Gunman Opens Fire At LAX 520
McGruber tips news that today at 9:30AM PST, a man removed an assault rifle from a bag at Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire. The shooter moved into the screening area, and then further into the terminal. One TSA agent was killed; roughly six more people were injured. The gunman was a ticketed passenger. (Early reports suggested he worked for the TSA — this does not seem to be the case.) Police engaged him in gunfire, and he's now in custody. His motive is unknown at this time.
Re:Those poor people (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Those poor people (Score:2, Interesting)
You're a dick. That's all.
No and you want to know whay ? Because feeling sorry time and time again doesn't fix the problem. Every time a tragedy like this occurs, we hear people being sorry, politicians shedding crocodile tears and then what ? Nothing changes because Americans and the NRA are so in love with their weapons that they blame everything EXCEPT guns. So we put the blame on films, we put the blame on videogames, we put the blame on sex, we put the blame on hocus pocus etc... But we never have the political resolve to fix the real cause of these massacres. The freely available guns in this country.
Courtesy of the fucking second amendment.
America is a country of guns with all it entails. Deal with it.
Re:Great... (Score:2, Interesting)
Australia had a similar gun control problem and solved it:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOKWcH1zBl2kfnCwyyZWk5MW28lgaNa7L [youtube.com]
Everyone -- including the most vocal opponents of the plan -- are happy with the results, Australia remains a democracy, and there have been zero mass shootings since those changes took effect nearly two decades ago. Homicide rates and suicide rates have also declined.
Sometimes the other side is irrational, and this is one of those cases.
Re:Impossible! (Score:4, Interesting)
Take your straw man and go home
So, seriously then, what was your argument?
Because if the "if guns are criminalized, then only criminals will have guns" mantra wasn't it, then I'm genuinely curious what point you were making.
And if that mantra was the point, then my Murder example may be hyperbole, but the point is valid. Making anything illegal doesn't stop the criminals from doing it. It never has, and it never will.
It does however give society a chance to catch a murderer-to-be with gun prior to using it. Naturally, a determined would-be murderer has any number of other options from knives to knitting needles and we can't realistically ban all of them, and should not try to. But a ban on a weapon whose designed function is to kill or incapacitate lots of people at range quickly might save lives, if the weapon is detected before its used.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Interesting)
All quite true - some criminals still have guns in Australia (though not many, as a proportion of total criminals). However they are almost invariably handguns, shotguns or single-shot rifles (not semi autos which tend to the be weapon of choice in the US it seems). Furthermore, it's very rare that they are used in random attacks or sprees such as you see in the US. Think about when you hear of a shooting in Australia these days. 95+% of the time it's criminal-on-criminal (related to bikie gangs or other forms of organized crime). Other more petty crims with guns might use them in a holdup or robbery, but rarely seem to actually ~use~ them (i.e. they use the weapon to threaten the victim). I can't recall more than a couple of instances of actual murder of an innocent person or people with a firearm in Australia (outside of organized crime) in the last decade. One in particular I recall from a couple of years ago where someone shot, intending to hit person X, but missed and hit person Y, way in the distance, who was a poor truck driver that just happened to driving past. But still, incidents like that are rare.
Source: anecdotal admittedly, but I'm a dual Aussie-US citizen who spends a decent amount of time in both countries. The situation in Australia ain't perfect of course, but I don't really care about bikie gangs shooting each other up to be honest - good riddance. You don't see criminals with guns killing indiscriminately, or the mass shooting sprees, that you see in the US.
Re:Great... (Score:2, Interesting)
Way to miss the point. A gun massacre is not simply a series of homicides. They are often indiscriminate and not targeted at anyone in particular. Hell our last massacre involved shooting mostly a bunch of tourists.
The normal run of the mill homicides we get down here are targeted and deliberate acts of usually pre-meditated murder. Most if not all involving guns are related to some gangland crimes. The remainder are simple stabbings.
Now I'm not sure about you but I would want someone to have to stand within punching distance of me if they were to try and kill me, which in this country is very likely, but no so much in yours.