Gun Control Debate
- Primula Baggins
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Re: Gun Control Debate
People enjoy firing “automatic weapons” at firing ranges, apparently. Maybe a fantasy thing.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Trump has been quietly (I didn't know he could do anything quietly) rolling back gun regulations (article from the Washington Post). He has been trying to dismantle all legislation from the Obama administration in order to wipe away any legacy from his administration. Yeah. He is that petty.
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- Primula Baggins
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Yes, including eliminating things that were not at all controversial, simply necessary or commonsensical. If it came out of Obama's administration, it's in Trump's sights.
I believe he would fight to repeal the law of gravity, if Obama was the one who had signed it.
I believe he would fight to repeal the law of gravity, if Obama was the one who had signed it.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Re: Gun Control Debate
Probably just as well bin Laden was buried at sea, then. Otherwise he'd ben exhuming and cloning him or something.
When you can do nothing what can you do?
Re: Gun Control Debate
Just to put things in perspective - gun deaths on a random day in the U.S.:
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: Gun Control Debate
What a waste. So very sad. So many very sad things happening in the world. And most of them have to do with greed.
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- Cenedril_Gildinaur
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Re: Gun Control Debate
The weird thing about the Las Vegas shooting is how many aspects of it don't fit any pattern. This guy had no discernible history or motive. No known strong political or religious motivation. The guy who shot the Republican baseball practice had the motivation of being a Bernie supporter. Not this guy. His choice of targets - a country music concert? There was a network executive who lost her job for saying publicly that she had no sympathy because these people were "probably Trump supporters".
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
-- Samuel Adams
-- Samuel Adams
- Primula Baggins
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Not every terrible deed is done for political reasons. Maybe he was simply insane and wanted to make a huge mark on the world before he died.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Excerpted from article: Kaczynski motive: Rage, not politics
"I certainly don't claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the "good' (whatever that is) of the human race," Kaczynski wrote in an April 1971 journal entry. "I act merely from a desire for revenge."
Kaczynski's words paint a picture of a painfully isolated man who was bitter, deeply resentful of society and desperately seeking to release his rage at the world.
"I certainly don't claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the "good' (whatever that is) of the human race," Kaczynski wrote in an April 1971 journal entry. "I act merely from a desire for revenge."
Kaczynski's words paint a picture of a painfully isolated man who was bitter, deeply resentful of society and desperately seeking to release his rage at the world.
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- Impenitent
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Re: Gun Control Debate
April 1971? I've heard that revenge is a dish best served cold, but that is a hell of a long time. A journal entry that is more than 40 years old has no bearing on this.
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
Re: Gun Control Debate
Impish, Kaczynski was the Unabomber, the American terrorist who started his mail bomb campaign in the late 70s.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Yes, I was responding to Cenedril_Gildinaur's comment regarding motive/politics/religion. In the case of Ted Kaczynski aka 'The Unabomber' his motive, at least according to his own journal entry, was rage and revenge.Impenitent wrote:April 1971? I've heard that revenge is a dish best served cold, but that is a hell of a long time. A journal entry that is more than 40 years old has no bearing on this.
Interestingly in Ted Kaczynski's case, he had been the subject of what has come to be considered an unethical human experiment while he was an undergraduate student at Harvard.
Wikipedia on Henry Murray Director of Psychology and Chief researcher, Harvard
Sounds like post traumatic stress syndrome, perhaps.From late 1959 to early 1962, Murray was responsible for what have become widely considered unethical experiments, in which he used twenty-two Harvard undergraduates as research subjects.[4] Among other purposes, experiments focused on measuring people's reactions under extreme stress. The unwitting undergraduates were submitted to what Murray called "vehement, sweeping and personally abusive" attacks. Specifically-tailored assaults to their egos, cherished ideas and beliefs were used to cause high levels of stress and distress. The subjects then viewed recorded footage of their reactions to this verbal abuse repeatedly.
Among them was 17-year-old Ted Kaczynski, a mathematician who went on to become the Unabomber, a domestic terrorist targeting academics and technologists for 18 years.[5] Alston Chase's book Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist connects Kaczynski's abusive experiences under Murray to his later criminal career.[5]
I am not implying that Stephen Paddock was the unwitting victim of a stress experiment (although he had an atypical childhood, his father being a notorious man), just pointing out that the motives for mass murder/terrorism at least sometimes extend beyond politics & religion. Interestingly something these 2 men had in common was a very high level of mathematical skills. Kaczynski was a mathematician and Paddock gambled playing the type of poker which did not rely on the traditional bluffing but a high level of precise mathematical calculation of odds.
I'm not suggesting those with high mathematical skills be prevented from owning guns I just found that to be an interesting coincidence. The point may be that we may never know what might tip someone who has lived a fairly 'normal' life over the edge.
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- Dave_LF
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Maybe we should say that only those with high mathematical skill be permitted to own guns.
- RoseMorninStar
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- Dave_LF
- Wrong within normal parameters
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Re: Gun Control Debate
Just a (bad) attempt at levity--if gun ownership required mastery of advanced mathematics, then hardly anyone would be able to get them. And Kaczynski and Paddock notwithstanding, most of those individuals would be too lost in abstraction to commit as concrete a crime as murder.
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: Gun Control Debate
It would certainly disqualify me. Although I really have no desire for a gun anyway (correlation?)
BTW, that's kinda what I thought you were inferring Dave, but I wasn't certain.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
Re: Gun Control Debate
I need guns. I'm against any rule that would disqualify me.
Re: Gun Control Debate
And they would have to submit a new paper to a journal every two years. To be reviewed.Dave_LF wrote:Just a (bad) attempt at levity--if gun ownership required mastery of advanced mathematics, then hardly anyone would be able to get them. And Kaczynski and Paddock notwithstanding, most of those individuals would be too lost in abstraction to commit as concrete a crime as murder.
'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
Re: Gun Control Debate
Or there's this approach.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Re: Gun Control Debate
Oh, yeah, I could get behind that protocol...
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.