Can we please just admit that maybe gun control is a good idea finally?

Open bolt. Not legal pretty much everywhere, unless you convert it to a closed bolt operation, at which point I would argue it's not really a Sten anymore because you've replaced or modified basically everything.

Functionally a semi auto, closed bolt Sten-clone is not a real Sten but still would look like one. I just wanted to point out the possibility it may not be a full auto firearm. Sorry if I offended your Stensibilities.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make here. Are you saying this incident is somehow indicative of a pervasive problem in Norwegian culture? That if our attitudes towards guns had been different, this would have been preventable or reduced in scope? Please elaborate.

Hey now, you guys have a different kind of crazy out there in Norway! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Norwegian_black_metal_scene

Which has probably been blown way out of proportion in the media, but isn't everything sensationalist?

Wait. You're comparing U.S. gun culture to black metal???

Just presenting that Norway isn't completely innocent in the realm of mass killers. No country is safe from it. Yes, the US has more instances of mass killers, especially those who desire notoriety and/or have serious coping issues. We continue to have a negative shift in our culture in the US. The sense of community and respecting one another are a few examples of our endangered virtues.

Absolutely nothing in the Norwegian black metal scene could ever be called a "mass killing". Yes, some fucked up shit happened, but not mass killing, and this is an utterly moronic comparison. On behalf of non-retarded gun owners, please stop making us look like retards. Plenty of others are doing it, maybe you could not contribute to that cause.

So Obama mentioned in an interview that he likes skeet shooting, but vigilant Republicans are on it!

Fuck yeah! President Obama should invite me skeet shooting as well.

He's right fellahs, Norway is Rife with Evil.

Gene Simmons is a lot shorter than I remember.

I would argue that this is a globalization issue, cheaper and easier means of travel, more jobs shifting and changing, the focus on individualism... none of this is central to the U.S.

Meanwhile, I'm looking back at how much people were respectful of each other back in the 1950s, and thinking this is not actually a "negative shift" that exists in any significant way. Unless by "one another" that quote specifically meant "able-bodied straight cisgendered Protestant white men of at least a certain minimal social status with no socially disapproved mental illnesses or disliked political stances or atypical quirks."

DING DING DING DING DING DING DIIIIIIIIING

Don't be ridiculous, our changes in technology and how we more readily promote individuality have had an impact on community cohesion. Studies that indicate a strong family unit leads to less crime and achievement also tend to extrapolate to communities. Just because traditional communities ostracized their minority members doesn't make the notion unsound.

Everyone was so respectful when they didn't have to share water fountains with the undesirables.

It's pretty easy to take a brief look at the history of this country and see that we are slowly but surely arcing toward more equality and generally better treatment of our fellow citizens. It seems like a lot of people who talk about how "respect" is declining are people who have antiquated views on what "respect" means and/or think it was better when everyone would just shut the hell up and respect them, specifically.

America has a unique culture of "rugged individualism" that makes every person think they did everything in their life all on their own.

Combine this with a relative ease of life and you have an entire country full of people just champing at the bit to prove themselves. People who are looking forward to disaster because they know they'll be the guy on the top of the pile. It's why every issue has people just waiting to march here, protest here, buy a chicken sandwhich there: it's a safe way to shrug off the yoke of oppression.
The die hard types like to believe that they raised themselves up out of nothing to do good with no help from anyone, they don't want to see the larger cultural issues because if they're standing on the shoulders of giants it means they're shorter than they think.
And it goes to the extreme really easy: someone thinks they'll be fine if the water gets shut off, they have prepared, that means he's paying to keep the water running for those people too stupid or lazy to prepare! So shut the water off! Use that money to defend the country from filthy invaders who want to invade and turn the country into a third world hellhole with no running water!

Dang son! chill out! It was a tongue and cheek post about Norway quite literally having their own "different kind of crazy" out there. Was meant in no way to compare to mass killings in the U.S. Not many murders/deaths were part of the whole black metal scene, but there were an awful rash of church burnings.

Was more or less to say that each country kinda has it's own bit of crazy. Unfortunately for the U.S., we have psychopath's and sick fucks that have either been bullied their whole life, or just ignored their whole life. And these people see their moment to shine and be seen and known by killing a buncha innocent people and having their names plastered all over the news.

Welp, looks like it's time to start arming school bus drivers.

Clearly we should just arm EVERYONE. Except the criminals of course. They will always have guns no matter what we do.

Norway has tons of mass killings in its history. Of the perpetrators I can name off the top of my head: Olaf the Stout, Erik Eriksson, Ivar the One-Eyed, Bjorn Halfdane...

On a (sadly) serious note, this happened:

http://nbclatino.com/2013/01/29/geo...dentally-pulled-into-his-driveway-police-say/

I await the NRA to tell me what a fine, upstanding example of home defense this was, and why we shouldn't have periodic re-licensing for guns the same way that we do for cars.

Jesus Fucking Christ. Can old white racists that actually experienced the civil rights movement just fucking die already?

That doesn't mean anything useful.

Yes, that's stupid. It's either a platitude or a complete misrepresentation of the relative scope of problems. It stings every time a foreigner gets to walk into a thread and point out how they don't have to deal with the consequences of American gun culture, but it's supposed to sting. The difference is whether you try to take that out on them by googling random shit about their country or if you try to address the question at hand honestly.

I can't be the only one seeing the irony here.

Dear lord Lizard you can't be more wrong, but thanks for the false and overboard insight as usual! I was merely poking fun at a crazy aspect that Norway had in it's past. I wasn't trying to drag anyone or their culture through the mud. Jeeze people, lighten up a bit, I guess I need to put tongue wagging smileys at the end so people don't think I'm heavy handedly trying to assrape "foreigners" and their countries.

And I didn't have to google it, I've well known about the whole ridiculous Black Metal phase that was in Norway, but attaching a Wikipedia entry was just to soothe the "citation needed" pricks.

Henson Ong at Gun Violence Prevention Public Hearing - Hartford, CT. He says that gun control laws don't work. It's not the readily availability of guns but rather societal decay.

This reminds me of Yoshihiro Hattori, who was on his way to a Halloween party and was shot and killed when he accidentally went to the wrong house and the homeowner thought the kid was a robber.

Well, that's what you do. Miss the point, bury the conversation in bullshit, and then amble around repeating that everyone's mad at you until someone loses their temper. The subject being completely out of your grasp is just a bonus, in much the same way you mimic the form of citation without understanding the purpose. In your defense, I think it's mainly because you're dumb and not because you're primarily pushing buttons. But that's really not much of a defense, and we've already gone through a number of those.

The Norwegians need to be taken to task, if you ask me! Trouble, the lot of them!

Societal Decay eh?

Hoisted on a petard - maybe my own. Sorry cant link on my phone. http://mobile.slate.com/blogs/the_s...ar_old_jesse_lewis_heckled_by_gun_rights.html

Okay you have to imagine this in Richard Dawkins' voice

Ain't nobody gon' take away mah raht to bear a machine gun. Need it for hunt'n and defendin' mah home against the federal gummint.

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) January 30, 2013

Ah, the classic "Guys...what if reality is only how you perceive it??" defense.

Obligatory If only that kid had had a gun

Slate has updated that article with an accompanying video that suggests that the pro-gun people weren't heckling the father but rather responding to a question with "2nd Amendment!"

Their answer to his question, if indeed that's what it was, was remarkably stupid.

But isn't it their 1st Amendment right to do so? (Even if it was rude to do so).

Not if you hold to the traditional, literal interpretation of the amendment. Constitutionally no other justification is required.

I would argue that they still could not show "need," which is what he was asking. I doubt they were all, let alone any, in a well regulated militia. Essentially, their answer to his question of why they need assault rifles is "because" and so fuck them in their smug fat asses, I say. But I am tired and cranky. They may not actually be fat.