05-02-2018, 01:41 AM
(05-01-2018, 08:12 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(05-01-2018, 12:23 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:Gun free zone means one is free to shoot/wound as many people as possible and turn as many people as possible into hostages too.(05-01-2018, 02:21 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(04-30-2018, 11:05 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(04-30-2018, 06:35 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: I know you have some sort of dog thing. You seem obsessed and delusional. Well, in the old days of hunter gatherers, the dogs would corner or exhaust the prey, and wait for the more deadly of the two partners to arrive. The humans were equipped, trained and ready. They would finish the job. The humans were dominant, the dogs less so.
Since then, many humans have chosen to become wimps. Not all, but many. Technology has potentially made them all the more potent, but many choose to be helpless. Even today, if a criminal with a gun wanted a dog dead, the dog would be dead. You would be a fool to seriously think otherwise.
Or at least as dead as your arguments. Many blue think that if they really concentrate on thinking nice thoughts, they can ignore nature red with blood. Well, they can't. It isn't done by wishful thinking. Bottom line, you still have to be stronger than the other guy. If you think you don't have to be, you might be dreaming.
I don't know if I think like that or not; I'm not sure. But thinking nice thoughts is not without power. At least an attitude and confidence that you live in a safe society, borne of taking responsibility to make your society safe and prosperous through government and volunteer action, contributes to respect for law and human rights.
Dogs successfully deter many criminals. True, it is not foolproof against an armed criminal. But guns are practically useless. The only way to create a safe society, is to think the nice thought that it can be done, and then get together with your fellow citizens and do it. It helps to live in a state where there's a long tradition of people doing it. They are called blue states. If you prefer barbarism, move to a red state and arm yourself to the teeth. Most guns today are owned by a relatively few gun fanatics there.
There is no limit to how strong you have to be in order to be stronger than all the other guys. That is as futile as to think that wishful thinking alone makes things so. There is always someone better than you in any competitive situation. Give up the quest and accept your weakness. In numbers there is strength, not isolation and individualism.
And yet, criminals will prey upon the weak, and todays active shooters turn to cowards or suicide if confronted. Any society to work just has to be stronger that its criminal element to work well. The red theory is that one can best do that by allowing private individuals to be strong as cops get to where the criminals perceive weakness only after the criminal is long gone. This is also why so many of the shootings take place in or near schools, hospitals or some military bases. The opposite is thought, that if you disarm the lawful, this creates zones where the criminal or active shooter sees himself as operating freely for a time.
I know what the red side thinks. I understand that in the parts of America where most of them live, there's some truth that cops would arrive late, and so they need to be armed or own firearms. Understandable; but I still think it's wrong, since unless the arms are locked away where they can't be stolen, the criminals and the unqualified can steal them. And they do. And the owner himself can turn violent and shoot people. And locking the guns up makes them far less useful in a sudden crisis. This Trump-trumpeted idea about gun free zones is a red favorite, but it's wrong. Gun free zones means that no-one there can turn into a shooter. A gun free zone may also allow for an armed and trained guard, if I remember correctly. Or at least some other protections.
The shootings take place in many different places, of all different kinds, all in good numbers. Churches, concert venues and clubs, shopping centers, theaters, offices, restaurants have all been hard hit. Few of them take place in areas advertised as gun free zones. They take place in locations handy to the shooter, or related to his frustrations. I would hardly think a military base could be considered a gun free zone!
Maybe in this day and age it's advisable for larger places who can afford it to have trained, armed professional guards or campus police, etc. Not armed teachers and students or whoever.
Most dogs I know are barking monsters.