If we had more guns, the Omaha mall shooting may not have happened

[Alinestra Covelia]

Although it bears saying that the inverse argument could be true too: with very tight gun controls, the Omaha mall shooting may not have happened.

What was it Hannibal Lector said?

"We live in a society of half-measures. Any rational society would kill me or put me to use."

[Ninot]

I thought Vesayen was trolling when he invoked the "I need a gun to keep the King out of my house" argument.

[Kuciwalker]

Vesayen's not intelligent enough to troll.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Ninot
I thought Vesayen was trolling when he invoked the "I need a gun to keep the King out of my house" argument.

sounds like a Simpsons quote. So it has to be trolling.

[chequita guevara]

If there were a thousand armed people in that mall, it would have been a blood bath, as everyone would have taken out their piece, and started shooting each other under the assumption that that other guy with the gun was the shooter.

As for Veyasen's belief that an armed populace is what holds off dictators, I would note that the population of Iraq was and is very highly armed. They didn't get rid of Saddam and they haven't gotten rid of us. In addition, I would be willing to bet that Veyasen believes Chavez is a dictaor, and I would note that Chavez is buying weapons to distribute to the people, 100,000 Kalashnikov's.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Vesayen's not intelligent enough to troll.

Intelligent enough to pass the LSAT though

[Kuciwalker]

BS.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I know it's been said already, but let's put it starkley. Which is likely to produce more casualties:

a) A lone nutter firing into a crowded mall; or
b) A lone nutter firing into a crowded mall, and a bunch of gun-toting amateurs returning fire?

In answering, remember that (1) a lone nutter isn't likely to be deterred by the fact that other people are carrying guns, since he's nuts to begin with, and (2) the people returning fire will be the kinds of macho fantasists and/or skittish paranoids who would take a gun along while running out to pick up Tickle Me Elmo.

Make sure to show all your work...

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Darius871


Intelligent enough to pass the LSAT though

It doesn't take brains to be a law student.

I'm living proof of that.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Elok
It's just a matter of thinking you have to eliminate all the redpills before the Agents take them over, then training for a couple of months.

EDIT: Or was it the blue pill? It's been a while since I saw the first Matrix, I just know it's a popular delusion for uncreative psychotic types to adopt.

For the truly paranoid, I'd recommend the little blue pill. Apparently it does something rather like caffeine - it can keep you up all night.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
BS.

I'm pretty sure it was established in at least one other thread that somehow he's going to law school, so I'd have to assume he at least did OK on the LSAT. Unless he was only admitted to some non-accredited 6th-tier barn.

EDIT: Exhibit 1:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=5090328#post5090328

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
It doesn't take brains to be a law student.

I won't tell anyone if you wont.

[Blake]

Originally posted by Elok
Blake, please present evidence for your claim that crazy people are incapable of being competent murderers.

I made no such claim.

Someone who is already a competent killer, will make a competent murderer when they go crazy.

Someone who is a less than competent killer, due to a lack of practise at the art of killing, will make a less than competent murderer when they go crazy.

If X% of population have guns+skill, and Y% of the population go crazy (start killing other people for no reason), and X and Y are independent variables, then the number of attempted gun related murders is proportional to X times Y.

X times Y will always be higher than zero (as long as there are any guns, and any chance of people going crazy), that doesn't mean that trying to reduce X is worthless.


There is strong evidence, that better gun control in society, means fewer gun-related homicides.

Furthermore there is strong evidence that this also reduces homicide overall, that people are not in fact able to wield knives/baseball bats with equal lethality and reckless abandon if guns are unavailable. That's another poor argument against gun control, that a murderer can just use a knife instead. Sure he can, if he wants to murder his wife in her sleep. But you can't run around a mall and stab a dozen people dead unless you're Rambo or something.

Of course firm causality is difficult to establish, it could well be that the atmosphere of fear created by any nutter in society being able to wield a gun, causes more stress, and results in more people flipping out. But regardless, there is correlation between poor gun control and gun related homicide. You can look up statistics yourself and I have provided reasoning. I can't provide evidence for causality but I really think it is quite evident.

An obfuscation technique used by pro-gun people includes only looking at the # of guns per capita, and not looking at the gun control. A country which mandates every home having an assault rifle and the occupants trained in it's use and safety, with a culture of taking pride in being part of the homeland defense, does not necessarily have poor gun control - as well as having different underlying relationships with guns (homeland defense rather than personal defense), the law may still make it very difficult to acquire concealable weapons. Long weapons are suitable for war, but are not extremely suitable for robberies and such.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by Blake

A country which mandates every home having an assault rifle and the occupants trained in it's use and safety, with a culture of taking pride in being part of the homeland defense, does not necessarily have poor gun control

This is ringing a faint bell. Is this... Switzerland?

*goes to Wikipedia*

[Blake]

Switzerland and Finland are the main ones I refer to.