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Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

edition.cnn.com

41–50 of 135 posts

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#41
post #33
post #7

> Another man allegedly showed up in the nation's capital with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and told acquaintances that he wanted to shoot or run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors said. Wonder if this is what makes lawmakers consider some sensible gun regulation...

The reality is, in almost every place on Earth a person that is intent on getting a gun will get a gun. If you want to do a crime with a gun, you definitely don't want a legal one. That's just stupid. And people intent on doing crimes most of the time don't really need guns for it, it is just suspicious to carry a gun around and if you are doing something shady you want to bring as little suspicion as possible. And a…

> Gun regulation is mostly to stop stupid people act stupidly with a gun they already lawfully own

If you make guns easier to get, you end up with more of these cases. You also end up making it easier for people to unlawfully get access to a gun. In Australia you have to be a reasonably "hard" criminal to get access to a gun illegally. There just aren't that many guns around since the Port Arthur massacre, and gun deaths have decreased as you'd naturally expect.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#42
post #33
post #7

> Another man allegedly showed up in the nation's capital with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and told acquaintances that he wanted to shoot or run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors said. Wonder if this is what makes lawmakers consider some sensible gun regulation...

The reality is, in almost every place on Earth a person that is intent on getting a gun will get a gun. If you want to do a crime with a gun, you definitely don't want a legal one. That's just stupid. And people intent on doing crimes most of the time don't really need guns for it, it is just suspicious to carry a gun around and if you are doing something shady you want to bring as little suspicion as possible. And a…

My interpretation is different. I think that most of the people who rioted at the Capitol aren't hardened criminals who deduced that they require a gun to most efficiently achieve their ends. I think they're random people who have some image in their heads of "gun + flag = American patriot", and the rather frictionless process for obtaining a gun in America means they can fulfill that image pretty much on a whim.

I think we underrate the influence that small frictions in a process can have.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#43
post #38

I feel like this is the equivalent of a guy showing up to a party of people he doesn’t know that well. Brings a drink in and then if the party gets going he’s like “don’t worry I have a lots more in the car” to make friends. Except in this case it’s a weapons cache and obviously incredibly disturbing.

People have been bringing guns to protests for a while. It's kind of remarkable how few times this has resulted in actual shooting.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#44
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure I'd rather be shot by a hunting rifle than an assault rifle. Hunting rifles aren't designed to blow a deer's leg off.

I think you should question your surety. Most states ban modern day assault rifle calibers for hunting deer because they are too small in diameter to do enough damage and deliver a humane kill. Hunting calibers (.308, .243 win, 30.06) are much larger and more powerful than the 5.56/5.45 the modern M4-pattern and AK74 use. In addition, per wartime regulations the worlds armies are only allowed to use FMJ which leaves…

It’s a bit silly while it’s technically correct that expanding munitions were banned by the 1899 Hague convention modern hollow points could probably be fine, especially the fragmenting ones.

The reason these aren’t widely adopted isn’t because of any convention as these hardly stop anyone during war time, but because they aren’t as useful as you think for military purposes.

Armor piercing incendiary and high explosive incendiary rounds are used and I rather get show with a hollow point than an HE round.

The Soviets during WW2 used HE rounds as sniper munitions.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They charged him with illegal possession of the guns though. It wouldn't make a difference in this case. He's not some kid in HS. He's a 70 year old man. He could easily obtain a hunting rifle (say in case you ban all other guns) and it would be just as effective for this purpose.

I'm pretty sure I'd rather be shot by a hunting rifle than an assault rifle. Hunting rifles aren't designed to blow a deer's leg off.

If forced into a firefight, I'd prefer to face the hunting rifle, as the term (in most of the World) generally refers to a bolt action rifle. However, if I had to actually take a bullet, I'd prefer it to be from an assault rifle any day of the week.

Assault rifles generally fire either 5.56x45 or 7.62x39 - intermediate rounds than are unlawful for use in hunting most game because they are unlikely to kill the animal, at least quickly.

Hunting rifles are going to (except for varmint hunting) generally use much bigger, much more powerful rounds such as the .308 Winchester. It is much more likely to kill you (and much, much more likely to blow off an extremity if hit there) than an intermediate cartridge fired from an assault rifle.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#46
post #33
post #7

> Another man allegedly showed up in the nation's capital with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and told acquaintances that he wanted to shoot or run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors said. Wonder if this is what makes lawmakers consider some sensible gun regulation...

The reality is, in almost every place on Earth a person that is intent on getting a gun will get a gun. If you want to do a crime with a gun, you definitely don't want a legal one. That's just stupid. And people intent on doing crimes most of the time don't really need guns for it, it is just suspicious to carry a gun around and if you are doing something shady you want to bring as little suspicion as possible. And a…

Good luck getting a gun in (say) Japan or Singapore. Possession of a single unauthorized bullet is up to 7 years in jail; using an unauthorized gun while committing a crime is punished with death.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They charged him with illegal possession of the guns though. It wouldn't make a difference in this case. He's not some kid in HS. He's a 70 year old man. He could easily obtain a hunting rifle (say in case you ban all other guns) and it would be just as effective for this purpose.

I'm pretty sure I'd rather be shot by a hunting rifle than an assault rifle. Hunting rifles aren't designed to blow a deer's leg off.

Actually hunting rifles are typically a larger caliber than assault rifles. The AR-15 for example uses .223 (or the equivalent 5.56mm), which is one of the smallest rounds for centerfire rifles. Here's a visual comparison of various rifle rounds and what game they're good for:

https://1source.basspro.com/news-tips/hunting-information/74...

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#48
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You want to ban the most beautiful thing about America? Assault rifles? What does a US citizen need an M16 for? An AK47? Makes no sense.

Shooting people. Which is bad. Edit: lots of potential murderers here?

Sometimes it’s great.

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#49
post #32
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other way round: they've been talking this stuff up for decades. This is just the continuation of Waco and Ruby Ridge and Malheur and those guys who tried to kidnap a governor and the guy who blew up a telephone exchange and a dozen ""lone wolf"" mass shooters. And the "killdozer" guy. Eventually all the thousands of ""lone wolves"" who share the same ideas and politics and gun suppliers were going to get together. T…

>This is just the continuation of Waco and Ruby Ridge You clearly don't know very much about the facts of either of those events. I suggest you do some reading.

[deleted]

Re: Police found pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol

#50
post #7

> Another man allegedly showed up in the nation's capital with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and told acquaintances that he wanted to shoot or run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors said. Wonder if this is what makes lawmakers consider some sensible gun regulation...

This guy already broke every “sensible gun regulation” in the book:

1. Unregistered destructive devices per federal law

2. Unregistered assault rifle per federal law

3. Unregistered rifle per DC law

4. Carrying a handgun without a license per DC law

If anything this seems like another case of criminals not following the law.

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