monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

I almost feel bad for old white men.

Almost.

They seem to be the hot topic, don't they?

Replace “target” wth “classmate” and it’s a different kind of sales video.

While it might be as high as 3 million defensive uses of guns each year, some scholars point to the much lower estimate of 108,000 times a year. "The variation in these numbers remains a controversy in the field," the study notes.

The reason I ask is, I find the poll puzzling. In recent years almost all the mass shootings have used an AR-15.

They most assuredly shoot faster, if accuracy is important. Especially with the common, high capacity magazines. I owned several 50 round mags when I owned an AR15. They exist for glocks too, but are far less common. Can you empty a Glock quickly? For sure but your shots are going to be all over the place. An AR15 has so little recoil when the stock is used that you can shoot a whole magazine with much less spread. There are many YouTube videos demonstrating this.

They not only shoot faster and many times more accurate. They are much more powerful and have to be reloaded less frequently. It’s power that’s important. Orange sized exit wounds.

Judging on his own tagging history, I'm not sure nononono will be particularly happy to hear this..

Not to mention that each shot would be less likely to be lethal. You would likely have more survivors, those who were shot, but didn’t die.

Yes, despite the fact that handguns are used way more often than rifles in mass shootings.

Shooting at Michigan University

My message, as an aging Gen X-er to millennials and those coming after them, is: Go get us. Take us down — all those cringing provincials who still think climate change is a hoax, that being transgender is a fad or that “socialism” mean purges and re-education camps. Rid the world of all our outmoded opinions, vestigial prejudices and rotten institutions. Gender roles as disfiguring as foot-binding, the moribund and vampiric two-party system, the savage theology of capitalism — rip it all to the ground. I for one can’t wait till we’re gone. I just wish I could live to see the world without us.

Instead of arguing with Oralloy about Israel,

you should discuss what you have in common, Holocaust denial/belittling.

Oralloy is one of those supporters of Israel who doesn't give a damn about Jewish people, he just wants somewhere to deport them to.

You don't give a monkeys about the Palestinians,

Nobody who really cares about peace in the ME would have anything to do with either of you. You're both repulsive hate merchants.

Men don't need guns, only frightened little jellies need them.

WTO chief makes rare warning of trade war over U.S. tariff plan
Tom Miles, March 2, 2018

GENEVA (Reuters) - World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevedo expressed concern at U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for tariffs on steel and aluminum on Friday, an extremely rare intervention into a WTO member’s trade policy.

“The WTO is clearly concerned at the announcement of U.S. plans for tariffs on steel and aluminum. The potential for escalation is real, as we have seen from the initial responses of others,” he said in a brief statement issued by the WTO.

“A trade war is in no one’s interests. The WTO will be watching the situation very closely.”

Trump struck a defiant tone on Friday, saying trade wars were good and easy to win, after his plan for 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum triggered global criticism and a slide in world stock markets.

The plan was criticized in a WTO committee as early as June last year [...]

Azevedo, a former Brazilian trade negotiator, is normally extremely diplomatic and refrains from any criticism of any of the WTO’s 164 members,  [...] but  Trump’s tariffs plan is widely seen as being a potential threat to the system itself, since they are based on a claim to“national security”, an area that is exempt from WTO rules.

WTO member countries have traditionally refrained from citing national security, out of fear that it could provide a get-out clause from rules that have governed world trade for almost a quarter of a century.

If the use of the national security exception spreads, other potential trade disputes where it could be used include a row over China’s cyber security law and in the economic war between Russia and Ukraine.

A long-time taboo on national security looked like it had been broken last year when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates used it to justify their economic boycott of Qatar.

But the fear of Pandora’s Box being opened was not realized because Qatar has not pressed its a demand for an adjudication panel, effectively leaving its litigation in limbo.

The risk of“national security” becoming a regular defense is only one of several dangers facing the WTO, which has struggled to keep its rules up to date since it was created in 1995.

It is also at risk from a U.S. veto on judicial appointments, which could paralyze its dispute settlement arm.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-wto/wto-chief-makes-rare-warning-of-trade-war-over-u-s-tariff-plan-idUSKCN1GE28P

Here's a quick history lesson on why AR-15 has become the umbrella term for a range of semi-automatic rifles made by a host of gun makers.

"AR" comes from the name of the gun's original manufacturer, ArmaLite, Inc. The letters stand for ArmaLite Rifle — and not for "assault rifle" or "automatic rifle."

ArmaLite first developed the AR-15 in the late 1950s as a military rifle, but had limited success in selling it. In 1959 the company sold the design to Colt.

In 1963, the U.S. military selected Colt to manufacture the automatic rifle that soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War. It was known as the M-16.

Armed with that success, Colt ramped up production of a semiautomatic version of the M-16 that it sold to law enforcement and the public, marketed as the AR-15.

When Colt's patents for the AR-15 expired in the 1970s, other manufacturers began making similar models.

Those gun makers gave the weapons their own names, yet the popularity of the AR-15 turned it into a generic term for all types of AR-15-style rifles.

These weapons can go for less than $1,000, though they can be customized and cost in the thousands of dollars.

The National Rifle Association estimates there are some eight million AR-15s and its variations in circulation, and says they are so popular that the "AR" should stand for "America's Rifle."

The Florida shooting

Which brings us back to our original question about the weapon used in Florida, which is commonly described as an AR-15.

Police say the gunman actually used a Smith and Wesson M&P15, that manufacturer's version of the AR-15.

AR-15-style rifles were around for more than 40 years before one was used in a mass killing, at an apartment in Crandon, Wis., in 2007. The shooter killed six people and then took his own life.

However, gunmen (and at least one gunwoman) have used AR-15-style weapons in most all of the deadliest shootings in this decade.

A partial list includes:

- The Las Vegas slaughter of 58 people last October.

- The Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting that claimed 26 lives in November.

- The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 dead in 2016.

- The San Bernardino, Calif., shooting that killed 14 people in 2015.

- The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that took 27 lives in 2012.

Well it might be connected to the superior firepower of the AR15 when chambered for 5.56, especially at close range.

My posts are already being censored again, lovely.