okcanuck wrote:I'm a man who wept when I saw the pictures of those beautiful children. If that makes me sound like an old woman so be it.
I wonder if even you would change your mind about assault rifles if the cops actually published the pictures with a before and after.
Suck it up buttercup.
I have lived in one the of most violent cities in the Americas, I've seen the wrong end of guns, I've seen someone walking down the sidewalk have their head blown off as I drove by, I've seen the bodies of kids younger than these lying in pools of blood because they got caught in a no mans land in a gang shootout. I have seen worse published in full colour on the front page of newspapers.
I do agree that the slaughter of these children is tragic. I lay most of the blame on the mother, but it is too late to blame. She's dead, the kids are dead, but the knee jerk anti gun, anti black gun reaction is completely useless. A 30 round clip, three x ten or six x five matters nothing. The time it takes to cycle a new clip is insignificant in these shootings.
It is a country that was founded by the overthrow of a tyrannical foreign power and the framers of their constitution insisted on making that ability to over throw an oppressive government a pillar of their constitution. It was the same foreign tyranny that ruled our forefathers, but they were too busy making Metis to notice.
It is not just a right to bear arms, but an institutionalized doubt in government control and a belief in the power to over throw that control. It may be a silly as believing in a 6,000 year old earth or a jolly fellow in a red suite, but it is what they have been lead to believe. While Canadians believe in calling the police and letting them do their work, since the late 1700's Americans have had the notion that they are to look after themselves first and call the authorities second.
The slaughter in CT has been the biggest boost to gun sales in years. Just as the anti gun lobby is rallying to bring in controls, the pro gun crowd is stocking up.
The people I know who own AR15's and have 10 to 30 round clips have them because they are fun to shoot and use them for putting holes in paper. They have other, more appropriate, guns for personal protection. That is why I equate them to motorcycles, hot rods or sports cars. They are big boy toys.
Most are now expecting a return of the Brady bill, clip size limits, an increased tax on ammo and possibly an registration on ammo purchases though realistically, that last one wouldn't pass.