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posted by on Thursday May 04 2017, @10:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the QfvLcozLwtE dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Guns are not a part of the culture of my homeland, except perhaps for the occasional Bollywood movie in which the bad guy meets his demise staring down the wrong end of a barrel.

My childhood in India was steeped in ahimsa, the tenet of nonviolence toward all living things.

The Indians may have succeeded in ousting the British, but we won with Gandhian-style civil disobedience, not a revolutionary war.

I grew up not knowing a single gun owner, and even today India has one of the strictest gun laws on the planet. Few Indians buy and keep firearms at home, and gun violence is nowhere near the problem it is in the United States. An American is 12 times more likely than an Indian to be killed by a firearm, according to a recent study.

It's no wonder then that every time I visit India, my friends and family want to know more about America's "love affair" with guns.

I get the same questions when I visit my brother in Canada or on my business travels to other countries, where many people remain perplexed, maybe even downright mystified, by Americans' defense of gun rights.

I admit I do not fully understand it myself, despite having become an American citizen nearly a decade ago. So when I learn the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention here in Atlanta, right next to the CNN Center, I decide to go and find out more.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/28/world/indian-immigrant-nra-convention/index.html


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:24PM (16 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @05:24PM (#504413)

    I don't care for guns myself, but living in a small American town during a significant flood and disaster some years ago, my friends and I all temporarily moved into a friends' hilltop place downtown for a few days. Everyone brought supplies.

    One guy brought a rifle and two pistols. I though this was ridiculous but... We did, to my suprise, end up hearing gunfire a few times. During the flood, we learned a local gang was trying to loot houses in the area. People were firing warning shots when their crew eould get close. News didnt report on it except vaguely.

    Lucked out and they gave up before they got to us... Apparently everyone on the street either had guns or their neighbor covered for them.

    Still, i only gained my appreciation of them as a useful tool. I fail to see what the point of owning so many is, or making such a big deal out of it. I only need 1 power drill, 1 tablesaw, etc. We dont get coverage of power tool conventions in the news. Why would you need more than 1-2 rifles and maybe 2 pistols? Why an automatic?

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:39PM (14 children)

    • Automatic = fires multiple shots per trigger pull and highly illegal to own without special dispensation
    • Semi-automatic = fires once per trigger pull without having to do anything to load the next shell.

    The vast majority of firearms produced in the last 80 years or so have been of the latter variety. They are not special in any way.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Thursday May 04 2017, @07:28PM (11 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday May 04 2017, @07:28PM (#504495) Journal

      Know your guns:

      Automatic = fires multiple shots per trigger pull and highly illegal to own without special dispensation
              Semi-automatic = fires once per trigger pull without having to do anything to load the next shell.

      Wrong!

      • Automatic - reloads and resets weapon for immediate refiring, using either recoil or gases from the barrel to cycle the reloading mechanism. More properly "auto-loading".
      • Full-Automatic - reloads and fires weapon immediately, for as long a trigger is depressed. More properly "auto-discharging" or "machine-gun".

      [NB: This is common usuage. However, among a linguistic subgroup, the "ammosexuals", the usage is reversed, and they substitute "semi-automatic" for "automatic", presumably in order to use "automatic" for "full-automatic" in order to belittle non-ammosexuals for their correct usage. But just think about it, "semi-automatic" is an oxymoron. It is like being "partially whole" or "slightly pregnant".]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:52PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2017, @09:52PM (#504555)

        The irony of you owning the mighty blubberer wrt guns is sweeter than the sweetest snowflake tears.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 04 2017, @11:13PM (7 children)

        It may be common usage but it is wrong, as are you.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @12:11AM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @12:11AM (#504604)

          Translation: I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! <stamps foot>

          Come to think of it, that covers about 75% of your posts.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 05 2017, @01:40AM (3 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 05 2017, @01:40AM (#504634) Journal
            You know, you could have just not posted. From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

            An automatic firearm continuously fires rounds as long as the trigger is pressed or held and there is ammunition in the magazine/chamber. In contrast, a semi-automatic firearm fires one round with each individual trigger-pull.[1]

            Although both "semi automatic" and "fully automatic" firearms are "automatic" in the technical sense that the firearm automatically cycles between rounds with each trigger pull, the terms "automatic weapon" and "automatic firearm" are conventionally reserved by firearm enthusiasts to describe fully automatic firearms. Use of this convention can avoid confusion.[1] Firearms are further defined by the type of firearm action used.

            So here, Buzz was merely correcting someone, who let us note was being a dick here. What I find particularly amusing about the exchange is that they're both technically right. But I have to side with the "ammosexuals" here. They're the ones who actually talk about firearms on a regular basis and actually have a clue what they're speaking about. The following complaint is particularly stupid:

            ...and they substitute "semi-automatic" for "automatic", presumably in order to use "automatic" for "full-automatic" in order to belittle non-ammosexuals for their correct usage.

            And then it's followed by:

            But just think about it, "semi-automatic" is an oxymoron. It is like being "partially whole" or "slightly pregnant".

            The definition of semi-automatic is that one has to pull the trigger each time to fire one bullet. You don't get the spew of bullets that you'd get with an automatic weapon (remember he calls that "fully automatic" which should be a redundant phrase from his point of view, no?). So unlike a semi-pregnancy, partially automatic actions really happen.

            What gets me are the repliers who think this is deep thought. The poster gave the definition himself and still fucked it up with an explicit excluded middle fallacy. That's YouTube quality commentary right there. And the ammosexuals are corrupting our language to mock us, isweartogod.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:26AM (2 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:26AM (#504696)

              Its funny how your own quote from wikipedia literally backs up tarkus and yet you cut-n-pasted it anyway.
              Since you are blind to your own words, its the "enthusiasts" part.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 05 2017, @06:32AM (1 child)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 05 2017, @06:32AM (#504711) Journal

                Its funny how your own quote from wikipedia literally backs up tarkus and yet you cut-n-pasted it anyway.

                Sounds like you should read my post again. I made an observation on that very point.

                • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 05 2017, @09:11AM

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 05 2017, @09:11AM (#504741) Journal

                  khallow! Do NOT make yourself look so stupid! You are embarrassing me! Do I have to spell it out? OK, "enthusiast" = "ammosexual linguistic subgroup". Wikipedia is on my side, and I am not sure how I feel about that, but stop trying to pretend that gun nuts are not subverting language to mock normals.

        • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday May 05 2017, @01:45AM (1 child)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 05 2017, @01:45AM (#504635) Journal

          Au contraire, mon petit buse! You are wrong. See?

          --
          ( o Y o )

          Not boobies at all! You are looking at the business end of a Rigby Deluxe .577 Double! Do you really know anything at all about guns, Petit Buse? What is the rifling twist in a Rigby? Right hand, or left? Rate?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @01:54AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @01:54AM (#504641)

        you socialists are the ones who are using automatic knowing that people that don't know about guns think you mean full auto. this is anti-gun propaganda. are you really so fucking stupid that you don't know the democrats did that on purpose to try and scare ignorant middle grounders??

        • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday May 05 2017, @03:53AM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 05 2017, @03:53AM (#504666) Journal

          When socialists use automatics, they are AK-47s, based on the Kalashnikov, a gas-operated assault weapon that can be either automatic or full automatic, or jihadi "spray and pray" modes. Anti gun propaganda? That would make no sense! But anti-ammosexual propaganda? Yeah, hell yeah. Only the most fake-patriotic wannabe play-soldiers would want an automatic weapon. Autos are for the extremely lazy. And the highly inaccurate.
                  REAL MEN are marksmen, which means they will not use a magazine, or a clip, or a belt. They only need one shot, and maybe a second for backup, so double rifles for dangerous game, single-shots otherwise. And why play with a .22? Seriously, your bore is 5.56mm, and you call yourself a real man? Pathetic.
                Of course, this brings up my pet peeve, which should be yours as well (stop worrying about socialists, it dates you): newspeople referring to "high-caliber" weapons, when they have no idea of what "caliber" refers to. There did used to be a idiom of "high-caliber" that was used in relation to things like people, meaning something like "of good quality". But for me, real guns need to be over half an inch. .54 is tolerable, but .68 is good, and a Brown Bess .75 is even better. So newspeople, stop saying "high-caliber" when you mean "high-powered". Of course, even that term is totally ambiguous. Maybe we should use the term, "beloved by many ammosexuals" to stand in for "dangerous weapon only intended for killing other humans beings." Good enough for me! But then, I am not really a Socialist.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday May 04 2017, @11:04PM (1 child)

      by kaszz (4211) on Thursday May 04 2017, @11:04PM (#504573) Journal

      Automatic = fires multiple shots per trigger pull and highly illegal to own without special dispensation

      So even in the US you got to have very-special-permission to even own a such gun?

      No stuff like this [youtube.com] ..

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 05 2017, @01:04AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 05 2017, @01:04AM (#504618) Journal

    Still, i only gained my appreciation of them as a useful tool. I fail to see what the point of owning so many is, or making such a big deal out of it. I only need 1 power drill, 1 tablesaw, etc. We dont get coverage of power tool conventions in the news. Why would you need more than 1-2 rifles and maybe 2 pistols? Why an automatic?

    People collect things. And if you're asking about "need", then you're barking up the wrong tree. People don't collect dozens of firearms (or any of the many other things that are traditionally collected) because they need to, they do it because they want to. And in a democracy, that's good enough.