@TheSutraDude - The biggest school massacre in this country did not involve guns at all – it involved bombs. So why are we concentrating on things like fake assault rifles when they only are involved in 3% of all murders and one recent school shooting?

@TheSutraDude - that is not my “logic back at me”. You have introduced a perfect example of a straw man argument. You have also discredited you opinion with your glaring lack of knowledge about so called assault rifles. NO BODY in the military carries a “Bush Master”! A REAL assault weapon has a full auto selector as you correctly stated. But the assault rifles used by are not manufactured by Bushmaster!! That is laughable. The bushmaster is a cheap poorly manufactured look alike to the real M4 used in the military. The metal used to manufacture the parts is sub standard. The parts do not have the same tight tolerances as a military grade weapon. These factors combine to make the gun unreliable when you most need it – when it gets hot from repeated firings. That is why Lanza gun jammed at Sandy Hook – that is why Klebolds so called assault rifle jammed at Columbine.

You are focused on so assault rifles while assault rifles constitute only 3% of all murders in this country. Hammers are more used in murders — twice as many people are killed by hands and feet – and knives are used 16% of the time. These numbers are from the FBI’s on uniform crime reports. Actually handguns are used in 47% of all murders. Are you talking about confiscating all of the handguns in the US? If not  - why not? Is it because the Supreme Court has ruled TWICE (2008 and 2010) that banning handguns would be a violation of the constitution. If you are not in favor of banning handguns is it because you believe that the children killed in Sandy Hook are more important than the 5000 (including hundreds of children) in Chicago are less important?

@TheSutraDude - you really have never been in the military have you? And you have never been on a police force either…..which sort of makes you the classical left wing gun expert. Rifles of EVERY kind only account for 3% of the murders in this country. They are barely a factor! You would be better served by taking HAMMERS and BASEBALL bats away from people. Bicycles and family dogs kill more children every year than all guns combined – let alone assault rifles. Did you see the films of the police showing up hours after the Sandy Hook massacre? They ALL had assault rifles – where do you imagine they got those? What about the sniper rifles? As long as the police are allowed to buy and possess assault rifles so too should the public.

We live in a dangerous world – the law breakers are armed and will remain that way regardless of what laws or restrictions are passed. In fact after the ban on assaullt rifles and high capacity magazines during the Clinton administration sales went to 4 million per year and millions of individuals started carrying concealed all over the country. But in spite of the astronomical increase in available weapons – murder rates came down significanlty. Why do you think that is?

@TheSutraDude - OK — I WILL get real! Tell me ONE mass terrorist incident that has been prevented by denying a firearms sale tot a terrorist? The terror watch list did not even exist before 9/11….and it was instituted to keep terrorists off of airplanes. And how did that work out? It did nothing but severely inconvenience people with similar names. Including people who’s names were simply too long to be fully printed on the limited number of characters available on an airline boarding pass. Was Adam Lanza’s name on a terrorism watch list? How about Tim Mc Veigh? Anders Brevik? Klebold? Harris?

These simple minded solutions to complex problems NEVER work….like so called assault weapons” bans. Ar-15′s are the weapon of choice for home defense. I am not even agreeing that they are the best weapon – but they are in fact the most used weapon for home defense. Between 2.5 and 4.5 MILLION violent crimes are prevented every year by armed civilians without them having to fire their guns. The news media doesn’t report on crimes that don’t happen. 80% of the firearms involved in these defensive uses are long-guns. Assuming only half of those long-guns are rifles, and half of those are AR15s that would mean between 500,000 and 900,000 violent crimes are prevented by AR15s annually. If you assume that one tenth of those violent crimes would have resulted in murder, AR15s SAVE between 50,000 and 90,000 innocent people each year. Assuming that legally owned AR15s KILL about 200 innocent people every year it would appear that outlawing AR15s will increase the number of people killed by between 250 and 450 times.

@TheSutraDude - The homicide rate for the US is 4.7/100K — WAY below average in spite of the huge ownership of firearms. That is illustrated here.

And you mention Germany and England. Michael Ryan killed 16 people in Hungerford England in 1987. Thomas Hamilton killed killed 16 kindergartners and a teacher in Dunblane Scotland in 1996. Robert Steinhauser kills 13 teachers, 2 former classmates and a policeman in Erfurt Germany in 2002. There have been several more in Countries that have outlawed firearms. Finland (18 dead) – Australia (35) – Canada (25) – and Norway (75).  All mass shootings in recent years. Only one of those killings involved an assault like rifle – Norway and 6 of those deaths were form a fertilizer bomb..The one thing that everyone of these mass murders had in common was that the shooter did not stop killing until he was confronted by an armed individual – whether it was police or a citizen. In point of fact  - when the police respond to a mass murder incident an average of 14 people loose their lives. When a civilian or an off duty police officer responds 2.5 people have lost their lives. 

@TheSutraDude - well having almost been drafted does not make you an expert on anything! You merely demonstrate your ignorance. I have been a special operator in the military – and a municipal as well as federal law enforcement officer. The biggest “gun nuts” in the nation are cops and I know of none of them who are in favor of taking people guns away – in fact – they would then become criminals themselves when they HIDE their personal assault weapons!! The problem isn’t GUNS! Too many  - or too few – whatever the argument anyone cares to make. Guns are NEVER going away – not in this country- neither the military nor the police are in favor of it despite what your anonymous “generals” might say. Oh – by the way – generals have ARMED guards when they travel – just like diplomats.

As I stated before,  our perception of danger is easily distorted by rare events. Is gun violence increasing in the United States? No. But it certainly seems to be when one recalls recent atrocities in Newtown and Aurora. In fact, the overall rate of violent crime has fallen by 22 percent in the past decade (and 18 percent in the past five years). That is in spite of 10′s of millions of new assault rifles, high capacity magazines and concealed carry permits.

The correlation between guns and violence in the United States is far from straightforward. Thirty percent of urban households have at least one firearm. This figure increases to 42 percent in the suburbs and 60 percent in the countryside. As one moves away from cities, therefore, the rate of gun ownership doubles. And yet gun violence is primarily a problem in cities.  Just look at Chicago the toughest gun laws on the books and yet- 5000 murders since 2000. Compare that to 2000 US  KIA in Afghanistan. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said recently that only about 300 of the 7,000 guns Chicago police have pulled off the street this year would be classified as assault weapons.

Seventy mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since 1982, leaving 543 dead. These crimes were horrific, but 564,452 other homicides took place in the U.S. during the same period. Mass shootings scarcely represent 0.1 percent of all murders. When talking about the problem of guns in our society, it is easy to lose sight of the worst violence and to become fixated on symbols of violence.

Of course, it is important to think about the problem of gun violence in the context of other risks. For instance, it is estimated that 100,000 Americans die each year because doctors and nurses fail to wash their hands properly. Measured in bodies, therefore, the problem of hand washing in hospitals is worse than the problem of guns, even if we include accidents and suicides.

@CanuckFascist - Ha ha — -well I remember the massacre at Ecole Polytech in 1989 where Marc Lepine killed 25 people . The Canadian murder rate is not far off from the the US and increasing while the US rate has dropped from 10.2 in the 80′s to 4.7 mow and going down. Canada is a second world country – totally dependent on the US for everything. I lived in Canada for seven years. My Yacht Club Manager was beaten to death in the parking lot in Vancouver. I aw a guy jump from a high rise and splat on the pavement at a high rise and it never made the news because the Canadians are so afraid of their “reputation”. It is the land of 9/11 and faked moon landing conspiracy theories. British Columbia is seriously considering Sate Hood and Quebec wants to break away as well. Canada exists at the discretion of the US. If tanks were put on the border – in a provocative manner – and that is only a pipe dream – but you must know the US military would crush you in a week or less. Canada cannot even move it’s troops over seas without US military transports and it’s its fighters are made by Boeing and the pilots are trained in the US. So stay on your side of the fence and try to think of something else to be “proud of” while you enjoy your American made cars with a “canadian package” whatever that is! LOL

@CanuckFascist - Well i DID live and Canada and YES I AM talking shit about your country! Get off your arrogant bar stool and get an education. The world does’t rotate around Canada. Hardly anyone in the world even knows where it is! LOL

@CanuckFascist - You really are an illiterate Canuck. You weren’t even CANADA at that time of the war of 1812 – you were a colony of England. And you got your Independence through the blood of Americans and by default when the Americans kicked the British off of the Continent! LOL If it were not for Americans and their – OMG!!  OUR GUNS!!! You wouldn’t even BE Canada you dumb Canucklehead.

@CanuckFascist - Better go look up the word “facist”. And who is going to shoot me — you??? You would not even know which end the FIRE comes out of ! Ha ha

@CanuckFascist - And you claim to have an education? Better go back to school little boy – Canada wasn’t even Canada in 1812!! LOL And who won that war moron? The fight on the Canadian border was the third front and the least important. It is too bad we drew the line after the war – because inside every Canadian is an American just screaming to get out! LMAO!!

@CanuckFascist - I see you really are a fag — all of those thoughts and expressions about sucking cock! haha The War of 1812 was won when the British were defeated at sea. And the battle of new Orleans was won butafter the peace treaty was signed 30 days earlier! I bet you didn’t even KNOW about the Naval engagements and the Battle of New Orleans. Besides the British had ALREADY been defeated and kicked out of this country in the 1776 Revolutionary war! Did you forget about that??? LOL      What a dumb ass Cunucklehead!! You don’t know any more about guns and crime than you do about the British American War you little FAG