Baseballs are up 2500%. I am not sure these stats mean quite what you think they do.
If you're buying a baseball bat for the once every couple decade riots, you might as well see what it's all about.
5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
131–140 of 167 posts
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, we refuse to sell bats to people who want to play baseball in the middle of the summer (the item's main and intended innocent purpose) because other people want to use them for other purposes? If you don't explicitly do that, you need to figure out a way to identify the potential nefarious users from the potential good ones. Do we allow a bat as long as you buy a mitt and a ball too? Only to people over the age o…
I believe Britain already has restrictions on knife ownership. This is sad. Honest people resorting to ordering baseball bats on a website for their defense. Imagine that that was your grandmother left with no other option. "Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." --Ghandi
Oh, if it became popular, I have no doubt that the government would happily ban baseball bats. Here in Glasgow, it's relatively popular to use a sawn-off golf club as an impromptu spear.
However, it shouldn't be up to a private company to regulate that.
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, they are supposed to be immigrants or descendants of 1st generation immigrants so your comment may not apply.
Well if anything, immigrants, who choose to move their whole lives to Britain, should love Britain and its traditions even more than random British folks who happen to be born there.
Which is why the USA today follow the traditions of Native Americans...
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#134As of now, there's 7000% increase in the sales of military police telescopic tonfas. Apparently they're out of stock of them and the link is no longer working on their site. The original link to the item is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Police-Telescopic-Tonfa-21/... You can search for the link in Google to check out a cached copy.
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#135Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#136These loathsome people have no respect for Britain's glorious history or traditions. Real British patriots use cricket bats on their looting spree.
I would expect a degree of local variation in the choice of ad-hoc melee weapons. Here in Scotland I would expect golf clubs to be more popular, perhaps shinty sticks in the Highlands. As for myself I have a rather nasty looking ice-axe somewhere...
An ice-axe? You are aware, aren't you, that there is a difference between bludgeoning someone and brutally murdering them? Because with an ice-axe, you're going to have a hard time not engaging in the latter.
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? You're a non-violent, non-rioting good person because of the law? I think you meant "civility loses its grip for a moment." I'm not a non-violent non-rioting good person because of the law, and I'm prepared to give the grandparent the benefit of the doubt and assume that doesn't apply to him either. However... Most people, I think, are fairly good, and are restrained from rioting and looting by their own cons…
I think the 'grip' is referring to the power of social proof. People are capable of both good and evil. You take a lot of cues from what you see around you.
I think it is a bit more nuanced than that. Some people, myself included, don't take stuff that isn't ours or destroy property even when we know that there would be few if any repurcussions for doing that. Call it a moral compass, a sense of right and wrong, whatever, we just don't.
There are people who, given the opportunity to do so without consequence, engage in such activities for the 'thrills' (or the lulz I suppose if that vernacular applies to meatspace vandalism). When the Rodney King verdict was handed down in LA there were a lot of people who were very angry and lashed out. However there were also some people who could care less, but were clearly exhilirated at the opportunity to be 'bad.' There were looters in New Orleans who took some supplies to use while they evacuated, there were looters who destroyed televisons and stole knick knacks.
The bottom line is that when you shut down the legal system, effectively removing the rule of law for a time, whether by latent rage against injustice, or by disaster. There are some deeply, truly, evil people out there and they come out and they do their evil and it is not 'cool' and it is not 'fun' and it overwhelms the people who are trying to survive.
I thing gburt was just trolling here, perhaps there is some subtlety I missed in the phrasing.
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found this post from last night insightful: http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-lon...
Yes, I read that earlier. What did you find insightful in it? The people involved aren't commenting on government policy. They're looting. I think some on the left are desperately trying to spin this as some sort of popular uprising but it's nothing of the sort.
Exactly, it's not (directly) political. These are poor people without jobs and opportunities, and gangsters and criminals. These guys sure aren't protesting any issues.
Therefore I'd agree with mortenjorck, the majority of the rioters probably don't have credit cards and probably aren't the kind of people who order stuff from amazon.
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
An aluminum bat to the head would greatly increase the chance that the person will be killed rather than just knocked out. I certainly disapprove of the looters and rioters, but I don't think they deserve to die.
The force and momentum of a solid wood bat will trump a hollow light aluminum bat any day. The only thing you get with aluminum is a greater velocity.
Actually another factor that you have to take into account is that aluminum compresses more than wood, causing a spring effect that considerably amplifies the force. This is one reason why major league baseball does not allow metal bats. Aluminum bats drive balls harder and faster than wooden bats. I am working from the assumption that this same effect would happen if someone was hit with an aluminum bat.
Re: 5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
An aluminum bat to the head would greatly increase the chance that the person will be killed rather than just knocked out. I certainly disapprove of the looters and rioters, but I don't think they deserve to die.
Are you sure? I thought the nice clean knockout was a TV myth, and that any blow to the head strong enough to knock someone out is just as likely to kill them or give them serious brain damage. Basically, don't hit someone on the head with any baseball bat unless you're willing to kill them.
I am working from the assumption that aluminum bats would hit a person in much the same manner as they would hit a baseball. Aluminum bats are banned from major league baseball because the spring effect of the metal causes balls to go faster and farther. I imagine the same spring effect would cause more damage to a person hit with an aluminum bat.
But yes, I agree that whether the person is hit with a wooden or aluminum bat there is a chance of them dying.