Nebs Sez
...I was going to post this on Gun Control: Calls For Tougher Regulations Stir Little Support, but it was too long...
"The death toll in Aurora is equal to the average weekend death toll in Chicago's gang war, though nobody gives a damn about that because those are nearly all young black males getting shot in the inner city.
Said gangs are part and parcel of The War on [Some] Drugs, which is of course the result of Prohibition, which has been shown over and over again to not only NOT solve the problem, but make it far worse. And the way gun control has made things worse is by disarming the average citizen.
Spree killers pick locations where they know their targets will be unarmed and defenseless. They want a shooting gallery, not a firefight. And our strict gun control laws provide vast numbers of what the military calls 'target rich environments'.
Now the standard response to this is that if several of the location's occupants had guns and started shooting back there would be bullets flying all over the place and that would be worse. That is a partially valid argument, though it assumes that all gun owners would go 'cowboy', which is not valid, especially in this last event where many of the theater goers were active duty military personnel.
And the argument is besides the point. The point is Deterrence. If a locale is known to allow gun owners to carry, then criminals and most spree killers will avoid said locale. I mean who but an idiot tries to rob a cop bar?
As for suicidal spree killers, they're looking for a date with the SWAT team and probably don't want to merely get wounded by a citizen with only moderate shooting skills.
I know this won't change the minds of the anti-gun zealots. For them I have a mathematical conundrum. There are over ninety million gun owners in this country and we collectively posses over a quarter of a billion guns. [yes, that's a 'B'] Even the entire US military cannot disarm us, nor would they try because most of them were raised with guns themselves.
Now instead of more pointless squawking about More Gun Control, how about making a serious effort about a building a better mental health system so people like Mr. Holmes can find help [or get flagged] before they end up needing to be killed."
"The death toll in Aurora is equal to the average weekend death toll in Chicago's gang war, though nobody gives a damn about that because those are nearly all young black males getting shot in the inner city.
Said gangs are part and parcel of The War on [Some] Drugs, which is of course the result of Prohibition, which has been shown over and over again to not only NOT solve the problem, but make it far worse. And the way gun control has made things worse is by disarming the average citizen.
Spree killers pick locations where they know their targets will be unarmed and defenseless. They want a shooting gallery, not a firefight. And our strict gun control laws provide vast numbers of what the military calls 'target rich environments'.
Now the standard response to this is that if several of the location's occupants had guns and started shooting back there would be bullets flying all over the place and that would be worse. That is a partially valid argument, though it assumes that all gun owners would go 'cowboy', which is not valid, especially in this last event where many of the theater goers were active duty military personnel.
And the argument is besides the point. The point is Deterrence. If a locale is known to allow gun owners to carry, then criminals and most spree killers will avoid said locale. I mean who but an idiot tries to rob a cop bar?
As for suicidal spree killers, they're looking for a date with the SWAT team and probably don't want to merely get wounded by a citizen with only moderate shooting skills.
I know this won't change the minds of the anti-gun zealots. For them I have a mathematical conundrum. There are over ninety million gun owners in this country and we collectively posses over a quarter of a billion guns. [yes, that's a 'B'] Even the entire US military cannot disarm us, nor would they try because most of them were raised with guns themselves.
Now instead of more pointless squawking about More Gun Control, how about making a serious effort about a building a better mental health system so people like Mr. Holmes can find help [or get flagged] before they end up needing to be killed."