NRA Lobbying causes US shootings

[grammafreddy]

The government keeps us in line with Bread and Circuses, not with weapon ownership suppression.

More like Bread and Debt ... and we do it to ourselves.

[JLives]

No but I could with a couple decent kitchen knives. Just run through a mall slashing people as you go, I bet you could get a similar casualty level. Many injured, some dead.

Should we then ban all knives as well?

OF course not, that would be silly.


And Rwede, I've seen that pic before, always found it amusing.

The most people killed in a single incident with a knife that I could find was 8 in Japan eight years ago in an elementary school. It is not comparable to what a gun can do. Not to mention with a knife you have to get very close so there is a greater change for defense. We already do have laws against carrying knives though.

I'm not advocating to get rid of guns. I'm not anti-gun. But there is no legitimate reason for ANYONE to have weapons like the ones used in the latest shootings. They were all legally acquired too. Weapons are tools for acquiring food. They have no business in purses and theaters. Did you hear about the guy who dropped his concealed handgun in the teater and it went off a few days ago? This is part of the reason I will not travel to the US. It makes me extremely nervous that anyone could be walking around with weapons and I want no part of it. I certainly don't want that in my country.

We need to maintain the status quo as far as firearms go, we are doing it the right way here in Canada. I don't understand why anyone would want to move towards the culture the US is wanting to move away from.

[Rwede]

I'm not advocating to get rid of guns. I'm not anti-gun. But there is no legitimate reason for ANYONE to have weapons like the ones used in the latest shootings. They were all legally acquired too. Weapons are tools for acquiring food. They have no business in purses and theaters. Did you hear about the guy who dropped his concealed handgun in the teater and it went off a few days ago? This is part of the reason I will not travel to the US. It makes me extremely nervous that anyone could be walking around with weapons and I want no part of it. I certainly don't want that in my country.

That's just your opinion Jenny. There are collectors and sports shooters that have different views from yours. They enjoy a day at the range with an AR as much as you enjoy shooting clays, or targets, or dinner with the firearms you own. I don't believe the rest of us should dictate what other responsible firearms owners should or shouldn't be allowed to own, just because their sporting interests differ from ours.

I only have hunting rifles and shotguns, but I certainly support the rights of someone else who enjoys a day at the range with their handgun or AR. Just because I drive a Chevy and you drive a Ford, why would I lobby to have the Ford plant shut down?

[hobbyguy]

The big problem with the NRA is that they prevent and obstruct in every way a rational discussion.

There's lots of stuff out there back and forth about things like the handgun ban in Washington DC, which had some limited success despite the fact that a person could easily go to a neighboring jurisdiction and pick up handguns.

However, if you look at the two extremes in terms of gun control, the UK and the US, the US has 40 times the rate of gun violence. I wouldn't advocate for measures as severe as the UK, they certainly wouldn't work here. However, the argument for limitation to legitimate uses is quite strong. Interestingly, one of the sources of illegal handguns in the UK is internet purchases from the US.

The federal assault weapon ban in the US, which was supported by such left wingers as Ronald Reagan, was allowed to expire largely due to the pressure tactics of the NRA and industry lobby groups (to a lesser extent). So now people like James Holmes can and did own AR15's and handguns with magazines that extend beyond the grip.

The legislation killed by NRA lobbying wouldn't have stopped James Holmes, but it did contribute to his being able to purchase the type of weapons that made the situation worse. To that extent, the NRA shares in the responsibilty for some of the deaths.

[Rwede]

Interesting that you bring up the UK.

"A new study suggests the use of handguns in crime rose by 40% in the two years after the weapons were banned."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1440764.stm


To simply compare the rates between the US and the UK fails to account for the socio-economic conditions in the UK where the rate was low even with handgun ownership, pre-ban. Interesting that the use of handguns in crime in the UK skyrocketed by 40% when law abiding citizens were stripped of their ability to defend themselves with the handguns!

[Glacier]

"The United States has the world’s highest rape rate of all countries that publish such data- 13 times higher than England and more than 20 times higher than Japan (12)." (If the U.S. has the highest rape rate, then Canada must have a lower rape rate).

No one has ever been charged with rape in Canada. Also, comparing rape rates is pretty tough because it is estimated that up to 90% aren't reported. Different cultures are likely a lot more apt to report their rapes than others. I suspect that places where reporting your rape could get you charged with adultery have relatively low rape rates.

When it comes to guns, it would be interesting to compare crimes among U.S. jurisdictions with differing gun laws. Some towns have gun bans (like the town with the Colorado shooting) while others allow open carry. Others allow concealed carry only and still other jurisdictions that have restrictions on the types of fire arms one can own.

BTW, my father-in-law has an AK-47, and it's not really any different than the SKS that hundreds of people in the Okanagan own.

[Popeye69]

Yeah ... and it happens here in Canada, too, even with our *wonderful* anti-gun laws and tight controls.

Plain and simple - if someone wants a gun, they will have a gun - legal or otherwise. Our gun laws in this country are stupid but then some people just have to be babysat all their lives and think we all need to be mommied to death because they are too immature to think for themselves and be responsible without laws to tell them how to behave.

However, I do agree - some people just shouldn't have kids. Wanna outlaw that, too, now? Need it mommied into law to make you happy? Think we all should have permits to copulate?

Spend 5 minutes driving in town or walking down the street here in Kelowna and my answer is yes.

[noneofyourbiz3]

However, I do agree - some people just shouldn't have kids. Wanna outlaw that, too, now? Need it mommied into law to make you happy? Think we all should have permits to copulate?[/quote]
Spend 5 minutes driving in town or walking down the street here in Kelowna and my answer is yes.[/quote]

What is this? Dont confuse Albertans with the rest of us.

[noneofyourbiz3]

http://www.dailypaul.com/249086/social- ... nt-bullets
Reply.
And the one question we need to ask ourselves is who would this war be directed against, if it comes to libertarians, militias, and constitutionalists, andfolks who are starving and fed up, it would be a war against the government. We have trillions of variety of guns and bullets, citizens own 50 cal.machine guns and 50 cal barret sniper rifles, acr rifles, shredder, flechette shots, grenade launchers, flame throwers for gods sakes, what would you do if you knew more than 100 million people want real change and are armed, don't doubt for once the people wont get access to heavy equipment from a large faction of the military who'd tell the government to *bleep* themselves for asking them to fire upon civilians, seriously tell most men to shoot their families, the military would split for sure, you will see tank vs tank, ship vs ship, but i wonder where would all the support come from when many in the navy and army defy them. many will die but that the fact that these guys are arming themselves show that theyre losing this, its not Nazi Germany anymore, they don't have money or the support like hitler did, HITLER had the support of His nation behind him, they loved him!, IT WILL GET MESSY QUICKLY, the only danger I fear is if it goes nuclear, the international community may step in to stop that, because they don't want this to happen, it would spread, they want to trade, but if the cooler heads in other countries will see that the US government isn't a benefit anymore to their economy, I don't see how they can be for most, BRIC won't support them, ( I can personally see Russia wishing to arm the citizens), so many there are waiting for our ppl to overthrow the US government, and NATO is not allowed to intervene their own grounds, What definitely will happen is the concept of the United States would cease to exist, there will be many many factions fighting one another, maybe not now though, amazingly I see the states aligning themselves against Washington more and more, even ppl who are sleeping would call upon arms once they see their families being bombed, and how would the dhs and these agencies keep paying and feeding their soldiers?, what do they expect to win a war against hunters, marksmen, ex specialist soldiers who know their country's terrain?, the soldiers know their own military's arsenal's flaws, IEDs can take out even the most heavily armed tanks,. Look at the wars in Afganistan and Iraq and you tell me, Afgans have been kicking foreigners for a long time out of their nation for a while now

[Captain Awesome]

See, it's nice to have guns.

Scroll to 0:48

[Gone_Fishin]

That was beautiful CA. Situation de-escalated.

[unclemarty]

[dogbreath]

Maybe the pharmacy giants can come up with a drug that will help us with guns too. That seems to be the answer to everything today, more prescription drugs. Its how we treat everything that's wrong with people, its how we control our kids. Long gone are the days of brick an mortar psychiatric facilities. We have let all those people go and treat them with drugs.

[SurplusElect]

Long gone are the days of brick an mortar psychiatric facilities. We have let all those people go and treat them with drugs.

Instead of talking about gun control, lets build dungeons for the ill. Good plan.

[dogbreath]

Instead of talking about gun control, lets build dungeons for the ill. Good plan.

Definitely not. Lets instead regulate everything that could possibly ever hurt anyone. We all know that regulations and laws stop all things bad from happening. After all people shouldn't be held responsible for their actions. Thats what laws, regulations and pharmaceutical drugs are for.