Death and Terror On The Strip...

[Econoline]

From Wonkette:

• Here’s another idea: A country where we’re even talking about banning concerts in the open night air in order to protect the rights of America’s gun-humpers isn’t actually a free fucking country.

[Bicycle Bill]

This is the world we live in. Mass killings will continue and there is no sure way to stop them. Now the gun regulation debate will be rerun in the media and in the long run everything will remain the same.

The anti-gunners will say that if we had more powerful gun legislation, we could prevent these kinds of tragedies.
The NRA will say that if everyone in the crowd had been allowed to be armed with high powered automatic weapons, this would not been such a tragedy.

And blah blah blah....

It would no doubt have been worse, with all these wanna-bes who believe that they're James Bond, Rambo, Dirty Harry, or Mad Max (or all of them combined!) pulling out their pieces and blazing away at shadows and phantom gunmen.

-"BB"-

[Big RR]

Sue--I see your point, but in the instant case, even where the ownership of the guns is questions is illegal and one can get a hefty jail sentence for their possession, the shootings still continue using the illegal weapons. Given that, does restricting or criminalizing gun ownership work here (in the US)?

We may well be doing it wrong, but what would be doing it right?

econo--no argument from me.

Bill--nah, they would need a bazooka or rocket launcher to take him out (and the adjacent rooms would just be collateral damage).

[Sue U]

Sue--I see your point, but in the instant case, even where the ownership of the guns is questions is illegal and one can get a hefty jail sentence for their possession, the shootings still continue using the illegal weapons. Given that, does restricting or criminalizing gun ownership work here (in the US)?

Nothing (or at least nothing practical) is going to be an instant fix, because the "gun problem" (actually, there are several gun problems) is grossly attributable to the fact that there are simply too many guns too readily available.

I don't think the U.S. needs to criminalize gun ownership. But it needs to be made a regulated privilege and not a constitutional right.

Start here:

[Big RR]

Sue--point taken, but my concern is that the idea of repealing the second amendment is usually discussed in the same breath as reducing gun violence (especially after high profile shootings such as this), and it is likely we will not see much change even if we do make gun ownership a "regulated privilege" as you suggest because there are just too many guns around. Add to that the culture we do have of people wanting guns just for the sake of wanting them, and the willingness of people to break the law and even risk criminal penalties to have them (like this guy apparently did with the illegal automatic weapons) and I imagine the change you suggest wouldn't make all that much of a difference in the violent acts involving guns--people who want them will still have them in spite of the law. And when the desired results are not seen, a backlash to reinstate the second amendment might well be see (just as it was with prohibition).

[Burning Petard]

Thankfully, we can depend on the fair and balanced news source for keeping the POTUS informed.

Today Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst (who Fox News yanked for a while because he was too disconnected from reality even for them) spoke out today on his understanding that the weapons used by the Las Vegas shooter were illegal--banned in all states. This expert pointed out that here in American not even the police or military are allowed to have fully automatic weapons. He stated that the US military must be in a war zone before they can have fully auto weapons.

I expect that Fox News, in order to be fair and balance the statements of this obliviot, will bring in somebody who actually knows something about the law and automatic firearms and who actually have them. I expect, in their next report of the possibility of North Korea using functional ICMBs against the USA, will also have someone give the views of the Flat Earth Society, to be fair and balanced.

snailgate.

[Big RR]

You can't make these things up. Not even the military (except in a war zone)? or is the "War" on Terror good enough?

[Scooter]

In the comment section of an article about this event, some gun nut, lacking any other response to what I had written, called me a "leftist snowflake FAGGOT" (caps original) when he could not possibly have divined anything about my sexual orientation. I replied, "That's MR. Faggot to you."

He didn't post anything further.

[Econoline]

[Scooter]

I would add:

Someone kills people on an airplane = impose all manner of draconian yet ineffectual restrictions on the flying public

Someone kills people with a gun = imposing restrictions on guns is not the answer

[dales]

Apologies if this has already been posted.

The horse apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

[rubato]

Anti-social personality disorder, what used to be called a "psychopath" is believed to be genetic. And did he really have a mail-order bride? IMO that is indicative of sick-fuck all by itself.

Yrs,
Rubato

[Econoline]

The Onion recycles its repeatedly-recycled headline yet again...

[Jarlaxle]

Apologies if this has already been posted.

The horse apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

From what I heard, he never knew his father.

[dales]

Genetics.

[RayThom]

As NPR has pointed out on numerous occasions: There are more gun shops in the United States than there are Starbucks on the PLANET.

[BoSoxGal]

Fuck the NRA and gun nuts!

Nothing will change though; when we accepted the massacre of 6 year olds without passing serious gun restrictions, we proved we are fundamentally broken.

[ex-khobar Andy]

As NPR has pointed out on numerous occasions: There are more gun shops in the United States than there are Starbucks on the PLANET.

That seemed to be unlikely, so I Googled 'gun stores near me' and 'Starbucks near me."

Score : 20 to 9 in favor of the gun stores.

Of course I am in the middle of deepest red Missouri in a little blue island so you might expect that. i am curious what the score might be where you live.

[BoSoxGal]

Score: 24 to 6 in favor of gun shops (w/in 25 miles of my home, if I widened the radius there’d be several more) . . . this is in liberal Massachusetts with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

To be fair, we have a lot of Dunkin’ Donuts in these parts so Starbucks is pretty rare.


Still, I’m kinda sick to my stomach.

[Joe Guy]

For me it's 52 Starbucks within 9 miles and 28 gun shops within 24 miles. Only 3 of those gun shops are within 9 miles.

We need more Starbucks around here.