[Akula2ssn]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

Most cities are being pushed to the breaking point trying to field a police force as it is.

I know here in the Seattle area, pretty much every police department had been on a hiring freeze for the past 2 years. They would take laterals from one department to another but no new hires. The only reason why any of them are scrambling to hire now is because since then, people have started to retire or move on.

[martok2112]

Sorry, but I still am adamant about being able to maintain a defense. Someone invades my home, it's a shot to the head if they do not surrender at gunpoint....and yes, they WILL be at gunpoint. Someone tries to take my life in public? I'll prefer to be the one sending the flowers, thank you very frakking much!

Too bad the days of everyone being able to carry personal defense have just gone out the window in many places. I'd rather be able to go down fighting, than to be caught undefensible in a chair. When your life is on the line because some jackhole opens fire on an unsuspecting crowd with you in it, you're gonna be wishing you had the means to defend yourself, and if possible, take this ****er out of the picture.

Metal detectors in all public places? Not only does that sound like something out of the Schwarzenegger version of "The Running Man", but it sounds like more "big government" bull****. I do not believe that crime will go down if everyone had their guns taken away by facist officials...I believe that criminals will simply find another way to carry out violent crime. Then what happens? We ban sticks and stones?

An armed society is a polite society. I've believed that ever since I was old enough to pick up a gun. If you don't know who's armed, you're less likely to act an asshole. It's not living in fear in this way. It's called keeping **** in check.

As for the asshat who did this heinous act...what I understand is that it took place in Colorado, and Colorado has no death-penalty. And of course, the guy will likely be tested for insanity, yada yada yada, and if and when sentenced, will likely be kept in isolation. I say "Hey, if Colorado doesn't have a death penalty, just let the frakker live in general population. See how long he lasts?"

What he did was not out of insanity. He clearly knew what he was doing. I don't give a frak what his sob story is of how he got to that point. To hell with him.

[horatio]

I understand that people feel passionately about the issue but let's take a cool look at it.
In theory lax guns have an ambiguous effect, they make it easier for criminals to get guns and they increase the chance for citizens to defend themselves.
Empirically the issue is fairly clear. Countries like Singapore or Japan where firearms are illegal have less than 2% the number of gun victims than the US.
In politics the question is not "taking all the weapons away", the abolishment of the 2nd amendment, but rather how to design constitutional gun laws.

[Akula2ssn]

How are their (Singapore and Japan) murder or violent crime rates? A person doesn't need a gun to kill some one, so I'm curious as to what the availability of guns or lack there of does to those rates. My understanding is that handguns are illegal in Japan but not hunting rifles and that while firearm based crimes are rare, knives are more prevalent though I have yet to see the stats for myself.

[horatio]

Murder and robbery rate are also far lower. Of course premodern cultural elements might have a far larger effect upon crime in Japan than actual laws so the gun law comparison might be dubious.
In my own country firearms are not as easy to get as in the US but there is a moderate gun culture and interestingly the gun victim rate as well as the general murder rate are between those of the US and Japan. So taking another country into account it is safe to claim that there is a positive correlation between tight gun laws and security.

[Akula2ssn]

Japan also seems to be more culturally homogenized. Where as here in the US I probably wouldn't be able to recognize a word coming from someone in Alabama as English. Believe me, I've met a few people from parts of the US who I know are speaking English, but the dialect is just so far out there that I might as well go back to my high school German class. Also lately (past few years), here in the US the amount and degree of conflicts between different parts of society have been increasing. I don't want to say it's a majority of Americans that are in conflict with each other, but there's a a very vocal and visible minority that is, more so than I personally recall ever seeing.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

I was limiting the scope to these kind of establishments, specifically theaters. But yes, if we want to widen the scope even more to include every public location then it's not possible. Few months ago, I was down in Long Beach, CA. Just looking out the window as I and my buddies drove to work, it brought home the enormity of the worst case scenario. The Coast Guard captain of the port has the authority to shut down a port. It has to be a very very very bad and very very very specific threat with a bunch of intel to back it up before I would see a captain of the port to even think about doing that. And no doubt every Federal, State, County, and municipal agency in the area would be tied up with just that task. Especially in the LA area which is like the doomsday scenario that disaster planners practically dream about. New York would have the same problem.

As to your point about specifically targeting theaters with extra police, apparently the NYPD is doing just that tonight.

[Akula2ssn]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

As to your point about specifically targeting theaters with extra police, apparently the NYPD is doing just that tonight.

Doesn't surprise me. It's probably more of an officer presence thing than anything else. Other than maybe a concern about a copy cat, it's probably more to provide some sense of security to the general public. No doubt there have probably been some jackasses that have called up making threats of another such attack. I'd be surprised if they keep it up indefinitely though. I'm sure NYPD has some personnel to spare at least for the time being. I mean the NYPD is roughly the size of the entire active duty US Coast Guard. In fact I think NYPD is actually larger.

[horatio]

Originally Posted by Akula2ssn

Japan also seems to be more culturally homogenized. Where as here in the US I probably wouldn't be able to recognize a word coming from someone in Alabama as English. Believe me, I've met a few people from parts of the US who I know are speaking English, but the dialect is just so far out there that I might as well go back to my high school German class. Also lately (past few years), here in the US the amount and degree of conflicts between different parts of society have been increasing. I don't want to say it's a majority of Americans that are in conflict with each other, but there's a a very vocal and visible minority that is, more so than I personally recall ever seeing.

I totally agree, comparing a fairly homogeneous society with a multicultural immigration society one is problematic.
Another factor might be that some Asian societies are less liberal and more communitarian. Singapore is perhaps the best example, a country with virtually no crime (also little corruption / white collar crime) but also few civil liberties.
I know too little about contemporary Japan to judge whether pre-modern elements outweigh the Western elements in this society. Kurosawa's Stray Dog made this a bit of a topic via portraying a hero who represents the best of both worlds but gee, that's a movie from the fourties.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

I believe the NYPD has roughly 40,000 uniformed officers, probably more if you add in auxiliary.