So an 8 year old is killed by a machine-gun and it's no ones fault? (page 4)

Broken Promises

The father has no one else but himself to blame for his son's death. He has to live with the knowledge that the decisions he made that day, resulted in his son's death. That's a sentence in itself.

Banning guns is not an answer. Requiring a background check before ownership is good. Requiring X hours of practice/training at a firing range before ownerhip might be good. Requiring that owners carry a bond based on risk (shotgun, rifle low, semi-automatic handgun higher) another helpfull idea. The idea would be to try to promote responsibility and keep them out of the hads of idiots and mentally deranged.

Cameo - you are stretching the definition, the 2nd ammendment if about physical arms and short sleeve T-shirts...

WontLeave

The "right to bear arms" was written when people had muskets. Not automatic assault rifles.

Really, why the hell does any civilian need a machine gun?!?!?!

Because the government has them.

but no one should need an Uzi to knock over a deer, pheasant, or bunny.
Let's go spend the day playing with devices specifically designed for killing humans!!

The Constitution doesn't exist to protect hunting or gun collecting. Why is this stupid argument constantly made? The right to bear arms is so the citizens can kill people - military personnel and government agents - who overstep their Constitutional authority.

I just think we tend to ignore the "well regulated" part of the 2nd.

Why people look at this and believe someone has to be a part of the militia to possess a weapon, I will never know. The entire Constitution exists to place limitations on the federal government, not the people.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." - 2nd Amendment

This amendment exists to limit a power imbalance between the government (the Militia) and the people. The architects of the Constitution were well aware of the problems that stem from an armed government bullying unarmed subjects and sought to avoid that problem by empowering the people.

nugget

I live in the uk so cannot understand how it can ever be appropriate to allow a child to fire a sub machine gun. To me it is madness what a tragic waste. I feel for the mother how do you come to terms with that sort of thing? How do you rebuild a relationship with your husband? I suspect more than a small boy was lost in that moment of stupidity.

TD

An Uzi is a class III weapon here in the U.S. --Certainly not impossible for a private citizen to own, but there are some substantial hurdles.

bohm

Wonleave: Lets see if your argument pass Bohms Nuclear Check (BNC)

Q: Why should you be allowed to have a nuke?

A: "Because the government has them." (Ka-ching!)

Q: nukes... are you sure thats what the founding fathers was talking about?

A: "The Constitution doesn't exist to protect hunting or gun collecting. Why is this stupid argument constantly made? The right to bear arms is so the citizens can kill people - military personnel and government agents - who overstep their Constitutional authority." ... and what does the job of killing politicians better than a maxi-sized thermonuclear device. (for a moment i thought there was some event this week that would make exactly this kind of argument rather inappropriate, but it keep slipping my mind)

Q: but nukes. thats crazy! ordinary people would just turn the midwest into a radiactive wasteland the next 4th of july! even governments should not be trusted with that kind of power

A: "Why people look at this and believe someone has to be a part of the militia to possess a weapon, I will never know. The entire Constitution exists to place limitations on the federal government, not the people."

Q: Tell me another crazy 2nd ammendment interpretation that will support your right to bear nukes!

A: "This amendment exists to limit a power imbalance between the government (the Militia) and the people. The architects of the Constitution were well aware of the problems that stem from an armed government bullying unarmed subjects and sought to avoid that problem by empowering the people." ... and what is more empowering than the most destructive force mankind has deviced, and which the federal government yeild?

Q: cool, im gonna get my nuke right now!

A: saddle up partner, mutual assured destruction is the only way to ensure the freedom of the individual!

ps.

im glad we cleaned something up -- for a moment i thought the idea behind the american constitution was about securing the rights and freedom of people, not about limiting some other group. Its interesting! if the government is the problem, why have one in the first place?

oh wait, it only work with guns...

moshe

Well, the machine-gun Ed is not out of the woods yet- Civil lawuits still await him. As OJ Simpson found out- You can win an aquittal in ciminal court and still be convicted in civil court for the "incident". The financial judgment, if won, will put him in the poorhouse for the rest of his life.

leavingwt

In the United States, there are about 4 million 8-year-old children. To the extent that statistical averages hold true, around 640 of them will die this year. The largest single cause is motor vehicle accidents, killing a quarter. Cancer will kill another sixth, heart disease around fifteen percent, drowning will kill four percent, fires will kill about the same, and so it goes. Fewer than one percent will die of accidental discharge of firearms, about the same as inadvertently poison themselves with household cleaners. This year, one of them was named Christopher Bizilj, and he lived in Massachusetts. He was killed at a firearms expo this week when he was allowed to fire a demonstration Micro Uzi. The recoil caused him to lose control of the gun as it was firing; one of the bullets killed him. It is a hideous tragedy of unimaginable horror.

Conversely, irrationality in the face of horror has been used to justify everything from medieval pogroms to warrantless wiretaps. It is a source of new horrors all its own, and it's precisely the thing scientists should strive to avoid.

. . .

http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/2008/10/children_guns_and_pools.php

TD

Humorous Bohm, but the term, "Arms" as it is used in the Second Ammendment has been defined in the courts.

So an 8 year old is killed by a machine-gun and it's no ones fault?

satinka