I think someone needs to post the guy who's shirt says, "You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same" and is holding a large rifle.

You'll have to excuse me if I bristle when someone who couldn't tell me a single one of the four basic rules of gun safety starts to lecture me on how I'm too dumb to handle a firearm.

However, I'll choke back the rising vitriol and remain civil, continuing thusly;

Multiple studies have shown that, on average, firearms are used about 2,000,000 times per year to prevent a violent crime. That isn't a typo. 2 million. (Criminologist Gary Kleck's book will have more info.)

On top of that, despite record numbers of reported gun-ownership in the USA, rates of accidental deaths due to firearms have been declining significantly.

Sorry, but gun control advocates are the ones who should run up a white flag before they end up just looking like a bunch of silly idealogues.

oh you wacky yanks and your guns!

Let's see, I blame ..
TV
porn on the internet
Marilyn Manson
"ultraviolent" video games

In Communist Russia, guns control you.

I am the NRA

From the FARQ

Make the tagline funny.
Make sure the submission is at least somewhat humorous.

Yeah, I know it's flammable, but WTF? Stories like this aren't funny and making fun of them isn't funny.

Forget the method. The simple fact here is that Americans LOVE to kill each other. Darwin at work?

In fact, the bullets our military uses are designed primarily to injure, not kill....

Supposedly, one reason for this is that a wounded soldier is more of a liability to the enemy than a dead one. Caring for a wounded soldier requires resources to be expended, whereas the dead need only be buried, if even that.

Of course, if the enemy isn't around to pick up their wounded, then this strategy doesn't work.

And let this be a lesson to me, Preview is your friend.

Digitalstrange

Not really, she had already reproduced.

Too bad the dumbass didn't discharge the pistol through the back of his mouth, it would've prevented anymore defective offspring.

Well thats no good. Thats just sad, i mean it was his mom...then again, if he's dumb enough to shoot his own mother, than we might as well kill whomever produced this douche bag
and then allow the kid to kill himself i suppose.

/a different canadian perspective

The question we have before us is: do guns do more good than harm?

ANTI-GUN: Of course not, they're tools devised specifically for the killing of other human beings, how can that be good?

PRO-GUN: Well, what if somebody's trying to kill you? Then you need to defend yourself... with a gun.

ANTI-GUN: What's he attacking you with?

PRO-GUN: Er... A gun.

ANTI-GUN: So you need a gun in order to defend yourself from people with guns?

PRO-GUN: No! No! He's attacking you with a hammer!

ANTI-GUN: ...

PRO-GUN: A big, nasty hammer with spikes on it!

ANTI-GUN: You can't barricade yourself in a room? Run? You can't fight with him? Reason with him?

PRO-GUN: No! He's a... a giant black man on PCP! He wants to kill you and rape your family!

ANTI-GUN: So you're telling me that the only time a gun will do you any good is when you're being attacked by somebody who doesn't have a gun, is too strong to be beaten, and is determined to kill you? And that the possibility of this happening is greater than the loss of innocent lives that guns seem to cause on a daily basis because of their ease of use and availability?

PRO-GUN: Now you've got it! We must defend our families from the ravening hordes of crazed hammer-wielding killers!

/sorry about the long post... I think that's the argument so far.

MegaDethHead: "The constitution was written a VERY long time ago. The second amendment needs to be erased."

What about all those other amendments?


not_fnorgby: Regarding the dissemination of potentially harmful information:

I think such information should be freely available, so long as they do not incite the reader into utilizing the information. Information is just that. To begin to censor media we find as potentially dangerous in the wrong hands is to put ourselves in danger of a slipperly slope.

Let's say we ban a manual on how to kill people - do we then ban entertainment books/movies/tv/video games where there are specific detailed depictions of murder that could be easily imitated?

Although such information rightly makes nearly all of us uncomfortable, I don't believe we should censor it.

so RobustMatress, how would you have built that house without the hammer? you could use a spoon but that's really not quite as effective, is it? guess it's the gun owner's fault when a kid accidentally blows his friend's head off with daddy's gun...because who has the time in an emergency to grab the gun, get the key, unlock the drawer, get the bullets and lock and load? (or some combination of). he can just tell the intruder, "oh can you hang on a sec? i forgot my bullets in the car, i didn't want little timmy hurting himself with the gun i intended to use to shoot you had it been loaded."

guns aren't meant for shooting your aggressor's bullets out of the air while you try to reason with him or her. if they were, then maybe you could say a gun is never to blame. but as far as i'm concerned, if someone's on the floor bleeding, the gun worked.

/not related to the article
/not anti or pro-gun, just hates bad metaphors...and people.

He certainly showed her...

When I was just a baby,
My Mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy,
Don't ever play with guns,"

/Johnny Cash RIP

During a presentation in Florida, a hapless Drug Enforcement Administration agent inadvertently hammered home the importance of gun safety. The agent was lecturing 50 students and adults when he drew his .40-caliber weapon and removed the magazine. The agent pulled back the slide and asked an audience member to confirm that the gun was not loaded, then pointed the pistol toward the floor, released the slide and -- woopsie! -- fired a shot into the top of his left thigh. "Everyone was pretty shaken up," said an audience member. "But the point of gun safety hit home. Unfortunately, the agent had to get shot. But after seeing that, my nephew doesn't want to have anything to do with guns."
From wired.com today

Crap, i'm too drunk to work a flame war. I'm going to go beat up some stray cats instead.
/kidding about the cats

Easy, killer.

/quick reality check so not_fnorgby doesn't beat me to death with a Birkenstock

I personally think that anybody who stands in the same room as somebody else as they diffle with a firearm deserves to be shot. Oh shiat.

Okay, maybe that was in bad taste.

Man, this is really sad. Sure the dude is a dumbass, but that's a given for anyone who accidentally shoots someone showing off their new laser pointer. I feel bad for the guy.

Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
There'd be no more crime, 'cause everybody'd have a gun!
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
We wouldn't need the police no more, 'cause everybody'd have a gun!
(Yeah!)
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun? (had a gun)
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun? (had a gun)
Nobody'd ever get shot, 'cause everybody'd have a gun! (Makes sense!)
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
We could go out and shoot things
We could go out and shoot things
We could go out and shoot things
We could go out and shoot things
We could go out and shoot things
We could go out and shoot things
We'd all feel safe, 'cause everybody'd have a gun!
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun? (had a gun)
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun? (had a gun)
Everyone'd be equal, 'cause everybody'd have a gun!
Not me, I got me a rifle!
Well hang on, if you got yourself a rifle then I wanna get me a semi-automatic weapon!
You get a semi-automatic weapon and I'm gonna want an automatic weapon!
You get yourself an automatic weapon, I'm gonna get a super-automatic weapon!
Well if you get a super-automatic weapon, then I'm gonna get a super-duper-automatic weapon with a CD-ROM drive!
If you get yourself one of those I'm gonna get a
super-duper-automatic weapon with a CD-ROM drive, and a big old hard drive, and a big guitar amp ...
(rambles on while the rest of the Worms sing)
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had the weapon of their choice?
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had the weapon of their choice?
Wouldn't it be great if everybody had a gun?
(Still rambling..)
I'll go so fast I'll be able to chase you from here to Saigon, and then I'll shoot like little Nerf rockets at you and poke you in the eye 'cause it'll have automatic like finger-poking in the eye things...


You people with guns are stupid stupid people. I can't express my disgust and contempt for gun-owners everywhere. We no longer need to hunt to survive--we only hunt to kill nowadays, but you all just can't see that the only prey is other people now...

Morons. Absolute Morons. Please keep firing at each other.

GW

not_fnorgby and megadethhead, valiant effort.
Maybe someday ridiculously simple logic will prevail.
Meanwhile I'm on the lookout for hammer wielding maniacs.

well, last check on the thread before bed, and not much has changed, except for some Arrogant Worms lyrics.

just have to say, you personal-safety advocates have it backward. I'm not safer when I have a gun. I'm safer when you don't.

that is all.

You never point a gun at someone just "showing it" to them. Or any other time, unless you intend to kill them. My guns are always loaded, but locked up in a gun-safe. I don't take them out unless it's to go hunting, or for home defense. (havent' had to do that yet, thank God.)

This was a dumbass move.

DUH.

Even though this dude is a retarded assclown, you still have to feel bad for him and his family. Damn. 2 weeks before Mothers Day...Almost funny in a way, until you realize that this is a real deal type of thing.

Guns don't kill people.
You have to point them at someone first.

A gun is as safe as the person holding it.

When you liberal shaitheads figure out a way to get rid of ALL the guns, ALL of them, then I'll hand in mine. Chicago has the strongest gun control laws in this country today, and it's the MURDER CAPITAL of the country. Why? Because its a huge victim disarmament zone. As long as there are criminals in this world who would do harm to me or my loved ones, and as long as the odds are good that they will have a gun, then I'm keeping mine. And yeah, if you think you'd whip it out and blow somebody away cause you got pissed off, then you shouldnt own one, and you should probably go back to high school where you belong.

What we ought to do, is disarm the GOVERNMENT. Hundreds of millions of innocents killed by GOVERNMENTS and not one proposal to disarm them? Why not go semi-swiss. Arm everybody, and call them up if we need a military?

reverse darwinism?

Okay i thought about going realy seriosly into this issue but i havnt realy got the energy

WHY WHY WHY dont they just give people rubber bullets, Get hit by one of those and you go down. You dont need to kill anyone.

they guy was trying to shoot the apple off his mothers head.

Guns don't kill people...on purpose.

proof, meet pudding.

pudding, ...

If you ever find yourself holding a gun, just remember... no matter what anyone told you or even what you thought you just verified:

* It's loaded.
* There is a round in the chamber.
* The safety is broken.

Don't ever point the barrel of a gun at something, unless you intend to destroy it. Be sure of your target, and what's beyond it too.

I was 3 when I fired a handgun for the first time. Yes, it's fun. But for the love of "Bob" be careful!