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Why would anyone need an assault rifle? (4 Viewers)

Assault Rifles


  • Total voters
    414
So if this idiot didn't have access to the type of weapons he had, what would he have done to cause the chaos he did?  Because I don't think he would have been deterred.
He definitely could have done lots of damage with a couple handguns (see VA shooter) and/or shotguns. 

But not nearly as much damage as with the AR 15 and he would have put himself at more risk for injury/capture with the previously mentioned weapons.

Of course, he could have just used a uhaul full of explosives but that wouldn't have been as exciting for him I think.

 
I have several AR-15s. Am i going start a civil war if they get banned? Of course not... but I hope I get fair value for them. That will cost about as much as Obama care. 

 
Banning assault weapons again seems like a much more effective step ideas like using the no-fly list or other ways to ban people from guns

 
I would love an answer to as why millions and millions of people have been killed over thousands of years, all due to a belief that there is a creator up in the sky and here we are worried about a tool.
Every religion that has ever existed claimed to be loving, peaceful and caring.  And if you don't believe them, they'll murder, rape and pillage until you do.

 
I have several AR-15s. Am i going start a civil war if they get banned? Of course not... but I hope I get fair value for them. That will cost about as much as Obama care. 
I vote no on almost every tax increase, but id take a few year increase to pay fair value to those that are having them taking away.

 
So you don't think he would have gone the bomb route?  I just think it's not the guns so much (although I voted ban them) but the nuts are gonna be nutty.
The article in the OP cites the time and effort the Boston bombers put in.

3 deaths... Hard to pull off a McVeigh thing in these times. Could it be done, sure, but much less likely, much more difficult to accomplish, and a much higher chance of being caught beforehand.

 
In the end, this is still the most compelling argument for me. If I truly believed that we could save lives by banning them, I'd be for that, and I wouldn't care about this argument. But I have my doubts that this is the case. And unless somebody can convince me that it really would save lives, I don't see why we should take away these guns from law abiding citizens who enjoy using them. 
I see you're not familiar with the overwhelming data/research on gun prevalence and homicide rates.

 
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So you don't think he would have gone the bomb route?  I just think it's not the guns so much (although I voted ban them) but the nuts are gonna be nutty.


There's a reason you have to go back 20 years to find the last example of a bomb killing more than a couple of people.

This isn't Die Hard 4 people.  Building and triggering a bomb capable of killing a lot of people here in real life is not easy.

Of all of these mass shooters the last few dozen years, the Columbine kids were the smartest of the bunch.  Bombs were part of their plan, but the bombs failed.  If they couldn't pull it off, how many of these other chumps could have?

The "they would just build a bomb" argument is ridiculous.  I'm sure it would happen, occasionally, but at significantly lower than the rate it does now with guns.  It's not nearly as easy.

 
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Its not a study or an anecdote. Its a statistic compiled by the FBI, who btw performs background checks on gun purchases.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/425272/americans-bought-half-many-guns-september-are-owned-all-australia-charles-c-w-cooke
The US according to your article is "a dramatic outlier" in gun ownership and a dramatic outlier in gun homicides. Every study over any significant period of time, across countries, across states shows the link between gun ownership and gun deaths. There is no arguing this.

 
So if we can't get to an "acceptable level" why bother, right? 

5, 50, 500, 5000, 5 million, it's all the same? 
No, the point is that the gun confiscators would use any gun deaths as justification for taking guns.

And it's rhetoric like this that causes gun users to tune out. The implication being that gun owners aren't horrified by or interested in reducing gun deaths.

 
No, the point is that the gun confiscators would use any gun deaths as justification for taking guns.

And it's rhetoric like this that causes gun users to tune out. The implication being that gun owners aren't horrified by or interested in reducing gun deaths.
You're making a lot of assumptions about people that are interested in keeping things like the AR-15 out of the hands of lunatics.

 
There's a reason you have to go back 20 years to find the last example of a bomb killing more than a couple of people.

This isn't Die Hard 4 people.  Building and triggering a bomb capable of killing a lot of people here in real life is not easy.

Of all of these mass shooters the last few dozen years, the Columbine kids were the smartest of the bunch.  Bombs were part of their plan, but the bombs failed.  If they couldn't pull it off, how many of these other chumps could have?

The "they would just build a bomb" argument is ridiculous.  I'm sure it would happen, occasionally, but at significantly lower than the rate it does now with guns.  It's not nearly as easy.
As someone pointed out earlier, the insurgents in Iraq got pretty good at it. Without access to easier mechanisms, the committed will still find a way. So I disagree that the "they would just build a bomb" argument is ridiculous.

 
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No, the point is that the gun confiscators would use any gun deaths as justification for taking guns.

And it's rhetoric like this that causes gun users to tune out. The implication being that gun owners aren't horrified by or interested in reducing gun deaths.
Maybe.  Even if we knew for sure that were the case (we don't) I would think someone that has both guns and empathy would rather be arguing about shotguns in the face of 5 deaths than arguing about assault rifles in the face of 50 deaths.

 
A statistic is an anecdote.  It is not a study.  HTH
an·ec·dote

ˈanəkˌdōt/

noun
 




  1. a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
    "told anecdotes about his job"

    synonyms:


    storytalenarrativeincidentMore



     
     

     










    • an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay.
      "his wife's death has long been the subject of rumor and anecdote"




    • the depiction of a minor narrative incident in a painting.











This is NOT an anecdote:

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf

 
an·ec·dote

ˈanəkˌdōt/

noun
 




  1. a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
    "told anecdotes about his job"

    synonyms:


    storytalenarrativeincidentMore



     
     

     










    • an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay.
      "his wife's death has long been the subject of rumor and anecdote"




    • the depiction of a minor narrative incident in a painting.











This is NOT an anecdote:

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf
Yes it is.  You are covering a common but embarrassing misunderstanding of statistics and how they are useful and unuseful.  Until you put your statistic under the rigorous conditions of a well-designed study, it is unreliable.

 
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The problem I see is the complete lack of ideas coming from the right. OK, so the left is vocal and the right doesn't like what they hear.  What are their ideas besides thoughts and prayers?  Can there be ANY conversation?

 
Yes it is.  Until you put your statistic under the rigorous conditions of a well-designed study, it is unreliable.
Well you know why we don't have any well-designed studies?  Because the NRA pressured Congress to remove gun violence research funding from the CDC back in '96.

 
No, the point is that the gun confiscators would use any gun deaths as justification for taking guns.

And it's rhetoric like this that causes gun users to tune out. The implication being that gun owners aren't horrified by or interested in reducing gun deaths.
The gun owners regardless of their feelings on gun deaths have zero interest in doing anything about it.

 
The problem I see is the complete lack of ideas coming from the right. OK, so the left is vocal and the right doesn't like what they hear.  What are their ideas besides thoughts and prayers?  Can there be ANY conversation?
You may not like it, but building a wall and banning Muslim immigration are ideas.

 
Heres an anecdote for you...

The figures don't lie, but liars figure.

A study can be DESIGNED to produce the desired result/conclusion.
That's why studies go before peer review, meaning experts in the field flesh out designs and methods that could expose a bias, intended or unintended.  

 

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