A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit

Matthew 12:33

"But the base commander will not be responsible for anything that happens outside the gates. "

Naah, that's the other base commander I was hinting at, some Obama guy currently if I'm not mistaken.

"That's what guns are - devilishly sentient pieces of metal. No way a sane man can resist their lure."

You're trying to ridicule me, I can tell ;)
But still you're on the right track.

It's just the sane part where you're wrong. A sane man can resist them, even most unsane men (thankfully cause there's a lot of those). But some unsane men can't and there's still quite a few of them about. That unstable kid in his bedroom holding his Glock and dreaming how he 'could show them all', that's the prototype of these killers. Not hardened criminals, but having feelings we probably all had some time in our lives, except a little strong and with the power in his hand to make them come true. That's the lure. They don't have to be permanently unsane, just temporarily is all that it takes.

"But even if those arms are also removed from the society, many remain that are just as accessible. Police carries guns; guards carry guns; military carries guns. There are many guns in circulation; if need be, a police officer can be ambushed, killed in a dark alley, and his firearm stolen."

They could, and they will. But in many cases they wouldn't. These are not hardened criminals and most of them wouldn't fit the terrorist label either; you wouldn't stop those. Don't forget my premisse that the possession of a gun creates that 'lure' (yeah, I know what you guys are thinking: a bit like 'The Ring'), that magical power to show the world who's really boss and punish all that laughed at him or even ignored him. If you don't have the gun, there's less chance of this in the first place and you are far less likely to go looking for one.

I know it's a bit of a revolutionary thought, I never read it anywhere, but I'm convinced there's something to it. Maybe not everything, but I'm sure it's part of the problem.

The conventional chain of events is this:
Dream of revenge -> get gun -> execute revenge

I suggest this is actually much more common:
Get gun -> dream of revenge > execute revenge

The PRIOR availability of a gun makes the step from dream to execution much more likely. It's a catalyst if you like (quite literally: the gun usually survives the massacre, like the catalyst in a chemical reaction),

I never read this anywhere before so I'm probably crazy, but then again, I may be right and all you lot are missing something essential. (possibly on purpose because you like to play with your guns so much that you prefer to suppres the thought that this obsession just killed 20 young kids - again).

Sounds a bit like a microcosm of the US society. Except that outside the base (where conflicts are just as natural) firearms are pretty much allowed.

I live in Europe and in my country it's very hard to get a gun (legally or illegaly). The only cases of shooting sprees that I know of have been people who already had guns for sports reasons. I'm an advocate of abolishing that loop hole. If anyone wants to shoot for sports, let them buy an airgun. Guns make killers.

In the US, of course, the situation is quite different. The current situation would be near impossible to roll back. Especially if the measures wouldn't be supported by a large majority of Americans.

It doesn't look like this majority is coming soon. One wonders what it would take...

Well, in the case of an army base that sounds like a bad idea. surely they're prime terrorist targets.

Thanks for that. How come you never read that argument anywhere? I've been trying to make this point for years, but nobody ever seems to listen. There aren't even any cases of one of these shooting spree killers being stopped by a law abiding gun owner are there? It just doesn't seem to happen (AFAIK). They either kill themselves or get killed by the cops.

Even the Fort Hood shooting: The guy could kill 13 people before he was stopped in the middle of an army base filled with weapons and armed people!

Let's face it. Guns suck for defense, but, boy, they work great if you're a homicidal maniac...!

I agree partially. I hired a tech guy with horrible body language. He was incredibly nervous and made notes the whole time. Still, he turned out a pretty good colleague (with his faults, of course). But I wouldn't hire him as my manager. But then my manager wouldn't be an engineer.

"I called Kickstarter on my blog [livejournal.com] (I know, I'm going to start calling myself a futurist soon)."

Wow, that's pretty cool.
You should've registered a patent. ;)

Bacteria and fungi have a balance, I believe that's true. They compete for resources. But bacteria and viruses? Viruses don't compete for resources, they just splice in host cells dna.

This system cracks password hashes. But there's one thing missing: You need to get your hands on the password hashes first!

Therefore you require access to a system. If you already have access to that system it's fairly trivial to install password capturing code. That way you don't even need to crack any hashes.

The problem remains that a hacker who gains access to a badly secured system can do almost anything he likes. Secure hashes or not.

Even if you accept that it excuses violent acts that doesn't mean it excuses violent acts against people who have nothing to do with the 'illegal' settlements.

If the attacks were directed against the colonists I would have some understanding, if the attacks were directed against the army I would have some understanind. But for attacking random Israeli's who may be opposed to the colonization itself or who might even be Palestinians themselves I have no understanding.

Agreed, that's interesting.
Let's see what happens.

In this case it's actually a bit of a pity that the suspect volunteered to give his DNA. It would've been more interesting if they'd found him through DNA supplied by his relatives.

Hmm, you have a point.
It's like a positive Neutron Bomb.

I got an Arduino Uno starter kit 6 months ago. Then a PIC based flyport (with Wifi). Then an Atmega32u4 based Teensy 2.0. Last week I even got a Parallax Propeller, also very interesting.

Last year I hardly knew how to hold a soldering iron, now I'm having smd and through hole PCB's made of my own design in China and I'm planning on controlling various parts of my home with them.

I'm a software engineer by trade, but I'm really starting to enjoy this hardware thing. Thanks to Arduino and its competitors there's lots and lots of info out on the web to lift a complete newbie up to a surprising (to me) level.

The teensy 2.0 is very convenient indeed.

But, what do you know, the teensy now has a new generation 3.0, based on ARM Cortex M4! Just out!

Check this out:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulstoffregen/teensy-30-32-bit-arm-cortex-m4-usable-in-arduino-a

It make make no sense to you, but it makes sense to me. If there are enough people to whom it makes sense and who are actually willing to spend their money and their time to get one the project makes sense, business sense.

And it certainly seems that way...