But, an arsenal of weapons that would equip the army of several small nations is going to protect you from infection. Nothing scares viruses like a several AR-15s with plenty of ammunition.
Perhaps I don't actually have to explain this, but some people are afraid that what passes for civil society in the US will collapse. It won't, because most people's responses in disasters are mostly positive, but dystopian fictions and disaster movies have given some the idea that unwashed hordes will break down their front door and steal their hoarded toilet paper.
Though at this time I can see one benefit of an arsenal of automatic weapons. Carrying one when you need to go out might encourage everyone else to maintain a minimum of 2m distance, even the idiots who think they must be immune to covid-19 will presumably recognise that supposed immunity to a virus doesn't equate to immunity from several rounds from an automatic weapon.
even the idiots who think they must be immune to covid-19 will presumably recognise that supposed immunity to a virus doesn't equate to immunity from several rounds from an automatic weapon.
Only if they haven't got guns themselves. Everyone knows that good guys with guns are invulnerable to bullets.
You know it's unprecedented times when we lose interest in the gun problem, soon we'll be saying, "9-11? Pfft we're losing that many per day."
But I still have enough gun outrage left for the this Ahmaud Arbery case.
Two Georgia crackers (and I feel comfortable using that slur) take it on their ignorant selves to chase after and shoot a black man for jogging through their neighborhood. They thought he might have been a burglar and were hoping to make a citizens arrest. I think "good guys" with guns are actually more dangerous than bad guys with guns because bad guys usually have reasons.
The paternal half of the murderous father-son duo seems to have been a major embarrassment waiting to happen, as was the second district attorney to (reluctantly, in his case) recuse himself. I hope there are serious repercussions for all of them.
The guy seems to have had two heart attacks and been bankrupted by his healthcare costs. Which is not in anyway an excuse for his behaviour, but makes one wonder if his fear, anger and frustration have left him looking for scapegoats for a while.
The guy's cat in the article picture throws a fit and makes him jump. Or his phone goes off and gives him a start. Or some kid sees it on the web, does it to impress his friends, and stumbles.
Well, if that's what they want to do to themselves, perhaps they should be introduced to the story of Origen. Or to a particular character in Bruce Lee's last production, "Circle Of Iron".
I hope, however, that they don't do that to themselves. I also hope there are no people or animals (or plants!) around while they're messing with the gun, 'cause unintended consequences.
How the hell can people see photos like those and not consider a change in the rules? Yes I am a bleeding heart softy - but if someone is not affected by this story I think they must be brain dead.
How the hell can people see photos like those and not consider a change in the rules? Yes I am a bleeding heart softy - but if someone is not affected by this story I think they must be brain dead.
Honestly? The pics were of black kids. White people might be sorry for the children, but many are going to think that it is a black community problem and therefore not connected to guns.
Honestly? The pics were of black kids. White people might be sorry for the children, but many are going to think that it is a black community problem and therefore not connected to guns.
How the hell can people see photos like those and not consider a change in the rules? Yes I am a bleeding heart softy - but if someone is not affected by this story I think they must be brain dead.
Honestly? The pics were of black kids. White people might be sorry for the children, but many are going to think that it is a black community problem and therefore not connected to guns.
How the hell can people see photos like those and not consider a change in the rules? Yes I am a bleeding heart softy - but if someone is not affected by this story I think they must be brain dead.
Honestly? The pics were of black kids. White people might be sorry for the children, but many are going to think that it is a black community problem and therefore not connected to guns.
My point was only that pics of dead black children are not going to be the thing that pushes gun laws forwards.
And my point is that no pics of dead children have pushed gun laws forward. A classroom full of dead first-graders who were mostly white did nothing.
I am slightly hopeful that pictures of Black people legally carrying arms in public will do something. California is not an open carry state because white people shat themselves when the Black Panthers were patrolling Oakland, legally armed, in the late 60s.
I am slightly hopeful that pictures of Black people legally carrying arms in public will do something. California is not an open carry state because white people shat themselves when the Black Panthers were patrolling Oakland, legally armed, in the late 60s.
I had the same thought, but with very mixed feelings.
I am slightly hopeful that pictures of Black people legally carrying arms in public will do something. California is not an open carry state because white people shat themselves when the Black Panthers were patrolling Oakland, legally armed, in the late 60s.
...except white people who are terrified and/or angry might just buy (more) guns themselves. They might well try to change the laws, on the grounds that African-American ownership of guns would be curtailed; but *of course* right-thinking people like *them* would have the right to have all the guns they wanted, on the basis of the 2nd Amendment.
After mass shootings (e.g., Colorado movie theater, schools), Americans tend to buy more guns. In a situation that's much larger (especially if they're including the violence and looting, which seems to have been mostly instigated by non-BLM folks), they're going to be much more scared and angry.
Some years back, there was some place here in California where open carry was legal--with the catch that the guns were supposed to be unloaded. Of course, no way to know if they were. IIRC, there were scary scenes at Starbuck's and such. That ended, but I don't remember details.
My point was only that pics of dead black children are not going to be the thing that pushes gun laws forwards.
And my point is that no pics of dead children have pushed gun laws forward. A classroom full of dead first-graders who were mostly white did nothing.
The difference is that when white kids get shot, people pretend they care. In fairness, they care, but not enough.
True. It doesn't matter how much we care or pretend to care, though -- nothing's going to change until we pry the gun lobby's clammy hands off our legislators.
I am slightly hopeful that pictures of Black people legally carrying arms in public will do something. California is not an open carry state because white people shat themselves when the Black Panthers were patrolling Oakland, legally armed, in the late 60s.
I had the same thought, but with very mixed feelings.
It seems extremely dangerous, but the US is a powder keg right now anyway. Everything seems dangerous.
In other gun news: The feds are snatching people off the street in Portland, Oregon, and the 2nd amendment folks claiming they need their arsenals in order to protect their freedoms in case the government went bad aren't exactly coming out of the woodwork to support them. The hypocrisy isn't surprising, but it amuses me in a sick sort of way.
I just caught a snatch of news that the NY Attorney General is seeking to have the NRA disbanded. Not sure if it's accurate or not. What would be the chances? Would it just cover the state of NY or the whole country?
My father, a serious hunter (we ate the ducks and geese he and my grandfather killed), black powder target shooter, and gun safety instructor, joined the NRA as a boy because it was overwhelmingly a hunting and conservation group at that time. In the last few decades it's become primarily a pro-gun group, with no consideration for safety (to put it mildly). More power to Attorney General Letitia James and her D.C. counterpart, Attorney General Karl A. Racine. Go get 'em!
Would there be anything to stop the NRA from simply moving, so that they become a non-profit incorporated in a different state? Presumably that would then mean the NY AG couldn't disassemble the NRA but only restrict their activities within NY. Would they take that option, which would have some financial costs as well as the appearance of running away, or would they prefer to stand and fight their ground in NY?
I think they have to fight it out in New York. I have wondered if they could pick up the pieces and start anew in, say, Texas or Arizona, but I don’t know what that would look like. I would like to see LaPierre and his posse broken and cowering in disgrace, and I think that could well happen.
Between their existing financial and legal issues and this new one, I don't know that they have the wherewithal to fight it out with NY and come back somewhere else. This may (one can hope) put the final nail in Wayne LaPierre and Co.'s coffin.
But I would imagine there are lots of millionaire gun nuts out there who would simply form a new group, in a different state, with a different name, different articles of incorporation, and different bylaws, but with the same goal, and that would attract the same nut-jobs.
Of course, you're absolutely right. To be honest, most of the true gun nuts of my acquaintance were already pretty much done with the NRA, as they saw it as enriching itself and not *really* working to protect their guns. They're contributing to more hardline groups like Gun Owners of America and Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Those groups do not (yet) have the money or reach of the NRA, but that could change quickly.
If I recall the last century correctly, the NRA started to shift in the 70s towards becoming an industry lobbying group. Their main interest in individual gun owners is as consumers - encouraging them to buy as many guns as possible, and the bigger the better.
To be clear, no charity registered in NYS, including the @NRA, can dissolve and relocate to another state without the approval of my office or of the Supreme Court of NY.
As long as our lawsuit continues, the NRA must stay right where it is & answer for their deep-rooted fraud.
Today in things you may feel you were better off not knowing, there are multiple Facebook groups in which men take pictures of themselves with loaded guns pointed towards their dicks. And, in news that should not shock you at all, one of those men has blown off his testicles and is now being hailed as a king by the members of one of these groups.
On August 11, the man, a member of the "Loaded Guns Pointed at [ B ]enis" group, started posting a live video of himself pointing a gun at his dick and balls, for reasons, when the gun "accidentally" went off, in what's more accurately called a "negligent discharge" — and how. The video was swiftly deleted, and the man subsequently posted the picture above, showing blood spattered everywhere and the caption "[ B ]ois, I think I fucked up." You will note the copy of the Constitution in the upper left corner, reminding us all that it is a man's Second Amendment right to shoot his balls off if he so chooses.
It was not a mere graze. The man later went to the hospital and discovered that it had actually gone through, which seems ... uncomfortable. But apparently he is doing okay for a guy who just shot himself in the balls. He has since been made an administrator of the group, and members have been photoshopping memes of him as a king, accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, etc. etc.
I'm beginning to think there are some deep-seated psychological issues behind some Americans' gun fetishism, not merely a specific mode of Constitutional interpretation.
Looking at the report updated as of today, the man was shooting in the air and demanding the police to shoot him. In other words, probably suicide by cop.
Comments
Perhaps I don't actually have to explain this, but some people are afraid that what passes for civil society in the US will collapse. It won't, because most people's responses in disasters are mostly positive, but dystopian fictions and disaster movies have given some the idea that unwashed hordes will break down their front door and steal their hoarded toilet paper.
Though at this time I can see one benefit of an arsenal of automatic weapons. Carrying one when you need to go out might encourage everyone else to maintain a minimum of 2m distance, even the idiots who think they must be immune to covid-19 will presumably recognise that supposed immunity to a virus doesn't equate to immunity from several rounds from an automatic weapon.
But I still have enough gun outrage left for the this Ahmaud Arbery case.
Two Georgia crackers (and I feel comfortable using that slur) take it on their ignorant selves to chase after and shoot a black man for jogging through their neighborhood. They thought he might have been a burglar and were hoping to make a citizens arrest. I think "good guys" with guns are actually more dangerous than bad guys with guns because bad guys usually have reasons.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/30/us-gun-owners-meme-feud
Idiot.
Nope
The guy's cat in the article picture throws a fit and makes him jump. Or his phone goes off and gives him a start. Or some kid sees it on the web, does it to impress his friends, and stumbles.
I hope, however, that they don't do that to themselves. I also hope there are no people or animals (or plants!) around while they're messing with the gun, 'cause unintended consequences.
Yeah, That's what I meant - brain dead.
The point is that sometim
The divide in the US over the gun laws is not a white vs. black thing. It's a Democrat vs. Republican thing.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/20/771278167/poll-number-of-americans-who-favor-stricter-gun-laws-continues-to-grow
And my point is that no pics of dead children have pushed gun laws forward. A classroom full of dead first-graders who were mostly white did nothing.
I am slightly hopeful that pictures of Black people legally carrying arms in public will do something. California is not an open carry state because white people shat themselves when the Black Panthers were patrolling Oakland, legally armed, in the late 60s.
...except white people who are terrified and/or angry might just buy (more) guns themselves. They might well try to change the laws, on the grounds that African-American ownership of guns would be curtailed; but *of course* right-thinking people like *them* would have the right to have all the guns they wanted, on the basis of the 2nd Amendment.
After mass shootings (e.g., Colorado movie theater, schools), Americans tend to buy more guns. In a situation that's much larger (especially if they're including the violence and looting, which seems to have been mostly instigated by non-BLM folks), they're going to be much more scared and angry.
Some years back, there was some place here in California where open carry was legal--with the catch that the guns were supposed to be unloaded. Of course, no way to know if they were. IIRC, there were scary scenes at Starbuck's and such. That ended, but I don't remember details.
True. It doesn't matter how much we care or pretend to care, though -- nothing's going to change until we pry the gun lobby's clammy hands off our legislators.
It seems extremely dangerous, but the US is a powder keg right now anyway. Everything seems dangerous.
In other gun news: The feds are snatching people off the street in Portland, Oregon, and the 2nd amendment folks claiming they need their arsenals in order to protect their freedoms in case the government went bad aren't exactly coming out of the woodwork to support them. The hypocrisy isn't surprising, but it amuses me in a sick sort of way.
My father, a serious hunter (we ate the ducks and geese he and my grandfather killed), black powder target shooter, and gun safety instructor, joined the NRA as a boy because it was overwhelmingly a hunting and conservation group at that time. In the last few decades it's become primarily a pro-gun group, with no consideration for safety (to put it mildly). More power to Attorney General Letitia James and her D.C. counterpart, Attorney General Karl A. Racine. Go get 'em!
Of course, you're absolutely right. To be honest, most of the true gun nuts of my acquaintance were already pretty much done with the NRA, as they saw it as enriching itself and not *really* working to protect their guns. They're contributing to more hardline groups like Gun Owners of America and Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Those groups do not (yet) have the money or reach of the NRA, but that could change quickly.
The NY AG has said on Twitter:
I'm beginning to think there are some deep-seated psychological issues behind some Americans' gun fetishism, not merely a specific mode of Constitutional interpretation.
Much more effective than that "Popular Front" guy sitting "over there ..." ... "SPLITTER ... !!!"
Anyway ... whenever possible, insofar as human frailty permits, "Follow The Gourd ... !!! ... Follow The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem ... !!!"
PoliceFatally Shoot Man Who Opened Fire at Historic Manhattan Cathedral
Looking at the report updated as of today, the man was shooting in the air and demanding the police to shoot him. In other words, probably suicide by cop.