Back in SF in the 80s I used to hear and see gun shots from time to time
once I was above the street corner in an apartment on 24th St and several ten or so blocks down from Mission St, hangin [P]all[/I] extra bohemian like and engaged in creativty for the third night awake and watched quietly out the window as a gun-drive-by gang dual took place . . . lots of yelling (in Spanish), revving of engines, shots fired and bravado machismo . . .
no body was hurt
I lived with a buncha artist/cab drivers all of them had been robbed at gun point at least once
one of them had had a gun held hard to his cranium in a head-lock while the creep's friend yelled 'do it' . . . . needless to say he gave them everything and the cab too
A friend of a friend was walking with a friend and they were held up by two thugs with a shorgun. As they gave them everything one of the guys said you don't have to shoot us and then got shot in the head
Once, I was working at a used bookstore in the Mission and I was outside scraping graffitti off of the windows and heard five rapid shots . . .it was 12 noon, I went around the corner and saw, a half a block away some people gathered around a woman's body . . . she was shot by her estranged
Who, later that day got killed by the police in a very short violent standoff at his home
it was the eighties/early 90s . . . you had to be there . . . Bush senior was in office and the world felt gray and miserable and full of despair
hey . . . wait a second!
oh there are plenty of stories to tell about that period that are equally as bad and some of them funny too
Oh Barto I've missed you and your acerbic wit! You've been a bit otherworldly of late.
Where were you? I was in Turner - right in the flight path. I don't know whether it was an afterburner or what but it was so loud it was painful to the ears.
And I've now gone far, far more provincial than Canberra.
I always thought my wit more like the crazy guy ranting in the street: he's all worked up about something but you know he's crazy so you just ignore him. Acerbic is probably a step up, so thanks for the compliment!
I was in Wanniassa at the time... quite a few kilometers from the flight path. Unfortunately, right under the flight path of every civilian aircraft flying to or from Canberra Airport \
Carol A, I'm referring to the recently signed US-Australian Free Trade Agreement. It contains such gems as criminalising copyright violations and "circumvention" devices, allowing copyright owners to subpoena ISPs, removing local content quotas on free-to-air television, handing control of the PBS (gives aussies cheap medicine) to drug companies (no more cheap medicine), restricts the marketing of generic drugs...
Basically, tariffs and quotas in Australia are negligable... something like an average of half a percent tariffs, and no quotas. So to get partial free trade from the US we had to find something else to trade. It turned out to be all our intellectual property laws, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and local content rules.
Carol A, I'm referring to the recently signed US-Australian Free Trade Agreement. It contains such gems as criminalising copyright violations and "circumvention" devices, allowing copyright owners to subpoena ISPs, removing local content quotas on free-to-air television, handing control of the PBS (gives aussies cheap medicine) to drug companies (no more cheap medicine), restricts the marketing of generic drugs...
Basically, tariffs and quotas in Australia are negligable... something like an average of half a percent tariffs, and no quotas. So to get partial free trade from the US we had to find something else to trade. It turned out to be all our intellectual property laws, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and local content rules.
actually, at my school it was a bunch of dumb ass kids i used to hang out with in middle school (this was highschool).
they broke into someone's house who had a gun case. took the guns out and thought it would be a good idea to start shooting at houses on the highway.
they missed a 9 yr. old by inches while she was sleeping in her bed. thankfully most went to jail. another kid shot at someone while driving down the highway. i swear these kids were all morons.
getting away from highschool and our old neighborhood really did seem to help.
I hear them a lot from hunters and what not. Nothing to major.
The only time it was scary was when I was in a pretty big town at a friends house and there was a couple of guys in a field shooting at some birds facing the house.. Idiots.
My friend was doing something along the lines of Habitat for Humanity in Trenton, and a drive-by shooting went on right there. He could have been killed (wasn't the target, but they were standing next to him), but the people in the car were firing handguns one handed and "gansta style," so they didn't hit shit.
And from what I hear, Americans don't drink nearly as much as Australians. People can inflict a fair amount of damage on each other when they're drinking, can't they? Gun or not....they can pound someone into the pavement if they are so disposed. Yes? No?
And from what I hear, if someone's really drunk, he won't do much damage anyways. (except crashing that beer glass?)
And from what I hear, if someone's really drunk, he won't do much damage anyways. (except crashing that beer glass?)
Hi Defiant -
Are you Australian, then?
Well, on an intoxication scale of 1-10, guys that are at 7-8 might be drunk enough to pick a fight, and still coordinated enough to pound the other person into the pavement. Yes?
I was reading Bill Bryson's book about travels in Europe a few weeks ago. Apparently, on one trip, he kept running into these two Aussies (in bars), and they were continually talking about huge fights they had witnessed outside of pubs, back home in Australia. They seemed to talk about nothing else, no matter what country he happened to encounter them in. Maybe he was just writing about them 'in caricature'....and was joking around wrt their portrayal. I just couldn't tell.
But drinking and fighting certainly sounded like they went hand-in-hand in their neck of the woods.
Hey Defiant.... I had a Modern History teacher in high school who claimed that despite being neutral, Switzerland could be mobilized for war in about 11 minutes (whereas it would take us about 11 months!) and that all Swiss males of fighting age (I think you have to do the National Service thing don't you) had a rifle and full combat gear at home ready to go. Basically, it's Plan B if the neutrality thing doesn't work.
Is this true or was he just having me on?
Carol, I'm not ignoring you. It just seems you're doing a fine job of answering your question (do I really mean that?) yourself. If I didn't mean it before, I do now! Yikes!
Yea....I have a lot. You hear about shootings on the news happenin all the time around this neighborhood. It's real messed up....I've seen plenty people I know die...umm my friend got shot like 30 seconds from my house when she was 15 I really despise guns and gangs and all that mess....so many of us just tryin to get by and live on a daily basis and a couple cowards gotta screw it up for the rest.
Comments
once I was above the street corner in an apartment on 24th St and several ten or so blocks down from Mission St, hangin [P]all[/I] extra bohemian like and engaged in creativty for the third night awake and watched quietly out the window as a gun-drive-by gang dual took place . . . lots of yelling (in Spanish), revving of engines, shots fired and bravado machismo . . .
no body was hurt
I lived with a buncha artist/cab drivers all of them had been robbed at gun point at least once
one of them had had a gun held hard to his cranium in a head-lock while the creep's friend yelled 'do it' . . . . needless to say he gave them everything and the cab too
A friend of a friend was walking with a friend and they were held up by two thugs with a shorgun. As they gave them everything one of the guys said you don't have to shoot us and then got shot in the head
Once, I was working at a used bookstore in the Mission and I was outside scraping graffitti off of the windows and heard five rapid shots . . .it was 12 noon, I went around the corner and saw, a half a block away some people gathered around a woman's body . . . she was shot by her estranged
Who, later that day got killed by the police in a very short violent standoff at his home
it was the eighties/early 90s . . . you had to be there . . . Bush senior was in office and the world felt gray and miserable and full of despair
hey . . . wait a second!
oh there are plenty of stories to tell about that period that are equally as bad and some of them funny too
Originally posted by Barto
I hear gunshots several times a year.
Between Canberra provincialism and the FTA, moving to Canada is becoming an attractive option
Barto
Barto -
Thanks for saying you hear gunshots.
It makes me feel better.
What's the FTA?
Originally posted by crazychester
Oh Barto I've missed you and your acerbic wit! You've been a bit otherworldly of late.
Where were you? I was in Turner - right in the flight path. I don't know whether it was an afterburner or what but it was so loud it was painful to the ears.
And I've now gone far, far more provincial than Canberra.
I always thought my wit more like the crazy guy ranting in the street: he's all worked up about something but you know he's crazy so you just ignore him. Acerbic is probably a step up, so thanks for the compliment!
I was in Wanniassa at the time... quite a few kilometers from the flight path. Unfortunately, right under the flight path of every civilian aircraft flying to or from Canberra Airport
Carol A, I'm referring to the recently signed US-Australian Free Trade Agreement. It contains such gems as criminalising copyright violations and "circumvention" devices, allowing copyright owners to subpoena ISPs, removing local content quotas on free-to-air television, handing control of the PBS (gives aussies cheap medicine) to drug companies (no more cheap medicine), restricts the marketing of generic drugs...
Basically, tariffs and quotas in Australia are negligable... something like an average of half a percent tariffs, and no quotas. So to get partial free trade from the US we had to find something else to trade. It turned out to be all our intellectual property laws, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and local content rules.
Barto
Originally posted by Barto
Carol A, I'm referring to the recently signed US-Australian Free Trade Agreement. It contains such gems as criminalising copyright violations and "circumvention" devices, allowing copyright owners to subpoena ISPs, removing local content quotas on free-to-air television, handing control of the PBS (gives aussies cheap medicine) to drug companies (no more cheap medicine), restricts the marketing of generic drugs...
Basically, tariffs and quotas in Australia are negligable... something like an average of half a percent tariffs, and no quotas. So to get partial free trade from the US we had to find something else to trade. It turned out to be all our intellectual property laws, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and local content rules.
That's very depressing
they broke into someone's house who had a gun case. took the guns out and thought it would be a good idea to start shooting at houses on the highway.
they missed a 9 yr. old by inches while she was sleeping in her bed. thankfully most went to jail. another kid shot at someone while driving down the highway. i swear these kids were all morons.
getting away from highschool and our old neighborhood really did seem to help.
The only time it was scary was when I was in a pretty big town at a friends house and there was a couple of guys in a field shooting at some birds facing the house.. Idiots.
"Gun control is hitting the target."
Originally posted by Carol A
And from what I hear, Americans don't drink nearly as much as Australians. People can inflict a fair amount of damage on each other when they're drinking, can't they? Gun or not....they can pound someone into the pavement if they are so disposed. Yes? No?
And from what I hear, if someone's really drunk, he won't do much damage anyways. (except crashing that beer glass?)
Originally posted by Defiant
And from what I hear, if someone's really drunk, he won't do much damage anyways. (except crashing that beer glass?)
Hi Defiant -
Are you Australian, then?
Well, on an intoxication scale of 1-10, guys that are at 7-8 might be drunk enough to pick a fight, and still coordinated enough to pound the other person into the pavement. Yes?
I was reading Bill Bryson's book about travels in Europe a few weeks ago. Apparently, on one trip, he kept running into these two Aussies (in bars), and they were continually talking about huge fights they had witnessed outside of pubs, back home in Australia. They seemed to talk about nothing else, no matter what country he happened to encounter them in. Maybe he was just writing about them 'in caricature'....and was joking around wrt their portrayal. I just couldn't tell.
But drinking and fighting certainly sounded like they went hand-in-hand in their neck of the woods.
Originally posted by Carol A
do plenty of damage, too.
And we have a criminal background check before someone can buy a gun.
Is this true or was he just having me on?
Carol, I'm not ignoring you. It just seems you're doing a fine job of answering your question (do I really mean that?) yourself. If I didn't mean it before, I do now! Yikes!
Originally posted by burningwheel
Well, we have to start somewhere !
And I think it matters...a little bit.
I read someplace that thousands of ex-felons have been denied the purchase of guns because of background checks.
Anything to throw a stumbling block in their paths helps.
If even ten lives have been saved by virtue of their not being able to buy a gun when they wanted to, the law will have been worth its implementation.
Don't you think?
Originally posted by Carol A
Well, we have to start somewhere !
And I think it matters...a little bit.
I read someplace that thousands of ex-felons have been denied the purchase of guns because of background checks.
Anything to throw a stumbling block in their paths helps.
If even ten lives have been saved by virtue of their not being able to buy a gun when they wanted to, the law will have been worth its implementation.
Don't you think?
yes i agree. of course we need to have background checks, we just need to get them for guns purchased at gun shows
Originally posted by bunge
I've heard shots, been shot at and had someone get shot and die on the front steps of my apartment.
I thought you lived in Europe.
But obviously you live in the US.
My sympathy to North Americans who has to face/often hear the gunshots every day especially who has lost thier beloved ones / victims.
Why don't USA outlaw the guns. Why do United States in the 21st Century do need guns what for?
There are good securitys alarms, e.g bulgar alarm, several door locks, secure keys, etc. etc.
Why don't some one in USA start to campaigning for guns to be outlaw?
Look at Europe, go and follow them, Americans!
Originally posted by crazychester
(Shudder) This thread reminds me why I wish Europe ran the world and not America.
The last time Europe was in charge of things, didn't we all end up shooting at each other?
And not once, but twice.
Why don't some one in USA start to campaigning for guns to be outlaw?
they keep bumping into that damn Bill of Rights.