am i the only person that went to a middle school and high school that had at least one sheriff's deputy and a full private security force on campus at all times? in a non-urban public school no less.

"The M16 (officially Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for semi-automatic, three-round burst and full-automatic fire."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle

Yep, no time to think, just do something, blame the first thing we see, do it NOW.

If we call it "leadership" then it's not dumb.

outta the park indeed.

WOAT analogy. The two rifles fire the exact same high-powered ammunition.

Even after your embarrassing post about the bombs in the Colorado shooter's apartment, you still don't get that bombings are a) harder to execute and b) easier to intercept?

I have a solution (I'm sure it's been talked about before), at least for schools/malls/public areas. Gun nuts want guns for hunting and home protection. Ok. All handguns, shotguns, assault rifles sold to consumers should be shipped with GPS, so that the guns can only be in predetermined areas, like the consumer's home (home protection) or at designated hunting areas (hunting). Any firearm that leaves the area for which it's designated either doesn't fire (if you could engineer that for newer guns) or the black helicopters converge on the assailant. Any person with a firearm without a GPS after a certain period of time = jail time.

Guns are legal but drugs are not

Welcome to America: 18th century values in the 21st century

yeah if you bloody tell someone what you're up to

cliffnotes?

Drugs were legal in the 18th (and 19th) century tho.

No, I'm not. In your analogy, I'm saying it's a NASCAR stock car without top gear.

I'm saying M16 = military designation for this rifle, which as commercially available post 1994 in Connecticut is the same rifle without full auto or burst - same (fragmenting) ammo, same design, same magazine, etc. - and also without, basically, a suppressor, bayonet lug or grenade launcher.

And oh, also, if it was built before that it is legal in the precise form of the military M16 (i.e., full auto). Very expensive.

And oh, also, when it was invented in the 60s it was indeed termed M16 by the military. Same gun.

And oh, also, modifying it with illegal parts is not as hard as alleged in this thread. Not very expensive.

EDIT: To be as charitable as possible. The AR-15 likely used is a semi-automatic only version of the rifle that entered military use as the M16, with the capacity to fire fully automatic (i.e., one pull of trigger = multiple bullets). They use the same ammunition but a semi-automatic rifle has a significantly slower rate of fire and, in practice, requires re-setting of sights between each pull of the trigger, unlike the military M16.

I mean, does that help?

It's almost worse.

I am. Gun ownership is dumb in this day and age. If you want to hunt a squirrel, man up and do it with your hands or a knife. Maybe then I'll respect hunters. Instead they sit like a mile away with a scope and a super duper powerful sniper rifle. What tough men!

like are you really ****ing serious here? you've got me on steaming tilt man

The gun used doesn't matter. The Virginia Tech shooter used two guns. One was a .22 caliber pistol that no self-defense 'expert' would ever recommend as a primary weapon.

And most "gun nuts" don't consider the .223 rifle cartridge to be "high powered" anyway. Basically, the reason people overreact to the AR-15 is because it "looks" scary.

No dude making a ****ing explosive vest is hard. You can't just buy that **** off the shelf, you have to MAKE the components and put them together in the appropriate way. Crazy people aren't going to be capable of doing stuff like that.

why can't i have a gun to protect myself from home invaders who might be armed in your ideal utopia?

What exactly is your point?

I mean it's pretty cool if you think anyone from the 18th century has held political office, or voted, or been alive lately. Or if you don't understand how the government works.

Why can't you have a RPG? Or a flamethrower? Or a tank?

The most common variant of the M16 currently in service is not fully automatic.

i just assume that with little more than an internet connection, since the people in dirt-poor-istan can make dozens of suicide bomber vests per day, perhaps someone in america could do so too, if suicide bombing became the new, popular, trendy way of committing mass murder in the states. Y'know, once schizos decide gun violence is passé

Yeah it has a muzzle velocity of more than 3000 fps and twice the kinetic energy of a .357 magnum bullet. Confirmed not high powered.

Confirmed 20 year old Adam Lanza?

I went to HS pre-Columbine, so things might have changed since then, but when I went we had a "security guard" who stopped vehicles leaving the school premises during school hours to make sure that the person had permission to be leaving the school grounds (a note from a teacher or the school nurse, etc). I don't believe that he was armed.

And there were always a few police cruisers parked about a quarter of a mile away from the school (they loved to hand out speeding tickets to kids who were running late to class), but I guess they probably could have responded to an incident relatively quickly...

Well I wouldn't be opposed, but that is because I cannot relate at all to people who hunt animals or go to shooting ranges for pleasure. Since some people like these activities, why can't we get a ban on all semi-automatic weapons. That way, shooting sprees at schools are less likely (or at least less efficient), and the gun-nuts still get to enjoy shooting deer.

Basically it comes down to making a pros and cons list, and quantifying wherever possible, and always making gun laws so that the cons never outweigh the pros.