Yeah, your guys' guns and gun systems are just so good. I can hardly contain my eagerness to move there.

I can't believe it's only the 3rd, and this is the first shooting. Wasn't there like 6 this time last year? You guys are getting sloppy. You need to keep up your prestegious record.

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20th century, go to sleep.
--
R.E.M.
****
Read chapters one and two of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Show no patience, tolerance, or restraint.

People who own guns get all this shit from those who don't, and pretend they actually know something about it.

I'm sorry, but WHAT?

Actually, even in the US, most people didn't own weapons until AFTER the Civil War, it's a popular myth that everyone had a flintlock in the closet before hand.

There was a facinating discussion on local talk radio sometime last week. Guy named Phil Valentine was reading off various newspaper articles from around the country, during a discussion of the whacko in MA. Apparently, on the same day that seven people died (in a situation that could have been avoided completely by one of the other workers having a gun), at least twelve people were reported by major papers as having their lives SAVED by private citizens with a gun. And that's just in a quick-n-dirty search of major cities. The media only report the bad stuff that happens.

Those who did or did not own firearms can be divided...pre-Civil War at least...into those who lived in cities and those who lived in more unsettled communities or in frontier areas.

In either of the later cases, owning a firearm, perhaps one or two per family and not with the current prevalence, was almost a necessity.

Cost precluded all members, or at the very least all male members, of a large family from owning individual firearms...I should imagine that shotguns would have been the most prevalent...and would have been used for hunting or whatever forms of protection from natives that was necessitated by stealing, er, settling land away from the East Coast of the United States.

Living in a large eastern city required a lesser need for an individual firearm. Although again, there may have been that famiy musket hanging about, then again clerking in New York or Charleston offered a lower chance of Indian attack.

But now because of the lowered cost of firearms and because we are no longer limited more to the longarm of the Civil War and pre-Civil War era...it seems that everyone owns a weapon and some of us take our pistols to class to show our friends.

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Oh, yes, sitting. The great leveler. From the mightiest Pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?
~C. Montgomery Burns

Fraance. Don't you EVER read history? Or a spelling book?

Just because our citizen-soldiers were armed doesn't mean they were armed with their own weapons. The British under General Gage were marching to sieze a rebel store of guns and powder when the first shots were fired ... you know, the 'shot heard round the world.' Anyway, if everybody had their own rifle, why would the rebels need to store a bunch in one place? Answer: lots of people DIDN'T have their own rifles!

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.83 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux
***
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier ... just as long as I'm the dictator." - George "Dubya" Bush, Dec 18, 2000

Hnnnnggg.

Anyone remember a conversation that went like this?

Omega: Ad HOMINEM, you lingually challenged twit. It's spelled H-O-M-I-N-E-M. You could at least do yourself the favor of seeing how the word is spelled by looking at the times First and I have used it. Maybe you could even look it up.

Liam (that's me, duh): Great BRITAIN, you lingually challenged twit. It's spelled B-R-I-T-A-I-N. You could at least do yourself the favour of seeing how the word is spelled by looking at the times I and everyone else have used it. Maybe you could even look it up.

Omega: When did I say I was a superior speller? I simply stated that your spelling was incorrect, and has been for the couple dozen times you've used the word. And that's even after you'd been corrected by Rob. If you REALLY want to compair to me, then look up how many times I misspelled "Britain" after I was told it was wrong.

*cough*
I've counted one mispelling out of one so far. That gives you a 100% error rate. So I say to you, nyah! (Oh, and "compare".)

Somewhere in the deep recesses of the reptilian area of that mind of yours, there HAS to be a glimmering around the concept of "a running joke."

Britain. I mean, doesn't he ALWAYS misspell it?
(I may start to, just to annoy you and poke fun at any brutish -- er, british -- claims of non-nationalism.)

Or does he perhaps frequently double strike the T, similar to the manner in which those of us who are fast hunt-and-poke typers frequently type "teh" for "the?"

In any case, your point is irrelevant, moot, and unworthy.

The guy who shot 7 people? He didn't legally possess ANY of those guns. He had no permits. Check in to how he got the guns. Destroy those responsible. THAT will serve justice.

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"Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master

Inside help?

Questions on the new school incident:

1 Did the kid get the gun legally? I doubt it, it's already illegal for 15 year olds to own handguns. It's also illegal to concealed carry them without a permit (and he HAD to have had it concealed, or he'd have never gotten in the door), or to bring them on to school grounds, usually even if you HAVE a permit.

2 What kind of parents did this kid have, (IF it was THEIR gun) who weren't smart enough to teach him about safe gun use? Or to simply keep him away from it?

3 What kind of kid is this that he's this stupid / ignorant / inconsiderate / disrespectful to laws and civilized behavior?

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"Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master

As for the kid ... you know, teenagers don't neccessarily understand a lot of stuff. They're at that stage where they're immortal (well, they think they are) and they can do anything they want and not feel the consequences. It's not so much disrespect, as it is just not fully knowing what they're doing.

I'm reminded of a case where a 2nd grader was expelled for bringing a gun to school. In his case, his father was a cop and over the weekend had borrowed his son's bookbag to take his gun somewhere. He forgot it was still in the bookbag, and his son packed up the bookbag and went to school. The kid found the gun during class and took it to the teacher, who called the office, who called the police, etcetra. Anyway, hopefully more info on this will come out, but I think the kid's parents are going to be in a LOT of hot-water ... the kid who got shot can probably sue if the gun belonged to the parents.

This is why trigger-locks are a good idea. Sorry for beating a dead horse, but ...

"Then where, praytell, did our army to kick Brittan's butt come from?"

Fraance.

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20th century, go to sleep.
--
R.E.M.
****
Read chapters one and two of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Show no patience, tolerance, or restraint.