Gun Control

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

While I do not believe all that the media tells us, I cannot subscribe to the Manchurian Candidate theory in this incidence of killing.(Sorry MargaretR - no offence)

Who knows what pushed this young man over the edge?
He, his mother and his father are all dead...along with many innocent children in that community. My thoughts have to be with the families who have lost their babies...and to those who saw the incident and will probably be traumatised for some time to come.

Doubtful we'll ever know the reason, but here's the mentality of why it does happen.

Machine Gun Shoot

and here's a chilling picture from this years show

Machine Gun Expo Is Down-Home Americana Gone Ballistic | Raw File | Wired.com

[cashman]

A perfect example of these people many who think they are John Wayne or Rambo.etc.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by susie123

Yes I see the BBC has now changed its mind and is talking about forced entry.

As for custom combining... took me a while to work that one out but I got there in the end. Thought at first you were talking about re-using Halloween lanterns for Christmas decorations...

Sorry about that; assumed it was general knowledge ... Spent 20 years of my life in Saskatchewan, some of it perched on top of an Allis Chalmers Gleaner L2 I'm still a stubble jumper at heart.

Just checked on the gun laws in Connecticut ... compared to most parts of the US, they are pretty stiff. They seem to have the same "long gun" laws as exist in Canada. Not like some places in America, where you can go into a store and say: "I want a Coke, chips (crisps), a bottle of shampoo, and a Glock 17. Oh, and throw in some ammo and dental floss."

Gun laws in Connecticut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Gordon Booth]

Originally Posted by Guinness

Doubtful we'll ever know the reason, but here's the mentality of why it does happen.

Machine Gun Shoot

and here's a chilling picture from this years show

Machine Gun Expo Is Down-Home Americana Gone Ballistic | Raw File | Wired.com

Hey, Guinness, that looks great fun-don't knock it 'till you've tried it!
And it did say 'No alcohol permitted'.

[Boeing Guy]

Ths looks fun as well....

[Gordon Booth]

Originally Posted by Boeing Guy

Ths looks fun as well....

See, it's easy, any monkey can do it.

[cashman]

Thats probably the american olympic team in training.

[Margaret Pilkington]

With some of these shootings involving young men, it makes me wonder how much time these young men have spent playing on video games......shoot 'em ups...and whether this blurs the edges of reality...making them act out the fantasies of the games they have played.
I'm sure there will be someone out there who will pooh-pooh this thought, but how many shootings like this did we see prior to the era of violent video games.(fewer, surely)

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Restless

True. I was drunk at the time of writing that. Though. God may have given us "free will" as purposed.. But if exists, God sits back and lets all these tragedy happen time and time again.

God or the belief in a God or other omnipotent being, in conjunction with this topic is nonsense. What happened here & in other incidents of a like nature are plain & simply down to the irrationality & capriciousness of humans.

[Restless]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

God or the belief in a God or other omnipotent being, in conjunction with this topic is nonsense. What happened here & in other incidents of a like nature are plain & simply down to the irrationality & capriciousness of humans.

Its just my drunken exasperation at this kind of tragedy. Around the time of reading of this and subsequently posting here... I read posts on facebook... this was one of them

Originally Posted by friend of a friend of a friend

It's inevitability .. We will always have the Devil here on earth and he will find a way to harm innocent children and adults no matter what. It's so sickening people can let him into there heads and let it controll them.

Fueled my post did this. They have to add the Devil element into things like this, Its the only way they can cope with the world they live in, probably. If the Devil was in the mind of the guy that committed this awful crime, Why didn't God step in and stop it from happening. 20 Children. Some of which were 5 years old! So yeah Dave I do agree with you and Margaret. It shouldn't be relevant. But unfortunately it is.

Less gave the best advice earlier. I shouldn't let this crap, The God delusion get me down and get on top of me.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Rob, we can do nothing to change what has happened already.

Crimes of this nature make us impotent....I doubt that any intervention would have changed this....the guy would have got a gun from somewhere else if his mother didn't have one...he was hell bent on causing this harm...for what reason, we cannot know - ever. He took his motives with him.

The people who believe in a God(or supreme being - whatever you want to call it) will be relying on their faith to get them through it...and even if we ourselves, do not subscribe to their faith, we have to let them get what comfort they can from it. It might be all they have.
Some will find their faith destroyed, some will find their faith strengthened and renewed.

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

With some of these shootings involving young men, it makes me wonder how much time these young men have spent playing on video games......shoot 'em ups...and whether this blurs the edges of reality...making them act out the fantasies of the games they have played.
I'm sure there will be someone out there who will pooh-pooh this thought, but how many shootings like this did we see prior to the era of violent video games.(fewer, surely)

Nah! not having that argument Margaret...I grew up with plastic guns that fired plastic bullets, Johnny sevens, sekaguns (sp) that fired pigeon peas, shooting roman candles at each other, bangers in satchels, scotch arrows, air pistols, commando magazines, in fact thinking about it I can't remember a single xmas as a kid when I wasn't given something with violent undertones from Santa.. never made me into a killer.

We've had these arguments for decades about how kids spending their leisure time was blamed for violence, for example in the 50's it was rock around the clock and in the 70's it was clockwork orange, the sweeney and Clint Eastwood

As for how many shootings we saw...well I guess I'd argue that maybe in the 1920's the US was worse for mindless violence, and probably every decade since has had its share, we just didn't see it reported as fast and in the same way as we do now.

[Less]

Originally Posted by Restless

Less gave the best advice earlier. I shouldn't let this crap, The God delusion get me down and get on top of me.

well, if I may, here's a bit more advice, stop acting like a born again atheist, it isn't a religion, it's the God botherers that need to collect souls.
This thread is sad enough without adding religion to it.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by Guinness

Nah! not having that argument Margaret...I grew up with plastic guns that fired plastic bullets, Johnny sevens, sekaguns (sp) that fired pigeon peas, shooting roman candles at each other, bangers in satchels, scotch arrows, air pistols, commando magazines, in fact thinking about it I can't remember a single xmas as a kid when I wasn't given something with violent undertones from Santa.. never made me into a killer.

We've had these arguments for decades about how kids spending their leisure time was blamed for violence, for example in the 50's it was rock around the clock and in the 70's it was clockwork orange, the sweeney and Clint Eastwood

As for how many shootings we saw...well I guess I'd argue that maybe in the 1920's the US was worse for mindless violence, and probably every decade since has had its share, we just didn't see it reported as fast and in the same way as we do now.

Yes, it was different back then.....plastic guns that really bore no resemblance to the real thing......no blood, no gore. It was harmless....not like the video games of today. I am sure they blur the lines of reality.
And the mindless violence of the 1920's was not against children in kindergarten.
I agree with your comment on the instancy of the news coverage...and the fact that it is reported over and over again with every bit of the minutiae of the event played out in front of us.

[cashman]

The problem wi News Coverage these days is sensationalist overkill, instead of just reporting whats actually happened, which it could be argued gives more attention etc etc, to the nutters in society than any video game influence imho.that is not saying video games etc don't carry influence, but i reckon loonballs will require the maximum attention.