EvilMonkey

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 06:27 PM) Better yet, private, for-profit prisons with even higher recidivism rates. Yet the number of African-American, Indian-American and Hispanic-American (the three groups most likely to be incarcerated based on general US pop vs. prison population proportionately) mass shooters remains incredibly low, compared to Asians and whites. So should a black gang banger who has 7 or 8 violent convictions by the time he is 25 be let back out on the street because there are just too many black guys already in prison? You want to keep him out of jail, then find out why he is committing violent crimes. Studying gun sales isn't going to tell you that. And as to your last thing, it is because the mass shooters often die.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 06:51 PM) Allowing some simple things like using government funds to study gun violence and punishing FFL/gun dealers who sell large amounts of guns that are later used in crimes. Back when the government was allowed to look into these things, they found that nearly every metro area had just a few gun shops where the vast, vast majority of guns used in crimes were sold. Then too much talk about gun control and registries and the right made sure nobody was allowed to look into these things anymore. They shut down gun shops all the time for TYPOs on the paperwork. if they know the shops that are doing something wrong, they can go find a reason to shut them down. Gun stores have a defacto registry that they have to produce upon court order to the Feds, so they can track your guns. They get serial numbers off of a gun, they can find out who bought it. That info does not belong in the PD or Feds hands at all. It is a felony to straw purchase. How about some prosecutions for that?

How about background checks, like prospective gun owners have to go thru? Or better yet, don't take them in in the first place.

http://pjmedia.com/tatlehttp://www.soxtalk...-joining-jihad/

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 04:58 PM) Alpha, do you think mass shootings are a problem? Or are they an unintended consequence of a free society? If they are a problem, what, if anything, would you do to try to reduce the frequency with which they occur? I've stated my opinion on firearms many times on this site. I don't begrudge people owning guns. I may question their utility in certain circumstances (home defense and protection from the government are two such examples), but Pandora's box is open and we can't put all the guns back. My problem is that the only solutions to gun issues - issues largely unique to the United States in the Western World - is greater access to guns (guns in the classroom! Guns in the Courthouse! Guns on the streets! Guns everywhere!). And that argument makes my head hurt. Simple, reasonable gun discussion (registering weapons to make it more difficult to transfer on the black market, greater training before you can own a gun) are met with incredible amounts of resistance. Registration always does because it has always led to confiscation. Even here in the few places it exists, you get anti groups trying to make that list public. In California they are using that list to go round up guns from people they believe may or may not be able to have them anymore. (Not that I think it is a bad thing they are taking guns from people who shouldn't have them, but there is an open door). The GUN isn't the problem. It is a tool. Yes, that sounds like a bumper sticker but it is true. Most of these mass shooters are pretty f***ed in the head. Maybe they need some help? Put away somewhere? But that would probably be violating their rights somehow, as we can't do anything to them until they crack. How about enforcing existing gun laws? You know they have this nice little form you have to fill out to get a gun that goes to the feds. It is supposed to be a felony to lie on the form. Background checks stopped like 200,000 people last year from getting a gun for lying on that form. There weren't 200,000 prosecutions for that, not even 2000. Your average street thug probably has an arrest sheet longer then their arm. Why the hell are they back on the street? So you have f***ed up mental health in this country, screwed up prison system and judicial system that lets far too many violet criminals back on the steet or lets them go altogether and a lack of enforcement on current laws that all conspire to have this mess we have today. But then when you do have a gun group that tries to do good, like use a federal grant to give out free gun locks to poor people who don't have them, you have anti gun groups opposing that, because "guns, bad'. You have the NRA's Eddie Eagle program tp teach kids what to do and not to do when they find a gun, but god forbid the eeeevil NRA teach kids about safety, because 'guns, bad!'. Short answer is there is no solution short of banning guns, which won't happen and would only make things worse. Everything else just screws with people who legally own their guns and are not a threat to anyone, unless threatened. Let's see what details emerge after a few weeks, since everything we get now is bulls*** tainted by the views of whoever is reporting it. Then lets see what previously proposed thing would have stopped him. That last shooter, he passed a background check. But his mental health things weren't on his record because someone somewhere decided that it was none of our business that he may have been crazy.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 04:47 PM) Alpha, why do we need voter ID laws in the first place when there is no evidence of voter fraud? More to the point, if voting is a fundamental right, shouldn't access to the polls (and the IDs that are required for that) be as accessible as possible? Parroting NSS, but do you not see how (1) creating a voter ID law; and (2) closing a significant number of DMVs that serve largely poor and minority populations is a problem? Look at the map in the link from NSS. Alabama is a pretty big state. How far is too far to make someone travel to obtain the ID they need to vote? EDIT: Judge Posner (Reagan appointed, Conservative justice), on voter ID fraud in 2014... http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la...013-column.html First they were satellite offices, not DMVs. WHen money was flush they opened them to help people. Money isn't, so they stop operating them. And if voting is so sacrosanct, why do you NOT want to protect it? You need an ID for almost everything you do. Saying someone can't vote because they don't have an ID is stupid. The same people need that ID they don't have to drive, cash a check, get any kind of governmental assistance and so on. So they have it. And if they don't, they purposely don't. And for the FREE ID, They are giving them for free, and will come to you. How much more easier does it need to be?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 04:19 PM) This makes me sad. How can you really not see the problem here? How can you be OK with disenfranchisement by the state? Online renewals is helpful. It is only addressing part of the need though, and just as Illinois has this too, it isn't valid in all cases. This is just so simple. Voting is a right that cannot be charged for. This is charging people, AND making it far more difficult to do. It is therefore not OK. Then just put a damn location in everyone's garage so they won't be inconvenienced. because if even one person has to make an actual effort, DISENFRANCHISEMENT! I don't have time to loo, but I bet there are ways to get a FREE picture ID. From first google hit

QUOTE (shysocks @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 03:51 PM) My suggestions is "literally anything different than what we're doing now." Doing something for the sake of doing something is stupid. So in other words, you have no suggestions other than 'guns, bad'.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 03:53 PM) Why does that matter? Again, this is not about one thing OR the other. It is that both being true is unequivocally disenfranchising certain segments of the population. Want ID's? Fine, then make them as easy to get as voting. Want no impediments to voting? Fine, don't require an ID. Otherwise, it is a poll tax. They offer online renewals As well as other services at other locations. So if they HAVE one, not a problem, have a variety of option to renew. Considering that those locations handled 5% of the TOTAL transactions in the state, I am fairly confident that less than half were for NEW licenses. In your other link the writer b****ed about having to drive 10 miles to a facility since he lives in a rural area. I had to go at least that far, and I was just in the south suburbs of Illinois. Oh boy.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 03:36 PM) http://www.theonion.com/article/no-way-to-...here-this-36131 Well do you have a suggestion? That would work? And isn't 'ban all guns', because that doesn't work?

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 1, 2015 -> 12:00 PM) The classic peanuts in the red solo cup trick Maybe I could have used that when i got my Failure to yield to a Train ticket...

Yeah, I could come back with that NOW, but at 23 or so back in the early 90's, wasn't top of mind.

Got a few tickets in my lifetime, hatred each one, but deserved them. But hated the few where the cops were dicks. Got a speeding ticket once and after he hands it to me he starts yelling at me about drinking and driving. And I'm like 'what? I just left work, haven't had anything to drink, and haven't for weeks'. He then YELLS at me to not talk back(I was very calm when I had told him, he just exploded back) and he should haul my ass to the station right now. So I just shut up, then he got all ''that's right, shut up and consider yourself lucky. Get out of here and slow down'. Only thing I can figure is I had a red solo cup holding peanuts in the cup holder, and he either saw that or smelled peanuts and just assumed booze.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 01:12 PM) If it comes out that the DNA on her shoulders nad fingernails did not actually exist, or whatever, then fine. I would withdraw my judgment. She could come up to him at the bar and run her fingers thru his hair and get DNA in both those places, with nothing nefarious on his part.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 09:49 AM) There is a very small probability that they set this all up--anything is possible! However, there's no actual evidence anywhere supporting that. It's all just baseless speculation, mainly from right-wing media and conservatives who, for some reason, feel the need to make the kid the bad guy and downplay the action of the authority figures in this case. It's all Alex Jones-level nonsense so far. More to the point, yeah, the school's and the police's actions pretty much do negate if this was a "setup". It wasn't a bomb hoax, he never presented himself as a threat, and he was truthful about what it was the entire time. The "setup" only works if the school and the police respond in the stupid, ham-fisted manner that they did. If they act like competent professionals, the "setup" doesn't matter and nobody ever hears about Ahmed. If the school and police's reaction were so predictably terrible that the family could concoct this plan, that in and of itself is a problem. Perhaps the family should OK the release of the police tapes then. Nothing to hide there according to you.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 09:22 AM) I think the Ahmed troothers' completely unsupported hypothetical claims are pretty far-fetched, but I've maintained from the start that they're pretty much irrelevant and that "little Muslim school boy who was preyed upon by racist school admins [and police]" is true regardless of his motives. In the real world, both can be true. In your world, not so much. 'regardless of his motives' completely OKs anything he may have done, because in your eyes, the schools actions just negate anything he does. Can both parties have some degree of fault here? Can you admit that it is possible that they set this up to elicit some kind of reaction from the school, and then got even more than they dreamed of? I bet you can't, even though you may say you can. It's all so black and white (no pun in tended), when it suits your views.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 08:49 AM) Certainly both possible. Though I'll point out again, either way, I don't see blaming the kid here as making much sense. I also think that, as SS has somewhat said, no matter which it is, the police and school have control over their reactions and they did a pretty poor job of it. And I don't think anyone here really disputed that they went a bit overboard. They certainly handed the family a big payday and made themselves look like fools. if it was a setup by the family, they got way more than they had hoped for.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 08:04 AM) Think like a detective here. What you have established is motive - but you have literally zero evidence of any crime (in terms of a setup or hoax or intentional act). Not even circumstantially. You can't just create a crime out of thin air purely based on motive. People all have selfish motives that are aided by any number of acts, but rarely have they done something to act upon them. I didn't say she was guilty, just what it looks like to me. I can see both sides of this. he is just an innocent little Muslim school boy who was preyed upon by racist school admins, or that he was manipulated by family to provoke a response and got one even bigger than any of them had hoped for. Or something in between. Can you imagine that any of those are possible? I know StrangeSox sure can't, this kid is as pure as ivory soap in his eyes, he can't even imagine that something nefarious could be going on.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 08:09 AM) Yeah, evidence that the school has harassed the same family before over what seems like similar BS doesn't exactly help their case. Plus, Ahmed never said it was anything but a clock. Nobody forced the school to suspend him or the police to arrest and question him alone. The school and police still have control of their own responses here. The police say that Ahmed was very passive-aggressive and non responsive while in custody, but can't release the tapes because he is a minor. Supposedly they have asked the family for permission and of course have been denied. And the fact that she was suspended is NOT evidence that they were previously harassed. Do you know if she did it or not? No, you don't, you only have her word saying she didn't. The only thing that is evidence of is that there is a history with the family.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 07:50 AM) What in anything she said even begins to indicate a setup? "So I’m not jealous, I’m kinda like—it’s like he’s standing for me.”

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 23, 2015 -> 04:50 PM) School looks worse and worse. or this looks more and more like a setup, whereby they are using Ahmed to avenge the sister's slight.

Ahmed's sister:

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 22, 2015 -> 04:08 PM) Trying to imagine the situation where the people who overzealously jailed an innocent minor for bringing a clock to school are not the issue, but those who overzealously praised a student whose clock was not actually that impressive. There can be two issues, unless you are too simple to handle two issues. edit. I didn't mean that to come across as a personal insult. Meaning you in the generic sense.

Dad is no stranger to the limelight. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslim...R3oC_story.html