I'm getting friggin' irritated

My point is just that the majority of mass murder is committed currently with bombs, indicating a viable alternative to guns.

Quote:

You can't convict someone until they do something and you can rarely detain anybody for the same reason. It remains circular until a criminal act is in progress.

This is the best answer. It's succinct and it goes right to the point.

I loved what you said. An excellent assessment. Can't disagree with any of it. The behavior of most of the players; media, general population, govt, gun lobby, gun control lobby, will be in their own best interest, not the interest of the population at large. Thus, there will be a lot of chest beating and not much will change. Time goes on.

(I don't remember now if Nafissatou Diallo, the woman who accused DSK of rape, was "outed" before she started to speak publicly. A quick Google search didn't yield a definitive answer.)

These attrition points are worthwhile for society to pursue, as long as society understands the proportionality of their attempts and does not sink undue cost into the attempt at the incremental benefits they stand to reap.

The New York Times
July 27, 2012
Man Held in Maryland Threats Had 25 Guns, Police Say
By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.

WASHINGTON — State and federal authorities have detained a man in the Maryland suburbs of Washington who had declared himself “a joker” and had threatened to kill people after what appeared to be a workplace dispute, the police said on Friday. A hoard of weapons and ammunition was found at the man’s home, the authorities said.

Mark A. Magaw, the police chief in Prince George’s County, said that when the threats were reported, the echoes of the mass killing last week in Aurora, Colo., led the police to get an order from a judge allowing them to take the suspect into custody for psychiatric evaluation.

“He said, ‘I’m a joker, and I am going to load my guns and blow everybody up,’ ” Chief Magaw said, describing one of the threatening telephone conversations that the suspect, who was being fired, had with a co-worker this week. The threat was reported on Wednesday, and the suspect was taken into custody the next night.

An affidavit named the suspect as Neil E. Prescott. He was under observation at a hospital after he surrendered quietly, the police said.

When the police went to his residence in nearby Anne Arundel County, they found him wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Guns don’t kill people, I do,” police officials said at a news conference and in the affidavit. He was described as groggy but compliant.

A search at the residence found about 25 guns, including semiautomatic weapons, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, the police said.

“In light of what happened in Aurora, Colorado, it is important for the community to know that we take all threats seriously, and if you are going to make a threat, we will take action,” Chief Magaw said.

The Prince George’s County Police Department posted a photograph of the weapons that were seized on its Twitter account.

Julie Parker, a spokeswoman for the county police, described the events as a “thwarted terror threat.” The investigation has been joined by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The affidavit said that the suspect made the threats on Monday in telephone conversations with a co-worker, and that both were employed by Pitney Bowes, a federal contractor.

“The suspect arrested was an employee of a subcontractor to Pitney Bowes,” the company said in a statement. “He has not been on any Pitney Bowes property in more than four months.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/us/maryland-man-held-over-threats-had-weapons-hoard-police-say.html?hpw

Hand a person a gun and most people can figure out how to use it.
Hand a person bomb making materials and most won't figure out how to make a bomb. Some will try and blow themselves up. Some won't try. Some might succeed but badly. Some may make a great bomb. Your cigarette vs tobacco example only works if you allow the person to attempt to roll 10 cigarettes. How many will be rolling good cigarettes on that 10th attempt?

Ultimately, the "They will just build a bomb" argument is no better than OMSigDavid's argument that they will just make their own guns.

Certainly no one needs a 100 shot drum but why do they really want one?

I know that, having read that headline, you're all now saying, "OMG, Andy's irritated. What can we all do to make him feel better?" I just know that.

OK. Here's the thing. A madman goes into a movie theater and kills a dozen people for no apparent reason. A2kers start something like close to half a dozen threads on the shooting. And what does every single one of them degenrate into? A pro-and-anti gun control diatribe, that's what. Is that really all that this is about?

Even on a thread like OmSigDAVIDS's which is clearly labelled as being about MOTIVES behind the massacre, nobody's talking about the alleged perp. It's all about whether taking away everybody's guns would make any difference. (The only post I've read on any of these threads that is actually thoughtful and worth considering is Robert Gentel's. The rest of y'all are just flapping your collective gums in a predictable manner.)

This isn't about guns and whether the 2d Amendment should be repealed. It's about a tragic incident and whether anything could have been done to predict it and, thus, prevent it. It's -- or should be -- about what makes a seemingly bright and promising young man like the alleged perp go bananas and, instead of planning how to seduce some classmate of his, starts planning how to eradicate a group of his fellow humans which, as far as we know, he has no connection with, people he doesn't know and has never met.

Facrissake, that's what's important here, not whether British gun laws are more sensible than the American laissez faire tradition. It's not about what the friggin' US Constitution guarantees or doesn't guarantee. It's about a sick human being and the families of those who have been bereft of loved ones as a result of this sicko's depredations.

Let's talk about something serious just for a change, just for this once.

Okay?

I know that, having read that headline, you're all now saying, "OMG, Andy's irritated. What can we all do to make him feel better?" I just know that.

OK. Here's the thing. A madman goes into a movie theater and kills a dozen people for no apparent reason. A2kers start something like close to half a dozen threads on the shooting. And what does every single one of them degenrate into? A pro-and-anti gun control diatribe, that's what. Is that really all that this is about?

Even on a thread like OmSigDAVIDS's which is clearly labelled as being about MOTIVES behind the massacre, nobody's talking about the alleged perp. It's all about whether taking away everybody's guns would make any difference. (The only post I've read on any of these threads that is actually thoughtful and worth considering is Robert Gentel's. The rest of y'all are just flapping your collective gums in a predictable manner.)

This isn't about guns and whether the 2d Amendment should be repealed. It's about a tragic incident and whether anything could have been done to predict it and, thus, prevent it. It's -- or should be -- about what makes a seemingly bright and promising young man like the alleged perp go bananas and, instead of planning how to seduce some classmate of his, starts planning how to eradicate a group of his fellow humans which, as far as we know, he has no connection with, people he doesn't know and has never met.

Facrissake, that's what's important here, not whether British gun laws are more sensible than the American laissez faire tradition. It's not about what the friggin' US Constitution guarantees or doesn't guarantee. It's about a sick human being and the families of those who have been bereft of loved ones as a result of this sicko's depredations.

Let's talk about something serious just for a change, just for this once.

Okay?