Today's shooting in America thread

FogBlueInSanFran said:
As an American with an American wife and American kids in an American high school, with American friends, one couple who lost their American child in a mass shooting by an American, I will weigh in and say that — fundamentally — it is not the employment of guns by professional criminals that worries me. I can avoid bad parts of town. I can avoid doing things that might put me in contact with professional criminals who employ guns as a way to earn.

What I worry about is the crazy lunatic who is able to get his hands legally on a weapon that is designed to destroy as much as possible in as short a time as possible in a place where it one is normally and statistically less likely to be in harm’s way, and to go out in a blaze of “glory”. Yes, we should invest more in mental health or whatever, and yes, a determined imbalanced human on a suicide mission is going to find a way, but neither of these issues erases the line on what kind of weapon I can and cannot buy legally. Why is the line drawn where it is, and why not more strictly?

The legal access to certain kinds of weapons that can kill faster and more aggressively is my worry — not 2A, not the Pandora’s box. I am in no position to determine what specific types of weapons should and should not be allowed to be purchased by a consumer. Perhaps the gun expert on this thread can opine on his view.
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I was in Florida once and we went to a sort of outdoor sports superstore. In this place you could buy tents or sleeping bags, or ropes or skis (yes, in Florida) and of course there was a section selling firearms.

That didn't throw me.

The bit that threw me was when we got to the checkout. In the UK there was a major issue a few years ago because supermarkets had baskets by the checkouts that were full of sweets and chocolate, and predictably kids would nag their parents to get them as they waited to pay for their shopping. (The supermarkets stopped doing it due to pressure from parents groups but that's another story.)

In the equivalent baskets next to the checkout in this place in Florida were alligator knives. These things were lethal weapons. The blades were somewhere between 2 and 3 feet long - the length of a Roman short sword. One edge of the blade was razor sharp, the other was serrated. You could have cut down a tree with it.

What struck me was the casual attitude towards lethal weapons. My family and I were amazed and horrified that these things were just by the till. (At the moment in my local supermarket in the baskets by the checkout they have got bread rolls on at 2 for 1.) In the UK you need to show proof of age to buy a pair of scissors.

It's not my intention to come across as anti-American because most of the Americans I have ever actually met I have got along very well with, and every time I have been to America I have enjoyed it.* But I wonder if maybe it's not just the attitude towards guns that needs rethinking.




* except Florida. They put an amusement park in the middle of a swamp and called it Orlando. Not for me, Fletch.
 
Chris in London said:
I was in Florida once and we went to a sort of outdoor sports superstore. In this place you could buy tents or sleeping bags, or ropes or skis (yes, in Florida) and of course there was a section selling firearms.

That didn't throw me.

The bit that threw me was when we got to the checkout. In the UK there was a major issue a few years ago because supermarkets had baskets by the checkouts that were full of sweets and chocolate, and predictably kids would nag their parents to get them as they waited to pay for their shopping. (The supermarkets stopped doing it due to pressure from parents groups but that's another story.)

In the equivalent baskets next to the checkout in this place in Florida were alligator knives. These things were lethal weapons. The blades were somewhere between 2 and 3 feet long - the length of a Roman short sword. One edge of the blade was razor sharp, the other was serrated. You could have cut down a tree with it.

What struck me was the casual attitude towards lethal weapons. My family and I were amazed and horrified that these things were just by the till. (At the moment in my local supermarket in the baskets by the checkout they have got bread rolls on at 2 for 1.) In the UK you need to show proof of age to buy a pair of scissors.

It's not my intention to come across as anti-American because most of the Americans I have ever actually met I have got along very well with, and every time I have been to America I have enjoyed it.* But I wonder if maybe it's not just the attitude towards guns that needs rethinking.




* except Florida. They put an amusement park in the middle of a swamp and called it Orlando. Not for me, Fletch.
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I cannot stand Florida. Flat, humid, swampy, faux everything, hurricanes a third of the year, thunderstorms half the year, mostly a cultural wasteland, filled with alligators and Floridians (i.e. the worst of the northeastern and overseas transplants in the south; just as hicky as the rural south in the north).

But if you grew up where it was cold, I can see the appeal of not being cold. And if you grew up where everything was expensive, I can see the appeal of being able to find many things cheaper there.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
But if you grew up where it was cold, I can see the appeal of not being cold. And if you grew up where everything was expensive, I can see the appeal of being able to find many things cheaper there.
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That's why I chose Spain ahead of the US, weather, cost of living and low likelyhood of being shot for cutting somebody up on a roundabout.
 
Phil1 said:
That's why I chose Spain ahead of the US, weather, cost of living and low likelyhood of being shot for cutting somebody up on a roundabout.
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I should add — especially as Americans haven’t really been able to go to Cuba — Cuban food in Miami is wonderful, and something harder to find outside Florida. However, I credit Cuba and Cubans, not Florida and Floridians, for that.
 
Centurions said:
Am I reading that wrong or are your guns not registered with the police? If not, I presume it's not a requirement?
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You read it correctly, and it’s not a requirement.

I DO have to buy the gun legally, which involves paperwork, but I can sell it on and I don’t have to EVER call my local police station with the registration number of the weapon.

The State Police approves the sale with a rubber stamp, as long as all the procedures to purchase are followed. Their hands are tied by the liberal legislation that allows guns to be ubiquitous.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
You read it correctly, and it’s not a requirement.

I DO have to buy the gun legally, which involves paperwork, but I can sell it on and I don’t have to EVER call my local police station with the registration number of the weapon.

The State Police approves the sale with a rubber stamp, as long as all the procedures to purchase are followed. Their hands are tied by the liberal legislation that allows guns to be ubiquitous.
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Just out of interest, what’s the most powerful gun you can buy without much hassle? I see films where it almost looks like you can walk into a gun shop and buy an Uzi but I guess it’s not that straightforward!
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
I cannot stand Florida. Flat, humid, swampy, faux everything, hurricanes a third of the year, thunderstorms half the year, mostly a cultural wasteland, filled with alligators and Floridians (i.e. the worst of the northeastern and overseas transplants in the south; just as hicky as the rural south in the north).

But if you grew up where it was cold, I can see the appeal of not being cold. And if you grew up where everything was expensive, I can see the appeal of being able to find many things cheaper there.
Click to expand...
 
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