Then why don't you do something about it?
Change the rules, throw out your existing government, tell them all to go pound sand.:)
In a FPTP system when you inevitably alternate between two big parties most of the time, that's a tall order.
The real trick is to change the election system... The FPTP is broken beyond repair, it is a flawed system that needs to go.
Note: We also are in the same boat, but worse thanks to our "Electoral College" where we don't even vote for President directly and the votes in 40 of the 50 states generally don't count anyway.
Al Gore in 2000 got more votes than George W. Bush, yet Bush became President because of that system.
Unfortunately, I think the real problem we have is not that our government is not listening to its people, but that so many of its people have so little to say. About one in three eligible voters didn't even vote in the last general election
That is more than the US, where half the people don't vote... but a large part of that is so many people don't see any REASON to vote, feeling it doesn't matter or make a difference...
If we were talking about something like a government refusing to relinquish power after losing a reasonably free and fair election
Do you honestly feel that you have "free and fair elections"?
I don't, and I don't think we have them in the US. We have 4 serious political parties here, yet only 2 of them get on the TV for news or debates.
Republicans Democrats Greens Libertarians
Yet the last two are laughed at and get no time or attention by the media and are not included in the public debates on TV.
They aren't nuts either, for example the Libertarians want a mix of the D and R teams, they want socially liberal policies such as ending the war on drugs, marry whoever you want, get government out of the bedroom, etc... Yet when it comes to money, they think government size should be cut in half. We have over 2,000 federal government agencies, it is absurd! They also want to stop all the "wars of not giving the US everything it wants" nonsense.
The Greens are another matter, but at least they are a voice of something difference.
The Democrats and Republicans don't actually care who is in power, so long as it is ONE OF THEM and not anyone else. This is why the Republicans are so against Trump, he isn't ONE OF THEM.
Hillary Clinton, for example, is so completely bought and paid for and in the pocket of big banks and the military contractors that she'll do what she's told, regardless of what everyone THINKS she'll do right now.
Note: The other 16 Republicans would have been much the same, so I'm not taking sides there. Trump got in because the people are sick of it.
Bernie Sanders has done much the same on the Dems side, but thanks to the early "lead" of the Super Delegates and party pressure and rules, he got run over.
You don't have a democracy at all, you're just serfs rulled over by Kings by another name, and don't even know it.
Follow up to my own post... We aren't really any better off in the US, sad to say...
Our Kings however, are corporations who have cronies in the political parties... and they have done a good job of getting most people to "pick a team", thinking that it is a choice.
Slashdot Mirror
Mandatory metal detectors at night clubs?
No, because anyone planning to murder 50 people is just going to shoot the guard(s) at the metal detector and walk in anyway.
It may prevent other crimes, crimes of passion and other such drunken disputes (however I suspect this is somehow less of a problem at a gay bar, but I have no numbers and could be wrong).
Is the answer smart gun technology?
No, because it does nothing for the billion guns in the world and people bent on crime will find a way to use a gun anyway.
Smart gun tech WOULD help prevent accidental shootings, so actually it is worth researching... But it won't do anything for this situation.
Metal detectors might keep people from bringing in a concealed weapon, saving the occasional life when a fight escalates. They would do nothing in a situation like Pulse, as the shooter wouldn't try to pass through undetected. He'd just storm the place, shooting the guards at the entrance if need be.
Quoted for truth...
My local school has tried to reassure parents by pointing to the double locked doors, the front desk staff, the required sign-ins, etc...
I pointed out to the Principle one day that the two main front doors are made of full size sheet glass... the locks are for appearance, a gunman could simply shoot the glass.
She looked at me with a blank expression like that thought had never occurred to her.
---
Side note, at the front desk, the two ladies who sit there and sign people in, they have a buzzer behind the desk to unlock the second set of doors and let people in. What stops someone from shooting them and pressing it themselves?
Sadly, security is a joke, but one one really seems to care.
Fertilizer is indeed a controlled substance
So are guns, but you thought you were being very clever indeed.
True, but there are also no cases of car owners who do not own cars killing anyone either...
Why were rental trucks and fertilizer not banned after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing?
Clearly rental trucks and fertilizer are dangerous, yes?
---
The reality is that people are very emotional about guns, had this been a car bomb, no one would be suggesting we ban cars...
Actually, yes!
Either you didn't understand what I said, or you don't understand the Constitution.
For the moment, I'm going to assume it was the first one.
YOU have freedom of speech, you're allowed to speak and the government can pass no laws restricting your speech.
Likewise, YOU have the right to own guns, that right shall not be infringed.
In other words, the rights in the Constitution are for YOU, not the government.
If you read the papers and letters of the Founding Fathers you'll see that "bear arms" was always used in connection with military units:
Does the freedom of speech only apply to government?
Does the freedom from unreasonable search only apply to government?
The irony is that you think the 1st and 4th and 5th amendments apply to citizens, but not the 2nd.
At the time it was authored, automatic guns which would allow one man to shoot 100 or more didn't exist. At the time the Old Testament was authored, it was mandated to stone women to death and slaughter entire tribes, but we've now decided those rules are no longer appropriate. To come full circle, a similar fundamentalist, unbending adherence to old laws (and a big dose of crazy) has ended up with today's events.
While you're busy being proud of yourself, you should ask yourself WHY there is a second amendment...
If they have guns
So you're saying if they don't have guns, they can't kill anyone...
We know flying vehicles are possible
Did I ever say it wasn't possible?
Really, does no one read anything anymore?
Go back and read what I said.
The same can be said of traditional aircraft.
No, it can't...
There are, indeed, limits
Yes, there are...
some of which have been overcome
No, they haven't...
I'm not convinced that we are anywhere close to our limits.
Well great, because YOU'RE NOT FUCKING CONVINCED THEN IT MUST WORK...
Well....there is actually nothing wrong with the physical of air travel. We've kind of been doing it for over a century now.
Never said there was a problem with air travel...
I said there was a problem with the energy required to make a flying car work for not stupid money...
We can and have built Flying Cars/Drivable planes.
No, not really... a few toys have been built, none that are remotely practical or commercially viable...
And the reasons for that are not going to be solved by designing another one using current technology...
But to make flying cars practical in cities, they'll probably have to be computer-controlled.
They also need a new power source... because the current real problem with flying cars is the energy problem...
Well that's nice and all, but this is just rich people with ego vanity projects...
It only takes some basic math of the energy required to lift a pound into the air, then move it forward in the air, to see the problems with this.
This has been tried over and over for years, by people who either don't understand the issues, or don't care and assuming magic will happen.
The whole thing is beyond absurd... As Homer Simpson once said, "Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of Thermodynamics!"
Side note: some of us enjoy driving for the act of driving itself, and not for any practical outcomes.
That's fine, but it won't stop self-driving cars from taking over the roads in the next 20 years...
I do not want a car that has wireless access to start it, or eventually hack into it. I don't believe I'll ever want one that can update OTA. I'll stick with my old fashioned 2014 car that only connects to my Bluetooth phone.
What is with all the Luddites on SlashDot?
Where did the people who embrace and understand Tech go?
Side note: You can not want it all you like, you will simply have no cars to pick from in the next few years.
The top dog isn't the bully, he is the football quarterback...
You're free to punch HIM in the nose, but he isn't some punk kid, he and his football friends will kick your ass...
A call to fighting is what lead to the first World War, and yet it accomplished no particular good end.
Says the AC... pathetic... you go run off and hide behind your mother's skirt while real men take care of the problems...
This should put you drone advocates' and self-driving car advocates' faith in your ideals to the test: Would you step into one of these and let it fly you away somewhere? I wouldn't!
Sure, I'd be happy to, once it has actually been developed and the kinks worked out.
This is a totally solvable problem, it just requires time and money.
I've been flying for 15 years, the computer is a better pilot than a human is, in terms of control. Then it just becomes decision making ability. That needs to be worked on, but for fixed flights from point A to point B, known locations, that is totally doable.
As for "emergencies", yes they happen, but the reality is, not actually that often. For example, the number of pilots who have real engine failures in helicopters is actually lower than the number of injuries and deaths from training for them.
Frank Robinson (of Robinson Helicopters) actually proposed to the FAA that auto-rotation practice be stopped, because so many people were getting hurt doing it in his R22 compared to the few that actually had an engine quit.
I did try... we had a referendum on a better system, but people were too dumb to understand it.
This is why I said you need guns, lots of guns...
Referendums don't work, tell me how many times in history that has ever really worked...
The sad reality is that what does work is to take the current leaders out behind a barn and shoot them. That isn't politically correct to say, but it is true.
Sadly, you have a point... (not sad against you, sad against reality)
The question becomes, how do we get leaders who stand on principle and do the right thing?
Evil should be fought in all its forms, and this is one of them. A man of principle would never support this.
Our electoral system is badly broken. Every five years you get one vote to select a local MP, on a first-past-the-post system. In other words, whoever gets most votes in your area wins, and all other votes are discarded.
Then why don't you do something about it?
Change the rules, throw out your existing government, tell them all to go pound sand. :)
In a FPTP system when you inevitably alternate between two big parties most of the time, that's a tall order.
The real trick is to change the election system... The FPTP is broken beyond repair, it is a flawed system that needs to go.
Note: We also are in the same boat, but worse thanks to our "Electoral College" where we don't even vote for President directly and the votes in 40 of the 50 states generally don't count anyway.
Al Gore in 2000 got more votes than George W. Bush, yet Bush became President because of that system.
Unfortunately, I think the real problem we have is not that our government is not listening to its people, but that so many of its people have so little to say. About one in three eligible voters didn't even vote in the last general election
That is more than the US, where half the people don't vote... but a large part of that is so many people don't see any REASON to vote, feeling it doesn't matter or make a difference...
If we were talking about something like a government refusing to relinquish power after losing a reasonably free and fair election
Do you honestly feel that you have "free and fair elections"?
I don't, and I don't think we have them in the US. We have 4 serious political parties here, yet only 2 of them get on the TV for news or debates.
Republicans
Democrats
Greens
Libertarians
Yet the last two are laughed at and get no time or attention by the media and are not included in the public debates on TV.
They aren't nuts either, for example the Libertarians want a mix of the D and R teams, they want socially liberal policies such as ending the war on drugs, marry whoever you want, get government out of the bedroom, etc... Yet when it comes to money, they think government size should be cut in half. We have over 2,000 federal government agencies, it is absurd! They also want to stop all the "wars of not giving the US everything it wants" nonsense.
The Greens are another matter, but at least they are a voice of something difference.
The Democrats and Republicans don't actually care who is in power, so long as it is ONE OF THEM and not anyone else. This is why the Republicans are so against Trump, he isn't ONE OF THEM.
Hillary Clinton, for example, is so completely bought and paid for and in the pocket of big banks and the military contractors that she'll do what she's told, regardless of what everyone THINKS she'll do right now.
Note: The other 16 Republicans would have been much the same, so I'm not taking sides there. Trump got in because the people are sick of it.
Bernie Sanders has done much the same on the Dems side, but thanks to the early "lead" of the Super Delegates and party pressure and rules, he got run over.
You don't have a democracy at all, you're just serfs rulled over by Kings by another name, and don't even know it.
Follow up to my own post... We aren't really any better off in the US, sad to say...
Our Kings however, are corporations who have cronies in the political parties... and they have done a good job of getting most people to "pick a team", thinking that it is a choice.