[Thanos]

There's a lot of cultural problems in the US that will probably never be cured. The NRA can take the blame for the radicalized politics that have led to the anti-government/doomsday-prepper lunatics that have armed themselves to the teeth in terror of an imaginary fascist government that's apparently out to get them. But, as despicable as they are with the political and media games they play after something like Newtown happens, the NRA really can't be blamed for the epidemic of much more common violence that kills thousands in the drug and gang wars in urban minority communities. Those are criminals with stolen weapons shooting other criminals with stolen weapons and, as far as I know, even the NRA hasn't gone as far as to say that stolen weapons are acceptable for anyone to have in their possession.

A firearm is an inanimate and non-sentient object. You can load one, cock it, place it on a table in an empty room, lock the door behind you, and never touch it again. A hundred years later it'll still be there and not have harmed anyone. It's not going to jump up and start killing people by itself. It takes a pathological mind to make a firearm into a menace. The paranoid, criminal, and hate-filled mass-pathologies that are now part and parcel of the American character are what's causing all this violence. Firearms are merely the tools with which this violence gets expressed.

[Public_Domain]

[Thanos]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

Anyhow, Jim Carey is one of the few people I'd ever say that I've looked up to. I can only wish to ever make faces and tell jokes as easily as that crazy fucker.

I was on mushrooms* the first time I watched this. My sides hurt for the whole week after from laughing so hard.





* yes, I've done drugs in the past but, no, I don't think it's much of a civil rights issue.

[xerxes]

$1:

There's a lot of cultural problems in the US that will probably never be cured.

Time will tell I suppose. Look at the SCOTUS cases last week. Did you ever imagine that the culture would change so much that same sex marriage seemed perfectly acceptable and rational? Culture can change.

Of course I expected that that brutal murder of 20 children would start to change the culture but so far I'm wrong. Sorry for being macabre but maybe it'll take someone shooting up a Lamaze class to force a change.

[Tricks]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

Tricks, I'm very glad you're representing the sane side of the Carrey discussion here...

Anyhow, Jim Carey is one of the few people I'd ever say that I've looked up to. I can only wish to ever make faces and tell jokes as easily as that crazy fucker.


Now, to support him by watching some of his latest...

I don't necessarily agree with him. He's allowed to speak his opinion, I'm allowed to disagree. I still like his work, and I couldn't care less what his opinion is if I enjoy his movies. He also isn't a hypocrite if he uses a gun in one of his movies. It's a fucking movie. If he himself owned some, then they'd have a point.

[Thanos]

xerxes xerxes:

$1:

There's a lot of cultural problems in the US that will probably never be cured.

Time will tell I suppose. Look at the SCOTUS cases last week. Did you ever imagine that the culture would change so much that same sex marriage seemed perfectly acceptable and rational? Culture can change.

Of course I expected that that brutal murder of 20 children would start to change the culture but so far I'm wrong. Sorry for being macabre but maybe it'll take someone shooting up a Lamaze class to force a change.

Actually what has to happen on a political level is that American moderates and liberals have to get rid of the thought that they're dealing with a rational opponent because clearly they're not. They should arm themselves and use the same rights of public firearms display that the right-wingers, TeaBirchers, and religious cranks use to intimidate people. Women should arm themselves and then hold the most massive pro-choice rally in Washington in the history of the US. And then these same armed women should rally outside of every state legislature and outside the offices of every religious extremist pro-life group out there. And then rally with their legal firearms outside the headquarters of the NRA and steal the goddamn "from our cold dead hands!" line from the bastards while they're at it.

The only solution to a bully is direct confrontation. Non-right wing Americans are going to have to stop taking it from them.

[stratos]

xerxes xerxes:

$1:

There's a lot of cultural problems in the US that will probably never be cured.

Time will tell I suppose. Look at the SCOTUS cases last week. Did you ever imagine that the culture would change so much that same sex marriage seemed perfectly acceptable and rational? Culture can change.

Of course I expected that that brutal murder of 20 children would start to change the culture but so far I'm wrong. Sorry for being macabre but maybe it'll take someone shooting up a Lamaze class to force a change.

When 30,000 childern are aborted every year and is supported by the Gov. No the killing of 20 childern in school does not affect us the way you think it should. Just like the murder of a teen on a bus by a man wielding a knife did nothing to affect Canada.

[rickc]

Thanos Thanos:

xerxes xerxes:

$1:

There's a lot of cultural problems in the US that will probably never be cured.

Time will tell I suppose. Look at the SCOTUS cases last week. Did you ever imagine that the culture would change so much that same sex marriage seemed perfectly acceptable and rational? Culture can change.

Of course I expected that that brutal murder of 20 children would start to change the culture but so far I'm wrong. Sorry for being macabre but maybe it'll take someone shooting up a Lamaze class to force a change.

Actually what has to happen on a political level is that American moderates and liberals have to get rid of the thought that they're dealing with a rational opponent because clearly they're not. They should arm themselves and use the same rights of public firearms display that the right-wingers, TeaBirchers, and religious cranks use to intimidate people. Women should arm themselves and then hold the most massive pro-choice rally in Washington in the history of the US. And then these same armed women should rally outside of every state legislature and outside the offices of every religious extremist pro-life group out there. And then rally with their legal firearms outside the headquarters of the NRA and steal the goddamn "from our cold dead hands!" line from the bastards while they're at it.

The only solution to a bully is direct confrontation. Non-right wing Americans are going to have to stop taking it from them.

The Disrtic of Columbia does not issue permits to carry firearms, niether do they recognize permits from other jurisdictions. There is no open carry of firearms in D.C. as well. That armed massive pro-choice rally would turn into a massive wave of arrests. Those women would do some hard time in prison. They would then be convicted felons, unable to ever legally own a firearm again.The NRA headquarters are located in D.C. That pretty much puts the kibosh on an armed protest outside their headquarters as well.

[Thanos]

Second Amendment rights apparently defeat all local laws so any such prosecutions or convictions would eventually be tossed out if it went through the courts.

[Jonny_C]

I guess this is commonplace in big-city USA...

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/03/31/ ... ign=440648

How do you fix something like that?

[bootlegga]

Tricks Tricks:

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

Tricks, I'm very glad you're representing the sane side of the Carrey discussion here...

Anyhow, Jim Carey is one of the few people I'd ever say that I've looked up to. I can only wish to ever make faces and tell jokes as easily as that crazy fucker.


Now, to support him by watching some of his latest...

I don't necessarily agree with him. He's allowed to speak his opinion, I'm allowed to disagree. I still like his work, and I couldn't care less what his opinion is if I enjoy his movies. He also isn't a hypocrite if he uses a gun in one of his movies. It's a fucking movie. If he himself owned some, then they'd have a point.

+5 for common sense!

[bootlegga]

Thanos Thanos:

bootlegga bootlegga:

I have even come to believe that armed guards in schools - given the level of insanity south of the border - is probably not a bad thing.

It's not a bad idea but it's far from a solution too. The Newtown creature killed 26 people in less than five minutes and expended 300 rounds of ammunition; he must have been one of the lucky ones as his high-capacity magazines didn't jam his rifle as we've been repeatedly told they apparently do. The Columbine killers were engaged by an armed sheriff's deputy at the beginning of their killing spree and it didn't stop them at all; with what we know of how fucked up those two evil scumbags were they probably enjoyed it when someone shot back. The "armed guard stops massacre" scenario remains in the province of Jim Carrey's movie-making world. It's an absurd fantasy, it has rarely ever happened in real life, and is an absolute wretched "solution" to depend on when a mass killer with overwhelming firepower decides to make an appearance in a public area.

By the way, I offer no solutions myself because I don't think there are any. The society-wide saturation of America with firearms is too far past the tipping point to ever be reversed by any political or cultural tinkering. Any attempt at mass confiscation of firearms in the United States would trigger a civil war and end up killing multiple times the number of people that have been killed in firearms violence over the last forty years. The political avenue is paralyzed by special interests like the NRA that now own most of Congress and have owned too many Presidents over the last couple of decades. And, in the Blessed Name Of Austerity, there will be no massive re-investment in mental health or psychiatric services that might be allow potential mass killers to get some help before they go into an active mode. As it is having as many lawful citizens as possible carry their own firearm is the best remedy to prevent them and their families from being the victims of one-on-one crime and violence. But it won't stop any mass killings of the Columbine or Newtown variety. It simply doesn't work that way with any maniac on a suicide mission who is undeterred by the prospect of armed resistance shooting back. They aren't average criminals who might be scared off by a shop owner shooting back. They're insane, and radicalized. And, as the majority of them end up killing themselves, apparently really aren't afraid at all of dying. Anyone saying otherwise, like a single armed someone in a dark smoke-filled movie theatre in a Colorado town was capable of not panicking and then could put down with ease a massively-armed and body armoured mass killer shooting a near-military grade of rapid-fire weapon, are really just some very skilled snake-oilers promoting a ridiculous fantasy and drumming up a false hope where there is none.

Let's play with language for a bit. If a problem becomes so huge that no solution is possible then it really can't be called a problem anymore. It transitions from something any sane culture should fight against to something that can now only be accepted as it and the normal people out there, whose first impulse or reaction isn't to resort to reflexive violence, simply have to put up with it. Yay Team Orwell?

Is it a great solution to the problem of America's love of guns and gun violence? Not really, even the armed guards at Columbine were unable to prevent most of the killings.

However, it's probably the only one that even has a chance of succeeding in protecting kids south of the border, because the gun rights nutjobs have an inordinate amount of support from both parties. The barn door has been open far too long to actually get rid of all the assault rifles and other military hardware the wackos have stockpiled, so this is the next best solution IMHO.

I'd take a partial solution to no solution at all (as it is currently).

[Jonny_C]

If there were any solution to the American gun problem (and gun culture), it would probably be meaningful employment for virtually all of its citizens.

Since that's an impossibility, solving the gun problem is also an impossibility. You can see that by the fact that many Americans see the solution to guns as being more guns.

[andyt]

Jonny_C Jonny_C:

If there were any solution to the American gun problem (and gun culture), it would probably be meaningful employment for virtually all of its citizens.

Since that's an impossibility, solving the gun problem is also an impossibility. You can see that by the fact that many Americans see the solution to guns as being more guns.

Well that could lead to full employment, as long as the guns are manufactured in the US - make that the law. So they would have more employment in manufacturing as well as service industries like undertaking and the medical field. Since guns mostly kill young male adults, it would reduce the need to find these people jobs, decreasing unemployment. Maybe they're onto something here - a virtuous cycle wher drastically increasing the number of guns in the society drastically decreases unemployment which in turn drastically reduces the need and desire to own guns. Oh, wait...

[xerxes]

stratos stratos:

xerxes xerxes:

$1:

There's a lot of cultural problems in the US that will probably never be cured.

Time will tell I suppose. Look at the SCOTUS cases last week. Did you ever imagine that the culture would change so much that same sex marriage seemed perfectly acceptable and rational? Culture can change.

Of course I expected that that brutal murder of 20 children would start to change the culture but so far I'm wrong. Sorry for being macabre but maybe it'll take someone shooting up a Lamaze class to force a change.

When 30,000 childern are aborted every year and is supported by the Gov. No the killing of 20 childern in school does not affect us the way you think it should. Just like the murder of a teen on a bus by a man wielding a knife did nothing to affect Canada.

Apples and oranges.