GlockSpock

And if they do it by promoting legislation to do so, then at least they've done it "the right way". We gun-owners are a very large group, but let us not forget that there is also a very large (very, very vocal) group the opposes anything to do with a firearm. They are contacting their representatives as well. It's the "reinterpretation" that bothers me.

I've been contemplating writing the following post for a while now. I've flip-flopped between considering it appropriate and considering it distasteful in light of current events. However, I decided to write it. To some extent on the topic of mass shootings as a whole, aren't we all (collectively, as America) to blame? I'm not trying to play the blame game but rather, in my opinion, take responsibility to some extent. Now, first, I fully admit and accept that there are truly evil people that set out to do truly evil things. Some people don't like hearing that but I do believe it to be true. However, if we investigated each and every "mass shooting" over the previous 2-3 decades, how many of them could have been prevented had people simply been more caring about those around them? I'm not delusional to think that all of these shootings could be prevented, but I'm thinking about it from this standpoint, particularly in the setting of school (be it high school or college). It wasn't that long ago that I was in high school myself. I made it through ok; I wasn't super popular but I also had enough friends that I enjoyed most of it. Considering that the profile for these shooters is typically someone outcast from the "norm" and generally shunned by most/all of their peers, I wonder how many of these shooters would have turned out differently had they simply been treated better by their peers. I'm not talking about an "everyone wins, there are no losers" environment, but rather one where people, specifically classmates, treat each other with more respect. I think we all can recognize there is usually a certain number people in a school environment that are generally pushed aside by everyone else. These people are mocked, teased, bullied, etc. I am in no way justifying what these shooters have done; Shooting other innocent people because the shooter's life sucked is not ok. It is evil. However, what I am suggesting is that perhaps for a certain number of these shooters, perhaps if only a percentage of classmates were nicer to the shooters themselves, perhaps their outcomes would have been different. I'm simply talking about being nicer to people. People at this latest school shooting supposedly all "joked" that if anyone was going to shoot up the school, it was going to be this guy. Well, what if part of the school had been nicer to, spoken politely to, dedicated even a few moments of their day checking up with said shooter and generally just caring about his life? Sometimes to a person in a dark place mentally the absolute best thing that can be done for that person is just genuinely showing them that someone cares about them. Again, I'm not naive to think this would solve all shootings. For the truly sick/evil ones, which are out there, this would effectively help zero. Some people just want to see the world burn. The best thing to do is to stop them before they burn too much. Yet, instead in our society, everyone wants to put the blame on someone or something else (black rifles, the FBI, the local Sheriff's Department, mental healthcare, background checks, etc). Most people want this problem fixed magically, either by banning black rifles, policing people by thoughts, locking away forever the mentally ill, background checks that are magical and catch people even without criminal records, etc. People generally want a "fast food" answer to a complex problem, so that they can go about their lives and forget that evil and tragedy exist in this world. However, personally I feel a lot could be prevented if people were less infatuated with themselves, cared more for their peers' general well being, were more generous and less prideful, and ultimately just treated people like fellow human beings. And, after all of this is said and done, be prepared to put a few bullets into the truly evil people that act upon their desires.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I disagree that "most" of the public understands the difference. A lot of them do. A lot of them don't. There is a vast group of people that think any AR-15 is a "machine-gun" because that's what the movies show. Coupled with movie portrayals is media misinformation. Referring to AR-15's but showing pictures of AK-47's while referring to all of them as "automatic weapons", there are a lot of people that simply do not care enough to be correctly educated and are quite wrong. I've heard countless coworkers repeat a long list of incorrect things regarding firearms as a whole. We live in TN, one of the overall better states to live regarding firearms. Consider that ~15% of the US population lives in the states of New York and California alone. Both of these states are overall quite anti-gun. If people in TN can get simple/common facts about firearms wrong in a state that generally is very open to firearms themselves, consider how misinformed the populations of those anti-gun states are. I've had a coworker try and argue with me that quite a few of the shootings (within the last five years) were done with fully automatic weapons, including San Bernidino. Also, I'd like to politely disagree with you over bump stocks. While I agree that admittedly they violate the intent/spirit of the law, the very plainly (and I think you have to admit) do not violate the letter of the law. 1 round fired per pull/function of the trigger = not a machine-gun. Up until at least recently the ATF definitely agreed with that regarding bump-stocks. My hope is that they come forward and uphold that opinion, and then state that it is up to Congress to change the law if they want. If they change law to ban them, I'm ok with that general process, because then at least we have the opportunity to pressure Congress not to. In my opinion it is very underhanded to reinterpret law to ban them. Also, couldn't it be argued that the NFA as a whole violates the intent/spirit of the Constitution?

Life can be/is tough. Society essentially says that everyone deserves to be happy, treated the same (fairly), and have an easy going life. If for any reason you are not happy (depressed), treated different (because of a personality difference, etc), or just don't win at life in general, then society pushes that there is a pill to make you "right". That's my opinion.

Lots of truth to that statement. More true than not I'm afraid. Now nearly anything can be diagnosed as a disorder. Trouble sleeping? Disorder. Trouble staying awake? Disorder. Trouble focusing? Disorder. Staying too focused? Disorder. Unhappy? Disorder. Happy too much? Disorder. I'm not saying that disorders do not exist; They do. I'm obviously just saying that nearly anyone can go to a doctor and complain about nearly anything and there is a magic pill ready to fix things for them, more often than not with more/more severe side effects than the symptoms it is treating.

Wasn’t sure what to expect, but it didn’t fail to amuse. I needed that this morning. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

#alotoftheantigunlegislationhasbeendonebyrepublicansjustsayingsorrybutitstrueeveryone Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree. In my opinion better than Hillary, but at least with Hillary people knew and would have known what to expect. The enemy you know and what not. I think Trump realizes that there is a definite line with firearms regarding his supporters. Does/will he care? I suppose that depends on how much longer he has in office and whether he considers it a possibility and seeks re-election. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, poor, poor Trump. Maybe if he wasn’t needlessly pandering to everyone he would not be attacked by everyone. Republican House? Republican Senate? Why not just make a polished statement proclaiming that guns are not the issue at hand, and that he will sign no anti-gun legislation while he is in office? Then he wouldn’t be criticized by us over this particular matter. Instead he just went quite far in alienating a large portion of his base. True colors I suppose. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Funniest story of the day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What frustrates me most about all of this is that the very people that do not trust anyone with a firearm suddenly fully trust that same person when you hand them a LEO badge. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Perhaps. But regarding bump stocks, the NRA helped get us to where we are today in my opinion. I’m not one that particularly buys that the NRA asked the ATF to review bump stocks because they thought the ATF would uphold existing interpretations and law. I am also of the opinion that the NRA has compromised or worse on most of the anti-gun legislation over the last 30 years. Thus it is my opinion that overall the NRA exists simply to make money off of political uncertainty and turmoil. With an NRA “Endorsed” President and a majority in the house and Senate, you’d think it wouldn’t even be necessary to worry about Anti-Gun Legislation. I wish I could love and support the NRA more, but ultimately I just don’t feel that they represent me. Remember when Wayne Lapierre promised to reverse the Hughes Amendment legislation? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You know, if I had lots of money, enough to burn, I’d make a YouTube video showing me destroying a vehicle while reading facts about how many people per year are killed by automobiles. One thing that I have noticed is it seams “this time around” a lot of “gun people” are basically renouncing their gun ownership. Truthfully, most of the people were probably nonchalant about it anyways and never truly cared, but it is interesting and worth noting. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I myself just joined GOA as a lifetime member. It's $500 but can be split up into payments quarterly. It was only $50 tonight. I'll get around to paying the rest over the next few months. It's easy to do and probably took me about five minutes. http://gunowners.co/life-membership $500 is the cost of a gun, but I signed up so that hopefully my kids will someday have the right to buy a gun as well.

Sure. Fine. Whatever. However, if before that time the ATF either reinterprets current law or legislation gets spearheaded, you might change your mind on 3/24. Personally, I hope you are right in being that optimistic. I myself just joined GOA as a lifetime member. It's $500 but can be split up into payments quarterly. It was only $50 tonight. I'll get around to paying the rest over the next few months. It's easy to do and probably took me about five minutes. http://gunowners.co/life-membership

I understand the theory behind doing this on 3/24, but that's over a month away. It might be more beneficial to do it sooner rather than later...

I am curious about the following things: 1) Hearing how many of the Pro Trump people "justify" this stance from the standpoint that since they don't own anything like a bump stock it's ok to them, and as long as they can still own their hunting rifles Trump is the best. 2) Seeing just how many voters Trump loses upcoming election due to this and any possible further opinions/decisions. 3) Seeing if this goes anywhere. It is possible that either legislation fails or the ATF refuses to reinterpret everything. Which, thinking critically, is a problem within itself; That the ATF or other agency can reinterpret existing laws and essentially change the meaning and thus enforcement of the current law without legislation. Me personally, if it were just bump stocks, I'd never miss them. But since I know it won't stop there, I know that four ight is currently there (bump stocks and "gun modifiers". I'll probably get around to writing our politicians some letters to go unread and throw some money to GOA. In a way I think the worst thing last election for gun owners was that Trump was elected. I think of it this way: Obama was president for 8 years. He had basically event after event (shooting after shooting) to rally everyone behind. He effectively accomplished zero regarding firearm legislation. If a Democratic President couldn't effectively do anything after Sandy Hook, why should we allow a Republican President with Republican House and Senate to do anything now? It's preposterous. Now, since Trump is President, the majority of your gun owners are sailing smoothly since they don't have to oppose "The big bad Obama" any longer. As such, everyone is complacent. Which means, fewer people donating to GOA/NRA, fewer people writing letters to politicians, fewer people caring generally. I think I'm more concerned that something negative is coming down the tubes for us gun owners under Trump than I was under Obama. Under Obama, most gun owners united together and attempted to protect each other's rights instead of just the rights they personally cared about. Now we will have too many gun owners giving in and giving up since they personally do not own any of these "gun modifiers". However, I do have a few questions for those slightly older than I. What was the deal about the hellfire triggers and the like from the 80's or 90's? I wasn't alive or was too young to remember most of those years, but wasn't there a multitude of "machine gun like" firing devices at one point that were in some form or fashion banned? Also, why is the Street Sweeper a Destructive Device when there are many equal shotguns on the market today.

I’d say sounds good, but donate to the Gun Owners of America instead. Much better organization. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly. To anyone wondering how he "Made it into the school with firearms", I think the answer lies within the question:)

When I was his age (19), I had about 2-3 times as many guns as I do now. I went on a sort of "splurge" until I realized other priorities in life. I wish I had realized those priorities earlier in life, and simply dumped $100/week into the stock market. To me, it was purely the ability to purchase things I had wanted for a number of years. With a job paying ~$300/week and lesser expenses (living at home, going to college), it did not take long to accumulate quite the collection. Since then I've consolidated down to what I consider "standards" and have much less than then. My point, and only point, is that if a priority it is not a mystery at all to me that he had 7+ guns at that age.

Yes, but generally speaking raising prices rarely directly increases profits. When demand is lowered, raising prices generally would lead to even lower demand, thus decreasing profits even more. It simply depends on how elastic or inelastic goods are. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since business leaders that make decisions have zero understanding of markets in general. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very nice. Had not seen one Cerakoted. Something about that Cerakote/Photo combination makes it look straight up fake, as in something you'd see in a video game or something (CGI model, etc). I need to shoot one of these, never done so but I don't know anyone personally that owns one...

Whenever doing typical computer/photo work at home, I usually rock it out to anything Monstercat: https://www.monstercat.com/search?term=best of For those unfamiliar, Monstercat is to some extent a "record company" that artists publish music to. It's typically all EDM/Techo/Dubstep, but it's generally all really great if that's your thing. The best part? You can "Join" their website for I think $5.00 per month and then download their entire catalog either MP3, FLAC, etc, all DRM free. You can get a lot of music for $5.00 I usually listen to a playlist I created consisting of all of the "Best of" albums by year.

Not quite "Middle Tennessee" but Lula Lake Land Trust on Lookout Mountain is very nice. To my knowledge you cannot camp there but it is a very nice place to spend the day. They are only open certain weekends of the month and have fairly strict rules pertaining to activities and times spent on the property, but it is very nice. @conn_air7 Can attest to probably nearly any hiking within a few hours of Chattanooga. He's the one that led me onto Lula Lake. https://lulalake.org