Do people carry guns in zoos in the USA?

Zooplantman said:
What people in any country in the 21st century have historical awareness or even care? "Old news" Odd as it seems, the lessons of history are used only to support "my" argument not to inform my thinking.
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Very true and so it appears we never appear to learn any lessons or humility tempered by being historicallly literate.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Very true and so it appears we never appear to learn any lessons or humility tempered by being historicallly literate.
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I console myself that the Egyptian civilization lasted 5,000 years, a city at Jericho was active for over 3,000 years, the Maya almost 2,500 years, the Benin over 600 years while the USA is scratching at 300 and falling apart. This too shall pass.
 
I was out photographing (which I often call shooting, but in this context I think better not to) this morning in Tucson Mountain Park. There was a sign at the first parking pullout I stopped in that says discharge of firearms in the park is illegal. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the photo that I noticed the sign itself had two bullet holes! This is a county park and of course they can't ban carrying guns, just discharging them. In national parks it used to be illegal to even carry guns, but that was changed during Bush when Republicans controlled the Congress and the White House.

Speaking of guns and politics, here's a funny clip from The Distinguished Gentleman in which Eddie Murphy plays a con artist turned senator:
The Distinguished Gentleman - Duck Hunt - YouTube
 
I would never go so far as to say that the United States has a monopoly on violence, but it certainly occupies one of the front ranks. From 2014 to 2020, there were 108,449 deaths by firearms and 209,258 injuries, not including suicides, of course. Those are impressive numbers-with an upward trend.

It sounds harsh, but as long as these, let's call it strange, gun laws exist, as long as there is an association called NRA, as long as rampages and mass killings will be part of everyday life in the USA; the people who fight against this legislation won't change that either. It is in the nature of Homo sapiens to exterminate itself - and the day of the last judgement will come - it is closer than one dares to hope - I guess so on the next 50-60 years.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Yesterday saw America's second mass shooting in one week. :(
Boulder shooting live updates: 10 killed in Colorado supermarket, including police officer; suspect arrested (msn.com)
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I’m so sad and upset by this. Like all these people did nothing other than just visit a grocery store and can’t no longer be with their families or loved ones... We do have a big problem here in the states with gun culture and it shouldn’t be so easily accessible to get instruments of death that can take multiple lives in the blink of an eye.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
I would never go so far as to say that the United States has a monopoly on violence, but it certainly occupies one of the front ranks. From 2014 to 2020, there were 108,449 deaths by firearms and 209,258 injuries, not including suicides, of course. Those are impressive numbers-with an upward trend.

It sounds harsh, but as long as these, let's call it strange, gun laws exist, as long as there is an association called NRA, as long as rampages and mass killings will be part of everyday life in the USA; the people who fight against this legislation won't change that either. It is in the nature of Homo sapiens to exterminate itself - and the day of the last judgement will come - it is closer than one dares to hope - I guess so on the next 50-60 years.
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I'm not sure it's necessarily "in our nature" to exterminate ourselves or whether that nihilistic view / narrative helps.

When you say "last judgement" I hope you don't mean in the Biblical or Quranic end of days sense with hellfire and archangels with swords because that is nonsense.
 
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Julio C Castro said:
I’m so sad and upset by this. Like all these people did nothing other than just visit a grocery store and can’t no longer be with their families or loved ones... We do have a big problem here in the states with gun culture and it shouldn’t be so easily accessible to get instruments of death that can take multiple lives in the blink of an eye.
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I totally agree.

Kind of unrelated but you know I just saw in the link you posted the name of the city where this crime happened.

I once read an absolutely brilliant non fiction book about the return of pumas to the city of Boulder and human wildlife conflict.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I'm not sure it's necessarily "in our nature" to exterminate ourselves or whether that nihilistic view / narrative helps.

Of course, the self-extinction of man is not necessary, but unfortunately it is an indisputable fact...My vie wis not nihilistic, it is realistic.


When you say "last judgement" I hope you don't mean in the Biblical or Quranic end of days sense with hellfire and archangels with swords because that is nonsense.
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Not for Christians, and I believe there are a few million of them in the world-some of them even in the U.S.-and even these guys walking around with guns. Didn't the Bible say "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?;)Well, who knows this book of books, knows that it is the most violent book of all times...
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Not for Christians, and I believe there are a few million of them in the world-some of them even in the U.S.-and even these guys walking around with guns. Didn't the Bible say "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?;)Well, who knows this book of books, knows that it is the most violent book of all times...
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Well extinction of a species on any given time scale is inevitable so if your argument hinges on that then sure.

But if you are referring to human extinction as a result of the anthropocene then I am not exactly fully convinced of that argument.

On a civilisational scale and if society continues on the trajectory that it is currently on without drastic changes made to our current paradigms then industrial and technological civilization will collapse / go extinct, but the species ?

That is up for debate and is not by any means (IMO) a given so I don't think your certainty on that point is warranted.

I was reading a very interesting paper yesterday on a hypothesis put forward by a professor of economics who argues that what might transpire if industrial / technological civilization collapses is a return to small hunter-gatherer lifestyles by the surviving humans (a far better option than outright extinction but less so then us getting out **** together and developing a sustainable society IMO).

Link below (use Sci-hub.com to access):

Our hunter-gatherer future: Climate change, agriculture and uncivilization - ScienceDirect
 
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Bib Fortuna said:
Not for Christians, and I believe there are a few million of them in the world-some of them even in the U.S.-and even these guys walking around with guns. Didn't the Bible say "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?;)Well, who knows this book of books, knows that it is the most violent book of all times...
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Yes, because Jesus Christ an Iron Age era proto-hippy would certainly have heartily approved of the purchase by godfearing hillbillies from Alabama of M14 assault rifles and insane amounts of ammunition from wallmart.
 
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Bib Fortuna said:
I would never go so far as to say that the United States has a monopoly on violence, but it certainly occupies one of the front ranks. From 2014 to 2020, there were 108,449 deaths by firearms and 209,258 injuries, not including suicides, of course. Those are impressive numbers-with an upward trend.
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To put that in some kind of perspective those figures you have given represent far more fatalities than were killed in some combat / insurgency situations around the world over either the span of decades or in intense fighting in actual wars fought over short periods.

For example, the terrorism / war during "the troubles" in Northern Ireland (3,500 killed), Irish war of independence (1000 killed), the Cyprus emergency (1000 killed), the US invasion of Panama ( 2000 to 3000 killed).

I don't know about anyone else but I personally find that quite unsettling.
 
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