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As of late, my Facebook page has been flooded with comments from my more *ahem* conservative friends. These friends, in particular, believe some great revolution is in the works. I've been seeing cryptic things like, "there's a storm coming, I hope everyone's ready. I am!". Or, "just got down double bolting and reenforcing my front door".

Now, I'm fairly new with exposure to survivalist nutjobs, but do they get like this every time there's talk of legislature changes, or has this "great war" been on their radars' since the 1960's?

Silent Bob said:

do they get like this every time there's talk of legislature changes

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Bingo! The vice president is meeting with the gun lobby, the videogame lobby, and a few others, and will have stuff to say to the american public next tuesday. It seems the executive branch is making some sort of move, and they know they're going to have to convince the public that the move needs to be made to get anything done.

We'll see what they say, but in the short term it'll be great for gun stores.

Buy gun stocks tonight.

When the healthcare bill was being passed I actually thought a second civil war was on the horizon. I'm fairly certain people like to talk big but I'm not too afraid of any real shit going down.

The funny thing is, I almost want to buy a gun to protect myself from those exact people!

I know. I have friends who have been spamming pro gun stuff, talking like everyone should have a gun coming out of every orifice. Gets a little tiresome having to go up against a couple idiots with a bullhorn every time you suggest that maybe, just maybe, it would be ok to have to reload the weapon when you're at the gun range with your insanely expensive toy that fires $2 bullets at a rate of 40 per minute.

If you guys think it's annoying when it's friends on Facebook, try having it in verbal form every time you talk to your own brother.

stienman said:

Bingo! The vice president is meeting with the gun lobby, the videogame lobby, and a few others, and will have stuff to say to the american public next tuesday. It seems the executive branch is making some sort of move, and they know they're going to have to convince the public that the move needs to be made to get anything done.

We'll see what they say, but in the short term it'll be great for gun stores.

Buy gun stocks tonight.

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This scares me, worse than the actual threat of being shot by a criminal.

Congress and the White House are responding the the public outrage over these mass shootings. I simply don't understand why some people cling to their guns so vehemently.[DOUBLEPOST=1357953464][/DOUBLEPOST]

Krisken said:

I know. I have friends who have been spamming pro gun stuff, talking like everyone should have a gun coming out of every orifice. Gets a little tiresome having to go up against a couple idiots with a bullhorn every time you suggest that maybe, just maybe, it would be ok to have to reload the weapon when you're at the gun range with your insanely expensive toy that fires $2 bullets at a rate of 40 per minute.

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I don't get it. Right now Congress is talking about high capacity mag restrictions, registrations, and mental health background checks.

Why would a law-abiding citizen care?

I keep seeing posts about how registrations are killing the second amendment? Really?

But a war? Come on! I have one friend that's convinced there's going to be a civil war within five years.

Silent Bob said:

I don't get it. Right now Congress is talking about high capacity mag restrictions, registrations, and mental health background checks.

Why would a law-abiding citizen care? I keep seeing posts about how registrations are killing the second amendment? Really?

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Slippery slope argument. Seriously. "First they come for these restrictions, then they come for all our guns".

Krisken said:

Slippery slope argument. Seriously. "First they come for these restrictions, then they come for all our guns".

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I have one friend that's convinced there's going to be a civil war within five years. He's literally prepping his house with food stocks and weapons. He's even got a "Bug Out" vehicle prep'd. Yes, he's got a stocked Jeep Cherokee with armor on it, sitting in his garage. I be honest, it's a bit uneasy to even talk to him anymore.

Silent Bob said:

I simply don't understand why some people cling to their guns so vehemently.

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Because not everyone can dual-wield cutlasses or go sword and board if all Hell breaks loose, and a gun can instantly turn any human being into an effective* defender.

--Patrick
*Meaning only "sufficient power to kill an attacker" regardless of level of training.

PatrThom said:

Because not everyone can dual-wield cutlasses or go sword and board if all Hell breaks loose, and a gun can instantly turn any human being into an effective* defender.

--Patrick
*Meaning only "sufficient power to kill an attacker" regardless of level of training.

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So people cling to guns because they're scared little cowards?

I guess that's the crux of the issue. What's making Americans so scared of everything? I grew up in a pretty shitty city (Philly). I've been mugged. I've had my shit stolen. I've never been so scared that I felt I needed a gun everywhere I go.

I'm afraid of America. I'm afraid of the world. I'm afraid I can't help it.

If you read the various exremist websites daily, you too will become paranoid simply because you're exposed to the rantings and ravings of lunatics daily.

Of course it is possible that one thing could set of a chain of events that causes a collapse.

But even day to day stuff can have a profound, if not societal, impact. I should have a 3 month supply of food, but not just because there might be a tornado or week long blizzard. When I lose my job or get severely injured I would also need it.

Guns are tools, and if it makes someone feel safer to have one, then why shouldn't they have one? Because one mentally ill person shot up a school full of kids? That's why no one should buy a gun? Talk about paranoia!

That guy with one gun doesn't worry me like that guy with 20 of them and boxes of ammo in their mattresses. It goes beyond defense and becomes a toy, which if you ask me is the first step to not respecting the potential of the instrument.

What troubles me is that any time someone drops a politics grenade on Facebook like that, it does so much harm---and that's not just the gun nuts, either. I've said a smartass thing or two, I'll admit, but it's so frustrating to see the same old arguments in foaming-at-the-mouth language... then watching a bunch of people take the bait and cause yet another fight which amounts to nothing. Lame-ass jokes about it are just as bad. I have this one cousin who's been posting all week: "A guy crashed his boat last week, BAN ALL BOATS!" "Accident on the highway this morning-- BAN ALL CARS!" "Burned my mouth on a burrito yesterday, BAN ALL BURRITOS!" and that kind of thing. YES, I see what you did there. Yes, you're obviously very clever.

Yup. Nevermind no one is suggesting banning anything. Well, except mosques.

Cajungal said:

"A guy crashed his boat last week, BAN ALL BOATS!" "Accident on the highway this morning-- BAN ALL CARS!" "Burned my mouth on a burrito yesterday, BAN ALL BURRITOS!" and that kind of thing.

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∵A bad thing happened.
∴Something must be done.
∵We are doing something.
∴Success is assured.

--Patrick

Krisken said:

I'm afraid of America. I'm afraid of the world. I'm afraid I can't help it.

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Hello, Mr. Bowie![DOUBLEPOST=1357972753][/DOUBLEPOST]

stienman said:

If you read the various exremist websites daily, you too will become paranoid simply because you're exposed to the rantings and ravings of lunatics daily.

Of course it is possible that one thing could set of a chain of events that causes a collapse.

But even day to day stuff can have a profound, if not societal, impact. I should have a 3 month supply of food, but not just because there might be a tornado or week long blizzard. When I lose my job or get severely injured I would also need it.

Guns are tools, and if it makes someone feel safer to have one, then why shouldn't they have one? Because one mentally ill person shot up a school full of kids? That's why no one should buy a gun? Talk about paranoia!

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I think the multiple gun deaths every day would be more of a reason than the far more sensationalistic school shootings.

But, we as a society tend to not care when brown people kill each other.

When I saw the title I immediately thought of something else...something horrible.

Any way, this has happened tons of times before and I'm not worried. Something happens that threatens the gun people, they stage a rally threatening to make checks that their balls can't cash, a few weeks of political gold for the Daily Show, and then we go back to normal until the next gun thing happens. It will keep happening until the world stops being stupid...so by that logic at least another millennium.

Hey, it was right here in MI that the biggest and baddest schoolkid killing in history took place. I'm talking about the Bath school disaster, of course, where one Andrew Kehoe sapped his wife dead, fire-bombed his own farm and house, then drove to the school where he was a board member because over a several month period, he set up a thousand or so pounds of dynamite and pyrotol (for its incendiary qualities) to go off in two separate explosions at about the same time he had set his house on fire. Once he arrived on the scene of the school destruction, he used his rifle to set off another explosion in his truck*, killing himself and quite a few people nearby. All told, about 45 people were killed and 58 injured, most of them 7-12yr-olds. About half the planted explosives did not detonate, or else the toll would've no doubt been much, much higher. A sign he left behind at his (now ruined) farm read, "Criminals are made, not born."

This all happened in 1927. In 1928, the sale of pyrotol for farm use was halted. No word on whether the horse was ever found.

--Patrick
*the only shot fired during the entire incident, and it wasn't even at anybody.

Bowielee said:

Hello, Mr. Bowie![DOUBLEPOST=1357972753][/DOUBLEPOST]

I think the multiple gun deaths every day would be more of a reason than the far more sensationalistic school shootings.

But, we as a society tend to not care when brown people kill each other.

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Put it back in the deck.

Covar said:

Put it back in the deck.

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Sorry, I'll amend that. We tend to not care when poor people kill each other. It just so happens that most of those poor people are not white.

Yoshimickster said:

When I saw the title I immediately thought of something else...something horrible.

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Is it that simple, a poor persons problem?

Yay, England is the most violent country in the EU, and is more violent than South Africa LOL

stienman said:

Is it that simple, a poor persons problem?

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Well, obviously, only poor people care about poor people problems.

--Patrick

Bubble181 said:

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Yup this is exactly what I'm talking about.

This guy shouldn't own a weapon.

So I guess it's a rhetorical issue? How man guns do you need to amass to be considered a gun loon who shouldn't own any? This guy is pure paranoia.

It's like a religion with the nuts.

The state suspended his handgun license for that. Pro tip: don't publicly threaten mass murder. It's generally frowned upon.

I bet the NRA opposes that.

Rather than rehash the same argument over and over again, the problem with guns isn't our control of guns, but the way in which our culture views guns and gun violence. Gun control laws will be largely ineffective as long as we fetishize guns as symbols of power.

So what you're saying is that more guns = more perceived power, so people accumulate guns because they are basically stockpiling status?

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

So what you're saying is that more guns = more perceived power, so people accumulate guns because they are basically stockpiling status?

--Patrick

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Basically.

PatrThom said:

So what you're saying is that more guns = more perceived power, so people accumulate guns because they are basically stockpiling status?

--Patrick

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That and it becomes almost a cult mentality. These guys literally think the entire world is going to eat them alive without owning a firearm of some sort. It's damn scary.