friend of mine about a year ago was taking an anxiety medication, I don't remember what it was, but it made him psychotically paranoid. He was constantly looking through the curtains, got frightened by every car that drove by the house, was hiding in closets and even formatted his entire computer because he was scared it might have "evidence". The guy wasn't doing anything wrong at all. I finally suggested that maybe it was a side effect of his new medication and he looked it up, and sure enough, paranoia was under the 'rare side effects' section. Next time I talk to him I'll get the name of the stuff.

Just imagine what a person who is falsely afraid for their life is capable of doing...

exactly! i knew of another guy after being awake for a week on meth tha pulled all of his teeth out with pliers, hid them in different parts of the house, and called the police because his mom was trying to eat him. thats bad stuff

A friend of the family went down that road. He would go 3-4 days at a time with not even an hour of sleep. Then when he finally did get sleep it would be for 2-3 hours then he'd start the whole cycle again, always afraid he'd miss out on something. During the time he was working he would stay out all night then come home around 3 or 4 in the morning and get up at 6 to go to work. He did this every single day for about a month. It finally caught up with him and he fell asleep while driving and crashed the company car. I got sent out a few times to go find him and bring him home. He would see things in the road at night that weren't even there. Just wondering if he had been driving at the time if he would have been swerving to avoid these things that weren't there. He was always paranoid that another drug user he knew was out to get him and steal his dope and take everything he owned. He would constantly tweak out on things. Making all sorts of unfinished projects. Constantly picking at his face and chewing on his tongue. Would get stuck staring at something for long periods of time. He'd spend all day at another users house in hopes that someone would share a pipe load of dope with him. Could be sitting there eating something and he would nod off. A few times I witnessed him kind of jerk awake then light up a cigarette and immediately nod off again without even one hit off the cig. Surprised he didn't burn anything down. We finally got through to him and he was ready to quit and accepted help. So he stayed with me for 2 weeks with no way to go anywhere except walk. He slept for 4 days straight, just getting up long enough to use the restroom and get a snack. After about a week he was able to stay awake a little longer each day. But he was very lethargic with no energy for about 2 weeks. And after about 3 months he gained 15 pounds of weight. That was about 5 years ago and as far as I know he's still clean and working a maintenance job at the Indian Casino making $20/hour where they give random drug tests.

Has anyone else watched the series on the AMC channel called 'Breaking Bad'? Its about this School Chemistry teacher that is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He wasn't a smoker. He has a wife who is pregnant and a teenage son with disability. In order to make sure he leaves his family enough money to get by he starts cooking meth because he has nothing to loose. Its really a great show if you get the chance to watch it. Breaking Bad

When people went crazy don't need a firearm...only a knife, a sword, a wooden stick...etc...anyway, with a firearm a crazy is more dangerous...but only a bit more.
Cheers to you all,

Pedro

That's right...but never forget : Homo, homini lupus...we, humans are our self depredator.

Perfect !...I agree with you, absolutely!

Nothing can stop a crazy person with a gun faster than a sane person with a gun.

If EVERY citizen had a gun, who would have the balls to commit a crime?

If every citizen had a gun, left wing lawmakers then would just try and ban the ammo like they tried to do in CA a few years ago. Luckily that bill got shot down! I guess they didn't realize that many people reload their own ammo and the state would also loose a huge tax revenue from the sales of ammo. They have way to much time on their hands so they propose all these ridiculous laws so they look busy. And every so often one of these ridiculous laws get picked up and backed by others wanting to look busy and look like they have a purpose.

i admit it was a pretty idealist comment to make. however, everyone having a gun would make suicidal desperation a prerequisite to every crime from killing to stealing. it stands to reason that pretty soon youd run out of suicidal people so that popular behaviour would stabilize and police can concentrate on the protecting the public good, at the same time being in check with a stabile, armed population. and they wouldn't be hated, they wouldn't have to work as hard.
lawmakers are a different story. i am happy to live in a conservative state like georgia, but those california legislators either dont realize or willfully ignore the concept that security and liberty have an inverted relationship.

You have similar smoking laws to us here in California. Even most apartments now are going smoke free because they say second hand smoke can carry through air ducts. Basically any indoor area other than your own home is illegal to light up in. Even smoking in your car is not allowed if you have children in the passenger seats. That one I do agree with though for the fact that you shouldn't be forcing your kids to breathe smoke. Especially infants who have no voice and can't speak up in their defense. You can wait for the drive to be over to get your nic fix it won't kill you to wait.

And yes I have been following the 2nd amendment battle in D.C. and I did comment on it somewhere in a previous post on this thread. Its a landmark case. If it is determined by the court that you can't ban guns in city limits, its going to send a strong message to other cities across the country who have similar gun bans. The court is supposed to rule on this by June. I would love to go and be present during the hearings.

One thing I can say that I would hope everyone could agree upon is that even if you are someone who hates guns with a passion, doesn't want anything to do with them, I would hope that you would still respect that it is a right and you shouldn't want rights taken away just because you don't like them. You should be outraged that rights are being taken away. Even if you don't agree with the rights in question. You have to understand it won't stop with just the one right. They won't quit until they have rewritten the constitution to their liking. I don't like opera, can't stand the stuff. But I by no means would want opera to be banned or limited to a select few. I understand that many many people love and enjoy opera and it brings them happiness. To them there is none better and they should be free to enjoy the things they are passionate about even if I don't share their enjoyment.

There have been similar stories like that over that past year. Recently there were 2 teenagers who tried to rob a police station, the teens thought it was a bank. The one recently in Australia where bandits tried to rob a club with machete's but didn't notice all the motorcycles outside and the fact that there were 50 bike club members inside. Needles to say the bandits were not successful. There are quite a few stories of people trying to rob gun stores and not succeeding.

Here is something fun to look at. Its a list of stupid criminals of the day. There are some real winners in here.
Bozo criminal of the day

lol, wow!! Amazing

+1 to TroutStoker for being a loud voice, and most importantly, educated.

I am amazed at the gumption of our government to try to re-interpret our (the US) 2nd amendment into the right to arm militia's etc. only. Granted it was written a long time ago and times have changed, but if you have taken a history class on how the government of the US was formed, it is much clearer what the point of our Constitution was written for. If I can say so, most of it is to protect the citizens from the government, while still having a democratic body to unify our citizens. The notion that keeping religion separate from government is protecting you from the same thing that having both an armed military and citizens does. It puts everyone on the same level. If we didnt have the government, the loudest voices would always win. So what I am saying is that the government isnt bad per se, but we both have to keep each other in check.

One thing a lot of people do not consider when voicing their opinions to remove our right to own firearms is that there has to be a way to get those weapons back. When you have a country that was established by fighting both tooth and nail, and guns, is it really hard to convince those citizens to give up what they used to establish and protect themselves. The famous saying for a lot of Americans "You'll get our guns when you pry them from our cold, dead hands" still rings loud today. In the meantime, it is most important to educate yourself before offering your opinion on something so important as gun control. Just repeating stuff you have heard is like voting for a president that someone told you was the right thing to do. Stupidity in large numbers is devastating.

Quoting TroutStoker "One thing I can say that I would hope everyone could agree upon is that even if you are someone who hates guns with a passion, doesn't want anything to do with them, I would hope that you would still respect that it is a right and you shouldn't want rights taken away just because you don't like them. You should be outraged that rights are being taken away. Even if you don't agree with the rights in question. You have to understand it won't stop with just the one right. They won't quit until they have rewritten the constitution to their liking. I don't like opera, can't stand the stuff. But I by no means would want opera to be banned or limited to a select few. I understand that many many people love and enjoy opera and it brings them happiness. To them there is none better and they should be free to enjoy the things they are passionate about even if I don't share their enjoyment."

This couldnt be any more true. In America, and a lot of other countries, our right to enjoy tobacco is slowing being revoked. I think suing a company for getting cancer is the same thing as suing a gun manufacturer for accidentally shooting yourself. If you partake in something that you dont know anything about, or havent done any research, then you cant be surprised when the unexpected occurs. Today, the current train of thought is that no one should be offended by someone else and if you are offended by someone else, you should be compensated for it. Society is going downhill in my opinion. People are turning in to sheep.

Today, gun advocates are working on making things better. But it still starts with individuals. "Assault Rifles" are starting to be called "Tactical Rifles", and what was used to be called <gasp> "Hollow Points" are now being called "Personal Defense Ammo". Names have changed, faces remain the same, but it does help.

I dont remember who made the comment earlier, and I am not trying to point the person out, but "most of the people in those crimes were licensed gun owners" is not true. The difference is that they were probably 'registered' gun owners, not 'licensed' gun owners. To obtain a license, also known as a firearms permit, requires a much deeper background investigation and the percentage of these owners who obtain permits and never commit crimes is drastically higher than people who legally own guns but dont obtain a permit. Each state in the US works differently on registration and licensing and that complicates the matter. Generally speaking, it is a person who has just purchased a firearm in a store or on a dark corner that commits these crimes. It might also help to know that the VA Tech incident had a large ripple effect and the federal forms you have to fill out have changed the questions you answer to be more specific. At the same time, the government is working, or maybe has already passed something, to make records of mental instability easier to access when it comes to discussing things like this.

The reason I had to jump in this is because of the connection between our right to own/enjoy guns and tobacco are revoked. Essay over :-)

bob, bozo sure has a good collection of stupidity don't they!!

StTroyIII, I think Thomas Jefferson says it best. Why would he have said these thing if the 2nd amendment was only for the militia and not the people. After all it was partly through his insistence that the Bill of Rights, consisting of the first ten amendments, was adopted.:

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!"

"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."

And one of my favorites: "The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."

second.