scoutingagain

"is a willingness to compromise values." I don't know about that. The Republican Party has essentially capitulated on the immigration issue based on the results with Hispanic voters in the last election. It will be interesting to see what other issues they give in on if they percieve they need to, to keep their seats in Washington. SA

Have you read the report? The official report is available on the CIA website at: https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/chap6.html Read through it and you'll eventually find the following paragraphs. "While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdads desire to see sanctions lifted, or re

"So in my opinion any automatic or semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine and say 12 grains of propellant in the cartridge should be declared an assault rifle, Irregardless of whether it is in military service or not. " Well with that approach when you get into a firefight with your fellow citizens armed with previously or illegally obtained 30 round magazines, taped together and can re-load in a matter of seconds, your toast. or the zombies will get you when you have to re-load. SA

"So Iraq didn't have large stockpiles of chemical weapons? Oh I know different." Then you know something the Bush WMD inspection team didn't know or was unable to find. Now I honestly don't believe the wackos in the story represent the majority of gun owners but many of these nutters either already own guns or want to own them. SA

And then there are these nutters that make the Climate Change deniers, Birthers and those that still believe Iraq has WMDs look relatively sane; http://news.yahoo.com/why-sandy-hook-massacre-spawned-conspiracy-theories-184323398.html SA

"So lobbyists get congressmen to write and PASS legislation in both houses that can't go into law without the president's signature, correct? I'm curious, how long have the Republicans held the house? How about the senate? Who is president? Why weren't they doing their job?" Good question. Who was in office in 1996 - 1998 when much of the CDC funding into this research was cut off? Who was in office when this little tidbit was added to CDC funding, SA

I confess I don't hunt but have done some fishing. But at one point in my life did spend a fair amount of time off the New England coast diving for lobsters. It was kind of a high tech approach to catch frogs, or other critters as a kid. They could be crafty, hide in cracks, under rocks, etc. and in open water not easy to catch. But once caught and of legal size they were doomed. Talk about repressed aggression. We would boil them alive and then rip them apart with our bare hands, pliers, hammers, nut crackers etc. to get at the sweet juicy flesh and consume them....with melted butt

I'm not opposed to the idea of arming teachers or staff, but agree that they need to be specifically designated, known to local law enforcement and train regularly them, and demonstrate equivalent proficiency. Ideally these might be former military, reserve or national guard personnel. However, this should be considered the last line of defense. At the point you have armed educators responding to a shooter you have someone in the school with a weapon with intent to do harm. We need to look at policies, legislation and programs that makes this scenario much more difficult to even conte

Delusional paranoia aside, if one reads the article linked by Barry, as Beav notes, the executive branch is basically indicating that SOME actions don't require legislative approval and they are absolutely correct. Among those are increased enforcement of current legislation. Or do folks believe current gun laws shouldn't be enforced? Some of the other articles have left out the qualifying statement and have implied much more that was actually said. These articles and the other thread where an MSNBC commentator took an NRA analogy about the appearance of guns and compared it to racism s

"but if teachers or other school personnel are willing and able to do it, where is the harm? " Agreed, one part of an answer might be to have appropriately trained and qualified personnel armed or with access to a weapon to defend a school or other location. However this should be a last line of defense. This still means someone has gotten into the school with a weapon and is firing on or about to fire on students/people. The other part of the equation as has been pointed out is the confluence of metally disturbed people getting their hands on guns. While increasing the defense capabi

"Well it depends on whether children are taught about guns or not doesn't it? " Well why bother with armed police or specially trained teachers in classrooms. Let' s simply train children about guns and let them defend themselves. If 14 year old can carry, should 12 year old? What would be the recommended cut off age for children to carry in school? If any? As

Back to the thread. "Soon after, the teen heard a loud bang on the door, rushed his siblings upstairs and got a handgun from his parent's bedroom." Do we really think it's a good idea to leave a loaded gun around where chidlren can get access to it? SA

For Pack and Everyone Else So This is Christmas J. Lennon So this is Christmas And what have you done? Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let's stop all the fight A very merry

Barry, I believe beav answers your question about why liberals now need guns in the other thread. "Intimidating fellow citizens they disagreed with or assisting in redistributing wealth would, I suppose, be optional. " Sa

Since the "liberal" establishment is disappointed with Obama on a number of issues from not insisting on a single payer government health care system, no action on gun legislation, not committing to fully protecting Soc. Sec. and Medicare from budget negotiations and believing he has basically rolled over to satisfy the right side of the aisle I'd say "hyperpartisan" is a bit of a stretch. Sure he's certainly not a conservative Republican but "hyperpartisan" ? Although I can understand that the view from 20yds past the right side goal posts would make someone on the 40 yd line appear t

This was posted in another forum I follow. Provides food for thought in the national debate about the role of firearms in the US. Source Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California 90095-1772, USA. erin.richardson@gmail.com Abstract BACKGROUND: Violent death is a major public health problem in the United States and throughout the world. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database analyzes homicides and suicides (both disaggregated as firearm related and non-firearm r

"Well, if we follow the logic being espoused lately that one=all, we "...would all walk around with a personal armed guard. As usual, in the extreme politics of the day, we get absurd arguments from both sides and nothing really get accomplished. My thoughts: 1. When law enforcement response in minutes is insufficient there needs to be some ability for local school staff to respond ASAP. This doesn't mean arming or requiring all teachers to be armed. That's an absurd notion. Having an armed LEO at each school would be nice, but probably not realisic given the financial resou

Stosh, It makes no difference to me. You'll have to as the Bushmaster marketing folks why they chose that tagline. SA

Pretty amazing considering the President and Speaker were only $300 Billion apart on a package totaling more than $2 Trillion. I suspect this move is as much about the frustration Boehner has with members of his own party as anything else. He was pretty close to cutting a deal with the President, but can't get members of his own party to back his own bill. Likely scenario is this will get resolved in January when there are fewer Republicans in the house and more have been cowed into submission once their constituents see their first paychecks of 2013. SA

"I think we reduce the discussion to pure silliness when we start talking about impressing women and making fashion statements. Of course that might just be the intent. " Well at least one add for the Bushmaster apparently used the tagline, "Your man card reissued." So the gun manufacturer's after doing marketing research on how best to connect with their target market apparently came to the conclusion that one approach would be to appeal to a prospective gun owner's lack of self confidence in their own masculinity. Some of us unarmed folks are quite comfortable with our sen

I've often thought that prepping for the Zombies would be a good excercise for the Emergency Preparedness MB, for the same reasons Homeland Security did it. SA

"that was widely criticized by fiscal conservatives). The Bush Tax cuts were also criticized by fiscal conservatives, notably McCain, Rudman and Stockman. Republicans economic cycles for the past generation have been to cut taxes then increase deficit spending. Of course that creates short term economic spurts and then becomes unsustainable and the economy crashes. The last two deep recessiions, the early 90's after Reagan and the late 2000s after Bush's foley. The idea that Republicans represent fiscal responsibility is laughable. Don't favor Tax cuts and then say we need the worl

"So we created a massive wealth transfer from da worker to the financier on top of da general trend of capital to accumulate." Not to mention the tranfer of risk from the financier to the taxpayer. SA

"It's kind of hard to imagine the response time for the police is measured in minutes" Newtown police were on scene within 10 minutes. When a shooter can get off 30+ rounds in less than a minute, a response time in minutes is insufficient. I have no objection to allowing trained citizens, who have demonstrated knowledge and responsibility carrying a handgun for self protection. I personally do not see the need and have to admit, wonder why anyone would have such fear in their lives to feel it necessary. I'd more understand having a firearm at home for home protection. On the

First, I hear very few talking about banning all firearms for civilians. Most are talking about restricting access to military style rifles and/or high capacity magazines/clips. How many rounds does one need for target shooting, hunting or basic self/home defense? What's reasonable? 6, 10, 30, 50? Just asking? Like I said, I somehow manage to live in an urban environment totally unarmed, but manage to maintain my manhood anyway. Next, as a first responder, a report comes in that an active shooter is at the local movie complex. You show up to find three people shooting at each o