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Originally Posted by Jimbo
They, the politicians do not care about the future of all Americans, they do not care if we have jobs, they do not care about fiscal responsibilities they do however care about amassing personal wealth and power. Remember this, an armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man is a peasant.
After dressing it up with all sorts of assumptions about public support, Obama immediately turned to spewing the same Clinton-era bait-and-switch. Ban standard-capacity magazines by incorrectly calling them "high-capacity" magazines. Ban non-military semi-auto rifles by incorrectly calling them "assault rifles" and "military-style". No doubt there will be Kalifornia-esque restrictions on appearance, ergonomics and non-operational features like "pistol grips" and bayonet lugs, etc., in an attempt to ban, restrict or force modification on as many guns as they possibly can. The ribbon they're using to tie this Christmas present up with is "gun violence", as opposed to "criminal violence", because the subtext is still that it's the guns' fault, not the psycho-criminal.
THIS TIME, however, we have the Heller decision from SCOTUS providing a strong argument to bring before the court that is possibly even good enough to strike down portions of the too-long standing NFA/GCA (Title I & II), if somebody can actually craft a case arguing for an M-16 to to provide the minimum standard of effectiveness to the militia in a modern world, and get it heard before the high court.
The liberals keep blathering about the NRA, but in reality, other groups like the SAF/CCRKBA and GOA have been instrumental with men like Alan Gura to win decisions like Heller and McDonald.
Also, consider the real numbers:
The Brady Campaign to Protect Murderers and Rapists has 28,000 "members" on their mailing list.
Gun Owners of America has 300,000+
Second Amendment Foundation has 650,000+
NRA has 4,300,000+ members.
There are upwards of 270,000,000 (2007 numbers) privately-owned guns in the U.S.
Approximately 45,000,000 common semi-auto rifles would be directly targeted by the proposed ban.
What is truly crazy is that these acts of violence are done by criminally insane people, yet nobody is talking about mental health. It is like blaming the car for the actions of the drunken driver.
Whoa now I remember those movies where the car had a mind of it's own and they were killing folks left and right. So don't give no cars a free pass here.Quote:
Originally Posted by nun2sharp
Really, I can see it now. if you be into black powder you be real lucky cause that be all you gonna be able to have.
Hmmm... I have a stripped lower and a parts kit I picked up a few months back. Maybe I should a actually put it together. Might be able to finance me a sweet little motorcycle :)
Mental health seems a big issue to me in all of this. The problem is mental health is difficult and costly to implement and even when you do implement it there's no guarantee of measurable results, let alone immediate results.
The car analogy is a good one too IMO. Don't they now fit cars with a breathalyser device that immobilises the engine until a legal blood alcohol level is blown?
James.
OH, I think it's pretty clear that you understand a lot more than Obama does!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
I'm relieved to see the question of mental health being raised. As with pretty much all gun-related threads, I've been avoiding those that have sprung up since Friday like the plague. There are a few reasons for this:
1) I am not American and although I am an historian, I am not an American historian and so I recognize that any understanding of American history and culture will be incomplete and skewed by my origins north of the border. In short, I don't 'get' the particular brand of gun culture that pervades the US. My failing, not yours.
2) It seems pretty much everyone involved in the 'debate' on guns has made up their minds one way or another and so I will be either preaching to the converted or ignored as a blasphemer, as appropriate. :)
3) As with #1 my views don't amount to a hill of beans when it comes to the formulation of US policy as I am not Unitedstatesian.
That having been said...
The debate over guns focuses on just one aspect of this and other similarly terrible events. The bottom line is that in the dozen or so years since Columbine, it seems like these things are happening with a seemingly inexplicable frequency. And whatever your position on guns, the fact remains that for some reason or another this killer, and the ones who went before, decided last week that he had to go to a school and murder a whole bunch of innocent people. Why did that happen? And don't just say that he was crazy - that is a cop out and far too easy an explanation. Was Hitler 'crazy'? Sure, but that alone doesn't explain the rise of the NSDAP and the Second World War. If we want to understand why this happened, and how to prevent future incidents (whether the killer chooses an assault rifle, a handgun, a machete, a knife, or a 2x4) there must be some focus on the causes of this attack, not just the method.
OK. I'll get off my :soapbox: now...
Shooter,Quote:
Originally Posted by shooter74743
Yea, we have... erm, HAD that problem today here in CO. AR-15 and M4 parts, mags and bulletts are all sold out. One company had 300 P-MAG in-stock this morning and by 16:00 MST they were sold out including all parts.
Nutty!
ahhh the old "Christine" movie .. a Chevelle wasnt it ?? i dont remember ..lolQuote:
Originally Posted by thebigspendur