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Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

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Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#11

Post by BSousa »

fakeer wrote: post #6

Good that the man was not found there(in a sense that no one was harmed). I still would like to understand few things. Of course I shall not be able to understand how it feels to have a gun when you want it(and afterwards take a decision on how to use it. To defend yourself or flash in malls or kill children for fun or out of depression) as I live in a country where having fire-arms is either a luxury for powerful an…

Not american here so this is just a supposition.

I think the main issue with it is related to the constitution. While the idea as far as I understand, was for citizens to bear arms and form a militia to protect against a foreign power, many of the people that defend the right to bear arms do so based on a limited knowledge of it (i.e.: 'The right to bear arms is in the constitution' but have no idea what comes next). So you have the lobbies, and supporting those lobbies you have 'ignorant' people defending their 'rights' on this issue.

I can only imagine how hard it must be to try and do something about it.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#12

Post by 89vision »

cbau wrote: post #7
fakeer wrote: post #6

Good that the man was not found there(in a sense that no one was harmed). I still would like to understand few things. Of course I shall not be able to understand how it feels to have a gun when you want it(and afterwards take a decision on how to use it. To defend yourself or flash in malls or kill children for fun or out of depression) as I live in a country where having fire-arms is either a luxury for powerful an…

It's pretty simple-- As an American, I have a right to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don't want to give up any rights I don't have to. That includes the freedom to buy and carry a gun.

Your freedom to buy and carry a gun infringes on my right to feel safe in public

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#13

Post by monochromatic »

fakeer wrote: post #6

Good that the man was not found there(in a sense that no one was harmed). I still would like to understand few things. Of course I shall not be able to understand how it feels to have a gun when you want it(and afterwards take a decision on how to use it. To defend yourself or flash in malls or kill children for fun or out of depression) as I live in a country where having fire-arms is either a luxury for powerful an…

If you're buying a gun from a store, you have to pass what's called a NICS check, to make sure you're not on a list of felons etc. that are not allowed to possess guns. In some states, you can buy a gun from an individual without a background check.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#14

Post by pessimizer »

cnlwsu wrote: post #8
fakeer wrote: post #6

Good that the man was not found there(in a sense that no one was harmed). I still would like to understand few things. Of course I shall not be able to understand how it feels to have a gun when you want it(and afterwards take a decision on how to use it. To defend yourself or flash in malls or kill children for fun or out of depression) as I live in a country where having fire-arms is either a luxury for powerful an…

phones are more expensive

And with the weird contracts, harder to buy.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#15

Post by snitko »

cbau wrote: post #7
fakeer wrote: post #6

Good that the man was not found there(in a sense that no one was harmed). I still would like to understand few things. Of course I shall not be able to understand how it feels to have a gun when you want it(and afterwards take a decision on how to use it. To defend yourself or flash in malls or kill children for fun or out of depression) as I live in a country where having fire-arms is either a luxury for powerful an…

It's pretty simple-- As an American, I have a right to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don't want to give up any rights I don't have to. That includes the freedom to buy and carry a gun.

I think this is the part a lot of people fail to understand. The mere existence of police that is supposed to protect people doesn't mean everyone in the society agrees to transfer all of those functions to it. Assuming that is pure ignorance. It still gets pretty hilarious when you ask to see your signature under this mythical social contract everyone supposedly signed.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#17

Post by maeon3 »

Could it be a stunt by a particularly intuitive student to prevent a shooting incident by creating a false alarm, to get everyone to tighten up security, thus reducing the probability of an actual shooter event really happening?

Shooters are probably smart enough to pick their targets, and they would be unwise to pick one that's on edge from a recent incident.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#18

Post by jstalin »

fakeer wrote: post #6

Good that the man was not found there(in a sense that no one was harmed). I still would like to understand few things. Of course I shall not be able to understand how it feels to have a gun when you want it(and afterwards take a decision on how to use it. To defend yourself or flash in malls or kill children for fun or out of depression) as I live in a country where having fire-arms is either a luxury for powerful an…

To answer your question: It depends. Some states are easy to purchase guns in, some are not. My own state, Michigan, has essentially no requirements to purchase a rifle. You can go to a dealer and purchase one on the spot. You are subjected to a federal background check, which is completed in a few minutes. Purchasing a handgun has a couple more hoops to jump through, but it delays things only a few days.

I appreciate the point you make about your own country - that those with guns are either criminals or the well-connected.

And please don't buy into the idea that the "guns lobby" is the reason for America's liberal gun-ownership laws. The estimates are that there are over 300,000,000 guns in private hands in the USA. Gun owners are very very serious about their rights to own firearms. The NRA is just an expression of that zeal.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#19

Post by monochromatic »

89vision wrote: post #12
cbau wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty simple-- As an American, I have a right to the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don't want to give up any rights I don't have to. That includes the freedom to buy and carry a gun.

Your freedom to buy and carry a gun infringes on my right to feel safe in public

Attorney here, and the "right to feel safe in public" is one I am not aware of.

Re: Person with a long rifle and body armor in the Main Group Building of MIT

#20

Post by knowtheory »

monochromatic wrote: post #10

Long rifle? Seems unlikely to me, but we should probably ban them. http://www.google.com/search?q=long+rifle&tbm=isch

They almost certainly mean "long arm/gun", e.g. not a handgun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_gun

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