Connecticut School Massacre - pass the ammunition

[thedoc]

I agree that there should be some restrictions and limits on gun ownership, but banning guns altogether will not work. Many years ago the Gov. tried to ban Alcohol and we ended up with gangsters and organized crime. The gov. banned recreational drugs and we have drug cartels and a war on drugs. Ban guns, and the trade will go underground and every sale will probably include some kind of silencer, and there will be neighborhoods where half of the people have guns and the other half doesn't care. Prohibition has been demonstrated not to work, but people keep wanting to try, and it always turns out wrong. Fix the real problem, the person pulling the trigger.

[bobevenson]

Try as they might you simply cannot slaughter 20 children with a knife without someone stopping you.

Although I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, only a very stupid person would make the above statement. If you had a madman with a single knife, and he walked into a large kindergarten classroom and barricaded the door with several desks, I don't think he would have any trouble at all cutting the throats of the teacher and her students while singing, "Let the Good Times Roll."

How many incidences can you name of such an event?
I would imagine you could find one or two, but the person involved would have to be a different calibre of violent moron, as you would have to get 'up-close-and personal' with a knife, whereas with an automatic weapon its just one squeeze and spray, remote, like killing bugs.

I do not think I could kill a human with a knife under any circumstances. I doubt this recent killer would have been any different.
QED: your counter argument is, as usual, not applicable.

The gunman in Connecticut shot his mother in the face five times while she slept. People get killed by knives all the time. Get out from under your rock.

[John K]

This country has lost the plot!

What's the plot?

[bobevenson]

This country has lost the plot!

What's the plot?

No, we've got plenty of those.
plot
noun
3. a small piece or area of ground: a garden plot; burial plot.

[chaz wyman]

I agree that there should be some restrictions and limits on gun ownership, but banning guns altogether will not work..

No one is suggesting that. No country does that, as far as I know.
So, it puzzles me why you are bringing it up.
The proscription of alcohol is a poor analogy. Do you also advocate the legalisation of all other drugs?

[reasonvemotion]

Sorry guys, when I type all conversations, people's accents elude you and I forget there are lots of Americans and other nationalities on this Forum who would not understand this commonly used phrase in Australia and maybe Britain? not sure, but this is what it colloquially means. I will try in future to stick to the "Queen's English".



"Lost the plot"

Meaning

To be beyond normal reasoning.......

[chaz wyman]

Sorry guys, when I type all conversations, people's accents elude you and I forget there are lots of Americans and other nationalities on this Forum who would not understand this commonly used phrase in Australia and maybe Britain? not sure, but this is what it colloquially means. I will try in future to stick to the "Queen's English".



"Lost the plot"

Meaning

To be beyond normal reasoning.......

We know what you mean in the UK.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose_the_plot

The plot was, in the 18thC when the constitution was written to help the security of the USA, when they were surrounded by hostile natives and hostile nations, including the colonies of the mother country; to ensure that each home had one of these:

They were single-shot muzzle loading guns that had to be fed with power and ball.
Things have moved on in 235 years, and the same constitution now protects idiots who want one of these:

This is called loosing the plot.

[bus2bondi]

i still think we need to keep working on alternatives. alternatives, alternatives, and more alternatives. we already are, and the more the better. it seems we are at the very brink of the 'alternative age', if you want to call it that.

some of my ideas could be taken into consideration yes they could

[Felasco]

I think we're getting a flawed view of the mass shooting phenomena, because the stories come to us via a player in the equation, the media.

There are lots of people out there who feel neglected and abandoned. Killing a lot of people is a fast way to get the attention of the entire world.

Media outlets like CNN don't just cover these stories, they put the stories on a 24 hour loop for days or weeks, usually until the next big drama comes along.

While CNN will endlessly cover the subject of guns (thus warping conversations like this one) they will rarely if ever do stories about their own business relationship to these events.

My guess is that these mass shooting events would drop dramatically if they weren't covered by the media. This is true of most terrorist events. What would be the point of bombing the world trade centers if it didn't make the news?

Here's the equation. If you create a dramatic story by killing a bunch of people, as your reward you'll receive literally billions of dollars of free advertising from the media. That's a powerful incentive to murder that's rarely examined or challenged.

The media is more powerful than the government, and receives very little critical scrutiny from the public. I don't think the media is evil, but they have business interests that don't always align with public interests, just like any other industry. The difference is the the media owns the channel through which these conflicts of interest might be discussed.

Thus the gun industry receives tons of examination and challenge in the media, but the media's role in these events is barely mentioned. You can see the evidence of this manipulation of public opinion right here in this thread.

[reasonvemotion]

Looking at past history,Ted Bundy in particular. He managed to relive his crimes over again, when swaning around the court room, being his own counsel, interrogating witnesses for his crimes, impressing the judge and all in all having a good time. If thwarted by lack of media attention, I suspect they would find it in other ways. I agree they would not "sparkle" so brightly, but it would not be an absolute deterrent either.

[reasonvemotion]

The plot was, in the 18thC when the constitution was written to help the security of the USA, when they were surrounded by hostile natives and hostile nations, including the colonies of the mother country; to ensure that each home had one of these.

Solution.

All weapons handed in to the government.

Then each family given the equivalent today of the single shot gun loaded and with one spare bullet, just in case.

C.W. thank you for this, you are a wealth of information and may your New Year be all that you wish it to be.

[bus2bondi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... -7p9U&NR=1

[bus2bondi]

he says, 'it's a personal defense weapon, but remember a pistol is much more difficult to shoot': http://www.youtube.com/user/VickersTacticalInc

[bus2bondi]

'Shooting the largest rifle ever made': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP0CBaW9FEI

[bus2bondi]

so Chaz said earlier on in the thread something like most of the police there take an immense respectful humble honor when it has to do with handling a gun and likewise being in a position of power. woah. something about that blew me away. i don't know why. but it did.