quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1
And as for raptor's silly argument about "There has been to my recollection, no hostile forces on american soil (terrorist cells notwithstanding)..."; it has to be pointed out that the whole of "American" history is barely just over 2 centuries old - which for most of the rest of the world is pretty damned recent.

And perhaps you have forgotten some part of your history??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aleutian_Islands
So that makes it "...no hostile forces on american soil since August 1942...".

quote:

ORIGINAL: Fightdirecto

quote:

A convicted killer, who shot dead two firefighters with a BUSHMASTER ASSAULT RIFLE after leading them into an ambush when they responded to a house fire he set in Western New York, left behind a typewritten note saying HE WANTED TO "DO WHAT I LIKE DOING BEST, KILLING PEOPLE," police said.

William Spengler, 62, set his home and a car on fire early Monday morning WITH THE INTENTION OF SETTING A TRAP TO KILL FIREFIGHTERS AND TO SEE "HOW MUCH OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD I CANi BURN DOWN," according to the note he wrote and which police found at the scene. The note did not give a reason for his actions.

Spengler, who served 18 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1981, hid Monday morning in a small ditch beside a tree overlooking the sleepy lakeside street in Webster, N.Y., where he lived with his sister, police said today in a news conference.

That woman, Cheryl Spengler, 67, remains missing and may also have been killed, police said.

As firefighters arrived on the scene after a 5:30 a.m. 911 call on the morning of Christmas Eve, Spengler opened fire on them with THE BUSHMASTER, THE SAME SEMI-AUTOMATIC, MILITARY-STYLE WEAPON USED IN THE DEC. 14 RAMPAGE KILLING OF 20 CHILDREN IN NEWTOWN, CONN.

ABC-News

While using his Bushmaster to kill the firefighters, I wonder if he felt "manly", like the manufacturer said he would in their advertisements?

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ORIGINAL: NuevaVida

quote:

ORIGINAL: Fightdirecto

quote:

A convicted killer, who shot dead two firefighters with a BUSHMASTER ASSAULT RIFLE after leading them into an ambush when they responded to a house fire he set in Western New York, left behind a typewritten note saying HE WANTED TO "DO WHAT I LIKE DOING BEST, KILLING PEOPLE," police said.

William Spengler, 62, set his home and a car on fire early Monday morning WITH THE INTENTION OF SETTING A TRAP TO KILL FIREFIGHTERS AND TO SEE "HOW MUCH OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD I CANi BURN DOWN," according to the note he wrote and which police found at the scene. The note did not give a reason for his actions.

Spengler, who served 18 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1981, hid Monday morning in a small ditch beside a tree overlooking the sleepy lakeside street in Webster, N.Y., where he lived with his sister, police said today in a news conference.

That woman, Cheryl Spengler, 67, remains missing and may also have been killed, police said.

As firefighters arrived on the scene after a 5:30 a.m. 911 call on the morning of Christmas Eve, Spengler opened fire on them with THE BUSHMASTER, THE SAME SEMI-AUTOMATIC, MILITARY-STYLE WEAPON USED IN THE DEC. 14 RAMPAGE KILLING OF 20 CHILDREN IN NEWTOWN, CONN.

ABC-News

While using his Bushmaster to kill the firefighters, I wonder if he felt "manly", like the manufacturer said he would in their advertisements?

What is interesting to me about this, and I didn't see it mentioned (my apologies if it was and I missed it), is the media seems to want to highlight the Bushmaster as a main issue here. What about the concept that the gun laws already in place did not prevent a convicted killer who had served time from owning and/or possessing a gun?

Doesn't matter what kind of firearm he used, does it? We want to add new gun laws when we are failing at upholding the ones we already have.

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ORIGINAL: NuevaVida
I believe more laws will simply create a bigger black market for firearms, but won't stop the problem. They will only create more laws to break.

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ORIGINAL: NuevaVida

There are approximately 1 million gang members in the US. Do you believe they will abide by a gun banishment law?

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ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1


Also, quite a few of our known-to-be-trouble-making gangs are rounded up at regular intervals and are searched. Any weapons, including knives, are confiscated and they go through our judicial system.

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ORIGINAL: LizDeluxe

There are approximately 3 million semi-automatic rifles in private ownership in the US. The vast majority of those firearms (and we're talking almost 100%) have never and will never be used in an unlawful fashion. A ban on these weapons is really akin to amputating at the knee to treat a bunion.

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

quote:

ORIGINAL: LizDeluxe

There are approximately 3 million semi-automatic rifles in private ownership in the US. The vast majority of those firearms (and we're talking almost 100%) have never and will never be used in an unlawful fashion. A ban on these weapons is really akin to amputating at the knee to treat a bunion.

And if that bunion was just the root of a very malicious and highly intrusive/evasive cancer??
Then amputating at the knee to save the rest of your life would be justified.

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

quote:

ORIGINAL: LizDeluxe

There are approximately 3 million semi-automatic rifles in private ownership in the US. The vast majority of those firearms (and we're talking almost 100%) have never and will never be used in an unlawful fashion. A ban on these weapons is really akin to amputating at the knee to treat a bunion.

And if that bunion was just the root of a very malicious and highly intrusive/evasive cancer??
Then amputating at the knee to save the rest of your life would be justified.

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ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1


Also, quite a few of our known-to-be-trouble-making gangs are rounded up at regular intervals and are searched. Any weapons, including knives, are confiscated and they go through our judicial system.

We have a little thing called The Constitution that prevents the "round up the usual suspects commissioner" practices.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

quote:

ORIGINAL: LizDeluxe

There are approximately 3 million semi-automatic rifles in private ownership in the US. The vast majority of those firearms (and we're talking almost 100%) have never and will never be used in an unlawful fashion. A ban on these weapons is really akin to amputating at the knee to treat a bunion.

And if that bunion was just the root of a very malicious and highly intrusive/evasive cancer??
Then amputating at the knee to save the rest of your life would be justified.

You're showing your abject ignorance of medical science...............or just trolling.

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1


Also, quite a few of our known-to-be-trouble-making gangs are rounded up at regular intervals and are searched. Any weapons, including knives, are confiscated and they go through our judicial system.

We have a little thing called The Constitution that prevents the "round up the usual suspects commissioner" practices.

And it is precisely your constitution that is responsible for the gun-related deaths.
Think about it.

You have 34 gun deaths every single day in the US.
We had just 39 for THE WHOLE YEAR!!
You have about 20x the number of gun deaths per capita compared to us here.

You allow guns. We don't (as a general rule).
You don't allow your police to check and search known trouble-makers?? We do.

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

quote:

ORIGINAL: LizDeluxe

There are approximately 3 million semi-automatic rifles in private ownership in the US. The vast majority of those firearms (and we're talking almost 100%) have never and will never be used in an unlawful fashion. A ban on these weapons is really akin to amputating at the knee to treat a bunion.

And if that bunion was just the root of a very malicious and highly intrusive/evasive cancer??
Then amputating at the knee to save the rest of your life would be justified.

You're showing your abject ignorance of medical science...............or just trolling.

If it was an 'ordinary' bunion, yes.

But that's not what I said. Try reading my post.

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

I wasn't using bunions as a specific expletive or direct comparison.

That's why I said "And if that bunion was just the root of...." - meaning that I didn't consider it a bunion at all but in fact something completely different.


Talk about getting pernickety!!!

That's why flame wars start so easily on here.
People take thing far too literally or twist things so badly or out of context as to make no more sense.

quote:

ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1

Now lets see....
What would constitute 'known troublemakers'??

Those that are persistently caught doing the same old tricks time and again??
Maybe you could just call them dumb or plain stupid.
But more than likely, they are part of the same group of people that are always in the midst of trouble of some sort or another.
It may be a fight at a local pub, or someone getting mugged or picked on trying to walk home.
Or the local late-night shop getting hit with big shop-lifting sprees and they are always caught with the goods.
Could be any number of things. lol.
But our local cops know who they are and try to do something about it.
It would seem that in the US they just let them get away with that sort of nasty behaviour because the constitution doesn't allow the enforcement officers the legal ability to step in and inflict justice.

All I'm saying is that when the US bleats and wails about gun-related deaths, just like the NRA they want to blame anything but the gun.
I said it in another thread less than a week ago that it will happen again very soon after Newtown. It has. I rest my case.