tweakabelle
Posts: 7522
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: jlf1961
quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
quote:
ORIGINAL: jlf1961
So I guess the fact that some have guns to actually hunt, deal with various predators and pest species that inhabit the rural region they live in, OR have an interest in their historic value never crossed your fucking mind?
Seriously, wild hog eradication is a booming business around here.
Yes, I do own two weapons that require special permits from the ATF, but my primary interest is their historic significance (that and they never caught the giant Armadillo that was attacking lone star beer trucks, distributors back in the seventies, and I figure the critter will eventually develop a taste for better alcoholic refreshments.)
Of course there are plenty of perfectly reasonable legitimate reasons why someone might own firearms. For instance, farmers need firearms to control various pests, collecting weapons is a perfectly respectable hobby, hunting is a popular pastime. As far as I know, no one advocates a blanket ban on all weapons for all people.
According to The Guardian:
"3%: Proportion of people who own half of the country’s guns, according to an unpublished Harvard/Northeastern University survey result summary. Anchoring this group are America’s gun super-owners – an estimated 7.7 million Americans who own between eight and 140 guns."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/02/us-gun-control-ownership-violence-statistics
Collectors aside ( and please remember that collectors don't need their collections to be in full working order, it might be an idea to consider having the firing pins removed from most of the collection), I cannot think of a single reason why a person needs to own up to 140 fully functional firearms.
News reports indicate that the Las Vegas murderer is part of this demographic. It seems to me that an awful lot of people are dying to protect and preserve the rights of that 3%.
Actually, firearms that are collected for historic value or significance must be in full working order to maintain value.
For example, taking the firing pin out of a trapdoor Springfield carbine as used by the 7th cav at little bighorn could cut the value by as much as 50%.
Those who collect firearms for historic value often collect other items as well, in order to give the weapon some context. Again using the trap door carbine as an example, along with the rifle, the collector might have an authentic cavalry saber, regimental guide on, pennant, and a flag from the era.
A fellow collector in town had display cases constructed out of laminated 2x6 boards with 3/4 inch thick ballistic resistant acrylic panels to allow the guns to be seen but not touched. The cabinet locks require a laser cut key and cost just under 2 grand.
However, from reading about this gentleman, he was not a collector in the sense you are using, this guy was hoarding firearms for some personal agenda.
As far as one poster who made the statement he was a pussy to take his own life rather than face the music for his crime, considering the cost of keeping an inmate on death row, he saved the tax payers a shit load.
Statements about his treatment of his girlfriend indicate a very controlling personality, if not outright emotionally and verbally abusive.
He basically seems to have been a power freak, and in some respects, much like his father.
Firearms are't exactly my area of expertise, but there must be some simple, easily reversible method of disarming a firearm.
I take your point about this particular piece of vermin not being a genuine collector but a 'hoarder'. Again it doesn't seem a particularly difficult task to distinguish one from the other. Hoarding is generally regarded as a mild mental disorder, a condition that is usually harmless. It seems to me to be quite reasonable for society to know why an individual with this condition is hoarding large caches of high powered weapons.
Possibly the most disturbing factor in this shocking incident is the apparent 'normality' of the shooter. He's a seemingly sane, ageing, white, successful, middle class individual, so law abiding that he didn't even get parking tickers, so 'normal' that no one around him recognised any indicator of the evil he was planning. The degree of planning he put into designing and executing this horror is such that a legal defence of 'insanity' would not be accepted by the courts.
Thus far, the only indicators of potential malevolence are his secret hoards of weapons and explosives. Why on earth would an elderly accountant be purchasing explosives? Why on earth would an elderly accountant be purchasing the extensive hoard of weapons he bought? These seem to be the only points identified thus far where some intervention might have led to a very different outcome.
_____________________________
|
RE: Las Vegas shooting unfolding now - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread