Multiple Shootings at Oregon's Umpqua Community College

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1021

Truth is stranger than fiction, and this shows what the gun control people are up against - the starkness of reality vs. the theory how one is personally safer without a gun.

I was working out at my gym, which is a couple towns over from where I live. Easy-going quiet, town, where the worst crimes are juveniles and their silly pranks. However, things changed about 10-days ago with a rash of robberies of businesses and homes, so people where a little on guard, which makes sense.

A young lady (age 22) who I talk to frequently seemed a bit quiet and I got totaling with her. Well, it turns out her Dad either saved her life or saved her from some certain harm, something she never thought would happen to her in her town.

Because of the robberies, her Dad told her to take one of his handguns with her when going back to her apartment. She is not a big fan of guns, more neutral, and she she said she almost did not take it, but her Dad insisted. (I live in an open carry state, so she could carry immediately, as long as it is visible.}

She goes home and drives up to her complex, and as she is getting out of the car, a figure comes from the side of building and starts walking towards her. She already had the gun out (open carry) and she asked who it was and asked for the figure to stop and the person just kept walking towards her. Smartly, she raised her weapon.

The person only stopped when he realized that she had a gun pointed right at him. It was night so the person got lucky that he saw the gun early enough. And like that, he ran off, ducked behind some trees and vanished. She filed a police report.

Result - She is now going to get her CCP, and thanks her Dad for not being afraid of giving her a gun. Never thought this would ever happen top her in the town she grew up in, but it did.

1022

Lately, someone in our state (or perhaps several people) have been going around and shooting pellets and various people, causing injuries and distress, including cracking a windshield and showering a 70-year-old woman riding in the bus with glass. They don’t have a suspect yet. ACK!

1023

Crime could go down, as unarmed citizens are reluctant to go out on the street or into stores where gun nuts are openly packing. If more people stay home, lower crime. And won’t we feel safer when those people openly packing take a shot at a fleeing shoplifter?

1024

Hmmmm . . . what could possibly go wrong?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tombstone-reenactment-shooting_562490dee4b0bce347013087

So much for the harmless gun “enthusiast”

1025

Gun nuts don’t care about any of this stuff. They don’t care if careless gun owners get people
killed. Their right to own guns is more important to them then people’s lives. Period, end of story.

1026

Crickets…

1027

Once again, you’re not “getting” how it works. The key to successful negotiation is understanding your opponent, something which I’ve observed the anti’s here do very poorly.

Let me see if I can help. The large capacity “military style” hardware is to prevent government and foreign takeover, and of course, the rare occasion where the home invaders are better armed than you. It’s not for defending your home from run-of-the-mill burglars. You just have to have it oiled and in reach for it to be of any use.

1028

And in reach of a toddler or teenager… again, what could go wrong? And get over your fantasies of saving the country from invading armies. Far more of our citizens are being killed due to your deluded fantasies and easy access to guns than any invading marauders that you are dreaming up. Stand down, pay your taxes so our army can defend our country. We don’t need your self styled militia.

1029

@intparent As usual, fears and fantasies trump any reality. At least in some minds, they do.

1030

This strikes me as a simpleminded division of the world between professional criminals who use guns to commit crimes, and good people who only pull out a gun when they are under threat by professional. It’s leaving out a significant group: people who lose their temper, or who misjudge the situation, or who are just incompetent with deadly weapons, or who get drunk or high or both, and use a gun when they shouldn’t. If nobody has a gun, a bar fight stays a bar fight and doesn’t turn into a shooting.

If nobody has a gun, this woman doesn’t get accidentally shot in the face:
http://wnep.com/2015/10/09/woman-shot-in-the-face-tells-police-it-was-an-accident/

And this drunk dude doesn’t wound himself and somebody else:
http://www.herald-citizen.com/newsx/item/10511-man-charged-with-endangerment-shooting

And this 17-year-old doesn’t kill a 15-year-old:
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/union-city/2015/10/06/teen-arrested-fatal-shooting-15-year-old/73486114/

And this guy wouldn’t have accidentally killed his girlfriend after Snap Chatting photos of himself pointing a gun at her:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/30/woman-snapchats-boyfriend-pointing-gun-at-her-hours-before-he-allegedly-kills-her/

And THIS guy wouldn’t have accidentally killed his girlfriend after Snap Chatting photos of himself pointing a gun at her:
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2015-10-05/story/jacksonville-police-girlfriend-shot-face-while-playing-gun-smoking

And this guy wouldn’t have accidentally shot his wife while he was drunk:
http://abc13.com/news/police-drunk-man-playing-with-gun-accidentally-shoots-wife-/1011122/

All those incidents were just in the last month.

1031

The irony is that the only reason the gummint is coming to your home will because you refuse to give up weapons that are too dangerous to be in the hands of civilians, and said civilians get tired of your inability to enact any meaningful changes to stop their slaughter with those guns. Your intransigence will bring your own downfall about.

1032

I can’t tell if you’re serious or ■■■■■■■■ this discussion.

Re: fears and fantasies versus reality.

In reality: James Holmes used this weapon:
https://www.google.com/search?q=smith+and+wesson+m%26p+15&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS504US505&espv=2&biw=1764&bih=780&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDwQsARqFQoTCIiiwrnzzcgCFcWkiAodR60AMg&dpr=0.75

to kill people in a movie theater in Colorado.

And in reality, Adam Lanza used this weapon:

https://www.google.com/search?q=bushmaster+xm15&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS504US505&espv=2&biw=1764&bih=780&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCkQsARqFQoTCM-K4vjzzcgCFQlOiAodk8QDog&dpr=0.75

to kill first graders in Conn.

You’re right, the fears and fantasies of gun nuts trump the reality of what assault weapons have been used for and will be used for again… until common sense reasserts itself in this debate.

1033

If people want to bring common sense into this discussion, perhaps step 1 should be to lose the juvenile name-calling. Constantly referring to people who believe in 2nd Amendment rights as “gun nuts” and mocking their opinions is childish and non-productive. As I stated upthread, shouting extremists on both sides of any emotionally tinged issue drown out the common sense centrists and serve as the major impediments to progress.

There are plenty of emotionally charged Constitutional issues (gun rights, abortion, immigration) that our country faces. Unless and until both sides can look at ALL these issues with an open mind and be willing to consider a compromise of their own personal beliefs nothing will get accomplished.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled childish bickering.

1034

People with arsenals of military style weapons and 100-round drum magazines in their homes — the Nancy Lanzas and Laurel Harpers for example — are not merely “enthusiasts” they are people who have lost a certain modicum of reason to their love of guns…hence they are “gun nuts.” The label fits.

1035

There are thousands upon thousands of gun owners who have what would fall under your definition of “arsenals” and only a miniscule number of them have any issues whatsoever, yet you choose to label them all as “nuts”. Thank you for illustrating my point so “eloquently”.

There’s an old axiom that says if you have to resort to name-calling you’ve already lost the argument. But by all means…continue shouting if it makes you feel better.

1036

Anyone who owns a gun and couldn’t even support the back ground check is a gun nut. There is no compromising with these people and their lobbying arm.

1037

So you mock and insult their opinion because it differs from yours, then can’t understand why they don’t want to discuss any compromises. Pretty tough to crack the code on that conundrum.

1038 
  I doubt the lack of compromise has anything to do with hurt feelings over the term "gun nuts."     

  The term seems to be fairly popular among gun lovers.

http://www.gunnuts.net/

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/gun-nut

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/03/17/gun-nuts-radio/

1039

Oh please. I read a conservative message board and they even have a name for people like me ’ hoplophobes’ and think nothing of calling someone who wants just background checks that. They are equally as mocking of our opinions and there is no compromising with them at all.

definition of a hoplophobes:

“An irrational fear of weapons, generally guns, usually occuring as a result of a liberal upbringing or the fact that the person is just a wimp in general. Rather than deal with the fear said hoplophobe will assign human characteristics to a weapon ie “guns are evil” or “guns kill” to justify the fear rather than deal with the core problem of being a sissy.”

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoplophobe&defid=3324510

Here is an example of how gun lovers feel about people who are in favor of stricter gun regulations.

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=1677

1040

Oh I see…everyone here was just using it as a fun-loving, tongue in cheek term of endearment. Gotcha. My bad.

Apparently I’m the one that’s nuts…or at least insane by Einstein’s definition anyway. I’ve been reading these types of threads here on CC for several years now and I keep hoping that someday, maybe, on one of these threads I’ll actually see an intelligent discourse between people with differing opinions. Still waiting…

Once I see the regular cast of characters start showing up in the postings I know the thread has jumped the shark. Unfortunately the mods never seem to close a thread that just spins and spins…so the self-licking ice cream cone continues to survive.