Renegade Public Forums
C&C: Renegade --> Dying since 2003™, resurrected in 2024!
Home » General Discussions » Heated Discussions and Debates » Man returns gun ammo to walmart at 1300 feet per second
Re: Man returns gun ammo to walmart at 1300 feet per second [message #283844 is a reply to message #283422] Wed, 12 September 2007 11:28 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
NukeIt15 is currently offline  NukeIt15
Messages: 987
Registered: February 2003
Location: Out to lunch
Karma:
Colonel
Quote:

Tell me why would a criminal harm you? Yes he does want to stel your stuff and yes I know that sucks, but unless you go waiving with a gun, there is no reason for the criminal to actually harm you. He might run and get away, resuming you caught him in the act.


Sweet merciful stars- I can understand most of the reasons why so many people want to outlaw guns- just because they're wrong doesn't mean that every reason given in support of that position is automatically bad. However, this just has to take the cake as the single dumbest thing I've seen today.

Do you honestly believe that violent crime doesn't happen in the absence of guns? Right, because a criminal will just leave you alone whilst robbing you blind, as long as you aren't armed? Wake the hell up! Do you know what you are when you are in the house while it is being robbed? A witness, that's what. Criminals don't like witnesses. Criminals like to get away clean. If you confront a criminal in your home without a weapon, you run the very real risk of being killed just because you were there.

Allow me to clear a few things up-

First off, you don't "wave a gun around." That defeats the purpose of the tool. If you draw your weapon, you fire it- period, end of discussion. If you don't have a reason to fire it, you don't pull it out in the first place.

A person whipping out their handgun and pointing it at a burglar while dialing 911 with the other hand? That happens almost never in the real world. Getting caught in the act of committing a felony is more often than not plenty to push someone over the edge to a violent reaction, and they're not going to just sit down and wait for the cops. Every second you have that weapon out and don't fire it is another second in which the other guy could make an attempt at either grabbing it or pulling a weapon of his own- and it only takes a moment's lapse in attention for him to gain that opportunity. Even if you manage to sneak up behind that burglar- the sudden sound of your voice is even more likely to cause him to whip around with a weapon of his own. If someone has taken it upon theirself to invade your home, you assume the worst and react accordingly. If they happen to survive, that's great- but anything less than a decisive, violent reaction on the part of the homeowner puts everyone in danger. You put the bastard on the floor, then you make sure they are unable to respond in kind, then you call the cops. Whether you do that with a bat, or a knife, or a gun, you just do it. None of this "stop, thief!" shit- that only works in movies.

Second, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you cannot assume that any given criminal- be they a burgler or some twer trying to mug you in an alley- is going to leave you alone after taking your stuff. Hell, you can't even assume that they're after your stuff int he first place. That attitude will get you killed in those situations.

Now, however revolting the thought of taking another person's life may be- and I can't say it's something I ever want to think about- it comes down to a simple choice- their life, or yours. Seriously now, do you hold a criminal's life above your own, above the lives of the people you care about? If you had no way out, would you sit by and let that criminal do you and your loved ones harm because you didn't want to have blood on your hands? Yes, it's a shitty choice, but as far as I- and a great many others, though sadly not everyone- am concerned, one person's rights stop dead where another's begin. Once you do harm to others by intent, you sacrifice your rights. That's the logic behind the criminal justice system, anyway, and it ought to apply all the time- to everyone. If you threaten another person's life- and please bear in mind that a victim has no way of knowing what their assailant intends to do until after the criminal has done the deed- you lose the right to your own. If you were to threaten any one of my friends, or my family, or if you broke into my home, I would kill you to defend them and myself because you had no right to act against me and mine. I would hate myself for it every day for the rest of my life, but I would do it, and I would do it a second time to a second person it the need arose.

I believe, with utter conviction, that it is not the availability of weapons which leads people to be violent. It is not the prevalence of violence in the media, or any other factor than this: society as a whole, across most of the world, consists of people who are unwilling to take action to protect anyone's interests but their own. That allows a few predatory individuals to take advantage of anyone they perceive as weak, because they know most of humanity has neither the will nor the ability to do anything about it. I guarantee that crime would all but vanish if we could just persuade the mass to enact laws enabling people to act in each others' defense- but that will never happen. It will never happen because the majority of humanity would rather pretend that they are above violence of any sort, that they would not resort to such measures and therefore that others would not act violently towards them. Bullshit.

The only way to defend against violence is to be willing and able to be violent if the need arises. Violence is the only argument some folks will listen to- and that's just the plain truth. Hate guns all you want, but that won't change the simple fact that when you are faced with an immediate danger- any immediate danger into which you are placed by another being, human or otherwise, be it a home invasion or a mugging or a hold-up or whatever else your mind can conceive- the best possible defense is a gun and the training to use it properly.

No one is arguing that we issue guns to every single person on the planet- but there are some important things to keep in mind:

- In the US at least, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, unless you are proven to have committed a crime or have a serious mental defect, you are competent in the eyes of the law and therefore have the right to own a gun. That is law, as laid down hundreds of years ago and thankfully held more or less intact since.

- Guns are a weapon, but ultimately there is a person behind that weapon. The weapon does not think or act for itself. There is no way for a gun to 'just go off' without some human tampering on some level or another. By all means, enact legislation that ensures people are safely able to handle that weapon, but do not make people pay out the ass for that training (as is presently required) and do not ever call the weapon 'dangerous.' There is no such thing as a dangerous weapon, only dangerous people (by incompetence or intent).

- Technology, as a rule, does not regress, barring a massive societal collapse (i.e. the Roman Empire). For that reason, guns will not go away.

- Prohibitions don't work. A determined person can make a gun out of materials that can be bought in a hardware store, crude as that gun may turn out- but more likely they will track down a black market dealer and buy one. As long as there is a use for a weapon, it will be provided somehow, by legal or illegal means. This is a fact, the simple law of supply and demand.

- The advantage always goes to whomever has the more effective weapon. Always. A person with a gun will always be at an advantage over a person without. Thus, the only way to place yourself on an equal footing with all potential threats (short of someone setting off a bomb) is to have a gun of your own- and more than that, to carry it responsibly.

"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived of the use of them." - Thomas Paine

Remember, kids: illiteracy is cool. If you took the time to read this, you are clearly a loser who will never get laid. You've been warned.

[Updated on: Wed, 12 September 2007 11:29]

Report message to a moderator

[Message index]
 
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Previous Topic: EKT Idiocy...
Next Topic: jonwill owns silent kane at coding
Goto Forum:
  

[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [ RSS ] [ PDF ]

Current Time: Sat Aug 24 10:04:16 MST 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.02767 seconds
.:: Contact :: Home ::.

Powered by: FUDforum 420.69.
Copyright ©2001-2023 FUDforum Bulletin Board Software