# Stupid Gun news of the day (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 29, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729 "2013-01-29T19:01:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 118
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2341 "2013-06-18T16:01:48Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Wrong. Unless you’re a fanatic prescriptivist who learned English several decades ago and are unable to adapt. Are there any grammar rules at all? It’s true I learned English several decades ago. Whether I’m a fanatic prescriptivist or not remains to be seen. I’d say that calling someone else a “fanatic prescriptivist” when confronted with a grammatical error is the domain of those lazy sots unwilling to learn and apply the correct rules of grammar and too stubborn to simply admit an error. But that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2342 "2013-06-18T16:23:13Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > …But that’s just me. Well, our hour is up, but I think we’ve definitely made some progress here in self-realization. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2343 "2013-06-18T16:54:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Your own cite argues against you; heavy machine guns and RPGs aren’t small arms. WTF are you talking about? You think that the Syrian revolt would work without any small arms? George Washington also had artillery at his disposal but he couldn’t have won without the armed colonists. Syrian rebels might have a few defecting military divisions (companies?) but they need the armed civilian rebels. And just for the record, machine guns and RPGs are (or can be) small arms). Not that I think that RPGs are necessarily covered by the second amendment. > **[Firearm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_arms)** > > A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). > The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make the portable fire lance, operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the siege of De'an in 1132. In t... > [@](#): > > None whatsoever. Individuals are weak; that’s why society exists in the first place. That’s why Americans are taught to value individualism so much; it makes them weak, easy victims for the powerful. Easy to exploit, easy to control, easy to ruin or kill if they become inconvenient. So the folks in communist countries are less exploited? ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2344 "2013-06-18T18:22:12Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > None whatsoever. Individuals are weak; that’s why society exists in the first place. That’s why Americans are taught to value individualism so much; it makes them weak, easy victims for the powerful. Easy to exploit, easy to control, easy to ruin or kill if they become inconvenient. If gun confiscation fans don’t want to be accused of being Marxists who have contempt for human values, maybe they shouldn’t explicitly declare themselves as such. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2345 "2013-06-18T22:13:41Z")
[Stupid Gun Weekend.](http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/17/Rahm-s-Chicago-Looking-a-lot-Like-2012-46-Shot-8-Killed-Over-Father-s-Day-Weekend) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2346 "2013-06-19T00:48:07Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I don’t think the Brazil situation is remotely close enough to ours for this to be meaningful. There are plenty of industrialized first world western nations without guns that make better comparisons. What comparison were you referring to? **Der Trihs** claimed that the USA was virtually single-handedly responsible for flooding the western hemisphere with guns; I pointed out evidence that that’s not so. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2347 "2013-06-19T03:51:36Z")
Stupid gun confiscator Rick Perlstein posted this on Facebook on Sunday: > [@](#): > > If I said a single thing that was useful on TV on Sunday it comes at 4:05 in this clip. Way, way too many liberals believe with way, way too much passionate certitude that if you can only persuade conservatives how much pain mass shootings cause (for instance through the greeting cards from children who’ve lost fathers shown at 1:30 in this clip [Up With David Gura](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46979738/#52221043) ) gun control might move forward. They don’t understand that this can only achieve the opposite of their intention, because the cognitive process of a liberal and conservative on the subject are directly opposed. For conservatives, the worse the mass shootings by “bad guys” get, the more the “good guys” need more and more powerful guns, sans bureaucratic impediment. There is no “bipartisan solution” to gun control. The only solution is for liberals to mobilize themselves to win. This is the “rational discourse” and “common sense solution” we’ve all been hearing about: anyone who opposes the total confiscation of guns for any reason is a monster who is incapable of feeling sad when children die. People who don’t change their principles based on “video greeting cards” are intractable idiots. The other side should be crushed because reasoning with them is hard. Is it any wonder this issue is such a guaranteed loser in American politics? ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2348 "2013-06-19T09:44:41Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Stupid gun confiscator Rick Perlstein posted this on Facebook on Sunday: > > This is the “rational discourse” and “common sense solution” we’ve all been hearing about: anyone who opposes the total confiscation of guns for any reason is a monster who is incapable of feeling sad when children die. People who don’t change their principles based on “video greeting cards” are intractable idiots. The other side should be crushed because reasoning with them is hard. > > Is it any wonder this issue is such a guaranteed loser in American politics? You might try reading what you quoted, since it doesn’t say any of that. And most Americans support gun control legislation. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2349 "2013-06-19T11:44:00Z")
To recapitulate: > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And in a real police state the vast majority of Second Amercement fans would be … lining up to join the death squads so they could kick in the doors of suspected liberals and homosexuals or anyone with browner skin than them and murder them all in the name of “freedom”. “Second Amendment solutions” in action. Nevermind whether Mr. Trihs is exaggerating. That’s not the issue at the moment. Mr. Bricker chose to hijack the thread with a pedantic “correction” of grammar: > [@Bricker](#): > > …with browner skin than THEY and murder them all in the name of “freedom.” > > Nominative. When one insists on pedantry, one should at least be correct. 😃 But Bricker isn’t. Oh, his “than they” isn’t _wrong_ but it is inferior to “than them” even to a grammarian, and certainly so to ordinary speakers. When I was a kid I wasn’t one to tear the wings off flies or anything like that. But I confess I did goad Bricker deliberately, pointing out his mistake, just to see if he was man enough to admit error. Here’s what we got instead: > [@Bricker](#): > > … I’d say that calling someone else a “fanatic prescriptivist” when confronted with a grammatical error is the domain of those lazy sots unwilling to learn and apply the correct rules of grammar and too stubborn to simply admit an error. > > But that’s just me. 😃 😃 In [the Merriam-Webster Dictionary](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/than) we learn that _than_ is shown as a preposition as well as a conjunction, with the example “you are older than me” and the comment [QUOTE=] After 200 years of innocent if occasional use, the preposition than was called into question by 18th century grammarians. … In short, you can use than either as a conjunction or as a preposition. First Known Use of THAN [as a preposition] 1560 [/QUOTE] I also found comments by a Professor of Linguistics: > [@](#): > > If you’re writing something that an elitist pedant might read, then write “than they” or better, “than they have”, because they will will likely judge you and “correct” you. > > If you’re just speaking with ordinary humans, then use “than them”, because that’s how we actually talk to each other. I should apologize for this digression, but it may be on-topic. Bricker is certainly stupid, and is probably a gun nut as well. I do hope Bricker goes back to trolling drunk-tanks for plea bargains, or whatever it is that he’s actually competent to do. 🆒 Why do I pick on Bricker? Certainly there are right-wingers at SDMB just as obnoxious as him and far more stupid. It’s because he’s never apologized for the time he defecated in my thread. Oh, he keeps repeating that he did apologize but that’s a lie. What he did was just acknowledge what was already apparent: that he’d defecated in the thread and his shit was malodorous. What he needed to do was to post something like: > [@](#): > > In future, if I feel so arrogant as to respond to an OP on a subject of which I know nothing, I will have the courtesy to actually read the OP … or just keep my mouth shut. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2350 "2013-06-19T11:47:50Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Nevermind whether Mr. Trihs is exaggerating. That’s not the issue at the moment. Mr. Bricker chose to hijack the thread with a pedantic “correction” of grammar: And you chose to continue it. > [@](#): > > Why do I pick on Bricker? Certainly there are right-wingers at SDMB just as obnoxious as him and far more stupid. It’s because he’s never apologized for the time he defecated in my thread. Dude, I’m hardly right-wing or a **Bricker** fan in general but you’re letting him live rent-free in your head. Let it go, man. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2351 "2013-06-19T13:02:25Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Why do I pick on Bricker? Certainly there are right-wingers at SDMB just as obnoxious as him and far more stupid. It’s because he’s never apologized for the time he defecated in my thread. Obnoxious as he. d&r ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2352 "2013-06-19T13:20:33Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Certainly there are right-wingers at SDMB just as obnoxious as him and far more stupid. “…just as obnoxious as HE…” ETA: Ninja’d by Nars!! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2353 "2013-06-20T00:35:10Z")
This just in: [Jihawg Ammo](http://www.jihawg.com/), guaranteed “haraam” (unclean) due to using pork in the outer coating. Deny suicidal jihadists entry to paradise! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2354 "2013-06-20T00:54:23Z")
I feel like your joke deleted a hundred big belly laughs from my memory, like I had never seen _Young Frankenstein_ or _Airplane_. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2355 "2013-06-20T00:55:24Z")
> [@fudrucker](#): > > I know of _no_ advocates of a freely armed citizenry (including myself) advocating access to military shoulder fired artillery. All we want is the liberty guaranteed by the constitution to protect ourselves. > > This means weapons common in general society: Handguns, semi-auto rifles and shotguns. Really? You know of _ **no** _ gun advocates who claim that the Second Amendment’s purpose is to protect citizens from their government? Handguns and shotguns won’t help against tanks and bombers. You need your own tanks and bombers to defeat Obama’s plan to occupy Texas with UN troops. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2356 "2013-06-20T01:00:55Z")
Do you really think all of the 1 in 2 Americans who owns guns is a conspiracy theorist plotting a coup? Get out of your bubble. There are plenty of gun owners and gun rights supporters who are normal people. There are several million of them who are Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2357 "2013-06-20T01:44:58Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Do you really think all of the 1 in 2 Americans who owns guns is a conspiracy theorist plotting a coup? I believe that every gun owner who justifes gun ownership as a deterrent to tyranny envisions an eventuality under which overthrowing the federal government is necessary. I don’t know what fraction of the total gun owners they represent, but the ones that do are advocating the violent overthrow of the government. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2358 "2013-06-20T02:02:06Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Do you really think all of the 1 in 2 Americans who owns guns is a conspiracy theorist plotting a coup? Get out of your bubble. There are plenty of gun owners and gun rights supporters who are normal people. There are several million of them who are Democrats. Do you really think that resolving to protect yourself if you are ever unjustly attacked by the government is the same as plotting a coup? Do you really think that the only way to counter an assertion that NOBODY thinks X is to prove that 150 million people think X? If you don’t think both of those things, then why did you write such a bullshit post? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2359 "2013-06-20T02:06:56Z")
There are lots of gun owners who are normal and responsible people. Point of fact, the whole effort to apply sensible restrictions to gun ownership depends on them. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729/2360 "2013-06-20T02:27:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > ETA: Ninja’d by Nars!! “Ninjaed,” if you want to get picky, but I am more shocked at the number of people in this hijack who use contractions while they try to sound pedantic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729.md?page=117) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-news-of-the-day-part-1/648729.md?page=119)