This example is about organised mass murder. Nothing to do with the govt. Just citizens among themselves. Whites shooting blacks.
I didn't say it had anything to do with government in that case, did I? I said humans murdering humans goes back a lot further than 100 years and that includes mass murder. If you have an oppressed segment of the population that is also defenseless do you think that improves their odds of survival?
You'd have to start with having more normal citizens, no?
We have plenty. I'd argue the abnormal ones are the ones who employ magical thinking and believe in some utopian ideal that is simply not possible. I am a hard pragmatist.
Phew... I'd get outta there, if I were you.
Why? Are you projecting?
Whatever problem in society, there's hardly ever a 100% solution. And if I understand your argument correctly, you propose doing nothing because there isn't a 100% solution?
No, I propose NOT doing stupid things just to "do something," especially when those stupid things punish people who have done nothing wrong.
99% would do fine. But as long as >50% believe what you preach, there is no solution. You'll be ruled by big corporations and the NRA, until most of you are dead. That's what some people see in Nostradamus' verses.
99% is a pipe dream for most real problems of any complexity. What makes you think the NRA rules anything? Like many, you have no idea what the organization is or does. Big corporations and the Citizens United case are a major problem. I don't plan on being killed by my government. I also don't follow fantasy predictions.
Having decent healthcare would at least be a 90% solution.
We could have that with less big pharma influence in government. Healthcare here was actually quite good when I was a kid.
Besides, how do you know what most Americans want? That's a phrase I keep hearing over and over again, without any proof or even any proposal how to get there. If I remember correctly, even the previous president didn't find America a great country, since he wanted to MAGA!
I have lived here my entire life. I started out in a small southern state, moved to CA for 29+ years, and am now back. I have traveled widely in this country including 6 cross-continent trips. I enjoy taking back roads and talking to regular people from small towns. I've worked with people from all over the world during my high tech career. I've been to Europe, Israel, South Korea, and the Philippines.
My ancestors on my mother's side immigrated here from Germany in 1752 to escape religious persecution (they were and are Lutherans). They arrived and applied for land grants (25 acres per family member) and then struck out to settle what was then the completely undeveloped area where they farmed and built a community. They were not wealthy. They were persistent, hard-working, self-sufficient types who helped each other in hard times.
My father's family left Ireland around the same time and for similar reasons. They started out in Virginia, but part of the family migrated south over a generation or two and settled in the coastal plain to farm. They were also not wealthy and scratched out their existence from the raw earth.
There is no doubt that my country is not what it was even 40 years ago. We are on the wrong path and those of us who recognize that are fighting to stop the slide and recover the lost ground. You can try to poke fun all you want, but it will not deter those of us who care.
The recent killing of 1 person and hurting a few dozen others by a person with mental health problems in Germany used a car as a weapon. Nobody's proposing to take away all cars or pointy knives, but over here, you can't carry a knife that locks in your pocket. Of course you can still carry a pocket knife. It just a wee bit harder to kill a person with what we call a pocket knife.
I've carried a pocket knife since my father gave me my first one when I was about 10. Yes, I carried it to school just like many other boys of that era. No one got stabbed. I still have it and carry it frequently. It has three blades, the longest about 3". It isn't a locking type. Some of the kids who's family were hunters had lock-back types (the Buck 110 being very popular). Why is it necessary to regulate pocket knives? What has changed in the 46 years since I was a fourth grader with a knife in his pocket every day at school?
It's common sense. Your arguments are insane.
Prove it. Until the last 30-35 years in this country these problems did not exist like they do now. But knives were more common and guns were more accessible (especially prior to the 1968 gun control act).
I'd like to think Homo sapiens has evolved a bit in 200 years. Maybe not. In any case, society has evolved, even if only the number of people has increased a lot. And certainly, gun technology has evolved.
You can pretend all you like, but evil people and insane people will always be out there. There's no way to stop them all or detect them without causing collateral damage with false positives. Society may have evolved (and also devolved), but human nature has not.
As to gun technology, the first reliable semi-automatic rifles were manufactured over 110 years ago. The Winchester 1907 was a semi-automatic rifle chambered in .351SL (a much more powerful round than the .556 NATO) fed from a removable box magazine (5, 10, and 15 round magazines were available). It was made for 50 years. Anyone could order one by mail through the Sears catalog. Some 400,000 semi-automatic rifles were sold to the public in the 34 years prior to Pearl Harbor.
As for pistols, John Moses Browning, a prolific designer, developed several semi-automatic types from 1896 until his death in 1926. Several models are still in production to this day, the M1911 in .45ACP arguably being the most successful and popular. Millions of these and similar guns have been in civilian hands for over 100 years.
Why stand by logic from 200 years ago? That looks like religion to me. Not common sense.
Why throw away good ideas just because they are old? Should we discard geometry, algebra, calculus, the scientific method? You are free to disagree, but your points are not proven by any stretch.
Worse? You think a colt 45 will stop an army tank? Or a drone?
Typical limited thinking. I won't bother to enlighten you if you are that ignorant.
It works well, eh? Who keeps repeating that sh*t? You really believe it's goin' well?
Yes, for the most part it does. Is Germany's energy policy going well? Is Sweden's immigration policy going well? All countries have challenged to overcome and mistakes to reverse. Maybe you can worry about yours.
The US is currently the only country in the entire world where the number of women dying while giving birth is going up. To name just one thing. Want me to continue?
What do you suppose the root causes of that are? No, I don't want to hear your nitpicks. It really is none of your concern. Stay in "safe" Europe.
Obviously not from a US paper. It was Haaretz, I believe.
https://www.haaretz.com/2002-05-29/...training/0000017f-dc5d-df62-a9ff-dcdf778b0000
It's a bit scary that they need to learn from Israeli police, of course.
Thanks. I'll check it out.
Yes, I've handled guns. I was in the army. While I was in the army, some criminals had figured out the army's weapons weren't too well guarded, so they raided one of these and got away with several dozen FAL rifles and some other stuff, including ammo.
Sounds like your armed forces have problems.
When that happened, the soldiers guarding that stuff were given real ammo. I witnessed several people getting killed. By accident. Out of sheer stupidity.
Poor training and not being exposed to evil "gun culture" contributed, no doubt. I was taught from a young age to respect firearms and how to handle them safely. So were millions of kids like me. And do you know what organization here provides training to the most people (including law enforcement officers among others)? Is it the Brady gun control group? Nope. Maybe the Giffords gun safety group? Nope. Oh, right, it must be one of the Bloomberg gun safety groups! Nope. It's the NRA. It isn't hard to learn "the four rules" and follow them. Millions do every day at thousands of gun ranges and on private and public land all over the USA.
Obviously, the criminals were the smart ones, as they didn't come back.
So the army, a part of the government which is supposed to protect the citizenry, instead failed so badly that they armed some criminals and killed several of their own out of negligence. This is why we don't want the government to "protect" us. BTW, I assume you know that SCOTUS has ruled that law enforcement has no duty to protect any citizen, right? So you can call 911, wait minutes (or 45 minutes at my old place in California) and then hope they officers who arrive might protect you from the bad guy(s).
The only one I deemed capable of handling guns, was our Master of arms. All the rest was far to idiotic, or careless. Guns seem to attract idiots.
How do you have an effective armed force if only the MoA can handle the weaponry. I'm not impressed.
So you think having more arms will alleviate it being hard?
No, I think having a weapon and regularly training with it will make it possible for me to prevail should the need arise. I certainly hope it will not, but I will not outsource protection of myself and my family.
