Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Jun 4, 2020 21:00:27 GMT
Another idea I once had was, "if we can't ban guns, let's just change the type they can have" and only allow very weak, low powered little air guns. See, you can still be armed, but with virtually ineffective weapons.
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Post by Gene Hunt on Jun 4, 2020 21:26:14 GMT
A friend of mine when I was younger had bother with a local bully over something silly. Soon after, the bully had got his hands on a pellet gun and waited for my friend to make an appearance. When he did, the bully shot him in the eye, blinding him. It resulted in him having to have a glass eye.
He never mentally recovered from it. He battled taunts over the glass eye for a few years before finally taking his own life.
No guns are safe and if you carry one, sooner or later it will be used.
Gene.
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DI Alex Drake
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Post by DI Alex Drake on Jun 4, 2020 21:44:53 GMT
A friend of mine when I was younger had bother with a local bully over something silly. Soon after, the bully had got his hands on a pellet gun and waited for my friend to make an appearance. When he did, the bully shot him in the eye, blinding him. It resulted in him having to have a glass eye. He never mentally recovered from it. He battled taunts over the glass eye for a few years before finally taking his own life. No guns are safe and if you carry one, sooner or later it will be used. Gene. Oh my god! That’s terrible. Why do humans have to be so awful to one another? (And other creatures besides, of course )
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Jun 5, 2020 14:56:18 GMT
Yes I can't see a reason why non lethal weapons couldn't replace guns for citizens, the police use them so why not the public?
Any person having maimed or killed someone with a firearm then has to live with the consequences of it, I don't think gun owners are prepared for that until they're faced with it. We know soldiers very often develop serious mental health problems as a result of what they've done or seen, why should a civilan not be similarly affected?
You seldom see the aftermath & consequences of a killing on a tv show or film, you just see someone get shot & the story moves on, it's not the case in the real World. Very rarely do you see stabbings in shows/films yet the consequences are the same as a gun shot, the only difference seems to be that you're maiming or killing someone from a distance with a gun, how many people would be prepared to use a gun if it involved being right next to the person as you killed them? You are literally putting distance between yourself & what you've done.
Another factor is that tv & newspapers ( at least in the West ) do not publish pictures of corpses & maimed bodies. Supposing we actually saw the aftermath of a terrorist atrocity or shooting, the blood & guts of children, footage that would be sickening to look at, would we become desensitised to it or would it act as a wake up call to people? This is a major factor I think in our attitudes to crime, the fact that we rarely see or are forced to confront it. How many criminals get to connect properly with their victims? Once they've commited a crime they're bundled away & the criminal justice system takes over.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jun 6, 2020 19:02:31 GMT
The only gun I have ever used is one of those ones at the fair where you shoot pellets at tin ducks. I did shoot with a Lee Enfield .303 when in the Air Training Corps as a lad in 73/74. Had quite a kick. WW2 vintage I think.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jun 6, 2020 19:06:12 GMT
A friend of mine when I was younger had bother with a local bully over something silly. Soon after, the bully had got his hands on a pellet gun and waited for my friend to make an appearance. When he did, the bully shot him in the eye, blinding him. It resulted in him having to have a glass eye. He never mentally recovered from it. He battled taunts over the glass eye for a few years before finally taking his own life. No guns are safe and if you carry one, sooner or later it will be used. Gene. Oh my god! That’s terrible. Why do humans have to be so awful to one another? (And other creatures besides, of course ) Yes, for heavens sake that is awful! I saw a picture of some nutty civilian in the US who decided to patrol his neighbourhood with all the trouble going on. He had some sort of assault rifle with a modified magazine about a foot long that must have held dozens of rounds. They are all mad.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Jun 6, 2020 19:28:02 GMT
It's telling that during the US protests over the virus lockdown a few weeks ago you had protesters carrying guns, they were free to do so & at least on the coverage I saw they were not challenged by the police. Although the recent protests have partly degenerated into rioting & looting, much of it was no different to the lockdown protests, ie. people waving placards & shouting, yet despite being unarmed they were met with riot police.
There may have been far fewer lockdown protesters but I'd be more fearful of going near them given that some of them were armed. God knows what would've happened had the George Floyd protesters been tooled up, I can't imagine a group of Black Lives Matter activists carrying guns would've lasted long.
A group of armed White American protesters stands for 'the right to bear arms', you'd have to be a fool to think that the average American views armed Black protesters in the same way. This is at the heart of the reaction to George Floyd's death I think, one rule for the Whites & another for the Blacks. Take Trump, supposing it was Obama who'd been caught on tape saying he grabbed women by the ***** , was on twitter constantly, held rallies where he got the crowd chanting & booing & said all the stuff Trump had said, how would that have gone down?
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Jun 6, 2020 19:46:40 GMT
I have been following the coverage and a stat that stuck out was that in the U.S.A there are just under 18000 different police agencies compared to 45 here in the U.K There are a wide range of differences in training etc over that amount of agencies. Approximately 100 officers die at the hands of felons every year over there too. Must also be down to the fact that many criminals are armed. Even watching police reality shows I often see them using force after stopping someone for minor offences such as speeding. Saw one recently where a middle aged woman was dragged out of her car and tasered for arguing about a ticket.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Jun 6, 2020 19:48:52 GMT
The only gun I have ever used is one of those ones at the fair where you shoot pellets at tin ducks. I did shoot with a Lee Enfield .303 when in the Air Training Corps as a lad in 73/74. Had quite a kick. WW2 vintage I think. Yes, it would have been, Dad said they had those when he was in the army then.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jun 6, 2020 20:04:15 GMT
I have been following the coverage and a stat that stuck out was that in the U.S.A there are just under 18000 different police agencies compared to 45 here in the U.K There are a wide range of differences in training etc over that amount of agencies. Approximately 100 officers die at the hands of felons every year over there too. Must also be down to the fact that many criminals are armed. Even watching police reality shows I often see them using force after stopping someone for minor offences such as speeding. Saw one recently where a middle aged woman was dragged out of her car and tasered for arguing about a ticket. Their whole society is just plain more violent. The way they treat suspected criminals, actual criminals, prisoners, members of their owned armed forces and the enemy or civilians on the battlefield. That's why having so many guns doesn't strike them as odd. They are comfortable with that level of violence.
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