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Gun attack at Batman film premiere in Denver [W:120]

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A 100 round drum in competitive shooting? Where in the world have you ever seen/heard that? A 100 round drum would severely alter shooting position. The only practical application for a 100 round drum is to suppress a target. That is why the military has 100-200 round drums for all squad automatic and crew serve weapons. We use them to suppress targets while riflemen maneuver. WE DON'T EVEN CARRY 100 ROUND DRUMS FOR M-4/M-16'S!! If you ever see someone carrying one it was purchased on the civilian market.
Eh, there are plenty of "bush league" competitions out there, some are paramilitary based. I know that drum mags are for suppression but it doesn't really get into the realm of extreme danger for the average gun owner to have over anything else, IOW a weapon is only as dangerous as the handler.

I think you are just toeing the "conservative" line that says our country has to allow everything that is involved with guns. Thats asinine. The 2nd Amendment says nothing of magazine size. Look, I don't think gun laws should change an iota based on this incident. However, I do believe large magazines (over 15 rounds) and Small Arms Protective Inserts for body armor should be outlawed for purchase on the civilian market. There is no practical application for any of it.
Actually no. I think for myself and base it on the fundamentals of liberty and rights, for something to be banned within those rights there is a heavy burden of proof that has to be held to account, for instance large magazines are as you've put it and I frankly agree not the tactical advantage the anti-gun side claims them to be, casual shooters as has been pointed out would be better served with banana clips or mid-sized magazines anyway. I don't base rights upon need however.

If you think magazine size makes no difference, try something for me. Go buy an AR-15, get your buddy an 9mm pistol, and have him shoot at you while you try to reload. Thats what a criminal would encounter. Trust me, its not easy. We practice mag changes constantly when working up for a deployment. Guess what? I've still screwed them up while getting shot at. The more mag changes you make a criminal execute, the more likely he is to screw up and give cops a chance to maneuver/take a shot at him. Most civilians don't know to take cover while reloading, retain their magazines for future use, or have the skill to keep their eyes on the target while executing their mag change. Imagine if this guy would have only gotten off 15 rounds at a time. He's obviously a medical geek who doesn't even know how to clear a jam on his own weapon. Changing mags for him, with the amount of adrenaline he had going through his system, may have allowed cops (or even a civilian) to take him down. At the least, he would have become frustrated and maybe transitioned to his sidearm. That would have been much better than the AR-15 or shotgun. Don't buy into the party line of "all things gun should be legal".
I shoot, I understand that you are military and I know that pressure changes aren't as easy as firing range changes however they aren't quite as difficult as you make them out to be. Multiple mags versus large mags is not IMO such a large gap as to require a ban on high capacity.
 
from 78640

So, all is fine, keep pumping endless tax money into "the hood", have an endless war on drugs that keeps profits high, gangs in control and simply try to isolate that crime into the proper zip codes. When crime occurs in "nice" areas then have marathon TV coverage and still not acknoweldge that gov't funds given to the Batman killer (or was he the Joker killer?) allowed him to purchase his arsenal and kill lots of folks.

First, we have no pumped 'endless tax money' into what you refer to as the hood. There is no true or real war on drugs beyond a PR name. I do not get your point about government funds and the killer.



As you say, what we have now is 99% effective, but does not address the REAL areas of massive crime, those "urban areas" that are allowed to remain both lawless AND heavily (if not completely) funded by tax money. Perhaps the first step is to NOT supply endless federal tax money to high crime areas, stop federal subsidizing of ALL out of wedlock childbirth and concentrate on keeping those that commit crime in prison for MUCH longer times.

My statement about 99% effective referred to the no gun zones that the right seems to be demonizing in this thread.

If you want to make the case that our big cities will be safer when we start abandoning assistance to people, I would like to read it.

Legalize and tax recreational drugs, just like alcohol, and when morons choose to spend their money on dope, to stay stoned (addicted), instead of working and buying food, they starve (perfect and honest drug education). Rewarding failure through gov't "help" is not really helping, except to create a gov't dependent underclass free to breed criminals.

I have no idea what this has to do with a national discussion about firearms.

More gov't "help" is not working, so let us try less gov't "help", more law enforcement and stop trying to blame THINGS for the behavior problems of 1% to 2% of our criminal morons.

News bulletin: law enforcement is the function of the government. You want it both ways.
 
By that measure, there is no war on terror, either.

If you want to make that case, I would be happy to read your argument. However, I have made the case for the lack of a true war on drugs.
 
Guns are not the problem, nor are bullets. People are.
 
What I mean to say by that is...what we should REALLY be discussing in this thread, to remain relevant, is not gun control...but the who's and why's of this tragedy. Until then, all the gun control in the world is not going to prevent another tragedy just like this one.
 
You just want to be able to buy any erectile disfunction toy you can lay your hands on and could not give a **** if innocent children are mowed down in movie theaters.

Again ... to borrow your argument style.


the inherent idiocy of the anti gun psychobabblers is evident in this above drivel
 
There are estimated to be around 52 million households in the US who own guns.

If guns are the issue, why are there not 52 million murders, or 52 million MASS murders, in the US?
 
Never said it was. However, doing nothing guarantees that his aim and his intention won't be comprimised. I'll choose returning fire over cowering on the floor waiting for my turn to die. That's just me.

I'd choose that, too. I'm not arguing for gun control here, I'm arguing against the idea that someone else in that theater with a firearm would definitely have prevented this. There's no way to know that for sure. It's just as absurd to say that it would have prevented it as it is to say that gun laws would have prevented it.

However, I do agree with you that having some chance to stop it is better than having no chance. This is why I oppose the vast majority of gun control laws.
 
The former point is why I can't take much of this, "people should have shot him...I would have shot him...shooting him would have helped...blah, blah, etc.." seriously. It's just as ridiculous and completely speculation based as the "gun laws would have stopped this" nonsense is. Most people have never been shot at and certainly not in this type of scenario. As far as I'm concerned, it's just as likely or more that the "heroes" would have been shot dead on the spot by the man in the bullet proof vest and the gas mask than they would have stopped him or slowed him down.

Both sides of gun issue on this just want to believe that they have the answer. They don't.

Pretty much my stance in a nutshell. It's always easy to apply an argument retroactively to a tragedy in order to pretend that it would definitely have prevented it.

Those retroactive arguments tend to do a great job of "convincing" people who are already convinced.
 
By that measure, there is no war on terror, either.

There is a war on terror but only because we have been causing that terror.....which is at least one reason why we have so many social terrorist attacks.
 
I carry a pistol everyday and everywhere. Add to this tragedy that not a single shot was fired at the murderer. This is not a gun control issue. This pscho planned this massacre for MONTHS in advance. The bombs he planted in his apartment were not guns. Murderers never stop for lack of a means to kill, they simply kill by any means possible.
 
The former point is why I can't take much of this, "people should have shot him...I would have shot him...shooting him would have helped...blah, blah, etc.." seriously. It's just as ridiculous and completely speculation based as the "gun laws would have stopped this" nonsense is. Most people have never been shot at and certainly not in this type of scenario. As far as I'm concerned, it's just as likely or more that the "heroes" would have been shot dead on the spot by the man in the bullet proof vest and the gas mask than they would have stopped him or slowed him down.

Both sides of gun issue on this just want to believe that they have the answer. They don't.


I have an answer. More funding and better training of ATF agents + better coordination with local law enforcement.

Wouldn't the gun lobby agree that anyone breaking a gun law should be arrested?


Then we need to have undercover ATF agents at every gun show. Also, gun and ammo sales over the internet need to be more closely monitored.
 
I carry a pistol everyday and everywhere. Add to this tragedy that not a single shot was fired at the murderer. This is not a gun control issue. This pscho planned this massacre for MONTHS in advance. The bombs he planted in his apartment were not guns. Murderers never stop for lack of a means to kill, they simply kill by any means possible.

The theater was in a gun free zone.
 
I have an answer. More funding and better training of ATF agents + better coordination with local law enforcement.

Wouldn't the gun lobby agree that anyone breaking a gun law should be arrested?


Then we need to have undercover ATF agents at every gun show. Also, gun and ammo sales over the internet need to be more closely monitored.

Bull****. I can get a gun within a few hours illegally if I wanted to without setting foot in a gun show. If people want to use a gun for murder, as was the case here, they'll find a way to get the gun somehow. It's just like drugs. People find em, and no matter how many laws are thrown into the mix, they keep finding them.
 
Bingo! That is why the most powerful military on the planet, in over a decade, with "allied support" can not advance beyond a stalemate, in Afghanistan, against an enemy that has no navy, no air force and a "rag tag", at best army. While we fight these "terrorists" we supply/support their corrupt governements (Karsai and the Taliban) and over 70% of the entire nation's GDP with our tax money. It is totally insane, yet that is our foreign policy; piddle along playing world policeman and buying "friends" in low places. After spending MANY BILLIONS and wasting many U.S. lives, we are no further along in fighting terror or drugs but continue to play at it, since many profit handsomely along the way. USA, USA, USA...

"many profit handsomely along the way" is the real reason the so called "wars" have gone on as long as they have, that and the fact that it gives government an excuse to grab more power.
 
The former point is why I can't take much of this, "people should have shot him...I would have shot him...shooting him would have helped...blah, blah, etc.." seriously. It's just as ridiculous and completely speculation based as the "gun laws would have stopped this" nonsense is. Most people have never been shot at and certainly not in this type of scenario. As far as I'm concerned, it's just as likely or more that the "heroes" would have been shot dead on the spot by the man in the bullet proof vest and the gas mask than they would have stopped him or slowed him down.

Both sides of gun issue on this just want to believe that they have the answer. They don't.

I would rather die protecting people, than run like a coward. I would have preferred to be shot, than the 6yr old.
 
I would rather die protecting people, than run like a coward. I would have preferred to be shot, than the 6yr old.

My rational self interest says Life > Death. :shrug:
 
Bull****. I can get a gun within a few hours illegally if I wanted to without setting foot in a gun show. If people want to use a gun for murder, as was the case here, they'll find a way to get the gun somehow. It's just like drugs. People find em, and no matter how many laws are thrown into the mix, they keep finding them.

Could you really? I wouldn't have the first clue where or how to obtain a gun illegally.
 
Eh, there are plenty of "bush league" competitions out there, some are paramilitary based. I know that drum mags are for suppression but it doesn't really get into the realm of extreme danger for the average gun owner to have over anything else, IOW a weapon is only as dangerous as the handler.
Cite a competition where 100 round drums are used that is IPSC, USPSA, IDPA, etc recognized and I will cede this point. You won't find it btw.
Actually no. I think for myself and base it on the fundamentals of liberty and rights, for something to be banned within those rights there is a heavy burden of proof that has to be held to account, for instance large magazines are as you've put it and I frankly agree not the tactical advantage the anti-gun side claims them to be, casual shooters as has been pointed out would be better served with banana clips or mid-sized magazines anyway. I don't base rights upon need however.
Large magazines allow longer time on target. No other way to spin it, no other way to say it. You can argue semantics of mag changes all you want. The average mag change takes approximately 3-5 seconds. That is about 9-15 more rounds the shooter gets off with a large mag. Not to mention the time needed to settle back into shooting position, reacquire targets, and start pulling again. You're looking at about 20 less rounds the individual shoots due to that mag change.
What right do we have to own a 100 round drum or body armor? I'm not saying we should restrict guns. I'm saying we should restrict an accessory that has no practical application in the civilian world. Should 203 grenade launchers be legal to sell? They are an AR platform accessory. There is a fine line between "rights" and empowering someone to be dangerous. Once of the main roles of the Federal gov't is to protect the people. I don't agree with laws that protect me from myself. This isn't one of those. This is protecting people from other people who would do them harm. Again, there is no other application in the civilian world where a 100 round drum is needed.
I shoot, I understand that you are military and I know that pressure changes aren't as easy as firing range changes
This......
however they aren't quite as difficult as you make them out to be. Multiple mags versus large mags is not IMO such a large gap as to require a ban on high capacity.
disproves this.
 
Could you really? I wouldn't have the first clue where or how to obtain a gun illegally.

Really? This seems pretty obvious.
 
Bull****. I can get a gun within a few hours illegally if I wanted to without setting foot in a gun show. If people want to use a gun for murder, as was the case here, they'll find a way to get the gun somehow. It's just like drugs. People find em, and no matter how many laws are thrown into the mix, they keep finding them.
The average criminal can get an illegal gun in less time than it takes a person to legally buy one, they know who has what already. It took me 30 minutes to buy mine legally because of the paperwork and background checks and cost me multiple hundreds. The average crook can buy a filed gun for probably about 40$ in five minutes. Oh, and my city/state didn't have a waiting period, much like most "psst, come here" shops.
 
Could you really? I wouldn't have the first clue where or how to obtain a gun illegally.

Yep, no problem. If you know how to get your hands on some hard illegal drugs like crack, meth, or heroin, or you know someone who does (and I assume that most people do know at least one person who has battled a serious drug problem), then you can get a gun illegally pretty easily, too.

****, if you know the location of a halfway house in your area, you could probably figure out how to get a gun. All you have to do is figure out which guy nearby said halfway house is the local dealer and get him to move you down along the line to get the gun. You gotta do it without making yourself look like a cop or getting yourself killed, of course, but it's not like committing crimes is a risk-free venture.
 
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