oh yes OLM sir. 3 bags full sir. you are no longer a moderator and you cant stand the fact that some people have ideas that may be different to you. how sad..
Never been happier. Now you just carry on abusing other City fans and defending ******s and we'll all get on just fine, we don't want anyone upsetting the natural order of things.
Just flicked through this thread, thanks to Ellewoods for responding to a few emotive questions in a very reasonable way. Guns are part of USA culture, hard for us Brits to understand I suppose but we have violent crime too without guns for the most part and always will have because people are stupid for the most part.
IF owning a gun in USA was outlawed, it would be a bit late, ppl would use the excuse that it is for protection.
When you can find at least two apps under school massacre. Is it really any wonder that we have problems. I was invited to play one of the call of duty games, with the comment, it's very realistic!!! I told the sad **** that it was the opposite of realism, it's fantasy, but he would not have it. The same bloke is a licenced firearm holder. I know that he is actually quite sane and the chance that he would ever harm anyone is very slim. He does believe that he would make a very good combat soldier.........
If everything posted on here is right and true, i have learn't more than my 12years of schooling. Ellwood has done a great job of explaining (not defending) the "american" way. Most of us dont really "get it" but in america who does???? We all know what happened was terrible but there are too many americans who plead the "right to bear arms" so it will never change. (unfortunately)
I know it might not be 100% reliable, but it seems to indicate a more widespread affliction within society - of course, then we can view metods of execution other than guns - i.e. a deranged pilot, for instance - a number of those recorded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers:_School_massacres
Some observations on this thread: 1. The killings in Connecticut are simply horrendous; any right minded person should be abhorred by this sad lad’s actions. What lay behind the killings is yet to come out, but can someone sane do such a thing? I think not, this was not a grudge against other men or countries; this was the senseless and callous massacre of the true innocents of our society. 2. Don’t blame the metal, blame the man; but access has a role in all of these types of killings – we can look at how gun killings in this country are usually by someone with legitimate guns. This is not about eradication (a pipe-dream), it is about limitation; some form of registration and access control must be enforced nationally to show an active intent to take control – the USA lacks this fundamental process. But reading the brain-dead posts of ellewoods we should not be surprised – why bother? 3. To appreciate the effects of shootings, explosions, mass death or, generally, just plain old war, it is not essential that you should experience it in your own backyard – do what the Yanks have been doing for generations- do it in everyone else’s backyard! 4. The cynical posts of ellewood’s do little to give any credence to the discussion and even less for his credibility on these boards. He has taken many of you in with his inane mutterings and endless posturing. To use an Americanism, he has had one hell of a hoot at your expense; either that or he is deranged. To pose as an intellectual reflection of American life is piss-poor; to do so using this tragic incident is simply crass.
Interesting take on my attempt to explain and answer. Sorry if any of it seemed cynical to you. I suppose their is a some cynicism involved. I live in a country that in my lifetime has had over 300,000 gun deaths. Have you ever had anyone killed by a gun or known anyone who has killed anyone? I have. My senior year in high school was the year that Columbine happened. We had 3 hoax gun threats at our school after that where people called into the police and said they were going to kill everyone. One of my friends was a student at Columbine. I know people who were at the Virginia Tech campus they day it was attacked. If any of it seemed cynical perhaps it comes from a place in me that sees all the years this has been going on and then sees our politicans telling us that the reason it happened was because we took PRAYER out of schools (Huckbee said that yesterday), another one just got on TV and said that all teachers should be armed. I was not attempting to be cynical or ramble or mutter. I was trying to explain because until you live here, and live with our nonsense you will have a hard time understanding how something so obvious as Guns kill people can be so hard to change. I am not a fan of the country I live in. I have lived in 2 others, I have been to 14. In some ways this is a great country. Our streets are clean, we have plenty, no one starves, etc. In a lot of ways this is the worst country I have ever been to. We export violence, we pillage the 3rd world, we support dictators if they benefit our economy, etc. It is my belief that one of the reasons we are so bad to each other and to others is that we are isolated here. We do not see first hand the damage we cause around the world. When violence happens to us it is Gods Will. It is not our fault or our laws that are to blame. There is something very wrong with us, our culture and this country. I did not mean to defend it in any way. I just was trying to explain it. I think you can look at things in an intellectual way. How else do things change if you dont analyze, explain, try to make sense of it all so you can get to a place where you can make your surroundings a better place. If you feel that I am deranged from reading my posts than OK. I dont think I am deranged perhaps I just have a different view than you. I certainly was not attempting to make a "hoot" (i guess you mean make fun of) out of anyone. I wasnt trying to be funny. I would not have told complete strangers about my cousin if I was doing anything other than trying to have a conversation about a very real problem. I dont know any of you but we chat about the team and I thought it was cool to talk about this.
I didnt see anything cynical in Ellwoods posts. Thought he came across as intelligent and reasonable. He seems to have caught a lot of flack simply for being American.
Britain is hardly cleaner than clean with this sort of thing- it may not have gun laws that allow people to freely buy fire arms, but people still have them. I'm taking inner city gangs, like the ones that kicked off a few summers ago. The world didn't go and judge us as a society on that basis. The US can't just instantly change 200 years of legislation like that, and stop everybody owning a fire arm. I think if they tried it there would be a mass out cry by the public. I'm sure they have big programmes where people give away their weapons/ guns etc. Also, just because we don't have massacres like the horrific incidents in Columbine, Virginia Tech, Newtown and that Cinema (can't remember the state, think it wa Colorado) doesn't mean we don't have psychopaths committing crimes here.
This is intellectual guff, not intellectual analysis. Deaths occur all over the world – I saw Northern Ireland and the Falklands, along with other piss-poor disputes; taking and losing life are not something that qualifies views, nor does it lend any credence to your argument. I have and do know many Americans (yes, even some that took lives and some that lost them) and their experience of day-to-day American life is much different to your – perhaps you are just unlucky. America has a gun lobby, just as it has an anti-gun lobby; those citizens of your country with more moral conviction, than you exhibit on here, will continue to work to rationalise the dysfunctional policy that governs your gun laws. Worthwhile things are rarely easy – someone has to bite the bullet, stop moaning about it and work to change it. Do you believe your society is the only one with fools making absurd remarks? Many folk in America will only come across such atrocities as this through the power of media, just as most other folk in the world – violence is close to us all and can rear its ugly head when and where least expected – I wish it were some malaise that only America were subjected to, but it is not. Of course it will be hard to change, but it is worthwhile trying; something you do not consider relevant. Your cynicism is knee deep! You don’t like the country you live in and seem fixated on maligning it by focussing on what is a failing of civilisation, not just America. You say ’ It is my belief that one of the reasons we are so bad to each other and to others is that we are isolated here. We do not see first hand the damage we cause around the world.’; are you real? Do you live with your head in the sand? We know Hollywood may exaggerate, but ffs, there are enough clues there for even the most brain-dead Yank to have an inkling of their role in the world. And then there are the news channels, newspapers – and of course, I nearly forgot, the internet and discussion forums; but you would not know about them then? The picture you paint is unrealistic and beyond any real belief; perhaps you do believe it and your cynicism is ingrained, but cynical it is and hugely misleading in its argument.
Why will none of you stand up and speak out for those poor innocent children who were slaughtered? Oh, right, it's because their deaths have given you a chance to pontificate like the wnakers you all are. Pass the sick bag, Alice.
