SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 12 submissions in the queue.
SoylentNews
"At some point as a country, we have to reckon with what happens. It's not enough to express sympathy. You don't see this kind of murder, on this scale, with this kind of frequency in other advanced countries on earth." - President Obama.
Discuss.
- A Hectic Day at Church, and Then a Hellish Visitor
- Charleston relatives 'forgive' shooting suspect in court
- Latest on church shooting: Black, white pastors get together
- Terrorism v hate crime: How US courts decide: After the murder of nine black Americans at a church in Charleston, South Carolina by a white man, advocates and commentators are calling for suspect Dylann Roof to be described as a terrorist.
- Why we shouldn't call Dylann Roof a terrorist
- We Asked a Lawyer if Dylann Roof Could Face Terrorism Charges
- As Media Labels Roof 'Troubled Loner,' Justice Department Moves Forward With Domestic Terrorism Charges
- Was the South Carolina shooting a hate crime or a terrorist attack?
- Terrorism in Charleston demands the government act like black lives matter
- Criminal Justice Professor Discusses Charleston Shooting Suspect Dylann Roof
- Dylann Roof's friend: 'He never said anything racist': Christon Scriven, 21, told the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan that Mr Roof "wanted to shoot that school up - UCA university of Charleston - it's 3 miles up the street from that church."
- Mitt Romney Calls on South Carolina to Remove Confederate Flag at Capitol
- Dylann Storm Roof Photos Found on Website [manifesto archive]
- Here's What Appears to Be Dylann Roof's Racist Manifesto
- Photos Of Dylann Roof, Racist Manifesto Surface On Website
- BBC: The collection of photographs found on a website also show 21-year-old Dylann Roof burning the US flag and visiting a former slave plantation.
- Possible manifesto of Dylann Roof draws from hate group's text, expert says
- Police: Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof is on suicide watch
- Charleston Church Shooter Dylann Roof Was Loner Caught in 'Internet Evil': Family
- The Mainstream Media Is Showing Its Bias In Charleston Massacre. And It's Ugly.
- Rick Perry: Charleston massacre was an 'accident' caused by drugs — not guns
- Suboxone: What is the drug linked to Charleston shooting suspect?
Original Submission
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
You will be married within a year, and divorced within two.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Sunday June 21 2015, @12:53AM
Have you ever heard of knives and blunt instruments? People will be nasty regardless of the means available.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by timbojones on Sunday June 21 2015, @01:29AM
The vast majority of people will be unable to kill 9 people with a knife or a bat before one of the 9 puts a stop to it. Guns are more lethal from longer range.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tftp on Sunday June 21 2015, @04:33AM
The vast majority of people will be unable to kill 9 people with a knife or a bat before one of the 9 puts a stop to it.
Have you ever heard about Oklahoma City bombing [wikipedia.org]?
Carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing killed 168 people[1] and injured more than 680 others.[2] The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 16-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings,[3][4] causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage.
The perpetrators had no guns. They had nothing except a moving van full of common fertilizer and common fuel. You'd wish they had guns - they'd kill fewer people that way.
What would someone like Dylann Roof do if he had no gun? Let's even assume that hunting guns, smooth bores and rifles, are also outlawed. Possibility #0: he'd buy a gun on the black market. Those exist in all countries of the world. Possibility #1: he'd make a firebomb out of a couple of canisters of gasoline. If the exits are blocked, the chance of survival is not very high. Possibility #2: he'd use a poison on something that victims eat, drink, or inhale. Possibility #3: he'd be killing his victims one by one, in dark alleys, with nothing more than a kitchen knife or a bat. Possibility #4: he'd drive a heavy SUV into a crowd. You can see already where that goes - the list of possibilities is endless.
People say that it's not guns that kill people because indeed it's someone's ill will that kills people. Guns may make it easier for a weakling like this Dylann Roof. But that does not change anything in principle - the real problem is that now and then you have a psycho in the society. That psycho can always get to controls of something large and dangerous and jam them, causing serious issues. You just have to accept that. The actual damage from such psychos is very small in comparison to, say, deaths from smoking. Jack the Ripper killed only five victims - but he is still remembered. This is illogical.
But imagine that your wish has materialized, and all guns in the country are gone. No criminal can get one, no matter what. You walk in a dark alley, and a few robbers are stopping you. Will you be safe now? Note that they have their fists, their bats, and their knives. Have you ever seen a knife wound? I do not wish you to see one, especially on yourself. A knife is a perfectly silent weapon; it can be easily manufactured; it requires no ammo; it is cheap; it leaves no ballistic fingerprints; it is light and small. Do you really prefer to meet a knife-wielding robber? A gunman cannot shoot you to scare you - it's all or nothing; if he fires, the robbery is over. An attacker with a knife can cut you piece by piece. An attacker with a sword can easily kill a hundred people in closed quarters.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Tork on Sunday June 21 2015, @04:33AM
Have you ever heard of knives and blunt instruments? People will be nasty regardless of the means available.
Yeah, that's why many modern armies still just use swords.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday June 21 2015, @05:57AM
Yeah, that's why many modern armies still just use swords.
All modern armies still use knives. Special forces soldiers are trained to use them. Swords are not used anymore, but only because the warfare changed from face to face fight to a distance fight. This is not the case when a deranged killer wants to kill a whole family or, as it was in this case, a whole room of people.
You can say that a sword requires skill and training. This is only partially true. You'd have to be a skilled swordsman if you fight an equally skilled opponent - say, an experienced soldier - who also has a sword. If you are not just as good as he is, you will not survive. However a killer only needs to be better with a sword than an old woman who has only bare hands to protect herself. Other posters already mentioned a massacre in China that was done only with knives. Firearms are easier to use, but their removal from the scene does not change the fact that some people want to kill other people. Modern technology provides many ways to accomplish that even if there are no guns.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2015, @06:22AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @03:26PM
Yeah, that's why many modern armies still just use swords.
Hmm... I wonder why, when I was in Basic Training in 1987, they had us doing bayonet drills, then.
(And, actually, a big chunk of it was actually aggression training and not actually learning to fight with bayonet. But we had it, nonetheless.)
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday June 22 2015, @03:33PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday June 21 2015, @07:30AM
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenpeng_Village_Primary_School_stabbing [wikipedia.org]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting [wikipedia.org]
Same day, gues which one had 27 deaths, which one had 0.
But yeah, Guns!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 21 2015, @08:40PM
Red herring. So what that other objects can be used to kill people? What does that have to do with the fact that guns are deadly and have no purpose other than murder? So because I can kill somebody with a wrench, nuclear bombs should be legal for individuals to own?