Maryland Police May Have Prevented Another Aurora: Should We Focus on the Killers or the Guns?

by Heisenberg Posted 2012/07/27 19:00:00

Related Topics: Aurora, Colorado Shooting, Maryland Police, Maryland

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	The killers	752 votes	87%
	The guns	116 votes	13%

Another Aurora-type shooting spree may have been prevented by Maryland police. Do you think we should focus on the killers or the guns?

Washington Post reports: "Authorities have taken a man into custody who referred to himself as “a joker” and threatened to shoot people at his former workplace in Prince George’s County, investigators said Friday."

maryland police

+50

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Scott 2012/07/27 19:34:27

The guns

+45
O so much on the guns. Just the other day I was walking down the street minding my own business and suddenly a hand gun jumped out from the bushes and took a shot at me! And my neighbor was in his own backyard and attacked by a rifle! I'm telling you these guns are getting out of hand? Lock 'em all up and throw away the keys?

The killers? Well, it probably wasn't their fault in the first place. You know, one parent families, they got bullied in school, and they can't afford a cool car. Jeez - it's no wonder! They should be spoken to very firmly, I mean really let them know that we mean business and asked not to do it again.

Next problem!
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Gangstersteve1993 2012/07/30 02:33:04

The killers

+2
It's the killers who make guns bad and whiles there are people who use guns for sports like skeet's. What about self defense? Would you want some murderer in your house and start killing you I don't think so. I mean guns are outlawed in some countries and that is stupid. What if your country was going to be invaded? All of the army and police were on another case.

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Adakin Valorem 2012/07/30 02:16:17

The killers

+2
Art, with over 85 million gun owners in the U.S. and only a handful of killers, it would be far more efficient to simply deal with the killers.

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joe mauro to Adakin ... 2012/07/30 03:25:01

handful? hardly.

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Keith to joe mauro 2012/07/30 05:03:45

+1
Your realize it is an extremely small percent of the population that commits shooting sprees, probably around .001 percent when you look at it, sure you couldn't actually fit them all in your hand lol but it is figuratively speaking.

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joe mauro to Keith 2012/07/30 21:44:31

those are only the documented cases most killings or unknown,dissappearences etc or never get to the legal format,accidents etc

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Keith to joe mauro 2012/07/31 07:19:12

+1
Well I was mainly talking about shooting sprees or murders with firearms, the smart killers don't use firearms their loud and can be easy to trace, bows or cross bows would work well, you can buy one with cash and they can't see you own one, also they are quite and when they find the victim they can't pull the arrow out and find out what type of bow or cross bow was used. Even a knife works really well just messy, the best way would probably be poison or strangling so there is no blood. Realistically I am sure forensics teams would wish all killers would use firearms just because it makes it easier to narrow down who did it.

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Patric to joe mauro 2012/07/30 16:44:06

yes a hand full..

you are way more probable to be killed by a car than a fire arm

you are way more probable to be killed by a medical professional than a fire arm..

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Sherry to Patric 2012/07/30 17:56:32

+1
That's something that sometimes cannot be avoided. I'll take the other times, and be glad to be armed. It could be me, my grandkids, a friend, a neighbor, etc., whose lives I could be saving, rather than be a victim, and allow them to be victims themselves.

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Adakin ... to joe mauro 2012/07/30 17:06:11

Joe, compared to the approx 85 million gun owners and over 140 million firearms in the U.S., how many actual "Killers" do you think are in the U.S.?

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haaaaaa to Adakin ... 2012/07/30 06:10:19

Except you can deal with the guns before they kill people, whereas you need a doosey of a police state to start arresting people you think they seem kind of shady and may turn out to be a killer. Otherwise, unless they have made threats that lead back to them, you can take away people AFTER they have already started the attack.

The crux of the problem is, we can identify guns before they shoot. We usually can't identify killers before they kill.

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Adakin ... to haaaaaa 2012/07/30 17:16:25 (edited)

Haaaaa, can you show me where "identifying guns" has prevented crime?

According to John Lott's latest published findings in 'More Guns, Less Crime' 3rd Edition, the State of Hawaii "identifies (all) guns" and ammo sold on their islands. The state government expends over 50,000 man-hours of police department time and energies in documentation of gun and ammo ownership in their isolated island state. But in the dozen years the law has been in place, the database as NEVER solved or prevented any crimes.

So you gotta ask yourself... Is that a viable expenditure of taxpayer resources? Well is it Punk?

(Sorry, but I couldn't resist :-)

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charles_1 2012/07/30 01:59:17

The killers

+3
The dude had bombs. He could have put the bombs in his car blew up the bombs and killed a lot more people. He could just drive the car into people and run them over. There is no stopping a crazy person who is smart enough to make bombs by banning guns. He'll kill some other way and probably a lot worse. Or get the guns illegally. Gun laws only affect sane law abiding people. Criminals don't follow laws.

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N. Zane 2012/07/30 01:52:03

The killers

+2
If we outlaw guns then only outlaws will carry guns

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Fluffywolf, eater of chocolate 2012/07/30 01:45:33
Chris 2012/07/30 01:22:18 (edited)

The guns

+1
Both. Are we too incompetent to multi-task?

Basic gun regulations is good, ban ridiculously over powered weapons like machine guns, you don't need that to go duck hunting,

require basic training to get a gun license... similar to getting a driver's permit, know how to operate a gun lock and require education so people know how to keep guns away from kids, etc... maybe limit the number of guns one can own, etc...

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Master to Chris 2012/07/30 03:58:48

+1
Tell me more about how people like that follow the law in the first place?

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Chris to Master 2012/07/30 04:20:13 (edited)

So you think we should make murder legal since criminals won't follow the law anyway? The law would allow law enforcement to do their job, track down illegal guns, confiscate them, etc... Also when you ban something like a machine gun, weapon manufacturers no longer have a market to sell them on, so they simply don't make them in the same quantity.

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Tony to Chris 2012/07/30 14:35:42

Laws that currently exist allow the police to do all that. Maybe if we enforce the laws we already have there'd be less problems.

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ScoutLdr to Chris 2012/07/30 15:46:27

+1
Your posting filled with logical fallacies. The first is making murder legal, to equate gun control with preventing murder. If that were the case Chicago wouldn't be having one most violent summers in its history. Machine gun are highly restricted and are used 0.5 of crimes. When you ban something you only make more it valuable(see Eighteenth Amendment[The Volstead Act, prohibition of alcohol].

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Chris to ScoutLdr 2012/07/30 21:25:21

Right, it's more valuable because it's less accessible. So you didn't really prove me wrong. If a criminal has to pay 10x more money for a machine gun vs. a handgun, they might opt for the handguns.

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ScoutLdr to Chris 2012/08/01 07:03:22 (edited)

No, wrong again. Let's take a key of coke. In 1981, a kilo of 90 percent-pure cocaine cost $20,000 in Bogota; by the time that kilo reached New York City it was worth $60,000. In 2011 a kilogram of cocaine in Colombia can be purchased for around $1,800 (the price for kilo of cocaine paste from the cultivation farm is about $900) but in New York City can be purchased for around $20,000. Over time the black market becomes more efficient and the prices drop,

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ScoutLdr to ScoutLdr 2012/08/01 07:25:05

The UN estimates there are 100 million AK-47-style assault rifles in circulation around the world. In West African Countries you can pick up a used Ak-47 for under fifty dollars US currency. In Central America you buy used one for $1000.00 in 2012. In Mexico a brand new one for $1200.00. Venezuela under Chávez has purchased 100,000 Kalashnikov type 103 (updated AK-47)rifles as well as 1,000 Dragunov-type sniper rifles and a facility to assemble them from Russia. These weapons will make onto the black market. So along with coke the drug cartels can run weapons into America. T

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CHUCK 2012/07/30 01:03:19

The killers

+1

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haaaaaa to CHUCK 2012/07/30 06:13:03

+3
what's that got to do with anything. Dirty bombs and nukes don't kill people, terrorists and rogue states do. Should everyone be allowed to own them because of that?

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littlebuffalo55TBA 2012/07/30 00:55:22

The killers

The government should be concerned with limiting guns to criminals and the mentally unbalanced! Not being concerned with law abiding citizens use of them for sport and self-defense!

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haaaaaa to littleb... 2012/07/30 06:25:44

+2
The shooter had a clean record and was law-abiding before the shooting. And the legal definition of mentally unbalanced did not include the Tucson shooter and would not likely include him either http://www.dailystar.com.lb/N... http://online.wsj.com/article...

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littleb... to haaaaaa 2012/07/30 06:33:38

Lol.....Huh? You just showed me an article where a supposed "professional" was aware! And many authorities were aware the Tuscon killer was unbalanced!

So your point is?

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Kaitlyn 2012/07/30 00:17:20

The killers

+2
Guns should remain available to American citizens, as it is their right to carry them. But there are many people in this country who should not be able to get ahold of firearms. Of course, a lot of people are normal when purchasing the gun, then go beserk much later. It's a difficult situation. You can't take away a person's rights, but at the same time, how do you prevent people getting guns when they won't use them for a good cause like self-defense? I mean, we can't see the future.

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CTF 2012/07/30 00:16:51

The killers

+1
How about making sure the killers don't get their hands on the guns in the first place. I know I know.... Makes too much sense right?

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BOOGIE-WOOGIE-MUSIC-MAN-ROC... 2012/07/29 23:50:37

The guns

Should we focus on terrorism, or the terrorists the traffic or the traffickers?

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disclaimer 2012/07/29 23:26:01

The killers

What we should focus on is people buying guns.

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Of Thee I Sing... 2012/07/29 22:36:04

The killers

+1
And anyone who says different are ignorant...

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jc 2012/07/29 22:30:02

The guns

We should all focus on having several guns and lots and lots of ammo.

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us 2012/07/29 22:15:09

The killers

+2
not guns, people who kill for no reason, it is sad.

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Bill 2012/07/29 22:09:26

The killers

+1
Multiply the number of guns in that photo by 1000 and you'll know what kind of firepower Eric Holder sent to the Mexican drug cartels.

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JingerJewels 2012/07/29 21:37:41

The killers

+3
Killers don't just kill with guns

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Jim to JingerJ... 2012/07/29 23:43:18

True, but there would be less deaths without guns.

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Sherry to Jim 2012/07/30 18:06:30

That would be great, if it were not that criminals would be the most with guns and more readily accessible places to get guns, to kill more innocent without guns. Won't ever happen.

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Jim to Sherry 2012/07/30 22:45:41

Other countries have criminals with guns and their gun related death rate is marginal compared with the US. The gun lobby spreads a load of mis-truths that then become urban legend. See this, especially page 6 compare the dark and light graphs.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org...

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Heisenberg 2012/07/29 21:31:15

The guns

+2
We should focus more on strict gun control laws so the killers can't get access to them.

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