Automatic weapons
- Thread starter Dima
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Well, perhaps a little off-topic:
They are a tool, and a very necessary one. Peace through Strength is not just a catchy saying. An evil-doer will choose an undefended house or individual to attack over one that is known to be defended or armed.
And, they can be a high precision machine, which appeals to gear heads like me.
It is a challenge to be able to hit a target accurately at long distances.
Shooting for sport is not a hobby for everyone, but you should learn to fire at least a pistol, for self-defense purposes. You could start with a small one (but not a .22, that'll just make a bad guy madder).
"It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have". Another cliche, but one that is very true, and important to keep in mind in these "interesting times".
A whole can of worms I will try not to open, but....Just gonna say, I've shot a gun before and I know what it's like to have a gun pointed at you in a house that was defended. It just depends on who is doing the pointing and it's not always someone you don't know. For me, it's just better not to have one at all. Never will believe they are entirely good. Just my two cents. Of course, to each his own. (sorry about the open can.)
There was/is a "reality" show about guns (R. Lee Ermey was/is the host). I don't remember the title of the show, which I watched only a few times (not a huge reality show fan). One of the episodes I did watch compared the M-16 with the AK-47. Slowed-down film showed the AK barrel wobbling much more than the M-16's, yielding corresponding inferior results on a target 25 feet away.
No need to apologize. My own childhood was not exactly a fun time, either, and it took me a long time to get beyond some things. Both of my parents had huge anger issues, which they never chose to resolve. It was like constantly living in a bad movie, and I escaped through reading, music, watching lots of [other] movies, and going on long walks and bike rides (the further away from the house, the better) to experience the beauty of nature.
As I mentioned in another post, it was not until I wrote about some of the stuff that happened, that most of the bad feelings went away. That had not been the plan when I sat down to write the story (intended to be a back-story for one of my characters), but it just worked out that way, turning out to be semi-autobiographical. I guess those things were just waiting inside, to be released into the light of day where they could finally dissipate.
Hope I didn’t open up any old wounds by what I said. Definitely not my intention.
Pat Conroy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pat Conroy: "The Death Of Santini" | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR
I'm sorry, I guess it's Russian thing. When we post unrefutable proof we expect, I don't know, acknowledgment of the fact, at least, instead of of finding horse space in vacuum comments.Not to take sides here, but that is one funny comment!
Um - okay - say sorry - I read the rest of the comments and this was disrespectful - I guess my adolescent funny bone just kicked in temporarily
No disrespect meant, just a healthy dose of skepticism, in keeping with the scientific method approach to examining life's mysteries, among other things, such as the motives of those who would wish to be elected to lead us.
It is just that there are so many variables that could affect the results that were shown, and there are so many doctored or faked videos out there.
Sorry, but I didn't get the translation on the "horse space in vacuum" reference.
As someone that lives in the UK, (and steps around any threads about guns normally, as I have absolutely no right to comment) those sentences of yours astound me. Not in a anti gun way, (although I am) but in a completely "I just don't understand" way. I read what you wrote there, and it makes no sense to me at all. None. zip. The fact you think like that, makes me feel sad for you, that you live somewhere you need to do that. I'm sorry, I know I have no right to comment living in the UK but I guess I'm typing out loud.
...I understand what he's saying, and I am obviously Pro-Gun....better to be prepared and familiar with a weapon and not need it, than to be placed in a situation where one could be needed and have no idea what to do....evil acts are so very random and multiplying of late...
It would be a trick hard to accomplish with a factory AK attached to a heavy duty steel substructure anchored in cement and lead; impossible to accomplish for a human being.
I don't understand your objection to what was posted. I mean, can you be more specific?
I don't object at all Blunt... what I mean is I don't understand living anywhere where you NEED to have a fire arm about your person. I'm not against people doing it, I just don't get it.
Lol i remember when we were kids back in Jamaica we had to lay on the floor alot of the time because we would hear automatic weapons shooting by our house.
Well, I don’t like living in a world where it is necessary to carry, or at least have a weapon readily available, but that is just the environment that exists. In order to survive and thrive, I must take (as any living creature must) any necessary defensive steps to ensure that survival. That includes proactive offensive steps, such as preemptive strikes on terrorists (of any type), whenever and wherever they appear.
Evil will, unfortunately, always be with us. Perhaps, if we last another ten thousand years, we may get this undesirable aspect of human nature mostly under control, but we live today. Just wishing for a better world will not make it happen. Evil needs to be very forcefully controlled and contained, or it will completely destroy us. Evil and good are completely incompatible. Forget that overly optimistic bumper sticker; they can not coexist. Never gonna happen. No way. Forget about it. Only one can prevail.
FDR and Churchill knew this. Hitler would not have given up and gone back to being a painter and become a lover of Jewish people, just by being asked to do so, as Chamberlain naively thought. Hitler, Mussolini, Yamamoto, and their followers had to be eliminated. The period that followed WW II was one of great prosperity and peace, because the bad people had been thoroughly defeated. They started it and we finished it, as the saying goes.
It was only when good people started getting all P.C. and wimpy that evil began to once again grow in strength. It started with appeasing Stalin and continued through the Korean and Vietnam wars, all the way up to the present, when Putin is being appeased. If the 9-11 hijackers had tried to take over an airliner in 1941, instead of 2001, they would have had those box cutters inserted into one or more of their body orifices. We have become fatally weak, and the evil doers smell the blood in the water.
I think the soldier who was hacked to death by a machete on a London street, in broad daylight, might be alive today, if he was carrying a weapon. The members of the cult of the false prophet do not have any respect for the rules of civilization, including gun-control laws. Those laws only make good, law-abiding people more vulnerable to bad people, who simply do not play by the rules of civilized society.
John Lennon might even be alive today, if he had been armed. You don’t see anybody attacking rough and tumble country or rock stars, because it is obvious they can handle themselves.
I believe part of the reason crime is so out of control here is political correctness. Rather than punish evil people, we let them go too easily, to commit additional and often more serious crimes. It also did not help when the ACLU fought for the release of so many mentally ill people several decades ago. Many of them ended up living in homelessness and misery, and others returned to a life of increasingly violent crime.
The U.K. is not safe from violence. Your culture is changing drastically and will soon become unstable, because of the influx of so many people who do not respect civilized behavior, even though they say they do. That is just another of their “great lies”, and telling lies is eagerly sanctioned by their cult’s playbook. Life in the 7th century is just around the corner, for all of you. As a woman, you should be especially concerned about that.
In Medieval times, even in supposedly civilized parts of Europe, the lord of the manor could exercise his will over his subjects, up to and including executing anyone who spoke out against him, or who he just didn’t like, or who he wanted to appropriate property (or a wife) from. Guns eventually changed that, and gave the ordinary man and woman the ability to defend themselves and their castle from the arbitrary whims of someone who had power.
Like it or not, human civilization is currently in one of those periods of collapse, similar to the way things were during the decline of the Roman Empire. While someone like me can try to stop this from happening (through the writing of stories and political articles), I have to also be sure I can survive whatever life throws at me and my loved ones.
It is very simple, really. Good people need to defend themselves against evil, and have every right to do so, by whatever means are necessary. This is how it has been throughout history and all throughout the animal (and even plant) kingdoms, and it will not change anytime soon, if ever.
"Peace, through strength." And, of course, "Millions for defense. Not one penny for tribute."
Having had the following just happen in a small village a mere 30 minutes away, not a week ago, BBC News - Northiam girl shot in head 'had so much to live for', you will never convince me that we should be allowed to have fire arms in our homes. Surely the argument could be tipped back at you, that had this man NOT been able to have a gun at home, he wouldn't have blown his daughters head off??
I have to say we must agree to disagree on this point. I will never, ever, understand your nations love affair with fire arms. I have no fear, as a woman, nor do I feel it is necessary to arm myself. You may consider me incredibly naïve, I consider some of your comments medieval in nature.
That's what makes this world a wonderful place. Differences of opinion.
I have to say we must agree to disagree on this point. I will never, ever, understand your nations love affair with fire arms. I have no fear, as a woman, nor do I feel it is necessary to arm myself. You may consider me incredibly naïve, I consider some of your comments medieval in nature.
That's what makes this world a wonderful place. Differences of opinion.
There are many of us here who agree with you.
No substitute for training when it comes to any type of firearm. Someone wielding a firearm who has no training with said firearm is an accident that hasn't happened yet. I envy other countries like England and Germany. The crime rate seems far less than what we in the US are used to. For over two hundred years, we've been blasting each other with firearms over the silliest of reasons and it's difficult to trace back the exact cause. Our laws were set up differently in this country from the start so our path along the beam will be different than other, older countries who have not had access to private firearm ownership from the country's inception. I would very much enjoy a United States where I could walk around the block, or the park, or a department store, without constantly scanning left and right, front and back, checking my six for any kind of threat. Alas, it's not the way things work here. The minute I don't anticipate a threat is the minute my life could be irreparably altered. It's a weird, paranoid way of life, but you just have to get used to it I guess if you live in the US. I would very much like to visit Great Britain, Mustangclaire. My wife visited there several times when her father was stationed in Germany and she told me she always felt safe walking around different areas of the country, same thing in Germany. I'm not sure how to put my finger on it. I don't think I could turn off my paranoia of my fellow Americans, even if I wanted to..lol I'm in the camp of have a firearm, know how to use it, then hope you never have to rather than be shoved into a situation where I have a firearm but I'm more dangerous to myself or family than the threat. Guns aren't going to go away, people will use them to harm one another, if you get rid of firearms, you have to move down the ladder of lethality to knives, tire irons, or your bare hands. People will always find a way to lay one another out, firearms are just louder.
Well, whenever a terrible, absolutely horrible tragedy like that Northiam shooting happens, the idea of gun-free homes or other areas comes up.
There are at least two rebuttals to that.
First, a gun is merely a tool. A very dangerous tool, but that is all it really is. Like any tool or weapon, it can be used for both defense and offense. People have been harming each other since the Stone Age days of throwing boulders (still being used as a form of execution, usually for females, in some parts of the world) and swinging wooden clubs. Removing guns will not stop this. Only learning to treat our fellow human beings better will start to have an impact in reducing these types of assaults, along with severely punishing those who commit crimes of violence and treating or institutionalizing those who are mentally unstable enough to consider doing harm to innocents. I will not comment on the father's name or the violent, misogynistic culture he may have grown up in. Nope. Not going there.
Second, if the victim, or another person, had access to an equally powerful weapon, they may have been able to defend themselves, or hold the attacker at bay until authorities arrived. In this case, we do not know if a neighbor could have done this intervention. I have defused some very dangerous situations merely by displaying my pistol. This made the other [groups of] people think twice, realize the supreme error of their ways, and everybody was able to go home safely those nights.
I don’t want to belabor this subject anymore. As you said, we will just have to agree to disagree. In my country, the criminal justice system, and society in general, in some areas, is severely broken, and we have to do what is needed to protect ourselves. I really, truly wish this was not the case, but it is. Even if it were not, it is always prudent to keep one’s defensive skills sharp, just in case they may be needed at some point, and to act as a deterrent.
I will close with this Medieval song. Peace to all of you.
There are at least two rebuttals to that.
First, a gun is merely a tool. A very dangerous tool, but that is all it really is. Like any tool or weapon, it can be used for both defense and offense. People have been harming each other since the Stone Age days of throwing boulders (still being used as a form of execution, usually for females, in some parts of the world) and swinging wooden clubs. Removing guns will not stop this. Only learning to treat our fellow human beings better will start to have an impact in reducing these types of assaults, along with severely punishing those who commit crimes of violence and treating or institutionalizing those who are mentally unstable enough to consider doing harm to innocents. I will not comment on the father's name or the violent, misogynistic culture he may have grown up in. Nope. Not going there.
Second, if the victim, or another person, had access to an equally powerful weapon, they may have been able to defend themselves, or hold the attacker at bay until authorities arrived. In this case, we do not know if a neighbor could have done this intervention. I have defused some very dangerous situations merely by displaying my pistol. This made the other [groups of] people think twice, realize the supreme error of their ways, and everybody was able to go home safely those nights.
I don’t want to belabor this subject anymore. As you said, we will just have to agree to disagree. In my country, the criminal justice system, and society in general, in some areas, is severely broken, and we have to do what is needed to protect ourselves. I really, truly wish this was not the case, but it is. Even if it were not, it is always prudent to keep one’s defensive skills sharp, just in case they may be needed at some point, and to act as a deterrent.
I will close with this Medieval song. Peace to all of you.