The Official Gun Control Debate thread

[Jer]

though i am flattered by all the attention.

And there it is. You'd be funny if you weren't so sad.

Nah - strike that. You're still a riot - pathetic or not.

[AsheanMT]

Since when did violent criminals care about laws, gun control or otherwise?

now please excuse me while I go puke because I read too many spook-jer exchanges (1 being too many). Why don't I just ignore spook already?

I ponder this question too. I think its because ignoring doesn't really make it go away.

[MeatPuppet]

Why don't I just ignore spook already?

Do it man, it feels gooooood.

[spook]

For fuck sake! Are you still talking?!

Unbelievable. I didn't think I would ever put a non-alias on my ignore list. You just proved me wrong.

You just made my ignore list. Don't bother replying, I won't be able to see it.

amazingly, our post rates are within .3 posts per day of each other, meat. you've just been doing it for 14 months longer. apparently we both suffer from diarrhea of the mouth.

funny how that works.

[MeatPuppet]

"This message is hidden because spook is on your ignore list."

[rideit]

As far as fighting off the government, all it takes is an armed citizenry willing to join the existing militias, and form their own on the spot.

That is no longer a real proposition.
Welcome to 2007. There is a 'slight' technology and infrastructure discrepancy. Go start a Montana style revolution, and see for yourself how far it gets.

[spook]

I ponder this question too. I think its because ignoring doesn't really make it go away.

please do, ashean. then i won't have to read your responses and feel sorry knowing you have procreated.

[Jer]

amazingly, our post rates are within .3 posts per day of each other, meat. you've just been doing it for 14 months longer. apparently we both suffer from diarrhea of the mouth.

funny how that works.

Whoa there, spookydouche - don't go trying to compare yourself to anybody else. Nobody else here even comes close to your level of pretensiousness, narcissism and stupidity. I'm a super-duper King Kong ass faced douchebag and even I can't hold a candle to you. You are truely in a league of your own.

[spook]

Whoa there, spookydouche - don't go trying to compare yourself to anybody else. Nobody else here even comes close to your level of pretensiousness, narcissism and stupidity. I'm a super-duper King Kong ass faced douchebag and even I can't hold a candle to you. You are truely in a league of your own.

i am honored by to be held in your high esteem.

you did vote, i hope. polls close in a week.

[spook]

That is no longer a real proposition.
Welcome to 2007. There is a 'slight' technology and infrastructure discrepancy. Go start a Montana style revolution, and see for yourself how far it gets.

don't kill the fantasy, rideit. so many depend on it.

[Jer]

"This message is hidden because spook is on your ignore list."

Hey - you're right. It is nice. Maybe I'll keep it this way.

[spook]

Hey - you're right. It is nice. Maybe I'll keep it this way.

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

[AsheanMT]

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

You seem to be more pathetic with every post. I'm both fascinated and repulsed by your douchebagedness. I can tell from your posts you're becoming less and less secure in your own bullshit. Its like watching an injured animal. I have never witnessed such a tool in my whole life.


edit: Except maybe George Dubbya. He might have you out-tooled.

[grapedrink]

If there were some correlation established between all people with lung cancer, whether they smoked or not, that was stronger than the correlation with smoking, you could say that, or at least strongly suggest it.



You are confusing correlation with causation.

This is not an easy problem to solve. There is a strong correlation between socio/economic status and crime. But there is nothing about being poor that makes you a criminal. There are other factors at work. Same is true for education. To focus on these two factors is to ignore/neglect the real cause of the problems we are trying to solve.

Bottom line: If a person has a strong set of morals/ethics they won't become criminals. If they don't, they very likely will resort to crime. But these are instilled by a person's culture and are not dependent on income/education.

i'm confusing nothing. when you're born from a crackhead mother, getting a garbage inner city education in a neighborhood overrun with violence, gangs, and drug abuse.. you don't quite have the same outlook or options as a middle class kid from suburbia. someone with a strong moral compass may never succomb to a life of crime, but someone with a weak moral compass who otherwise would have gone to college and gotten a nice job might choose a life of crime if that option wasn't available or realistic and was instead faced with option of working at macdonalds for minimum wage for the rest of their life because they don't even have a ged and can barely read and write.

[spook]

You seem to be more pathetic with every post. I'm both fascinated and repulsed by your douchebagedness. I can tell from your posts you're becoming less and less secure in your own bullshit. Its like watching an injured animal. I have never witnessed such a tool in my whole life.

don't worry, ashean. i'm plenty secure in my bullshit. it would take a lot more than a couple rednecks screaming obscenities at every post to knock me off that game. but go ahead and get your hopes up.

i will admit to spending far too much time with you folks today, though, but it IS the night before taxes are due, and it's not often you have another school shooting to get people all riled up about their perceptions of our glorious country.

i do appreciate the admiration among the hebetudinous for my apparent singularity.

don't forget to vote!

[AsheanMT]

i'm confusing nothing. when you're born from a crackhead mother, getting a garbage inner city education in a neighborhood overrun with violence, gangs, and drug abuse.. you don't quite have the same outlook or options as a middle class kid from suburbia. someone with a strong moral compass may never succomb to a life of crime, but someone with a weak moral compass who otherwise would have gone to college and gotten a nice job might choose a life of crime if that option wasn't available or realistic and was instead faced with option of working at macdonalds for minimum wage for the rest of their life because they don't even have a ged and can barely read and write.

I would have to say BULLSHIT! Maybe you didn't hear about the college kid that massacred 32 people.

[MeatPuppet]

That is no longer a real proposition.
Welcome to 2007. There is a 'slight' technology and infrastructure discrepancy. Go start a Montana style revolution, and see for yourself how far it gets.

There is no government in power today that has existed for more than a small fraction of recorded history. Things change, that's the only constant.

I would like to think that our descendants would look back through history and give a silent nod of appreciation that we, in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity, had the wisdom to preserve the rights and freedoms that would allow the general population to marshal their resources and build/rebuild a new government if needed.

Just because our boat has been in calm seas for 150 years doesn't mean that it is a good idea to throw the lifeboats overboard. Even as useless as they may appear to some, at this point in history.

[spook]

I would like to think that our descendants would look back through history and give a silent nod of appreciation that we, in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity, had the wisdom to preserve the rights and freedoms that would allow the general population to marshal their resources and build/rebuild a new government if needed.

Just because our boat has been in calm seas for 150 years doesn't mean that it is a good idea to throw the lifeboats overboard. Even as useless as they may appear to some, at this point in history.

that is a very selective perspective about what constitutes peace and prosperity. how ironic that you would suggest such a thing at all, but particularly after well over a million iraqis alone have perished in the past 15 years or so due to our peaceful nature (not to mention the implications for those who have survived). there are numerous other examples with which i'm sure you are familiar.

not only has our government and people continued to externalize harm domestically along such lines as race, gender and income, we have exponentially expanded the externalization of untold harm on the rest of the world during this so-called period of peace and prosperity.

such is the existence of empire. it won't last forever. if anything, hopefully our descendants will recognize us for the gluttonous predation we oversaw and participated in and do something different. i'm not getting my hopes up.

[MeatPuppet]

i'm confusing nothing. when you're born from a crackhead mother, getting a garbage inner city education in a neighborhood overrun with violence, gangs, and drug abuse.. you don't quite have the same outlook or options as a middle class kid from suburbia.

No you don't. But I know people who have come from environments like you describe, who are moral, ethical, hardworking individuals who I trust implicitly. Their origins don't determine their criminal status, their character does. Character is not determined by income or education.

but someone with a weak moral compass who otherwise would have gone to college and gotten a nice job...

...and ended up working for a company like Enron? How many rich, educated criminals are there in the corporate world?

If your assessment is correct, then corporate America should be virtually free of crime since there is so much wealth and education to be found there.

[grapedrink]

No you don't. But I know people who have come from environments like you describe, who are moral, ethical, hardworking individuals who I trust implicitly. Their origins don't determine their criminal status, their character does. Character is not determined by income or education..

of course, and again, all poor people don't have to be criminals for poverty to be a major cause of crime. you're simply far more likely to end up in prison if you grew in poverty, surrounded by crime.

...and ended up working for a company like Enron? How many rich, educated criminals are there in the corporate world? .

i don't know but probably very little compared to the number of drug dealers, gangbangers, junkies, and car thieves out there.

If your assessment is correct, then corporate America should be virtually free of crime since there is so much wealth and education to be found there.

no but corporate america is virtually free of violent criminals.

[grapedrink]

I would have to say BULLSHIT! Maybe you didn't hear about the college kid that massacred 32 people.

maybe you should try and think that one through again

[Free Range Lobster]

In our media driven, eight-second-sound bite society, the Dems are known for being in favor of gun control and the Republicans are known for opposing it. I was making very general statements regarding that fact, nothing more.

Sarah Brady was a Republican.

[Crass3000]

Bottom line: If a person has a strong set of morals/ethics they won't become criminals. If they don't, they very likely will resort to crime. But these are instilled by a person's culture and are not dependent on income/education.

That, my friend, is a VERY good point!

[yodaottis]

Solution to crime: arm criminals, disarm everyone else.
I don't see any problem with this.

[Crass3000]

Solution to crime: arm criminals, disarm everyone else.
I don't see any problem with this.

I agree. I'm sure then Super-spook could have a conference, much like Al Sharpton or Rev. Jackson, which, through his overpowering sense of ethics, right and wrong, etc. could explain to the criminals that crime is wrong and should not be committed. Given how persuasive he is here I can't see how this couldn't work.

Maybe he can come to some sort of compromise with the criminal underworld. We could all set an eightball of speed on our doorstep -- that way we could eliminate one big reason our houses are robbed.

Having a way to protect your family is so yesterday.