The FAST Approaching Gun Ban

[Stavros]

I did the test using the name my town but it produced the UK result of 0 Gun Dealers, 0 Starbucks, whereas there is a Starbucks in town -in fact there were two for a few years but one closed to make way for a restaurant. I think there are more than 20 coffee shops in my town if one includes those inside department stores. And two closed in the last year because the market is saturated, but we have been spared any shoot-outs, although there are times when I ask for a Cappuccino and the Barista asks 'one shot or two?'. And that is before you pass the two entrepreneurs (with Lattes) debating bullet points over their Macbooks...

[martin48]

OK, OK - should we do fish puns now?

[Stavros]

OK, OK - should we do fish puns now?

If you think this is the appropriate plaice to do it, then whenever you have time to do so. And I for one will not carp at your implications or try to knock you off your perch if you take the opportunaty to do it.

[Stavros]

The Guardian is running a sequence of five 'Long Reads' on gun control in the US. I find it a richly endowed discussion which moves beyond the knee-jerk reaction to analyse both the causes of gun crime, and the actual or potential remedies. As most Americans know the majority of gun crime is gang-related, yet it appears within this context only a relative few gang members actually do the shooting, just as a relative few Americans with mental health problems engage in 'suicide missions' which take out innocent victims at the same time.
One of the articles suggests that it may not be the weapon that should be addressed, but the quantity of ammunition needed to fire it, just as more severe background checks could weed out those with mental or behavioural problems who should not have access to guns for their own and other people's safety. The articles however do suggest that unless the US can disentangle itself from entrenched -and mostly political- positions then practical solutions may be hard to find.

Just one example from Boston of a practical solution may be cited here:
Cities that have done in-depth analyses of their gun violence problem have found something surprising: the majority of violence is driven by a very small number of young men. In Oakland, for instance, just 1,000 members of a few active street groups were responsible for most of the city’s homicides. The violence was not fueled by turf wars or drug business, for the most part, but by long-running feuds and arguments among loose groups of young men engaged in other illegal activities.

Communicating directly with these young men – and offering both assistance and intense law enforcement attention – led to an immediate drop in violence. This “ceasefire” or “focused deterrence” strategy, first launched in Boston in 1996, requires coordination between police departments, prosecutors and community members in the neighborhoods most affected by violence.
These are not easy partnerships to form, and they often require addressing police departments’ legacies of racism and failed violence prevention strategies. But in Boston, the ceasefire collaboration led to a 63% reduction in monthly youth homicides – a sudden drop in violence dubbed “the Boston miracle”. The strategy has been replicated across the country, but has often struggled to sustain itself as police chiefs and mayors change – or as old funding sources dry up. The strategy’s typical results, according to sociologist Kenneth Rand, are “a reduction in the range of 15% to 35% in total homicides and 25% to 40% in gang or group-involved homicides.” This is a dramatic impact for a local program.
(quote from What could actually work to fix gun violence in America -and what doesn't
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ks-what-doesnt

-the side bar will give you access to all five parts, note the last one appears on Friday 24th June 2016.

[AshlynCreamher]

What we need is a "nofly no buy" data base

The shooter from the Orlando Terror Attack at pulse who killed 49 and injured 50 was on the BFI watchlist but was taken off

CNN - "The comments centered on Mateen claiming he had family and friends in al Qaeda and Hezbollah, and connections to the Boston Marathon bombers. A year later, the FBI interviewed Mateen again over contact with Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, who went to Syria and conducted a suicide bombing. Mateen and Abu-Salha attended the same mosque in Florida."

But reports show that early this year' these same types of investigations (5,000+ active) were ending due to a lack of federal funding - Obama bucks!

observer - "The budget proposal calls for cutting the funding for the Urban Area Security Initiative, which helps prevent or respond to terror events, from $600 to $330 million—a cut U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said the president’s administration seemed to have no acceptable explanation for over the last several days."

This is a clash of cultures people - Islamic values and Western values simply don't mix (and that doesn't have to be a bad thing) but we have to be smart and vigilant (we can't be the stupid people) whos only defense is to show how tolerant we are. We need to get tough and we need FBI funding in the worse way possible.



I totally, 100%, absolutely, support Donalds ban on people coming from parts of the world that celebrate persecuting gays by throwing them off roff tops while chanting Allah Akbar. It's just stupid that we actually allow these people into our society's



Obama and hitlary want to bring more of these people into our societies. So if you were to ask me, I would say: we need the 2nd amendment (personal defense) more than ever. We should seriously consider ending the "gun free zone".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeJ-iv3MOTo

[Stavros]

[QUOTE=AshlynCreamher;1701274]

What we need is a "nofly no buy" data base
The shooter from the Orlando Terror Attack at pulse who killed 49 and injured 50 was on the BFI watchlist but was taken off
--This is the position that Hilary Clinton has taken, so why do you refer to her as 'Hitlary' when your position is the same as hers?

Obama and hitlary want to bring more of these people into our societies. So if you were to ask me, I would say: we need the 2nd amendment (personal defense) more than ever. We should seriously consider ending the "gun free zone".
--The 2nd Amendment does not refer to 'personal defense' as a right to own firearms, and if you want to end 'gun free zones' why are you supporting Donald Trump, most of whose resorts are 'gun free zones'?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donal...ry?id=39266544

There is a lot of material on gun control for you to think about and I recommend the Guardian articles I linked above which reveal just how complex this issue is in the USA, and that there is a great deal more to it than a few lone nutcases however many people they killed. The murderers at Sandy Hook, Columbine or Charleston were not Muslims, they were different kinds of American -but American nonetheless.

[Stavros]

I wonder if Dallas is the graveyard of hope in America -or will the recent events there, as well as the murders in Louisiana and Minnesota mark the moment when the USA engages in a serious -a truly serious- debate on the role guns play in society? From a great distance, I see too many people mired in grief and wonder how much more of this you can take, whoever you are and whatever you look like. If lines are to be drawn in the sand, then the 2nd Amendment must be reviewed, and offer people hope, and belief that there are alternatives to killing that can actually work.
In the long run we are all dead, so enjoy the life you have and encourage others to do so.
Or will Dallas just be another name on the list -Sandy Hook, Denver, Charleston, Orlando...?

[trish]

Philando Castle declared he had a gun and a permit to carry it. At the mere mention of that firearm in the possession of the black man he just pulled over (for a taillight malfunction) the police officer got so rattled he shot and killed Castle on the spot. I’m sure the officer doesn’t believe he's prejudiced. He’s just scared shitless of black men. Meanwhile white guys openly carry assault weapons, refuse to show ID and cops let them go about their business.

I agree that there should be a serious discussion about how to reasonably restrain the use and possession of firearms in this country, but it’s not happening. No politician or news outlet that I know of has even addressed the issue in relation to these last three horrendous incidents. The first two were perceived as evidence of institutionalized racism within law enforcement and the latter as a tragic reaction to that perception. Indeed, that probably is the main issue here. So at the moment, the gun issue seems to be the farthest thing from everybody’s minds.

The Minneapolis and New Orleans shootings did seem to gain sympathy and outrage even from white, conservative communities - but I’m afraid the Dallas shooting just undid all that. The police will continue to militarize, grow more color-phobic and we’ll all wonder again ‘what the fuck’s going on?’ when we see the next brutal video upload . The clueless keep reciting, “All lives matter,” but fail to draw the conclusion relevant to the spate of racially infused murders committed by the police - and it no longer matters because now there seems to be no moral high ground.

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be less pessimistic, but right now...

[Ben in LA]

Meanwhile white guys openly carry assault weapons, refuse to show ID and cops let them go about their business.

It's like the guy who was "a person of interest" in the Dallas shootings: a black guy with an AR-15 strapped over his shoulder. Folks were actually asking why he was carrying such a weapon at a "peaceful" (quotations in their minds) protest. There's a simple answer: BECAUSE HE CAN. Texas is an open-carry state and he was exercising his rights (something ammosexuals have a boner for). Then a few went on to say he shouldn't have had the gun on him. I thought he'd be the "good guy with a gun" these fools have wet dreams about.

Guess not since he's a brotha. But white guys open-carrying at Chitpotle isn't a problem.

Bring on the thumbs-down for stating a fact.

[buttslinger]

Urging people to be self critical is a LOOP, maybe they made a mistake showing Alton Sterling's eyes on TV.
I hope the Black Lives Matter folks hand out voter registration forms at their protests, and let Hillary and a new Supreme Court redistribute black people's paychecks back into their own wallets, instead of some fat cat's portfolio.


Be very careful what you wish for.