Live data from Hacker News

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

emergency.mit.net

81–90 of 389 posts

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

#81

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

Banning things works great. Just like how we have no drug problems since the war on drugs. Prohibition turned out great too.

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

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't feel safe when I see or smell Marijuana. Is that a reason to not legalize it? If we were discussing the legalizing of MJ, I have a feeling your attitude would abruptly change.

I support reasonable drug legalization in the same way I support reasonable gun ownership. I'm from Utah, where gun owners are far from reasonable. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55649700-78/yorgason-carry... . There was a very vocal percentage of the population that thought this stunt was a good idea and cheered this guy on.

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

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And for many attorneys in safe, democratic, non-tyrannical Western countries, the "right to bear arms" is not one they are aware of.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But I still don't understand that how can guns be allowed in such a manner when they don't let you handle a gas cylinder at a public place or a take a metallic fork on an air-plane. "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -Thomas Jefferson You can't fight tyranny in government with metallic forks and ga…

Given the massive mismatch of firepower, training and numbers between the government and the very best armed/trained groups within the civilian population I have trouble believing that anyone can still make this argument at any intellectual level.

Afghanistan.

Duh.

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

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But I still don't understand that how can guns be allowed in such a manner when they don't let you handle a gas cylinder at a public place or a take a metallic fork on an air-plane. "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -Thomas Jefferson You can't fight tyranny in government with metallic forks and ga…

Given the massive mismatch of firepower, training and numbers between the government and the very best armed/trained groups within the civilian population I have trouble believing that anyone can still make this argument at any intellectual level.

Any uprising is likely to include a significant contingent of defecting armed forces.

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

#86
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I DO have to give up the right to travel without being strip-searched. A nation of paradoxes.

On a commercial airliner.. To my knowledge private planes don't have crazy restrictions or invasive searches. Indeed, you don't have to fly at all.

The Pro-Gun group however pushes for the right to carry weapons on private property as well (stores, bars, schools, etc)

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

#87
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.

As another American, I don't think that's quite it, as we (Americans) have essentially given up some of your other rights: we don't really have a right to be secure against arbitrary search and seizure any more, and we don't have much of a right to due process any more. We're shaving our freedom of speech thinner too. So: why is the 4th Amendment right to keep and bear arms defended so zealously, and interpreted so l…

2nd Amendment, actually.

I agree on everything else.

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

#88

I just want to say as an American, I am so fed up with all these gun stories. I understand there is debate about gun control and this and that, but we are having a much larger cultural problem here. The attitude of helping your neighbor or even someone less fortunate is slowly disappearing and being replaced by a fear for protecting what we have, as if someone else is after it. In my mind it's cyclical, if we help th…

I've started to view the random gun arguments as a sort of social software crash. I'm personally pretty indifferent to most of the arguments for and against, but it seems impossible to mention guns online without having a mud-slinging match. And I do mean mud-slinging. There is no attempt to reason, it's all about getting angry and calling people names on the internet. And while the argument is going on, ordinary discussion can't function. It's like a kind of spinlock or an epileptic seizure; the only cure is to wait for the participants to burn out, and maybe start a new thread elsewhere.

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

#89
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 be fair, you do have more options available than allowing ownership outright, having a regressive licensing system, and blanket banning. I think it's possible to maintain both the freedom to own arms (at the very least out of intellectual curiosity) and a the requirement that the state provide reasonable level of piece of mind (you don't have to necessarily formulate it as a right, but it is the raison d'etre of government) - it just requires judiciously formulated policy; and agreeing on where the line should be drawn is always the hard - but necessary part.

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

#90
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…

>But I still don't understand that how can guns be allowed in such a manner when they don't let you handle a gas cylinder at a public place or a take a metallic fork on an air-plane. "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -Thomas Jefferson You can't fight tyranny in government with metallic forks and ga…

The tyranny of the Canadian government is so overwhelming. How can I ever live in peace without a gun? Oh yea, I can use words.
Post reply on HN