Posted on 10/31/2016 7:08:21 AM PDT by rktman
Guns are an important part of American history, both from a legal and illegal standpoint. From the single action revolvers of the old West to mobsters with Thompson submachine guns, American culture and society have enshrined firearms into our national iconography. They are inherently complicated things, created with the latent potential to protect or to destroy. Beyond our national discussion of gun legislation, the possession of deadly weapons by regular citizens remains a more contested issue.
The far right and the far left are exaggerating and arbitrarily simplifying what is an extremely nuanced and philosophical question. I hope to reframe our current political discourse and put it into the historical, even global context of human violence. Instead of looking at statistics, which Mark Twain termed “damn lies,” we would do well to hypothesize for a moment. What place do firearms have in American society?
(Excerpt) Read more at info.umkc.edu ...
Oh, Scrambler Bob, I forgot to reference your second thought concerning Fort Hood.
” my Fort Hood reference was that none of the victims were armed to defend themselves.”
They wasn’t supposed to have one. If the entire police force and OSI had done their job, he wouldn’t have. The rules are guided by a 1993 Pentagon regulation that dictates that weapons on military bases are only allowed to be carried for official purposes like law enforcement or sentry duty, prohibiting “the carrying of non-Government owned or issued weapons or ammunition.” So he purchased an off post handgun, illegally got it on post with intent to use it, while under investigation. But no one was supposed to have a gun, especially him. He wouldn’t be authorized as a doctor outside of downrange to have one unless required for a specific reason anyway. same as mop kit. That makes him a criminal, not a carrier of a gun.
red
The Great Equalizer is what they called pistols in the West. Women could carry them under their skirts and not be afraid to be attacked.
Post #36,
2A
We The People are armed
and will Stay that way.
What are you exactly saying?
Tells me...some things....
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