D.D.D. wrote:This is why guns need to be abolished.
Unfortunately that won't help. Even if somehow that could be done (which it can't), psychopaths would just use home-made pipe bombs, knives, bows and arrows, sledgehammers, golf clubs, or any other mundane tool that can be misused. I mean cars are 1-2 ton mobile slabs of death at the hands of idiots that don't have driving experience, have been drinking, or are too busy yakking and texting on their cell phone to pay attention to the world in front of them.
D.D.D. wrote:This is why guns need to be abolished.
Unfortunately that won't help. Even if somehow that could be done (which it can't), psychopaths would just use home-made pipe bombs, knives, bows and arrows, sledgehammers, golf clubs, or any other mundane tool that can be misused. I mean cars are 1-2 ton mobile slabs of death at the hands of idiots that don't have driving experience, have been drinking, or are too busy yakking and texting on their cell phone to pay attention to the world in front of them.
Takes a lot more effort to kill someone with any those items (save for the cars - and that is just extreme inconsideration to others anyways). A bit harder to attempt to kill 100s without an extended magazine in a semi-auto.
D.D.D. wrote:Takes a lot more effort to kill someone with any those items. A bit harder to attempt to kill 100s without an extended magazine in a semi-auto.
Not if you collapsed a roof onto hundreds of people conveniently packed together in one room, drove a car into a crowd, or you know, fly an airplane into a building.
If some nutjob is determined to hurt people, they can find a way. Realizing that someone is not ok and stopping them is easier than trying to think of every way someone could hurt someone else and take that away. People can drown in a inch of water and if you're not strong enough to strangle someone with your bare hands, just about any article of clothing you're wearing can make the job easier.
D.D.D. wrote:Takes a lot more effort to kill someone with any those items. A bit harder to attempt to kill 100s without an extended magazine in a semi-auto.
Not if you collapsed a roof onto hundreds of people conveniently packed together in one room, drove a car into a crowd, or you know, fly an airplane into a building.
Roof: lotta planning. Car: 100s? Maybe not but certainly more than a few. Airplay: Again, lotsa planning.
All things that are much harder than obtaining a gun, point n click, except the car.
Ack wrote:
sabrage wrote:The difference is that guns serve no purpose outside of killing things.
It's true. Bleach cleans because it kills. It makes a potent poison and can also be used in explosives. The reality of a firearm is that it is nothing more than a channeled shrapnel bomb, in which the shrapnel is propelled in a specific direction. With a few household chemicals and a little know how picked up in a few minutes on the Internet, you can actually come up with something far more devastating.
The point is, it is incredibly easy to kill people, and anyone who wants to will get their hands on something to do it with. I am disturbed that people in this topic are immediately jumping on the firearms in lieu of the other things he had in his possession: a full suit of protective gear to protect himself from bullets, a gas mask, tear gas, and enough explosives and knowledge to booby trap his apartment in such as manner as to force police to evacuate five surrounding buildings and claim it may take several days to disarm them all. Yet you want to focus solely on the fact he had firearms.
Firearms do have a purpose. Yes, wounding and killing. They're a tool of choice in hunting, just like the arrow or the spear used to be, neither of which had much practical purpose beyond killing. Knives have slightly more utility for eating and cutting things, but ultimately their purpose is to cut, rend, and maim, perfect for killing. The purpose of household cleaners is to kill germs. Pesticides are there to kill insects, though they tend to work at killing us too.
And if you have a creative mind, you can kill people with just about anything larger than your pinky, and most things under its size. There's not a limit to the destructive capability of a single human being based on materials: the necessary items are there for the taking, available in just about any store for low prices. It comes down to personal morality, views on the value of life, and respect for others.
Guns do not kill people. People kill people. Sure some form of gun control is necessary, but when you abolish guns in whole, what will you turn to when say you need to defend yourself? Perhaps if more and more gun retailers only sold to law-abiding citizens who are without a criminal record and possessed a CCW then such incidents of senseless violence(alluding to last night) might not happen.
