I have long held that our weapon laws are sensible and functional – not too strict, not too loose, and I still think they are more on the reasonable side than not. But they do sometimes fail, as they did just now.
Czechia had yesterday the worst mass shooting in our history. Mass shootings do occur here, unfortunately, every once in a while. This one was perpetrated by a person who held multiple firearms, legally, because he had no criminal history or mental health diagnosis. His motives are so far unknown, he did not appear to be targeting any specific demographic – his goal was apparently just to cause as much pain as he could.
This does not happen here even remotely as often as in the USA, but even once would be too many. And I am afraid that this incident will be used to argue for further loosening of our already loose gun laws by idiots who think adding more guns to the situation would somehow prevent it, instead of multiplying it.
No such restrictions are perfect, but that is no reason to make them worse!
Czech here. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I watched the news yesterday. There were of course mass shootings before and sadly, as far as I know, this one is the worst case of mass shooting in Czechia/Czechoslovakia since the end of WW2.
Given that, I definitely think that this case will be used to argue by proponents of both sides -- there will be calls to loose gun controls, as you wrote, and there will be calls to make gun availability much more strict. But the facts simply are that a) more guns amongst the population will most likely make the situation even worse; and b) even super-strict regulation will never completely prevent these situations.
According to current information the perpetrator held the firearms legally and he was an intelligent, introverted lone-wolf who carefully prepared for his killing spree. It’s almost impossible to predict/prevent such type of attack, the regulation can only help to make these attacks less frequent and with smaller casualties. Which is a goal that we should strife for, because even 1 death is too many. And yesterday it was 14.
If you need to convince anyone that more guns does not equate to more safety then the simplest way to do it is to talk about situational awareness.
Pro-gun arguments assume people are living in an action movie. Ready to rumble at any moment and with perfect situational awareness. In reality if a bunch of people are armed it gets much more dicey to figure out who the bad guy is. And frankly I think most people would be a bit too rattled to shoot straight if a gunman opens fire while they’re shopping for groceries, going to class, or doing something else that fits seamlessly into a normal day.
It’s also probably worth saying that even if more guns are around, the last place they’ll be allowed is on campus. So it wouldn’t even make any sense to loosen gun laws over this particular tragic incident.
Florida Man replaced by Florida Boys and irresponsible firearms owners in Florida.
A 14 year old brother, arguing with his 15 year old brother in the car over Christmas gift quantities and expenditures (feeling he wasn’t getting as much as the elder brother), drew a .40 caliber pistol on his brother, pointing it at his head and threatening to shoot him. Sister objects, the 14 year old then threatened the sister and threatened to shoot the sister’s 10 month old infant, who was in a carrier in her arms. The 14 year old fired, striking the sister in the arm, then lungs, killing her. The 15 year old exited the car and around 8 seconds later, drew a .45 caliber pistol and shot the 14 year old, then ran off. The .45 caliber has not been recovered, the 14 year old has survived, the sister did not, thankfully, the infant was unharmed. Well, unharmed, other than running fresh out of mothers.
The pistols apparently were stolen from unlocked cars. As far as I’m concerned, if that is so, the owners are as responsible as if they pulled the trigger themselves.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/2-teen-brothers-arrested-after-pinellas-shooting-kills-sister-on-christmas-eve/ar-AA1m41l7
My father owned firearms my entire life, they were under lock and key and if we went hunting, the firearms remained secured, not left unattended inside of an unlocked goddamned car.
I’ve owned firearms my entire adult life, if anything, I’ve been even more security minded with the things.
lanir @ 3, I’m a combat veteran, two wars, 28 years in the US Army, now happily retired. Alas, I know precisely what would happen with any mythical good guy with a gun scenario. Adrenaline would reduce frontal lobe circulation in a normal adrenaline response. Vision would tunnel, hands would shake, thoughts would be muddled. If they managed to draw and fire, rather than the more typical freeze, those shaking hands won’t be noticed as rounds spew wildly about, nowhere near their intended target, which they could barely see through the tunnel vision, nor notice because of those muddled thoughts.
Add in, most people who concealed carry don’t practice with what they carry on a regular basis and the few that do don’t do so in any realistic scenario. The Army went with stressing soldiers, literally running and harrying them before firing just to counter the effects of adrenaline and that insane sounding program was effective.
Police don’t typically receive such training and well, it shows, when 60+ rounds get fired in gunfire exchanges with criminals and neither party even comes close to their intended target. The press then happily reports nobody was harmed, ignoring the homes and vehicles peppered with high velocity lead.
For the shooting in Europe, well, Czech firearms regulations are actually fairly close to US firearms regulations and lacking a reason to deny access, access is granted. Much as is done in the US.
Much hay was made over the shooter owning multiple firearms and proclamations of veritable mountains of ammunition made, but video shows the shooter using one bolt action rifle with a rather nice scope, turning a precision weapon for precision marksmanship and wild game claiming weapon until a weapon of terror.
And a special thanks to the reporter that jeered and incited the shooter to fire at him, distracting fire from the students scrambling to safety, he restored my faith in humanity with that act.
Rights aren’t unfettered. Religious freedom has limits, so one cannot engage in human sacrifices, one cannot force one’s faith upon others and more. Speech has limits, in the Czech Republic, going on about how great Nazis were and how wonderful the Holocaust was will get one some extended time as the guest of the state inside of some wonderful accommodations with steel bars and rightfully so. I can go down quite the list of rights and their restrictions that are necessary for a peaceful society and included in that is any rights to possess and use firearms.
I can’t speak to Czech Republic laws on firearms, the last time I was there, well, things were a bit different, Soviets and all and officially, that never happened kind of things. US laws, well, I can and have spoken volumes on those. Specifically on rights and restrictions and that firearms derived from selective fire military service rifles belong under a new chapter of our National Firearms Act -- where machine guns, artillery, silencers, short barreled shotguns and rifles, as well as disguised weapons and destructive weapons live. Yes, in many states in the US, one can own all of the above, in my state all of those are legal -- expensive as hell and largely useless, but legal.
I do use an AR15 series rifle, an M1A (semiautomatic M14 battle rifle) and military model pistol in competition, of the three, only the M1A would be capable of deer hunting, but prohibited in my state due to its magazine capacity and being semiautomatic for hunting (allowed for firing on ranges and any usage other than hunting, not that I can think of any other lawful usage for it). My hunting rifle is a lever action rifle, favored being a 30-30 or 45-70 (have both, usage depending upon game being hunted and occasionally, I’ll even load the things when hunting). Anyone suggesting hunting deer with an AR in NATO caliber deserves to be whipped, as that’s just sadistic, it’ll only cause an animal to suffer horrifically, as the round is rather anemic for that purpose, the 7.62x51/.308 being optimal for such a purpose over long distances, the 30-30 being akin to an AK round in power and good for within a few hundred meters for humanely claiming game. I’ll recommend military rifles and magazines for hunting deer when the deer start to shoot back. I’ll also be only in the woods when properly armed with a white flag.
As for the Florida Boys, all that I can say is, John Wayne really fucked this country up. Resolve all problems with a gun was never a real thing in this country, the Wild West actually being quite the Mild West, Dodge City prohibiting the carry of firearms. Good job, Marion, your various characters have given the nation you ostensibly loved a living hell.
Well, back to trying to fix my neighbor’s Keurig coffee maker. Calcium clogged the thing up pretty badly, think a solenoid valve failed. If so, my recommendation is a percolator or French press, got one of each myself, even if I use a different brand of cup at a time maker (on my third in a year, despite descaling the things on a regular basis).
@wzrd1
I have to disagree on this one. To obtain a weapon ownership permit in CZ a person must undergo a psychical evaluation, criminal background check, test of theoretical knowledge of weapon laws in CZ, and a practical test of proficiency regarding being able to safely handle the firearm they wish to own for the purpose they wish to use it. There are five categories of weapons ownership permits -- collecting, sports, hunting, work, and self-defense. Only some of those are also a weapon’s carry permit, for example even a policeman who has a permit to carry a gun when at work might not be able to carry it when off-duty. A hunter can carry the rifles only unloaded when not in the forest etc.
The laws around it are pretty complicated -- I personally couldn’t be arsed to even try to understand them. Only a really dedicated person can get their hands on a gun. I have a friend who is a gun nut, yet does not have a weapon permit and has no guns because he failed some part of the exams in his twenties and hasn’t even tried since. On the other hand, I also have a friend who has a weapon permit (had to get it for work once in the past), yet he hates guns and also does not own any.
Charly, been with all scopes of that equation, have yet to find perfection.
I’m a competition marksman and avid hunter (in my dotage, rarely hunting, lest I actuallty acquire my game and have to lug it out of the woods).
But the US has its cults, one being “I can fight off the government” idiocy, no idea why, courts exist for a reason and well, are far more effective than gunz.
Others think they’d change the government’s mind, as if an AR or AK vs MLRS would ever work.
Worst, morons that think their AR/AK/pistol would win against a B-52. Because everyone in uniform would follow them, despite their oath.
Me, I’m more of, if I find game close to the road, it’s meat, otherwise, it’s a pretty picture. And I’m really big on unchallenged big game of the fighting against the challenge of the tyranny of the unperforated square of the target paper.
Calipers and magnification required for said competition.
As for shooting people, done that in the military. Now, want that, I’ll happily insert the bullets manually to shut the idiocy up.
Then, return to target shooting.