Gun Control

[quote]b89 wrote:

[quote]hungry4more wrote:

[quote]JayPierce wrote:
Well, that is where the rubber meats the road, beans, and different people have drawn their lines with different criteria.

A lot of people had their lines crossed long ago, and are waiting. A lot of people had their lines crossed recently, and are waiting. The majority of people are about to have theirs crossed, and then I fear the waiting will stop.

What do you do if your neighbor’s door gets kicked in during the night? Do you cower in fear? Do you ignore it as long as it isn’t you? Or do you rise to their aid, knowing you will probably die?[/quote]

In today’s America, where someone can get raped on a busy city street and have nobody come to their aid…most people would just be glad it’s not them [yet]. [/quote]

They’re probably too busy talking about it on facebook or texting someone. Reminds me of the time I was driving around one night with a friend and seen a car flipped over in a ditch. I jumped out of my car and ran over to it, he’s texting. I checked the car for people, he’s in my car texting. I called 911 and reported the flipped over car, still texting. And then I get back in my car and he says “fuck that, there could have been a dead body in there!” while texting.[/quote]

Fuck that. Get better friends IMO. I don’t want to hang out with somebody like that. Good on you for doing what you should have done though, good man.

[quote]pittbulll wrote:

[quote]b89 wrote:
I don’t think Obama would come right out and try to outlaw firearms, that’s something done over a period of time and is chipped away at. I really can’t see him trying to push anything too restrictive through, not when Fast and Furious can be brought up. That could shift support pretty quickly when the average person hears “If you want strict gun control why did you force firearm dealers to sell weapons to criminal organizations?”, then you really are only left with your loyal supporters that side with Democrats no matter what. Realistically, I think mag capacity is the biggest issue. It’s an easy target, it’ll be easier to reach a deal on than banning firearms that generate a lot of revenue for gun manufacturers and it’s been getting negative attention for awhile now. [/quote]

I agree about magazine capacity , I also think the cat is out of the bag. There are a lot a 30 to 50 round clips out there .[/quote]

Agreed. Only banning magazine capacity won’t do fuck-all regarding crime or mass shootings or anything else. I posted this elsewhere, but here’s the quotes again:

[quote]Iâ??ve seen this one pop up a lot. It sounds good to the ear and really satisfies that weâ??ve got to do something need. It sounds simple. Bad guys shoot a lot of people in a mass shooting. So if he has magazines that hold fewer rounds, ergo then heâ??ll not be able to shoot as many people.

Wrong. And Iâ??ll break it down, first why my side wants more rounds in our gun, second why tactically it doesnâ??t really stop the problem, and third, why stopping them is a logistical impossibility.

First off, why do gun owners want magazines that hold more rounds? Because sometimes you miss. Because usuallyâ??contrary to the moviesâ??you have to hit an opponent multiple times in order to make them stop. Because sometimes you may have multiple assailants. We donâ??t have more rounds in the magazine so we can shoot more, we have more rounds in the magazine so we are forced to manipulate our gun less if we have to shoot more.

The last assault weapons ban capped capacities at ten rounds. You quickly realize ten rounds sucks when you take a wound ballistics class like I have and go over case after case after case after case of enraged, drug addled, prison hardened, perpetrators who soaked up five, seven, nine, even fifteen bullets and still walked under their own power to the ambulance. That isnâ??t uncommon at all. Legally, you can shoot them until they cease to be a threat, and keep in mind that what normally causes a person to stop is loss of blood pressure, so I used to tell my students that anybody worth shooting once was worth shooting five or seven times. You shoot them until they leave you alone.

Also, youâ??re going to miss. It is going to happen. If you can shoot pretty little groups at the range, those groups are going to expand dramatically under the stress and adrenalin. The more you train, the better you will do, but you can still may miss, or the bad guy may end up hiding behind something which your bullets donâ??t penetrate. Nobody has ever survived a gunfight and then said afterwards, â??Darn, I wish I hadnâ??t brought all that extra ammo.â??

So having more rounds in the gun is a good thing for self-defense use.

Now tactically, letâ??s say a mass shooter is on a rampage in a school. Unless his brain has turned to mush and heâ??s a complete idiot, heâ??s not going to walk up right next to you while he reloads anyway. Unlike the CCW holder who gets attacked and has to defend himself in whatever crappy situation he finds himself in, the mass shooter is the aggressor. Heâ??s picked the engagement range. They are cowards who are murdering running and hiding children, but donâ??t for a second make the mistake of thinking they are dumb. Many of these scumbags are actually very intelligent. Theyâ??re just broken and evil.

In the cases that Iâ??m aware of where the shooter had guns that held fewer rounds they just positioned themselves back a bit while firing or they brought more guns, and simply switched guns and kept on shooting, and then reloaded before they moved to the next planned firing position. Unless you are a fumble fingered idiot, anybody who practices in front of a mirror a few dozen times can get to where they can insert a new magazine into a gun in a few seconds.

A good friend of mine (who happens to be a very reasonable democrat) was very hung up on this, sure that he would be able to take advantage of the time in which it took for the bad guy to reload his gun. Thatâ??s a bad assumption, and hereâ??s yet another article that addresses that sort of misconception that I wrote several years ago which has sort of made the rounds on firearmâ??s forums. My Gunfight â?? â??Thinking Outside Your Boxâ?? So thatâ??s awesome if it happens, but good luck with that.

Finally, letâ??s look at the logistical ramifications of another magazine ban. The AWB banned the production of all magazines over ten rounds except those marked for military or law enforcement use, and it was a felony to possess those.

Over the ten years of the ban, we never ran out. Not even close. Magazines are cheap and basic. Most of them are pieces of sheet metal with some wire. Thatâ??s it. Magazines are considered disposable so most gun people accumulate a ton of them. All it did was make magazines more expensive, ticked off law abiding citizens, and didnâ??t so much as inconvenience a single criminal.

Meanwhile, bad guys didnâ??t run out either. And if they did, like I said, they are cheap and basic, so you just get or make more. If you can cook meth, you can make a functioning magazine. My old company designed a rifle magazine once, and Iâ??m no engineer. I paid a CAD guy, spent $20,000 and churned out several thousand 20 round Saiga .308 mags. This couldâ??ve been done out of my garage.

Ten years. No difference. Meanwhile, we had bad guys turning up all the time committing crimes, and guess what was marked on the mags found in their guns? MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT USE ONLY. Because once again, if youâ??re already breaking a bunch of laws, they can only hang you once. Criminals simply donâ??t care.

Once the AWB timed out, because every politician involved looked at the mess which had been passed in the heat of the moment, the fact it did nothing, and the fact that every single one of them from a red state would lose their job if they voted for a new one, it expired and went away. Immediately every single gun person in America went out and bought a couple guns which had been banned and a bucket of new magazines, because nothing makes an American want to do something more than telling them they canâ??t. Weâ??ve been stocking up ever since. If the last ban did literally nothing at all over a decade, and since then weâ??ve purchased another hundred million magazines since then, another ban will do even less. (except just make the law abiding that much angrier, and Iâ??ll get to that below).

I bought $600 worth of magazines for my competition pistol this morning. Iâ??ve already got a shelf full for my rifles. Gun and magazine sales skyrocket every time a democrat politician starts to vulture in on a tragedy.[/quote]

Hey Rock,

Have you seen the newest form of bullshit, there is a proposal to pass a Rain Tax here ?

SMH

I totally understand what you are getting at in your argument. You are trying to show that not all speech is completely free, despite no restrictions on it in the constitution.

It falls apart though, because guns already have the same restrictions (with the same absolute rights in the constitution). If I take a gun and use it illegally I will get in trouble.

Both situations (using a gun illegally, or yelling fire in a theatre) seem to be common sense issues. Where I think your argument falls apart, though, is if you were to ask the question: Because the word fire can be used in a lawless way, do we have the right to ban the use of the word “fire”?

I think that is where it becomes unconstitutional.

[quote]butler244 wrote:
SMH

I totally understand what you are getting at in your argument. You are trying to show that not all speech is completely free, despite no restrictions on it in the constitution.

It falls apart though, because guns already have the same restrictions (with the same absolute rights in the constitution). If I take a gun and use it illegally I will get in trouble.

Both situations (using a gun illegally, or yelling fire in a theatre) seem to be common sense issues. Where I think your argument falls apart, though, is if you were to ask the question: Because the word fire can be used in a lawless way, do we have the right to ban the use of the word “fire”?

I think that is where it becomes unconstitutional.
[/quote]

I understand this argument, but keep in mind that the Second Amendment does not say anything about when it is alright and when it is not alright to use a gun. It simply protects the right to keep and bear them.

In other words, the freedom from abridgment of speech is to the First Amendment as gun [b]ownership[/b]–not gun use–is to the Second Amendment.

Therefore, an abridgment of speech is to the First Amendment as an abridgment of [b]ownership[/b] is to the Second Amendment.

Yet another way of phrasing it: Brandenburg does to the letter of the First Amendment exactly the same thing (same in kind, not necessarily same in degree) that a gun control bill banning high-capacity magazines does to the Second Amendment.

Which is why I’ve been equating the two…

[quote]

I understand this argument, but keep in mind that the Second Amendment does not say anything about when it is alright and when it is not alright to use a gun. It simply protects the right to keep and bear them.

In other words, the freedom from abridgment of speech is to the First Amendment as gun ownership–not gun use–is to the Second Amendment.

Therefore, an abridgment of speech is to the First Amendment as an abridgment of ownership is to the Second Amendment.

Yet another way of phrasing it: Brandenburg does to the letter of the First Amendment exactly the same thing (same in kind, not necessarily same in degree) that a gun control bill banning high-capacity magazines does to the Second Amendment.

Which is why I’ve been equating the two… [/quote]

Fair enough, while I do not know enough about the constitution to agree or disagree with that logic I can see what you mean now. Thanks

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

Hey Rock,

Have you seen the newest form of bullshit, there is a proposal to pass a Rain Tax here ?[/quote]

No. WTF?

[quote]Rockscar wrote:

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

Hey Rock,

Have you seen the newest form of bullshit, there is a proposal to pass a Rain Tax here ?[/quote]

No. WTF?[/quote]

"Today, Los Angeles County officials will pitch a new plan to cut pollutants by capturing rain closer to where it falls – and the county’s flood control district wants property owners to pay for it.

An ambitious proposal would tax every one of the countyâ??s 2.2 million property owners and use the revenue to capture, filter and reuse the stormwater before it ever hits the complex storm sewer system that twists and turns under Los Angeles County’s nine watersheds. County supervisors hold a public hearing Tuesday to hear questions about and challenges to the proposal."

[quote]Aragorn wrote:

[quote]b89 wrote:

[quote]hungry4more wrote:

[quote]JayPierce wrote:
Well, that is where the rubber meats the road, beans, and different people have drawn their lines with different criteria.

A lot of people had their lines crossed long ago, and are waiting. A lot of people had their lines crossed recently, and are waiting. The majority of people are about to have theirs crossed, and then I fear the waiting will stop.

What do you do if your neighbor’s door gets kicked in during the night? Do you cower in fear? Do you ignore it as long as it isn’t you? Or do you rise to their aid, knowing you will probably die?[/quote]

In today’s America, where someone can get raped on a busy city street and have nobody come to their aid…most people would just be glad it’s not them [yet]. [/quote]

They’re probably too busy talking about it on facebook or texting someone. Reminds me of the time I was driving around one night with a friend and seen a car flipped over in a ditch. I jumped out of my car and ran over to it, he’s texting. I checked the car for people, he’s in my car texting. I called 911 and reported the flipped over car, still texting. And then I get back in my car and he says “fuck that, there could have been a dead body in there!” while texting.[/quote]

Fuck that. Get better friends IMO. I don’t want to hang out with somebody like that. Good on you for doing what you should have done though, good man.[/quote]

If there’s some unknown danger with something I think his brain is hardwired to say “Nuh-uh. Homey don’t play that”. He isn’t too bad of a guy though.

[quote]Aragorn wrote:

[quote]pittbulll wrote:

[quote]b89 wrote:
I don’t think Obama would come right out and try to outlaw firearms, that’s something done over a period of time and is chipped away at. I really can’t see him trying to push anything too restrictive through, not when Fast and Furious can be brought up. That could shift support pretty quickly when the average person hears “If you want strict gun control why did you force firearm dealers to sell weapons to criminal organizations?”, then you really are only left with your loyal supporters that side with Democrats no matter what. Realistically, I think mag capacity is the biggest issue. It’s an easy target, it’ll be easier to reach a deal on than banning firearms that generate a lot of revenue for gun manufacturers and it’s been getting negative attention for awhile now. [/quote]

I agree about magazine capacity , I also think the cat is out of the bag. There are a lot a 30 to 50 round clips out there .[/quote]

Agreed. Only banning magazine capacity won’t do fuck-all regarding crime or mass shootings or anything else. I posted this elsewhere, but here’s the quotes again:

[/quote]

Sorry for removing part of your post but it’s only to save space. I don’t think a high capacity mag ban is really meant to solve anything, it’s meant to be a victory for those that want to move towards a firearm ban. It really just comes down to the game of politics. A semi-auto ban is pretty broad, support for that could be difficult to maintain. With an “assault weapons” ban I think it’ll leave the average person dumbfounded when the difference between an “assault weapon” and plain old weapon is demonstrated. It’ll probably end up too partisan to really be firm on. But with high capacity magazines it’s an easy target and could easily get pushed through, support for it’ll probably be difficult to maintain since the average person probably wont see why someone could need a 50 round mag for a rifle when they could just as easily use a 10 round mag. And in true politician fashion opposition to a high capacity mag ban will be met with “they want to allow people to have those 50 round magazines, magazines mass shooters use…”.

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]Alpha F wrote:
Can somebody please tell smh he won so that he can stop cluttering this thread with his obsessive debate gaming.

[/quote]

This is called discussion. It’s the point of this thread. Have you anything to say about the particulars of my argument? [/quote]

Yes. They are simplistic and deeply flawed. [quote]

Or would you rather I copy and paste a bunch of platitudinous quotes I found somewhere on the internet? I’ll start looking through Red Dawn’s IMDB page for good ones.[/quote]

No. I would rather you followed your own mind and heart and showed what you stand up for - for a change.
That is if you have any moral fiber to you instead of just accusing every one else who displays that “platitudinous”.

Which side of the fence are you on?

Do you even know or are you here just to practice your A, B, AB, BA, C…rules of discussion club?

What are you passionate about?

Do you even shoot?

Or just shoot out of your mouth in a methodical A, B, AB, BA, format?

I miss the older males of T-Nation.

WELCOME back Rockscar!

[quote]smh23 wrote:

Whatever their motivation (As I said, some of the founders might not have been as opposed to speech likely to incite imminent lawless action as we are today), we agree on this: the founders didn’t define the boundaries. That leaves it to their progeny to do so (after all, that is what a law against speech likely to incite imminent lawless action is).

As we do define those boundaries, we cannot be so rigid as to consider a phrase like “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech” so literally absolute as to render every word spoken under every conceivable circumstance a Constitutionally-protected, unassailable act.

I say it is the same with weapons.

[/quote]

I say it’s different. For one thing the intent of the Second Amendment was to satisfy the states’ and people’s requirement to protect themselves against a tyrannical federal government. There is a similarity there with free speech however the original intent has to be considered in both cases. I have already mentioned the intent of the Fist Amendment. The intent of the Second was largely to protect the states’ and people from a tyrannical federal government.

We can argue that a nuclear warhead should not be permitted to civilians. But it’s ALREADY NOT permitted to civilians. The fact is Second Amendment restrictions already cross the line by a longshot. So it’s not meaningful to discuss the boundaries of the 2nd Amendment when they have not been crossed.

Agreed. And that’s why nuclear warheads are not available to the public.

Again, MPADS are ALREADY NOT AVAILABLE to the public.

[quote]

So, in my view, an “assault weapons” ban may be wise or unwise and it may or may not save lives, but it is not necessarily unconstitutional.[/quote]

It would be unwise and unconstitutional in the sense that it doesn’t provide for the original intent of the ratifiers. “Assault weapons” are necessary for personal protection and if necessary guerrilla warfare.

It does raise an interesting question about where the boundaries lie however. But I’d have to agree with Push that I’m not sure I could determine exactly there limits. However as I said it’s hypothetical and what’s important now are the infringements of 2nd Amendment rights and what to do about them.

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:

[quote]smh23 wrote:
I can’t believe I have to explain this, but here:

Free speech is to the First Amendment as gun OWNERSHIP is to the Second Amendment.

Now–just like the distributive property in algebra–we add and disseminate an abridgment to the equation.

An abridgment of free speech does to the First Amendment what an abridgment of gun OWNERSHIP does to the Second Amendment.

Brandenburg is an abridgment of free speech.

The rest follows from there.[/quote]

To continue where I left off on this post–

So, either you believe that a citizen should not face criminal charges after he, for example, shouts “fire” in a crowded room with the intention of inciting violence, thereby setting off a chain of events which killed an elderly woman

or

you believe that Constitutionally-protected rights can, in the name of public safety, be abridged in some of their manifestations.

Which, for the knives that might want to play dull, is not to say that you think it’s a good idea to further restrict arms ownership. Only that it could theoretically be Constitutional in exactly the same way that Brandenburg is.[/quote]

Push, as I understand it you’re traveling, but I’m interested in your response to this when you get the time.[/quote]

I’ve addressed it several times. I don’t know what more you want.

Move on to other court decisions that actually DO directly address gun control like Heller and Chicago.[/quote]

You have not addressed its substance.

The argument I make here–that the First Amendment’s prohibition of the criminalization of speech is directly analogous to the Second Amendment’s prohibition of infringement on the right of the people to keep and bear arms (in that each is what the Amendment explicitly prescribes); or, in other words, that freedom from persecution for speech is to the First Amendment as [b]gun ownership[/b] is to the Second Amendment–has been met with silence by you.

Two questions, your answers to which I’m honestly curious to see:

Should a hypothetical man face criminal charges for shouting “fire” in a crowded movie theater where there was no fire, setting off a stampede during which one or more people were trampled to death?

And, if yes:

Do you or do you not agree, in light of the fact that the First Amendment prohibits the abridgment of speech without elaboration and you’ve just advocated the criminalization of a particular act of speech, that Constitutionally-protected rights can, in the name of public safety, be abridged in certain of their manifestations?[/quote]

The analogy and your synopsis are deeply flawed. Your point that freedom of speech has been ‘abridged,’ setting a precedent for the abridgement of other natural rights is nonsensical. The standard set by Brandenburg v. Ohio is that the speech must be likely to cause ‘imminent lawless action.’ That bears no relation to restrictions on the types of firearms a citizen can own. It would bear some similarity though, with someone known to be plotting a criminal conspiracy and intending to aquire weapons for that purpose. But there are already criminal conspiracy laws in place to deal with that.[/quote]

I tried explaining this too him more than once. I think he has a bad spark plug or two and is not firing on all cylinders.[/quote]

He’s often very sharp but unfortunately has many of the drawbacks of a “liberal” education. [Yes I’m talking about you behind your back smh!]

Vermont’s unique approach to “registration”:

http://patriotaction.net/profiles/blogs/a-novel-idea-register-nongun

A Novel Idea. Register non-gun owners

Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, as well as Vermont 's own Constitution very carefully, and
his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New
England and elsewhere.

Maslack recently proposed a bill to register “non-gun-owners” and require
them to pay a $500 fee to the state.
Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a
fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun

Maslack read the “militia” phrase of the Second Amendment as not only affirming the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear
mandate to do so.
He believes that universal gun ownership was advocated by the Framers of the Constitution as an antidote to a “monopoly of force” by
the government as well as criminals

[quote]pushharder wrote:

It should be easier to ban or restrict a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun than a hand held weapon intended for military applications.

Savvy?[/quote]

When I tried to buy a Red Ryder BB gun for my oldest son in New Jersey in 98, I was told I had to have a police permit to even hold it at the sporting goods store.

I just bought one for him the next time I was back in Nebraska.

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Vermont’s unique approach to “registration”:

http://patriotaction.net/profiles/blogs/a-novel-idea-register-nongun

A Novel Idea. Register non-gun owners

Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, as well as Vermont 's own Constitution very carefully, and
his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New
England and elsewhere.

Maslack recently proposed a bill to register “non-gun-owners” and require
them to pay a $500 fee to the state.
Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a
fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun

Maslack read the “militia” phrase of the Second Amendment as not only affirming the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear
mandate to do so.
He believes that universal gun ownership was advocated by the Framers of the Constitution as an antidote to a “monopoly of force” by
the government as well as criminals[/quote]

Indeed!

I actually like this guy.

He is the anti-liberal.

If Liberalism is now the god that ruleth America we need more devils like him.

When appealing to reason with libs doesn’t work, tit for tat is the ace card.