"Damn, I wish he didn't have a gun."

[tk2kewl]

I think this statement by the Rude One needs to sink in to every gun nut's head

When I had that gun pointed in my face all those years ago, I didn't think, "Damn, I wish I had a gun, too." I didn't think, "Damn, I wish someone else with a gun would come along and save me." I thought, "Damn, I wish he didn't have a gun."

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/12/guns-and-minds-ive-had-gun-pointed-in.html

[rustydog]

1. He nailed that one. well written, poignant, truth.

[onehandle]

2. Thinking has a liberal bias. nt

[MrDiaz]

3. lol

okay well how do you propose to disarm the criminals, tell them that they are breaking the law if they dont. LOL

[tk2kewl]

4. yep

same way you enforce other laws.

the "only outlaws will have guns" is one of the stupids lines to come out of the NRA

[MrDiaz]

6. okay and how exactly do you do that.

are these enforcement tactics the same one that are currently being implemented in Chicago, IL?

[tk2kewl]

7. how do you enforce other laws?

you throw the fuckers in jail when the break them

[mcctatas]

8. stop making sense!

[tk2kewl]

10. .

[MrDiaz]

14. how will you know

who has a gun until they use it?

[tk2kewl]

15. you won't necessarily

but you can provide opportunities to turn in the real people killers and to properly track and register the other ones.

and then if someone is found to have an illegal weapon after such a program, because they use it in the commission of a crime, or it is found during a legal search of property for some other reason, they are charged with a serious crime that carries hefty penalties.

try hopping a turnstile in NYC with a glock in your pocket and see what happens

[xtraxritical]

25. Cops search thousands of people and vehicles every day.

If guns are banned it might take ten years to get most of the illegal ones off the streets but it will happen. Me thinks thou doth protest too much - back to the gungeon with you.

[AlexSatan]

29. Great Idea!

We should try that with the illegal drug trafficking.

I'm sure we'll be able to stop it or even slow it within a couple months.

[tk2kewl]

31. might as well make murder legal too

Last edited Wed Dec 19, 2012, 11:23 AM - Edit history (1)

it's been illegal for as long as i remember and people keep getting killed

[AlexSatan]

34. So, murder being illegal didn't stop this guy

I understand you wanting to try to take the tools of death away but you never can. Do you realize how easy it is to make a bomb? How many people are killed by knives each year? How easy it is to start a fire?

When Australia tightened its gun laws significantly, did the homicide rate go down? Nope. The killers just moved to different methods.

However, you propose taking a tool of self-defense from millions of law-abiding citizens to try to stop those who would just find other means to kill.

As you have pointed out, making things illegal will not stop criminals--whether it be murder or gun crime. So, how does it help? 93% of gun crime is already committed by those who obtained their guns illegally. Will that stop when the criminals have to get the guns from over the border like criminals do now with guns?

Having a gun hurts no one. Using it to commit a crime does. That is why that act is a crime. So why would you make something illegal that hurts no one?

Smoking pot hurts no one. Committing a crime while on pot does. However, that rarely happens. Just like most gun owners do not use their guns for crime and most guns are not used for crime. So should we make/keep pot illegal because someone might commit a crime while on it?

[tk2kewl]

36. you argument is nonsense unless you are arguing against all laws and for anarchy

[AlexSatan]

37. Not true

I'm arguing for laws against things that actually hurt people.

You appear to be arguing for laws against all things that can potentially be used to hurt people. That would have to include knives, rope, water, cars, Jarts, etc.

Most of the time, none of those things I've listed are used to hurt people. Sometimes they are though.

[tk2kewl]

38. i did not argue for laws against any of the things on your list

done with your NRA BS

[AlexSatan]

42. But the same argument applies

to the things on that list.

Sorry, I've never been part of the NRA, read their literature or even been to their site. And I have no intention of doing so.

[DanTex]

32. Yes, because guns are exactly like drugs in every way...

Maybe we simply shouldn't have any laws against anything. That's the lesson from prohibition: there's no point in having laws, because criminals will just ignore them.

[AlexSatan]

35. Or let's have a law against everything that could possibly

be used in a crime. Hyperbole can go both ways.

I prefer to prohibit things that actually hurt people. Having a gun does not hurt people.

[DanTex]

39. You were the one that started with the hyperbole and the silly analogies.

The fact of the matter is that there are 10,000 gun homicides every year, so a gun isn't just "something that could possibly be used in a crime". Guns are, quite clearly, a major reason why we have far higher homicide rates than any other wealthy country.

We already have laws against machine guns, explosives, chemicals and poisons. Those seem to be working pretty well. The gun laws in Canada or the UK or Europe or Japan or Australia seem to be working pretty well too.

[AlexSatan]

41. Yep and 93%

of gun crime is via illegally obtained guns. The vast majority of those gun homicides are via handgun. Which could easily be committed with a revolver.

And I can get/make explosives

"18 U.S.C. Chapter 40- IMPORTATION, MANUFACTURE, DISTRIBUTION AND STORAGE OF EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS"

(5) commercially manufactured black powder in quantities not to
exceed fifty pounds, percussion caps, safety and pyrotechnic
fuses, quills, quick and slow matches, and friction primers,
intended to be used solely for sporting, recreational, or
cultural purposes in antique firearms as defined in section
921(a)(16) of title 18 of the United States Code, or in antique
devices as exempted from the term "destructive device" in section
921(a)(4) of title 18 of the United States Code; and

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/40/845

I also have access to all sorts of chemicals and poisons.

In fact, I have ready access to bleach and ammonia, which are easily used to make chlorine gas. Should we outlaw those as well?

Is Russia a "wealthy country"? And the laws in Australia really tightened down in the late 90s. But yet their homicide rate did not change.

[DanTex]

43. No, Russia is not a wealthy country.

And yes, most crimes are committed with handguns, many of which are acquired illegally. All the more reason that all handguns should be registered to make it more difficult for guns to get diverted to illegal markets.

The problem is, for all the excuses you think of for not having gun laws, the facts are not on your side. The US is the only wealthy country with a huge gun violence problem, and we also have by far the weakest gun laws.

It's sort of like Sarah Palin claiming that universal healthcare would lead to "death panels". Never mind that it's completely illogical, the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of countries with universal coverage, and there are no death panels. Instead there is equal or better healthcare delivery at lower cost.

[rhett o rick]

30. I am not surprised we have to spell this out. We do it like every other modern country. Duh! nm

[tk2kewl]

5. ...and the fact that you could find humor in any of these gun discussions is despicable

[Ikonoklast]

11. One asshole, that owns and uses a firearm illegally, at a time.

First time using a firearm in commission of a crime, twenty years, mandatory, no parole.

Sooner or later you get them all.


Or we could throw our hands into the air and say, "It can't be done!!!!", like the NRA wants us to.

[uponit7771]

33. Get rid of bullets? ...or make them 100usd a piece?...get rid of ways to make them? WAAAAY

...less criminals no?

tia

[Aristus]

9. I was robbed at gunpoint once when I worked at a bank.

Not once in the whole ordeal (which was really only about five minutes) did I think: "I wish I had a gun". My only thought was "I wish he'd go away!"

[OneGrassRoot]

12. A military veteran friend of mine said the same thing this morning.

Spot on.

[Victor_c3]

19. I was thinking the same thing after I read the OP n/t

[Aerows]

13. When people are armed

for a warzone, our streets become a warzone. Nobody needs that damn many rounds at one time unless they are in a warzone. It's ridiculous that we have to be stating the obvious here in the wake of this tragedy, but some people just don't get it. More guns does not prohibit gun deaths, and having a shitload of rounds just causes more people to die at the hands of a nut job.

And yes, I have been shot at before. Thank GOD they missed. My entire family was shot at in New Orleans during a car theft. If I would have had a gun during that situation, you know what would have happened? Absolutely nothing, because by the time it was over with, I wouldn't have had time to use it. There are times when guns are useful for personal defense, but having more than one of them just isn't necessary unless you are a hunter.

In which case you still don't need an assault weapon or an extended magazine. The only people that need that are people in the military in a warzone. Civilians in cities do not need that, and I challenge anyone to explain to me how military grade firearms in civilian areas do anything other than turn those areas into warzones.

[liberal N proud]

16. Gun Nuts are far superior to us, they would be able to react

[louis-t]

20. Yeah, everyone wants Ted Nugent in line next to them at the bank..

so when the bank robber comes in, blah, blah, blah....

[bulloney]

26. Nugent would just resort to his default behavior--crap and piss his pants.

I laugh every time he engages in his macho tough talk on TV or at concerts, knowing that he chickened out of serving in Vietnam by crapping in his pants so he can be declared mentally unfit to serve in the military.

Nugent is a big-talking SOB when it comes to his weapons vs. a wild animal, or when he's talking big about taking out the POTUS. I have the feeling he'd cower in a corner if he was facing his "target" face-to-face, and the playing field was level or tilted against him.

[louis-t]

27. Well, he did jump out of the woods armed to the teeth when

he saw 2 guys walking on his property.

[Atypical Liberal]

17. I think most people wish for help.

We all wish that bad situations wouldn't happen.

But when they do, most of us wish for ways out of them.

Once you are faced with violence, most of us wish for help. It's a little late at that point to be wishing it hadn't happened.

[heaven05]

18. very

well written. I hope we'll all keep thinking about the horror these little children faced. And keep TRYING to be part of the solution.

[Dustlawyer]

21. I have had guns put to my head twice, and a knife at my throat.

One of the gun to the head involved the knife to the throat, sorta of overkill (pun intended). I had been explaining to an East Texas red neck the arbitration clause in a contract to hire our firm. We were in his living room at night in the middle of the woods. He quickly reached under the couch and had a big gun (they all seem big when put to your temple) to my head and a big Bowie knife at my throat so hard he cut me across my Adam's apple. He said he could not read so if he had any problem with us he would come to the office and kill me. I calmly told him that if someone screwed up so bad he felt the need to kill me, he should at least kill the S.O.B. who screwed up, and not me! He put them away and signed.
The other time was at a party when I was in college. The owner of the house was someone I did not know. Turns out he was a coke dealer who had sampled way too much of his wares. He asked me to do a hit of coke, and when I declined he put a really big gun to my temple and said I had to do some to prove that I wasn't a narc. I declined to inform him that doing coke at gunpoint proved nothing but that I didn't want to do it. Both of these guys would have seriously done it! Since then I am very wary of gun nuts!

[tk2kewl]

22. frightening stuff

[heaven05]

28. whoa!

fubar. glad you made it.

[malaise]

23. Excellent

When Rudie doesn't use one expletive - when Letterman refuses to laugh - it is the last straw.

Fuck the NRA!

[KG]

24. my thought also, the time i had a gun pointed at me...

[CrispyQ]

40. Good commentary by the rude one.

I like this part also:

And as far as cultural influences, I would say that a nation that sanctions capital punishment, use of extreme force by the police in many situations that don't call for it, and the murder of people overseas by drones is a nation that has stated, in a quite official way, that violence is the answer to one's problems. I would say that as far as unintended effects go, those things have done more damage to the American psyche than all the versions of Grand Theft Auto we could play.