Posts by cobweb

Yeah I agreed that was true. In these mass killing situations a home made explosive or truck could also bring about great loss of life. In actuality these running down by truck deaths and bomb deaths only happen when Muslim terrorists want to do something spectacular, its not something that occurs otherwise.But I was referring more to the day to day gun deaths that add up. In Western Europe, the UK, Australia, Canada, intentional homocide is much less than the US. See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

That includes gun homicide as well as by other means. I can't say that greater number of homicides in the USA are caused by the easier access to guns but I think its likely. Couldn't you at least have the same gun laws in the USA that Canada has? Its not that onerous but seems to make a big difference.

Here is a cut and paste from http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/10/22/numbers-how-canadas-gun-laws-compare-ours:

Waiting period to purchase a gun:

Canada requires a 60-day waiting period.
There is no federally mandated waiting period in the U.S. Residents can receive a gun after a background check.

Largest mass shootings:

Canada’s largest mass shooting was in 1989, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine killed 14 people at Montreal's École Polytechnique.
The U.S. has had 160 mass shooting incidents between 2000 and 2013, CNN reports from a study released by the FBI. The largest U.S. shooting was at Virginia Tech in 2007, when 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people. In 2012, twenty children and seven adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

License and registration requirements:

To own a gun in Canada, residents must take a safety course and pass both a written and a practical exam. The license expires in five years. Residents have to register restricted firearms, such as handguns and automatic weapons, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Canadian Firearms Program.
In the U.S., license and registration laws vary from states to state, often with no such requirements. There is no mandatory course or exam.

Background checks:

Canada requires a background check that focuses on mental health and addiction. Agents are requiredto inform an applicant’s spouse or family before granting a license.
The U.S. requires a federal background check for all those buying guns from licensed dealers but does not require one in private transactions such as at gun shows.

146

Just woke up turn TV on to hear yet another nut case with a gun.

by Still Totally ADD in

jw
friends

first they said 20 dead with 100 injured.

now i just heard 50 dead and 200 injured.

whatever it is it just another nut case who was able to get a high power gun to kill people.

cobweb

And you can say well Australia did it, they haven't had a mass shooting since, well they also don't have trucks driving through crowds in Australia.

As you say, the banning and confiscation of guns in Australia and the UK was effective and there has been no mass shootings since the mid 90's. No one is saying guns are the only way to kill people. It does seem to be the most effective way and it goes hand in hand with a big gun culture in the USA that makes guns seem sexy and acceptable.

In places where access to guns are limited, people have used trucks as deadly weapons and home made explosives too. These are also pretty effective ways to kill. It is true that if people want to kill badly enough they will find a way. But.... hypothetically, if US government were to ban and confiscate all guns - however unlikely that would be - do you really think that people would start killing people with trucks and explosives in the same numbers that they do now with guns? Somehow I doubt it.

Its never going to happen though. There are probably dozens of similar threads on this board about gun massacres that have happened over the years in the USA and this is just one more where the same questions get asked - and then it will be forgotten in a few weeks.

23

Crisis of conscience

by Ponyo in

does anyone know where i can buy coc for under $50?

.

cobweb

Having a bit more of a browse on JW-Wayback.org. Looks like a great resource. Not sure how the material compares with avoid.jw.org. It's got the movie To Verdener I see. Ah, someone has done an audiobook narration of the crisis of conscience and in search of christian freedom too. Its not an amazing narration but could be handy to some, although I imagine all the letters and documents will be left out.

23

Crisis of conscience

by Ponyo in

does anyone know where i can buy coc for under $50?

.

cobweb

wolfman - be interesting to see what it ends up selling at. 25 dollars currently with 15 hours to go.

92

Does Morality Exist?

by Fisherman in

some people believe that stealing, lying and killing, is not moral.

some people don't.. does morality exist?

if so, prove it..

cobweb

I understand what you mean about tatoos because as a witness i thought of it as a defilement of our God made bodies. But there is no harm involved to others so there is nothing 'wrong' in it once you abandon belief in a set of external religious rules of behaviour. Now, after being out of that witness mindset for many years, tatoos don't bother me. I wouldn't like on myself particularly but that's just a matter of personal taste. Tastes are fluid. Other cultures like the Maori seem to love them and that is fine and dandy. Tatoos are nothing to do with morality.

6

If Apostle Paul had been living in our time, would he have written certain things he did?

by venus in

1) he wrote woman are not qualified to teach (1 corinthians 14:34).

in my experience, i have been taught by both teachers—male and female.

some of the female teachers were too wonderfully effective.

cobweb

Many biblical scholars dispute whether certain so called Pauline letters were written by him. Timothy is heavily disputed, believed to be written later in the 2nd Century when the role of women became much more supressed. It is in 1 Timothy 2 where it commands that women not teach, assume authority over a man and must be quiet.

While 1 Corinthians is undisputed by scholars as being a genuine letter of Paul, there are those who believe that the part of 1 Corinthans 14 which talks about women is a later addition. There is no definitive evidence for it, but I find the argument quite persuasive.

See this thread from this board from 6 years ago on the subject.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/208679/bart-ehrman-says-text-about-women-being-submissive-on-1-cor-14-forged

16

An unusual question

by no-zombie in

jw
friends

i have an unusual question.. and it is ... who actually owns and runs this site?.

with no ads ... how does it keep going?.

no-zombie.

cobweb

Yes i use it too, although i wouldn't feel too good about it in this case. Presumably the ads do help Simon offset the cost of running the site otherwise he wouldn't do it, so you could see putting the site on the ad block white list and living with the ads as your contribution to keeping the site going. I haven't done this, i'm just saying.

16

An unusual question

by no-zombie in

jw
friends

i have an unusual question.. and it is ... who actually owns and runs this site?.

with no ads ... how does it keep going?.

no-zombie.

cobweb

I guess now you know your ad block is working.