Brussels shows that Europe needs to step up weapons control!

[DanM]

I am sickened right now on reading the news from Brussels.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/europe/brussels-explosions/

European countries need to wake up and realize it's not enough to simply ban guns! They must get control of these components that are going into bombs.

And they must proactively think ahead to what the terrorists will use after guns and bombs are banned, and get control of whatever those potential weapons will be.

It's insanity, and putting your population at risk, to not go all out in banning everything that could be used to make weapons!

[Matrosov]

1. Why not just give everyone bombs instead?

A good guy with a bomb could've prevented this

[DanM]

3. Ok, you made me LOL, despite the tragedy of this event. n/t

[Wilms]

2. What are the components to which you refer?

You can build a bomb using pretty ordinary stuff it would be difficult to ban, like plumbing pipe and nails.

But go right ahead. For every tragedy there are innumerable knee-jerk reactions. Some become law. Some lead to war.

[DanM]

4. I'm sorry to say your words strike me as defeatist, but they do.

Look that isn't a personal attack. I'm sure you are a wonderful person, and not generally a "defeatist".

What I'm talking about is we can't feed into the same argument that those opposed use to turn off any talk of getting control on weapons.

[Wilms]

7. Must I repeat the question?

Can you answer it?

Seems you have the world divided up into two categories. Those in favor, as you see it, and those opposed, as you see it. I'm neither.

So again, what specifically do you propose banning?

[nil desperandum]

8. I am reminded of Heinlein....

“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”

Count me among the curmudgeons...Jefferson stated that he preferred a dangerous freedom to a peaceful servitude. We live in a dangerous world and I agree with your assessment that many, many, things can be made to go boom. I don't need the government interfering there anymore than I need them interfering in the rest of my personal affairs.

[DanM]

11. Bombs and improvised weapons, and their components.

Europe is on the right path on where we want to be with weapons control. They just need to do more to go further.

[Wilms]

13. Are you aware that you haven't answered the question?

You do not walk into a store in Europe to purchase "bombs and improvised weapons". But you could buy components such as plumbing pipe, fertilizer, nails and screws, etc.

What is it SPECIFICALLY that should be banned that isn't already?

Last try...

[Glassunion]

15. What is it SPECIFICALLY that should be banned that isn't already?

A: Stuff... Lots and lots of stuff.

[JonathanRackham]

5. Damn that NBA lobby.

[jberryhill]

6. That really misses the point

Brussels will end the year with a lower violent killing rate than any US city its size.

[DanM]

10. It doesn't miss the point, because yours is a different point (which I also agree with).

Europe is so much further ahead on where we truly need to be with weapon control, they just need to go much further.

Yes, and the US needs to get to where Europe is at on weapons control. But my thread is about this heavily covered news event going on in Europe, so General Discussion policy is to keep this thread to that.

[TipTok]

12. What if we mandated everyone wear boxing gloves all the time...

... Then they wouldn't have the fine motor skills to assemble a bomb.

Think of all the lives that could be saved!

[TipTok]

9. Are you going to ban nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide...

... And nails?

Rice cookers?

[Lizzie Poppet]

14. Ultra-strict controls didn't prevent the Brussels bombers from having assault rifles.

And you're proposing banning fertilizer, nail polish remover, plumbing pipe, nails, etc.?

[Glassunion]

16. Specifically, in your mind, what should be "banned"?

[pintobean]

17. Why don't you get yourself a suit

and the rest of us will just keep living normally.

[sarisataka]

18. They could just make it illegal

to kill people

Otherwise after guns, nitrate compounds, flammable liquids ..., the list of potential weapons gets pretty long.



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[cleanhippie]

19. I heard on NPR that they used bombs made from bleach and peroxide. Gonna ban that stuff?