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New Zealand Bans Sale of Assault, Semi-Automatic Rifles: PM:
New Zealand has banned the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons after the country's worst-ever attack that killed 50 people in two mosques.
"Be assured this is just the beginning of the work we'll be doing," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference on Thursday.
[...]Ardern said she expects a new law to be in place by April 11 and buy-back schemes will be established for outlawed weapons.
"Now, six days after this attack, we are announcing a ban on all military style semi-automatics [MSSA] and assault rifles in New Zealand," Ardern said.
She said the man arrested in the attacks on two Christchurch mosques had purchased his weapons legally and enhanced their capacity by using 30-round magazines "done easily through a simple online purchase".
"Related parts used to convert these guns into MSSAs are also being banned, along with all high-capacity magazines.
"In short, every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned in this country," she said.
That was quick.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday March 27 2019, @11:37PM (7 children)
But if we're going to keep "thuh eebil gubbamint" in line, according to what you believe the spirit of the Second says, we *need* that sort of armament, no? If the Second is supposed to keep us armed on an equal footing with Thuh Gubbamint (TM) we kind of *need* drones, MIRVs, tanks, smart bombs, chemical and biowarfare agents, tactical nukes, not-at-all-tactical-in-the-least nukes, and all the computer systems and infrastructure and logistics to support them all.
This interpretation of the Second leads straight down the rabbit hole.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 28 2019, @02:00AM (6 children)
Nope. We don't really need anything more than the same small arms they have. It would make the inevitable a lot less bloody to have better weapons but it's not strictly speaking necessary. WMD type weapons in particular would be fairly useless in a civil war if your goal isn't to scorch the earth you plan on living on when it's over. None of the above gives the government the right to violate what is ever so explicitly stated in the 2A though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 28 2019, @04:53AM (5 children)
"The same small arms they have," he says. Look, Uzzard, when the inevitable Civil War 2 happens, and at this point in time the probability matrices are pointing to one almost 100%, it's not gonna stay "small arms" for very long
Reality isn't some sort of spaghetti Western, you are not John Wayne and never will be, and we will see atrocities committed against the "rebels" in short order, especially if there's a large AI presence by the time it escalates that far. The "rebels" will be treated like terrorists, insurgents, the kind of people we've spent the last 15-20 years fighting in the Middle East. This includes you. You'll never get a chance to play freedom fighter; you'll lie there choking to death on a cloud of VX, muscles on fire from tetanous spasms as you suffocate by inches. Or you'll just get blown apart in a bombing run and no one would be able to identify what remains of you even if someone bothers to try and can piece enough fragments of you together.
You are not a hero, and never will be. When the dunghill hits the windmill, you are dead, dead, dead, just like everyone else on the "wrong side."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 28 2019, @11:20AM (4 children)
You're really not all that sane, are you? DC not only wouldn't use WMDs of any kind on the population, they couldn't if they wanted to do anything but starve to death. Hell, they can't really even use any of their bombs or artillery unless they happen across an insurgent gathering large enough to make it worth destroying the infrastructure they rely on. It's going to be entirely conventional weapons warfare and no amount of tanks and planes are going to help when your insurgents look just like everybody else right up until they kill you. That's assuming you even keep a significant portion of the military and police under your control at all, which is far from guaranteed.
I guess I shouldn't go assuming sanity in a conversation where you're saying both "Trump is going to destroy the universe!" and "Only Trump should have guns!" though, should I?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 28 2019, @11:09PM (3 children)
See elsewhere in the thread for the warning about what happens to people who muster up armies of strawmen. It's half in jest, but *only* half. Point still stands: you are not a hero, you will not go out in a glorious blaze of gunfire, and you'll be lucky if you even have time to draw a weapon or even know that you should do so; more than likely, if you aren't actually close enough to the center of some bad shit to catch a noseful of Satan's kimchi farts, you'll just end up starving or dying of infection with no infrastructure around you. Not exactly the cross between Rambo and John Galt you make yourself out to be, in other words.
An "insurgent gathering large enough" could be as small as a few dozen people. Bio and chem agents mostly dissipate after a while; they're the closest thing we have to the old "kills people, leaves buildings standing" ideas about a theoretical neutron bomb. Drones are a thing, as are targeted assassinations with said drones.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday March 31 2019, @01:14PM (2 children)
You think I'm concerned about being a hero? That implies I care what others think of me. Has that been your experience here? If so, we need to notify the folks in charge of the 2020 US Olympic team. Those would be some world class mental gymnastics.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday April 01 2019, @01:00AM (1 child)
You care what you think of you, and you think you're some kind of rugged individualist, some sort of cross between John Galt and Robinson Crusoe, bucking the system from the inside and thumbing your nose at it. The sort of war your kind cheers on will be a rude and fatal awakening.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday April 01 2019, @01:41AM
I say and do what I say and do because it's what I believe is right. I only ask of myself that I make that effort. If you want to call that heroic, that's on you. I just call it attempting to live up to my ideals.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.