1. Wow, uh, put two and two together man... heheh...

2. Many (most?) cops are legal gun-owners and keep guns at home. I believe they also maybe took some kind of oath to protect the Constitution, and I seem to remember there being something about gun rights in there?

True.
But, really? You really feel that the magical destruction of all handguns would have that big, and negative, of an impact on the lives of people that go to shooting ranges that it wouldn't be worth it? 80% of all gun-related homicides are committed with a handgun. Eliminating handguns won't eliminate 100% of those homicides, but I'm certain it would drastically reduce them. But then I guess we'd be even more over-populated than we already are. Forget it - kill away.

OMG NOT MY SHOOTING RANGE

I WILL MISS SHOOTING BULLETS AT TEH PAPER TARGETS!

My thoughts exactly.

Nope, I wasn't saying anything of the kind. I was making a statement about your willingness to limit other peoples' hobbies.

This thread needs Ted:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/02/n ... uitar.html

Recent news story in Japan that made me think of this thread:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html

Interesting statistics from the article:

just a bunch of chicks holding hands and jumping into oncoming trains...is that weird?

Thank you BD. Well said!

Yeah in the middle east they don't use AKs. They have plenty of rocks to stone folks with. Like if your daughter is caught dating a man or when a woman is cought exposing her face, or tries to go to school or some thing.
America sure is twisted

Thats quite a low blow.
Considering it's only been 50 years since lynching was perfectly acceptable in some areas of the US and even in the past 10? they were dragging black guys behind pick up trucks in texas.

Apples and oranges. Nobody will dispute that those were illegal acts of murder and were never "perfectly acceptable" except to the people that committed them.

The kind of situation Robert is talking about (and I'm pretty sure that he's alluding to the stonings under Sharia law that take place in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries) is completely different. Those are acts that take place with the consent of religion and governmental institutions.

I'm just stating facts. I'm not yanking khanate chain. The point I'm trying to make is. Yes the shootings in the US are tragic yes. One is too many.
But we are how many million in this country with how many of these cases being reported. As a TV culture it seems like the end of the world is coming the way newspeople report only the bad news. You talk about acceptable acts that go back 50 years. As wrong as that maybe do research on how long stoning has been practiced in other countries and you'll go back to biblical times. I've lived in several different countries such as my home and Thailand and Cambodia. You should see what happens there on Tuesdays back when I was there.

So for the record;
Khanate = no low blow intended
World = My AK is cleaned and loaded GIVE ME YER KAIJU!!

Without going down a very slippery road... I would say that some of those lynchings were sanctioned by both religious and government institutions.

I would never in a million years say that Sharia Law is a logical, or commendable set of rules to live under.
However, they are cultural and like much that goes on in the middle east, are beyond our grasp of understanding.

I used to go out with a Saudi girl and that created all sorts of mind boggling discussions regarding her internal conflicts between the western world she grew up in and the Muslim world that her culture was based in. To compound matters she was a pretty lefty liberal atheist who would defend aspects of Sharia Law... it was an interesting relationship.

But lets get back to shooting kids in america

???What?? I don't think the Local Churches and Sherif's office in some backwoods Klu Klux Klan burrow counts as religious and gov institutions.

Also I'm not real savvy on other countries cultures but It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the Sharia Law that was discussed above
is anything other than barbarically wrong however you slice it.

In the backwoods, they certainly would represent those institutions, and if they approve then the general population would feel that their actions we justified.
I am over simplifying, admittedly, only trying to make a point.
And invoking religion the institutions related to it will inevitably bring up the mentions of the Inquisitions.
Not only that, but various Catholic groups fall just shy of sanctioning violence toward gays and then theres the whole abortion thing.
Seriously though, I don;t want to derail this thread down this road any more than we have.

This even makes less sense, that or you're not getting what I'm trying to say. Try to grasp this (I'm not trying to be a dick mind you). The Churches I mentioned and the Sheriffs office? They ARE the KKK. The rev, church goers and the sheriffs/deputies are mostly Klan members and their families. Thats not mentioning the barbershop/owner, General store/owner, drug stores/owner, beauty shop/owner, local plumber/man, etc. I hardly think that the criminals perpetrating the crimes count as reps for our gov and religious institutions. Man, I did a paper on this back in the "stone ages" I should dig it up.

Anyway I agree about the derailing bit, not that this subject is a fun one to discuss. I've got detailed files
We can discuss further by PM if you wan to. Unlikely as that may seem..

backtrack, the argument is weak. It isn't "perfectly acceptable" to hang people or drag them behind trucks. If it actually was, we probably wouldn't be discussing it here.

50 years from now, it's highly unlikely that someone in Nigeria will be on a BBS decrying the fact that a woman was once stoned for adultery under Sharia law. In their context, you can say that this event is "perfectly acceptable" to them.

Not in America, though. Not today, not 50 years ago. Turn back the clock another 100 years and you might have a point, but then you're dealing with people who have little, if any, connection to us.

I'll pm Robert and discuss this. thank you for your time.

i should probably go back and read all the replies but i think parents don't "PARENT" anymore.