Didnt take him long...

[OldGreyEagle]

Now that we have gotten a few posts from the flurry of insults and attacks, can we argue facts or even positions but not ones perceived intelligience level of another poster?

[BrentAllen]

Hal, Gern,

Yes, an individual can purchase a pre-1986 full auto if they jump through all the hoops - Class III, Stamp, etc. This is a closed pool of firearms. In the discussion, I took it when we said "purchase" we were talking about walking into a store and buying over the counter.

 

That low murder rate occurred when full auto weapons were still being purchased. More people have been murdered with kids toys than with full auto. Should we ban toys?

 

I was a freshman at Georgia Tech in Snowjam 82. Techwood Avenue was a parking lot, like most of Atlanta, with drivers trapped. Like you said, they all ended up abandoning their cars and tried to find a hotel room. For us students, it was a blast!

 

I don't think the city owns a snow plow, but I think the state owns a few. No telling where they are. Schools closed today, so the kids are happy. The radio stations are broadcasting the usual "don't go out unless you absolutely have to" Not nearly as bad as Snowjam 82, but a good snowfall yesterday.

[Hal_Crawford]

Brent:

You and I were not that far from each other during Snowjam 82 as I lived a block from Manuel's Tavern. If you don't know where that is you aren't a Yellow Jacket. We may disagree on politics but I am sure we can agree on Manuel's and the Varsity (outstanding onion rings).

 

There may be one other source of disagreement though, in the fall of 82 I started grad school in Athens... Go Dawgs!

 

Hal

 

 

 

[GernBlansten]

Why can't I have an RPG? According to Brent's and TheScout's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment I can. And its absolutely necessary to preserve our freedom. Why isn't there an outcry? Where's the NRPGA?

[BrentAllen]

"There may be one other source of disagreement though, in the fall of 82 I started grad school in Athens... Go Dawgs!"

 

Well, that explains a lot. My brother couldn't get into Tech, so he went to Georgia. :-)

 

Yes, I know Manuel's, but I prefered Mo's & Joe's. I never seemed to see all of those politicians who were supposed to hang out at Manuel's. That freshman year I was in a dorm just over the bridge from The Varsity. We walked over there far too many times. A pair of naked dawgs walking, O-rings and a FO. Or a Glorified, a bag of rags and a coke. Those were the days...

 

Gern,

Start the group. Knock yourself out.

[evmori]

We should all be allowed to have 1/2 dozen hand grenades! Once we use them we don't get anymore! Why? Fishing!

[Beavah]

Grenades? Nah. Yeh should know better, Ed. Yeh use dynamite for fishin'. Just kill 'em with the percussion. Who wants to be diggin' all those fragments out of da fish?

 

B

 

[evmori]

You are correct Beav! Dynamite it is! What about C-4?

[GernBlansten]

If its necessary to defend ourselves from invasion and allow us to overthrow our own government, I say its protected by the 2nd amendment. And if you want to use it to fish with, that's just called freedom.

[evmori]

If its necessary to defend ourselves from invasion and allow us to overthrow our own government, I say its protected by the 2nd amendment.

 

Key word - If.

[packsaddle]

I am a former NRA member and I own and use dozens of weapons and I hold a CWP. But although I own and use auto-loading weapons, I maintain that there is no reason that 'sport' cannot be had with a single-shot, or single-action, or bolt-action weapon as opposed to the ammo-wasting spray guns we seem to hold so dear.

Anyone interested in true accuracy or precision for target shooting should be able to compete or have fun successfully without the auto-loading mechanism.

I guess I'm fairly sensitive about the whole topic since one of my former scouts recently had his father take the life of his mother using a legally-purchased and legally-owned firearm. And I do note that it was accomplished with a single shot - a restriction on auto-loaders would not have prevented it. I wish I had the answer for how tragedies like that can be prevented. I suspect that a solution doesn't, however, rest on the proposition that we need even more firearms in the hands of anyone who can legally purchase them. And I fail to see the logic that auto-loading spray guns make us all safer.

Moreover, I suspect that, considering the recent news about the USA being a large supplier of illegal weapons to Mexico, the Mexican people could use a few less as well.

 

Also as an aside, UGa has many fine graduate programs, just not in engineering. Tech does, at least, have them beat there. But it's hard to compare those apples and oranges.

[OldGreyEagle]

we had a female Den Leader shot to death by her estranged husband. He had a restraining orde on him to stay away from her and due to conditions of his probation he was not to be in possesion of fireams. So he short her with a percussion cap and ball black powder pistol because those were not included in the court order. If he would have been precluded from a gun, and axe would have been just as lethal. He was certifiable, actually he was certified, he just wasn't locked up when he should have been

[packsaddle]

OGE, without going into details, in this case the father did it in a flash of anger. It is just so easy to allow a few seconds of anger combined with the ease of a trigger to create a tragedy, once squeezed there is no return. All of the illusions of love, security, god, human kindness, etc. are brutally stripped away by a piece of metal churning its way through vital organs.

 

In the case of the insane, you're right - short of removing them from society, we have few good mechanisms for protection if they have access to weapons. Is this support for a society that's awash in firearms? I think not. Given the choice, I'd rather face an insane person who's carrying a knife rather than a firearm. I'll have a better chance of outrunning that knife.

[OldGreyEagle]

True, but I am not sure I can outrun many people with a knife, in fact, I never could out run many.

 

I would hate to think my mothers survival was based on her ability to outrun a knife wielder

 

Just a thought, the school shootings at Columbine, Virgina Tech and Northern Illinois were deplorable. But it makes one wonder why there are not daily school shootings in Detroit, South Central LA, Chicago or New York. I think one reason why there is a dearth of school shootings in inner city schools is because the youth know if they pull a gun and open fire, there is the distinct possibility of facing return fire. Not something you expect from suburban settings.

[packsaddle]

OGE, I won't begin to list all the equally-valid-but-unsupportable explanations in addition to the one you gave for your strictly anecdotal observation. From the perspective of someone who is on campus, and who HAS discussed this with campus security, I offer the scenario:

 

A tragedy is occurring. Shots are fired. One student is perpetrating the tragedy. Security forces from multiple agencies are converging on the scene. Students are running, hiding, shots are heard, the arriving police observe not one but many students with weapons drawn, running different directions. How do the police respond? Who do they shoot? They must respond immediately to the perceived threat, who do they subdue, who do they arrest? Do you think this is a really great situation? I can tell you that the security people on my campus here in the gun-toting South think that the idea that students should be able to carry weapons, concealed or not, is idiotic and they virtually guarantee that more innocent people will be in harms way. Especially during times when some extremely unlikely tragedy is NOT happening.

 

Yes, perhaps another student or faculty member will subdue the perp. I doubt it. Let's just say that there's 10-20 thousand students and several thousand faculty and staff. What percentage of them would be necessary to be armed in order to provide the level of security you think your idea requires? On the assumption that these would be concealed weapons, how do you think the other students and employees would feel about having all those arms present ready to be used? How about the parents? How many of those weapons will be in the hands of students who actually are trained in their proper use and care? How many of them do you think will be prepared to respond to a deadly situation with deadly force? Do you really think your idea is a prescription for greater security?

 

Are you on peyote?