nickie on 18/3/2018 at 08:20
Of course - makes perfect sense.
heywood on 19/3/2018 at 12:25
Quote Posted by nickie
Could someone explain to me why the person responsible for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting could face the death penalty. Hasn't everyone, including Trump, called him a nutcase already which ordinarily should make him unfit and therefore ineligible?
I don't think we should have a death penalty, but I don't really have strong feelings about the issue. If we're going to have it though, shouldn't it be reserved for the most dangerous individuals who have committed the most egregious crimes? If you can't apply it to a mass murderer who shoots up a school full of kids in cold blood, what is it for?
Starker on 19/3/2018 at 13:02
It really baffles me how casually some people treat guns in America. Just the other day I happened to stumble on a story about a woman who accidentally killed her boyfriend, apparently thinking that a book would stop the bullet:
Quote:
(
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/29/us/fatal-youtube-stunt/index.html)
Perez told police that her boyfriend wanted to make a YouTube video of her shooting a book and had been talking about it for awhile. He held the book up to his chest and convinced Perez to shoot at him, believing the book would stop the bullet.
Perez told police that Pedro convinced her it was a safe stunt by showing her a different book he had previously shot where the bullet did not go all the way through, according to the arrest report. He set up two cameras to film the whole thing, hoping a video of the dangerous stunt would go viral.
heywood on 19/3/2018 at 13:36
"They wanted more YouTube viewers"
Imagine what the next stunt was going to be. YouTube is the latest get rich quick scheme and it's sad to see what some people will do for views. It takes a special kind of moron though to think a book is going to stop a .50 Desert Eagle. That's a pretty strong argument for mandatory gun safety training there.
catbarf on 19/3/2018 at 17:44
Quote Posted by heywood
That's nuts. Not just a gun trained teacher, but a reserve police officer.
I think the general public has an inaccurate view of police as firearm experts. All officers get a firearms overview during their academy training, but afterwards the only practice or refamiliarization most officers get is their trivially easy yearly 50-round qualification, which usually doesn't cover safe practices (muzzle/finger discipline) or representative scenarios. As a result, stories like (
https://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/index.html) this are far from uncommon. There was a study a few years ago that found that police officers have a six times higher firearm violation rate than concealed carriers (specifically CCers in Texas and Florida, states where you basically need to just show up and have a pulse to get one).
Unless you give someone significant, in-depth, hands-on training, more in line with what federal law enforcement does, accidents are inevitable. A day of classroom instruction and fifty rounds against a static silhouette doesn't cut it. I think the reaction to armed teachers has been a
little bit excessive considering ten states already have armed teachers in some form, with an apparent lack of teachers shooting their students or students stealing their guns or any of the other what-ifs that have been making the rounds, but Trump's idea of simply incentivizing teachers to be armed, without any training provision, and calling it a solution is idiotic.
Tomi on 19/3/2018 at 19:18
Does a puppy have to be shot before people wake up? :(
Pyrian on 19/3/2018 at 19:28
I dunno, police officers shooting dogs has become quite commonplace.
heywood on 19/3/2018 at 20:34
Quote Posted by catbarf
I think the general public has an inaccurate view of police as firearm experts. All officers get a firearms overview during their academy training, but afterwards the only practice or refamiliarization most officers get is their trivially easy yearly 50-round qualification, which usually doesn't cover safe practices (muzzle/finger discipline) or representative scenarios. As a result, stories like (
https://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/index.html) this are far from uncommon. There was a study a few years ago that found that police officers have a six times higher firearm violation rate than concealed carriers (specifically CCers in Texas and Florida, states where you basically need to just show up and have a pulse to get one).
I remember that New York shooting. The aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing was even crazier:
(
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-anniversary/too-many-guns-how-shootout-bombing-suspects-spiraled-chaos-n80236) https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-anniversary/too-many-guns-how-shootout-bombing-suspects-spiraled-chaos-n80236