In light of the bill permitting guns on our state’s college and university campuses, which is likely to be approved by the state House of Representatives in the coming days, I have a matter of practical concern that I hope you can help with: When may I shoot a student?
when I was Eight or years old, I was rudely woken from by my slumbers by a Garda who was shaking me, as I gradually came to, I realised that I was staring down the barrel of an Uzi. I was a little surprised, nay a little shocked, and then I saw my dad standing in the door, cup of coffee in his hand, pissing himself laughing,
back in the mid eighties, the provos were kidnapping people for ransom and the gardai had to call around to houses to see that no-one was being held captive or giving shelter to these lads. Anyway at about nine o'clock, one of the local gardai, who had arrived in town on the same day as my dad and was a big pal of his, wandered up to the door and when my dad came out in his dressing gown and a mug of coffee he asked him, "how are you dan, and are you harbouring any dangerous subversives?" My father replied in the negative, and invited him in for a cup of coffee, to take the edge off the morning, and to delay a pointless task. (this one was resolved somewhere up near the border I think) anyway, my dad then had a bright idea.....
After I collected my shattered nerves together, I was allowed to play with the Uzi, (minus bullets obviously. I was allowed play with those, but not with the gun and I couldn't keep them. that was made most clear to me, so instead of running around the back yard pretending to shoot things with an imaginary gun, I got to run around the back yard with an actual sub machine gun and trying to shoot the cat. I remember the switch on the side between the different modes of fire, and I remember that there's a button on the back of the pistol grip that you have to hold down if you want the trigger to work.
Now I was a fairly tall child at the time, and doing lots of running around, and playing sports, and climbing trees and the like, but what I remember most is that it was heavy. looking it up now, it's a little over half a stone in weight, and at that stage I wouldn't have been more than five stone, and probably considerably stronger than that girl. I can't imagine for one second that I would have been able to control that fucking thing had I been allowed to fire it. never mind on full automatic. To get a similar effect now, you'd have to give me a fucking bren gun or an m60
The only other encounter I've had with firearms has been going off shooting clay pigeons (which is dull, and actually not that hard) and trying to shoot rabbits, which is dull and very hard, unless you're blasting at them out of a second floor window with a shotgun at four o'clock in he morning after a heavy night drinking. in which case it's dangerous and utterly pointless, and a lot more fun.
but the pointlessness of it further reinforced my belief that wanting a gun should disqualify you from owning one.
oh, and in the mid 80's, there was an INLA man called Dessie O'Hare, or the border fox, and he kidnapped A dentist john o'grady under the impression that he was getting his father in law, the 'doc' Darragh. anyway two of the gang were arrested out near bansha, and held in the garda station in Cahir, and I remember walking through the square and seeing a soldier sitting behind a pile of sandbags with a Browning 50.cal machine gun, like he was in memphis belle. or Rick Perry protecting the border from 10 year old guatamalan members of al qaeda.
On the topic of the new confederacy, I'm pretty sure I saw an article there recently that suggested that the texas national guard, who have taken up the struggle to keep america free from murderous 10 year olds, have to eat out of foodbanks.
The controversy over whether to send troops to the border, however, could well be dwarfed by an economic reality that the troops are facing now that they're down there. Specifically whether Guard units, who were deployed at the beginning of August and whose paychecks won't be arriving until September 5, will be needing to use the local food banks.
In light of the bill permitting guns on our state’s college and university campuses, which is likely to be approved by the state House of Representatives in the coming days, I have a matter of practical concern that I hope you can help with: When may I shoot a student?
To pick up on Geoffrey's comment, the black guy who was shot and killed by the cops in an Ohio Wal-Mart while carrying a BB gun would have been within his "open carry" rights if he had been carrying an assault rifle.
The school district explained why they "needed" it yesterday - to safely convey children away from blah blah situations.
Oh yes. Because San Diego police certainly don't have armed vehicles that could do the job. And we definitely don't have about 15 different military bases packed to the gunnels with heavily armoured vehicles. Not at all. It is absolutely imperitive that SDUSD has one of these.
Brooks reports that the CDC has tracked about 50 suicides at gun ranges in recent years, but that's only from piecemeal stats in a handful of states—and it doesn't include freewheeling Florida, where there have been a rash of range deaths, including a handful in Tampa Bay and a whopping 11 with rented guns in the Orlando area alone since 2009, prompting some range owners to shut down their rental operations.
ursus arctos wrote: A recent acquisition (actually a gift from the Department of Defense) for the San Diego Unified SCHOOL District (not the SDPD)
someone clearly spent three weeks trying to give this away to police forces with no avail ("you can grow mushrooms in it. hell I keep hens in mine."} before starting to work his way through the directory of school districts.
I may have mentioned it here before (search doesn't show that I did, but I am getting older so am developing the art of repeating stories) - anyway - UK posters, you really ought to go and visit a Bass Pro Shop when you visit the US. They are unbelievable. Standard features are:
- In a mall
- Sign at entrance into a mall telling you you can't carry guns into the mall
- More guns, crossbows and other killing stuff than I have ever seen in my life
They are seriously amazing places, mostly in the fact that they are not only allowed to exist but thriving. This is most likely due to the little "furnish your wood cottage" section to park the lady while you pick out your underarmour tactical camouflage and semi-automatic gun.
They have fishing rods as well which was the only part I felt safe playing around in and could reduce the frequency of swearing to myself.
I don't know why that would be shocking. Hunting is important to the culture and, in some cases, the diet of many Americans. I've shopped at Bass Pro many times. Good value on stuff like flannel shirts and wool socks and fishing stuff.
Under Armour doesn't make "tactical camouflage." That's for hunting. Particularly bowhunting, duck hunting, and turkey hunting. It also helps in fly fishing. It's different than what the military wears. I suppose it could help an murderer sneak up on somebody in the woods, but most murders don't happen in the woods.
That kind of camo has also become a way for the wearer to say "I'm proud to be a hunter" or "I'm proud to be a redneck." You can buy Penn State, Steelers, Eagles, etc. gear with a RealTree(c) camouflage or bright orange pattern. It sells.
Hunting brings its own ethical questions, but there's a big difference between hunting culture and gun culture, although many people participate in both. The big problem is that the fanatical gun nuts have convinced the average hunters that Obama is out to take away hunting. He's not. Maybe he should, but he isn't.
That shooting range is like the one they have on the boardwalk. I don't think they shoot real rifles in the store. Maybe air rifles. They do have an archery range. Bows are expensive so I can see why customers would want try it first.
Having said that, I think I might start boycotting Cabelas and Bass Pro because they also sell guns that have no legitimate legal purpose that I can see and a lot of the companies that make hunting guns also make weapons that kill people. Fuck them.
I'd be fine with banning all guns. And if we need to manage the deer herd, let hunters use a bow. I'm not worried about a lot of bow and arrow murders or kids killing their classmates with a bow.
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