Maybe crime has dropped by half in part because we lock away a lot of the violent criminals for very long terms (I am against drug incarceration fyi)

Back in the 60's and 70's prisons were like revolving doors. A 'life sentence' meant usually 13-20 years maximum and a lot of violent offenders and murders were put back onto the street to kill again. That changed in the 80's, and along with liberalization of gun laws crime took a serious nosedive as evidenced in the graph posted earlier.

Yet there were also mass killings. Littleton and Aurora Colorado and Newtown Connecticut are all nice and safe places to live for the most part. And the killings that happened there were especially heinous, but they represent a drop in the bucket compared to the murder rates before 1990. As long as people are free, some will use that freedom to act out their rage to kill and should lose their freedom forever. It doesn't help that most of the mass murderers of the past two decades were on Kill Pills known as SSRIs and more people are forced to take them every day.

Of course it's also a good time to mention while we're on the subject of mass murder that cigarettes killed almost 450,000 people in the United States last year while about 300,000,000 guns killed nobody. Which mass murders do we want to punish? Is that technically mass suicide?

Quote from flymike91 :

Maybe crime has dropped by half in part because we lock away a lot of the violent criminals for very long terms (I am against drug incarceration fyi)

Back in the 60's and 70's prisons were like revolving doors. A 'life sentence' meant usually 13-20 years maximum and a lot of violent offenders and murders were put back onto the street to kill again. That changed in the 80's, and along with liberalization of gun laws crime took a serious nosedive as evidenced in the graph posted earlier.

I still like the lead theory. It was interesting.

Quote :

Of course it's also a good time to mention while we're on the subject of mass murder that cigarettes killed almost 450,000 people in the United States last year while about 300,000,000 guns killed nobody. Which mass murders do we want to punish? Is that technically mass suicide?

Yup, suicide. Maybe criminal negligence for anyone who dies of second hand smoke, but yea.

Cars killed 32,000 in the USA last year. Lets ban those too.

Now you're getting it.

Did you also know that 5000 people a year die by dihydrogen monoxide?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

clever

I know. Americans are smart.

You've been proven utterly wrong in every respect in this thread and now you're just firing pot shots. pun intended. I'm out.

Quote from flymike91 :

i havent bothered to do the maths but from the graph its readily apparent that the correlation will be rather low

Quote from Shotglass :

still doesnt prove that guns help though

I have no clue why you are saying this. You must not have read my post very closely. I suggest you read it again, less emotionally and more analytically.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Did you also know that 5000 people a year die by dihydrogen monoxide?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

Water poisoning? Impressive

When you think about it, couldn't have the Sandy Hook killing have been commited with a knife just as easily because nobody involved with the school was armed in any way period?

The same applies in almost all mass killings.

And now back to Sandy Hook, There's now interesting support for my belief of multiple shooters from the Judge, State Attorney and cop investigating in a press release dated 5 Feb 2013.

Don't expect the truth to come out quickly though, perhaps there's just too much actual evidence for the coverup to actually hold up.
After all, Adam Lanza 'officially' died on the 13th, the day before ?
Yet another interesting fact to join the ever growing 'paperwork surprises' in this case........

Connecticut State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky has argued that unsealing warrants in the Sandy Hook case might "seriously jeopardize" the investigation by disclosing information known only to other "potential suspects." Sedensky said that unsealing the warrants would also: "identify persons cooperating with the investigation, thus possibly jeopardizing their personal safety and well-being." The statement by the CT prosecutor's office is the first indication from state authorities that Adam Lanza may have not acted alone. The statement was made in support of a motion to continue the seal on the results of five search warrants for 90 more days.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342829#ixzz2KGThIX8N

Quote from Cornys :

Water poisoning? Impressive

When you think about it, couldn't have the Sandy Hook killing have been commited with a knife just as easily because nobody involved with the school was armed in any way period?

The same applies in almost all mass killings.

Just a hunch here but it might be SLIGHTLY easier to kill many people in a short space of time with a gun, rather than a knife. You don't even have to be near them! Its brilliant!

Quote from JackDaMaster :

Just a hunch here but it might be SLIGHTLY easier to kill many people in a short space of time with a gun, rather than a knife. You don't even have to be near them! Its brilliant!

Quote from JackDaMaster :

Just a hunch here but it might be SLIGHTLY easier to kill many people in a short space of time with a gun, rather than a knife. You don't even have to be near them! Its brilliant!

Oh so that's why Americans aren't all saying '**** it you can have our guns, we've still got knives which are just as good at indiscriminate killing'.

I still enjoy a good old fashioned nuke fight. The rush of standing in the street. Nukes drawn.

Just exhilarating. The fallout between the fingers is indescribable.

AND THE GAMMA RAYS. I CAN'T FORGET THE GAMMA RAYS!

Nukes are effective at mass murder, right? Can any Americans help me with that one. In history we learned about Wayne Gretzky instead of WWII

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I still enjoy a good old fashioned nuke fight. The rush of standing in the street. Nukes drawn.

Just exhilarating. The fallout between the fingers is indescribable.

AND THE GAMMA RAYS. I CAN'T FORGET THE GAMMA RAYS!

Nukes are effective at mass murder, right? Can any Americans help me with that one. In history we learned about Wayne Gretzky instead of WWII

" I love the smell of napalm in the morning !"
And my favourite,
" We use Wagner, it scares the shit out of the slopes. My boys love it. "

Nukes are just a bit impersonal in a gunfight, now white phosperous, a weapon loved by the US and Israel for it's toasting factor on the other hand.........

Quote from JackDaMaster :

Just a hunch here but it might be SLIGHTLY easier to kill many people in a short space of time with a gun, rather than a knife. You don't even have to be near them! Its brilliant!

Of course it is, but if nobody is armed with a weapon anyways it really wouldn't matter in the case of Sandy Hook or other times in which those who were killed were confined to where they couldn't run. When people are able to run there's almost always only 1 or 2 who die and a few other who are injured. It's hardly as bad, but still unacceptable. It's not a problem that can be solved very easily though. More of the culture and less of the fault of guns really. The amount of shooting in video games and in movies (at humans) is incredible and I believe that this is a big factor in the mass killings. People who are beyond their minds just lack inhibitions that sane people do.

People who don't have a means of protecting themselves are just as vulnerable to a knife as they are a gun (only less time to react to an automatic weapon or large clip semi-auto which I don't believe should be available to the general public), but a gun would be the best means of self protection. I do carry a knife with me at all times other than while at school (because I'm not allowed to here). It's not that I'm afraid of being attacked, it's just that I am better able to defend myself if I would happen to be.

I also have a shotgun at home (not loaded, but readily able to be once you find the shells) in case somebody would attempt to break in or attempt to rape or kidnap somebody or anything of that sort in the house.

Quote from Cornys :

I also have a shotgun at home (not loaded, but readily able to be once you find the shells) in case somebody would attempt to break in or attempt to rape or kidnap somebody or anything of that sort in the house.

Do spontaneous acts of philatelic vandalism classify in the general category of "anything of that sort" or must the illicit activity to be forcefully repelled slot between rape and kidnapping?

we have a baseball bat. it doesnt require a reload unless its dayz (louisville slugger ftw)