US Journalists Shot Dead On Air

[Halb]

Dr Jekyll said:

I was firing one of these in a small Thames Valley village a few months back. All perfectly legal.

Playing a real life version of Tom Clancy's Special Ops: Thames Valley edition?

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I think the post up above somewhere that deals with the psychosis of Americans gets closest to the issue. That and their huge and overwhelmingly overused prescription drug society.

The NRA, the are a special bunch of s. I watch the John OLiver show and the NRA campaigned against an anti-ivory law.
Bunch of utter s.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/03/05/3362801/...

[Matt Harper]

jimmyjimjim said:

creampuff said:

gavsdavs said:

Not having these killing machines available to all would be a good first step. I'm sure you're now going to tell me that isn't the case and you're all very well behaved really, but what we regularly see in the press just doesn't tally up. It looks like the US has a problem that it should start to address.

This is why the NRA has so many members. The overwhelming majority of gun owners are "well behaved really" as you put it. You are welcome to take a look at the FBI website and see where and who uses guns illegally - and it is not your average gun owning suburban 9-to-5 American who is doing any illegal shooting. When you have millions of peaceful gun owners who have never pointed their gun at anybody and the shrill anti-gun brigade come along talking about "killing machines" and want to ban everything that they can, then peaceful gun owners join the NRA because the NRA is a good advocacy body.

Now the NRA opposes any restriction on guns, which I think is a pretty bad idea. There could be a lot more done to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill or criminal people and over half of Americans think this. But when you have anti-gun ownership posts like this, it just makes people join the NRA and oppose any form of restriction because of this over-the-top ban-everything brigade.

Every post about "killing machines" or "guns have no sporting use" (why is shooting in the Olympics then?) just makes gun owners dig their heels in and oppose any restriction, even if they themselves think more restrictions may be a good idea.

This really describes the situation regarding gun control in the US perfectly.

I don't think the NRA has many members (proportionally to the population and the gun owning population). I think the NRA is a highly dangerous, manipulative and dishonest organization that serves ONLY firearm and ammunition manufacturer's interests by essentially bribing (mainly, not exclusively) conservative members of local, state and federal government. I own firearms and I would never support either the NRA or GOA. I would also vote for rigorous vetting and evaluation of any potential firearm acquisition - retrospective and current - and would be happy to pay for those measures. The NRA is NOT the last line of defense against government disarming of the US populace - even though they would like us all to believe that.

Other measures that could possibly help might be to make it a felony to sell a firearm to anyone other than a licensed dealer and to make illegal the practice of "gun shows", where unlicensed/unregulated trading of firearms is so prevalent - and totally under the radar.
Prosecution of gun dealers and pawn shops found selling stolen firearms would also help stem some of the trade in unregistered/non-traceable weapons. A recent raid on a pawn shop in the city I live in revealed that 30% of the weapons in their inventory were reported as stolen at some point in their history.

Trying to enforce an outright ban, would be like trying to ban smoking tobacco - there are measures that can be applied to make it more difficult, expensive and anti-social, but an arbitrary ban could never practically be enforced.

[creampuff]

gavsdavs said:

I'm trying to understand the desire to own one

Sure! Trying to understand by saying things like:

gavsdavs said:

It's in the blood (sometimes literally)... really has no place in a civilised society in the 21st century

gavsdavs said:

It's as if every family has to lose someone and feel the pain

gavsdavs said:

(i.e sports) it simply an afterthought.

gavsdavs said:

Not having these killing machines available to all

[Dr Jekyll]

Halb said:

Dr Jekyll said:

I was firing one of these in a small Thames Valley village a few months back. All perfectly legal.

Playing a real life version of Tom Clancy's Special Ops: Thames Valley edition?

That's just the point, it wasn't. Members of the public were invited into a gun club to have a go at using .22 calibre rimfire rifles on an indoor target range. Those who attended were not camouflage clad fantasists but perfectly normal and respectable if largely middle aged people. we all learnt a bit about the sport of target shooting and particularly the safety procedures. Holes were punched in pieces of paper, we all had an interesting enjoyable and extremely safe time. The atmosphere was no different from a club associated with any other hobby. Except that as competitive sports go, it was rather safer than most.

Why is it so difficult for some people to grasp that target shooting is a perfectly normal sport and not some kind of cover for homicidal maniacs?

[Halb]

Dr Jekyll said:

That's just the point, it wasn't. Members of the public were invited into a gun club to have a go at using .22 calibre rimfire rifles on an indoor target range. Those who attended were not camouflage clad fantasists but perfectly normal and respectable if largely middle aged people. we all learnt a bit about the sport of target shooting and particularly the safety procedures. Holes were punched in pieces of paper, we all had an interesting enjoyable and extremely safe time. The atmosphere was no different from a club associated with any other hobby. Except that as competitive sports go, it was rather safer than most.

Why is it so difficult for some people to grasp that target shooting is a perfectly normal sport and not some kind of cover for homicidal maniacs?

Joke.