The latest metroplitan horror

[Rouetheday]

Actually, I hated math then and always will. But where did I mess up?

This weapons company's website stated clearly that this gun fires 3000 rounds per minute. That's 50 rounds per second. You want to make some distinction because each barrel 'only' fires 8.3 rounds per second. But, from what I can gather, the barrels are controlled by a single trigger and fire simultaneously. Thus, 6 times 8.3 equals 50. Voila!

 

[rhubroma]

Some states can restrict them more, some less. You do bring up a valid question. One where the answer "recreation" or "freedom" isn't an answer that will satisfy everyone. But I do wish to make a few more comments on this.

First, as known, not all weapons are able to purchase, some are limited. Automatic weapons, flame throwers, grenade launchers, etc. So an argument could be made that semi-automatic assault weapons belongs in this category. But at the same time, some argue that automatic weapons should be legalized.

Next, as I noted a few pages back, you could ban these weapons, and not only would it take a few decades to get most of them out of society, it still would not stop someone determined to kill a lot of people. Home made bombs work pretty well for that. Imagine if Holmes had locked the emergency exits in the theater, set the place on fire and blown it up.

Third, I will stress once again, this is a social issue more than anything else. we live in a society where people with problems are too often ignored and pushed aside. There's also economic issues. Blame who you wish for this, and I blame both political parties, but when a PhD student is finding no work in his field and instead working at McDonalds...



This is true, sadly. But because a lot of people were shot at once, it gets a lot of press. A few here, a few there, no one takes much notice. In 2007 for example, 12,632 were shot and killed by hand guns (homicide). As you likely guessed, most of these people were impoverished, living with little social support in economically depressed areas.

The chart below is very telling. It shows gun deaths by type in the US, by year. What's most significant is that if you flip the chart upside down, it becomes a chart of economic growth and prosperity in the US for those exact same years.

While the chart looks dramatic, in fact there wasn't a significant drop in murders by guns. Unless you think nearly 10,000 is an attainment. Whereas the chart doesn't consider suicides, accidental deaths, anomalies, etc.

Secondly, nobody is talking about a quick fix here, but establishing a different praxis by which it is rather difficult to arm oneself to the teeth, as Holmes readily did, which acts, if not as a complete deterrent, but at least a civil preventative measure. And above all transmits a different public message by the state.

I think that is the issue here: namely, rather than the state communicating a certain message and imposing a preventative measure, we get exactly the opposite, a call to arms. As if confidence in the level of civility among the citizenry were so low and law enforcement so ineffective that one can only take their personal security and defense into their own hands. This is what seems to be promoted in US society, which doesn't speak at all very high of how the nation perceives itself or of the security offered by the state to the people.

Something I hadn't mentioned before was that prior to having left the US for Rome I was held up by a thug with a gun about 50 yards from my apartment in Philadelphia. It was dark and I had the cab driver leave me at the other side of Spring Garden Street, which proved my undoing. Cutting an angle to intersect my path, the robber pulled out a pistol and pointed it at my head while demanding my wallet. He got my wallet. If I had been armed then perhaps either he or I would be dead. If he didn't have a gun then probably I'd have kept my wallet. The first thing I noticed about Rome was that late at night, even on the most desolate and dark alleyways, I wasn't looking over my shoulders as I walked. Slowly that natural defense caused by a constant sense of danger that accompanied me at Philadelphia vanished. In addition, I had a grade school friend commit suicide with his fathers weapon, in the house.

Freedom to arm oneself, readily, as Holmes did, is not a civil attainment. There needs to be placed in effect stricter regulations so that at least statistically the chance of such horrific instances as Aurora diminish, but also the general acts of violence by guns that is a fact of everyday life in America. The effects are plain to see by anyone living outside that legal structure and world view, socio-economic considerations aside (which are huge and that is something which really needs to be tackled). The problem in the US is that such a world view is accompanied by a socio-economic tension and increased call to violence, in films, video games, etc., which makes the problem extremely delicate and complex. At the same time there exists socio-economic differences among Europeans, though without the same lethal effects, while the social programs do appear to promote a stronger sense of the collective that perhaps ameliorates the situation - in effect relieving some of that tension. Perhaps two world wars provided enough of a blood bath for them to realize, as it has been said, that to live by the sword is to also die by it. On the other hand things are bad in Colombia too, though Columbia is not the richest country on the planet, nor regarded as most civil. It will take time to re-orient people in this regard, but a different legal structure is the most immediate, palpable and civil way the state can promote a different culture. Then one would have to engage the parents, school teachers, coaches, ministers, employers, etc. A monumental task.

 

[Rockets160]

This weapons company's website stated clearly that this gun fires 3000 rounds per minute. That's 50 rounds per second. You want to make some distinction because each barrel 'only' fires 8.3 rounds per second. But, from what I can gather, the barrels are controlled by a single trigger and fire simultaneously. Thus, 6 times 8.3 equals 50. Voila!

True. However, the weapon in Aurora was a single barreled weapon and thus I brought it to this point. So the math was not actually incorrect regardless of my abilities at said subject. I linked the website because I wanted to make a distinction between a 3000 rounds per second weapon and the actual wepon used in the tragedy.
The point being that there is not a "purchaseable by the general public" single barrel automatic weapon capable of firing the number of rounds stated.
I hope this clears the air and proves that however bad I used to be at math, I know how to manage a calculator well enough to perform simple equations.