college kids with guns

[Joanna]

Some college kids are protesting for the right to carry firearms.

Does it make sense to allow people who spend half their time high on pot and the other half depressed with angst to carry guns?

[Joanna]

Originally Posted by squidley

I don't know.

We give them guns to go fight wars, yet leave them defenseless in the ghettos they call college dorms.

Seems fair, it makes them easy prey for any predator that might want some young tender flesh.

Wayne Lo, Cho Seung-Hui, Thomas Hamilton, Charles Roberts, Garnet Bell, Luke Woodham, Charles Williams, Jeffrey Weise, Robert Flores, Jose Carranza, and a few others all found their victims unarmed and defenseless. They were murders of course, not rapists. Rapists don't get as much press these days.

Now for rape statistics we have:

In the US, each academic year, for every 5000 female students there are:

97 rapes by force or threat of force
80 attempted rapes by force or threat of force
121 rapes by coercion
146 sexual contacts with force or threat of force
149 sexual contacts by coercion

Now why would you want to change that?

The Squid

yes I can see the argument for allowing them guns to protect themselves.
but would still worry that them having guns would turn every argument into a shoot out.

[MADDOGMCMANAMAN]

lmao - thay should all be given guns BUT NO BULLETS !! haha wouldnt that be a bitch!!

[Akirana]

i think they should just melt down all the guns, all the missles, all the ammo etc etc. just throw it in a vulcano.. or send it t outa space or something... just get rid of it...
how are we as humanity supposed to embrace our brothers and sisters when we are under constant threat of being killed!!
of course if you get rid of of guns there's always other weapons one could use... but yeh...
i don't really know you know... i think we should just choose to embrace each other... not kill each other!!

[Becka]

Originally Posted by Akirana

i think they should just melt down all the guns, all the missles, all the ammo etc etc. just throw it in a vulcano.. or send it t outa space or something... just get rid of it...
how are we as humanity supposed to embrace our brothers and sisters when we are under constant threat of being killed!!
of course if you get rid of of guns there's always other weapons one could use... but yeh...
i don't really know you know... i think we should just choose to embrace each other... not kill each other!!

There weren't guns when the first cave man smashed his neighbor over the head with a rock...there weren't guns when Cain "rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him"...there weren't guns when the Huns ravaged Europe, sweeping through and leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

Guns aren't the reason that we are under constant threat of being killed, human nature and countless years of historical precedent are.

B.

[Akirana]

hence why i said: of course if you get rid of guns there's always other weapons one could use body parts included...
and we could conciously choose to hate each other or not!!
of course there's this lil thing called instict... but you can control that too if you were willing to and had the mental capaseties to do so
anyways... my point being!:
we should choose to live in peace with each other... and not hate each other... yes yes... it's hard... even for me
but still that's the way how i feel about it

[ego]

Speaking realistically you cant get rid of all guns. And if God created people, Samuel Colt made them equal....
Solution of the problem would be either to interrupt a meeting of the two, or deprive motivation from the attacker.
Squid, do you believe that a college kid is able to do right use of a gun?
I mean, how many killings by shoot has a college kid see on T.V. ?

[Becka]

Originally Posted by ego

Squid, do you believe that a college kid is able to do right use of a gun? I mean, how many killings by shoot has a college kid see on T.V. ?

I think that would depend on the individual. I mean to say "college kids" like they are all the same is painting with a pretty broad brush. Several of the "college kids" who want the right to have a gun on campus are graduate students and returning adult students. I can tell you from experience that I had a Concealed Carry Permit when I was in grad school. And I didn't spend half my time high on pot and the other half depressed with angst even as an undergrad.

If the same student is legally allowed to own and possess a firearm for protection or target practice or a paper weight, in an off campus apartment I find it somewhat troubling that they are denied this right because they live on campus. I can see the argument for this position but it still bothers me.

B.

[Joanna]

Originally Posted by squidley

The handfull that will choose to legally carry firearms (remember under the gun control act of 1968 in the US they must be 21 years old to possess a handgun and 18 for a rifle or shotgun) or have one at the ready will only sweeten the mix.

It really isn't about using the gun anyway, but the threat to the criminal who might think that their would-be victim IS armed.

Gun fights on college campuses have never been a problem for criminals anyway, as laws stop those only willing to obey them. With millions of guns (or worse) available in the world, a few honest citizens so armed may make little difference.

Oh, and for those who seem to think just firearms pose a hazard, please feel free to read up on Walter Seifert, who in 1964 took a flamethrower to Cologne, Germany Catholic Elementary School killing eight students and two teachers before turning himself in. Germany has some pretty harsh gun control laws too.

You can get everything you need to build a decent flamethrower from Home Depot, no questions asked.

The Squid

guess so but I would still feel freaked going to college and thinking there were more concealed guns there than at the average cop shop lol

[Akirana]

there's also the thing about suicides being way up cause guns are so easy to get in the USA... i mean shit... it's a good thing i never grew up around guns cause otherwise you'd prolly be a member short on this great board
but yeh... i think guns should be extremely hard to get... and D_Lupin... i couldn't come to the words for face-to-face combat weapons... so thanks for explaining it for me lol

[Ntense]

Naw, give 'em the right to carry a battleaxe. There's no frickin' way to conceal it, you have to be *seriously* pissed off to want to carry one, and it gives the rest of us a fair chance to take 'em out with a service pistol. It'd satisfy their need to feel dangerous without being a genuine danger to the general public. You might pull a pistol in a rush of emotion, but you're less likely to go hacking at someone with a double-bit axe.

I'm all for civil rights about gun ownership (although I'd draw the line at howitzers). That doesn't mean that I trust a brand-spanking new 'adult' with one. Most people I know didn't settle down emotionally until they were ~25, so trusting a partially-balanced newbie with one would be suicidal. Oh, by the way: the kid that lived across the street from me was accidentally shot and killed by his brother.

What fucking college are they going to that they feel the need to shoot someone on sight??

i don;t think they should bring guns while at school, they should be checked before entering class or something. it might be a hold-up on time, but it could really prevent tragedies like the virginia tech massacre from happening again.
i think that if a student is licensed to own a gun, they should be able to own one in their dorm. just NOT in school.

[Rogue]

I don't know about that Akirana, I don't live in the US, but the two teenagers I knew who committed suicide chose to hang themselves. It's not like they needed a gun.

There are 18 year olds happily going off to a bullshit war. Why? Because they love guns, they want shoot some "bad guys" and "terrorists." Their friends back home aren't going to think any differently, they are watching these "heroes" on the news every day and don't know any better. This culture and mentality is the problem.

There's no real solution. On one hand, arm everyone with guns and no one will every try to steal a handbag again. On the other, guess what the first thing people will turn to in a fit of rage, when they are not thinking straight. An incredible number of those deaths Squidley listed were accidents.

[Akirana]

i agree... but let's just take it out of my experience... if i had a gun at 2 moments in my life... i wouldn't have been standing here no more... and since i'm not allowed to post underage shit you'll have to pm me if you want to know...
me personally would never go through the trouble of cutting/hanging/jumping off of things cause there can be a moment in the time it takes to die that you might decide that you want to live and regret that you done it... and yes... it would have been in a couple very emotional states... and no... it's not cause some girlfriend left me lol

further more... don't you think the accidents wouldn't have happened if there were no guns?

i agree with the part that the mentality is the problem... why are people so obsessed by guns? because if they have one they feel powerfull enough to overcome every difficulty in there life? i don't know... but i think it's rather a weakness then a strong point... and considering fights and guns... i think it's lame and weak to bring a gun to a fight... if you don't want to be in a fight.. then don't get involved in stuff that will lead into one if you can't beat them with your bodyparts!

also... i don't think there is any honor to be found in shooting someone from miles away like they do in "modern warfare"
at least if your going to kill someone have the decency to kill the person while standing in front of him!! that's more honorable if you ask me...
sure you could shoot someone while standing in front of him... but i still think that's weak and dishonorable

anyways... i'm getting to pissed off to go further into this!
so i'll end this with my original feeling about this crap:

we should embrace our brothers and sisters instead of shunning them and hating them!! cause maybe... just maybe... if we could embrace our fellow man... we could make this a beautifull excistence rather then a fucked up planet to live on >.<

^ i liked the last "hippie statement" you typed- right on!!!!

[Ntense]

quote: "Love is all you need..."

news flash, Dec. 8, 1980: Ironically, John Lennon, the musician and writer of songs such as "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" was shot to death today by Mark David Chapman. Lennon had a macabre sense of humour about dying, once saying, "We'll either go in a plane crash or we'll be popped off by some loony."

Peace, love and universal harmony are indeed worthy goals for humanity, but in the meantime I keep a loaded .45 handy for the few vicious bastards and the occasional mad dog (no, not you Maddog!!) I've actually had to fire it in self-defense once while hiking in a remote area of the mountains in Arizona. A friend and I were being shot at by either a) a crazy gold miner, or b) a crazy dope grower. After emptying two clips each in the general direction the shots were coming from, they stopped. We hauled ass out of that valley of low scrub and cactus. To this day I could care less whether there's a skeleton on top of that ridge, and quite honestly I hope we killed the asshole. We were in plain sight, with zero chance ANYONE could have confused us with a deer or a javelina. Plus, we were in a wildlife preserve and it wasn't during hunting season.