Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

Quote:
Miami Herald:

Miami goes a month without murder


Midnight Friday marked the end of October and the news from Miami's homicide office was what didn't happen.

No one was murdered.

October passed without a homicide -- meaning for the first time since May 1966, an entire month went by in the city of Miami without someone succumbing violently.

''That's an amazing thing,'' said Miami Lt. John Buhrmaster, a longtime homicide investigator. "It's a great record when people are not killing each other.''

That's good to read. Honestly.

Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
It has been my experience over the years that people who exhibit such fear and/or loathing of guns is usually because they know nothing about them beyond the horror stories they hear on the news.

Well, in my time in the german army I was trained to fire the G3 assault-rifle, the P1 pistol, the Uzi submachine-gun and the MG-2 machine-gun.
And I still loath the idea of such weapons in the hands of the general populace.

cya, Mithi

Quoting Dan W:

Quote:
Can someone PLEASE do something about these damned mosquitoes? 

Edit:  -  For those who don't know what I mean by that...... over 1 million people die each year from mosquito bites and more people have died from mosquito bites than in all of the wars ever waged by man added together.

We use big guns in the US to combat mosquitos... (atleast in Virginia)

Karsten:

This something which few even here in the US have a real appreciation for. Having grown up during the Cuban missile Crisis and being only 20 miles away from one of the US' largest strategic targets, I never would have believed I would be alive to see 58. But here i am, I am also all to aware of the thin venerr of civility that is human nature.  That experience and knowledge led to me to be prepared and I am, I will die a very happy camper if we keep it together and I never have to shpulder any of my weapons in either anger or defense of my country, but I will do both without hesitation. The people who will go first will be the people who are unarmed and defeseless, the people I politely refer to as appeasers or peaceniks depending on my mood. Like I said I will go to my grave, if I my weapons have never seen anything beyond the firing range, but I am prepared, willing and able....IF I must.

Skip

Quoting Dan W:

Quote:
Quoting Mithi:

Quote:
Quoting Rifter:

Quote:
It has been my experience over the years that people who exhibit such fear and/or loathing of guns is usually because they know nothing about them beyond the horror stories they hear on the news.

Well, in my time in the german army I was trained to fire the G3 assault-rifle, the P1 pistol, the Uzi submachine-gun and the MG-2 machine-gun.
And I still loath the idea of such weapons in the hands of the general populace.

cya, Mithi

While this is a stragic thing regardless of where it occurred or who did it or why, there are a couple of interesting points in that article. Points that I'm sure you noticed but didn't state.
1) The 22 yr old man who committed this, has multiple drug convictions. Perhaps he has an AK47 as part of his drug activities?
2) he was arrested for murder and 3 counts of assault and battery with intent to kill.

These two points attest to the preconception that this is not acceptable. Actually, I expect that this guy is likely to receive the death penalty.

To be sure, the "general populace" of the US does NOT have automatic weapons and it is a very small portion of the law abiding gun owners in the US who do own fully automatic weapons.

Here is a link to the article from the local news station website in Sumter.
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9276220

Quoting kemper:

Quote:

It is always sad to see stories about this, and I do grieve for the family.  BUT on the other hand, how often to we see the media publish articles on the responsible gun owner sucessfully defending their home and family?  Those stories are burried on page 6 if at all.....

Are there any stories of responsible gun owners successfully defending their homes and family?  You would think there would be plenty of them considering the argument that they are needed for this purpose.

Quoting FUBAR:

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Quoting kemper:

Quote:

It is always sad to see stories about this, and I do grieve for the family.  BUT on the other hand, how often to we see the media publish articles on the responsible gun owner sucessfully defending their home and family?  Those stories are burried on page 6 if at all.....

Are there any stories of responsible gun owners successfully defending their homes and family?  You would think there would be plenty of them considering the argument that they are needed for this purpose.

The thing one has to keep in mind when asking a question like that is, law-abiding citizens doing law-abiding things are not typically newsworthy to sensationalistic news reporting. What gets attention is the extraordinary or something that speaks to someone's cause. I'm sure there are statistics available on lawful use of firearms, and I'm sure someone here will gladly post them for you if you ask, but typically that isn't something that makes the six o'clock news.

Quoting kemper:

Quote:
Gave up buyind DVD's for a little while.... bought:

I wish I still had that option; sadly only the criminals can (and do) possess handguns where I live now