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The Sniper and Gun Control
I recieved an email, and i thought it might generate some useful discussion if i posted it here.
So, here it is:
Yes, It Was a Bushmaster
October 25, 2002
Dear friends,
Yesterday, Larry Bennett, a 16-year old, was shot in the head after he was
involved in a minor traffic accident. You probably didn't hear about it
because, well, how could he be dead if he wasn't shot by The Sniper?
Yesterday, an unidentified woman was shot to death in her car in Fenton,
MI. You probably didn't hear about it because she had the misfortune of
not being shot by The Sniper.
Two nights ago, Charles D. Bennett, 48, an apartment security guard, was
shot to death after confronting two teenagers in his parking lot in
Memphis, TN. You probably didn't hear about it because the sniper was too
busy sleeping in his car that night, and thus, poor Charles was not shot
by The Sniper.
Yes, The Sniper has apparently been caught, so we can go back now to NOT
reporting the DOZENS of gun deaths that occur every day, the ones that
just aren't newsworthy because they happen in all those old boring ways --
unlike the ways of The Sniper, who was interesting and creative and
exciting and scary! He played so much better on the news.
Of course, had Congress not caved in to the NRA we would have known after
the first HOUR of the first day of the killings three weeks ago that those
bullets were coming out of a rifle that belonged to John Williams/Mohammad.
How would we know this? It's right there in the state records in New
Jersey: this gun was purchased this past July, under the name of John
Mohammad!
Many more people died needlessly in the days and weeks after that first
hour of the shootings, and every one of their deaths could have probably
been prevented had we had a national ballistics fingerprinting data base.
Thank you, Mr. Heston for this unnecessary carnage. Thank you, Mr. Bush,
for supporting Mr. Heston and his group's agenda -- which protects only
the criminals.
And thank you, Bushmaster Firearms, Inc., for providing the gun used to
shoot the 13 people in the DC area. Bushmaster's president, Richard E.
Dyke, was the Maine finance chairman of George W. Bush's 2000 Presidential
campaign. According to Business Week, Dyke had to step down as Bush's
finance chair "after reporters began quizzing him about his business
dealings. Bushmaster Firearms Inc., is notorious for using loopholes to
sidestep a 1994 federal ban on assault rifles." Bush and Bushmaster. Too
tragically perfect.
If everyone reading this letter (and you now number in the millions) would
share this fact with just one person who is thinking of skipping going to
the polls on Nov. 5th, I believe that on Nov. 6th, Mr. Bush will have
neither the Senate nor the House doing his or Heston's bidding. Americans
don't like people who assist serial killers in being able to ratchet up
their kills because The Sniper knows that his bullets are prohibited by
law from being traced to his gun.
That, in a nutshell, is what the NRA is all about -- and I implore all
responsible gun owners and hunters to join with me in putting an end to
the NRA agenda once and for all. Don't give Bush his majority on November 5th.
He's already seen to it that his cronies in big business have wiped out
your 401 (K), and they are doing their best to see that you are left with
no pension at all. That alone should be reason enough to NOT pull a single
lever for a Republican on Nov. 5th. Send a message. Do something brave.
Yours,
Michael Moore
[email protected]
www.michaelmoore.com <http://www.michaelmoore.com>
So.. whaddya think? I wanna see this bowling for columbine movie, at first i thought it was very tasteless, but now i think it might be interesting.
guns dont kill people, people kill people. if someone does want a gun, they dont have to go through all the legal bullshit to get one. it is just as easy if not easier to get them illegally off the street. so criminals, those that want to shoot and kill, WILL shoot and kill regardless. yeah, i dont mind stricter gun-obtaining laws and such, but those that are legally able to possess one should have the right to.
but like i said, criminals will get their guns and do whatever they want regardless.
>JM<
guns'n'butter baby. butter merely makes us fat.
great piece you posted JohnSmith
this whole gun thing in America is insane, it is also stupid to think that every US-citizen has the right to defend themselves with guns...
why can't you have the same laws about guns that most countries have, in Holland it is very difficult to buy a gun, you need permits and tell the government what you want to do with it etc...
in America everyone can get a permit, so it makes it a lot easier to shoot someone when you are angry because you probably own a gun anyway
yanks are weird people
Thanks for the story JohnSmith, I've enjoyed reading Mike Moore's take on stuff for quite some time...since he's from my home state of Michigan, and my friend Scott's home town of Flint, it's added a little extra interest for me...he's an honest to goodness home grown radical 
I've actually found it interesting, and the TO Star for one has picked up on it, that inside the US the sniper shootings never seriously made people even *consider* gun control, most of them essentially basing their argument on the principal that Juricimo laid out, that it's the people and not the guns that are killing people.
And while that's true, people who say that also seem to lose sight of the fact that guns are a *very* impersonal way of killing people. It takes a lot more will to stab someone repeatedly with a knife while they scream, gush blood on you, and claw your face than it does to just sit on a roof, sight them, and pull the trigger.
People additionally bring up the idea that if guns are made illegal only criminals will have them. To my way of thinking, that's also a flawed interpretation. Yes, for a few years while you're attempting to wipe out guns in the normal population you're going to have them primarily still in the hands of criminals, but personally, it doesn't make me feel less safe because having an armed citizenry just makes for *more* guns, and more possibilities for someone to go off the deep end and start plugging people, and so on.
Additionally, with no legal hand guns for instance, that means it'd no longer be legal to sell bullets for said guns either, and last time I checked guns without bullets aren't too effective in the hands of anyone.
I might also mention the fact that the police will still be armed as well. And while that makes me mildly nervous, particularly given the governments attitude toward people like myself lately, I'd still trust them to not start randomly installing martial law when they damn well please...hell, lately I wonder if anyone would even fight it given the erosion of civil liberties that has taken place since the 11.09.01 attacks.
In any case, I think the gun control debate *should have* started up again in the wake of the sniper attacks, but it seems the culture is just too ingrained in America at this point.
I think I'll close with a nice Vonnegut quote that I've had written on my wall for a while now:
"We trust ourselves so much with weapons that many American households keep firearms as pets...
Guns should give us the heebie-jeebies...
They are killing machines.
That is all they are.
We should dread them the way we dread cancer, and cyanide, and electric chairs."
Like chris rock said, they should have "bullet control!" hehe.
Seriously though, I think the lax gun laws do play a major role in the high number of gun related homocide and homocide rates in general in the United States. Having guns so easily accessible must do something to the crime rate. It might not be the sole reason, but it's still a reason.
People can blame it on illegal guns, bad parenting (ie columbine), social issues, but it still remains that if it wasn't for guns being so widly accepted, bad parenting wouldn't lead to nerdy kids shooting up a school, and bad city conditions wouldn't lead to petty gangs shooting up the neighbourhood.
Guns don't kill people, people kill people, Guns just make it a heck of alot easier.
We can do without guns in Europe, why can't you?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by jploveparade We can do without guns in Europe, why can't you? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Blik this whole gun thing in America is insane, it is also stupid to think that every US-citizen has the right to defend themselves with guns... why can't you have the same laws about guns that most countries have, in Holland it is very difficult to buy a gun, you need permits and tell the government what you want to do with it etc... in America everyone can get a permit, so it makes it a lot easier to shoot someone when you are angry because you probably own a gun anyway yanks are weird people |
its just as strict if not stricter to get guns here...like i said earlier easier to get a gun off the street i can get one in about a day if i wanted one.... so the above statements (opinions) are just that: opinions.| quote: |
| Originally posted by jploveparade We can do without guns in Europe, why can't you? |
While guns aren't neccessary to kill people they sure make it easier. Even if there wernt guns you could still stab people. Thats why I agree with the statment "Guns dont kill people, people kill people"
| quote: |
| Originally posted by jploveparade We can do without guns in Europe, why can't you? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Juricimo c'mon you cant get a gun here that easy man its just as strict if not stricter to get guns here...like i said earlier easier to get a gun off the street i can get one in about a day if i wanted one.... so the above statements (opinions) are just that: opinions. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Juricimo another thing is why not be able to defend when a buster comes up to you and wants to shoot you. what r u gonna do call 911? haha. nope you're gonna shoot the mothafucka that is threathening your life that's what you're gonna do. survival of the fittest. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Juricimo so people in europe dont have guns? c'mon now another absurd statement...people kill people all over planet earth..no different in europe man. >JM< |
When you have a gun you're gonna use it some time.
Do you feel save having one in your house? Fact is most criminals have BIGGER guns.
It's like the cold war. No winners, just losers.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Blik dude, you can buy fucking guns in a bigg shopping mall for christ sake!!!! and don't say this isn't true, I've been to the U.S. 2 times and I saw it with my own eyes. and that is where the problem starts in the U.S. that man bought a gun because it is so fucking easy to get one. I don't even have the slightest idea where I can buy a gun here in Holland, in Amerika you have a gunshop in every village (as a matter of speaking) when that guy didn't have that easy access to a gun he wouldn't have one probably, and you wouldn't have one either. So you get robbed, but you have your life, and that's what counts. how would you feel when you shot a guy and then you found out his gun wasn't even loaded and he only used it to get money from ya and he had no intension of hurting you?? and you fucking KILLED him!! no, the chances of getting shot in Europe are very small, and when I say very small it really is very small, the only thing that could happen in Europe (when you do nothing wrong) is being stabbed with a knife, and that chance is also very slim why does everyone in the U.S. is so keen on having a gun, they only bring trouble, for everyone. What if you are being held at gunpoint by someone who is robbing you, you don't have a gun so he probably won't kill you, when you have a gun and you take it out of your pocket he will shoot you. And you get killed... simple as that |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by jploveparade Fact is most criminals have BIGGER guns. |
Ban guns - let the police and the military have them, and no one else!
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Maaz Ban guns - let the police and the military have them, and no one else! |
It'd probably be nice if we slowly phased guns out of general circulation. Banning them outright would cause an increase in crime, at least temporarily, because criminals would still have guns, whereas other citizens would not. However, destroying guns used in crimes and continually reducing the manufacture of guns would slowly decrease their availability until they were relatively rare. This process, however, could take a century, or more, to be truly effective. Any change more drastic than this, however, would likely trigger enough short-term problems to be undesirable as a solution.
The sad truth is that guns are very much tied to the culture of the US, and simply banning them is not a viable solution to the problem of gun-related violence.
Guns can be marginally effective as a method of crime prevention, but relying on them to serve such a function is a double-edged sword, and far too often we end up cutting ourselves.
Cheers,
Arbiter
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Juricimo dont forget the criminals >JM< |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Juricimo another thing is why not be able to defend when a buster comes up to you and wants to shoot you. what r u gonna do call 911? haha. nope you're gonna shoot the mothafucka that is threathening your life that's what you're gonna do. survival of the fittest. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by CortexBomb while I don't have any statistics, I'd be willing to wager that people who pull guns in such situations are multiple *powers* more likely to end up dead or wounded as a result of escalating the situation. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by CortexBomb Most anyone who comes up to you on the street, brandishing a gun is doing it to get your money...now what's the intelligent solution here? A) Give him your money, and send him on his way. or B) Pull a gun, and hope that you both don't end up dead. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Maaz Well, the law won't let them have it... though they don't care about the law |
Juricimo, do you own a gun yourself, or your parents perhaps?
Did you ever shot someone? and if so, how did you feel about it?
I really don't understand that you think that there is nothing wrong with the guns in the US. You say that it is very easy to buy a gun illegally, but at the same time you say that there's nothing wrong with owning a gun 
don't you realise that you buy a gun to use it eventually?? you don't buy a gun so that you feel save, you buy so you can use it when you are being attacked.
another thing: when you have a gun, you may commit a crime sooner because you feel save with that gun, let's say you are not a criminal, you didn't do anything wrong in your life. But then you get in trouble, you don't have any money, you work for the money but you don't have enough to pay your depts. It is very easy for that person to rob a 7-11 or something like that to get some money. which pushes the crime-rate up again...
Cortexbomb: I am with you totally, you wrote it down in the best way possible 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by jploveparade When you have a gun you're gonna use it some time. Do you feel save having one in your house? Fact is most criminals have BIGGER guns. It's like the cold war. No winners, just losers. |
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