3 killed in shooting near Texas A&M University

[whalen]

"Art imitates life"

"It is imperative that you stop and see the absolute folly in life, and then laugh at fate" - Whalen.........

[Frosted]

"Change must come through the barrel of a gun" - Mao Tse Tung

That is bat shit crazy.

[whalen]

"Change must come through the barrel of a gun" - Mao Tse Tung

[Frosted]

YES. I listen to Soundgarden almost every day. I am beginning to realize that you rule Mr. Skell. Loved your video too. Last night as I was trying to sleep I thought about Whalen's video, his "buddy", and the "WUSSUP, WUSSUP".... I started giggling like a little girl at 1AM and my woman next to me rolls over for an explanation.... I just couldn't do it. "Sorry. sorry, it's nothing". hahaha

I'll be going about my business myself and all of a sudden I'll remember that and giggle. Bloody hilarious.

[Skell18]

YES. I listen to Soundgarden almost every day. I am beginning to realize that you rule Mr. Skell. Loved your video too. Last night as I was trying to sleep I thought about Whalen's video, his "buddy", and the "WUSSUP, WUSSUP".... I started giggling like a little girl at 1AM and my woman next to me rolls over for an explanation.... I just couldn't do it. "Sorry. sorry, it's nothing". hahaha

Took your time mate! Had superunknown on in the car on the way home from work today. 4th of July is one of my fav songs, the tone and sound of the song just made sense to me in my teens, if I am feeling low I throw it on and everything feels better, its odd how depressing stuff helps when you feel down. I saw them this year too at Download festival, Chris Cornell's voice is weel, different to what it was but the soul is still there. Still a moody Gen-xer at heart

[sgreger1]

In Thomas Jefferson’s "Commonplace Book," a quote from Cesare Beccaria reads, "laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

I just don't see how there could be any rational argument against this. If anyone has one I would be more than open to hearing it.

[Roo]

Your state produced Soundgarden, one of the greatest bands in the world, whats not to like!

YES. I listen to Soundgarden almost every day. I am beginning to realize that you rule Mr. Skell. Loved your video too. Last night as I was trying to sleep I thought about Whalen's video, his "buddy", and the "WUSSUP, WUSSUP".... I started giggling like a little girl at 1AM and my woman next to me rolls over for an explanation.... I just couldn't do it. "Sorry. sorry, it's nothing". hahaha

[Skell18]

Love ya too, mate!

Your state produced Soundgarden, one of the greatest bands in the world, whats not to like!

[Crow]

I love Seattle for the record, one of my fav US cities.

Love ya too, mate!

[sgreger1]

Come on sgreger and squeezy, let's just agree to disagree.

To squeezy: I will say that I feel completely safe here in Washington. Then again, the atmosphere is much different here compared to the rest of the country. I'm not saying that gun violence doesn't happen here (we're 36th out of 51 according to one statistic), but I don't let statistics scare me. I'm sure I could pull a lot of statistics in your country for a myriad of violent offenses, but does that mean I should be concerned about traveling to your country?

Washington welcomes you to visit anytime. Try to relax a bit, it's not the "wild west" you're thinking of.

Oh I do agree to disagree. We just come from different lands and different upbringings and therefore hold different views on these subjects. To me, the idea of giving up freedom for (the illusion of) safety is one of the worse things I could imagine. For me, statistics and studies are in my favor, showing that gun availability does not increase crime or suicide. So for me, I am confident in my observations and opinions. To me if appears weak to hear such fearmongering coming from a country of people too scared to even visit other places because guns may exist there. To me it is all very foreign, and I accept the fact that I will never understand it.. Weakness is the result of fear, and all I hear on this thread is FEAR of what guns may or may not do, with no numbers behind it whatsoever.

I, for one, choose not to live my life in fear, and therefore refuse the entire premise of the gun control advocates.

[Skell18]

Come on sgreger and squeezy, let's just agree to disagree.

To squeezy: I will say that I feel completely safe here in Washington. Then again, the atmosphere is much different here compared to the rest of the country. I'm not saying that gun violence doesn't happen here (we're 36th out of 51 according to one statistic), but I don't let statistics scare me. I'm sure I could pull a lot of statistics in your country for a myriad of violent offenses, but does that mean I should be concerned about traveling to your country?

Washington welcomes you to visit anytime. Try to relax a bit, it's not the "wild west" you're thinking of.

I agree, lets draw a line under this before it gets too out of hand.

The only thing you need to worry about coming to the UK is getting goosed by Russel Brand, but he does clean up afterwards!

I love Seattle for the record, one of my fav US cities.

[Crow]

Come on sgreger and squeezy, let's just agree to disagree.

To squeezy: I will say that I feel completely safe here in Washington. Then again, the atmosphere is much different here compared to the rest of the country. I'm not saying that gun violence doesn't happen here (we're 36th out of 51 according to one statistic), but I don't let statistics scare me. I'm sure I could pull a lot of statistics in your country for a myriad of violent offenses, but does that mean I should be concerned about traveling to your country?

Washington welcomes you to visit anytime. Try to relax a bit, it's not the "wild west" you're thinking of.

[Skell18]

Skelly, you pissed me off so bad here that I sent you two cans of "whoop ass" !

Felt like a spank to me Whay whay, kind of erotic!

[whalen]

I love that book Whalen! Read it many times over. I wish he would update it, last edition was 2000. The guy is hilarious. I got so giddy when he was kidnapped by FARC while creeping around through the Darian Gap several years ago lol. If you shit the bed, you're gonna lie in it! He probably liked it though.

I have like four different volumes, I absolutely love the way he puts things together! Never met anyone else that has read him! I only wish I had read it before i went to Zaire though! That was close!

I have a very dog eared 2003 edition. He is rumored to be working on a TV show! Good Wiki here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wor...ngerous_Places

[sgreger1]

Maybe some of the more "individual" states of the USA should start declaring independence then! I've always wondered what would happen if one did.

I'm sorry I used the throwaway comment "You're all crazy" in response to PPs first post - it was meant to be flippant but fairly friendly - as in "hey you guays, you're all crazy". I've been here a very long time and I feel comfortable saying things like that.

I haven't insulted your culture in anything that I've written. I am not in a position to take any rights of US citizens away as you well know and nobody with any power will do anything based on what we're talking about here. I've had a look at your Harvard study and as with all these things people on both sides of the argument seem to manage to massage the stats one way or the other - I can't see any info on who funded it, but I would guess some body which is pro-gun-ownership.

You have done nothing but shout at me here and you are accusing me of insulting the whole of the culture of the USA which I haven't done. But you have said:

"This forum has made me really hate Europe I must say. The mindset of the people out there is so backwards" - which is much stronger than anything I have said.

You are taunting me because I said I have no desire to put myself in a more dangerous situation than I need to by coming to the USA. You say that no-one should suggest that other countries are safer than yours ... but then you go on to say:

"Try living in ****ing Los Angeles or the wrong part of any major city and you will see what a "massacre" looks like"

I can't see much consistency there.

If my thoughts on this topic are so bad for your stress levels that you can do nothing more than shout-typing and contradict yourself then I suggest you leave the computer alone for the rest of the day and go and enjoy a salad made out of your synthetic tomatoes!

#1, my tomatoes are not "synthetic".

#2, So I am here posting facts from multiple sources, all drawing the same conclusions (that gun control does not reduce crime), but what exactly are you providing other than anecdotes about how safe you feel? How about some actual statistics from reputable sources and perhaps you can sway me, but like I said, this issue has been done a million times and the concensus is pretty clear.

#3, I never anywhere in this thread said that "no-one should even suggest that other countries are safer than [the US]". The US is extremely unsafe depending on where you live. I've lived in places where someone is shot within audible distance of my house on an almost nightly basis. I have also lived places where crime literally just does not exist, where there may be 1 or 2 crimes reported in an entire year and they are some kids doing something stupid but not that big a deal. The US is a big place, it's like the EU, but with 51 different little countries all of whom have their own culture and governance. There is a trend here that where gun control is toughest (Detroit anyone!) that the crime rate is the worst, and places where gun controll is more lenient the crime rate is the lowest.

But at the end of the day, crime is something independent of the method used to perform the crime itself, it is more about what leads up to someone committing a crime, it's about what the root cause of crime is. We need more education, more mental health services, a better drug policy, and more "love thy neighbor" type thinking so that our communities don't raise children who have no regard for human life. Banning guns isn't even in the list of things that will help crime here in America. We don't even have decent healthcare and have crazy unemployment here, with half the people living on $20k a year.

But you see, as someone who has seen firsthand how owning a firearm can be used to protect yourself and how crime can be prevented by having a firearm, I simply will never re-evaluate my opinion on it. My family would be dead had guns not been legal when I was younger and my father willing to use one. I don't know how the ghettos are where you live, but here they are worse than Iraq, literally. At least Iraq has a sense of community and culture, here is it all machismo and seeing who can be more vicious and "hard" than the other. They will break out your car windows to get the change sitting on your seat, they will stab and shoot you for simply being white, they have no regard for laws and law enforcement is unable to keep it under control.

You said your upbringing leads you to feel the way you do, and I respect that, because my upbringing has taught me the importance of being able to have a weapon capable of stopping someone (or multiple people) immediately from doing something bad to you. Therefore I, as well as millions of other Americans, are unwilling to tolerate even a single inches worth of more gun control. I would be afraid to live somewhere that guns were illegal, as then I would know that only the criminals have guns, and even worse yet, they know for a fact that I don't.