If you outlaw guns, then only....

[Happy Monkey]

Is anyone watching this season of "The Wire" on HBO? It gets into a lot of the stuff in morethanpretty's post.

[tw]

Originally Posted by wolf

If it's about "pride," then what's different in the nature or nuture of young black men that they feel the need to kill each other over stupid crap like that?

Pride, need to win, gang mentality, no respect for a human life, fear of others, a mistake ... it all comes from the same mindset. Like it or not - and most apparently don't like the expression - it is called a 'big dic' mentality. A concept not just reserved for lying politicians. Common when the brain does not do the thinking. A problem not limited to one sex.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by tw

...it is called a 'big dic' mentality.

I was hoping this was a flash-in-the-pan phrase, but if you're going to keep using it, for God's sake it's spelled "big dick."



To me, the nonchalant violence in urban culture was always reminiscent of the Asian social concept of "honor." Which is weird, when you think about the drastically different direction each group went with it.

[slang]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

....spelled "big dick.

Or maybe "big dice"

Originally Posted by Ibram
I'm 100% against gun use and guns in general.

But as long as there ARE guns, everyone fit to own one should be allowed to. Either everyone or NO ONE. And I mean like, shutting down every gun plant, every bullet factory, everything, melting down ALL the guns... etc.

Ibram, do you believe that there is such a thing as justifiable homicide (e.g. killing another person in self defense or to save another's life)? A perpetrator doesn't have to have a firearm to pose a lethal threat; so, even if ALL firearms were absent from society a lethal threat level would still exist. If you accept justifiable homicide, what do you believe would be the most effective and humane way of accomplishing this if not with a firearm?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by slang

Or maybe "big dice"

dictiphone?

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

I disagree. There are lot's of reasons for shootings, not just the knee-jerk racist (no I di'int) conclusion that it must be crime/drugs. I heard an interesting take on the news this morning. A young black man (who would know better than a mature suburban woman) said that it was all about pride. If someone gets the better of you (nonlethally, of course), you're likely to go get your piece and show him who's a bitch. That's in his neighborhood, anyway. Could be a woman, basketball, parking spot, anything that disses someone.

That's why I cited "territory" and included testosterone as a drug. You can dismiss me as "living in the suburbs" today, but I grew up in Northwest Philadelphia and live only a few miles from John Street's hometown of Norristown.

I would say calling crime and drugs a "knee-jerk racist conclusion" (especially considering up until that point nobody had mentioned race that I noticed) would have to be itself a "knee-jerk racist conclusion". A cultural value that endorses soothing injured self-esteem with assault with a deadly weapon isn't a racial value...is it? It's a crime.

And regardless of whether it's racial or not, I'm unwilling to be disarmed on the excuse "there's cities full of young males who are violent because they are victims of society and can't help themseves; it's easier to 'solve' these problems by disarming you than by jailing them and those who illegally sold them their weapons.".

http://www.capindex.com/images/produ...onal_tract.pdf should be interesting viewing for folks who know the Philadelphia area and have the patence to wait for the download and subsquent PDF formatting.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by MaggieL

... it's easier to 'solve' these problems by disarming you than by jailing them and those who illegally sold them their weapons.".
...

And there's another conflict. You have voiced opposition to taxes in the past. Who pays for the prisons, guards, etc? Since these guys surely shouldn't be allowed back on the streets ever ( ) the cost will be staggering, not to mention the space that'll be needed to contain these people. Got a solution to that?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by MaggieL

I'm unwilling to be disarmed on the excuse "...".

So there is an excuse you would be willing to be disarmed on? Which excuse is it?

[wolf]

There isn't one.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

And there's another conflict. You have voiced opposition to taxes in the past. Who pays for the prisons, guards, etc? Since these guys surely shouldn't be allowed back on the streets ever ( ) the cost will be staggering, not to mention the space that'll be needed to contain these people. Got a solution to that?

Maybe we end the War on Drugs and use the empty cells for violent criminals? Of course a lot of the violence appears to be around the illegal drug culture so maybe those cells would stay empty.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The real cost of the war on drugs make Iraq look like pocket change.

Also, if you allow someone to dis you in front of your home boys, you'll have to leave town and not come back. If you shoot the scumbag that had the nerve to dis you, you'll be cool. If you get caught and go to jail, you're still leaving town but you can come back....at a higher status too.
The whole concept, the reasoning behind that attitude just blows my mind.

[Spexxvet]

Ok, gun control aside, would there be fewer deaths in America if there were no handguns? Simple question: only Yes or No answers accepted.

My answer: Yes.

[Undertoad]

There were 2,400,000 deaths in the US in 2004. Apx. 30,000 of these were due to handguns. More than half that number are suicides.

The handgun self-defense rate is said to be much, much higher than the handgun murder rate. I vote no, more deaths without handguns.

No. People will just kill each other with rocks and baseball bats. If you have murder in your heart, it will come out one way or the other.