Article

2007-04-17 Europe

European Press: Blaming Charleton Heston

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Posted by Clise Glinemble7972 2007-04-17 11:37|| || Front Page|| [10 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 This is mine.....I changed the name...grrrr.

Posted by Silentbrick">Silentbrick 2007-04-17 13:07|| 2007-04-17 13:07|| Front Page Top

#2 In America, "buying a machine gun is often easier than getting a driver's license."

Somebody doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and should STFU.

But, of course, that's AP's style and about what I'd expect out of the Euroweanies. See all the good banning handguns has done in Britain? The criminals seem to have no problems obtaining guns and are often more heavily armed than the police.

As an American, I like our "gun culture". It has tended to keep the rest of the world at bay for over 200 years so far.

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2007-04-17 13:10|| www.fire-on-the-suns.com]">[www.fire-on-the-suns.com] 2007-04-17 13:10|| Front Page Top

#3 In a couple of years the Euros may be wishing they had some spare guns laying around...

Posted by tu3031 2007-04-17 13:20|| 2007-04-17 13:20|| Front Page Top

#4 'Journalists' don't NEED to do research. They are the moral spokespeople of the west and their word is law, damnit!

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-04-17 13:39|| 2007-04-17 13:39|| Front Page Top

#5 When I was a child a half-century ago, we had practically NO gun control. IIRC, anyone 18 years of age or older could walk into any store that sold guns, and walk out with one not five minutes later. No background checks. No registration. No permits. No restrictions on what kind of gun you could buy. I also don't recall ANY of these massacres happening, not until that Whitman nut climbed that U of Texas clocktower back in 1966.

Now we have background checks, waiting periods, registration, severe restrictions on what kinds of guns we can buy (Note to AP: "machine guns" are NOT among them), and strict rules on where and when guns may be carried, and by whom. And we also now have massacres like yesterday's.

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D. 2007-04-17 15:11|| 2007-04-17 15:11|| Front Page Top

#6 When I was a child a half-century ago, we had practically NO gun control

My thoughts, exactly; autofire weapons were leagal to buy in the USA until 1934 IIRC, and gun ownership was higher in the past than it is in present day USA. BUT, apart from maybe one incident (not sure, wasn't it a famous spree killing in thre South with a shooter holed up in a tower???), there was no such massacre, as far as I know, especially in schools or campus. When did that start? Littleton was in 1999, there was an handful before I think. If something went terribly wrong in the meantime, it's not "guns", it's society and people, and I suspect it's due to the actions of the very same persons who are blaming it on "guns".

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-04-17 15:20|| 2007-04-17 15:20|| Front Page Top

#7 That "shooter holed up in a tower" was indeed the Charles Whitman I referred to in my comment above. I don't remember any others from the early 1950's through the 60's.

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D. 2007-04-17 15:38|| 2007-04-17 15:38|| Front Page Top

#8 May I say to the European press, with love and respect, FUCK YOU.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2007-04-17 15:46|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html] 2007-04-17 15:46|| Front Page Top

#9 More people die in swimming pools or auto accidents than are killed with guns each year yet we don't consider outlawing pools and cars.

Perspective gets thrown out the window because gun control is a 'cause' that much of the media believes.

I could be wrong but I think if you look at the stats of Australia and the UK since they banned all guns I think the violent crime rate has risen. Suicides stayed the same, only different weapons are used. So the big difference is the ability of people to defend themselves has been removed. Not a recipe for lowering the crime rate.

Posted by rjschwarz 2007-04-17 16:38|| 2007-04-17 16:38|| Front Page Top

#10 You are correct rjschwarz. Just look at DC for their stunning success in lowering crime rate after banning guns!

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-04-17 17:20|| 2007-04-17 17:20|| Front Page Top

#11 The only way a gun ban could actually have any beneficial effect would be if they banned ALL guns, and then did one HELLUVA lot better job preventing guns from being brought into the country by criminals than they've been able to stop the flow of drugs.

Anything short of that, and all you're doing is prohibiting law-abiding citizens from using lethal force to protect themselves, their families, and their property.

And THAT, regardless of any statistical effect of the ban on overall firearm casualties, is just plain evil.

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D. 2007-04-17 17:33|| 2007-04-17 17:33|| Front Page Top

#12 Who? You mean the Euro press who are telling their own people to quietly get in the Islamic boxcars, don't resist, submit cause its all America's fault?

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-04-17 17:49|| 2007-04-17 17:49|| Front Page Top

#13 If they banned all guns. If they used some genie wish and got rid of them all except those owned by the cops, the thugs with bats and machettes would take over and do what they wanted against the weaker common folk.

It'd be medieval.

God made all men, it took Sam Colt to make them equal. I think that saying is more profound than most people think. An 80 pound woman can hold off a 250 pound rapist if she has a gun.

Posted by rjschwarz 2007-04-17 17:55|| 2007-04-17 17:55|| Front Page Top

#14 I think the Kennedy killing of '64 had the first effect, the banning of buying mail order guns with money orders and little else.

Posted by Shipman">Shipman 2007-04-17 18:04|| 2007-04-17 18:04|| Front Page Top

#15 Good point. I'd forgotten about that.

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D. 2007-04-17 18:06|| 2007-04-17 18:06|| Front Page Top

#16 '64? Which Kennedy was that? Arthur?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-04-17 18:11|| 2007-04-17 18:11|| Front Page Top

#17 jeeebus.. yeah it was '63, Arthur Kennedy was patroling the grassy knoll.

Posted by Shipman">Shipman 2007-04-17 18:28|| 2007-04-17 18:28|| Front Page Top

#18 LOL

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-04-17 18:33|| 2007-04-17 18:33|| Front Page Top

#19 Every HS in our division in SE PA had a rifle team in the early 70's. Kids, with rifles, in the basement, shooting after school.
Upside, it was were you learned safe firearms handling, protocols and how to hit the X's.
You had to be DAMN good to make the competition roster. Thsi isn't something Grandpa used to do, I did it for cripes sake.
Somehow I can't even project it to todays afterschool pursuits.

Posted by Capsu78 2007-04-17 18:34|| 2007-04-17 18:34|| Front Page Top

#20 Yup. I remember the brouhaha when our school district decided to prohibit the rifle team kids from bringing their rifles to school on the buses.

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D. 2007-04-17 18:54|| 2007-04-17 18:54|| Front Page Top

#21 In a couple of years the Euros may be wishing they had some spare guns laying around...

Bingo, tu3031.

I liken guns and gun ownership to stickshift cars. While most people rely upon automatic vehicles, just like they rely upon law enforcement for daily intervention, you'd damn well better know how to drive a stickshift vehicle or, for that matter, shoot a gun yourself.

Idiots who cannot drive a stickshift car may well find themselves in a position where escape from life-threatening danger becomes impossible because of that inability. Similarly, not knowing how to use a gun can also pose a threat if, by chance, you disarm someone with a gun and don't even know how to take the safety off, rack a round or aim the damn thing.

I am amazed by people who cheerfully admit without a trace of embarassment to not knowing how to drive a stickshift. I dread to think of how many people don't know how to safely operate a firearm. For the record, I've fired everything from .22 rifles and Ruger Vaqueros to a 50 caliber BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle).

Anecdote: Back in the 1980s, I purchased a Crossman 1377C air pistol. With a nifty 600 FPS (Feet per Second) worth of exit velocity, this little beauty could really spit 'em out. Loading it with lathe-turned Beeman Silver Jets let me break Champagne bottles while plinking. I added the optional scope for even more fun and really got some mileage out of the sucker. It outshot far more expensive air pistols.

Now for the funny part. My mother, brother and his ditzy girlfriend were visiting my home and I brought out the Crossman to show them. They all became truly apprehensive and when I ventured to demonstrate its firepower by driving a pellet into a telephone book at close range, the ditzy girlfriend almost wet herself in fright.

If this is how even a small portion of Americans regard firearms then, just like those people who cannot drive stickshifts, they are a danger to themselves. Sadly, due to their voting rights, they become a danger to others as well.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-04-17 20:03|| 2007-04-17 20:03|| Front Page Top

#22 Anecdote back atcha, Zenster. I learned to drive in my mother's Volkswagen Bug... a standard, of course. I didn't actually learn to drive an automatic till I was 25 and driving rentals on business trips, wasn't really safe without that third pedal and a stick to wiggle at stoplights until I inherited Mr. Wife's bright red pickup truck. In those years before I mastered driving without actually changing the gears, I could not have driven Mr. Wife to the hospital in an emergency in an automatic. But then, until the pickup truck all our vehicles were standards, so what use was that arcane knowledge to me? ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2007-04-17 22:08|| 2007-04-17 22:08|| Front Page Top

#23 Zenster that brings back memories, my very first car was stick, had to drive it home from the car lot never drove a stick before. I got it home and had to replace the clutch, but I learned how to drive a stick. :) ahhh the good ole days.

Posted by djohn66 2007-04-17 23:45|| 2007-04-17 23:45|| Front Page Top

23:57 RD
23:57 Zenster
23:55 JosephMendiola
23:55 fingerinyoureye
23:52 RD
23:51 JosephMendiola
23:49 JosephMendiola
23:45 RD
23:45 JosephMendiola
23:45 djohn66
23:39 JosephMendiola
23:32 Zenster
23:31 JosephMendiola
23:28 Zenster
23:26 Verlaine
23:26 Verlaine
23:26 JosephMendiola
23:25 Zenster
23:24 RD
23:20 JosephMendiola
23:10 RD
23:00 Frank G
22:52 RD
22:46 Zenster