Quote: Nogget @ January 13 2011, 6:38 PM GMTIF these figures are to be believed:
It's interesting that you're more likely to get killed accidentally from a gun in the US, than murdered by one almost anywhere else.
That is a pretty interesting statistic!
You have a gun for protection against burglars, who you say would have one whether they are legal or not.
I say just because someone is a burglar does not mean they are willing to a)illegaly acquire a gun or b) kill someone. Petty theft and Murder are not the same and equal in the eyes of anyone but the most psychopathic, but then they would kill you with whatever they had to hand, gun or no gun.
Guns are illegal here, yet no burglar, or in fact anyone, has ever threatened me, my family or anyone I know with a gun. Except one friend of mine who shot an old lady with a BB gun.
Quote: Nogget @ January 13 2011, 6:38 PM GMTIF these figures are to be believed:
It's interesting that you're more likely to get killed accidentally from a gun in the US, than murdered by one almost anywhere else.
You conveniently left out a large number of countries around the world where gun violence is many times worse than it is in the United States.
Quote: sootyj @ January 13 2011, 6:39 PM GMTYou know the real tragedy is the line "because he might have a gun" or "he might get a gun"
makes you way more likely to get locked up or rated as mentally incompetent by the courts then anywhere else in the free world
I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
Quote: DaButt @ January 13 2011, 6:47 PM GMTYou conveniently left out a large number of countries around the world where gun violence is many times worse than it is in the United States.
Because those are bad countries
Is that those countries the US has invaded? 
Bravo you have lower murder rate than South Africa, Sierra Leone and Columba (amongst others)
Countries with failed governments, collapsed police forces and fractional incomes of the US.
Do you even believe what you're saying?
Quote: sootyj @ January 13 2011, 6:42 PM GMTPerhaps confused, perhaps somewhat mentally ill.
Mentally ill as f**k. That much is quite clear.
Quote: DaButt @ January 13 2011, 6:48 PM GMTYou conveniently left out a large number of countries around the world where gun violence is many times worse than it is in the United States.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
Ok there is no clinical test that says if someone is a definitive danger to themsleves or others.
So it's a kind of clincal best guess.
Now in the UK I'd have to think if some one is actually going to get a knife and drive it into somebodies body or hangthem selves. Both kinda extreme.
In the US in both cases it's can they point and pull the trigger?
Which is why courts in the US are more likely to find someone incompetent. And colleges more likely to bar someone for what may well have been eccentricity and became something worse after he was kicked out.
Quote: DaButt @ January 13 2011, 6:55 PM GMTMentally ill as f**k. That much is quite clear.
No it isn't.
I work with people with some degree of peronality disorder and mental health issue all the time.
Alot of them obsess on guns.
None of them can get access to them.
Quote: Schwen @ January 13 2011, 6:47 PM GMTGuns are illegal here, yet no burglar, or in fact anyone, has ever threatened me, my family or anyone I know with a gun.
No one has ever threatened me with a gun. Or broken into my home, for that matter. But on the slight chance that they do, it comes down to this: do you want to confront a burglar with your bare hands? I don't, so I keep a gun at hand.
Assault and burglary (especially while a residence is occupied) are much more rare in this country because criminals know they might find themselves on the wrong end of a gun.
So people are doing the gun argument again? Do we have some statistics for how often this one comes around??
Quote: sootyj @ January 13 2011, 6:57 PM GMTNo it isn't.
Obviously you haven't read his postings, the descriptions made by friends and classmates or the rambling videos he made. The man is quite obviously mentally ill.
See dangers with guns.
1 Someone else shoots you.
2 You get depressed and shoot yourself
3 You get drunk and shoot yourself
The last 2 are statistically the more likely,
Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 13 2011, 7:03 PM GMTSo people are doing the gun argument again? Do we have some statistics for how often this one comes around??
If I had a gun I'd shoot you.
Quote: DaButt @ January 13 2011, 7:04 PM GMTObviously you haven't read his postings, the descriptions made by friends and classmates or the rambling videos he made. The man is quite obviously mentally ill.
He may have been in a temporary state of distress, or reacting social/enviromental pressures.
Of course if he's mental no one can blame the right wing proparanoia machine,
On TV detective stories etc, so often we see the forensic police staff trying to find out the serial number (of a gun) that has been filed off and trying to match up the scratches on bullets usually the only data being bullets found on previous crimes.
Why is it that all arms manufacturers are not REQUIRED to fire a calibration round from each new gun and to record the details of the scratches etc with its serial number in a universal database and secondly perhaps all gun shops should also be required to do the same, when guns are sold second-hand.
This should seriously reduce the time taken to trace murder weapons, and will provide a start point for tracing violent use of stolen weapons.
Quote: sootyj @ January 13 2011, 7:07 PM GMTSee dangers with guns.
1 Someone else shoots you.
2 You get depressed and shoot yourself
3 You get drunk and shoot yourselfThe last 2 are statistically the more likely,
Not #3.
Quote: sootyj @ January 13 2011, 7:07 PM GMTHe may have been in a temporary state of distress, or reacting social/enviromental pressures.
Of course if he's mental no one can blame the right wing proparanoia machine,
He has a history of unstable behavior dating back to 2007, if not earlier. He was kicked out of school for acting erratically. He made death threats. He believed that he could alter reality by dreaming. He believed that the government was controlling people using grammar.
He was also a registered independent, his friends say he didn't listen to political radio or television and described him as liberal, anti-religion, anti-war and a pot smoker. Yeah, it sounds like the right-wing propaganda machine has a lot to fear ...
Quote: billwill @ January 13 2011, 7:15 PM GMTWhy is it that all arms manufacturers are not REQUIRED to fire a calibration round from each new gun and to record the details of the scratches etc with its serial number in a universal database and secondly perhaps all gun shops should also be required to do the same, when guns are sold second-hand.
It's been tried and found to be a waste of money and effort:
STATE POLICE CALL FOR SHUTTING DOWN
MARYLAND'S BALLISTIC "FINGERPRINTING" SYSTEMThe Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division has called for scrapping the state's ballistic imaging program, the Maryland Integrated Ballistics Identification System (MD-IBIS), stating it has found the system to be an ineffective tool for law enforcement.
The program has cost the taxpayers of Maryland more than $2.5 million, but has produced no results. "There have been no crime investigations that have been enhanced or expedited through the use of MD-IBIS," the report says. "The program simply has not met the expectations and does not aid in the Mission statement of the Department of State Police."
"This report proves what we have been saying all along," commented NRA-ILA Executive Director, Chris W. Cox. "Ballistic fingerprinting is not a useful law-enforcement tool and is simply another attempt by those who would take away our Second Amendment rights to interfere with the ownership of firearms by law-abiding people."
The new report provides detailed information on the failure of the system, including the system's failure on four blind proficiency tests to match test-fired cartridges from handguns sold in the state.
In the end, the Maryland State Police report provides three primary recommendations: 1) discontinue the program and moth-ball the equipment; 2) enact legislation repealing the current law to require collection of casings; and 3) transfer personnel and funds to the state DNA database program.
The report concludes that MD-IBIS "has not proven to be a time saving tool for the Firearms Examiner or an investigative enhancement to the criminal investigator. It has simply failed in the Mission and Vision concepts originally established for the Program."
Unstable behaviour in the absence of guns is less of an issue.