On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 09:15:46 -0400, the inscrutable "firstjois" spake:
Would you like that figure rounded to the nearest billion dollars?
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... snip of some stuff I said too
You know, I was going to tell you that the concerns about terrorists using cell phones on planes to coordinate with one another has been in the US, including such places as Aviation Leak. Then I went to the web page you cited -- you are right *that* hasn't been on any of the media outlets here in the US. Given the anti-administration, flat out anti-US (see Newsweek for example) bent of the press, that's pretty strange.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
It sure seems like it's on it's way some days. I remember when I was a little kid (not so long ago, really) we had rusty steel jungle gyms set over asphalt at school, and liked to shoot one another with bb guns on the weekends. Imagine the lawsuits that would ensue if any of that was still going on today.
The message from "mike hide" contains these words:
England and Scotland have different legal systems. And I take it you meant Dunblane.
But guns had to be licensed before anyway, and only the tiniest fraction of the population in the UK have the slightest interest in owning a gun of any sort and those who would want a handgun are a mere "handful".
Now, the ban on kids owning pocket knives is something that does make life difficult for guys -- can't even buy a Stanley knife or chisel!
Right. If guns (and bullets) are for killing, I must be using all of mine wrong. Anyone have a cite on how many rounds of ammo are produced in the US in a year, vs. the number of murders using a gun?
Well, that's not the biggest problem - it comes down to the fact that the criminals are already doing something illegal, and will just add a possession crime to the other things they're doing wrong. Criminals, by definition, _ignore laws_. That's why/because they're criminals, y'see.
Not to mention the above problem about criminals and laws.
Well, OK, but that's not the only reason. Another reason is that you can define "armor piercing" as pretty much any rifle bullet, and many handgun bullets. Then, you just have to outlaw "expanding, flesh ripping bullets", and you've got everything banned.
If a criminal wants to commit a crime, they won't be dissuaded from doing so by the fact that they're using a bullet that is or isn't of any particular variety. Last I checked, not a lot of them are into the intricacies of ballistics.
AH yes - then we can be like Japan where the guy on the street does not have guns but the gangsters do . . .
Can I see that 3/4 foot drive??????? ('specially the 3/4' )
In Japan the guy on the street cannot own a gun - murder is rare by guns to say the least - knives and all other manner of other "impliments" are used however - during the bubble in Japan a "agressive" realitor who could not get some people to move so he could sell the property killed them and ground them up with an industrial size meat grinder to get rid of the bodies -
Gee does that mean that the $30 BILLION dollars spent by the TSA at airports is wasted? I'm shocked to hear that there is waste in our government!
I saw a United Captain getting a serious double check since he had (gasp) a pair of baby scissors (with the round tip) for trimming his moustache - of course once he is behind the reinforced door with the fire axe in the cockpit (used to chop his way out in an accident), a taser and or handgun, he could have attacked the co-pilot with it . . . a serious weapon to be sure -
BillyB
Not defending the TSA and the "let's confiscate lighters" thinking, but that money was spent on either goods or services, right? So, it employed people, when all is said and done, right?
I'm just sayin... your argument sounds a lot like the people griping about "shooting all that there money off into space", without considering the direct and secondary benefits of space research.
I caught between an "Oops, my bad." and some joke about it being for private viewing only and not by people named BillyBob. %-)
Dave in Fairfax
See, guns don't kill people, realtors do.
Dave in Fairfax
Are we saying that the government buying goods and services is somehow better for us than private citizens getting to spend that money directly? Unless we received appropriate value for the money spent (and that is a separate discussion) then it was wasted and would have been better spent by the taxpayers themselves.
If you assume that spending billions of dollars privately would not have generated similar secondary benefits (note the word similar not the same meaning it might not have gone into miniaturization or computerization but might have resulted in other similarly valuable new fields), then you have a valid point. Spending all of that money on education or on advanced medical reasearch or on ocean research during the 60's and 70's might have generated even more beneficial scientific breakthroughs and more direct sociatal benefits than spending it all to shoot stuff up into (and out of) the air. Might not have, too.
Dave Hall
>
No, I'm just saying it's not all _totally_ wasted money.
Its not much different in the UK either, the russian mafia have been and at the moment its the turn of yet another former eastern bloc lot to run the brothels/drug trade etc etc, killing the previous lot along the way if they have to.....
Or war heros with the Medal of Honor.
Well, considering that any moron can figure out several ways to smuggle weapons as or more effective than those used to implement the 9/11 attack through airport security, yes, it's pretty much wasted if the intent is to deter Al Qaeda or their equivalents.
>Pretty bad. I would have thought they would have paid special attention to a
9 foot pencil. Wasn't it a bit hard on your pocket?
Because ANY projectile could be deemed as "armor piercing" if travelling fast enough. It's a back door way to ban everything.
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