“All good is hard. All evil is easy.”
–Scott Alexander
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Do as I say, not as I do…..Republican hypocrisy in action:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/politics/tim-murphy-abortion.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront
Well, remember, these "pro-life" ideologues want to take away your choices, not theirs…
Pat Robertson was quoted that the Vegas shootings are a result of Americans disrespecting President Trump and the national anthem.
Wonder how Andrew Carnegie feels about that? Andrew: you out there?
Andrew has left the building CB but he probably believes a white man with thousands of rounds of ammunition was motivated to shoot with automatic weapons into a crowd because some black athletes took a knee during our national song.
I don't understand why people would even interview Robertson anymore or Franklin Graham. Their opinions are like acid in the eyes. Nobody wants to be near them.
I'm amazed that bigoted asshole is still around. Isn't he like 110 years old? Only the good die young.
I guess Preying Pat thinks that a heavily-armed wacko shooting hundreds of rounds from 32 stories into an unsuspecting crowd is somehow a proper way of respecting the SodaFountaiOfJustice ???
There seems to be cracks in the marital bliss…
Tillerson’s Fury at Trump Required an Intervention From Pence
Based on this article, it's not clear whether Trump EVER became aware that Tillerson said he was a moron (I suspect most officials were smart enough to NOT dime him out)…so that means he may just be finding out today. This oughta be interesting.
I admit I had not heard of a "bump stock" before the Vegas massacre. Reading up on it now, I have mixed feelings about the urge to outlaw it.
I was struck by the very high rate of wounded to dead: about nine to one. Bump stocks may have the effect of prolonging and worsening the tendency of repeated fire to take a rifle off target. Shooting 500 yards from a crowd of people from a 300 foot height, a high volume of fire will ensure a lot of dead people. But 11 minutes of fire with a scope and careful aiming might have killed a lot more.
I was expert with the m-14 and M 16 in the Army, meaning I usually hit man-size targets from 300 meters.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think psychos should have guns, any guns. But until and unless we disarm them, it may be that the evasive tools like bump stocks actually reduce their evil.
Three wounds for each death would be a ratio more in keeping with normal military combat. The extreme range and the accuracy robbing bump stocks may actually have saved lives.
I just hope as Congress discusses these issues we take care not to make an awful situation even worse. It could well be that sickos with quasi automatic weapons aren't as deadly as sickos with semi-automatic weapons.
Just food for thought.
You're forgetting the fact that it puts more lead downrange per unit time. That inflicts greater number of casualties even if they're less accurate.
There is no self-defense, hunting, or sporting need for these, and banning them retains the right to bear arms. Bump stock plus high-cap mag=mass murder machine. There is no rational argument against their banning. And no, contrary to the manufacturers' claim, this is not what Madison and Jefferson were thinking in the 18th century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCCT8JtwQeI
You are confusing casualties with deaths. No doubt, throwing a lot of ammo at a crowd wounds a lot of people. But all things considered, it didn't kill a lot. Again, the ratio of nine wounds to each death is striking.
It's not a matter of a "need" for such a device. I am just asking for a logical and analytic look at their actual impact. You failed to do that with your knee-jerk response.
Without this device, he might have killed 100 and wounded 300 — the normal ratio of wound to death in world war II. We'd have fewer casualties but a lot more dead.
It's worth studying before we rush to make an awful situation even worse.
No, I'm not. You're confusing debate with personal attack.
You are trying to apply metrics to your analysis while ignoring the amount of ordnance downrange. I might be a crappy surgeon who cures cancer only every tenth surgery I attempt, but if I operate on a million patients, I will cure more cancer than someone who gets it every time but only operates on a thousand. Volume over accuracy, especially when shooting at a large crowd is the pertinent measure
Your experience as a trained marksman is not generally applicable to a lunatic with a big wallet, an elevated position, and machinery that allows him to spray hundred of rounds per minute.
It is not a personal attack to do the math. And a ratio of nine wounded for every death suggests that bump stocks are not effective tools for mass murder. The pity is that nra suzerainty prevents the cdc from even studying such questions.
Your example of the surgeon doing a thousand times as many operations hardly applies. Bump stocks might double the rate of fire, since you still have to change magazines and barrels overheat. But dropping the ratio of lethality from 1 in3 to 1 in 9 more than offsets that. Of course, wounds are a bad thing too.
But on balance, I still think it is worth considering whether we really want to remove a tool from the psychopath’s arsenal that actually reduces the lethality of high powered rifles.
You say knee-jerk, I say jerk.
If the shoe fits, wear it!
There has been some improvement in trauma care since WWII.
A great improvement, indeed. Sadly, that means many of today's soldiers survive but live with awful injuries.
War is a terrible thing. Now, even music events put us at risk.
Sorry, V. While I get your point, I must suggest it was not the event, but the continued lock the NRA leadership and the Gun Owners of America have on our elected officials that puts us at risk. I attended countless shows in decades past and never worried that I might be cut down by a machine gun-wielding murderer.
No…the event should not and does not put us at risk. It is every member of the NRA that turns their heads when they see the result of their policies, yet change nothing. They put us at risk. It is every "who me?" asshole that voted for the Racist-in-Chief and continues to deny the damage they have done to our nation.
They, too.
Resist.
"What ifs" about the mass shooting are pretty arbitrary. I also read today that magazine limits were not necessarily useful, as a well-trained, experienced shooter can stack and switch magazines with hardly a pause. Others have pointed out that a variety of Las Vegas attractions have fully automatic, military grade weapons, and he could have rented/stolen one of those to become even more dangerous.
On balance, reducing the rate of fire by minimizing "bump stock" conversions seems like a good idea. I also think that doing ANYTHING to demonstrate that the NRA is not politically all-powerful is a good idea, whether the measure in question is ultimately effective or not.
So far, I think the NRA has been silent on this issue. The real Sociopaths for Death, aka Gun Owners of America, is of course cheering the shooter on arguing that only a good guy with a tactical nuclear weapon can stop a bad guy. The thing is GOA doesn't really want to stop the bad guys, they ARE the bad guys.
You are right that weakening the gun lobby is a good thing in itself.
Age and lack of practice have no doubt eroded the skills I had in my West Point days. But I would have loved to face off against this coward at 300 meters, with him using his bump stock and me my M-1 Garand semi-automatic of World War Ii vintage. The likely result is that he would have fired ten rounds to my one. His ten would have missed and my one would have killed him.
Do you know how many of the injuries were non-fatal bullet wounds and how many were from other causes, such as trampling or falls?
No, but that is a worthy point.
Sorry Voyageur, , but the shooter was not a "psycho". He was cold, calculating, strategic, and angry, which are not characteristics of people who are "crazy". Angry White Male is a strong indictor for gun violence, but that isn't taken into account when people register to buy a gun.
In the US we have 73,000 gun injuries, 33,000 gun deaths per year, of which 21,000 are suicides and 11,000 homicides. If we reduced the number of guns by 50%, we would save cut those numbers in half. This is statistically verified by the extremely strong correlation between gun injuries & deaths and gun ownership.*
Unfortunately, the 1st amendment (gun fetishism is a religion) stands in the way.
* Obviously this simple mathematical truism will be denied by gun fetishists – Math has a liberal bias. Or maybe we should say innumeracy has a Conservative bias.
The problem with your math is that you assume reducing the number of guns reduces their availability. Not really. We have about 300 million guns but most americans don't have a gun while a relatively small group has lots of them. The Vegas shooter had, I believe, 43. Cut that to 20 and he'll still have enough.
I currently own 19, including several black powder and Civil War era replicas including an actual, but non-firing Civil War era Indian Trading Rifle. Take away Ten, and I'll still be a menace to the squirrel population.
Go online and check out some of the videos bump-stock purveyors have on their sites.
Maybe check out the “first time shooters”
http://www.slidefire.com/videos
Bump Stock + Assault Rifle + High Capacity Magazines = Unbelievable Carnage On Any Exposed Crowd Of People
Just a suggestion, maybe we should all save our stories of relived military sniper exploits for Veterans Day next month??
I wasn't aware you had served.
Yep, I did. Nothing of particular note or importance.
duplicate
Colorado Pols, you owe Sen. Chris Holbert an apology.
Moderanus…you owe humanity an apology.
Ginsburg Slaps Gorsuch in Gerrymandering Case
That is the most efficient smackdown of Gorsuch's academic bullshit ever! 🙂
He was trying to get in touch with his inner Scalia. The problem is that only Scalia can get away with being Scalia.
I feel better now. She may be nearly twice his age, but she's still got it.
It isn't hard to imagine TwitterDumb mocking RBG in private as he does with John McCain.
She is twice his age and four times his brains.