Right to Assault Rifle's

[Romanos]

This is another run off from the gun debate, but it warrants its own topic.

The opposing argument for this is that while you can keep your handguns and shotguns, assault rifles are not needed.

 

[MoreCoffee]

This is another run off from the gun debate, but it warrants its own topic.

The opposing argument for this is that while you can keep your handguns and shotguns, assault rifles are not needed.

If a gun is okay and a assault rifle is okay then why not hand grenades and small missiles?

 

[Alithis]

If a gun is okay and a assault rifle is okay then why not hand grenades and small missiles?

and clocks ?

 

[psalms 91]

If a gun is okay and a assault rifle is okay then why not hand grenades and small missiles?

I have no problem with ell armed civilians provided they act responsibly with what they have

 

[MoreCoffee]

and clocks ?

If you have a Muslim name and look vaguely Arab-like then clocks are a deadly weapon according to hyperimaginative panic driven teachers it seems.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I have no problem with [w]ell armed civilians provided they act responsibly with what they have

Well, how about arming the missiles with small nuclear warheads? Surely atomic weapons do not kill, people kill, right?

 

[Tigger]

Assault riffles are over the top in my opinion.

 

[Ruth]

What reason do you think there should be assault rifles? I see no reason for them.

 

[tango]

This is another run off from the gun debate, but it warrants its own topic.

The opposing argument for this is that while you can keep your handguns and shotguns, assault rifles are not needed.

One obvious question is how to define an "assault rifle".

 

[dogs4thewin]

No they do not not just sitting there.

Well, how about arming the missiles with small nuclear warheads? Surely atomic weapons do not kill, people kill, right?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Well, how about arming the missiles with small nuclear warheads? Surely atomic weapons do not kill, people kill, right?

No they do not not just sitting there.

Excellent; then we can progress to large scale nukes as personal protection, right?

Never mind the nuclear waste ... nuclear waste does not kill people, people kill people, right?

 

[Biblicist]

One obvious question is how to define an "assault rifle".

I was scrolling through to see if anyone had asked this question - and so far there has been no reply!

 

[Biblicist]

Excellent; then we can progress to large scale nukes as personal protection, right?

Never mind the nuclear waste ... nuclear waste does not kill people, people kill people, right?

If the US was ever to ban the private ownership of guns (which will never happen), this does not mean that the criminal element will be unable to obtain guns. Last week here in Melbourne (Australia), our police stated that they have seized upwards of 200 shotguns that were made from cheap waterpipe and that the problem is escalating amongst the lower end of the illicit drug trade where the "high end" of this market have their own illegal commercially made handguns. As a number of individuals have provided free plans to enable those who own 3d printers to make their own guns, then it seems that in the near future that the average home owner will be able to make his own semi-automatic at home.

Don't forget, you sadly had two people killed outside of the Parramatta (Sydney) police station yesterday and the gun was undoubtedly illegally sourced.

 

[tango]

If the US was ever to ban the private ownership of guns (which will never happen), this does not mean that the criminal element will be unable to obtain guns. Last week here in Melbourne (Australia), our police stated that they have seized upwards of 200 shotguns that were made from cheap waterpipe and that the problem is escalating amongst the lower end of the illicit drug trade where the "high end" of this market have their own illegal commercially made handguns. As a number of individuals have provided free plans to enable those who own 3d printers to make their own guns, then it seems that in the near future that the average home owner will be able to make his own semi-automatic at home.

Don't forget, you sadly had two people killed outside of the Parramatta (Sydney) police station yesterday and the gun was undoubtedly illegally sourced.

It's actually pretty easy to cobble together a makeshift device that will fire a projectile with enough force to cause some major damage using little more than the kind of stuff anyone can put together without raising suspicion. Back in my teenage years (before the anti-terrorism juggernaut got rolling) a guy I knew embedded a ball bearing about six inches into a tree using little more than a piece of pipe and some stuff he found around the house. If I recall a major problem in the Middle East is the Improvised Explosive Device - something cobbled together out of whatever was available that still packs enough of a punch to cause damage and serious injury.

After Columbine the news reports said the perpetrators were using pipe bombs. I may be wrong on this but I can't say I've ever seen pipe bombs for sale in any mainstream retailer, even in the rural parts of the US.

Bottom line, the people who do this kind of thing don't care about the laws so the best we can hope to do is make it a little more difficult for them.

 

[MoreCoffee]

It's actually pretty easy to cobble together a makeshift device that will fire a projectile with enough force to cause some major damage using little more than the kind of stuff anyone can put together without raising suspicion. Back in my teenage years (before the anti-terrorism juggernaut got rolling) a guy I knew embedded a ball bearing about six inches into a tree using little more than a piece of pipe and some stuff he found around the house. If I recall a major problem in the Middle East is the Improvised Explosive Device - something cobbled together out of whatever was available that still packs enough of a punch to cause damage and serious injury.

After Columbine the news reports said the perpetrators were using pipe bombs. I may be wrong on this but I can't say I've ever seen pipe bombs for sale in any mainstream retailer, even in the rural parts of the US.

Bottom line, the people who do this kind of thing don't care about the laws so the best we can hope to do is make it a little more difficult for them.

I do hope that USA law makers and USA culture will not yield millions of individuals building IEDs for use in 'self defence' and 'for protection' ... but I can imagine the isolated folk with nuke-shelters in their back yard building improvised land mines "just in case" law and order breaks down as a kind of "self defence" around their shelter and maybe on the perimeter of their properties. I can imagine them saying "it's my right to defend myself and my loved ones from lawless men (and women)".

 

[tango]

I do hope that USA law makers and USA culture will not yield millions of individuals building IEDs for use in 'self defence' and 'for protection' ... but I can imagine the isolated folk with nuke-shelters in their back yard building improvised land mines "just in case" law and order breaks down as a kind of "self defence" around their shelter and maybe on the perimeter of their properties. I can imagine them saying "it's my right to defend myself and my loved ones from lawless men (and women)".

My point was that the ease with which someone so inclined can build IEDs is unrelated to whether the law permits them to actually do it. People who go around killing people generally aren't the people who care about what is legal, so if they can't get hold of guns they'll just make a bunch of IEDs in their garage and use those instead. Frankly I'd rather deal with a nutter wielding a gun in a shopping mall than the same nutter leaving IEDs in random locations. At least in the shopping mall you can see what's going on and there's a sporting chance of taking the guy down.

When I was growing up it was too common to have shopping malls, train stations etc evacuated due to terrorist activity by the IRA. Often there wasn't anything actually there but a credible threat from a known IRA source was enough to get everything locked down. And sometimes there really was a bomb.