Poll: Arm the Victims or Take Away the Gun?

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Vegosiux

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May 18, 2011
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blackrave said:
TopazFusion said:
You know, where I live, it's against the rules for a kid to bring weapons, any sort of weapons, to school.
Wait, where are you from?
Are children using crayons or markers to write in schools in your area?
Because pen and pencil is pretty good melee weapon.
Not to mention scissors or paper knives.
Or boot laces or belts.

Basically if person wants to kill, he/she will always find the means.
Call me when a kid can kill someone with a paper knife sholeaces across the classroom as easily as with a firearm.
 

blackrave

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Vegosiux said:
blackrave said:
TopazFusion said:
You know, where I live, it's against the rules for a kid to bring weapons, any sort of weapons, to school.
Wait, where are you from?
Are children using crayons or markers to write in schools in your area?
Because pen and pencil is pretty good melee weapon.
Not to mention scissors or paper knives.
Or boot laces or belts.

Basically if person wants to kill, he/she will always find the means.
Call me when a kid can kill someone with a paper knife sholeaces across the classroom as easily as with a firearm.
Well of course guns are more effective
BUT
A knife isn't more dangerous than scissors or pens
 

D-Class 198482

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The title makes me think of Fable III.
It's just the wording behind it, I guess :L
OT: Considering if we ban guns we won't be able to rise up against the rogue government if it ever happens (aka the entire reason guns are allowed in the US), keep the guns. I'm not sure with arming the victims, however, a bad case of crazy can happen at any time.
 

LetalisK

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invadergir said:
firelightning1 said:
We all know whats going on in the news lately and everyone here in the US is arguing over banning guns. The arguments that I keep hearing are ban guns so no one can get them or give everyone guns.

What I really want to know is what do you my fellow escapist think?

I personally think that we should allow teachers to have a weapon in the classroom (doesn't necessarily need to be a gun) and have it in their desk or purse. Also if the teacher does want to keep a gun in their classroom they should be required to go through some sort of gun safety course and gun handling course.

If people are worried that the teachers aren't trust worthy then who is?
Uhhh why such a black and white approach? This isn't Fox news here.

The either/or fallacy perpetuated upon us by the right-wing has become silly. Either allow children to stay alive OOOOOOR we have stormtroopers invading your houses raping your mother.


Oh, wait, that's bad, isn't it?

Seriously though, it's not a binary choice nor is either of those two options the best choice let alone practical.
 

Redd the Sock

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I lose a lot of interest in the "arm everybody" idea with one thought: GUNS COST MONEY. Money to buy, money to maintain. Money to learn to use. Money for ammo. I get some of what pro-gun advocates are for, but forgive me for thinking the whole arguement is more about trying to generate billions in new sales for the gun industry than about saving lives. Face it, no one sane thinks loaded weapons should be in the hands of people that text and drive.

Not that I think banning is a plausable idea, but at least I get the logic in trying to keep mass killing devices out of the hands of crazy people without thinking they could MacGuyver a murder spree out of household items. It's not that I don't respect the paranoia about needing them to rebel against the government, (though I think that is a very paranoid idea) but let's face it, an AK won't do much against an army with tanks, predator drones and nukes and the will to use them as a tyranical army would.

Looking at motives is a good idea, but usualy comes from those that want to blame some outside stimuli: aka the evil video game or twinkie made him do it. Far easier than looking at the possibility of some sort of mental breakdown that went undiagnosed, unmedicated and uncared for. That reopens the healthcare debate and puts a lot of onus on us to not overlook someone with issues because we're focused entirely on ourselves.
 

Denamic

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Guns give people too much power too easily, but once there are guns in circulation, a ban will only make the victim even more vulnerable. It's a complicated issue.
 

Brutal Peanut

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Oct 15, 2010
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ohnoitsabear said:
I think it's wrong to simplify the incredibly complex issue of gun control down to a simple binary choice. I think both options are completely stupid, and completely ignore a lot of the real issues at hand.
Oh, I like this answer. Better than I could have ever put it. Make this entire post a poll option.
 
Jan 29, 2009
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Aetherlblade said:
SimpleThunda said:
Arm the victims because banning guns is no option. Banning guns is just another way of pacifying the population.
Indeed, which is a GOOD thing in my opinion. How many times have guns been used in a BAD way since the initial revolution? And then how many times have they been used in a "GOOD" way, by overthrowing the goverment? I don't see Europeans, Canadians and other western nations being suppresed or whatever because the population is not armed like a disorganized mob like in America.
Guns are used for self defense by law abiding citizens roughly two million times per year in the United States.
[link]http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html[/link]

Spade Lead said:
dumbseizure said:
Now my question, how many revolutionary wars have American civilians participated in since then? You are honestly saying that, because some many many years ago, civilians fought in a war with soldiers, that at this point in time, with no wars being fought on American soil, they are still allowed to carry said guns?

That sounds absolutely ridiculous.
Still with a sense of history, it wasn't that long ago we fought the Civil War, either.

Whether you agree or not, it's an interesting lesson in history. Something to think about...

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

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China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million 'educated' people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
By keeping people disarmed, they are entirely at the mercy of the government. Would you prefer they were at the mercy of the United States Government? They're not exactly the kind of people I'd want to give a dictatorship to...
 

idarkphoenixi

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First of all, it's not a teachers job to be carrying deadly weapons in their class. They're already getting paid peanuts thanks to that oh-so-amazing American education system, now they're supposed to have a second job of class security?

Second of all, stop making this a black and white issue. Most people who want "gun laws" are not talking about taking away all guns and I hate it when people try to paint the issue as that. Making assault rifles illegal is not the same as making ALL guns illegal. People don't need AR-15's to hunt and they don't need them for home defense.

I don't mean to sound insulting to all Americans since I know they aren't all like this but it's amazing to me that in a country where there are 90 guns for every 100 citizens they're reaction to a mass tragedy like is "Wait, clearly we don't have enough guns. We need MORE."
 

DioWallachia

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How about a third option?: NOT give any coverage on the sick fuck that made the killings like he was some kind of celebrity among killers.

But of course that wont happen, the news media needs to exploit this and make money out of the tragedy, so they influence more people into killing each other, make a coverage out of it for MOAR money and keep the cycle going.

Oh, and blame whatever is popular and its making more money than them like videogames, rock music and Elvis Presley.
 

Ryotknife

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ohnoitsabear said:
I think it's wrong to simplify the incredibly complex issue of gun control down to a simple binary choice. I think both options are completely stupid, and completely ignore a lot of the real issues at hand.
+1

the gun control issue is immensely complex, with guns itself actually being a minor issue compared to a plethora of other major issues which would make tackling guns headfirst not only pointless but impractical and wasteful.


hell, if we can stop the smuggling of illegal goods into our country, that would save a hell of a lot more lives. Less drug crime in general, fewer people messed up on hard drugs killing people for their next "fix", less illegal guns in the country, fewer criminals armed with guns, fewer people dying from hard drugs, less need for people to defend themselves from irrational violent home invaders.

Also, im not for arming teachers countrywide since that is one of the most stressful jobs in our country right now, and the least respected job in our country (garbagemen get treated better and have less stress than teachers)
 

Fidelias

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Nov 30, 2009
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DoPo said:
ohnoitsabear said:
I think it's wrong to simplify the incredibly complex issue of gun control down to a simple binary choice. I think both options are completely stupid, and completely ignore a lot of the real issues at hand.
Thank you for reading my mind and writing what I wanted to say here. I am extremely sleepy, so you wrote it better than I ever could. More concise, too.

So yeah - this is a wrong question to be asking. But have fun, I think it's going to get...warm, soon.
This. Banning guns would never work in the US. There's just way too many guns circulating as it is, the government wouldn't be able to find them all. They probably wouldn't even be able to find a fourth of the guns that exist throughout the US. Not to mention all of the illegal weapons already circulating (For those who don't know, ANY automatic weapon of any type is illegal, unless you own a special license that is extremely hard to get. You basically can't have even gotten a parking ticket to obtain it. Which basically means that 99% of automatic guns are ALREADY illegal in the US.)

So yeah, there are already quite a lot of illegal firearms in the US, which means that banning firearms altogether would make almost no difference to perpetrators.

But bringing MORE guns into a school is even worse! When chaos breaks out, the last thing you need is another armed gunman who doesn't really know what's going on, surrounded by hundreds of civilians. Unless we turned school security into a military-type force (good luck with that) this would be a disaster!

I could go on, but you get the point.

What we really need is better gun control. Not more laws, but more competetant people/officials working to make sure that people only obtain legal firearms.

How this would happen, I honestly have no idea. But this is what we really need.
 

Stu35

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Aug 1, 2011
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Whilst I don't believe that firearms can ever truly be stopped in the United States (and therefore, other means of getting them to stop shooting each other all the time need to be found... Although I've no idea what), I do find it hilarious that so many Americans honestly think the only thing standing between them and oppression is their right to carry guns.



Incidentally, before the 1970s, the 2nd amendment was more widely interpreted as refering to properly formed militias (like the National Guard), it was a massive campaign by the NRA post 1970s that brought around the modern "Charlton Heston" interpretations - Indeed, before the 1930s the NRA was actually one of the biggest proponents of Gun control.

On a final note, I'll say that more guns=more people getting shot, simple as.

An example, is the military - since the threat from Afghan Security forces to ISAF troops has gone up in the last year, American and British troops have started carrying loaded weapons even in rear locations.

Funnily enough, the number of Negligent Discharges, and individuals being wounded or killed by these, has gone up substantially - And this is by trained military personnel who have to conduct mandatory weapons training a minimum of twice a year.

Simple maths really.
 

RJ Dalton

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Aug 13, 2009
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Start with improving this country's mental health care programs first. Then see if there's still a need to worry about gun control.
 

Twilight_guy

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Nov 24, 2008
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Never give a teacher a gun. Why? Students are little bastards and given enough time they will get it and shoot someone. That's a ticking time bomb.

If you could actually enforce gun control, its far better for no one to have guns then for everyone to have guns. I'd rather no one have power then everyone live with their finger on the trigger.

That said, why aren't people buying some sort of non-lethal defense measures. Why does everyone immediately go for the gun? Are other weapons seen as so worthless that a gun is the only option? Why doesn't someone invent something better. People are paranoid as shit right now, a new alternative to guns could be quiet profitable. Marketing people, marketing.
 

Th37thTrump3t

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Nov 12, 2009
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invadergir said:
Th37thTrump3t said:
Aetherlblade said:
SimpleThunda said:
Arm the victims because banning guns is no option. Banning guns is just another way of pacifying the population.
Indeed, which is a GOOD thing in my opinion. How many times have guns been used in a BAD way since the initial revolution? And then how many times have they been used in a "GOOD" way, by overthrowing the goverment? I don't see Europeans, Canadians and other western nations being suppresed or whatever because the population is not armed like a disorganized mob like in America.
Banning guns is not going to stop anything. Where do you think all of your gang members get their guns? Not anywhere legally I can assure you. If someone wants to commit mass murder, there are other alternatives to guns as well. A bomb is just as effective if not more. They are also easier to conceal. Also, there are roughly 270 million registered guns in the hands of civilians in the United States. That's enough guns to give one to eight out of every ten American citizens and still have some left over. How do you propose we go about getting rid of them without some nationally unified effort, which I would be willing to put money down that it would never happen? Guns are also used in a good way all the time, you just don't hear about it. How many times a day does someone prevent themselves from being mugged on the streets of New York City because they're packing? How many home invasions are stopped short because the homeowner pulled out a shotgun and the trespasser bailed? You wouldn't know. Why? Because no news channel worth their shit would report that. No one wants to hear about how guns are good. We want to hear how they are used to shoot up a school or a movie theatre or how some dude shot their family up because he went postal. That's what makes headlines. You also have to ask yourself, what kind of precedent does this set in Washington? If they ban guns, they are basically shitting all over an amendment that has been in since the beginning. After that, what's stopping them from attacking our beloved 1st amendment? Banning guns would only work against us.
Argh. Banning all guns isn't the issue. Bomb-making isn't the issue (btw it's difficult now since the FBI tracks chemicals needed to make bombs since Oklahoma City. But wait, that doesn't fit your fox-news created argument. Feel free to bring up the right-wing tactic about cars killing people and making them illegal)
Then what is the issue? Because the topic is clearly on whether or not guns should be banned. Also, a bomb doesn't have to go boom. I can make a gas bomb with the chemicals I have under my sink in the kitchen. And you say my argument is "Fox News created". Can you show me when Fox News said anything that I said? Because I detest Fox News, but if they're saying the same thing I am, then we might actually agree on something.