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Would you focus on the hand holding the gun and not the gun itself, 2nd amendment would be protected for those who are responsible. We cannot ban cars because someone might have poor driving skills. We need to focus on those who shouldn't be on the road. That's all.
Here we go with the car accident analogy again..Please let that one go..
Here we go with the car accident analogy again..Please let that one go..
No. I say again..Priscilla Ford. Mass muderer. Chosen weapon...1968 Lincoln Continental, motive for killing and maiming 36 + people "They were all racist pigs and God told me to kill them all". Analogy to the incident in discussion here, both wackos, both mass murderers, both had delusional motives. Differences, one was black, one was white, one was "rightwing" one was "leftwing" (I guess) one targeted cops, one targeted anyone in her way, one used a firearm, one used a tuna boat car. Biggest similarity, both left death and greif in their wake. The weapon chosen makes no difference in that regard. Both were just as convenient and just as lethal. Laws against the misuse of both are in place, and are just as ineffective when someone decides to go daffy. Don't expect someone to drop a valid argument simply because you cannot counter it effectivley or logically. The analogy is appropriate and makes a valid point.**** Edit.. Ford killed /maimed 30 people..not 36, I tried to work from memory..my bad. The rest is accurate. She was , however, found mentally competant to stand trial and was thus convicted. he was also drunk at the time of her crime. (BAC.167).
Last edited by NVplumber; 04-06-2009 at 05:33 PM..
Here we go with the car accident analogy again..Please let that one go..
Car accident or car as malevolent tool. Anything can be used for malevolence. Even this forum. Statistically more people wind up in an emergency room from slips and falls in their bathroom. It's irrational to abolish bathrooms, but we can make them safer via choices of building material and encourage common sense.
There appears the perception in the mind of gun opponents that the only purpose for owning a fire arm is to weild power OVER others in society. That is false. I believe LE should handle most violent confrontations whenever that's practicable, but cops are not everywhere all the time. Cops are called in after the fact. There are critical moments in these confrontations, like the 'golden hour' of medicine, where threats can be neutralized to minimize damage. Every human being should be empowered to defend themselves, and it is their responsibility as well as a right to do so. Passively sitting around waiting for police to arrive when violence is afoot will not end violence. It feeds carnage.
I understand and agree that firearms do not belong in the hands of people who cannot manage to be responsible. I cannot agree that people should be restricted from defending themselves. The law says otherwise.
Of course, everyone is a potential threat to their fellow man. But gun owners tend to be more so. Consider a fella I got into it with a while back while I was on duty delivering luggage to his home from an airline he flew on recently. He was angry that his luggage was 30 min late (even though my dispatchers called him ahead of time to let him know), so he started to curse me.
I told him forcefully to calm down, and next thing you know he threatens to shoot me with his rifle. I call the cops and the situation was appropriately defused. But just imagine what would have happened to me had this otherwise "law abiding" gun owner actually had his way and let his emotions get the best of him with rifle in hand.
Even in the case of suicide, those who have access to guns are far more successful than those without such access. It's easy to kill yourself or someone else with a gun. You don't have to get "up close and personal" like you do with a knife, or a baseball bat.
"It would be easy for us to cordon Poplawski off, pretend that his ugly and paranoid worldview had nothing to do with the Obama hatred spouted by the American right. But the truth is that Poplawski's hateful views cannot be separated from the increasingly extreme ideology and rhetoric that characterize the contemporary American conservative movement. As his friend, Edward Perkovic, told the Associated Press, Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."
Such obsessions don't come out of a vacuum. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the GOP have been whipping up hatred and fear of Obama and "liberal Democrats" for years. Joined by the National Rifle Association, which has run false and irresponsible ads claiming that Obama is planning to take away Americans' guns, they have encouraged and helped to create a pathological right-wing subculture in which free-floating hatred of "the government" mixes with a maniacal fetish for guns. Poplawski is the diseased fruit of that ugly tree."
Even in the case of suicide, those who have access to guns are far more successful than those without such access. It's easy to kill yourself or someone else with a gun. You don't have to get "up close and personal" like you do with a knife, or a baseball bat.
I find the post your responding to with this ...interesting. In sharp contrast I had a similar experience, except I was confronted with three gang types while sitting at a backstreet light. Were it not for the fact that I was armed it is quite possible that I would not have made it out of the city and back home that day. These creeps were spun on something, and just spoiling for a fight. The guy in the red Durango with the cowboy hat on just looked like a prime candidate I guess. They came out of nowhere, one second I'm just sitting there the next a beer bottle bounces off my windshield and here they came. I had nowhere to go, I was boxed in. I responded to the threat. Exited the truck, put the vehicle twixt them and me and drew my gun, they knew I was armed and came on anyway. It was ugly, and would have been a lot uglier for my family to get a call from the cops that I was dead or beaten half to death instead of a call from me that I had to cooperate with the police investigation of the...incident and would not be home till wayyyyy later. The following day as it turned out. But at least I came home. Not everyone who carrys a weapon for self protection is a nutcase begging for a chance to use it. I wish(very fervently) that I had not had to use my weapon. But if I hadn't my son would most likely not have a father and my wife would be a widow. Don't think for a second that this incident doesn't bother me. It does. They were vermin, and the shooting was ruled justified hands down, but I still second guess myself if there was SOMETHING I could have done different. If I had turned left instead of right, just been one lousy street over, gone to the city on another bloody day ...if if if. It really bothers me to read some of the stereotyping that goes on regarding armed citizens. Walk a mile in our shoes (yea cliche' but appropriate) before judging to harshly. We aren't a bunch of wackos with no moral compass. Those of us who have had to defend ourselves don't look at that fact as some type of badge of distinction. It leaves a monkey on your back. Sooner or later you learn to make peace with it, but it NEVER goes away.
When Richard Poplawski's mother called 911 to ask that her son be removed from their home in Stanton Heights, she acknowledged that he had weapons. But that crucial piece of information never was relayed to the three Pittsburgh police officers who responded Saturday and were fatally shot.
When Richard Poplawski's mother called 911 to ask that her son be removed from their home in Stanton Heights, she acknowledged that he had weapons. But that crucial piece of information never was relayed to the three Pittsburgh police officers who responded Saturday and were fatally shot.
hl, the vast majority of vocal gun owners on this site scare the bejesus out of me. If they are indicative of most gun owners, there should be limits.
Don't you think if anyone (beyond the shooter, of course) bears responsibility for this, it would be his mother long before it is the NRA or talk radio gas bags?
His mother knew he had guns, knew he was unstable and yet....he still lived with her, still had guns. The cops were called to their house many times in the past, she could have used any of those opportunities to get him (and his guns) out of her house.
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) one targeted cops, one targeted anyone in her way, one used a firearm, one used a tuna boat car. Biggest similarity, both left death and greif in their wake. The weapon chosen makes no difference in that regard. Both were just as convenient and just as lethal. Laws against the misuse of both are in place, and are just as ineffective when someone decides to go daffy. Don't expect someone to drop a valid argument simply because you cannot counter it effectivley or logically.
The analogy is appropriate and makes a valid point.
**** Edit.. Ford killed /maimed 30 people..not 36, I tried to work from memory..my bad. The rest is accurate. She was , however, found mentally competant to stand trial and was thus convicted. he was also drunk at the time of her crime. (BAC.167).
