The FAST Approaching Gun Ban

[bobvela]

What kind of society thinks it's ok to go and see a movie with a gun?

And now a 12-year old has been involved in a school shooting. A 12-year old

Fucked up doesn't begin to describe it.

While I agree that is tragic and horrific that a 12 year old was involved in a school shooting... you dance past a larger issue.

What kind of society thinks it's ok to go see a movie with a gun? The same society that thinks it ok and legal to engage in most of once life with a gun in a visible or concealed condition (ie most of the states (depending on permitting/licensing)).

We all know about the James Holmes attack on a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises... what I still find sad and at the same time hilarious... is that I was able to see an early showing of the movie thanks to my employer (before the shooting), a week later, I watched the film for a second time with a friend at a local theater (after the Aurora shooting), a week after that, I went to see it a third time with the wife... two of the three times armed, as I normally am.

During my second and third viewings, I happened to be carrying my normal concealed pistol... what was laughable, was on my third viewing (with my wife), her purse was inspected for weapons... not my ankle, not my hip, not the small of my back, nor any of my pockets... only one of which was carrying a legally carried and concealed pistol... which excluded most of the places she could be carrying a legally concealed pistol on her person as well then.

Shocked by her treatment, after the movie we hung out in eye shot of the ticket taker who was conducting the 'inspections' and witnessed the continued unevenness of the security theater he was engaging in. Checking bags, but not in coats or in pants, waistbands or pockets.

Like it or not, it is legal in most states to carry a concealed weapon on ones person (often requiring a permit) in most places, including movie theaters.

[trish]

What sort of sick society is it where people get shot to death in movies theaters for texting during the commercials and previews? What sort of society is it where little boys with adult bodies have to take their toys with them where ever they go? In what sort of society is it hilarious to smuggle a firearm into a space where the host requests you not do so? But most of all, in what sort of society are there dim brained idiots who pay to see The Dark Night Rises on three separate occasions???

Like it or not, regardless of its legality, it is irresponsible, childish, paranoid and self-defeating to carry a concealed penis compensator on your person in a public place (including a movie theater). If they weren't a danger to themselves and those around them, the dim bulbs who do so would be hilarious.

[broncofan]

During my second and third viewings, I happened to be carrying my normal concealed pistol... what was laughable, was on my third viewing (with my wife), her purse was inspected for weapons... not my ankle, not my hip, not the small of my back, nor any of my pockets... only one of which was carrying a legally carried and concealed pistol... which excluded most of the places she could be carrying a legally concealed pistol on her person as well then.

I think the problem might be cultural as much as legal. There are just too many pussies like bobvela around, aware of their shortcomings as men, who think that having a device that could allow them to kill people makes them a man.

Bobvela with his ankle pistol at the movie theater. His wife, with the hand grenades in her purse. Quite a pair. Finding it hilarious that the security guard doesn't know where blowhards are most likely to hide their weapons. The place has a no-guns policy, making entry conditional upon not carrying a weapon, but Bobvela doesn't care because as a real American he has a right to carry a weapon in the presence of little kids at a theater. What a prick.

None of this is meant as an insult Bobvela. I'm sure on some level you understand my arguments.

[Stavros]

As if that isn't bad enough, Nigel Farage who leads the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) which is tipped to do well in the elections this Spring and the general election next year, wants a relaxation of the gun control laws in the UK, as stated in this extract:

The Ukip leader criticised the "kneejerk" restrictions on handguns imposed after the 1996 Dunblane massacre in which Thomas Hamilton killed 16 schoolchildren and a teacher before shooting himself.
The laws were brought in by Sir John Major, the then Tory prime minister, and extended to a total ban by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997.
Asked about gun controls, Farage said: "I think proper gun licensing is something we've done in this country responsibly and well for a long time, and I think the kneejerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practise was just crackers.
"If you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns. It's really interesting that since Blair brought that piece of law in, gun crime doubled in the next five years in this country."
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...l-laws-relaxed

[broncofan]

in what sort of society are there dim brained idiots who pay to see The Dark Night Rises on three separate occasions???

Hilarious. That is a good question. He was conducting an experiment to see how many times he could slip his firearms past that hapless security guard. Can you imagine such institutional incompetence. Not checking his wife for explosives, not checking him for a detonator, not doing a strip-search to look for injectable poisons.

[broncofan]

But most of all, in what sort of society are there dim brained idiots who pay to see The Dark Night Rises on three separate occasions???

This just occurred to me. Maybe Bobvela can confirm whether I'm right. He saw the movie just after the attack, fully strapped, to send a message. This movie had a symbolic significance to him given that a bunch of people were killed and he, ostensibly could have prevented the tragedy because he's always prepared for that sort of thing. By going three times, he was sending the message loud and clear that he was not afraid of James Holmes, who by that time was already in a jail cell. Fearlessness personified.

What I don't understand is how he went to one of the showings without his gun. In my view the other theater-goers have a good argument that he committed reckless endangerment by creating the expectation that he was going to protect them, and then coming completely unprepared. That would be like Superman going to the movie theater, but forgetting his cape at the drycleaners.

[Prospero]

I wonder if Bobvela had been at the screening where the killings took place would have started a gunfight... and how many more might have died in the crossfire. Just absurd that inadequates like him are allowed to carry weapons. and then boast about it.

and Stavros, thanks for your note re UKIP.

[Odelay]

Bobvela, you're such a pussy. I went to Dark Knight Rising 5 times with 5 different girlfriends. I wore a fake cast/boot on my leg so no one would think twice about my noticeable limp. And I had an AK-47 down my pant leg, every time. Had a fire fight broke out in the theatre, the bad guys would have been dead in seconds while you and your wife would have been fumbling around with your pee shooters in the dark, wondering who to shoot.

Grow a pair, dude. Ammo up!

[Stavros]

I wonder if people think the proposal in Missouri to execute condemned men by firing squad is relevant to this thread? The chemicals used in lethal injections have run out and some of the new 'cocktails' though they do kill are no as efficient. Other than doing away with capital punishment, there is talk of bringing back the electric chair and the gas chamber...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...cution-methods

[trish]

I wonder if people think the proposal in Missouri to execute condemned men by firing squad is relevant to this thread?

Why not? It’s not like there’s any progress on the gun issue to discuss.

My own perspective on capital punishment is somewhat ambiguous. I’m against it: not in principle but in practice. It has always been applied asymmetrically to maintain the economic, social and cultural hegemony of those in position to abuse it.

But capital punishment is alive and flourishing here in the U.S. of A. One way to answer the question, “What device, poisons, procedure etc. should the State use to carry out a death sentence?” is to ask yourself, “If I were condemned by the State, how would I like to go?”

Death by bullet wound is unpredictably quick or slow. It all depends on the marksmanship of the executioners and their desire to practice that marksmanship on the condemned man or woman. Besides, a firing squad involves a whole squad of executioners in a practice of questionable morality.

Here’s how I’d like to go, if condemned. I lie down, place my head between an anvil like staging platform and the business end of a hydraulic, high-speed, industrial stamping press. When ready, I squeeze the trigger on the remote in my hand (or the executioner does) and BLAM! My brain is pressed flat in a fraction of a second and it’s all over. Over for me...not the clean up crew.