Georgians own more than 22,000 machine guns (Atlanta: buy, high schools, colleges)

[AcidSnake]

This looks like a pretty good compromise. I only hope that the NRA and the all the people who are a part of the gun culture are just as reasonable as you are.

Great comment.

Originally Posted by DentalFloss

How could I make up my mind when you made no proposal. I am not opposed to the principal that, assuming straw sales are as big a problem as you imply, there might be additional steps that could be taken to curb them.

Here, I'll suggest one.

I read somewhere that frequently, straw purchases are kind of obvious. Two people come in the store, one person shops, the other buys. Perhaps that's true. Why do the dealers sell? Well, they don't KNOW it's a straw sale, at best they only suspect, and they have the bottom line to think of.

So how about this. Create an incentive for the store to report such things. Let them keep the money from the sale, report it to the police, turn over the video and ID of the purchaser and let them investigate.

They don't even need to prove the original purchase was a straw purchase, if they sold or gave the weapon to someone they know is ineligible to purchase legally, that's all they need to lock both of them up. PROVING a straw purchase is hard. After all, "I changed my mind on the way home, but my friend said he'd buy it from me instead of going all the way back to return it", whether true or not, makes it legal, and proving such a statement false is difficult. BUT, if your friend has a record, and you knew it, you're screwed anyway.

No new laws required, no inconveniencing legal buyers, and perhaps cutting down on the problem.

[staywarm2]

Originally Posted by topchief1

There's no need for widescale gun bans, but I do believe that there should be a database for those who receive psychiatric evaluations, and those people should have much stricter restictions on what and how much they can own. You cannot stop mass shootings, people are simply too unpredictable. But you CAN do things to make them less deadly.

If we are going to invade people's privacy on the pshychiatric evaluation database, then let's also make a law that each gun must be registered and on a database, no matter where you buy it--gun show or individual person.

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by staywarm2

If we are going to invade people's privacy on the pshychiatric evaluation database, then let's also make a law that each gun must be registered and on a database, no matter where you buy it--gun show or individual person.

I see nothing wrong gun registration, and I'm a gun owner. However, I can see an opposition to this using the same argument of privacy. We need to reinforce that there is nothing wrong with having a mental illness, much like cancer or AIDS, we have compassion for these individuals and there is no stigma associated with these illnesses. If mental illness was not associated with being "crazy", it would be no problem with having access to this information in regards to gun sales.

There is no single solution for gun violence in the the U.S. It's a three point approach that is necessary but everyone is focusing on the gun, which does need some solutions. Primarily our culture of violence as people and government is one, including our police and military, coupled with easy access law abiding (potential criminals) and criminals have access to weapons, and finally our poor record of helping mentally challenged individuals. We need to address all of these collectively and find a solution.

[brownhornet]

Three of those rifles. 4 of the handguns and 1 of the shotguns are mine. And as i've said before, with the volume of guns already on the market here gun bans are going to be worthless.

[arjay57]

I'm perfectly satisfied with my own mental stability and good judgment. It's all these other people I'm worried about.

They need to get their act together or at least undergo psychiatric evaluation and monitoring.

Until they've been cleared I'm frankly not comfortable with every Tom, Dick and Harry (or Mary) owning firearms.

You simply can't tell which ones are going to crack or royally screw up and when it will happen.

[KingJohn]

Why must people hate on the NRA? The NRA wants ARMED guards in all schools. I agree. Why shouldn't 1 police officier with a concealed pistol be able to stand outside the school? Now, if you say "AR-15 overpowers a pistol" actually, no. If a police officier sees an intruder with a AR-15, the Officier can drop to the ground and shoot at the intruder's knee caps, take their gun, tell the school to go on lockdown and call backup. So no, if the Police officier is well trained a Pistol should be enough to take on a man with an AR-15.

Also, my question to you Atlanta people: Why do you not like Semi-automatic weapons? I like Semi-autos and they are here to stay as long as the NRA is here to stay.


People point to statistics of Britian having 32 gun murders a year while having 1400 knife murders a year, 20 a day. Plus, Britian is an ISLAND it can easily seal off any guns. So is Australia, so is japan. Let me just get something right with y'all: I cling to my guns and my religion. Don't like it? Well I don't give a heck, I do me and you do you. Bye.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by KingJohn

Why must people hate on the NRA? The NRA wants ARMED guards in all schools. I agree. Why shouldn't 1 police officier with a concealed pistol be able to stand outside the school? Now, if you say "AR-15 overpowers a pistol" actually, no. If a police officier sees an intruder with a AR-15, the Officier can drop to the ground and shoot at the intruder's knee caps, take their gun, tell the school to go on lockdown and call backup. So no, if the Police officier is well trained a Pistol should be enough to take on a man with an AR-15.

Also, my question to you Atlanta people: Why do you not like Semi-automatic weapons? I like Semi-autos and they are here to stay as long as the NRA is here to stay.


People point to statistics of Britian having 32 gun murders a year while having 1400 knife murders a year, 20 a day. Plus, Britian is an ISLAND it can easily seal off any guns. So is Australia, so is japan. Let me just get something right with y'all: I cling to my guns and my religion. Don't like it? Well I don't give a heck, I do me and you do you. Bye.

The problem is money. Where do you get the money to put an armed guard in every school? While I agree that taking guns from people probably won't solve much of a damn thing, you must think of other reasons why a specific thing cannot happen or if it does, it takes effect on other things.

I don't see a problem with a police officer at every school, I actually had a couple at my highschool anyway, but it's become a money issue.

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by boopity

So ****ing what?

Your eloquence in this important national debate is truly edifying.

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by staywarm2

If we are going to invade people's privacy on the pshychiatric evaluation database, then let's also make a law that each gun must be registered and on a database, no matter where you buy it--gun show or individual person.

You make a valid point. We should do neither.

[AcidSnake]

Originally Posted by KingJohn

Why must people hate on the NRA? The NRA wants ARMED guards in all schools. I agree.

I hate on the NRA because it is nothing more than a front for Corporations that want to sell tools of chaos without due regard for the lives that are destroyed in the process. I see nothing in this organization that even suggests that it cares about regular people or even care about maintaining the freedoms guaranteed to the American citizen by the U.S. Constitution.

So it is not surprising that in the many days that the NRA was silent after the Connecticut tragedy, the first idea that comes from its President Wayne LaPierre after that silence was to militarize our society even more than it already is.

What a typically lazy, dishonest, and dangerous idea, and one that I had definitely expected from a organization that is a mere front for merchants of death and destruction. Anything to keep those gun sales up, I guess.

Originally Posted by KingJohn

Why shouldn't 1 police officier with a concealed pistol be able to stand outside the school? Now, if you say "AR-15 overpowers a pistol" actually, no. If a police officier sees an intruder with a AR-15, the Officier can drop to the ground and shoot at the intruder's knee caps, take their gun, tell the school to go on lockdown and call backup. So no, if the Police officier is well trained a Pistol should be enough to take on a man with an AR-15.

What television show are you getting this scenario from, TJ Hooker? Walker: Texas Ranger? NYPD Blue? Real life is rarely, if ever, that simple and clear.

You act as if shooters simply announce themselves to be seen and easily allow themselves to be targets. And you also act as if Police Officers are not human beings who waver from attention sometimes, that they don't look at their smart phones on occasions, and that they don't step away to take a restroom break, or go to lunch.

A Clayton County Police Officer just lost his life in the line of duty last week and that was to a suspect that he was aware of going into the situation. That suspect also wasn't as heavily armed as Lanza was.

With that being said, you don't think that the armed guards/Police Officers at school aren't equally capable of being ambushed? Man, folks here in the south think straight outta of a comic book sometimes.

And my gosh, so many of you guys buy the propaganda from the NRA hook, line, and sinker. No doubt due to the American South's own police-state style history and the fear-baiting campaigns that southern politicians and the local media often utilize to keep the populace in check.

Truly sad.

Originally Posted by KingJohn

Also, my question to you Atlanta people: Why do you not like Semi-automatic weapons? I like Semi-autos and they are here to stay as long as the NRA is here to stay.

Because for many of these weapons, their only purpose is cause massive amounts of instant death in milliseconds. It simply goes beyond the mere self-defense excuse.

And the fun factor?...well I guess there are people who are simply hardwired in a different way, so I will leave it at that.

Originally Posted by KingJohn

People point to statistics of Britian having 32 gun murders a year while having 1400 knife murders a year, 20 a day. Plus, Britian is an ISLAND it can easily seal off any guns. So is Australia, so is japan. Let me just get something right with y'all: I cling to my guns and my religion. Don't like it? Well I don't give a heck, I do me and you do you. Bye.

Switzerland is not an island, but it has a First world approach to educating its citizens on the responsibility of firearm ownership.

We can't say the same about the United States America which often acts like a third world banana republic when it comes to educating all its citizenry, if this country ever believe in such thing in the first place. And quite frankly I don't give a crap what you cling to.

What worries me is that there are so many people here in America who don't think about the larger implications of militarizing this society even further than it already is. Are we gonna allow the U.S.A. to be just another third world Police state, where you have show your papers at armed check points just to shop at Wal-Mart?

Because that will be the inevitable conclusion if we keep following the line of thinking of the Gun Corporations and NRA President Wayne LAPierre. Because there will another mass shooting incident involving a loon getting hold of a stockpile of weaponry, and another, and another, and each time there will be a new idea to bring forth more militarization of our daily lives.

Will life in the next 10, 20, 30, or 100 years consist of Neo-fuedalism where we Americans are constantly worried about invasion from God-only-knows-what? And that daily living consists of wearing gladiator-style battle armor and building moats around our houses with alligators and sharks with laser-beams attached to their heads?

What a crappy depressing world that is.

And the fear campaign is all brought to you by the NRA and enablers in the American Corporate mainstream media.