Senate Gun Control

i guess you have to wait for a tactical team when it's a war type situation because like... the criminals have weapons of war.

 

When the CBP tactical team arrived, the local cops told them to hold off. The disparity in arms is also questionable, as at least a few of those local cops were photographed wearing body armor and carrying semiautomatic rifles. The police department for a town of 15,000 has its own SWAT team, but it has yet to be determined why they were not called in.

I think it cannot be more obvious at this point that all the funding and armament received by even the smallest police departments is not for the benefit of ordinary people or emergency response. It's so they're well-equipped to crush dissent on behalf of capital (and there is a lot of profit to be made on the sale of the arms they receive). It's all they've ever really been good for.

 

Gov Abbott saying "it could have been worse", as if that's just the natural order of things, and we should be so lucky, is one of the sickest, cynical, uncaring, unhelpful, things anyone could have possibly said about this. He's saying these deaths are acceptable to him. It's the price he's willing to pay for 2A. Cuz it would have been worse.

Watching his speech. I wanted to rip his throat off. Ya no **** it could have been worse. Because you have been building towards 'worse' for decades.

They just don't give 2 ****s about this at all. All his push for love and blah blah blah. They don't want this politicized. They don't want any criticism. So come together and sign about god and love. And the big push from their side is to blame mental health. As if they actually want to do anything about that either. We should. We should do something about mental health, health care, education, but you ****ers keep voting it down, and reducing the budget for those things because you can't have the Dems win anything. And all of that would fall into "evulh socialism" or something.

 

Mental Health. Mental health. Mental Health.

I want one of these people who are using that argument to shift the focus away from gun control to come up with a concrete diagnosis that the 18 year old who LEGALLY PURCHASED THE ASSAULT RIFLES AT THE GUN SHOP had issues like that. And no, I'm not accepting witness reports from his peers and family suggesting that they "saw the signs". That does not satisfy the question as to how someone like him was allowed to purchase those weapons.

 

for Small Towns like this almost 100% of the time there is no on-call, readily available SWAT team. There are instead SWAT-trained Patrol Officers who do Patrol shifts like the rest of the Agency and only fully gear up for SWAT missions when they get a search warrant. So odds are the responding officers were SWAT team members who were on normal patrol and had no time to go grab their special gear. I think its pretty well substantiated at this point that it was actually the Border Patrol SWAT who came in and eventually went around the authority of the Commanding Officer on the scene to go in and kill the SOB. That Commanding Officer's decision to change the parameters from active shooter to barricaded suspect cost lives.

 

Even though it's too soon, I'd imagine the late night comedians will eventually have a field day bringing up the glaring irony that while the Conservatives want to remind you on how the borders are being overrun, apparently the Border Patrol was free to come in and help a local school take control of an active shooter.

 

Not assault rifles. Just so we’re clear. I’d like to say it’s not important, but it is important we distinguish in a gun control thread the differences.

Though, as I stated previously, I am beginning to reconsider my stance on AR-style weapons. It just… doesn’t make sense. The risks outweigh the benefits, what little exist.

The idea of even one mass shooting happening because of the efficacy of AR style weapons to kill people en masse… it’s just not worth it.

 

What are the benefits?

 

These people are monsters

 

I wonder who made the distinction between assault rifles and semi automatic rifes. They're both automatic. They're both used to assault. Semi auto is deadlier in the right hands. It must have been either the NRA or Video Gamers. It's not a logical distinction. There is fully automatic and semi automatic. Both are assault rifles. I don't need to hear about cartridges. I know the military has access to "better" rounds. It's the platform. Automatic rifles. In the end they all do the same thing. Hurl bullets down range quickly and accurately, little to no training required.

I think the NRA and manufacturers are behind the "modern sports rifle" branding, which is simply ridiculous. Same with the Assault Rifles they use loopholes to pass off as pistols.

 

Well that's the fallacy. The gun used in the Vegas shooting from a few years ago was just as deadly with mass casualties because of the "Bump Stock" peripheral. Knowing absolutely nothing about guns, I had never heard of that term before the shooting; but seeing the results, I'd equate using it with what the gun fanatics would identify as assault rifles and semi-automatic rifles. None of them would be used in deer hunting.

 

It's a pro-gun tactic to deflect away by focusing on hair-splitting and that the natural conclusion for someone unfamiliar with guns that the "AR" stands for "Assault Rifle". (For those wondering, it stands for "ArmaLite Rifle". Why isn't it called an "ALR"? I'm going to guess that the manufacturers deliberately chose that so gun enthusiasts that don't do their homework will think they are buying an assault rifle)
(Oh, and how many AR-15 rifles in the US? Estimates are between 5 and 10 million)
(And yes, 'hunting' is what the AR-15 is claimed to be good for)

 

But hunting what?

Whenever I've asked gun enthusiasts what they need AR rifles for, they do come up with the same typical responses, "hunting", "protection", "what business of it is yours, that's my 2nd Amendment Right!"

Everytime I picture those automatic rifles being used in hunting, I think about Homer Simpson's method of "fishing".

 

This!!!! 100%.

I guess we are supposed to treat male adolescence as if it was a mental health issue. Is that the only way to handle this? Anyone in education or working with kids in any way KNOW you can't just say "hey, this kid is 'showing signs'" and expect anyone to do anything. Maybe society needs to be instructed on "signs". But even still, what can anyone do about something.

Are we asking for a witch hunt? Do we really want Mccarthyism?

As far as AR weapons, they are for 2 things: (1) military and (2) psychotic fixation on extreme toxic machoism. (old conservative white men talking about the guns they own). Claiming it's for defense? How often do you hear about criminals robbing a house with an AR?

 

They are not. An assault rifle is an automatic rifle. A semi-automatic rifle is not an automatic. Automatic rifles have automatic fire, where holding the trigger down fires continuously while the trigger is held. Semi-automatic rifles don't do that.

The name has been used by the company since their first gun, the AR-5, which was designed specifically in response to an Air Force call for a lightweight rifle for bomber crews. It predates 'enthusiasts' entering the picture.

AR-15 style guns are used for hunting, though. Very simply, here's someone's Youtube video of deer hunting with an AR-15. Bump stocks are banned because they allowed a semi-automatic rifle to behave like an automatic rifle.

They're not automatic rifles. And something like a 5.56mm NATO cartidge can be used in both semi-automatic rifles and in bolt action rifles, as can be seen in a store page here

 

I don't get where the "sport" of using an automatic (or "semi-automatic") rifle for hunting is.

 

What brought up "sport" into this? Deer are made of meat. It's why the guy in the above video is talking about getting the deer he shot processed into sausage. There's some element of aim involved in this sure (so there is a need for skill), but a big component for many people, even if they enjoy the process, is that they actually do eat this stuff for food.

 

So you can't hunt deer with either a shotgun or bow and arrow?

 

Relevant question: Do you only eat food that was grown in soil that you personally pushed a plow through?

 

So I'm not convinced that the "usage" of automatic and semi-automatic guns in hunting are anything more than a convenience; hence my comparison above to Homer Simpson's "fishing" with a bug zapper.

And between you, me, and the whole-in-the-wall, just how many owners of those types of guns do you think really use it for hunting meat? Be real.

 

Any firearm (manual or automatic) capable of quick successive firing should be classified as assault. It doesn’t matter what it looks like.

 

1. Who is hunting with automatic weapons? You keep bringing those up as though that's a common occurrance.
2. You didn't answer the question. As it seems you missed it: "Do you only eat food that was grown in soil that you personally pushed a plow through?" It's a simple yes or no question so it shouldn't he hard to answer.

 

Speaking of which, less than 4% of Americans are hunters. Hunting peaked in 1982.

https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/01/decline-in-hunting-threatens-conservation-funding/

 

But guns are still as prevalent as ever. So what are they used for?

1. I asked the question as to why is there a particular need for automatic weapons in society. I've heard "hunting". I've heard "protection". Is there something else?
2. You already know what my answer would be. I'm still waiting for someone...ANYONE to convince me that the usage of these weapons is something more than just a convenience.

 

1. Where, at all, are you seeing automatic weapons cited as being for hunting? There's only like 600,000 automatic weapons in the US, and the only things I can find about hunting with automatic weapons is the states that prohibit hunting using an automatic rifle (like Texas and Virginia).
2. No, I don't know your answer. That's why I'm asking rather than assuming. If you'd prefer that I assume all your stances then we can do that but it seems far less conducive.