Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 16th March 2018, 6:54 PMOT because it's not guns related but have you ever visited the Very Large Array DaButt? Walking around that place is on my bucket list.
I've never been there, but I've seen the huge antennas at Goldstone. Several of my friends used to work at JPL.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Deep_Space_Communications_Complex
Quote: DaButt @ 16th March 2018, 11:56 AMHopefully you were smart enough to notice this key paragraph from your article:
The woman was already breaking the law, so is your solution to make an additional law? Surely that one will work.
Obviously the existing laws DON'T work.
Quote: Briosaid @ 16th March 2018, 8:37 PMObviously the existing laws DON'T work.
We already have the death penalty in most states, so what kind of law is going to magically compel people to stop committing gun crimes - even though they already are, by definition, crimes? Round up the entire extended family of criminal and execute every man, woman and child? Drop them in a pot of boiling oil? Deport them to Scotland?
I guess it's time to roll out this old chestnut again:
When President Clinton was considering tackling gun control early in his first term, President Carter's press secretary, Jody Powell, sent him this memo. It's a rare example of an influential Democrat admitting the truth about gun control laws.
"As much as I hate to say it, the NRA is effective primarily because it is largely right when it claims that most gun control laws inconvenience and threaten the law-abiding while having little or no impact on violent crime or criminals. I support registration in principle, but two questions need to be asked. Are the people causing the problem going to comply voluntarily? If not, do you have a way to effectively enforce compliance?"
You know full well what the answer is, but I'd waste my breathe pointing it out, after all guns are fun!
You wouldn't solve the problem overnight by banning guns, but 20 years from now the difference would be felt. Luckily the young people in America seem to have more sense than their elders. Maybe when the reach the age of being able to vote, they'll bring about the change that their silly old elders are too selfish to do.
Quote: DaButt @ 16th March 2018, 7:31 PMI've never been there, but I've seen the huge antennas at Goldstone. Several of my friends used to work at JPL.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Deep_Space_Communications_Complex
Now that place is added to the list! Not sure why but giant antenna dishes fascinate me. Maybe it's why I like the films The Cable Guy and Contact so much.
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 17th March 2018, 6:05 PMNow that place is added to the list! Not sure why but giant antenna dishes fascinate me. Maybe it's why I like the films The Cable Guy and Contact so much.
I assume you've seen this comedy film?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dish
The antennas I controlled at my last job were 13 meters, but in the Army we had 18.3-meter dishes. I climbed one like this every day to take meter readings. Sadly, they've been (mostly?) removed from service in favor of newer, slightly smaller antennas.
Quote: Briosaid @ 16th March 2018, 10:48 PMYou wouldn't solve the problem overnight by banning guns, but 20 years from now the difference would be felt. Luckily the young people in America seem to have more sense than their elders.
Except the ones going on murder rampages with machine guns in schools, cinemas, night clubs and churches you mean?
Quote: Firkin @ 1st March 2018, 1:48 PMJapan has one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world. In 2014 there were just six gun deaths, compared to 33,599 in the US. What is the secret?
I'd say it has something to do with the overwhelming homogeneity of Japan's population, it famously has very few foreigners living there or allowed to have permanent residence there. Very unlike USA which is a melting pot of differing races and nationalities which increasingly do not see eye to eye with each other.
Japan is a contented nation with its people holding very few grudges against one another and they have a very strong code of respect for their ways of life.
USA is a fractious place to live by all accounts but so increasingly is Britain and any other country whose racial and ethnic make up is broadening year by year. I think the stats are clearly showing that life is becoming more violent as more foreigners are brought in although if you dare to say it you could be prosecuted for hate crime these days.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 17th March 2018, 6:41 PMExcept the ones going on murder rampages with machine guns in schools, cinemas, night clubs and churches you mean?
Yes. They wouldn't have the bloody guns in the first place. A few of them with guns manage to zap masses of their schoolmates. These are only a few people but they create mayhem thanks to such selfish arses as the NRA.
I completely agree (as yet another non-American) that automatic rifles should not be sold to the public in gun shops or even be on display in gun shops. I think they should be available only to gun clubs who've extensively vetted their members, and should stay at the clubs or registered shooting ranges locked up when not in use.
But this would require major federal law changes and even two full terms of liberal gun hater Obama couldn't achieve that. Clinton managed it on a ten year licence didn't he? - the licence expired and the massacres started again so what clearer proof do they want that military grade assault rifles should not be on the streets let alone freely sold to school or college students?
Quote: Briosaid @ 17th March 2018, 8:48 PMA few of them with guns manage to zap masses of their schoolmates. These are only a few people but they create mayhem thanks to such selfish arses as the NRA.
People (myself included) join the NRA for just the reason you mentioned: a very few people commit atrocities and the NRA fights heavy-handed attempts at disarming the entire population. Second Amendment and all that...
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 AMI completely agree (as yet another non-American) that automatic rifles should not be sold to the public in gun shops or even be on display in gun shops.
I don't think you understand what an automatic rifle is. Sales and transfers of them have been essentially banned since 1986. Civilians are allowed to own pre-1986 automatic weapons after jumping through many legal hoops, undergoing a background check, and paying tens of thousands of dollars per firearm. They're rare enough to be considered essentially unobtainable, and I can't recall a time when a legally owned automatic rifle was used in the commission of a crime.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 AMClinton managed it on a ten year licence didn't he? - the licence expired and the massacres started again
Shooting sprees took place before, during, and after the Clinton ban on so-called assault rifles. The main reason that it was allowed to expire was that there was no proof that it had done anything to reduce killings or crimes.
Some important info about "assault" rifles and past/present attempts to ban sales of them:
1) The banned features are almost entirely cosmetic and have nothing to do with the rifle's lethality. Take grandpa's hunting rifle and add a pistol grip and it's illegal. Flash suppressor: illegal. Telescoping stock: illegal. Bayonet mount: illegal.
2) There were 15,070 murders in the United States in 2016. Firearms were used in 11,004 of them. Rifles of all types, not just "assault" rifles, were used in only 374 of them (2% of total murders.) More people were killed by knives (1,604), hands/feet (656), and blunt instruments (472) than were killed by rifles.
3) Over the last 70 years there have been 19 shootings with 10 or more deaths. Only pistols were used in 8 of them.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 AMso what clearer proof do they want that military grade assault rifles should not be on the streets let alone freely sold to school or college students?
They're not military grade by any means. They look like military rifles, but they function no differently (and are no more lethal) than any other rifle or pistol: pull the trigger and one round is fired.
Blah, blah, blah, blah We've heard all this self-centred shit before. Laws can be amended - they didn't come down to Moses from god. Fact is, gun fun matters more to you than young lives. And don't you hate to be told that!
Quote: Briosaid @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 PMWe've heard all this self-centred shit before.
Self-centered? Huh?
Quote: Briosaid @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 PMLaws can be amended - they didn't come down to Moses from god.
I've posted this before, but here's how you achieve a gun-free America:
Quote: Briosaid @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 PMFact is, gun fun matters more to you than young lives.
Nope.
Quote: Briosaid @ 18th March 2018, 10:39 PMAnd don't you hate to be told that!
Nope. It's tiring/boring to have to refute the same tired lies and untruths, but I don't mind setting the record straight. Telling the truth is worth a little time and effort.
Yeah I don't get and certainly don't agree with the hostility some on here show toward you for your views held as an American citizen, especially of the Midwest. How urban Brits can appreciate the historical and geographical situation there I just don't know. I'd say go there and see for yourselves how civil and friendly these guys usually are, just like Dabutt. If only our 'peace loving' lot were the same, eh.
Anyway, a couple of points to pick up on if I may. Yes okay 'semi automatic' not automatic, single shot, not machine gun fire. BUT as most gun crime experts know it is both the power of the rifle cartridge and even more, the magazine capacity the reason these nutters choose the assault rifle over the pistol for their 'one shot' at lasting fame. It allows them to kill as many as possible in the time they have. In those eight cases of handgun massacres I wonder how many killers used a revolver? I'm guessing they used semi autos like the Browning 1911, a highly prized military issue sidearm I believe still used or relatively recently by the SAS. Quick reloading of the magazine and you have another ten quick kills in a confined space like a school class room. What would you say to all semi auto weapons being banned for public use (except in gun clubs)? Surely that would cut down the size of each massacre at least.
Quote: DaButt @ 18th March 2018, 3:50 PMThey look like military rifles, but they function no differently (and are no more lethal) than any other rifle or pistol: pull the trigger and one round is fired.
