guns, comments, hello kitty

i guess this is only funny if youre not a gun nut. my uncle wanted me to carry, but its just not my style. maybe if it were a pearl-colored hello kitty gun with some of them sparkly blingy adhesive jewels...

ive found over the last year that the comment section can yield some pretty interesting and funny posts. i especially like the irreverent comments on digg that are already sorted by their snicker-worthiness. the following comment is reposted from engadget. i used to be a gun nut myself, until schoolkids started shooting other schoolkids. no freedom is worth paying that price.

http://m.gizmodo.com/site?t=RiAslaOnmf0b9I.iM0yk3g&sid=gizmodoip

(missing attribution)

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:58:28

"@Badlands99: 'A firearm is THE greatest equalizer. Two large young men attacking an elderly woman is a foregone conclusion. Unless she has a pistol. Then their advantage disappears.' 

Can I join in here?... let me finish that paragraph for you. 

"Unless those two large young men also have a gun each - another forgone conclusion. Unless she has two big guns & has been practicing to some old school Clint Eastwood movies." 

Wait... 

"(cont...) Unless those two guys happened to be die hard fans of 50(fitty) cent, carrying a couple of pieces themselves..." 

and then... 

"But what if the elderly woman was actually the 'Old Woman' from Worms 2 (I'm sure someone will get the reference)... then uh-oh" 

...in the (distant) future 

"... Unless the two cybernetically enhanced guys happened to have a portable version of the laser just demoed by NIF and threatened to turn the old lady into a small star through readily available Nucleur Fusion technology... it'd be a forgone conclusion... we could use elderly women as a clean source of energy" 

All humour aside... I'm sure you can see my point... it'd be great (?) for only old (and otherwise defenseless) people and oppressed groups to own guns, but sadly in your country (I'm in Australia - we don't have such liberal gun laws... thankfully) and in any country for that matter, guns aren't restricted to those that need them... those that already have an edge have equal access to them to gain yet more power. 

For every instance that a weak person has a gun to protect themselves... how many are there that the antagonist has the gun to intimidate their victim. As unlikely as it may sound, imagine a scenario of an elderly woman with a gun attacking a couple of fit young men... the guys could just back off and escape quite easily if little miss pensioner wasn't brandishing a pistol in their faces. 

Guns (like any weapon) give an advantage to he/she that wields the weapon. Period. Furthermore the bigger/better/more efficient the weapon (or better trained the individual)... the bigger the advantage... 

I'm not saying I know or have thought of a magic solution to world peace... i don't know any stats, but I get the feeling gun related "incidents" are a lot higher in the US than they are in OZ... because (as I understand it) you guys have "the (consitutional) right to bear arms"... 

Don't get me wrong, I've held guns in my hand before aand I freely admit to enjoying an afternoon at the shooting range (and I'd like to go hunting as well)... but I also have a healthy respect for their destructive capabilities... As a (hopefully) future (geeky) LEO myself, I can train in hand to hand... I can even train against knife attacks... but guns are a whole different kettle of fish... 

IMO guns don't belong anywhere in public unless there's a target or game animal involved... With the exception of LEOs - who (here at least) use them as a final resort... not the "primary weapon" you make it out to be. Outside of the aforementioned "guns-for-sport" domain... guns only beget more guns. 

This isn't a personal attack on you, but your argument has a gaping hole when the gun is in the wrong hands - which can so easily be the case."