…and because all the gun-toting yahoos at the convention, when they got excited, perhaps when the Donald mentioned water boarding and worse, would start shooting their guns in the air, forgetting there was a ceiling over their heads.
People, please understand: Guns don’t kill people; bullets kill people; guns just make the bullets fly straight and fast.
300,000,000 million guns and counting in the U.S. Wow, how much safer we all are! Out of curiosity, is there anybody from another country (a “ferner”) reading this thread, who thinks we’ve completely lost our minds?
I don’t think I’d be willing to visit the U.S. on account of all the guns. You’re completely nuts. Guns don’t have any civil applications. They are supposed to be law enforcements last resort, not a deterrent.
There is lots of deaths in my town. Shots are a big one, lots of drunks just sort of die, liver I guess. One in an empty lot next door a few months ago.Bikers cause a lot of deaths, several/yr. Not outlaw patch bikers, haven’t seen a real gang rider in years. These are new Harley riders that want to ride side by side in group formation, like in the movies. A few shots (whiskey or rum), and then they bump each other into opposing traffic. We lose 2 or 3 /yr like, for the last 30 years I have been reading local news. Bikers don’t shoot each other with guns, they just don’t know how to ride their new cruisers safely.
I love scuba diving, but that is dangerous to. Only a few months will go by without another death. Like clock work.
I could carry a gun if I wanted, but I don’t. Gun deaths are rare here, maybe one /yr. Whisky shots plus inexperience is the what gets most. I have never had a gun pulled on me, but if it happened, it would be a little late to pull out mine, so why bother.
I think it’s the movies that make American life look like a bunch of gun slingers. In real life, it’s 90% crazy drunks shooting their spouses, street gun shoot outs with strangers is extremely rare. Except on TV.
It’s not that I think I’d get shot. Just that people think it’s a good idea to own guns makes them creeps in my book.
I mean, I’d like to own a 3.5 W hand held laser (http://www.wickedlasers.com/arctic). It is affordable, available and legal (it shouldn’t be). But this is a terrible idea. So I’m not getting one.
The most attractive feature of such a laser is its high range, but open air use is so irresponsible that it should be a criminal offence. It has no sensible applications for me, just about everything you can do with it screams permanent eye damage. You need to engage it in a controlled environment where EVERYONE wears protective glasses.
The next problem is storage. You have to ensure no one ever gets their hands on it without being fully aware of all the dangers (it looks like a torch!). Imagine visiting friends or children turning it on. You don’t even have to look at it, just seeing the point on the wall suffices to damage your eyes. The only option is a safe. WTF.
Guns have their place, so do high power laser pointers. Just because you don’t have a use for them does not make them evil. It is disconcerting that some people feel that they need guns for protection from other people, but despite all the media hype most guns (at least in Canada and the US) are sporting arms used for hunting, recreation, and competition. Doe the fact that I use a firearm to harvest food and occasionally turn flying disks of clay into dust clouds make me a creep?
As for your laser, interesting that it has a built in cypher lock, almost like the manufacturer knew about your concerns and took measures to prevent accidental use by someone who didn’t know what it was.
I’m not sure what this has to do with a charismatic asshat currently running for the Republican presidential candidacy.
Hmm, good question…do you do these activities while atop a unicycle?
No, I would not call you a creep, because I don’t know you, and I am not a good judge of character. And I would argue that neither are you a good judge of character, particularly in regard to the character of whatever person, years in the future, is holding and aiming your gun.
In other words, there are more important issues than whether or not you’re a creep. Such as proliferation.
Trump is entertaining, and may be even more so as president. Still, maybe don’t give him one of those scary laser things. He is impulsive and likes to point.
As an extension of this philosophy I would recommend that you remove yourself from the gene pool as soon as possible. You should avoid the possibility that your progeny might be, or later themselves produce, the next cannibal, serial rapist, genocidal maniac, or presidential candidate.
This old quote from George Orwell seems oddly appropriate here:
“When I was a kid you could walk into a bicycle-shop or ironmonger’s and buy any firearm you pleased, short of a field gun, and it did not occur to most people that the Russian revolution and the Irish civil war would bring this state of affairs to an end.”
An excellent point. That was a thoughtless and hurtful association and I apologize to cannibals, serial rapists, and genocidal maniacs everywhere. My saving grace is that I at least did not compare them to the Kardashians.
Yes, that little quote was his way of illustrating what would also happen to the printing press: eventually, buying one with no questions asked would be impossible. He was right, in a way, though the current reach of the NSA’s surveillance and assassination powers is beyond Big Brother’s wildest dreams.
Printing press! What a cute idea! Combine a garlic press and a laser printer? The only questions we should ask someone buying a laser printer is “Would you like to extend the manufacturer’s warranty?”
“Printing presses” today seldom involve paper, and people who operate them, rather than being questioned by police officers, are all automatically scrutinized by a massive surveillance apparatus.
I read that the new data storage center in Bluffdale, Utah, costs $40 million a year for the electric bill alone! It is for storing metadata (and undoubtedly some content) of phone calls, text messages, emails, browsing history, etc) of people everywhere. Michael Hayden, as head of the NSA (which runs that place in Bluffdale, as well as many similar places around the country and around the globe) famously said: “We kill people based on metadata.”
So yes, you can buy a printer, or even a PC, with no questions asked, but perhaps questions are no longer needed.
