|
|
This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Gun Fires In Movie Theatre
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 05-29-2014 04:23 AM
quote: Steve Matz
Well Mike, apparently you don't get out of Montana Much. Look at Cities like Chicago,Washington DC,New Orleans,Philidelphia. These Cities have more Homicides in one year than Montana has seen in a Hundred years. The Los Angeles Morgue at any one time has more Homicide Victims than you can imagine.Just because you live in a peaceful little town like Forsyth doesn't mean it's that way all over this Country...
About 1M people live in Montana. In 2012, there were 27 murders.
About 17M people live in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, in 2012 a total of 298 murders took place.
If you look at the statistics of the last years, the murder rate in Montana averages around that number. If you look at the same numbers in Los Angeles, you'll see it's actually declining.
So, going by those statistics alone, the chance of getting murdered is higher in Montana than in Los Angeles by a wide margin...
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 05-29-2014 10:12 AM
You goofed on the crime stats from Los Angeles.
Those 298 murders you mentioned took place only within the city limits of Los Angeles itself, not the entire metropolitan statistical area. Los Angeles alone has 3,792,621 residents (2010 US Census). It's a little more subjective over what makes up a city's metro area. I've seen one figure for Greater LA having 18 million people while another MSA figure for LA-Long Beach-Anaheim showing 12.8 million people. Los Angeles County has just under 10 million people as of the 2010 US Census.
Lots of cities, big and small, have their bad neighborhoods. There's zones here in Lawton I wouldn't fart around in unless I had a good reason to be there. Nevertheless I'd fell a lot safer strolling through a bad neighborhood in Billings than I would strolling through Compton neighborhood in LA.
It is worth saying the homicide rate in LA is down quite a lot from previous highs. The current rate is 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people per year. That's way down from the high of 34.8 homicides per 100,000 people rate in 1980.
quote: Martin McCaffery
Automobiles of all types are heavily, heavily regulated already. Much more so than guns.
The fact is automobiles NEED to be more regulated than guns. They've been killing more Americans than guns. Cars are used far more frequently by their owners than guns. An automobile is a far more complex device than a gun. It has far more moving parts, including many parts that wear out over time. They require a lot of maintenance. I'm not too pleased at how computerized cars have become. If they get too much more complicated than this drivers will need to run through a pre-drive checklist before driving anywhere. There's a lot of benefits to owning a car, but our country has to spend a huge fortune building and maintaining an infrastructure of streets & highways for those things. Cars not only need to be regulated, but also must be taxed to pay for all that infrastructure. Automobiles inflict a pretty high environmental cost, high enough that they could be contributing to health problems and deaths. We at least know some people use their cars as a tool in suicide.
quote: Marcel Birgelen
I'm pretty sure there is compelling evidence that in most cases, strict(er) gun control will at least have some impact. Even knowing this, you can still decide that your freedoms outweigh the potential risks, it's a decision that's been taken on may other subjects too. Sometimes you decide to "pay the price", because the alternative is considered worse.
Unfortunately the issue of gun control in the United States is often framed by people on both extremes of the argument: the side who wants no controls at all on guns versus the side who wants to ban gun ownership. They both have their agendas whether they want to admit it or not. Neither side seems interested in any reasonable, middle ground solution where Americans are still able to own guns but they are regulated sensibly. Our news media prefers this arrangement because it makes for more entertaining screaming matches on talk shows. The media believes a sensible discussion would be boring for couch potatoes. And they might be right.
I own guns for two reasons. They're fun to shoot and they're useful for personal defense. Target shooting is a fun and challenging sport. I have a lot of friends who hunt & fish, but I'm not really into that. Regarding the personal defense angle: only I can protect myself. No matter how a local police department tries, it can't really live up to that "to protect and serve" motto. Cops are rarely ever able to prevent a crime from happening. Cops are only there, after the fact, to investigate the crime, find the perpetrator and bring him to justice. That's fine for preserving the greater good of society. But that's absolutely useless to me if I get murdered in the process.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Steve Matz
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 672
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Sep 2003
|
posted 05-29-2014 09:02 PM
Well I've sold Firearms&Explosives since 1983 so I get a lot of inside Industry statistics.First of all there is not one American Firearms Maker,and that covers everyone from the Junk Makers to the Legitimate long time Mfgers like(Remington,Colt,Ruger,S&W,Browning,Savage,just to name a few)that have enough Lawsuits against them to choke an Elephant.
99% of these Lawsuits are not from defective or malfunctioning firearms.They are from Families/Relatives who had one of their Members Fatally Shot or Severly injured by a Criminal who happen to be using their Brand of Firearm.So if Every Gunmaker in America is being Sued;even the ones that don't make Military Style assault weapons then what does that say about the Violence in our Nation. When I said we are a Violent Nation I didn't mean we are a bunch of Barbarians;but a Country that prides itself as being Above ordinary in intelligence,being sophisicated,and educated compared to 3rd world countries; we have way too many Fatalities related to Violence.
Just because a Major City's Homicide rate went down a percent or so doesn't make me feel any better that a person is being Killed every other day rather than one a day.Thats like telling Citizens that they should feel a lot safer now from Nuclear Disarmament between Russia and the US;saying we now only have enough Nukes to blow up the World 5 times over verses the amount we had previously to blow it up 10 times over.That statement really makes me feel at ease.
Of course a small city like Billings can't be compared to the likes of L.A.,NEW YORK,CHICAGO,etc. but even our little town has had it's share of Shootings. In fact our Police Force has had more Officer Involved Fatal shootings in the last 2 years than 20 years previous.Most of this Violent Crime I still attribute to
Drugs. METH probably being in 1st place followed by old standby's like Cocaine and Heroin which is making a comeback because of it's Cheap Price and availability.
I guess most of us should be thankful that we live in communities where we don't hear Gunfire Nightly in our Neighborhoods or see Ambulances every few days responding to Crime Victims.People in this Country especially inner city people who feel like sardines from massive population tend to be
more on edge and react to things like Road Rage or even as something as Trivial as the Ex-cop shooting someone for Texting in a Movie Theater.Hopefully every Firearm I've sold through the years has only been used for Hunting,Target Shooting,and Home defense situation.Sueing Gun Mfger's and Dealers doesn't stop Criminals from being Violent;That just seems to be their Nature...
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 05-30-2014 04:32 PM
quote: Steve Matz
Just because a Major City's Homicide rate went down a percent or so doesn't make me feel any better that a person is being Killed every other day rather than one a day.
Any homicide or untimely death is tragic, and especially so when you know the victim. Nevertheless, these statistics are worth measuring and progress is definitely worth reporting, even though the media rarely likes to do that in terms of violent crime. They love inflaming the situation, making viewers scared.
New York City is a hell of a lot safer now than when I lived there. They've cut their homicide rate down to 1/5th what it was back in the early 1990s. The 5 boroughs were registering over 2000 murders per year. In 2013 the 5 boroughs had 333 murders, a 20 percent drop from the total of 417 in 2012. That's pretty amazing for a city of 8.3 million people, particularly one with notorious neighborhoods like Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville and the South Bronx. That gives NYC a homicide rate of 4.11 per 100,000 people. That's very close to the nation-wide average for the United States, but well below the typical averages for large cities.
quote: Steve Matz
Most of this Violent Crime I still attribute to Drugs. METH probably being in 1st place followed by old standby's like Cocaine and Heroin which is making a comeback because of it's Cheap Price and availability.
Drugs and alcohol do contribute immensely to all kinds of violent crime. Detached apathy from still law abiding citizens contributes to it as well. Drug addicts and criminals are enabled in some way to do the destructive things they do. They have various safety nets they're mooching from in order to preserve their habits. They will only clean up their acts out of necessity when those safety nets are removed.
A lot of illegal drug use would be eliminated if most work places randomly drug tested their employees and had tough policies for violators. More of it would be eliminated if family members got tough with loved ones who are using rather than give them a free place to live and eat (this is obviously easier said than done; there's a lot of co-dependency taking place in those situations). Neighborhood watch and community policing programs do work. Looking the other way and not getting involved does not work. It also helps if a city or town's police department strives to have a positive relationship with the community.
New York City was hitting record high numbers of murders at the end of the 1980's and into the early 1990's when crack cocaine was very popular. It took a lot of different efforts combined together to make progress.
Tougher jail sentences have made progress in some areas, but we have a huge prison population of nearly 2.4 million people. The most serious charge for more than 50% of prisoners is drug possession or drug distribution. Eventually most of those prisoners get released. They often re-offend and end up back in jail or prison for various reasons. If they already have a felony on their record that makes it even more likely they'll go back to prison. A lot of opportunities in life are permanently eliminated once you have a felony on your record.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 06-09-2014 04:24 AM
quote: Bobby Henderson
You goofed on the crime stats from Los Angeles.
Maybe the on-line paper I got them from goofed on them, but I did not.
quote: Bobby Henderson
Lots of cities, big and small, have their bad neighborhoods. There's zones here in Lawton I wouldn't fart around in unless I had a good reason to be there. Nevertheless I'd fell a lot safer strolling through a bad neighborhood in Billings than I would strolling through Compton neighborhood in LA.
It was part of my point though... It's the nice thing about statistics, they all to often hide the underlying causes. Maybe most people that "don't belong there" are smart enough to avoid those neighborhoods in L.A.
quote: Bobby Henderson
The media believes a sensible discussion would be boring for couch potatoes. And they might be right.
The problem with commercial media is that it will only go for the stories that give the required amount of eyeballs or their owners have a vested interest in. But blaming it all on the media is probably a bad excuse, I guess people have just generally become to lazy and as long as it's not in their backyard yet, they don't bother. Every now and then they will all collectively scream out on it, and as soon as it has left the headlines, it's been forgotten and buried. This is not a U.S. exclusive, it's a "Western World" thing and we're globalizing it, so it's probably just a human thing...
quote: Bobby Henderson
I own guns for two reasons. They're fun to shoot and they're useful for personal defense. Target shooting is a fun and challenging sport. I have a lot of friends who hunt & fish, but I'm not really into that. Regarding the personal defense angle: only I can protect myself. No matter how a local police department tries, it can't really live up to that "to protect and serve" motto.
It seems that you at least have some practice. You know how to use your firearms, you know how to aim, you probably also have a sense to distinguish between the good and the bad guys. How many people that own guns have those same qualities? And what would they eventually achieve in a situation that would allow the use of a gun as self-defense?
And that's actually the only point I want to make. Just like a car, a gun is a tool that requires at least some training for safe handling and it could probably also benefit from insurance...
I'm almost wondering why half of the industry isn't lobbying for mandatory training, licensing and insurance, there's billions to be made here ![[Wink]](wink.gif) .
quote: Bobby Henderson
Tougher jail sentences have made progress in some areas, but we have a huge prison population of nearly 2.4 million people. The most serious charge for more than 50% of prisoners is drug possession or drug distribution. Eventually most of those prisoners get released. They often re-offend and end up back in jail or prison for various reasons. If they already have a felony on their record that makes it even more likely they'll go back to prison. A lot of opportunities in life are permanently eliminated once you have a felony on your record.
It's another political discussion entirely, but I guess it has been proven all over the world that prison for "minor" felonies like drug possession (not dealing) doesn't do anybody any good. Those people don't leave prison as a better person. Also, I doubt that those non-erasable criminal records for those kind of felonies are helping anybody.
Some people make mistakes, once they've "paid the price" and it is clear they learned their lessons, they should become normal part of society again or else those people will become a permanent problem, you're practically forcing them to lead a criminal existence.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 06-10-2014 08:54 PM
quote: Marcel Birgelen
Maybe the on-line paper I got them from goofed on them, but I did not.
The problem is you used those dubious numbers to claim Montana is more dangerous than Los Angeles in a murders per capita basis. Those numbers were just asking to be double-checked, which is something you probably should have done before making the claim rather than giving me the opportunity to point out the mistake.
quote: Marcel Birgelen
It was part of my point though... It's the nice thing about statistics, they all to often hide the underlying causes. Maybe most people that "don't belong there" are smart enough to avoid those neighborhoods in L.A.
Most people have always avoided neighborhoods where they don't belong, especially the bad zones. When it comes to crimes like murder, it often takes place between people who know each other. And even when it doesn't the perpetrator and victim are still often of the same race and socio-economic background.
I can't help but laugh a little at the suburbanites in my town who wring their hands and make statements like, "I guess I'll need to move," whenever a murder is committed here in Lawton. Why are they worried at all? Unless they're hanging aroud dangerous people their chances of falling victim to a violent crime like murder are really pretty low.
quote: Marcel Birgelen
The problem with commercial media is that it will only go for the stories that give the required amount of eyeballs or their owners have a vested interest in. But blaming it all on the media is probably a bad excuse, I guess people have just generally become to lazy and as long as it's not in their backyard yet, they don't bother.
The media is ultimately screwing itself in the long term. It's aiming its content at lowest common denominator audiences. Meanwhile, the better educated, more affluent viewers which advertisers want to reach the most are pushed away by all that garbage. Cable/satellite TV service prices have gone way up over the past decade, putting a squeeze on those lowest common denominator audiences. And the folks who are better able to afford the service increasingly care less about it.
If it wasn't for certain live sports programs and a few shows on HBO I wouldn't have cable TV at all. Unfortunately this syndrome of trash TV has hijacked America's political process and painted an exaggerated picture of reality in America to viewers.
I kind of feel sorry for kids these days. So many are far more sheltered and shadowed by their parents than my brother and I were when we were kids. The fear-mongering from the media has conditioned parents to be this way. We had all kinds of freedom and independence that kids these days do not, despite the fact that times were actually quite a bit more dangerous than they are now. Back then we didn't have 24 hour cartoon channels, the Internet and high quality game consoles. We had to go outside to play. But we also didn't have our parents attending every baseball, soccer and football practice either.
quote: Marcel Birgelen
It seems that you at least have some practice. You know how to use your firearms, you know how to aim, you probably also have a sense to distinguish between the good and the bad guys. How many people that own guns have those same qualities? And what would they eventually achieve in a situation that would allow the use of a gun as self-defense?
If a person is in a situation that requires him to grab his gun out of his bedroom night stand or the console in his car the "bad guy" is already probably doing something to make it obvious he is the bad guy.
The real issues, which demand some education, training and practice on part of the gun owner, is being able to act at the moment of truth rather than hesitating and take action legally. A lot of people have serious misconceptions over the legal use of deadly force. Some of those misconceptions get home owners charged with murder.
quote: Steve Matz
Bobby is correct in that most of the Inmate Population here is for Drug Related Offences. Usually Possession or Small Time Distribution. The system knows that a majority of these inmates that go to Pre-Releases or get Paroled will re-affend in weeks or Months and that's what they want because the state doesn't make money off of you if your Free. At the Rate of anywhere from 60 to 90 dollars a day the DOC gets from the State on each inmate you can see it's just a big money Business.It ceased being a real Justice System about 20 years ago.
There's all kinds of things that need to be changed in the criminal justice system. Right now it's a farce where someone with enough money can get away with murder and an innocent person with not much money can get wrongly convicted.
America's prison population is an ever worsening burden to taxpayers. Prisons are indeed big business. And there is some incentive to keep the same convicts rotating in and out of those jails. Unfortunately, the failure of the criminal justice system of actually rehabilitating inmates sometimes results in other people becoming crime victims at the hands of those convicts.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
|
posted 06-11-2014 09:44 AM
Yahoo News
quote: Yahoo News
Annapolis Maryland (Reuters) - A Maryland man suspected in a spate of "bottle bomb" incidents at movie theaters in the Washington, D.C., area has been arrested and charged with tossing an improvised explosive device into a cinema last month, officials said on Sunday.
Manuel Joyner, 20, has been charged with manufacturing, possessing and detonating a destructive device in a Largo, Maryland, movie theater on May 24, Prince George's County Fire officials said in a statement. The theater was cleared after the incident and there were no injuries.
"Movie theater patrons around the region can breathe a sigh of relief as a suspect has been identified and arrested for using 'bottle-bombs,'" said a statement from Prince George's County Fire/EMS.
Joyner is considered a suspect in multiple incidents at AMC theaters across the region in recent weeks, the statement said.
No one was seriously injured in any of the explosions. In one incident two weeks ago, two homemade bottle bombs exploded in a movie theater in McLean, Virginia, sending more than 2,000 frightened audience members scrambling for the exits.
Federal bomb experts were helping investigate the incidents, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said last week. The devices are usually made with the explosive mixture of baking soda and vinegar in a bottle, the spokesman said.
Joyner was arrested without incident at his home in the Washington suburb of Bowie, Maryland, late on Saturday.
The felony charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if he is found guilty.
A spokesman for AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, which had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, issued a statement thanking local and federal law enforcement.
At least nobody was killed this time.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[thumbsdown]](graemlins/thumbsdown.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic