Don't shoot your eye out!

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by ffreeloader, Dec 6, 2006.

  1. fortch

    fortch Kilobyte Poster

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    After punching gun crime in UK into Google, I was assaulted by (what seems like) a ten-year heated debate. Not that I didn't know of the gun control, it's just doesn't maintain a high spot in my already crowded memory :dry I don't know the media structure in the UK, so I don't know where the BBC ranks (aka Fox News on the right, MSNBC on the left), but it's quite obvious that the issue is *not* small; nor is it as inconsequential as some might think?:blink
     
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  2. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    The trigger (ha!) for that debate happened 10 years ago or so in Dunblane. A google search for that place will give all the story.

    IMHO the change in the law that this inspired perfectly illustrates the saying "Hard cases make bad law".

    Harry.
     
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  3. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    I have never had that happen. What I have had happen is a shot, after many ricochets hits the kid. When that happens you lose all points scored during that shot.

    I can make the game end up with a score of exactly 0 by making every shot ricochet and hit the kid. The one ricochet on each shot will count for 11 points, but that is reset to zero as soon as the shot hits the kid. So, I can shoot 10 times, have exactly 10 ricochets worth 11 points each, and end up with a final score of 0.

    However, it's possible it's an IE bug. :twisted: :biggrin :biggrin :biggrin
     
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  4. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Aim at the spot I mention in my hidden text, and you'll hit a 130+.
     
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  5. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    Are you sure you have no wild animals there besides Arroyn? My romance novels say you should have plenty of Stags, Boars, and birds. :twisted:

    What happen to all your wildlife? And what about all the estates that the lords of long ago use to own? I figure it has been broken up and sold off by now. Has it all been developed though?
     
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  6. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    Your novels are sort of right. There are wild herds of deer, but they tend to be "managed". The herds that live in our few forests are allowed to roam free but the forestry commition tend to keep them within the confines of the forest for their own safety. Boars where hunted out of the UK years ago. Game birds, yes they are wild, but the hunt for them normally goes on with the organised hunts where you have to pay big £££ to shoot.

    As Harry said, the UK is pretty cramped now and there just isn't the free open spaces that you have in the States. I think landowners would take a pretty dim view is someone branding a hunting weapon came onto their land and started shooting their animals.
     
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  7. JonnyMX

    JonnyMX Petabyte Poster

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    Actually the UK is quite unusual as even the Police and security services tend not to carry guns.
    Even services that are 'supposed' to carry guns such as the flying squad and MI5 tend to be given them only when things get really serious.

    Compare this with the rest of Europe where it isn't unusual to your average villiage bobby lounging around with a machine gun.

    Generally the police here are fairly happy for us to stab each other and run people over with our cars, but if they even suspect that you have a gun they go ape sh1t.

    I think it's part of the charm of the British character.
    It's the vision of a bank robbery being foiled by a single copper shouting 'Oi, sunshine, you're nicked!' then twatting the pikey with a solid wooden truncheon - rather that a SWAT team blowing up the building.
     
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  8. JonnyMX

    JonnyMX Petabyte Poster

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    As AJ says, our Bores are managed.

    Most of them have been given jobs at the engineering department in Cardiff university...

    Keeps them safe from poachers. :biggrin
     
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  9. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    oh dam, thats to funny. We have wild mangament areas too. Most of them are called state parks here. Some you can hunt in and some you can't. Then others have both.

    You can't hunt on private property here either AJ unless you get permission. I can remember years ago though when property wasn't posted. However, most people did ask. It was a safe way to know if someone else might be hunting the property and you could find out where they were. I remember 2 different times when we had some city people come in. One guy mistook someone prime bull for a deer. Another time a guy came driving into our samll town came into our only bar and wanted everyone to come see his first deer. He was strutting like a peacock. We all sorta smile remembering that first deer ourselves. Imagine our surprise to go outside and find someone poor goat strapped to the hood of his car!!!! He not only got laugh off the street but then got a mouthfull for even thinking about killing what he thought was a deer that was that small. Signs started going up after that on people property. And the friend that brought the city slicker lost his hunting rights there.
     
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  10. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    For some reason, I can't wrap my head around not being able to bear arms as your right. We still have one of my gf old double barrels shotguns. It isn't shot any more. He was gone before any of us kids were born. All that is left of him is the gun and the stories our father shared with us. Now that our dad is gone too, losing that gun is unthinkable. When bucks girl corey is old enough the gun and our stories will go to her. She knows she can't play with it or use it. But it is hers and she will pass it on to her kids. I've already told her if she ever thinks about getting rid of it I will haunt her ass when I die.:biggrin
     
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  11. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Under those circumstances, what could be gained by haunting her donkey? :rolleyes:
     
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  12. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    because I'll just make it buck her off everytime she gets on. Hehe thought you had me on that one didn't you.:biggrin
     
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  13. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Well I couldn't resist - If your not shooting animals, you US folk seem to have an overwhelming desire to dominate donkeys, always wanting to kick them, steal them, as in your ass is mine; beat them, as in whop your ass and various other activities which could be considered as bestiality :eek: :twisted:

    We are far more sophisticated, we prefer to verbally threaten our opponents by saying such things as 'right sonny Jim, you have really got my dander up, it's time for fisticuffs you bothersome loathsome wretch' :dry

    I can't understand why it didn't catch on in Hollywood :rolleyes:
     
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  14. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    And it is because of that sophistication that you lost the war and we perserve the right to remain armed and protect what ours anyway we can. I'm not ashamed of our ways. There is no differenice between me tracking my meat and you buying someones cow or chicked at the store expect that mine is free and fresher. Both were living animals, someone had to kill it for you to eat it. Because you don't do it yourself makes it less beastly? 8)
     
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  15. JonnyMX

    JonnyMX Petabyte Poster

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    Shooting animals for food is something we can't really argue about - after all, mankind has been doing it forever and it's the reason we are where we are in the order of things.

    If you want to eat it, it doesn't really matter if you shoot it or pick it up in a supermarket - it's dead either way.

    Shooting animals for sport is something else - OK, afterwards someone else may eat it but for me it's a little bit weird that someone would want to kill a creature for any other reason than being hungry. Are they trying to show it who's boss, or simply want to see an animal die?

    Anyway, in terms of the right to bear arms - I think it's the implication of what could happen that scares us.

    In the US, the Police probably shoot dozens of people on a daily basis and other people shoot each other even more.

    Over here though, a single shooting is national headline news and it has implications right to the very top.

    There was the farmer who shot a pikey who broke into his home. He may have saved his TV, but it pretty much ruined the rest of his life.

    Then there were the police officers who shot the Brazillian guy who they believed was a terrorist. OK, they were wrong and now they're probably traffic wardens.

    I think the point is, a gun is only a tool and if you need to use one then I think everyone should have one. However, if you don't need one or indeed use one, then what's the point?
     
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  16. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    What war did we lose?

    :blink
     
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  17. JonnyMX

    JonnyMX Petabyte Poster

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    Don't mention the War!
     
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  18. Baba O'Riley

    Baba O'Riley Gigabyte Poster

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    I guess we lost the American war of Independence but that was probably the last one we lost.:blink
     
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  19. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    I agree mate. I still find it a bit strange going to the airport and seeing armed police there. Whilst I see the need in this day and age, it still feels strange.
     
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  20. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    It's the implication of keeping law abiding citizens from bearing arms that scares us.

    1. Laws will never keep guns out of the hands of criminals. The very nature of a criminal says he is going to break the law, so laws in this respect are completely useless and restrict only the law abiding citizens. By disarming law abiding citizens you make them more of a target for criminals, not less of a target because you lower the risk vs. reward ratio for the criminal.

    2. There have been experiments done in the US where towns have required everyone to own a gun. Do you think crime went up or down? If you think it went up, you're exactly wrong. It went down. If criminals realize that the person whom they are intent on robbing is required by law to be armed they realize their personal risk of getting killed rises many times. So, their sens of self-preservation makes them actually less inclined to break the law in ways in which they may meet up with law abiding citizens. It's the risk vs. reward principle in action.

    3. You are correct that a gun is a tool. That's all it is. But, it's a tool that the founding fathers of our nation thought necessary for all the citizens of the US. They were correct too. There is a very strong correlation between the movement to remove guns from law abiding citizens in the country and the movement of government to become more "Big Brother" like. The two movements have come at we citizens together, not separately, because they are tied together. The authors of the Constitution recogized this possibility more than 200 years ago, and this is why this right is written prominently into our Constitution.

    Safety is a replacement for freedom. In fact if all you care about is safety, then you will lose your freedom. That's a guarantee. You will find this lesson taught by example throughout all of nature and human interaction. It's basically an unwritten law.
     
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