I particularly like the one that will support better education to allow our youth to grow up and have proper spelling and grammar!
I particularly like the one that will support better education to allow our youth to grow up and have proper spelling and grammar!
I can't speak for the rest of America, but it's mine, yes. If "the rest of the world" has a problem with American citizens arming and protecting themselves, tough cookies. History is riddled with tales of people who were disarmed and dominated by their governments or the forces of another nation. I don't plan to be one of those people.
You are born with the right to life. You are allowed to protect that life by any means necessary, whether it be your fists, a club, a knife, or a gun.
I have a gun to protect myself against criminals and the state, whichever would mean to do me harm. And since you have such great statistics handy, how about you share them here and cite a source? I'm also curious why you highlited "gun related crimes". If someone kills you, does it really matter if they used a gun or a knife to do it? A crime is a crime regardless of the tools used to carry it out.
No, it's based on history. When disasters, epidemics, and riots occur there is always violence as people try to secure provisions for themselves at the expense of others. To think otherwise is naive.
Again, if you think that the police can actually protect you, you are naive. The police rarely are there when you need protection. They only show up later to collect evidence and hopefully track down the person who wronged you. The police CAN'T protect you, even if you wanted them to. And in the United States the Supreme Court has ruled that the police are under no obligation to protect you at all (I'm sure it's the same for every other country since they CANNOT guarantee your safety).
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28scotus.html
There are other similar rulings from lower courts as well. You want to be safe? Take responsibility for your own safety.
That's not so incredible and not so credible, but all things considered it isn't so important: you don't have to be a moron to be liked by morons, although it generally helps.
I don't think that Paul stands a chance, no matter if some other moron who maybe thought so forgot some really basic rules about journalism to deal yet another blow to New York Times credibility.
I'd like to see you take on the state with your piddly little gun, tough guy.
But to think you can take on the world's biggest superpower with a handgun isn't?
The so-called "insurgents" seem to be doing pretty well.
I certainly wouldn't get very far if I had a defeatist attitude like that. Besides, the handgun is just a sidearm. Fighting the government is why man invented the rifle.
On their own ground, not in the US. Ask David Koresh if you don't agree. Wait, you can't ask Koresh...
If you're talking about Iraq, they're rarely using guns, and there's only a small force for them to fight in a nation that has been sent half-way back to the stone age. They also haven't overthrown the american puppet government, or even come close to it, at all, in years of fighting.
And keeping NRA loons in line is why the government built tanks and helicopters.
Good I saw this in a movie recently, because it's a real eye opener: What's the difference between killing someone with a knife or a gun?
You come here and slice your tomato with a gun... In other words: a gun's only purpose is to kill. A knife is useful in other ways too.
I'm done talking to you Cue-Ball, I always hoped people with a life vision like yours, were only an internet and movie myth. An exageration or something. But no, people do get this stupid.
You come here and slice your tomato with a gun... In other words: a gun's only purpose is to kill. A knife is useful in other ways too.
I'm done talking to you Cue-Ball, I always hoped people with a life vision like yours, were only an internet and movie myth. An exageration or something. But no, people do get this stupid.
I can't help but wonder where all these well-armed, concerned citizens have been while the US government has been steadily eroding & flat-out removing their civil rights and pissing all over their Constitution for the last 8 years ... oh, that's right, voting for Bush. Twice! I guess as long as people can keep assault rifles in their office (2nd amendment, people) the government can do whatever the hell it wants, right?
Not maligning you CueBall, you seem like an intelligent person, but the US populace seems to have lost that "don't tread on me" mentality that was sparked during the Revolution. Your country is staring down the barrel of the biggest threat to its liberty since the 1770s (I don't mean these boogeyman "Islamofascists", I mean the Whitehouse) and noone's doing a goddam thing about it. The President swore an oath to defend the US against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and promptly became the worst enemy of all US people, in plain sight of everyone. And they all just let him. Even when the Dems finally won the balance of power in 2006, after six years of copping it in the back passage and watching the people cop it, they just bent right back over again and said "please, continue the reaming" (OT: it's amazing how far you can bend when you don't have a spine - I'm convinced Democrats are related to squid).
Not maligning you CueBall, you seem like an intelligent person, but the US populace seems to have lost that "don't tread on me" mentality that was sparked during the Revolution. Your country is staring down the barrel of the biggest threat to its liberty since the 1770s (I don't mean these boogeyman "Islamofascists", I mean the Whitehouse) and noone's doing a goddam thing about it. The President swore an oath to defend the US against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and promptly became the worst enemy of all US people, in plain sight of everyone. And they all just let him. Even when the Dems finally won the balance of power in 2006, after six years of copping it in the back passage and watching the people cop it, they just bent right back over again and said "please, continue the reaming" (OT: it's amazing how far you can bend when you don't have a spine - I'm convinced Democrats are related to squid).
Have you guys seen any funny pics around related to the 08 run?
You are very shortsighted if that's what you think. A gun is an object like any other. A gun is not good. A gun is not evil. It just IS. It's up to the user of the object to decide how it is to be used. Yes, it can be used to harm, but it can also be used to protect.
Also consider this, a gun is one of very few tools which is just as effective when it is not used. If someone tries to mug me, I don't have to shoot him to stop him. The very threat of being shot is enough. I'd like to see you slice a tomato without actually using that knife of yours.
Don't look at me. I voted for the other guy. No...the OTHER other guy. Also, many of us haven't been standing idly by. We've been working to effect change from within. I fight tooth and nail to keep my rights from being eroded. It's sad that so few people bother.
Preaching to the choir here. I'd like to see Bush tried and imprisoned, myself. He's done enough that a conviction should be pretty straightforward.
I'm in total agreement with you. And that is precisely the reason why it's so important for citizens to own arms and know how to use them. I just cannot understand the mentality of people who only want the police and government to own firearms. Yeah, that's just what I want, Bush and his cronies armed to the teeth and me defenseless against them. That's a recipe for tyranny if ever there was one.
Many people voted for Democrats to turn things around and they haven't done jack-squat (I personally thought we'd get just what we've got now). They are going to have a very hard time keeping their seats when they come up for re-election.
It will scare in half!
Seriously though... A gun exists to kill or hurt other living beings. And if you think that shooting someone because he's harassing you is right, there is something wrong with you. Because it makes you just as evil as the person you're trying to stop. And if the other person has a gun too, eventually someone will get shot. Both of you were "protecting"...
I don't think we're going to find a solution to this problem, except I lost a bit of the taste to travel to the US (although I know some really nice people there, whom I've met right here on the forum, and luckily don't share your ideas). I'll just stay right here, where everything is pretty safe without guns.
So that's going to be a very small militia with peashooters taking on the world's most expensive army, then? Again, best of luck.
You're already defenseless against them and if you think otherwise you're totally deluded. A rifle might've been a decent leveller 100 years ago, but it isn't any more.
You consider being mugged "harassment"? If someone threatens me with deadly bodily harm, they are doing a lot more than harassing me. I would never shoot or harm someone except in self defense. But if it comes down to life or death, him or me, I would not hesitate to defend myself. I would hope for your own sake you would do the same.
Take my wife as an example. Let's say she's walking to her car at night after work. Now, she's 5'1" and 105lbs - Any average sized man is going to easily be able to harm her without too much effort. But having and knowing how to use a firearm tilts the odds in her favor. Now she is just as -if not more- powerful than her attacker. The firearm is the great equalizer. It allows the physically weak, the elderly, and the disabled to be every bit as powerful as young, the physically strong, the thugs who would mean to do harm.
The solution is to address the cause, not the symptom. Violence is the symptom, we need to address the people that cause it and find out why they do and how to stop them. Disarming honest citizens is not a solution.
Don't be so sure. Given the number of people in the US who own and carry firearms, I would be shocked if you didn't meet several people who owned and used guns, and several who were armed. Unless you only visited New York and California, where only the criminals are armed.
Is it? You don't have an armed police force? You don't have armed forces (army/navy)? Places are no more safe without guns. People just use other weapons instead (assuming they can't actually get their hands on a gun, which they almost certainly can).
Precisely what I have been thinking. Probably there should be some new law to consent the possession of nukes for private citizens in the States to adhere to the true spirit of the Constitution.
But generally laws have to be adapted to times and environments, at least for those who have a contractarian position. I don't believe laws cannot be changed if common sense - and of course general agreement - advise to do so.
This holds true also for a Constitution, no matter how valuable and important it may have been when originally formulated.
For those who believe that laws can't change there's the Bible, it's generic enough to offer a wealth of interpretations so that followers of various Christian religions can have a law that's not equal for all.
Don't forget homophobic. Obnoxious little ignorant boy.
Credit to you, Cuey :up: The US definitely needs more people who are vigilant and give a shit about what their government does, armed or not.
I'm not a big fan of guns myself. I'm not totally anti-guns but I draw the line at people walking down the street with them concealed or keeping them under their desks or going hunting with Kalashnikovs (one shot at a time, softcocks!). I grew up in the country, where guns are all over the place but really just regarded as another tool at a farmer's disposal. Noone talks about home defence Down Under, unless they don't mind being labelled a tad paranoid When a natural disaster hits, people here tend to look for Red Cross & army choppers (which always seem to arrive pretty rapidly), not for marauding bands of armed looters. There's just not a big gun culture in Australia, which I'm thankful for. Farmers have them, sporting shooters have them, cops and soldiers do as well, of course. Spree-shootings are very, very rare (though we do love a good serial nutjob, shout-outs to Snowtown and the Balanglo state forest). But then we've never had to defend ourselves militarily against an occupying force or a tyrannical regime (got a bit dicey in the 40s though) and we've not had a civil war, so the need for local militias has barely even been discussed. The biggest gunfight on Australian soil lasted about 20 minutes and was brought about by harsh, petty beauracracy during our gold rush (the Eureka Stockade). One thing Australians can't stand (and will happily open fire on) is a bloody beauracrat Our nation's federation & Constitution were all brought about by vote and not spurred by armed revolution like in the US. Because of that, I can definitely see where the gun culture springs from and why the US seems to be unique in that way.
I'm not a big fan of guns myself. I'm not totally anti-guns but I draw the line at people walking down the street with them concealed or keeping them under their desks or going hunting with Kalashnikovs (one shot at a time, softcocks!). I grew up in the country, where guns are all over the place but really just regarded as another tool at a farmer's disposal. Noone talks about home defence Down Under, unless they don't mind being labelled a tad paranoid
When a natural disaster hits, people here tend to look for Red Cross & army choppers (which always seem to arrive pretty rapidly), not for marauding bands of armed looters. There's just not a big gun culture in Australia, which I'm thankful for. Farmers have them, sporting shooters have them, cops and soldiers do as well, of course. Spree-shootings are very, very rare (though we do love a good serial nutjob, shout-outs to Snowtown and the Balanglo state forest). But then we've never had to defend ourselves militarily against an occupying force or a tyrannical regime (got a bit dicey in the 40s though) and we've not had a civil war, so the need for local militias has barely even been discussed. The biggest gunfight on Australian soil lasted about 20 minutes and was brought about by harsh, petty beauracracy during our gold rush (the Eureka Stockade). One thing Australians can't stand (and will happily open fire on) is a bloody beauracrat Our nation's federation & Constitution were all brought about by vote and not spurred by armed revolution like in the US. Because of that, I can definitely see where the gun culture springs from and why the US seems to be unique in that way.Okay, but there might be some lead left over in it after I'm done.
Thanks!
You'd like me then, as I generally don't conceal my firearm. Well, if it's cold out and I have to wear a thick coat I do. But otherwise it's right out in plain view on my hip.
I dress like an American tourist. People just assume I'm heavily armed or CIA or just wanting to complain about the weather, poisonous animals or coffee and stay away from me 
greg never listens............ 
Cue-Ball is on the ball
The problem is, there are a lot of bad people in America—with guns.
No amount of gun control is going to change that. "Gun control" only takes guns away from those who obey laws.
The only way to level the playing field is to give guns to the good guys, too.
Recent school shootings, for example, would not have been nearly as successful if the perpetrator didn't have the only guns.
p.s. http://youtube.com/watch?v=85CLizP8z3E
Someone's never heard of menopause!
No amount of gun control is going to change that. "Gun control" only takes guns away from those who obey laws.
The only way to level the playing field is to give guns to the good guys, too.
Recent school shootings, for example, would not have been nearly as successful if the perpetrator didn't have the only guns.
p.s. http://youtube.com/watch?v=85CLizP8z3E
Someone's never heard of menopause!
Oh, I wasn't implying that he's in on it. And while Stormfront may not have donated money to his campaign, the fact is that many members of their community do support him as their candidate of choice. (Yeah, I visit there occasionally when I need to be reminded of the less fortunate aspects of human existence and/or need a laugh.)
I was just saying it's funny that the de facto libertarian candidate has been adopted by fascists.
Totally O/T: That's a fancy dash. Where did it come from? Did you type this post in a word processor then paste it into your browser, or did you copy the dash from some other app. manually, making you a total punctuation nerd?
2008 candadints!
(273 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG