Martin the cdn expat

Can't play the 'guns are racist' card with a white victim, no one cares about him.

Let me know when the lefty anti gun protests get rolling for Chad Oulson.
Somehow, I think Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton won't be in the streets.

dbd33

Who says "guns are racist"? (Apart from you, of course).

Chad Oulson isn't a sympathetic figure. He's a man who used an electronic device in a cinema. He was a Christian and he had ridiculous facial hair. That people don't care about him isn't because he was white but because he's was a stereotypical person of Wal-Mart. I don't say he deserved to die but he's a more tainted figure personally than Trayvon Martin and that's without considering his ill-advised tats.

Jackson and Sharpton are professional lobbyists on race issues, not especially gun control. James Brady and Barack Obama might be considered leading lobbyists for gun control, do you think they don't care about white victims of violence?

Steve_

If you actually read DC v Heller and McDonald v Chicago, they seem to be saying anything short of a ban or a system of regulation that is tantamount to a ban on "firearms in common use at the time" is constitutional.

There's been a ruling in the appeals court for Illinois Shepard v. Madigan which also said that a complete and total ban on carrying guns was unconstitutional, which implies that you can also have regulations that are short of a complete ban.

There's more to it than just the Second Amendment, I think people miss that point, the Constitution also has protections against taking of property and a requirement for due process and also a prohibition on self-incrimination.

All of which makes gun laws similar to Europe very difficult. For example in US v. Haynes, Haynes was prosecuted for illegally possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun - the Supreme Court ruled that a person who knowingly is a felon cannot be compelled to register a gun because it violates their right against self-incrimination under the fifth amendment.

"...nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." Which basically means you can't ban guns without compensating people for them. So whenever there is a gun ban, they always grandfather in existing owners. "...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Which prevents the arbitrary taking of property, they have to make out a compelling reason why they are taking it, which means you have to convince the judge of the public safety argument which isn't easy to do because it is far from certain that gun law X will have result Y. And many gun laws have been held to violate the due process clause for being unconstitutionally vague, mainly because it's difficult to define technology precisely in a law. What is an "assault weapon" exactly, for example?

scrubbedexpat091

I don't think there is any need to carry a gun except when hunting or going to a target range. But for some reason I will never understand people seem to think they need to carry a gun around.

You said it yourself, a complete ban is not constitutional, and regulation alone clearly has not worked, several states have pretty stringent regulation on guns and still have gun violence above what other developed countries see.

My statement stands to really do anything meaningful, the constitution would need to be amended which is not going to happen anytime soon.

Jingsamichty

I genuinely couldn't give a shit. If Americans are quite happy to allow folks to take guns into a cinema, or a mall, or the office, or church, then they surely aren't surprised at any of this... so why should we be?

bats

I used my cellphone for almost the entire duration of a film. It waas Macbeth, there were no subtitles so i got the play up on my Blackberry and read them as the play went along. Nobody shot me or complained. I did try and shield the screen with a scarf so maybe i got brownie points for that.

BristolUK

Are you sure you're not British?

scrubbedexpat091

lol....well probably have some british blood from some point, but that would have been many moons ago...My dads family came over from Britain well his mom's side in the late 1700's, and his dad's side is native and there isn't much about his dads side of the family before 1900.

Well according to the family tree stuff my mom's husband does and based on his research so don't hold me to it....

Jingsamichty

Reported today that a 4 year old girl in Detroit accidentally shot and killed her 4 year old cousin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25787934

Oink

That's tragic. You need a proper gun safe. End of.

dbd33

Except that there's no point in having a gun if it's not there, and loaded, when you need it. Having a gun in a safe is like having no gun at all.

Oink

You have full sized one in the cupboard, lug bolted to the floor for rifles, spares and ammunition and a small quick release one by your bed. First thing you do when you come home from work is put your firearms away in their proper place. No child should ever be able to get access to them. End of.

dbd33

What a faff! No, the point of having a gun is to be able to kill people or animals. Animal death can be planned for but the people who need shooting are burglars and killing them means having a loaded gun under the pillow.

Of course, it's more likely that an innocent member of the household will be killed than a burglar but that's a risk one chooses to take. Either have a gun, and that means a gun to hand, or don't. A gun in a case is just something to impress your friends.

Novocastrian

Me, I have a Sherman tank in the drive.

Never had any bother.

Although it makes it tricky to park the Hummer Urban Attack Vehicle.

caretaker

I drove a Bren-gun Carrier once, and we used Shermans as targets for artillery tank alert drill once. I like Oinks plan of locking everything up. The odds are overwhelming that you are more likely to have a gun stolen and possibly used in a crime than you are of having to use it to defend yourself. I had a gun stolen once and it was used in an armed robbery, so I know - I also slept with a loaded gun under my pillow for a time and looking back I think it wasn't worth the risk; when the house was broken into the burglars failed to get into my suite or they may have found it. There aren't many hiding places a good thief hasn't thought of.
Also, when someone else tried to break in and I woke up I dealt with it using the venerable baseball bat, only later realising I'd left the gun under my pillow.