Hand gun ownership in the U.S.

[Senator Jack]

Heroin was legal, but as an addictive drug became a controlled substance after it was demonstrated to be more of a detriment to the user than other pain killers.

Trap! Cigarettes are addictive and deadly - still on the market. A responsible smoker may smoke a pack a week - not too bad. Irresponsible - 4 packs a day. Same could be said for heroin and any narcotic. Why are responsible recreational users denied their pleasure because of the addicts?

 

[Lincsong]

Ah, but let's just say I want to possess 500 kilos of heroin because I simply want to admire it. I adore it's powdery beauty - even think it art in a way. i don't want to shoot it or sell it. I just want to collect it. I'm unsure if that would hold water with the police.

If you want to possess it for it's powdery beauty, that would seem strange, but the use of heroin is far more destructive than the use of a gun. A gun can be collected, it can be used recreationally, it can be used destructively. Heroin could be collected for it's powered beauty, but it's recreational misuse can be destructive and it can also be used as an offensive weapon to kill someone as in an overdose.

For instance Jack, back in January in Las Vegas, if my .357 was sitting under the seat of my truck in the parking lot you wouldn't be affected/hurt by my possession of it as I talked to you.

 

[Lincsong]

Trap! Cigarettes are addictive and deadly - still on the market. A responsible smoker may smoke a pack a week - not too bad. Irresponsible - 4 packs a day. Same could be said for heroin and any narcotic. Why are responsible recreational users denied their pleasure because of the addicts?

But, smoking 4 packs a day is not going to cause someone to overdose or go onto a murderous rampage or rape. Psyche!

 

[carebear]

Trap! Cigarettes are addictive and deadly - still on the market. A responsible smoker may smoke a pack a week - not too bad. Irresponsible - 4 packs a day. Same could be said for heroin and any narcotic. Why are responsible recreational users denied their pleasure because of the addicts?

Yep, do what you want as long as you don't hurt others. If you lose control and screw up your own life, feel free. Just don't ask me to support you directly or indirectly.

The libertarian snark is that we are fighting a "War on Some Drugs".

 

[John in Covina]

I highly doubt that the fact that there are so many guns in the hands of civilians has ever been a deterent to the US being invaded. I would say that the actual deterents have been our military (including our militia, the Guard) and perhaps more importantly, the sheer logistical nightmare such an invasion would be. There's no country that can mount such an invasion.


Cheers,
Tom

***********
Prior to our country being a true military power, we did face invasion, 1812 the British burned the White House. We had a limited standing army, but the concept of militia is over 21 under 55 and own a gun - guess what you can be a militia member under the original definition.

I am not sure which guy said it but I recall a WWII Japanese General or Admiral said you would have to be crazy to invade the continental US because of the number of armed populace.

 

[Senator Jack]

The Odd Couple?

Can these men talk about guns without driving each other crazy?

 

[Viola]

I can't figure out why I'm supposed to care what other people inject. Unless your my family, I really don't give a rodent's patootie.

-Viola

 

[carebear]

But, smoking 4 packs a day is not going to cause someone to overdose or go onto a murderous rampage or rape. Psyche!

If someone overdoses due to their decision to overuse heroin or dies of lung cancer from overusing cigarettes, why should I care? They made their bed, just don't bill me.

If they choose to commit crimes that hurt others, they should go to jail, just like anyone else who commits a crime. I don't have to care what contributed to their choice, mental problem, overuse or sheer narcissism.

It's the act of hurting someone else unlawfully that matters.

 

[Viola]

How often do heroin addicts go on a rape/murder spree, anyway? Most of the time they just seem skinny and sleepy.

-Viola

 

[Lincsong]

Can these men talk about guns without driving each other crazy?

bahahahahahahhahhahahahaalol lol lol lol

See, you weren't threatened at all.

 

[John in Covina]

Trap! Cigarettes are addictive and deadly - still on the market. A responsible smoker may smoke a pack a week - not too bad. Irresponsible - 4 packs a day. Same could be said for heroin and any narcotic. Why are responsible recreational users denied their pleasure because of the addicts?

**************

True in the bell curve of human developement there are people that can smoke 2 packs a day and one day go cold turkey, but they are fairly rare. Probably the same can be said of heroin users, but in smoking one difference is the damage is not as immediate, you could smoke a pack a day for 10 maybe 20 years without having the consiquences of such a life style or habit. The longer you smaoke the higher the likelyhood of health problems. Again we all probably know of some one 90 or a hundred that smokes and eats bacon & eggs daily without those problems, again it happens but rarely. However the number of people that will have a lifetime addiction to heroin or crack cocaine after just one or a few uses is much more the norm, hence the danger is recognized as higher because of the immediacy.

What is the percentage of honest citizens that go nuts and use guns in an illegal fashion harming others out of all of the gun owners? That percantge is very small. Now, what percentage of crime in which the use of a gun occurs in the commiting of a crime in which the perpatrator has demonstrated criminal behavior prior to the gun crime, probably much higher a percentagge than those that just "snapped."

Tom mentioned the idea of how sad it is that we have such crimes and seemed to lay it as a societal problem. Well percentages and numbers may be up currently, but there are always a percentage of people in this world that do not or cannot empathize with their fellow human beings and have little or no reluctance at killing others. It is unlikely they will go away or be reduced as a percentage of the populace any time soon. It is however important to recognize when the signs and their actions point to these types of problems so they may be kept in check as under care, therapy and supervision.

 

[Lincsong]

How often do heroin addicts go on a rape/murder spree, anyway? Most of the time they just seem skinny and sleepy.

-Viola

I'm not so much interested in the amount of times. It's just too often. So the next time some drug addict on meth or heroin jumps on my rig on 98th Avenue in Oakland as I'm heading into the office, I can pummle him with a couple canisters of black pepper????? Or if a horseman comes up to me on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland I can beat him over the head with some buckets of chicken base? Now, compare that to the people smoking tobacco in the smoking lot in high school, none of them ever bothered anyone.

 

[Senator Jack]

Now, compare that to the people smoking tobacco in the smoking lot in high school, none of them ever bothered anyone.

HUH??? THEY STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY AND CALLED ME MAMA'S BOY!!!

 

[Lincsong]

If someone overdoses due to their decision to overuse heroin or dies of lung cancer from overusing cigarettes, why should I care? They made their bed, just don't bill me.

If they choose to commit crimes that hurt others, they should go to jail, just like anyone else who commits a crime. I don't have to care what contributed to their choice, mental problem, overuse or sheer narcissism.

It's the act of hurting someone else unlawfully that matters.

Exactly, I'd even water the grass at the paupers field. It's the act of hurting someone unlawfully that matters, and the chances are greater with a horseman than with some guy lighting up a Pall Mall.

 

[Viola]

Exactly, I'd even water the grass at the paupers field. It's the act of hurting someone unlawfully that matters, and the chances are greater with a horseman than with some guy lighting up a Pall Mall.

Then isn't the issue whether or not they're attacking somebody, and not what they're on? Why worry about what they're smoking/injecting/rubbing on their bald spots etc. at all? Prosecute violence, not chemicals.

-Viola

 

[Lincsong]

HUH??? THEY STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY AND CALLED ME MAMA'S BOY!!!

bahahahhahhahahhahaahhalol lol lol Mama's Boy????? WTH?????lol

 

[John in Covina]

How often do heroin addicts go on a rape/murder spree, anyway? Most of the time they just seem skinny and sleepy.
-Viola

****************

Actually, there comes a time for many addicts when their habit cannot be supported by a normal income and theft or prostitution enters the picture.

The drug use may interfere with the performance of their job and they lose it.

(There was a term in NYC a while back for a junkie prostitue, a battery girl. It references the fact that like a battery she runs on chemicals.)

I have seen first hand some people get their lives really screwed up on drugs and to say they were the only people that suffered is incorrect. There is also that lack of quality time it tends to create for parents, spouses and children of the drug addicted. Relationships were often ruined.

 

[Lincsong]

Then isn't the issue whether or not they're attacking somebody, and not what they're on? Why worry about what they're smoking/injecting/rubbing on their bald spots etc. at all? Prosecute violence, not chemicals.

-Viola

Rogaine causes you to go crazy????????

 

[Senator Jack]

Rogaine doesn't make you crazy. Hemorrhoids do.

 

[Lincsong]

Rogaine doesn't make you crazy. Hemorrhoids do.

That's why I don't eat Mexican food anymore. I've learned my lesson.