Questions about American gun control debates

As far as protection from criminals is concerned that's not the issue. The issue is the inability of the police to get to the scene of the crime fast enough to do anything but take pictures of dead bodies.

That is beside the point, which is that we have the right to provide for our own protection.

Says here the insurgent command structure collapsed about 4/29, but there were still firefights after that.

I do: they could have killed more Nazis.

Assuming there are none, I have no idea why anyone should find that interesting.

They are not caused by the availability of firearms, but by the spread of mental illness - which you may rest assured is being nurtured by the same kinds of people who wish to deprive the people of the right to keep and bear arms.

 

The ICBM you might have in a barn poses a threat to the security of a free state, if only by virtue of your inability to protect it from enemy access; so your right to own it would not be a 2A issue.

 

But that is a logical counterargument - an extreme affront to public safety versus civil liberties. I'm not sure I would buy it in all circumstances, however, this is the beginning of an intellectual debate. Tell my why I shouldn't own a nuclear bomb if a person with the IQ of 75 now holds control over the USA arsenal?

 

I just did.

 

No, you didn't. I just indicated that a racist radical now has control of the USA arsenal of weapons. A counter arsenal needs to be established. Now you are going to start being illogical?

 

Yes I did.

The second is not a logical consequence of the first; but even if it were, the logical inference would not be that you should own a nuke.

From your perspective, mebbe so. <shrug>

 

Like I initially said, A BEGINNING. And then the brainwashed Manchurian arises and we recede into our corners.

 

Just in their response times. Great response time for the police is 5 minutes. Typical is 15 minutes +. If someone is committing a violent crime against you, 5 minutes is an eternity.

What if you had been home? How long would it have taken for the police to get there?

Maybe once every other year. I had problems with a neighbor boy and probably called the police on him three times in a year. The thing is, I can remember looters running through my neighborhood in the aftermath of a hurricane when I had no power or phone service. There was NO way to call the police. That is part of the reason I need guns.

Wouldn't the better idea be keep the mentally ill people out of the streets? All of the recent mass shootings occurred with people who were under some kind of mental health care. Unfortunately, their doctors didn't deem them as dangerous.

Also, for a period of time in Germany in the 1990s, despite the restrictions of firearms there, the rate of school shootings per student was higher than the U.S. (not per population of the country but per population of students) That was not a particularly tame time here. (Columbine occurred during that period).

 

Because we have very strict gun regulations I can be pretty much 100% certain that the people who rob houses, don't own guns. Hence turning on the light and calling the police scares them away, as they don't like to get caught. I also don't see why anybody would risk to make out of a simple robbery a hostage situation with maybe murder. It probably would take the police a few minutes to get there, but like I said, I'd not be too worried. If you ever spend some time in a war zone as a civilian, you may feel the same way.

I didn't realize that there is no cellphone network after hurricanes. I also didn't realize the mentality in America is that different. Here after natural disasters people would try to help the victims. Food, shelter, money and clothing would be provided by neighbors and government. Also after a natural disaster there is a very high police and military presents as they try helping the victims. I never heard of anybody using this time to steal the few remaining belongings of the victims. The community is usually to busy helping them. I really didn't even consider people were so different in the US when it came to crisis situations.

The problem with the latest mass shooting in America was that all the weapons were originally purchased legally as far I know by someone. Lanca used his mom's arms. The Columbine shooting were also legally purchased weapons which then the boys bought of someone. Don't know about the Aurora. I assume he got his hands on them weapons somehow too because someone else bought them legally. In our system it's just pretty hard to get weapons. We probably have the insane people too, and probably not all of them are in some hospital, it's just impossible for them to get a weapon if nobody owns them. There is also no place to buy bullets. So even if they would get their hands on a weapon, they might have only a few shots, as there are no locations where you can buy bullets if you don't have the gun license. Hence these mass shootings are kinda rare.

I'm really happy that there was one period where actually one country had a higher school shooting rate than the US. Too bad that this is only a brief period though and too bad only one country in the western world had a worse rating. But I don't think this is a good argument though if you point out merely one country, one category at one time. This is very exclusive, don't you think?

 

Most violent crimes in the U.S. are committed without the use of any weapons.

The network exists, but I know I didn't have cellphone coverage in my home last hurricane. Had to go to a particular area about a mile from my house.

Yes, the neighbors and the government (and Red Cross) are all helpful. However, there are also looters (generally from other neighborhoods, sometimes other states) that come to take advantage of the situation. I remember sharing food with the neighbors. They had a freezer full of fish melting away, we had a lot of stored food. We made it a party.

Most of the community is helpful, however, there are a handful of people who take advantage of the lack of communication. They are the people I worry about.

He killed her because she was trying to have him committed to a mental hospital. Unfortunately, the process took too long, so instead of him getting help, he got angry and killed her. As I said, the problem with Lanza was not guns, but the mental health system.

They bought them illegally.

He passed the background checks and bought them legally from the gun shop. Again, the problem is the mental health system.

Mass shootings are rare everywhere. That's what makes them worldwide news.

My point is that gun laws didn't prevent them. Also, that the incidents in the U.S. are exaggerated, while the rest of the world is minimized.

Banning guns isn't going to make America peaceful. Guns are banned in Mexico. All it means is that the criminals and the police/military are the only ones with guns.

 

Cell phones require powered cell phone towers. If either the tower is knocked down by the wind, or the power goes out, so does cell phone coverage.

America has a large population of people who believe that they are owed something by society. Far from trying to help each other out, many cultural groups in the US work to loot and rob people during a disaster. I would suggest this is largely due to multiculturalism. Generally the more homogenous the society is, the better things are. Japan, for example. Or many of the Nordic countries.

I don't know your specific situation, but I would wager that's why you don't worry too much about crime. Over here, things are different. I just posted a story on another thread, about 2 men who wanted to rob a house, and found 3 people in the house. They ended up raping both of the woman, and then openly planned to kill all three of them, and make their escape. Fortunately a boy, about 14 or 15, got free, and retrieved a gun the family owned, and drove off the two men, before anyone was hurt.

This is reality here in America. If you don't defend yourself, and something does happen, you will likely get killed. I watched a police video, of a robbery of a small store. A young girl was at the cash register. The robber entered and pointed a gun at her. She did exactly what he said, and opened the cash drawer. Then as he turned to leave, he calmly, without any panic or hesitation, pointed the gun right at her chest, and shot her. She screamed and slowly sunk to the floor, and died.

If you don't defend yourself, this is what happens. Now hopefully you will never be attacked by a criminal. Many people are never attacked by a criminal. But if you are, and you have no way to defend yourself.... you may very will be raped, and then killed.