453 Comments

"well-regulated militia" is right there in the 2nd amendment. If he couldn't remain a part of our military due to his countenance and behavior, his rights are clearly not protected by the 2nd amendment.

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The more I read the horrid rationalizations--actually they are justifications for their political and social views--from people like this "pastor" the more comfort I feel as an atheist.

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As I said before, I am all for gun safety. I think every gun owner should practice responsible gun ownership. I obtained a hunting licenses almost completely for the purpose of learning about how to safely own and use firearms. I still have never hunted and did not grow up in a home with guns. I would have zero problem with requiring people to pass a course in gun safely prior to becoming a gun owner. To me, it makes sense. However, I am not sure if safety training alone can account for the "attitude" difference you credit the lower gun crime in Canada with.

I also wouldn't be opposed to trigger locks, although again I don't feel like they are anything that is going to prevent gun violence. Gun safes are cabinets are also a very wise practice. The thing is, I don't think many gun crimes are committed with unsecured guns that wouldn't have been accessible by the perpetrator anyway. If someone is inclined to go out and shoot up a church, having to retrieve their gun out of their safe and unlock their trigger, ins't going to stop them.

Would I be opposed to legislation mandating the use of such safety devices? Probably not, I just don't think that would impact gun violence or mass shootings. I also question how effective it would be to legislate how people keep their guns in their homes. Any method of policing such practices would be far more of an intrusion than the safety measures themselves.

I don't think I would support a magazine capacity limit. However, I also don't think I would be very opposed to it either. The previous "high capacity" ban really only reduced supply somewhat, shifted the market and raise the price significantly on larger magazines.

Ultimately, I do agree with you about the "attitude". If I am going to be around people who are handling guns I would rather be with rural hicks who grew with guns in their home and learned respect for them from an early age. I have no interest in being accidentally shot by some tacticool punk who wants to be in a zombie movie. Although, I think the issue is deeper than safety or respect for guns. I believe there is a cancer within American culture that has desensitized us, crippled our empathy for others and devalued our own self worth. I also see a severely fragmented society that is pitted against its self.

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Nooooooooooo...Please don't use that adorable ginger cat to represent shithead Trump.

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It's all fun and games until we start blowing up satellites. Hope y'all like debris cascades!

...not to go too nerd OT, but I realized after watching Gravity that any one of those orbital space battles you see in sci-fi movies would basically be a crime against humanity. When one of those star destroyers explode, that debris will circle the planet, shredding everything but the most heavily shielded spacecraft and creating even more debris. Off-world travel and orbital infrastructure would be impossible for centuries.

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Word. It almost sounds like these folks assume that a mass shooter gives you time to actually get your gun. They always have the element of surprise on their side, which is why these armed folks never solve anything.

It's not like these mass shooters just pop out of the bushes, strike a pose while shouting a catchphrase, and then everyone rolls 20-sided dice to see who goes first.

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In that he stopped by a church full of pray-ers and shot them, sure.

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Also: not really sure where he was supposed to find hundreds more people in Sutherland Springs, where the deaths of 26 people in a Baptist church knocked the total population down by about 4%. He hit damn near everyone who was in the building in the first place, also too.Yes, I know it's a stupid technicality, but the sadmad has to have some outlet other than screaming incoherently.

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Dynamite Bob had enough stuff put away to blow up half of Birmingham.

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Short answer? Bribery and threats.

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You know what? Enforcing, actually no shit enforcing, the laws already on the books would be a great start.

The entire culture needs to be changed in addition to better gun laws. But doing one without the other will be pissing into the wind.

Part of the problem is guns are not taken seriously. They are just considered toys for grownups in large part. Every single violation of existing law needs to be prosecuted every single time. No more consequence free gun ownership. Until that happens there is no incentive to treat a lethal weapon with the respect it deserves.

Of course it won't stop all gun crime any more than enforcing drunk driving laws stops all drunk driving, but it will make people pause and stop the cavalier attitude about guns. No more free "mistakes". No more.

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How Jurassic of you.

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"Donald Trump Says More Stupid Shit" is complete in and of itself, Doc. Although to be fair it would get monotonous reading the same title used every time Trump is mentioned.

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He would have still been in the military then. That was after his enlistment and prior to his courts-martial. It seems like he was outsourced to a civilian institution.

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I genuinely hope you're right, because every time something happens it seems as if the positions on both side harden that much more. LaPierre has so much to answer for. His hands are soaked in blood.

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