Fun fact: the singer on the left, Ariana Savalas, shares the same last name as Telly Savalas, "Kojack".

...actually, she's his daughter. So I guess having the same last name isn't that odd. Sorry.

Fun Fact: This scene was a rip off of Battlestar Galactica.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7CvyLCZtMg

Galactica 1980 that is, the TRUE second version. The episodes that put the BS back into BSG.

Fun fact : hornets are a specific type of wasp. So saying either would be accurate.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/hornet/

The only problem I have here newtboy is the concept of escalation. You are obviously not in Law, so here is a bit of schooling. Ever wonder why cops use tazers on people who just passively resist (Like holding or bracing to prevent cuffs from being applied?) Or how it "takes" seven cops to "subdue" someone? It's actually practical and less violent. 1-A fun fact is that the longer a confrontation goes on for the further it escalates. By doing nothing you are letting it get further than by doing something. This means that there is a definitive time to stop trying to talk and start acting. 2-Those "escalated" methods are really lessor force than others. The more a body moves the greater the chance someone gets hurt. That means you A-Place someone on the ground as soon as possible, B-Immobilize him as prudently as possible, C-Get him in cuffs.

Don't get me wrong, abuse is abuse. But if you see a cop punching a person's ass to get him to let up on his grip, for example, that's not brutality. If you see a cop curbstomping someone, yeah, that is. Because more movement is involved.

" At present, a little more than half of all Americans own the sum total of about 320 million guns, 36% of which are handguns, but fewer than 100,000 of these guns are used in violent crimes."

Per year. You don't cite your source, but this is looks to me to be an underestimate. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey there are half about half a million people claiming to be victim of a gun related crime over the course of a year. I remember being a victim of a gun crime in America (the perp was an British-born and educated woman) where the police said that they weren't going to follow things up because they were too busy with more serious crimes and they weren't confident of successful prosecution, they didn't even bother to look at the bullets or interview the perpetrator. I'd be surprised if it was even officially reported for crime statistic purposes.

"So gun ownership tends increase where violence is the least."

You didn't discuss the confounding variables.

But nevertheless, nobody is saying that owning guns makes you intrinsically more criminal. The argument here seems to be that criminals or those with criminal intent will find it much easier to acquire firearms when there are hundreds of millions of them distributed in various degrees of security across the US.

And those that have firearms, who are basically normal and moral people, may find themselves in a situation where their firearm is used, even in error, and causes harm - a situation obviously avoided in the absence of firearms and something that isn't necessarily included in crime statistics.

"In the UK, where guns are virtually banned, 43% of home burglaries occur when people are in the home"

Yes, but here's a fun fact. I've been burgled a few times, all but one of those times I was at home when it happened. You know what the burglar was armed with? Nothing. Do you know what happened when I confronted him with a wooden weapon? He pretended he knew someone that lived there and when that fell through he ran away. When the police apprehended him, there wasn't any consideration that he might be armed with a gun and the police merely put handcuffs on him and he walked to the police car. He swore and made some idle and non-specific threats, according to the police, but that's it. In any event, this isn't extraordinary. There are still too many burglaries that do involve violence, of course.
Many burglaries in Britain are actually vehicle crimes, with opportunity thrown in. That is: The primary purpose of the burglary is to acquire car keys (this is often the easiest way to steal modern vehicles), but they may grab whatever else is valuable and easy too.

"The federal ban on assault weapons from '94-'04 did not impact amount and severity of school shootings."

What impact did it have on gun prevalence? Not really enough to stop the sentence 'guns are prevalent in the US' from being true....

" So, it's likely that gun-related crimes will increase if the general population is unarmed."

I missed the part where you provided the reasoning that connects your evidence to this conclusion.

"Note retail gun sales is the only area that gun control legislation can affect, since existing laws have failed to control for illegal activity. "

This is silly. Guns don't get manufactured and then 32% of them get stolen from the manufacturers warehouse. They get bought and some get subsequently stolen. If there were less guns made and sold there would be less guns available for felons to acquire them privately, less places to steal them or buy stolen ones on the black market, less opportunity for renting or purchasing from a retailer. Thus - less felons with guns.

If times got tough, and I thought robbing a convenience store was a way out of a situation I was in - I would not be able to acquire a firearm without putting myself in considerable danger that outweighs the benefits to the degree that pretending to have a gun is a better strategy. I have 'black market contacts' so I might be able to work my way to someone with a gun, but I really don't want to get into business with someone that deals guns because they are near universally bad news.

" states with right-to-carry laws have a 30% lower homicide rate and a 46% lower robbery rate."

Almost all States have such laws, making the comparison pretty meaningless.

"In fact, it's {number of mass shootings} declined from 42 incidents in 1990 to 26 from 2000-2012. Until recently, the worst school shootings took place in the UK or Germany. "

I think 'most dead in one incident' is a poor measure. I think total dead over a reasonable time period is probably better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers:_School_massacres
The UK appears once. It is approx. 1/5 the population of the US. The US manages to have five incidents in the top 10.

Statistics can be fun, though, huh?

" In any case, do we have any evidence to believe that the regulators (presumably the police in this instance) will be competent, honest, righteous, just, and moral enough to take away the guns from private citizens"

You've done a lot of hard work to show that most gun owners are law-abiding and non-violent. As such, the police won't go door to door, citizens will go to the police.

"How will you enforce the regulation and/or remove the guns from those who resist turning over their guns?"

The same way they remove contraband from other recalcitrants. I expect most of them will ask, demand, threaten and then use force - but as usual there will be examples where it won't be pretty.

"Do the police not need guns to get those with the guns to turn over their guns?"

That's how it typically goes down here in the UK, yes.

"Does this then not presume that "gun control" is essentially an aim for only the government (i.e., the centralized political elite and their minions) to have guns at the exclusion of everyone else?"

The military has had access to weapons the citizenry is not permitted to for some considerable time. Banning most handguns etc., would just be adding to the list.

"Is the government so reliable, honest, moral, virtuous, and forward thinking as to ensure that the intentions of gun control legislation go exactly as planned?"

No, but on the other hand, can the same unreliable, dishonest, immoral and unvirtuous government ensure that allowing general access to firearms will go exactly as planned?

You see, you talk the talk of sociological examination, but you seem to have neglected any form of critical reflection.

"From a sociological perspective, it's interesting to note that those in favor of gun control tend to live in relatively safe and wealthy neighborhoods where the danger posed by violent crime is far less than in those neighborhoods where gun ownership is believed to be more acceptable if not necessary

"From a sociological perspective, it's interesting to note that those in favor of gun control tend to live in relatively safe and wealthy neighborhoods where the danger posed by violent crime is far less than in those neighborhoods where gun ownership is believed to be more acceptable if not necessary"

On the other hand, I've been mugged erm, 6 times? I've been violently assaulted without attempts to rob another half dozen or so. I don't tend to hang around in the sorts of places middle class WASPs would loiter, shall we say. I'm glad most of the people that cross my path are not armed, and have little to no idea how to get a gun.

You don't source this assertion as far as I saw - but you'll have to do better than 'it's interesting' in your analysis, I'm afraid.

No formatting, because too much typing already.

Missed musical rip-off/homage: 'Rise' by Pantera (E1M4).

Bonus fun fact: the main level designer for Doom 1 and Doom 2 was Sandy Petersen, the author of the classic Chaosium RPG "Call Of Chulhu" (which is a pretty big deal if you're into that sort of thing, as I was back then.)

Five/5 Fun Facts about TETRIS (Shack Reels) has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo on that post.

The rock it is on is like, within a couple feet of the surface at low tide.

FUN FACT: This is the same lighthouse that everyone has seen, with the monster wave crashing around the keeper standing in the doorway. Which was a real photo btw, not faked in any way.

http://beingsakin.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/on-reality-iv/

Fun fact: those fangs are also hollow and inject poison. Have fun with your blood worms, kids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycera_%28genus%29

Fun fact, Khrushchev reportedly transferred sovereignty of Crimea to Ukraine while drunk. Although back then it was more an administrative change than a material one of state borders.

Fun Fact: This aircraft weighs 800kg, over twice what a Piper Cub weighs, and 300kg more than a Piper's MAX take-off weight.

Maybe next time, he should try materials lighter than mild steel pipe and angle iron...

@ant
@lucky760

It is flat out fact that colds are caused by virus.

Being cold IE not wearing a jacket out in winter might knock your immune system down two power points but the cause of cold and flu are virus and bacteria not because you got some chilly goosey bumps on your hair follicle.

I love the fact this baby is embracing an atmosphere I once participated in, this is wonderful. The baby has no harm of getting sick.

Unless the water is laced with that drug/substance they are saying was in the non burning snow ! !

FUn fact 245: When I was around that age, I "swam" in our newly built houses gravel driveway, the ruts were a fair size and I was a wee size. Many front and back and splishy splash strokes where made, No sniffles were consequential. A mommies Txt proves it so.

The sad thing is, the Beebs probably hates himself more than his Haters do. Sure has no self respect whatsoever.

Fun Fact: The car rental company has GPS tracking and says he never got over low 50s, mostly doing low 30s. I did more "racing" in my 1969 bone-stock Ford Cortina.

Atheism is a spectrum, though. At one end you have people who outright deny the existence of gods and, at the other, perhaps you have people who are completely unaware of the god concept and have never given it a thought. These people are still 'without gods'.

Agnosticism, however, is not much of a spectrum. The agnostic believes that the truth about existence of deities is unknown and/or unknowable. It is not a position of uncertainty; it is a definitive claim about the limits of human knowledge/understanding.

They are not mutually exclusive as they are addressing different questions. You can simultaneously be an atheist or theist as well as a gnostic or agnostic. Fun fact: Most existing Christian churches are officially agnostic; gnosticism is considered blasphemous. Most Gnostic Churches were declared heretical and destroyed centuries ago.

I wish the old had some common sense the young possesses. It seems to me bob that we just gravitate towards a different common sense, not a better. We become jaded and wiser.

Another fun fact, the older one gets the less right they get, past their 30s. This is because we stop caring about petty shit like the war on pot, women's right to choose and such. We get "wiser" as you say and stop frothing every time someone brings it up. (The only reason the elderly are more conservative than the young is that they come from an era that was more conservative. I am just pointing out that they lose it as they go, even if they have more of it to go with. Like heavy set people losing weight.)