# College Station, Texas shooting
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 13, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402 "2012-08-13T19:46:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/101 "2012-08-14T01:22:21Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> This totally reminds me of the “clings to guns and religion” bit. Not that I supported Obama when he said that, but now it seems fair to accuse anti-gun nuts of that same irrationality.
I’m just trying to figure out what I, as a big city bubblehead liberal fake American, am supposed to think here.
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### Author:  [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/102 "2012-08-14T01:29:48Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#):
>
> You’d have to ask people like **Harborwolf** and **Hentor the Barbarian** , but I assume it is because of deep seated emotional and / or psychological issues. Further, being liberals, they dream of being able to create government that regulates every aspect of everyone’s lives.
Dude. Seriously? You’re serious? Really really serious? I’m a gun hating liberal?
You’re just all kinds of adorable, aren’t you? You really think I’m laughing at you because I hate guns. That’s wonderful. You must be a wonderful, amazing person to be around. You’re some kind of adorable, wonderful, amazing gun toting clown.
Just wow. Wow. I think I’m about to blow a funny fuse.
I think it’s funny that you believe I have emotional issues when you own guns to protect yourself from drunks on ATVs hauling swimming pools around.
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### Author:  [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/103 "2012-08-14T01:41:48Z")
You’d think that someone with the general contempt of humanity that Martin has would realize why it’s a terrible idea for all these fucking morons to have guns. But no, he’s too wrapped up in his fetish.
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/104 "2012-08-14T01:46:55Z")
> [@Maeglin](#):
>
> But liking guns is not because of deep seated emotional and/or psychological issues?
Maybe. I don’t really “like” guns, I like hunting which requires the use of guns, but outside of season I don’t really go to the range or anything like that. I usually go before season for practice and sighting in but that’s it.
There’s no such thing as nuance on this issue from people like **Harborwolf** who sit in their home at night foaming at the mouth because people out in the world sometimes vote Republican or might own more guns than **Harborwolf** thinks they should. To them, anyone who owns any gun is a gun nut maniac who rapes children and is just one step away from loading up and going on a rampage at the local community college.
The reality is, people who have personal arsenals in the thousands and who are always online talking about hypothetical home defense scenarios and scheming about how they’d defend their property if the man came to confiscate their guns almost certainly have some sort of emotional or psychological issue.
Someone who has a CCW isn’t necessarily that person though, nor is someone who owns a large number of long rifles because of hunting different game for which different calibers are desirable. But the thing is even gun owners in those groups don’t want you to ban gun ownership.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/105 "2012-08-14T01:52:41Z")
We now know of one person who should never be let near a firearm.
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### Author:  [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/106 "2012-08-14T01:58:13Z")
You have to feel for him at least a little bit. There he is, all his life, trying to convince people of the fairly reasonable point that not everybody who owns guns is necessarily a fucking dangerous lunatic who if he hasn’t killed someone already it’s only because he has shitty aim and’s probably got the shakes. But he can never get anywhere because every person he ever talks to has _him_ for an example.
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### Author:  [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/107 "2012-08-14T02:00:20Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#):
>
> There’s no such thing as nuance on this issue from people like **Harborwolf** who sit in their home at night foaming at the mouth because people out in the world sometimes vote Republican or might own more guns than **Harborwolf** thinks they should. To them, anyone who owns any gun is a gun nut maniac who rapes children and is just one step away from loading up and going on a rampage at the local community college.
Yeah bro. Totally got me nailed. I’m freaking out. It’s like you’re inside my mind, reading my thoughts. I’m just frothing at the idea of people owning guns. I’m both foaming at the mouth angry and pants shitting terrified. It’s really rough on my clothing actually. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t make fun of me for it.
This is your schtick now? You won’t talk to me directly, but you’re going to keep posting my name and attributing views on guns to me. That’s awesome. Do people really take you seriously, because I can’t read your post without imagining you dancing in some sort of clown outfit. Red squeaky nose and honking clown shoes. Bet you wear sad clown makeup.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/108 "2012-08-14T02:01:45Z")
> [@picker](#):
>
> ^this.
>
> I don’t care how outraged the gun nuts (including those here on this board, most of them perfectly sane in all other respects) get - there is simply no rationale where your right to own dangerous items \> the need to protect innocent life.
I suggest you get rid of all your kitchen knives then. And those forks tines look pretty sharp - you better switch to spoons.
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### Author:  [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/109 "2012-08-14T02:07:04Z")
Try and kill three or more people with a knife. Go on. I’ll wait.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/110 "2012-08-14T02:11:30Z")
> [@DianaG](#):
>
> Try and kill three or more people with a knife. Go on. I’ll wait.
[http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/06/44393](http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/06/44393)
[http://www.thedailysheeple.com/teenage-knifeman-kills-8-injures-5\_082012](http://www.thedailysheeple.com/teenage-knifeman-kills-8-injures-5_082012)
> **[Grafitti artist kills four in New York knife spree](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/grafitti-artist-kills-four-in-new-york-knife-spree-2213877.html)**
>
> A graffiti artist armed with five knives went on a 28-hour rampage across New York City, fatally stabbing his stepfather, ex-girlfriend and her mother, running down a pedestrian with a stolen Lexus, and wounding four other people before being...
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### Author:  [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/111 "2012-08-14T02:12:23Z")
Well, that settles it. Knives and guns: the same.
Fuck a knife, anyway. I cut my chicken-fried steak with a MAC-10.
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### Author:  [@nogravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nogravity)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/112 "2012-08-14T02:14:09Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> This totally reminds me of the “clings to guns and religion” bit. Not that I supported Obama when he said that, but now it seems fair to accuse anti-gun nuts of that same irrationality.
This guy fits that description:
> [@](#):
>
> A Facebook page belonging to Caffall features several photos of assault rifles, including a Czech-made version of the AK-47. On the page, Caffall identified himself as divorced, with “Christian” religious beliefs. He lists a series of snipers, including Carlos Hathcock and Vasily Zaytsev, as “inspirational people.”
>
> “I am pulling a cross between Forrest Gump and Jack Kerouac (without the drugs),” Caffall wrote on the site. “I’m on the road, permanently.”
>
> Caffall commented on Facebook about several recent gun purchases, including a vintage Russian rifle. “I just got a new toy,” he wrote in May 2011. “I’ll be at the gun range as much as I can.”
[Link](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/thomas-caffall-texas-am-shooting_n_1774282.html)
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/113 "2012-08-14T02:15:00Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#):
>
> Well, that settles it. Knives and guns: the same.
>
> Fuck a knife, anyway. I cut my chicken-fried steak with a MAC-10.
But as you know “there is simply no rationale where your right to own dangerous items \> the need to protect innocent life”. That baseball bat you have at home looks pretty dangerous to me.
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### Author:  [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/114 "2012-08-14T02:19:40Z")
It looks dangerous to you because your caretakers tell you it is. The rest of us realize that the need to protect people from pieces of wood is different from the need to protect people from a tube that launches pieces of exploding metal at a thousand miles per hour, and speak about the subject that way, and don’t worry about the fact that technically each is dangerous.
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### Author:  [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/115 "2012-08-14T02:19:51Z")
I said YOU, honey. I’m fairly confident you’re not that badass.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/116 "2012-08-14T02:33:03Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#):
>
> I don’t care how outraged you are, a few innocent lives are a completely reasonable cost for any number of dangerous items people enjoy the freedom to purchase and own. Luckily for firearms, the SCOTUS has recently begun correctly interpreting the constitution such that the second amendment confers an individual right to own firearms, so until you losers get 38 states to agree with you we’re going to keep owning guns.
>
> **Unfortunately several other dangerous items that people enjoy owning have no explicit constitutional protections. Considering the number of innocent lives taken by things like swimming pools, ATVs, and alcohol we may be in trouble on those.** Luckily none of those things makes liberals piss and shit their pants in fear like firearms do, so at least for awhile we’re safe to get drunk after swimming and then drive our ATVs into a daycare.
[This again](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15352448&postcount=95)? Remind me, how many multiple murders were committed with swimming pools this year? How many with ATVS, or with alcohol? I’m having trouble finding those statistics.
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/117 "2012-08-14T02:38:51Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> [This again](http://boardstest.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15352448&postcount=95)? Remind me, how many multiple murders were committed with swimming pools this year? How many with ATVS, or with alcohol? I’m having trouble finding those statistics.
The CDC actually has numbers for alcohol, 75,000 per year all deaths included, around 13,000 per year are deaths from alcohol related car incidents. Some of those would be people being drunk and killing themselves, but some would be vehicular manslaughter or homicide in which drunks kill innocent motorists or pedestrians.
The total alcohol numbers are far higher than gun deaths, with total gun deaths being 31,000. However 50% of all gun deaths are from suicide, not that suicide isn’t a problem but those are people who _wanted_ to die. I imagine almost all of the 75,000 people who die every year from alcohol would prefer not to die, even the chronic alcoholics who drink themselves to death probably wish they could have stopped.
Now, why is 75,000 alcohol deaths not as meaningful as the 12,600 intentional homicides committed by firearms? From a public policy standpoint why should we be more concerned about the number 12.6k versus 75k? Why do I care if one is intentional homicide or not? 75k is still a lot more “Years of Potential Life Lost” than the 12.6k (I didn’t just pull YPLL out of my ass, the CDC uses that to assess how destructive to society given deaths are.)
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/118 "2012-08-14T02:42:10Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#):
>
> Why do I care if one is intentional homicide or not?
What a liberal point of view to ignore free will and ethics and treat each comrade as an interchangable machine. Why do you love death panels?
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/119 "2012-08-14T03:03:24Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#):
>
> Why do I care if one is intentional homicide or not?
Perhaps a professional mental health practitioner can help you figure that out.
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### Author:  [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-station-texas-shooting/631402/120 "2012-08-14T03:12:06Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#):
>
> You’re obviously too stupid to understand anything. It doesn’t matter what the “intended use” for a gun versus a swimming pool is. From a matter of public policy all that matters is how many innocent lives are lost to them, right?
Things that should be legal according to gun nut logic because they kill less people in the US every year than guns:
Nuclear weapons
Shoulder fired anti-aircraft rockets
Sarin gas
Box cutters on airplanes
ANFO explosives
Anthrax spores
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