RubySoho
Winston
90 Guns...
June 27th 2008 00:54
...for every 100 people.
That's how many firearms are floating about in the United States of America.
That makes it the most heavily armed society in the world. .
Food for thought.
Yummy.
And now the US Supreme Court has voted in favour of overturning a ban on civilians owning firearms in Washington DC. Apparently the judges seem to think that there is not enough violence in that nation's capital.
Goody! Now we can all look forward to reading more articles like this:
US factory worker in gun rampage
"A man who opened fire on colleagues at a plastics factory in Kentucky warned his girlfriend two hours before that he would kill his boss, police said.
Wesley Higdon, 25, shot dead five fellow workers and injured another before turning the handgun on himself.
He opened fire at the Atlantis Plastics factory in Henderson city after arguing with a male supervisor".
Awesome.
-Ruby
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Comment by Steven Barrett's OpEd Blog
No, I won't buy into either cynicism or Smith and Wesson, and I hope to God nobody else does either. Look up ABC News Nightline (I'm sure the network has a website for the show) and you'll see a story that was covered by reporter John Donvan about a group of Virginians at a barbeque who were all packing heat as if they were packing Blackberries.
Inasmuch as I hate the rudeness caused by the intrusiveness of these damn cell phones, etc. I'd rather see a bunch geeks sitting around talking about the heatpackers while rolling their eyes in the same disgust I felt last night.
I'm really very upset and nervous for what's going to happen fairly soon. Awfull, awfull, awfull.
Comment by Louie
Climate Forum
Climate Red
randomthoughts
Phil's Wellness Tips
Love your work. Irony is, the only people who should have guns are the ones who would never dream of using them.
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity
I lived in cities for years, and only in the last few picked it up again. I still haven't decided if I will hunt this fall or not, but I likely will, at least a day or two. For those who have no understanding of the concept, it's not just big bad hunter blowing away defenseless animal. When done right, hunting is challenging and is part of an outdoor management program that actually benefits animal populations. For example, here in Oregon only about 10 percent of those who buy an elk tag actually take an elk.
I can see how someone who doesn't eat meat could be offended. If a person buys burger from the grocery, their process is much less humane.
I think the right way to control guns might be to say that once you own a gun, you are responsible, at least in some degree, for anything that gun does, ever. That would be sobering to gun owners.
While that would help, I don't know that it would be enough to keep wackos from going crazy. It used to be a person in such a situation would kill themself, and it would barely make the news. It since has become fashionable to take as many with you as you can. That's a hard nut to crack.
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
Louie, isn't that the truth? It's also like how the people who should be running the world wouldn't dream of running for politics and the people who should have lots of kids don't...hahaha.
Jeff, oh well we are bound to disagree on some things, it's all good. To be honest with you I don't have a problem with people hunting for food as long as they really intend to eat the animal.
The problem is how to control gun ownership so that people who buy them are actually using them for such purposes? 90 guns for every 100 people. Tell me if I am being presumptuous here but dare I say that there are not 90 genuine hunters in every 100 citizens in the US?
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity
Let's face it, many Americans think violence first, ask questions later. Just look at what has happened in Iraq. We have the worst kind of leader, if we want less trigger-happy jackasses.
Here is a striking example of how America is more afraid of sex than violence. Remember Radiohead's OK Computer? There was an animated video from it, which was pretty much this animated guy kind of having a bad day. There are two scenes you need to know.
1. He gets his arms and/or legs amputated ( I can't remember exactly) and he falls into the water.
2. A couple of mermaids find him and bring him to the surface.
At the time I had both MTV and a Canadian music channel. On the Canadian channel, the amputations were blurred out, and the mermaids were topless.
On MTV, the amputations were all there, blood squirting and everything. But the mermaids had their breasts blurred out.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
90 guns for every 100 people . . . that figure is obscene
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
geez there are so many scary people in the world!
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
As far as banning them goes, in the vast majority of cases, the people who go through the process to become legal gun owners are not the ones committing crimes, and the people using guns for crime and violence probably already have an illegally obtained firearm anyway. So I'm not really sure what good banning or not banning guns does, as it doesn't really seem to impact the bottom line.
Regarding Jeff's last comment, I tend to think that the ultra-whackos who say things like that are only so much bluster and hot air (most of them, anyone). Still, in the unlikely event that the political climate changes that badly and those types of attacks ever actually DO become a reality, I'll be the first person getting a firearm for my home.
Comment by Hoot
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
But how are gun laws racist? I've never heard that claim before.
Also, I don't think all people who have guns are criminals. i just think tighter gun laws would make it less likely for some people to get hold of guns and mis-use them.
As I said, I live in another country and from over here, your gun laws seem to be way too lenient.
Comment by Hoot
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
But I think maybe the reason gun laws are tighter in the inner cities is because they do have higher crime rates there. It's kind of a chicken or the egg thing, I don't think liberals are targeting minorities. It kinda stands to reason that areas with a denser concentration of people will have more crime and thus more need for gun control.
Also, the whole 'guns for recreation and hunting' argument makes more sense in rural areas where people are more likely to go hunting. I don't think many people in Chicago shoot elk on the weekends.
Your 'I'm a republican aged 18-64' comment made me laugh. That's quite a demographic. Very all-encompassing. Good luck with the poker.
Comment by Anonymous