Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


EXACTOMUNDO!!!!!!

School shootings are a symptom of a bigger problem, and more restrictive gun laws are treating the symptom not the underlying problem which is not gun ownership per se.

Treat the symptom and the problem will emerge elsewhere in a possibly even uglier form.

Genealogy / Polish looks? - part 2 [81]

There aren't really clear genetic dividing lines (AFAIK) between Jews, Germans, Poles and Ukrainians. The language and culture lines are a lot clearer.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


Not really, the reason that confederate symbolism never used crosses was not to offend Jewish confederates (the US south has always been very Jewish friendly overall, although they get almost nothing but contempt in returtn).

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Number one rule of gun safety: Don't arm someone who won't shoot if necessary.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


there is also a jewish connection more often than not but no one wants to notice that particular aspect....

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


No, you make sure your children are properly educated about them, locking them away just creates mystique and makes kids want to find and play with them.


What a timid approach to life and its dangers...

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Maybe not, but then you have to go back in time 100 years or so to make sure they were never necessary.... and assume there would be no black market in guns... both of which ideas seem a bit far fetched.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

No, but..... one reason they were there was because it was kind of possible for a while (my father had made some very scary local enemies and there was a touch of intimidation here or there...) but they were mostly for recreation.

And a cousin in the countryside (way out in the boonies) did use a rifle once to make sure some unsavory characters who drove up in the middle of the night were. not. welcome. and best move on now. He mostly used his guns for hunting though (wild turkey and deer mostly and yes, it got et up.)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


That's the real problem. I've never owned a gun and never wanted one, but I grew up with guns all over the place (big gun cabinet in the living room) and there was no gun crime or accidents.

It's not the guns, it's the people. Grabbing guns doesn't get to the root of the problem which is a lot of work. One problem with the Parkland case was supposedly that the US schools are afraid of disparate impact charges (look up disparate impact, it's the stupidest idea ever!) and so they hushed up how broken and dangerous Cruz (hispanic name!) might be...

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Over half of those will be suicides, and a large percentage of the rest are gang members. Get me figures that control for those two factors and we'll talk.

Or we won't, you'll never convince a majority of the American electorate that private citizens owning firearms is a serious problem.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


And get yourself impeached for violating the constitution you swore to uphold during your inauguration? Americans think of the constitution almost like a holy text (unlike any country in europe where constitutions come and go and don't engender much loyalty)

The constitution can be changed (and has been 25 times or so) but there's no political support for a repealing the 2nd amendment so a president actually can't do much (Obama couldn't...)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


No. This is one of those big cultural gulfs between the USA and Europe. USAns don't regard their society as violent or lawless*. And the founding documents make it very difficult for the government to enact the kind of de-arming program against the citizenry that Europeans like.

And past experience (with legislative mission creep) makes a significant minority (maybe a small majority) unwilling to countenance any restriction.

Given the size of the population gun violence rates are pretty low and factor out suicides and gang on gang violence (leaving in collateral damage) they're very low. There's simply no political will in the US to reduce rates even further... it's too risky.

And... even urban liberals don't much care about most gun owners. They're worried about urban gang (almost enitrely NAM) violence but they can't say "disarm the black and hispanic gangs (that are actually a danger to the citizenry)" so they jump on the peaceable responsible gun owners (a safe political target).

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]

It's in the constitution, it would take a constitutional amendment to change and those aren't easy to pull off.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


For an American it's shocking that a person in a highly developed and ostensibly civilized country is so resigned to leaving questions of personal security entirely to the state...

It's the kind of lack of survival instinct that led a bunch of placid Swedes to simply watch Anna Lindh being murdered without trying to intervene

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


Isn't it though?


that is a problem but no one wants to address it because it's politically too sensitive (for racial reasons)

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


It's not guns, it's people. America produces too many crazy people and crazy people and guns are not a good combo. When you control for drug gang murders and suicide gun crime rates in the US are actually astonishingly low if at times spectacularly insane.

Law / Weapons laws in Poland. Carrying a concealed handgun? [918]


But who's going to protect you from these police?

youtube.com/watch?v=6z1PqKLBPQM

Law / Polish EU Drivers Licence - can I get one the easy way (by paying for it)? [185]


At one time there was almost no other way to actually get a drivers license in Poland, the tests were graded in such a way that most had to pay bribes to get their license, a good friend, one of the smartest people I've known in Poland (who'd never failed a test before in his life) failed the written test the first time, in a way that made him realize how corrupt the system was and opted out of trying to get a license.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


the intent (minus the quibbling over words): Polish people do not recognize any collective guilt over the holocaust.

The rejection of collective guilt is what drives many Israelis (and other Jewish people) crazy. They absolute want Polish people to feel the same kind of collective guilt that Germans feel (the better to make the case for financial restitution).

They would like for Russians/ex-Soviets to feel collective guilt too but they realize you can't squeeze blood from a turnip

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


"protect from the truth"

wanna try that one again?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


No, it goes back further. Essentially the federal government has been increasing in importance (quite in contradiction to the constitution) since opponents of Civil Rights in the 1950s tried to tie their misbegotten cause with "states rights" usuing a legitimate principal to justify terrible unconstitutional actions gave the national government an excuse to roll back state (rather than federal) authority.

No president in the last 100 years has decreased the size of the national government.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


The constitutions doesn't 'guarantee' rights but prevents the government from infringing against what might be called natural rights (such as having unpopular opinions).

And the federal government is really minor in the constitution, the primary level of government was intended to be at the state level with national government existing only where state level solutions were unfeasible.

So the current Polish law (easing back to the subject of the forum) would be completely unconstitutional as would any kind of holocaust denial legislation and that's how it should be - freedom of expression uber alles!

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


You profoundly misunderstand the Bill of Rights, it doesn't "protect" or "help" people, it sets ironclad limits on what the _government_ can do (like arrest people who have unpopular beliefs).


There is no such right enumerated in the Constitution.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


Have to do better than the Bill of Rights? that's pretty arrogant.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


I expect adults to act like adults and not run to mommy government anytime their wittle feewings are hurt

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


Then stop invoking religious texts.


It refers to treating adults like small children who need protection. Adults should be able to look out for themselves.


Completely unrelated to the question about whether the government should be criminalizing beliefs.

If an adult tells other adults they think the holocaust either didn't happen or is greatly exaggerated then trying to throw them in jail is admitting you have no other arguments.

Freedom of expression only works if it covers the expression of personal beliefs that others find abhorrent or ugly or dangerous.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


Agreed, threats of or calls to violence against individuals or identifiable groups of people are not protected. But many of the things that people are being arrested for in the UK and Germany (for example) are hardly credible threats of violence and are instead simply government crackdowns against a population that's getting to uppity.

I'm against the current Polish law (and holocaust denial laws) because they're about criminalizing belief. People have the right to believe wrong things - if not they have no other rights.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


So you want to infantilize adults.... really? Children are not moral agents (not fully) adult citizens are.


Which is why Israel takes such exquisite care of the Palestinians, a beacon to the world!


Nope. Not gonna work with me. I don't buy into religious arguments. Build a civil society argument for limiting speech that the government doesn't like (which is what all 'hate speech' laws quickly devolve into).

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


So when people say things that governments think are indecent they should be punished? Like the communists did? ....reeeaaaalllllllly?

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1539]


Then it's clearly not something governments can or should regulate....


Only we count! Just us! Back off Armenia!