Fuck Sheriff Joe: Fecal Matter Hits The Ventilator Edition

CaptainNemo

The sword bit was a joke. I'm not sure what started this thing you have about guns, but there is nothing inherently evil about a gun. It's just a weapon like any other. And like any other weapon, the person wielding will always be the one responsible for the ramifications of his/her actions. As for your long paragraph about burglary I said nothing about burglary in my post, and one can use a gun without shooting it. As you said, anyone trying to make off with a television would value there life more. And a gun is a bit more imposing then a bat.

DevoutlyApathetic

CaptainNemo wrote: »

The sword bit was a joke. I'm not sure what started this thing you have about guns, but there is nothing inherently evil about a gun. It's just a weapon like any other. And like any other weapon, the person wielding will always be the one responsible for the ramifications of his/her actions. As for your long paragraph about burglary I said nothing about burglary in my post, and one can use a gun without shooting it. As you said, anyone trying to make off with a television would value there life more. And a gun is a bit more imposing then a bat.

It was a pretty ignorant one.

Anything much longer than a knife is pretty restricted in England.

adytum

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Um, the US has more guns per capita than anywhere else on the planet. We love guns. Four years ago there were 90 guns for every 100 Americans. Yemen is second at 61 per 100 Yemenis.

I'm sure you realize that survey is unscientific, has large degrees of uncertainty (+/- 20%), and is not representative of actual gun ownership levels.

shryke

adytum wrote: »

America's "gun culture" is vastly overestimated by media and press imo.

Foreigners I've spoken to have this idea that it's the wild west, where everyone is secretly packing.

It's much less pervasive than that.

The stereotype of everyone has a gun at all times is overestimated, yes.

The culture itself? No, not really. The US has a Gun Culture that is WAY more pervasive and powerful then any other 1st world nation I can think of.


It's like, Canadians own alot of guns, yes. But we don't think about them anything like you guys do. At all.

CaptainNemo

DevoutlyApathetic wrote: »

CaptainNemo wrote: »

The sword bit was a joke.

It was a pretty ignorant one.

I thought it would be apparent that we all knew that almost no one uses swords for self defense in the 21st century, and that the example was used to point out that guns are the pre-eminent means of self defense in the United States. I'm sorry if it came across as a bizarre attack on Anglo-Canadian defensive weaponry.

Anything much longer than a knife is pretty restricted in England.

That seems rather silly. What is someone going to do, rob a store with a katana?

CaptainNemo

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the sterotype of a "gun culture" makes the unfortunate implication, to me at least, that all Americans are trigger happy psychoes. That couldn't be further from the truth. In my town I can count on one hand the number of individuals I've seen armed, and only on one finger the number I've seen who weren't officers.

Otar

21stCentury wrote: »

CaptainNemo wrote: »

21stCentury wrote: »

I mean, are you telling me no one is pushing for laws to allow them to carry concealed firearms into classrooms?

The only thing I've seen even like that was a failed bill to allow college students with gun permits to carry guns on campus. It was vetoed by a Republican govenor.

Are you saying the majority of the people don't believe owning a gun is a good way to protect themselves?

Person breaks into your house. S/he has a weapon. Should you pull out a broadsword while screaming the lyrics to Dawn of Battle or do you, in the immortal words of Morgan Freeman, shoot that motherfucker?

How would you have a person defend themselves and their family?

I mean, there is a much bigger Gun culture in the US than in Canada or Denmark, no?

Well, there's a bigger sword culture in England, doesn't mean they all them.

Adytum is right in saying this isn't the thread for this... This is my last reply on the matter.

Firstly, well, okay, well, of course I'm talking about that bill in particular, but the NRA has done a lot of lobbying, no?

Secondly, it seems a lot of people use that "breaking and entering" example to justify firearms. I don't believe it really does. Firstly, well, there's the fact that it's not something that happens with any frequency where I live, so I don't see it as some sort of acute risk. Okay, maybe if i were to live somewhere with more crime, it'd be a threat... in which case honestly, I'd just invest in an alarm system and maybe iron bars on the windows. Now, obviously you're putting up a strawman here. Trying to paint me as some sort of nut who has swords... I guess people who grab a baseball bat instead of a shotgun are nutsos, eh? Anyway, I don't think i own anything so costly that I'd be willing to kill someone to keep it. Isn't that what insurance is for? if someone comes in my house with a weapon, it's not because he wants to kill me, it's to protect him/herself in case i have one. Drawing a weapon would just escalate the situation needlessly. He wants my TV, fine. I don't think i'd need to kill him over a goddamn TV. I don't think people need to arm themselves for defense. At least, not where i live. Maybe it'd be different if i lived somewhere with a pervasive gun culture. As it stands, i don't buy the idea that you had to "defend your family" very often from people who broke into your home to kill you.

Thirdly, I don't think i've ever heard of people passing laws in the UK to allow people to bring swords with them to protect themselves. I don't think there's a lot of people going on campuses or in schools and slashing kids with swords. I don't think sword-related crime is a problem in the UK. of course, I could be wrong. Maybe there is an equivalent proportion of gun-related crime in the US to the sword-related crimes in the UK. I very much doubt it, though.

Really, to me, a lot of the justifications for the huge Gun culture in the US is anchored in fantasy scenarios where you heroically shoot someone to death to protect your big screen TV Family from a dangerous burglar Murderer. I just don't think it's worth escalating a burglary situation to an attempted murder. if someone breaks into my house, I'm calling 911 and co-operating with the burglar because, again, nothing I own is worth fighting over with deadly force.

A large percentage of home invasions are committed by people with severe drug issues who are not firing on all cylinders, you can apply what ever logic you like to the situation however their minds may not be acting as logically which greatly increases the potential for violence. Table 2 on this page has nearly 40% of state prisoners convicted of burglary in 1997 (outdated but most recent I could find quickly) admitting to being under the influence of drugs while doing so.

Jacobkosh

I'm seeing a lot of talk about gun control and not very much at all about Sheriff Joe Arpaio. If you guys want to have this conversation, start a new thread.

Kakodaimonos

I don't know if this has been posted, but apparently, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office had a few mexican cartel informants.

MCSO: More than 60 Arizona prison and jail gang members indicted after multi-agency probe

Joe Arpaio Deputy Accused of Human Smuggling Served on Anti-Human-Smuggling Task Force; Detention Officer Pregnant With Cartel "Kingpin's" Baby

Preacher

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/07/23/20120723arpaio-expected-testify-today-racial-profiling-case.html

This thread seems great for this. Joe's own book used against him in testimony!