Toy Gun Exchange: Elementary School Buys Back Toy Weapons From Students
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3405158.html
what in the fucking christ?
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Toy Gun Exchange: Elementary School Buys Back Toy Weapons From Students
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3405158.html
what in the fucking christ?
Last edited by DigitalChaos; 06-11-2013 at 09:51 PM.
Active Member
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After gun bill’s defeat, it’s Democrats, not Republicans, paying the political price
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/06/1...s-republicans/
so good
Active Member
How come nobody seems interested in gun control anymore? Not enough children dying in the news or what? Where is that genuine interest in fixing the issue?
Here is an interesting animation for those people who still think that the pro-gun control crowd is advancing.
The right-to carry over the years:
Throbbing Member
Right-to-carry and gun control demands are only related because they're both firearms issues. And that's it. One might not be opposed to a right-to-carry and still be for a shitload of gun control. So in this discussion, that graph is taking up a whole lot of bandwidth to make no point whatsoever.
Active Member
Gun rights are winning in just about all areas. This was just one example.Originally Posted by Elke
Assault Weapon Ban expired and is getting no traction, even during a time of solid Dem control.
Arizona, location of the Giffords shooting, allowed carry without a permit in 2010. Not a damn thing has changed in that state, despite her campaign. She has tied into the Newton shooting trying to campaign on that topic too. What's changed in schools? Other than Ohio allowing concealed carrying in some of it's schools...
What happened to that national conversation? Sure seems like that topic was given up on by the pro-gun-control crowd.
Throbbing Member
Gun rights is a ridiculous term. Guns don't have rights. And the guns are not winning. The national conversation is being had, every single day for 24 hours a day, on the various networks. That's where the arguments are being played out: in the coverage of minor crimes in a major way. Of course people aren't opposed to the idea of carrying a gun if, for the past thirty years, they've been made to feel unsafe even in their own homes.
As for Where are the gun-control people?, sadly they need to weight for another opportunity to start the conversation again. Just like the biggest shift in US citizen's opinions on gay rights (and actually existing cause) came about around the time media (news and other) started to pay more attention to violent crimes against homosexuals, as well as the problem of teen suicide. So basically: the next school shooting, the next poorly timed drive-by, the next Zimmerman... they'll be back. Because right now the entire conversation is dominated and framed by the paradigm of fear.
Active Member
No disagreement on that. The need to leverage fear and emotion for so many aspects of our political environment frustrate the hell out of me.
Well, while we wait for the next high-profile shooting.... I recently came across this Freakonomics podcast about dealing with gun problems in the US. It's actually pretty good and they brought up an idea that I've never heard before. It's the idea that guns increase the rate of conflict (compared to fists, etc) because they are the great equalizer.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2013/02/...radio-podcast/
The contents are similar to that huge Harvard study that was posted here a while back but much easier to digest. No surprise though. Freakonomics is always focused on data/statistics.
Bite me
The knee-jerk fear reaction mobilizes people, but only for a short period of time (because people seem to have the attention spans of rats these days).
If the argument was primarily based on emotion, though, there seems to be zero national emotion for the 70+ people shot in Chicago during the 4th of July weekend, including a 5-yr-old.
But nobody is linking the "Heroin Highway" to the gang violence problems, because nobody in the 'burbs wants to admit that their nice clean white kids are driving to bad gang neighborhoods to buy heroin, thus creating the guns and violence problem.
Active Member
Well, if the national media was running this story all day and we had Obama mentioning it, you can be damn sure we would have a response! One more data point for ending the drug war and fixing the education & poverty issues.
Throbbing Member
That's pretty much the point though: it doesn't fit the narrative. The reality of gun-related crime, what it really does and how it really affects the nation, is not included in the narrative of what guns do. Just like the reality of who gun carriers generally are, isn't included in the pro-control narrative either, which is already a counter-narrative, already deviating from what is generally acceptable to say.
The fourth estate is pretty much running the show on this (and a lot of other) topics, maintaining the status quo.
Active Member
A 17-year old shot a 40-year old man in the face. Prosecutors won't charge teen citing Stand Your Ground.
Yes, the teen was illegally carrying a gun. The attacker had a large stick.
You gotta face the reality that it's just a matter of time before a 17-year old will shoot a 16-year old during a school fight because the older teen was losing the edge in the fight and "fear for his life".
Bite me
YOU gotta face the reality that Florida is weird. And the rest of us citizens have no control over Florida. We have something called "state's rights."
Active Member
There is a reason that Florida has it's own topic tag on Fark. FL is just all kinds of fucked up.
But I'll never understand why people want to constantly insert themselves into other people's business though. Whether it's imposing the federal government on states that they have no part in, or imposing military force on other countries. Just... fix your shit and then act as a role model for everyone else. Until then, I might as well be getting relationship advice from my 3x divorced uncle.
Active Member
holy shit... Chicago just abolished their gun registry and permit system.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...98A15220130911
Active Member
Mass shooting at Washington Navy Yard.
Allegedly, 2 shooters on the loose, 1 dead.
Unconfirmed 5 other person dead.
Throbbing Member
12 deid the noo.
This would probably happen a lot less often if the US just hurried up and banned guns.
Active Member
Wouldn't it be more effective to just ban bad thoughts?
Quiet Member
Would be about as effective as the war on drugs or prohibition.
Active Member
NYC Cops fire at an unarmed man in a crowded Times Square. They hit two bystanders. Then they bring the guy down with a taser.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/15/ju...lice-shooting/
Active Member
Whatever, just ban illegal things. Why haven't we done this already? I'm so sick of people getting away with all these illegal things.
but seriously, I'm pretty surprised at how much progress the gun-rights group has been making. CHICAGO dumping their gun registry and permit system blew my mind when I saw that news.
Bite me
Chicago HAD to, per the S.C.O.T.U.S. decision. They also had to pass a conceal-carry law per the appellate court decision.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._Chicago
http://www.wbez.org/news/appeals-cou...l-carry-108287
Last edited by allegro; 09-17-2013 at 03:06 PM.
Active Member
Yup. It definitely seems like a win for gun rights. I'm curious how much this will influence similar bans in other parts of the country. I know more suits followed this one.
Another win for gun rights was the recall of two Colorado DEMs who were pushing gun control. I believe those were the first ever successful recalls and the NRA was backing them.
Any push for gun control right now seems like it would be even harder than post-newtown. They are off to a hilarious bad start already with the Navy Yard shooting. The guy used a shotgun but politicians are pushing more assault weapon bans. It was also an area where guns (or is it ammo?) were already banned. People who were there said they could have easily cleared the area if they were armed.
Bite me
Again, though, the latest shooting in DC is more about mental illness than guns. This shooter was slipping into total madness.
Active Member
"We're sorry about your son Madam, but the shooter was crazy!"
How did this guy get his guns again?
I have not read much on the subject.
Bite me
He had a shotgun (totally legal and constitutionally protected throughout the United States) which he assembled in the men's room after gaining access to the facility using his full security clearance.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...ngton/2824793/
Meanwhile, the Navy had been warned (the gunman called 911 asking for help), but the Navy did nothing about it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...98F0DN20130917
Active Member
With a history of multiple shooting related incidents/arrests and being actively treated for mental health problems he:
- passed a military background check for employment
- passed the FBI background check for gun purchases
- he passed the Virginia background check for gun purchases
- bought the shotgun with 24 shells
- did not purchase a scary assault weapon, high capacity magazine, large amount of ammo, etc.
- walked into a gun-free area where occupants feel they could have cleared the situation if they were armed
Gun control is so effective!
As @allegro said, this is much more about treating mental health than it is about finding new ways to fail at stopping people from getting guns.
Quiet Member
It's really unfortunate that nobody cares about the murder rates in big cities. These mass shootings really suck but take a step back. 506 homicides in Chicago alone in 2012. New York? 414 in 2012. Detroit 411.
I guess its easier to just say "OH YEAH BAN THE GUNS!" than to actually address issues like poverty, education, and mental health.
Throbbing Member
Why is it then that the most vocal opponents of gun control in the US also oppose things like public-option universal healthcare, stronger welfare programs and public education?
Seriously, it boggles the mind.
Active Member
See if you can ignore the NRA stamps all over this thing for 5min.... Tell me if you actually disagree with the message:
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