AndyS
AndyS's JournalJust how greedy do you have to be?
One of these is a real gun, the other is not. Which is real?
If you guessed the second black picture you were wrong. Makes no difference really as both have caused the deaths of children and adults.
Gun manufacturers license their names, designs, and specifications to toy makers and collect fees for their use. More than 150 people (adult and child, remember Tamir Rice) have been killed by police while holding one of these replica guns. Of course, toy maker's aren't innocent either. I guess everyone wants to get in on making a buck off our insane gun culture.
On the other hand gun makers have co-opted major toy makers' brands. The brightly colored 'LEGO' gun is REAL, a custom covered Glock offered by a Utah company for anywhere from $550 to $750. From the company's website, “We have been building guns out of blocks for the last 30 years and wanted to flip the script to aggravate Mom.” Even after considerable backlash over the product it took a cease & desist order from LEGO to stop the sales.
As an aside, out of curiosity I bought the product shown in the second picture. Cost about $40. It is made of metal, has the same weight as the real Beretta and the slide kicks back when the trigger is pulled just like the gun it is patterned after. It fired standard BBs at about 400 feet per second, not fast enough to break the skin. I turned it in to the local Chief of police for use in training. I told him I was giving it to him because a number of kids had been shot by police while playing with one of them. His response? "Oh my God, if somebody brandished this I'd shoot 'em for sure."
There is no depth to which the gun industry won't go and no responsibility they won't shirk to make a buck.
Gunners accuse me of wanting to start a culture war. I say ya' goddam right I do, some cultures need to die so some people don't.
What is wrong with us?
How, on God's green earth, did we get HERE?
I was at a friend's hose watching retro TV. One Adam Twelve from the late '60s/early '70s was on. The two officers were wearing standard blue oxford shirt type uniforms and they carried handcuffs, a nightstick and a standard Issue .38 police special revolver. What we called a 'six shooter'.
Today's patrol officer often wears body armor and carries a tactical baton, taser, pepper spray, a semi auto gun with 15 round magazine, tactical flashlight and a window punch to break car windows. In the trunk is an AR-15 just in case.
What happened between that charming cop show and now? In a greatly simplified version, this happened . . .
The country was trending toward more urbanization and traditional hunting was going away as a marketplace for guns.
Then the NRA, an organization formed to promote gun safety and marksmanship, was overtaken in a coup by the gun industry. That shifted the organization's focus to self defense. Self defense requires a different kind of gun, one designed for lethality against human beings. These semi automatic guns had 10-15 round magazines that could be reloaded in seconds. New organizations formed; Shooting Sports Foundation, Gun Owners of America and a myriad of paramilitary 'militias'. A whole new gun industry and lobby came into existence.
At the same time, the AR-15 (the prototype for the military M-16) and the AK-47 (a semi auto version of Russia's military weapon) were introduced for civilian sales. The NRA fabricated a new name for these weapons of war; 'modern sporting rifles'.*
Then the gun industry launched a new marketing philosophy. Gone were the ads about the great outdoors and hunting for game, replaced with an emphasis on protection, military imagery and of course scantily clad young women with clothing in dis-array.
A brilliant marketing move. White America is afraid of the 'other' with a gun and feeling impotent. They buy guns. Now there are more guns to be afraid of so they buy more guns which means there are more people with guns to be afraid of so they buy MORE guns. And these guns are far more lethal by design than the old six shooter. Almost as good as tobacco: make an addictive product cool and build a loyal customer base.
This sparked an arms race. Civilians have this armament, so police need it too. Police have it so civilians think it's the preferred defense product. Now police have SWAT squads, MRAP military vehicles, snipers and wear camo with gas masks and look more like a deployment to a combat zone in a third world country than someone to serve and protect.
I guess it's the same old story. Follow the money.
* Gunners will deny that the 'modern sporting rifles' are military grade and say assault weapon is a made up word. That is utter bullshit. The AR-15 IS THE PROTOTYPE developed for a Pentagon request for quote to replace the M-14. The AK-47 available for sale is Identical to the AK-47 designed by Kalishnakov for the Soviet army sold in semi auto form for civilians. The term assault weapon was coined in WWII to describe smaller, high fire rate sub machine guns introduced by the German army. It was the term used by Eugene Stoner to describe his AR-15. Who better to name a gun than the one who designed it? Ask any gunner and they'll tell you there is no gun problem. Gun deaths are far fewer than in the '90s. Crime is at an all time low. Both are true and form the kernel of truth in which to wrap the lie. They ignore that since 2014 gun deaths have risen by as much as 20% per year. EVERY YEAR. And while overall crime is down, homicides are up dramatically in all major cities. So, to the gunners promulgating this line of propaganda, I say you're full of shit and you know it.
Sometimes I just get tired of the convoluted mind fuckery and mental masturbation.
When it comes to guns you have to admire the ability and diligence it takes to deflect from the subject at hand to some nebulous non relevant bullshitty other thing.
In the case of Sandy Hook families vs Remington for the slaughter of 20 six year old children and 6 of their care takers the gunners realized that it's kinda' hard to attack the parents. I mean, really. Your child has been riddled with bullets from a military grade weapon but somehow you, as a gunner, have to come up with a way to make their attempt at redress against a gun maker into something other than unending and unrelenting grief. That's a tough job, but by God as a gunner you're up to it!
So how do you distract from the fact that in five minutes 500 bullets were fired into the bodies of 26 little kids and their teachers? You make it about the greed of the lawyers representing the parents not about the atrocity, that's how. The gunner's answer is to TRY to elicit sympathy for the parents because the LAWYERS are abusing them by taking a frivolous case for the sake of running up huge legal bills that will accrue to the poor victims when they lose the hopeless case against the rights that God gave to guns. See, it isn't about guns and the misery they cause, it's about filthy lawyers!
This flies in the face of the FACT that the parents hired the attorneys, not the other way 'round. It denies the possibility of the attorneys taking the case on contingency which is not a part of public record. It denies all that is decent in humanity.
This is a specious, simplistic and cynical position to take and I will call you out on it every time you repeat this slimy pile of fetid offal propagated by an unfeeling uncaring industry and it's priests and acolytes.
Judge rules that synagogue shooting victims can sue gunmaker
Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel said Wednesday that victims and families in the Poway, California, synagogue shooting have adequately alleged that Smith & Wesson, the nation's largest gunmaker, knew its AR-15-style rifle could be easily modified into a machine-gun-like or an assault weapon in violation of state law.
A 2005 federal law shields gunmakers from damages in most cases for crimes committed with their weapons. But it allows lawsuits if the manufacturer was negligent or knowingly violated a state or federal law, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.
Medel said the plaintiffs in the synagogue shooting case may also be able to sue on their claims that Smith & Wesson negligently marketed the rifle to youths on social media and video game-style ads, the newspaper said.
The judge also said the shop, San Diego Guns, could be sued for selling the weapon to John Earnest, who was 19 and lacked a hunting license that would have exempted him from California's 21-year minimum age for owning long guns.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-synagogue-shooting-sue-gun-maker-smith-wesson/
There is something inherently wrong with a society in which the headline isn't about the civil and legal recourse awarded to victims of a mass shooting AFFORDED BY LAW but about the ABILITY OF THE VICTIMS TO SEEK IT.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?
When will we call out those who willfully seek to allow the status quo to continue for the profit of an industry dedicated to death and misery?
Data Point
Fourth of July weekend again brings hundreds of shootings
thetrace.org
Is there really anything I can add other than What is wrong with us?
Please, someone, explain this to me.
In 2014 General Motors produced cars that had a defective ignition switch. That resulted in 124 deaths. It also resulted in the recall of 30 million cars worldwide, $900 million in fines plus civil settlements to those harmed by death or injury.
Every year about 150 people are killed or injured by negligent or accidental discharges of firearms*. That's when a gun 'goes off' without intent by the person holding that gun. Every year. As a result there have been no recalls of firearms, no fines and no settlements due to legal actions against firearms companies.
Every time some definable issue with an automobile, or any other consumer product, is discovered be it a defect or just current manufacturing practices immediate governmental recalls are made and the problem corrected. Not with guns. Guns are still manufactured to the same standards they were in the mid 1800s. Only a gun manufacturer can voluntarily initiate a recall of it's product. In addition, gun manufacturers, distributors, importers and sellers are protected by the Protection of Legal Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) that restricts civil recourse against any of these entities to very narrow and specific conditions.
Just about every one of these 150 deaths or injuries could be prevented with current proven technology. Referred to as Smart Gun technology it can prevent a firearm from being operated by any other than the one authorized to use it. It isn't expensive, adding perhaps $25 to the cost of the firearm and it is absolutely reliable in every conceivable situation. Yet the gun industry vehemently resists adoption and marketing of such technology to the point of death threats to any dealer who offers it to customers. In fact there is not even a requirement for a mechanical safety device on guns**.
What is wrong with us?
*I say 'about' because there aren't any compiled statistics by any agency, governmental or NGO. It's a secret because, well, guns. The numbers I postulate are gleaned from a pro-gun online magazine article based on two years of online searching news paper articles.
**Except for guns designed for a Military Request for Quote. The military, whose most basic job description is to 'tear things up and kill people' has more stringent safety requirements than the civilian market.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_switch_recalls#Aftermath
https://www.concealedcarry.com/safety/300-negligent-discharges-comprehensive-data-science-reveals-gun-grabbers-and-gun-owners-are-both-wrong/
It's not over after that trigger is pulled . . .
“It's not over after that trigger is pulled and it hits someone. It's the beginning of a new life, and some people just don't know how to live.”
—Charles Horton, 50, who's been a wheelchair user since sustaining a spinal cord injury in a 1988 shooting.
There are more than 100,000 people affected by gunshot wounds every year.
What is wrong with us?
Child shootings are on course to break records, worrying doctors at Cook Children's
Through May of this year, the hospital has treated 35 children for gunshot wounds, in many cases accidental, according to a news release. Accidental or not, gunshot wounds are among the most likely injuries from which children can die.
Two of the 35 children admitted to Cook Children’s died from their wounds, according to the release. In the entirety of 2019, 41 children were admitted for gunshot wounds and five died. In 2020, that number rose to 47 shot and four who died.
Dr. Dan Guzman, an emergency room doctor at Cook Children’s, said in the release he fears that number will continue to rise sharply throughout the summer months. With children out of school and oftentimes at home alone while their parents work, an improperly secured gun can cost a life.
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article252470463.html? (sorry, paywall)
Guns make everything better.
After string of road rage shootings in Dallas-Fort Worth, police talk prevention
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article252454238.html?Dallas has seen a string of road rage assaults. From Friday night to Monday morning, police responded to three shootings related to road rage. On Friday, a driver shot a pregnant woman in the head, Fox 4 News reported, after the driver cut her and her boyfriend off in southeast Dallas. The woman’s baby was delivered safely, but she remained in critical condition. On Sunday, police say a driver opened fire along a road in Dallas and hit two cars. One person was shot in the hand.
An armed society is a polite society. At least that's what I've been told by the gun industry. Guns make everything better.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Pelican Bay, TX 76020
Home country: United States
Current location: home
Member since: Thu Jan 20, 2005, 02:07 PM
Number of posts: 14,559
