I'd like to at least have the opportunity to increase the odds on my side...
At the very least, if I have an AR with at least a standard capacity (30 round) magazine or two with me....I"d like to think I'd take a few of them out before they got me.
The poster above you seems to disagree with your numbers of UK vs US home invasions:
Countries that ban guns see an increase in home invasion robberies while the person is home. The rate in the UK is around 45%, compared to about 10% in the US.
I don't want people who want to protect their family with a pistol to be affected.
Err...what's wrong with protecting your family with a semi-auto rifle?
An AR in short configuration, especially with a suppressor on it, makes a Jim Dandy home protection weapon.
These days more and more home invasions are happening with 2-4 or so perps.....frankly, I would prefers more capacity than 10-15 rounds in a handheld gun under stress and pressure....a AR or the like is much easier to control and place on target in such a situation.
Nope..gun FFL gun dealers at gun shows have to fill the forms and do background checks on the weapons they sell.
In some states...PRIVATE citizens can sell their own firearms privately without background checks, this can happen anywhere, doesn't happen at a gun show, but can....these type of people are not sitting there with tables of guns selling them as a business.
This is more like say I have a gun and my friend I know wants it, I can sell it directly to him as a private transaction.....just like I could sell him my lawnmower without government interaction. This also covers allowing families to hand guns down or give them as gifts.
But you go to a gun show....where they have the tables of guns and try to buy one without a background check, you are going to leave empty handed.
If I was him, I wouldn't want the average person (i.e. user of FB) with access to automatic rifles either.
MOST Americans do not have access to automatic rifles.....they are VERY rare, and aside form having to have very special approvals and tax stamps from the BATF, you have to have the $$ to buy the limited supply of them. Cheapest goes for about $10K these days I believe.
US has more firearm deaths than the entire middle east, combined, does in a year.
Well, let's make those numbers a bit more meaningful, ok?
The problem is gun violence....people killing other people, right'?
So, let's take out the suicides from the US numbers, and then, well...compare the gun violent deaths against the middle east apples to apples and they aren't even close, the US isn't that bad.
You take out the suicides....and the numbers of gun violent related deaths are less than automobile deaths.
You refine the numbers a bit more, to take out the gang related deaths, and then well, you just don't see a problem really.
And countries that seized guns from their citizens...well, other modes of killing rose. Look at London...they have more murders than NYC....and now, it appears, the powers that be there, are looking into more restrictive knife laws.
Yep, the criminals still have advantages, and the law abiding populace can't really defend themselves.
Had she used an assault rifle I'm sure the number of deaths would have been much higher.
Hmm..I don't think you mean what you think you mean.
It is VERY difficult to get an assault weapon as a private citizen of the US. They just do not sell fully automatic weapons very freely in the US. You have to first find someone that has one that was manufactured prior to 1986, and willing to sell it AND...well, for the cheapest one, you'd better have $10K or more.
And then you have to fill out the BATF paperwork pay the $200 tax stamp and wait...usually at LEAST 6+ months for it to clear.
Now, if you were talking about someone using a semi-automatic rifle, then yes, probably more damage. But do keep in mind, that there are much more powerful weapons than the AR-15 I'm guessing you are alluding to....and even others that are semi-auto, that shoot the exact same rounds as the AR, but aren't black and scary looking.....just as deadly, but not "scary" looking.
I'm been a little sarcastic here, but really....there are a LOT of semi automatic handguns and rifles out there, but people seem to think there is something special or magic about the AR platform and that just isn't true. Hell, that thing is really nothing more than a glorified.22 caliber weapon. Its basically just a.22 bottlenecked onto a bit larger cartridge, but it isn't a particularly powerful round.
There's much more powerful and damaging weapons, but this one get picked on due to being so popular, but if you ban it, you're really just banning all semi-auto weapons eventually.....
Like everything else, guns are best when they're legal, taxed and regulated. We got the first two, it's time for #3.
Funny...I've had the regulated background checks on my gun purchases.
It is highly regulated, hell, you should see what we've had to do just to buy supressors, just to make them more hearing safe when target shooting with them, talk about overly regulated!!
what is the purpose of propelling a small amount of lead from point A to point B, other than to do as much damage as possible to point B with as little effort as possible?
Well, I know that for me, and most of my friends, they have been used to hit targets (paper, metal, clay pigeons, etc).
Are you saying that the vast majority of gun owners have been doing it wrong all this time?
The fact they can be effectively used for self defense is a nice side effect, but most people aren't forced to do this either.
No, pretty much most of all the legal gun owners seem to use them only for these purely legal means.
Ok, the criminals, well..they're using them in criminal ways, so why not enforce the laws on the books and get more of them off the streets and keep them off?
If you're only interested in assigning the barest of distinctions between guns and automobiles, should we stop requiring any barriers to using a car? No more licenses or insurance?
You can own a car without a license or insurance, as long as you don't drive it on public roads.
I do the same with my guns, I do not take them out in public and use them, I only use them in designated, private areas (gun range, or friend's who have land outside of city limits where it is perfectly legal to discharge weapons).
So, no need to have insurance or license for the possession or use of a gun on private property either.
...or you just buy a gun and bullets for $50 at Walmart (next-day shipping when ordering online!).
Ok, PLEASE...point out to me the gun and ammo you can buy for $50 at Walmart first.
And next, you cannot buy a gun online and have it shipped directly to you at home.
If you buy online, you have to have it shipped to a FFL (Federal Firearms Licensee)......where when you show up to claim the firearm, you have to fill out a form and go through the usual background check....which you have to pass first.
Please, get your facts together before you start trying to argue and mislead people.
While crazy people might kill people using various means, guns enables them to kill a lot more of them, more quickly, while making it much more difficult for law enforcement to respond.
So, you are implying that the VAST MAJORITY of the public, the law abiding citizen, must therefore be forced to the rights, and privileges of the lowest common denominator?
I know that the many, many guns and store of ammo have yet to harm anyone, and barring someone breaking in and threatening my life, or doing the same while out and carry conceal.....I have no reason to believe they ever will harm someone else.
But since there are a few whackos that will go off and use a gun....we should keep all people from easily and legally owning and using firearms, eh?
I still find it VERY interesting, that this story dropped off the face of the earth (ok, at least the mainstream news) so rapidly....especially since it hit a major company with such a public face, YouTube / Google.
I have to think it had something to do with the facts that this gun killing crime didn't fit with the parameters that the left considers more beneficial to their agenda to get rid of guns and enact more gun control.
I guess it was inconvenient that the shooter:
1. Was female
2. Was a foreigner, or at the very least, was not a white guy.
3. Was a handgun, and not a scary looking black semi-automtic rifle. Nope, a semi-automatic handgun just isn't as scary, so not wanting to press that in the news.
But still...people were killed, and yet....well, we had no marches, no politicians screaming "think of the children", and calling legal gun owners murderers, or trying to vilify the NRA (which by the way, is made up of and funded by gun owning US citizens, it isn't a faceless evil corporation).....
Funny isn't it? I think it was news worthy what...maybe 2 days tops?
The concept of mountain men makes some sense as you could learn about living off the land (haven't watched the show myself but I suspect the usual rather light on actual educational content...). In the next few year years when the only transportation is self driving ubers and everyone gets food via Amazon drones, broadbandless might very well be an extremely relevant show about how to survive when you have to use your own feet to get to a food supply.
You know, just contemplating it, but just let ONE bad event happen that knocks out the US power grid, for even a week or more and let's see how bad things get.
I mean, our infrastructure is so open to hacking it seems, it isn't well secured by any stretch of imagination and any bad entity, is likely already salivating at turning the switches off.
Or, what if a nice large sun flare gets aimed our way, didn't a bit of a scary one a couple years back get thrown off that was a little too close for comfort?
If something like this happens, those "mountain men" or at least those that know how to live off the land, and are actually physically fit will be about the only ones that don't get caught up in the upheaval....whether it be fighting over scarce resources or just trying to survive when everyone realizes the supermarket fairy just isn't going to come by anymore and magically stock things up any time soon.
The majority of people cannot fend or take care of themselves, and if we were to go country wide without power for as little as a week, things are likely to get nasty.
I won't even start to think about the prisons all unloading and letting all those charming folks out to the streets again....whew.
Too crowded for me....I like to have some "elbow room".
I'd rather have a house with driveway and garage/car port, and a back yard where I can keep my grills, my smoker, my set up for home brewing or crawfish boils, etc.
I really also prefer to NOT share walls with neighbors, so that when either they or myself want to watch the Flintstones at concert volume, it won't bother anyone else.
I spent a lot of years and $$ building a great AV system, and I like to listen to it at volume and not have anyone one banging on walls complaining.
Forcing the children to go to church and indoctrinating them into the various religious cults out there ? (Christianity, Islam, etc.)
Spare the rod and spoil the child ?
Living wages and decent hours so parents have the time and energy to spend with their kids and actually raise them ?
However.....when these things were the norm
We didn't see teachers in classrooms having to make keeping order in class their main undertaking each day...rather, they were able to TEACH.
Those ideals and methods you seem to try to disparage...when they were the norm for US society, sure did seem to work...
And as they've been tossed aside, you see the plethora of problems we now have.
Just sayin'.....I've observed both manners of raising youth and have seen the massive negative change over time.
Here's a hint that you may be using your phone too much.
If you are with a group of people, friends, workmates, a date, etc........and you raise your head up from your phone and everyone is GONE, then it is time to put the fucking phone DOWN.....
...offer salvation from the type of mind-numbing boredom that is so core to the teen experience.
Mind numbing boredom is now normal for teen years???
WTF did this happen?
Geez, I know everyone has some down time, but when I was a teen, I was anything but bored most of the time.
In the summer, we had the neighborhood pool and I ran around with the kids in my neighborood. We had skateboards, we built ramps to skateboard up and do tricks....we were all over the neighborhoods during the days. When I was 16yrs, I also had a job at a medium, upper end restaurant, started washing dishes and made my way up to head bus boy, I usually worked one weeknight, and Fri and Sat nights, making good money for a HS kid. Saved that to buy a car.
So, working...chasing girls, sneaking out for beer bashes, parties, etc....and we didn't have a fucking cell phone in existence.
Good grief, the only excuse one has to be bored,is ones own self, theres a shit ton of things to do out there, hell even more opportunities today in some ways.
Again, I know this isn't going on 24/7, but geez, I would never have described any portion of my life to date as "mind numbingly boring".
and really....not on the regular big 3 networks either.
I mean, that school shooting, was on these channels almost 24/7 for days after it happened.....this was but a mere blip yesterday, with a very few mentions here and there today on these new channels.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe just put your credit card on that account too, and they you all just be careful which card each one charges to...her to hers, you to yours.
At the very least, if I have an AR with at least a standard capacity (30 round) magazine or two with me....I"d like to think I'd take a few of them out before they got me.
Err...what's wrong with protecting your family with a semi-auto rifle?
An AR in short configuration, especially with a suppressor on it, makes a Jim Dandy home protection weapon.
These days more and more home invasions are happening with 2-4 or so perps.....frankly, I would prefers more capacity than 10-15 rounds in a handheld gun under stress and pressure....a AR or the like is much easier to control and place on target in such a situation.
In some states...PRIVATE citizens can sell their own firearms privately without background checks, this can happen anywhere, doesn't happen at a gun show, but can....these type of people are not sitting there with tables of guns selling them as a business.
This is more like say I have a gun and my friend I know wants it, I can sell it directly to him as a private transaction.....just like I could sell him my lawnmower without government interaction. This also covers allowing families to hand guns down or give them as gifts.
But you go to a gun show....where they have the tables of guns and try to buy one without a background check, you are going to leave empty handed.
Have you ever been to a gun show?
MOST Americans do not have access to automatic rifles.....they are VERY rare, and aside form having to have very special approvals and tax stamps from the BATF, you have to have the $$ to buy the limited supply of them. Cheapest goes for about $10K these days I believe.
Well, let's make those numbers a bit more meaningful, ok?
The problem is gun violence....people killing other people, right'?
So, let's take out the suicides from the US numbers, and then, well...compare the gun violent deaths against the middle east apples to apples and they aren't even close, the US isn't that bad.
You take out the suicides....and the numbers of gun violent related deaths are less than automobile deaths.
You refine the numbers a bit more, to take out the gang related deaths, and then well, you just don't see a problem really.
And countries that seized guns from their citizens...well, other modes of killing rose. Look at London...they have more murders than NYC....and now, it appears, the powers that be there, are looking into more restrictive knife laws.
Yep, the criminals still have advantages, and the law abiding populace can't really defend themselves.
But I guess that's ok for you, eh?
Hmm..I don't think you mean what you think you mean.
It is VERY difficult to get an assault weapon as a private citizen of the US. They just do not sell fully automatic weapons very freely in the US. You have to first find someone that has one that was manufactured prior to 1986, and willing to sell it AND...well, for the cheapest one, you'd better have $10K or more.
And then you have to fill out the BATF paperwork pay the $200 tax stamp and wait...usually at LEAST 6+ months for it to clear.
Now, if you were talking about someone using a semi-automatic rifle, then yes, probably more damage. But do keep in mind, that there are much more powerful weapons than the AR-15 I'm guessing you are alluding to....and even others that are semi-auto, that shoot the exact same rounds as the AR, but aren't black and scary looking.....just as deadly, but not "scary" looking.
I'm been a little sarcastic here, but really....there are a LOT of semi automatic handguns and rifles out there, but people seem to think there is something special or magic about the AR platform and that just isn't true. Hell, that thing is really nothing more than a glorified .22 caliber weapon. Its basically just a .22 bottlenecked onto a bit larger cartridge, but it isn't a particularly powerful round.
There's much more powerful and damaging weapons, but this one get picked on due to being so popular, but if you ban it, you're really just banning all semi-auto weapons eventually.....
Funny...I've had the regulated background checks on my gun purchases.
It is highly regulated, hell, you should see what we've had to do just to buy supressors, just to make them more hearing safe when target shooting with them, talk about overly regulated!!
Well, I know that for me, and most of my friends, they have been used to hit targets (paper, metal, clay pigeons, etc).
Are you saying that the vast majority of gun owners have been doing it wrong all this time?
The fact they can be effectively used for self defense is a nice side effect, but most people aren't forced to do this either.
No, pretty much most of all the legal gun owners seem to use them only for these purely legal means.
Ok, the criminals, well..they're using them in criminal ways, so why not enforce the laws on the books and get more of them off the streets and keep them off?
You can own a car without a license or insurance, as long as you don't drive it on public roads.
I do the same with my guns, I do not take them out in public and use them, I only use them in designated, private areas (gun range, or friend's who have land outside of city limits where it is perfectly legal to discharge weapons).
So, no need to have insurance or license for the possession or use of a gun on private property either.
Ok, PLEASE...point out to me the gun and ammo you can buy for $50 at Walmart first.
And next, you cannot buy a gun online and have it shipped directly to you at home.
If you buy online, you have to have it shipped to a FFL (Federal Firearms Licensee)......where when you show up to claim the firearm, you have to fill out a form and go through the usual background check....which you have to pass first.
Please, get your facts together before you start trying to argue and mislead people.
So, you are implying that the VAST MAJORITY of the public, the law abiding citizen, must therefore be forced to the rights, and privileges of the lowest common denominator?
I know that the many, many guns and store of ammo have yet to harm anyone, and barring someone breaking in and threatening my life, or doing the same while out and carry conceal.....I have no reason to believe they ever will harm someone else.
But since there are a few whackos that will go off and use a gun....we should keep all people from easily and legally owning and using firearms, eh?
If only they would just do themselves before harming others, then who cares?
And, if they didn't have a gun, they'd do it some other way.....like you said, they are unstable.
I have to think it had something to do with the facts that this gun killing crime didn't fit with the parameters that the left considers more beneficial to their agenda to get rid of guns and enact more gun control.
I guess it was inconvenient that the shooter:
1. Was female
2. Was a foreigner, or at the very least, was not a white guy.
3. Was a handgun, and not a scary looking black semi-automtic rifle. Nope, a semi-automatic handgun just isn't as scary, so not wanting to press that in the news.
But still...people were killed, and yet....well, we had no marches, no politicians screaming "think of the children", and calling legal gun owners murderers, or trying to vilify the NRA (which by the way, is made up of and funded by gun owning US citizens, it isn't a faceless evil corporation).....
Funny isn't it? I think it was news worthy what...maybe 2 days tops?
I dunno...if nothing else, it seems to be good training for better eye-hand coordination and exercise...
You know, just contemplating it, but just let ONE bad event happen that knocks out the US power grid, for even a week or more and let's see how bad things get.
I mean, our infrastructure is so open to hacking it seems, it isn't well secured by any stretch of imagination and any bad entity, is likely already salivating at turning the switches off.
Or, what if a nice large sun flare gets aimed our way, didn't a bit of a scary one a couple years back get thrown off that was a little too close for comfort?
If something like this happens, those "mountain men" or at least those that know how to live off the land, and are actually physically fit will be about the only ones that don't get caught up in the upheaval....whether it be fighting over scarce resources or just trying to survive when everyone realizes the supermarket fairy just isn't going to come by anymore and magically stock things up any time soon.
The majority of people cannot fend or take care of themselves, and if we were to go country wide without power for as little as a week, things are likely to get nasty.
I won't even start to think about the prisons all unloading and letting all those charming folks out to the streets again....whew.
You also never had it become a common problem with teens shooting each other for "disrespecting" someone....
Too crowded for me....I like to have some "elbow room".
I'd rather have a house with driveway and garage/car port, and a back yard where I can keep my grills, my smoker, my set up for home brewing or crawfish boils, etc.
I really also prefer to NOT share walls with neighbors, so that when either they or myself want to watch the Flintstones at concert volume, it won't bother anyone else.
I spent a lot of years and $$ building a great AV system, and I like to listen to it at volume and not have anyone one banging on walls complaining.
However.....when these things were the norm We didn't see teachers in classrooms having to make keeping order in class their main undertaking each day...rather, they were able to TEACH.
Those ideals and methods you seem to try to disparage...when they were the norm for US society, sure did seem to work...
And as they've been tossed aside, you see the plethora of problems we now have.
Just sayin'.....I've observed both manners of raising youth and have seen the massive negative change over time.
If you are with a group of people, friends, workmates, a date, etc........and you raise your head up from your phone and everyone is GONE, then it is time to put the fucking phone DOWN.....
Hmm....maybe it was my parents then.
I mean, if I said "I"m bored"...they'd likely find something for me to fucking DO.
Which was work.....so, I'd easily find things to occupy my time that were more fun, that that I didn't get sucked into even more chores than usual.
Today's kids don't deal with that.....?
Mind numbing boredom is now normal for teen years???
WTF did this happen?
Geez, I know everyone has some down time, but when I was a teen, I was anything but bored most of the time.
In the summer, we had the neighborhood pool and I ran around with the kids in my neighborood. We had skateboards, we built ramps to skateboard up and do tricks....we were all over the neighborhoods during the days. When I was 16yrs, I also had a job at a medium, upper end restaurant, started washing dishes and made my way up to head bus boy, I usually worked one weeknight, and Fri and Sat nights, making good money for a HS kid. Saved that to buy a car.
So, working...chasing girls, sneaking out for beer bashes, parties, etc....and we didn't have a fucking cell phone in existence.
Good grief, the only excuse one has to be bored,is ones own self, theres a shit ton of things to do out there, hell even more opportunities today in some ways.
Again, I know this isn't going on 24/7, but geez, I would never have described any portion of my life to date as "mind numbingly boring".
There's always something to get into and do.
Would that be the iTheramin??
That would be too cool....I could listen to the live versions of Whole Lotta Love, or No Quarter, and play the theremin parts along with Jimmy!!!
CNN
MSNBC
Fox News
and really....not on the regular big 3 networks either.
I mean, that school shooting, was on these channels almost 24/7 for days after it happened.....this was but a mere blip yesterday, with a very few mentions here and there today on these new channels.