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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Not hardly. There are lots of nations that successfully restrict guns. The only reason we have a hangup about it in the U.S. is the Second Amendment, which forces us to come up with workarounds, much in the way as the First Amendment has been granted exceptions in the service of public safety, etc.
Then again, I wouldn't mind compulsory psychological screenings in a general sense — as long as we could ensure the integrity of the system to a reasonable degree. There are lots of seriously fucked up people out there. Of course, one could get into a great big argument over what, precisely, constitutes mental illness that requires treatment — you just know someone will try to slip homosexuality in there, or "fanatical conservatism", and start persecuting people for stuff that isn't medical in nature.
edited 27th Feb '13 7:46:04 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"All this stuff about guns is rather worrying to me and a lot of people I know, because from what I've gathered, there tends to be an overlap between the crazier gun nuts and the people who think Canada is a 'socialist commie wasteland' (actual quote from an american tourist last summer).
It's highly unlikely anything like that will happen, but the possibility is the unnerving part.
It really speaks to how insular America's geographical size allows some of its residents to be, when they can effectively shield themselves in a cocoon of ignorance from even THE NEAREST NEIGHBORING FELLOW FIRST-WORLD COUNTRY.
And let's not even get into misconceptions about Mexico, it's gone well past mere condescension into unmitigated tragedy.
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.Mexico is a human disaster of epic proportions and one that is almost entirely America's fault. It may go down in history as one of the greatest cases of sheer ignorance on record.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
Agreed. Frankly it's only the fact that the Government exists that puts it significantly better than somewhere like Somalia, really - it exists but clearly doesn't actually control large swathes of the country.
edited 27th Feb '13 10:44:16 AM by CaissasDeathAngel
My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.That's the great thing about America. As John Kerry recently put it: "You have the right to be stupid, if you want to be."
It's combining that sentiment with Guns that gets people hung up.
Of course, with education funding usually being the first thing to go in a budget crunch, that's generally less of a choice, isn't it?
edited 27th Feb '13 11:20:27 AM by DevilTakeMe
Glove and Boots is good for Blog!I saw this posted earlier by Deviant. Thoughts? Honestly, I think it could stay...racism is still reasonably strong in the south. Look how long it took Mississippi to ratify the 13th. Oh. The recent idiot "Poll watchers/voter registrars" thing this presidential election does not make me confident.
Oh, and Scalia is one of the most loathsome people currently in an American position of power. Calling it "A vestige of racial entitlement?"
...I honestly hate that man.
edited 27th Feb '13 12:53:36 PM by DrTentacles
So that article is being extremely disingenuous and demonstrating exactly why I dislike them. It makes it sound like a sudden rash of child arrests right now OH MY GOD because of security after the shootings, but if you bother to follow their sources, all but one of those incidents predate even Aurora, much less the recent school shootings.
Hell, they happened spread out over a period of time starting in 2008. All politics aside, five years is plenty of time for a handful of stupid to happen across a country of 300 million.
edited 27th Feb '13 12:47:52 PM by Pykrete
To be fair, even though the South has more explicitly racist people and embarrassments like not ratifying the 13th, in practice they tend to have rather less active problems with it than urban areas in the North that still have excessively poor and insular enclaves that turn into crime zones and law enforcement that deals with them regularly and depressingly often turns racist as a result.
edited 27th Feb '13 5:51:48 PM by Pykrete
Former WH press secretary states that he was under a gag order related to the drone program.
(Remind me: did Serocco link this already?
I think he did.)
The case American Express vs Italian Colors
may end up rendering corporations completely unaccountable for fraud in a staggering variety of contexts.
Private prisons in Arizona are an expensive boondoggle.
edited 27th Feb '13 7:23:24 PM by RadicalTaoist
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.Montana Roadkill Law Allows Motorists To Eat The Animals They Hit
Just glancing through them, I like this one from Marshalltown, Iowa: "Horses are forbidden to eat fire hydrants."
Oh, you were asking a serious question? No idea. Doesn't really matter anyway.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
It's about time the government put a stop those hydrant eating horses.
J.C. Watts: GOP 'in denial' about its image problems with minorities
Bob Woodward claims White House threatened him
Chuck Hagel: US 'can't dictate to the world'
edited 27th Feb '13 8:36:42 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016As the article notes, it's not uncommon for eating roadkill to be legal — but most of the time it's used for big game animals like deer, and only when they're freshly killed, not the stereotypical redneck scraping a week-old possum off the pavement sort of thing.
As for why it's illegal, depending on the state, it could run afoul of both food health safety and/or hunting laws.
edited 27th Feb '13 8:35:37 PM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Awesome.
edited 27th Feb '13 8:51:58 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016Sean Hannity is an excuse for a journalist?
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

Like I said, I'm more concerned about the ones who aren't getting help.