Srinath -

Perhaps you should study some about pyschology and the paths from minds that are not yet totally pyschotic toward the process of real mental breakdown, and you wouldn't call it crap.  I have undertaken that study, albeit many years ago in college, and the process hasn't changed since.

Like many, you want a simple answer - ban the guns.  As I said previously, I'm in favor of the assault weapons ban.  But the weapon of choice will simply change.  Timothy McVeigh killed dozens, including many children with a truck full of fertilizer and diesel fuel - do you want to ban those products?

Read about the school massacre in Bath, Michigan in 1927 when a deranged man blew up a school with dynamite and killed something like 38 people, mostly kids - the worst school massacre of all time in the U.S.  Pyschopaths will always find a way to carry out their evil intents.

Odd feelings, but unfortunately, my desire to ride has waned for different reasons.
I haven't had my S40 out of storage since I put it away for the winter in November, 2010 - I didn't ride at all in 2011 nor in 2012.
But my story is unusual - I didn't ride at all for 40 years from 1968 thru 2007.  In 2008 I thought I'd try it again, and went searching for a bike that wasn't too expensive, since this was to be an experiment to see if I really wanted to ride again, but yet find a bike with modern performance over the little bikes I rode in the1960s.  Hence I bought a fairly new S40, two years old at the time.
Frankly, I didn't really enjoy it all that much.  Traffic now is so much heavier than in the 60s, back then there were almost no freeways, and the few times I rode on a freeway on the S40 I was very uncomfortable at speed, so close to other vehicles.  Of course, being at bit more mature now at age 66 than I was at age 22 makes a bit of difference too.
My plan is to see if I get the bug back at all this upcoming spring, and if not, to sell the S40.
Coupled with other issues, like weather, make it impractical for any meaningful transportation use.  I used to ride it to and from the airport, or the office on nice days.  Even then, something would interfere - someone would want to go have a drink after work, and I'd have to refuse, as I won't ride after even one beer.
How did we get off onto this subject?

Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 12/19/12 at 06:09:48:



Dude I know psychopaths will do this and that ... but all of that will take time and work and effort and cause less and less damage as they get less elaborate. Guns do not require any of it. You dont need brains, you dont need effort, you dont need to put in any bloody thought ... McVeigh was not just a insane loner, he was a very motivated and anti big government activist. He is a terrorist, not a nutcase.

If we were to have no guns at all, these fools will ahve gone on a baseball bat rampage, or a knife rampage or a chicken leg rampage ... killed 1-2-3 and wounded 3-4-5 ... the 1927 guy and Timothy McVeigh will ahve still done what they did.

Its not a simple answer or a simple solution, its the quickest step to ponder the other failings of our society. Yes we will have rampages, the rampages will just have a smaller body count.

Seriously though, I think we just need to plaster the news with "The following massacre has been made possible with the help of the NRA, smith and wesson and your local gun dealer".

Dont tie acts of terror to gun ownership.
Dont tie mental illness to gun ownership.
Dont change 1 rule wait 3 weeks and say that didn't work.

With 150 years of lobbying, maybe every 3-4 months we will have a 30-40 body pile. Maybe that is what freedom is. That maybe what the NRA is all about.

The only thing that a fool can use to kill several 100 people in a few seconds inside a building is a gun, Yea yea he can plow into them with a car but not inside a building. Say anything you want, yes we can poison people and kill 100, and you can even kill them by poking them in the eye wiht a pencil. Yes ... but 30 in 30 sec with no effort or brains - only a gun my friend.

Cool.
Srinath.

BTW there is 3 cops in my sons school every morning, presumably they would be there through the day ... I think.

That should put a nice little dent in the "cut government spending" mantra of the right wing that Obama will get blamed for.

Cool.
Srinath.

You can use car to kill people, or a baseball bat, or a pencil, or rat poison...
... but they do have an intended purpose...

You can use an assault weapon to hunt turkey, or scare an intruder, or as a bottle opener if you want...
... but it does have an intended purpose...
It's intended purpose is not legitimate for civilians in a civilized country .... ...

And, just like that, we have glazed over the NRA enabled, Bushmaster sponsored pile of bodies.

Cool.
Srinath.

Do you even know what constitutes an "assault weapon"?
I'll quote it by the book and then I'll add my own critiques in red.

Attributes previously defined in assault weapon legislation and their purposes:

Detachable magazines
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Collapsible stocks
[color=#ff0000]Because if could make the rifle, at your leisure, up to 5 or 6 inches shorter.
Realistically if you had to carry it in a tight space or for comfort if you were switching between shooters. Like handlebars

Pistol grips
If you're holding something capable of causing great risk or injury to yourself or others you shouldn't have a pistol grip because you might have better control over the weapon. They are said to "(on rifles) reduce the angle (and thus rotational strain) of the wrist, are popular with physically-impaired shooters who cannot hold a stock with a more traditional angle."

Grenade launcher
I can be reasonable and actually agree that grenade launchers are not necessary

Bayonet mounts are often on civilian firearms due to the same parts being used on both government and civilian rifles
Because stabbing someone with a gun is way more deadly than plain old boring stabbing

Flash suppressors
Because you and anyone around you should be rendered flash blind after each round

Threaded barrels
mount flash suppressors, compensators and muzzle brakes

A barrel shroud
This is "a tube around the barrel designed to limit transfer of heat from the barrel to the supporting hand, or to protect a shooter from being burned by accidental contact."
Again, the last thing you'd want is a firm grip /end sarcasm

Magazines greater than 10 rounds
I already posted a speed reload video. Unless you're going to outlaw the number of magazines I can have there is no difference if I have a 100 round drum or 10x 10 round magazines. Except my Betamax drum jams all the time.

Semi-automatic, functionality meaning that they can eject spent shell casings and chamber the next round without additional human action, but (as opposed to automatic firearms) only one round is fired per pull of the trigger.
Every gun, even revolvers, except bolt action rifles and black powder muskets

Unloaded weight of 50 oz (1.4 kg) or more
Not having arm fatigue is dangerous


The United States Department of Justice National Institute of Justice found should the ban be renewed, its effects on gun violence would likely be small, and perhaps too small for reliable measurement, because rifles in general, including rifles referred to as "assault rifles" or "assault weapons", are rarely used in gun crimes.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/204431.pdf

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied the "assault weapon" ban and other gun control attempts, and found "insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws reviewed for preventing violence." A 2004 critical review of research on firearms by a National Research Council panel also noted that academic studies of the assault weapon ban "did not reveal any clear impacts on gun violence" and noted "due to the fact that the relative rarity with which the banned guns were used in crime before the ban ... the maximum potential effect of the ban on gun violence outcomes would be very small...."

That study by Christopher S. Koper, Daniel J. Woods, and Jeffrey A. Roth of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania found no statistically significant evidence that either the assault weapons ban or the ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds had reduced gun murders. However, they concluded that it was "premature to make definitive assessments of the ban's impact on gun crime," and argue that if the ban had been in effect for more than nine years, benefits might have begun to appear.

Research by John Lott in the 2000 second edition of More Guns, Less Crime provided the first research on state and the Federal Assault Weapon Bans. The 2010 third edition provided the first empirical research on the 2004 sunset of the Federal Assault Weapon Ban. Generally, the research found no impact of these bans on violent crime rates, though the third edition provided some evidence that Assault Weapon Bans slightly increased murder rates. Lott's book The Bias Against Guns provided evidence that the bans reduced the number of gun shows by over 20 percent. Koper, Woods, and Roth studies focus on gun murders, while Lott's looks at murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assaults. Unlike their work, Lott's research accounted for state Assault Weapon Bans and 12 other different types of gun control laws.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence examined the impact of the Assault Weapons Ban in its 2004 report, On Target: The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Act. Examining 1.4 million guns involved in crime, "in the five-year period before enactment of the Federal Assault Weapons Act (1990-1994), assault weapons named in the Act constituted 4.82% of the crime gun traces ATF conducted nationwide. Since the law’s enactment, however, these assault weapons have made up only 1.61% of the guns ATF has traced to crime."[14] A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) stated that he "can in no way vouch for the validity" of the report.



...and now here's a video of guns killing people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zQ83fhKQ0M


--Steve