WTF is the deal with these shootings!

Now what's better, placing guns in the hands of people so they can defend themselves against nuts like this, or leaving the nutjobs with no other option but to build bombs that absolutely nobody can defend themselves from?

Right, like the army guys managed to defend themselves yesterday? Easy access to guns just means more shootings. It's a fair bit of effort, danger, motivation, knowledge etc to make a bomb, the two just aren't comparable.
 


If Americans didn't trust their police force or army they would be out there reclaiming their country, lets not bullshit - theres bad eggs in every police force around the world, some more than others.
There is nothing you could do that would piss people off enough to get off their asses and "reclaim their country".
Plus: There are "good" police and "bad" police, but even the good police protect the bad ones. Which in my mind, makes them more than "not good"...they're shielding someone from the very law they're supposed to enforce.
 
There is nothing you could do that would piss people off enough to get off their asses and "reclaim their country".
Plus: There are "good" police and "bad" police, but even the good police protect the bad ones. Which in my mind, makes them more than "not good"...they're shielding someone from the very law they're supposed to enforce.

Obviously I'm speaking from an outside perspective, I tend to agree with your assessment, is it a problem that can be fixed though?
 
Switzerland has liberal gun laws, but never seems to suffer the same problems as the US.
 
Military service is also mandatory and every citizen has a weapon in their home.

Big difference.

Not to mention that one gun-related death in Switzerland is comparative to almost fifty in the United States, as far as population is concerned. One here is a blip on the radar that the high-school educated local police handle and investigate, and then it's done.

Funny how in my hometown last year, a father opened fire on his family with a sawed-off shotgun and murdered all four of them before trying and failing to kill himself. It only managed to reach our local news channel.

Location, location
 
Obviously I'm speaking from an outside perspective, I tend to agree with your assessment, is it a problem that can be fixed though?
Well, in my mind it's part of a larger problem: over criminalization.
With how many federal laws(10k+) state laws and local laws there are in existence, you're almost always breaking some law.
It's because of this police officers can act with near immunity. Because *everyone* is a criminal, and they can do whatever they want with criminals.

So I think there should be an anti-congress established. They take existing laws to the judiciary to argue against them. Before there is any harm or anything of that nature.
 
Right, like the army guys managed to defend themselves yesterday? Easy access to guns just means more shootings. It's a fair bit of effort, danger, motivation, knowledge etc to make a bomb, the two just aren't comparable.

From what I understand, the area the shooter went to was a 'gun-free' zone of sorts; nobody could be carrying a weapon unless they were either going to the range or using it for a specific purpose. That's probably why it took a policewoman to bring him down; she was most likely the only one who actually had a gun.

The same thing happened with the V. Tech shootings; the school was a 'gun-free' zone. Apparently the V. Tech shooter didn't really respect the gun-free zone; how impolite of him. But at least it made the students feel safe.
 
It's a shame but a majority of American's seem to have this gun culture ingrained in their way of life. It's people like Hellblazer who perpetuate this cycle with endless fearmongering and irrational arguments. I'm so glad I live in the UK, at least here you only get shanked.
 
I own two shotguns purely as a hobby. I don't hunt or anything. I just shoot clays and maybe the occasional computer monitor or what have you. I love America. (Also, the 2nd amendment was to protect the citizens against the government, right? That's kinda faulty isn't it? I mean the government has tanks and missiles, how are the citizens to combat that? I guess citizens should be allowed to have tanks and missiles too. <---yeah right......)

On topic, yeah these shootings seem to come in bunches. Tiller shooting, Holocaust museum shooting, army recruitment center shooting, all those we're bunched together in a relatively short time span.

Now we have Fort Hood, Orlando, and who knows what's next. It's scary.
 
It's a shame but a majority of American's seem to have this gun culture ingrained in their way of life. It's people like Hellblazer who perpetuate this cycle with endless fearmongering and irrational arguments. I'm so glad I live in the UK, at least here you only get shanked.
If you had our fucktarded government/population, you'd want to be armed too.
But in the UK they don't even trust you guys with glass beer pints so I'm thinking perhaps the path the UK has set is not a good one to follow.
Screw the nanny state. The only thing that can kill you is living.
 
Shooting shit is fun, guns are the best deterrent for the criminal element, some people are fucked up. Unfortunately, these are not all exclusive.
 
It's a shame but a majority of American's seem to have this gun culture ingrained in their way of life. It's people like Hellblazer who perpetuate this cycle with endless fearmongering and irrational arguments. I'm so glad I live in the UK, at least here you only get shanked.

The argument for the right of gun ownership and the issue of a heavily-armed populace does not exist in a vacuum. That is, it's difficult to discuss it outside a broader context of economics and political philosophy.

It is one strand of a web. One spoke of a wheel. It has roots in, and deserves to be discussed in the context of, self-defense, natural rights, self-ownership as the basis of private property, and individual freedom.

It is not enough to say...

- "Look! Innocents are being gunned down. Get rid of firearms and you solve the problem."

Or...

- "Look. Innocents are being gunned down. Give every person a firearm and you solve the problem."

Both represent little more than an emotional response. Both positions have merit, but only within a limited scope that neglects other facets that should be included in the discussion.

Gun ownership is a huge issue. One of the reasons many people feel so strongly about the right to own firearms is because once the right is taken, it is never returned. This is what Judge Alex Kozinski was arguing.

If anyone has an example of a society that reclaimed the right to bear arms after that right was "revoked," please offer it.
 
this thread fails on several levels.

how is it that (some of) you think that only america has a monopoly on violence? or that with no guns this would be a safer world... it's disingenuous to claim that gun crimes only occur in the US. it's equally disingenuous to insist that people are safer by dis-arming and only allowing the government to control the weapons.

I'm sure the Jews wish they had guns when the Nazis were kicking in their doors. ever wonder why Jews carry so many Uzis? PS, I'm not Jewish but i am German. (I'm not a Nazi either)

/end rant, locked & loaded.
 
I'm sure the Jews wish they had guns when the Nazis were kicking in their doors. ever wonder why Jews carry so many Uzis? PS, I'm not Jewish but i am German. (I'm not a Nazi either)

/end rant, locked & loaded.

Godwins Law loses you the debate.
 
Is this the new norm? Not related, but military massacre one day, office building terror the next. This shit is right down the street from my house... for anyone @ lunch in Otown, getting anywhere is a BITCH right now fyi.

Don't know the story, but I feel bad for those who expected a normal day at the office.

Orlando shooting: Shooting at downtown Orlando office building with eight injured -- OrlandoSentinel.com

I was over in Apopka during the shooting, trying to get back home was nuts, they shut down I4 and you couldn't go much of anywhere for hours after the shooting.
 
It's a shame but a majority of American's seem to have this gun culture ingrained in their way of life. It's people like Hellblazer who perpetuate this cycle with endless fearmongering and irrational arguments. I'm so glad I live in the UK, at least here you only get shanked.

Not sure what exactly I'm 'fearmongering' about, since I only pointed out that both the V. Tech and Ft. Hood shootings took place in a 'gun-free' zone. And that gunfree zones only ensure that non-criminals are free of guns and hence less able to defend themselves.

It just strikes me as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Taking away a populace's capability to defend themselves ensures higher casualty tolls, and thus more tragic moments to exploit. "See what guns do?" the proponents of gun control then say, neglecting to mention that it was their very efforts that left these citizens as fish in a barrel. If there were no gun-free zones, who knows if these shooters would get into double digit fatalities like we're seeing, much less even attempt it.

Jefferson even spoke about how criminals are emboldened when you take away a citizen's right to guns:

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms..disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one." - Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria, Criminologist in 1764.

It was Carter back in the 70's who really stripped the military of their guns, which is how the only person in range who had a weapon was a cop. If he hadn't done that, who knows if this coward would have even done this. It's the difference between walking into a den of tigers or a den of sheep.

If you're going to claim somebody's 'fearmongering' or making 'irrational' arguments, by all means feel free to illustrate the logic behind your statements, if such logic even exists. Otherwise you end up looking like a hit-and-run artist dropping a quick baseless smear before disappearing back into the woodwork.
 
The downtown office was a copycat shooting.

Also, some people are just bored, okay?