Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 97
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

I think to truly undersand the gravity of the situation you have to be familiar with American society. If you've spent a considerable amount of time in America, great! I'm sure you never saw a school

There is a considerable amount of violence in this country, and probably more violent crimes than anywhere else in the western world. Look what's on the televisions, in the music, video games, etc. This isn't to say we need to ban these things, they are merely a reflection of what people see. They are art forms that reflect people's view on the society they live in. Eminem wouldn't rap about the things he does if he didn't see them throughout his life as an influence. We need to ask the question why is there so much violence between people?

 

Worth pointing out that people in Canada, UK, Australian, Japan all watch, listen to and play the exact same things.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I just read a Canadian news article that said all of the guns used in this tragedy can be bought legally in Canada as well. I was quite surprised at that... However, the registration system is so completely different it boggles the mind.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

What, with the Olympics and all, this seems to have been somewhat overlooked.... 6 more gunned down

 

A gunman shot dead six worshippers at a Sikh temple before opening fire on officers in what police described as an act of US "domestic terrorism".

The attack began shortly before 10.30am local time on Sunday as dozens of people were gathering at a place of worship in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

After killing a number of people inside the temple, the gunman then fired on a police officer who was helping a wounded victim outside the building. A second officer fired on the suspect, who died at the scene. The wounded officer – who was shot multiple times – was taken to hospital for surgery. He is expected to survive.

At a press conference held outside the temple on Sunday, Oak Creek police chief John Edwards said the "heroic actions" of the two officers "stopped this from being worse than it could have been", noting that many people had gathered for worship at the time of the attack.

Edwards said that authorities were treating the killing as a "domestic terrorism incident", but added that it was too early to suggest a motive. Some Sikh members of the community told the media they feared that it was a hate crime. "We are at the beginning stages of this investigation," Edwards said. The FBI has taken over the criminal inquiry.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think you need to kill at least 10 to get to the top of the news......

 

While that may not have been a flippant comment, I do wonder sometimes if the media have become dumbed down to these kinds of killings, and that they are to be expected now.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Let's be honest for a minute, the US is not the only ****ed up place. I see news all the time in Japan where someone is murdered in some ****ed up way. Why don't we debate the suicide bombers in Iraq/Afghanistan as well?

 

My point being that all this attention is being put on the US like it's some place that doesn't have it's shit together. Yes, guns are legal. No, I don't feel that automatic weapons should be legal, but I do believe people should be able to own their own weapons if they feel like it.

 

You're an adult. You should be held accountable for your actions. There are crazy people in this world. Regardless of whether they have weapons or not, they are going to do bad things. Unless you ban 'crazy', it will never stop. People have been killing people for years.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah but put fully automatic weapons that were actually created for battle not recreation into the hands of crazies and they can do a whole lot more damage can't they?

One of the reasons the US cops it so much I think is because so many Americans like to proclaim how America is the greatest country in the world. There's a large amount of patriotism and nationalism that seems to blind people to the social issuess that appear to plague the country.

You refer to some ****ed up murders in Japan but look at stats for murders in Japan and the US and it's like chalk and cheese. In fact look at the stats for murders between just about any other developed nation on the planet and the US and there's likely to be a huge difference. Americans are very efficient at killing each other. Far more efficient than any terrorists who target the US.

Link to post
Share on other sites

America has the main focus as there is a greater proportion of mass domestic killing sprees than most other developed world countries put together. With America's gun laws also fuelling the fire, the media are able to have a field day when one a killing spree occurs.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah but put fully automatic weapons that were actually created for battle not recreation into the hands of crazies and they can do a whole lot more damage can't they?

One of the reasons the US cops it so much I think is because so many Americans like to proclaim how America is the greatest country in the world. There's a large amount of patriotism and nationalism that seems to blind people to the social issuess that appear to plague the country.

You refer to some ****ed up murders in Japan but look at stats for murders in Japan and the US and it's like chalk and cheese. In fact look at the stats for murders between just about any other developed nation on the planet and the US and there's likely to be a huge difference. Americans are very efficient at killing each other. Far more efficient than any terrorists who target the US.

 

Should we (Americans) prefer to let China say they are the best country in the world? I'm not sure that I follow what you are saying, but it appears the less pride we have the more social we will become?

 

 

Also it seems my point wasn't clear. I'm not saying we don't have alot of murders, especially (sp?) with guns. My point is that it seems everyone wants to bash my country every time we are in the news.

 

In my 30 years of life, I've never witnessed any violence besides a few fights in the US. Never a shooting, bombing, stabbing. Nothing. But of course that is all you see on the news. Hardly ever a decent story about America, correct?

 

By the way, we just landed on Mars. Where's that topic?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mars has been done before. America cocking up 7 times before has also been done. America cocks up a lot, you know. And all of those cock ups HAVE to be reported, while that one success gets shunted down.

 

*sarcasm off.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah but put fully automatic weapons that were actually created for battle not recreation into the hands of crazies and they can do a whole lot more damage can't they?

 

Here is where Americans suck air through the front teeth and mutter, "Muzukashii desu ne..."

 

Thing is, if one takes the Second Amendment to the US constitution seriously, it is clearly intended that private citizens have access to militarily useful weapons, not just sport or hunting models. That is, after all, how one creates a useful militia. Draw parallels with the Swiss approach, and you will get the idea. (Though note that full automatic is NOT allowed. Only semi-automatic, I believe.)

 

If you don't think that is a useful model for the present era, then it becomes a question of removing rights from the constitution, which has never been done before. Rights have been added (abolishing slavery, allowing women to vote), but they have never been removed at the constitutional level as far as I am aware. (Ah, excepting Prohibition perhaps, notably and temporarily. And even there it was not the abolishment of a previously constitutionally-guaranteed right, which messing with the Second Amendment clearly would be.)

 

Hence, muzukashii desu ne.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't think it's quite as automatic as an automatic weapon.

 

--

 

A semi-automatic pistol is a type of handgun which uses a single chamber and barrel, with a mechanism powered by the previous shot to load a fresh cartridge into the chamber. One round is fired each time the trigger of a semi-automatic pistol is pulled.

 

A revolver, which uses multiple chambers and a single barrel, and a derringer, which uses multiple chambers and multiple barrels, also fire one round for trigger pull, but achieve this in different ways and as such are not classified as being semi-automatic.

 

Additional terms sometimes used as synonyms for a semi-automatic pistol are automatic pistol, self-loading pistol, autopistol, and autoloading pistol.

 

A semi-automatic pistol harnesses the energy of one shot to reload the chamber for the next, typically via recoil operation, blowback, or gas operation. After a round is fired, the spent casing is ejected and a new round from the magazine is loaded into the chamber, allowing another shot to be fired as soon as the trigger is again pulled.

 

Most types of semi-automatic pistols rely on a removable magazine to store ammunition before it is fired, usually inserted inside the grip.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 4 months later...

Twenty children and six adults have been killed in a shooting attack at a primary school in the US state of Connecticut, police say.

 

The gunman also died, but was not formally identified by police.

 

However, officials told US media the killer at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, was a 20-year-old son of a teacher at the school.

 

It is one of the worst-ever US school shootings, with a toll close to the 32 who died at Virginia Tech in 2007.

 

Early reports named 24-year-old Ryan Lanza as the gunman, but anonymous officials later said his brother Adam, 20, was the suspect.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, in the US society is based on survival of the fittest. We rarely have community support because we are too busy critiquing and comparing everyone all the time. When you take a step back and look at even the very basis of our society (schooling) you see we have many social problems at the entry level. We're taught to look after ourselves and not others by the media and other sources of our society communicating with each other (movies, music, etc).

 

Often times this alienates people. Hell, we ostracize individuals by insulting and picking out their flaws while trying to make our own seem less worse. While everyone struggles to maintain purpose and their own ego, the media gives a shining beacon to those who are troubled. If you do something loud enough, your own egotistical needs will be met, albeit negative or positive attention. Columbine, Oklahoma City Bombing, etc etc.

 

Until we as a society learn how to act more communally, we will continue to see these collateral tragedies occur while we are off chasing the American Dream.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's our constitutional right for self-defence!!!

 

:grandpa:

 

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic, but constitutional rights can be changed...right? After all isn't that why you guys have "amendments" in the first place?

Link to post
Share on other sites
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Written in 1791

I've always wondered if the second amendment was really the basis of the current guns culture in the US.

If it is, then they are way off the mark.

Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...