“An armed society is a polite society.” Said in a work of fiction by an unreliable narrator. So, by all accounts, that restaurant in Waco full of heavily armed people should have also been a very polite place to be, right?
Except it doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t work like that because of the most fundamental problem with anarchy theory, Communism, and capitalism for that matter: The problem that mankind is a bunch of jumped up baboons with delusions of grandeur and with all of the tribal-based territorial behaviors of baboons. Baboons live in tribes led by an alpha male and when they encounter other tribes of baboons that want to use the same territory, much screeching, howling, and fighting occurs as each tribe attempts to assert dominance. The only reason baboons haven’t wiped each other out is that they have never invented guns.
Well, at least the *hairy* baboons have never invented guns. As for the hairless ones, they breed like rats, so that sort of explains why *they* haven’t wiped each other out.
so anyhow, that’s your “human nature” in a nutshell, on display in Waco, Texas, for all to see. If anybody cared to see. But of course there are none so blind as those who refuse to see…
– Badtux the Hairless Penguin
..if there had only been a good biker gang with guns…
Guns are tools. Like cars, they can be deadly – fortunately, there isn’t an Amendment (nor well funded lobby) keeping us from testing the fitness of drivers. Fools with tools are dangerous. Too bad we can’t seem to learn that lesson – or at least put what we have learned into practical action. Freedumb!
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Guns are tools that are projectile in nature. You can kill somebody with a knife. You can kill somebody with an axe. You can kill someone with a chainsaw, for that matter. But nobody ever got killed by a stray knife, or axe, or chainsaw, that missed its target and flew through their window a quarter mile away and struck them down as they watched television. The same, alas, is not true of stray bullets fired by guns.
But as you say: A gun does not change the fundamental nature of Man. Those who claim it does, misapprehend cringing in fear for politeness.
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This was huge news Down Undahere, where they love stories about American gun madness. The USA keeps splashing blood on its brand image. In the interest of perspective, or maybe just to show “Us Aussies can be murderously insane too!” the stories about the Waco gunbattle also cited a 1984 bikie shootout near Sydney known as “the Milperra Massacre.” That left seven people dead, including a 14-year-old bystander girl who caught a stray bullet in the face. It used to be the record-high death toll for a motorcycle gang gun battle, but now the U.S. takes the title. Gooooold medal!
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But hey, with this many guns (I think the last report said that the cops had rounded up close to a *thousand* guns) I’m sure it was a very *polite* gunfight. Especially for the 9 who became *super* polite, like, permanently. They’re also dead, but hey, let’s not ruin a good point with trivial little facts like that, eh?
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
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Yea, but it still isn’t as interesting as the 90’s Nordic Biker War. In that one, stolen Swedish Army Anti-Tamk Rockets were employed. The Twin Peaks owner has been called out by police spokesmen for lying about working with police. The morons were deliberately hosting biker nights, even after being warned about trouble brewing between at least 2 of the 5 gangs known to frequent the location. TABC just shut the Twin Peaks down for a week, and further review of license is likely. Last number was 192 charged with felonies. The involved gangs appear to be the Banditos and Cossacks.
Knight, the “good gang” that was present was the local cops (with their SWAT team). They flanked the shootout in the parking lot and poured in return fire. Quite the Wild West Shootout.
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Stupid autocorrect…Bandidos
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“the “good gang” that was present was the local cops (with their SWAT team). They flanked the shootout in the parking lot and poured in return fire.”
I didn’t know that about the cops. If there’s ever an after-action autopsy report, as perhaps there will be in connection with the murder trials of the bikers, t would be interesting to see how many people were killed by police bullets. In last December’s Lindt Cafe siege, when a rifle-toting lone wackjob Muslim maniac took hostages at a shop in downtown Sydney, one of the two captives who died was struck by police gunfire. The crazy man killed the cafe manager (possibly because he was gay, so the religious arsehole decided to execute him) and then the coppers busted in blasting. As they had to, although after-action reports say they could have used better ammo that was not as high-powered and likely to ricochet. I wonder whether the Waco police opened up with everything they had, as Officer Friendlies tend to do.
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Bukko, I certainly don’t disagree about the need to get further data. The details so far seem to indicate the bikers used very few firearms, sticking to mainly melee weapons initially. The police, given the small area and local knowledge, certainly SEEM to have proceeded carefully enough with their firing directions and such. We will see, and as a bonus note, police across Texas have been alerted to possible threats from bikers across the state. This could result in something interesting.
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[…] I always like reading Badtux the Snarky Penguin, and his explanation of why many guns didn’t lead to exceeding politeness in Waco: […]
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