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2 Men Use Girl as Human Shield, Father Guns Them Down

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VASPER

Banned
So the lesson here is to ban guns so the good people who felt bad about shooting someone will turn in their guns, while the assholes taking a 17 year old girl hostage will just keep them and cause havoc on society. If america didn't have guns so ingrained in it's history then i would say yes band guns and make this great place safer. Guess what its not that way so we have to make the best of what we have. Love me or hate me this is how i feel, more people have guns than we think and considering how many weapons are in this country we have very little gun violence.
 

Zoe

Member
Yeah, but that's meaningless like that. It may be possible, but if that's not how it works in real life why are pushing it?

It's how it works in real life in America. There are people today who aren't supposed to have guns but do. You can't retroactively sweep up all those guns off the streets.
 
It's how it works in real life in America. There are people today who aren't supposed to have guns but do. You can't retroactively sweep up all those guns off the streets.

You can, it just takes time and is hard. What you guys lack is political will. At which point the insane gun mythology takes the blame.
 

Derwind

Member
Dont ban guns, just make the sale of ammunition and gun cleaning supplies harder to aquire. Then you'll have a bunch of criminals with guns jamming on them and very few bullets to reload with. In theory.
 

gogosox82

Member
What the hell is up with the wording in that article?

A St. Louis couple is likely thankful to have guns in their home after they were forced to use them to defend their daughter against two men Monday night.

What kind of nonsense editorializing is that? Anyway, horrible story but glad the family was ok.

Edit: Just noticed it was from The Blaze. That explains everything now.
 
Dont ban guns, just make the sale of ammunition and gun cleaning supplies harder to aquire. Then you'll have a bunch of criminals with guns jamming on them and very few bullets to reload with. In theory.

Or people will just reload and you'll have WAY more gun accidents due to bad ammunition.
 

HyperionX

Member
You can, it just takes time and is hard. What you guys lack is political will. At which point the insane gun mythology takes the blame.

Agreed. So many people in this thread think that guns will magically appear in criminal hands no matter what. They are totally obvious to where the guns really come from and either don't know or refuse to admit that there are obvious steps to reducing that problem.
 
Please do tell your plan for getting rid of 300m guns and preventing 3d printing of new guns. These things don't disintegrate after a few years.

Oh come on, stop making excuses. I'm no expert in organizing gun control programs, but the US is not exactly a crisis zone. It's just that there. is. no. political. will.
 
It's how it works in real life in America. There are people today who aren't supposed to have guns but do. You can't retroactively sweep up all those guns off the streets.

Australia managed to destroy one third of all privately owned weapons, and more.

Owner licensing was tightened to require proof of "genuine reason" to possess a gun; the sale and transfer of firearms was limited to licensed dealers; rapid-fire rifles and shotguns were banned, bought back, and destroyed; and remaining firearms were registered to uniform national standards

This suggests that post-massacre destruction efforts reduced the national stock of firearms by one-third.

A range of public health benefits has been both observed and disputed. As policy changes took effect in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, the risk of an Australian dying by gunshot fell more than 50 per cent and stayed at that level (Alpers, Wilson and Rossetti, 2013a). The number of gun homicides fell from 69 in 1996 (this total excludes the 35 victims shot dead at Port Arthur) to 30 in 2012 (Alpers, Wilson and Rossetti, 2013b). In the decade before the country’s change of direction, 100 people died in eleven mass shootings (Chapman, Alpers et al, 2006). Following the 1996 announcement of legislation specifically designed to reduce gun massacres, Australia has seen no more mass shootings. Firearm-related deaths that attract smaller headlines still occur, yet the national rate of gun homicide – which before Port Arthur was already one-fifteenth the U.S. rate – has now plunged to 0.13 per 100,000, or 27 times lower than that of the United States [...].

[...]“the rates per 100,000 of total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides all at least doubled their existing rates of decline after the revised gun laws”

Of course:

This is not to say that such a massive reduction in the national stockpile could be effected in the United States.

Guns in Australia: Firearms, armed violence and gun control. Link.

It doesn't mean that the same outcome would happen in the USA, but wouldn't you agree it's worth trying?
 

R-User!

Member
We weren't there...perhaps he felt this wasn't a situation where the suspects intended on letting them live.

Besides, even if he DID think that they might let them live, that would still have been a gamble that could have cost them all their lives...

...Is that a gamble worth taking?

The father gambled in the other direction; which could have failed due to countless other variables as well...

Pick your poison; but remember what Henri Ducard tells Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins:

Henri Ducard: Your parents' death was not your fault.
[Bruce attacks Ducard with his sword]
Henri Ducard: It was your father's.
[Bruce furiously attacks Ducard, but is easily defeated]
Henri Ducard: Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.
Bruce Wayne: The man had a gun!
Henri Ducard: Would that stop you?
Bruce Wayne: I've had training!
Henri Ducard: The training is nothing! The will is everything!
[Ducard bests Bruce once again]
Henri Ducard: The will to act.

At least everything turned out "okay" for the fathers family; his "will to act" is what led to his survival.
 

Derwind

Member
Or people will just reload and you'll have WAY more gun accidents due to bad ammunition.

Yes but your average criminal wouldn't spend the time manually making ammunition.

And are we really worried about gun accident at the hand of criminals if we're not really concerned with their lives to begin with?

Anyways this is just one hypothesis and no way to test it unfortunately.
 
Look guys, we can argue semantics until we are blue in the face, but let's not ignore the true lesson of this story.

Women can't aim for shit.

Been saving this one for a rainy day:

gifs_15.gif


It's only in humor. I'm not saying women shoot better or less.

please don't ban me :/
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Besides, even if he DID think that they might let them live, that would still have been a gamble that could have cost them all their lives...

...Is that a gamble worth taking?

The father gambled in the other direction; which could have failed due to countless other variables as well...

Pick your poison; but remember what Henri Ducard tells Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins:



At least everything turned out "okay" for the fathers family; his "will to act" is what led to his survival.

Did you just invoke Batman? Seriously?

Ignoring the absurdity of referencing a fictional superhero:

Batman doesn't kill, and Batman doesn't use guns. Ever
 

Fuchsdh

Member
So the lesson here is to ban guns so the good people who felt bad about shooting someone will turn in their guns, while the assholes taking a 17 year old girl hostage will just keep them and cause havoc on society. If america didn't have guns so ingrained in it's history then i would say yes band guns and make this great place safer. Guess what its not that way so we have to make the best of what we have. Love me or hate me this is how i feel, more people have guns than we think and considering how many weapons are in this country we have very little gun violence.

Ignoring the usual "this anecdotal case proves X" arguments, I do wonder what would have happened if the parents had killed their daughter. Presumably armed gunmen coming into your home would mean you had reasonable force to act in almost all circumstances, but would firing at criminals while they were holding your daughter be some sort of reckless endangerment?
 

Kinyou

Member
Been saving this one for a rainy day:

gifs_15.gif


It's only in humor. I'm not saying women shoot better or less.

please don't ban me :/
I wonder who in the world would give amateurs like that a gun. Reminds me of that 8 year old boy who shot himself with an uzi at a gunshow
 

R-User!

Member
Did you just invoke Batman? Seriously?

Ignoring the absurdity of referencing a fictional superhero:

Batman doesn't kill, and Batman doesn't use guns. Ever

I know that Batman doesn't kill. Did I say he does? Did I say that the father was right? I said that the father had the will to act. I find it courageous but also extremely risky! It could have backfired in the loss of his daughters, wife's, his, or a combination of all three of their lives.
 
Good for them! I support responsible gun owners defending their loved ones and property from a clear threat.

However, Stand Your Ground laws are still bullshit, there's a need for sensible gun control laws in this country, and I find most of the gun fetishists in this country to be creepy and disturbed.

How are these responsible owners? Because the mothers stray bullet luckily didn't hit the daughter?

Aiming at someone who has a hostage seems irresponsible.
 
You can, it just takes time and is hard. What you guys lack is political will. At which point the insane gun mythology takes the blame.

The "Drug War" started 40 years ago and has seen untold billions (Perhaps over a trillion) poured into it. Drugs are no less easy to acquire now than the day it started. The same was true of alcohol during Prohibition.

What makes you think firearms would be any different given that most Americans believe in at least some form of firearm ownership (Even if they think it should be more limited)?
 
I know it's been said already... but this is almost exactly how Taken ended.

(Oh, and gun crime in the US is on a downwards trend, IIRC.

Also, I've lived in the US my entire life, and I've never seen an actual gun... outside of the police and display cases for rifles in Wal-Mart, that is.)
 

MacNille

Banned
It reminds me of this Sin City dialog
200_s.gif


"Give it up. Let the girl go"
"You can't do a goddamn thing to me. You can't even lift that cannon of yours!"
"Sure I can" *BOOM*

edit the dialog down a little.
 

MogCakes

Member
Ignoring the usual "this anecdotal case proves X" arguments, I do wonder what would have happened if the parents had killed their daughter. Presumably armed gunmen coming into your home would mean you had reasonable force to act in almost all circumstances, but would firing at criminals while they were holding your daughter be some sort of reckless endangerment?

One of the basic rights in the US constitution is the right to bear arms for defense. This situation most certainly counts as such, and so reckless endangerment would be out of the cards as far as the courts are concerned. The family was already in clear and present danger because the men had a gun to the daughter's head.
 

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
That's the second guy who was behind the one holding the daughter.

Yeah. Quite precise, right! Amazing marksmanship. I mean, he shot both thighs, they always teach you to go for the thighs. Preferably aiming for the femoral arteries.


got his firearm and fired several shots at them, striking both of the men as they entered his home

...

No one answered the door at the home Tuesday, but broken glass and bullet holes marked the storm door where shots were fired.

True marks of an expert.
 

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
Multiple clean shots on a human moving target? Yup.

The guys daughter was there. It is painfully obvious that him and his wife just started shooting, and luckily did not hit the girl. Please point to any sort of training classes where they teach you to shoot towards a hostage. I also pointed out how there were bullet holes on the door and window behind the intruders... clean shots... and unless you have the medical reports, I don't think you can comment on whether the shots that actually hit the guys were all clean or not.
 
The "Drug War" started 40 years ago and has seen untold billions (Perhaps over a trillion) poured into it. Drugs are no less easy to acquire now than the day it started. The same was true of alcohol during Prohibition.

What makes you think firearms would be any different given that most Americans believe in at least some form of firearm ownership (Even if they think it should be more limited)?

Alcohol and drugs can be respectively distilled and synthesized easily compared to manufacturing guns.
 
Yes but your average criminal wouldn't spend the time manually making ammunition.

And are we really worried about gun accident at the hand of criminals if we're not really concerned with their lives to begin with?

Anyways this is just one hypothesis and no way to test it unfortunately.

My statement was under the premise that guns were legal but ammo availability/prices and cleaning tools were limited by price.

Hence my comment about people that legal own guns trying to reload.
 
The "Drug War" started 40 years ago and has seen untold billions (Perhaps over a trillion) poured into it. Drugs are no less easy to acquire now than the day it started. The same was true of alcohol during Prohibition.

What makes you think firearms would be any different given that most Americans believe in at least some form of firearm ownership (Even if they think it should be more limited)?

What makes you think drugs are similar to guns?

Like has been said, drugs are easier to make, just about anyone can do it in a small scale. Also, guns are not addicting unlike drugs. That's kind of huge and makes the situation not comparable. As evidenced by every single place that has treated drug addiction as a disease, and consequently alleviated the drug problem. You can't treat guns as a disease.

Of course, I might be wrong about gun control but so might you. What is certain is you'll never know if you aren't willing to try. Too many people promote the myth that nothing can be done about guns, and sadly the "can" often means "should", as IMO the real deal, the elephant in the room, is that a lot of people think high gun crime is acceptable as long as you get to have easy gun ownership.
 

Hollycat

Member
I don't know if that's common sense, but you are dead wrong all the same. As proven by statistics that show the disparity in gun crime between US and Europe.

Because there's already so many guns and it's so easy to smuggle stuff into America, I'm betting they could get one if guns became illegal in America.
 

HyperionX

Member
Because there's already so many guns and it's so easy to smuggle stuff into America, I'm betting they could get one if guns became illegal in America.

Most smuggling of guns involve buying guns in the US and smuggling them else where. If guns were banned in the US the global gun smuggling business would likely collapse.
 
Alcohol and drugs can be respectively distilled and synthesized easily compared to manufacturing guns.

There are parts of the world where firearms are manufactured by hand. Cartels would gladly sophisticate the process if there was demand for it.

Barring that, there's also the fact that there are hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation today. Some platforms, such as the AK-47, had been produced by the tens of millions and will last for generations to come with minimal upkeep. A ban will not prevent them from reaching the hands of people who intend to use them maliciously.

What makes you think drugs are similar to guns?

Like has been said, drugs are easier to make, just about anyone can do it in a small scale. Also, guns are not addicting unlike drugs. That's kind of huge and makes the situation not comparable. As evidenced by every single place that has treated drug addiction as a disease, and consequently alleviated the drug problem. You can't treat guns as a disease.

Of course, I might be wrong about gun control but so might you. What is certain is you'll never know if you aren't willing to try. Too many people promote the myth that nothing can be done about guns, and sadly the "can" often means "should", as IMO the real deal, the elephant in the room, is that a lot of people think high gun crime is acceptable as long as you get to have easy gun ownership.

I never stated drugs were similar to guns: I asserted that our government is incapable of effectively enforcing a ban. The addictive property of the product is inconsequential as well as it completely misses the point. A person bent on committing criminal acts will not allow something as simple as a law stop them from acquiring a firearm (This is backed by the fact that most firearms used in crime are illegally obtained).

You're right that I'm not willing to try. I'm not willing to even entertain the notion so long as our police remain aggressive towards the populace, late to respond (If they respond at all), and completely unaccountable for crimes committed under color of authority.

Most smuggling of guns involve buying guns in the US and smuggling them else where. If guns were banned in the US the global gun smuggling business would likely collapse.

Black markets always adapt to fill demand that isn't being filled by the legitimate economy. This has been true since the advent of regulatory oversight of economic activity.
 

railGUN

Banned
A person bent on committing criminal acts will not allow something as simple as a law stop them from acquiring a firearm (This is backed by the fact that most firearms used in crime are illegally obtained).

Can you define "illegally obtained"? Does that include straw purchases?

Alternatively, do you have a source for this claim?
 
There are parts of the world where firearms are manufactured by hand. Cartels would gladly sophisticate the process if there was demand for it.

Barring that, there's also the fact that there are hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation today. Some platforms, such as the AK-47, had been produced by the tens of millions and will last for generations to come with minimal upkeep. A ban will not prevent them from reaching the hands of people who intend to use them maliciously.



I never stated drugs were similar to guns: I asserted that our government is incapable of effectively enforcing a ban. The addictive property of the product is inconsequential as well as it completely misses the point. A person bent on committing criminal acts will not allow something as simple as a law stop them from acquiring a firearm (This is backed by the fact that most firearms used in crime are illegally obtained).

You're right that I'm not willing to try. I'm not willing to even entertain the notion so long as our police remain aggressive towards the populace, late to respond (If they respond at all), and completely unaccountable for crimes committed under color of authority.

I completely agree.

I really think it's a naive view that banning guns is somehow going to make the hundreds of millions of guns and the billions of rounds of ammo in the US alone magically vanish in a puff of (gun)smoke.

Especially when ANY type of ban is going to HAVE to be a voluntary surrender of firearms. Unless we're talking about violating some privacy laws to really dig deep and find out who may or may not have a gun in their home.
 
There are parts of the world where firearms are manufactured by hand. Cartels would gladly sophisticate the process if there was demand for it.

Which parts? How many? How much could they increase production for how much demand? I've been searching for some kind of source but all I've seen is quite the contrary, the cartels arming themselves with guns they purchase from the U.S.:

Example 1, Example 2

Barring that, there's also the fact that there are hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation today. Some platforms, such as the AK-47, had been produced by the tens of millions and will last for generations to come with minimal upkeep. A ban will not prevent them from reaching the hands of people who intend to use them maliciously.

And they can be destroyed. Similar to what Australia did, as the source in my previous post says (a post which, by the way, has not been addressed by any of the "impossibility to take the guns from the people" supporters), some steps that might help head in the right direction would be:

- A schedule and a monetary recompense for giving one's weapons, after which, strict laws that punish people who are found with banned weapons.

- Strict gun ownership laws. Which weapons should people be allowed to own, and the need for people to provide a reason before being able to acquire a gun. Have practical and theoretical tests that need to be passed before allowing someone to buy a gun. Weapons to be used and displayed only within that reported reason (e.g. taking a hunting rifle from home to the hunting area and from the hunting area home).

- Ban certain type of weapons. What business does any regular person have owning an AK-47? A high-calibre sniper rifle? Semi-automatic weapons? Silencers?

What's exactly the use the average Joe can give to a weapon like this?

staJunG.png


Why would anyone need an arsenal like this?


I'm definitely not an expert on law making or gun control, but similar measures seem to really work in Australia in helping them control gun ownership and death-by-gun rates, or are working in other countries to prevent a rise in gun-related crime.

I never stated drugs were similar to guns: I asserted that our government is incapable of effectively enforcing a ban. The addictive property of the product is inconsequential as well as it completely misses the point. A person bent on committing criminal acts will not allow something as simple as a law stop them from acquiring a firearm (This is backed by the fact that most firearms used in crime are illegally obtained).

A person bent on comitting criminal acts will not allow something as simple as not getting a gun stop them from comitting a crime. Again:

Gun violence in the United States is unusually high for a nation of such wealth. Although there is little difference in the overall crime rates between the United States and other high-income countries, the homicide rate in the U.S. is seven times higher than the combined homicide rate of 22 other high-income countries.[5] This is because of the firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is twenty times greater than in these other high-income countries. The higher prevalence of gun ownership and much less restrictive gun laws are important reasons why violent crime in the U.S. is so much more letal than in countries of similar income levels.*


Black markets always adapt to fill demand that isn't being filled by the legitimate economy. This has been true since the advent of regulatory oversight of economic activity.

This is true. However, laws can shape a society too. Will the demand be the same after 5, 10, 20 years? I don't think anyone believes this could be achieved just in time for the next presidential election.
 

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
This story reads like NRA fan fiction.

Actually, there is/was a section of American Rifleman (the NRA magazine) that basically had stories like these. It read like Penthouse Forum letters.
 
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