there is a reason for the people to have high powered weapons, to fight the governmemnt when they try to take away our 2nd amendment rights, we couldnt combat m16s with hunting rifles, and yes there is reason to pepper an animal with 30 rounds froma assualt weapon, to kill it, and make sure its dead, i know people that hunt with AK-47's(albeit by law they can only use it in semi-auto and with a mere 10rd clip)grenades, high eplosives, those can be improvised, easily, with stuff under your kitchen sink.
also an assualt weapon is extremely usefull for getting rid of cyotes, that tend to travel in packs, the only that that could compare would be a semi-auto, my unlce owns a ranch and they need to kill off coyotes and wolves to defend thier cattle, thier livlihood, you cant kill off 11 coyotes with a shotgun very easy, nor a rifle, and the animals arnt all that scared of you like the ignorant fish and game idiots tell you, coyotes maybe, but wolves never. esspasialy recently as they've been getting more and more used to humans and wolves have been known to find small children easy prey in the winter when they have little food, they wont normaly bother an adult, but i mean realy, come live up here for a year and try and tell me theres no reason to own a gun, the more high-powered the better.

and ya, empire people, dictator ship within the next 100 years, we must fall, eventualy we must fall, all countrys have fallen in the past, and think about it this way, somebody invades, we beat them back, but as we're regrouping, another enemy attacks, and maybe we beat him back, another one will see we're weak and destroy us, we are not undefeatable, that was romes mistake, believeing they where undefeatable.

and as far as him shooting the little girl, shit happens, because of one mistake, or two mistakes, or the minority of people making mistakes, you would rob the rights of all others, police are incopetent. and cars are dangerous, plenty of little girls have been killed with cars, but i dont see you trying to take those away, or falling from buildings, yet i dont see you trying to take those way either, the only differance is the gun is built as a weapon, but it is only as dangerous as the user, with is what they tell you about cars in drivers ed, they're only as dangerous as th driver,
 
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The Comnet Hermit
-Raider Squad-
TRP/SGT Sniping101/CrazyRAIDERS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA]
"A spanking new Athlon reduced to a Gameboy Emulator"- Gabe from Penny Arcade.
"As long as their is Space, Im going to stare off into it"-Garfield
I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I see an ARC all short and stout, BOOM!  He flies through the hall and out. -anonymous

of course tanks dont operate verywell in mountainous and wooded areas and a helecoptor is reletively easy to hide from, but still, i;d rather die fighting over my right to own a gun that meekly let them take it away. and whose to say the military wouldnt fold in on its self, its the soldiers rights being taken away too.

also, people have been rundown by drivers, on purpose, its not that uncommon.
 
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The Comnet Hermit
-Raider Squad-
TRP/SGT Sniping101/CrazyRAIDERS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA]
"A spanking new Athlon reduced to a Gameboy Emulator"- Gabe from Penny Arcade.
"As long as their is Space, Im going to stare off into it"-Garfield
I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I see an ARC all short and stout, BOOM!  He flies through the hall and out. -anonymous

yes, but all i was saying is that i dont think the entire army would step up to defend those rights, because thier too, well i cant think of word, but i guess they fallow orders too well for it, i guess all i can realy do is hope none of this comes about in my lifetime, although with my luck it will.
 
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The Comnet Hermit
-Raider Squad-
TRP/SGT Sniping101/CrazyRAIDERS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA]
"A spanking new Athlon reduced to a Gameboy Emulator"- Gabe from Penny Arcade.
"As long as their is Space, Im going to stare off into it"-Garfield
I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I see an ARC all short and stout, BOOM!  He flies through the hall and out. -anonymous

You never know about the electoral process.  Don't forget about the possibility that elections could be postponed by the Justice department if a terrorist attack occured.  This sure does sound kinda like a dictatorship now doesn't it.

And some of you people say the US turning Imperial isn't possible, ha.  And what about the missile defense system.  We should very much fear if Bush is reelected because he hopes to have the nuke missile defense system up before the '08 elections, or at least somewhat.  Now why do you suppose that.

Well, here's my scenario.  Bush gets reelected(ha, never will happen, but just in case) terrorism gets worse, nuke missile defense system comes online, Bush decides to postpose election due to a real terrorist attack or possibly one that he stages, BOOM Empire.

I've fealt this way about Bush for a long time.  Don't underestimate the power hungry idiot.  We can stop him if he tried something during this election, but I doubt it if he tried something in 2008.
 
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TRP/LCPL Anubis Benor/4SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE
Wraith Squad
Vast Empire Army

Well, technically, we're verging on a new form of Imperialism.  The old form required controlling every aspect of an area, basically turning it into a colony.  Our new form is a lot easier, we set up some political body to "legitimize" our taking their resources, which is what we're really after.  It's basically a lot cheaper and easier way of doing the exact same thing 

As to Bush taking over, I'm not quite sure he's dumb enough to try it.  Trust me, this country, out of all the countries in the world, would react sooooo badly to a dictatorship, every militia in the country would rise up, and I'm pretty sure the military would be too damaged by that alone to hold off protesters and other such types.

And I think Sniper and I have reached agreement, I don't think I hold anything against what he just said about armaments 
 
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Argon Viper
Sergeant Major/Senior Writer, VE Today
IW COL Argon Viper{ret}
Fallen Angel and Proud of It!
"History is on the move, those who cannot keep up will watch from a distance, and those who get in our way will not watch at all" - Grand Admiral Thrawn
"Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses" - Carl G Jung

Hmm, we're a bunch of pro-gun anti-Bush Democrats...excellent, everything is happening as I have forseen.

Anyway, don't put a dictatorship past anyone.  Times and people change, and if a dictatorship was formed where people still held many of their rights, it could possibly work.  I mean if someone took complete control of the government, yet people still had some voice in the government, or at least some influence, that could be a dictatorship that I see working.

That's the kind I've been planning to turn the US to, if you must know.  Remember that many if not all of the dictatorships of the past often suppressed the civil rights of people.  Anyway the future holds many possibilities, but the fact that the world will ultimately be united will mean that the US will either have to take over, or be taken over.
 
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TRP/LCPL Anubis Benor/4SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE
Wraith Squad
Vast Empire Army

I must say, although his spelling is somewhat lacking, I whole-heartedly approve of Sniping's last statement    I'd like to think that we all come in here with open minds and unformed ideas, but of course, if we did, no one would have an opinion and we would pretty much be silent.

As it is, I don't think we're anti-Bush, I just think the pro-Bushers have stopped writing for the moment.  Hopefully they'll get back into it so we can have a lively debate 
 
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Argon Viper
Sergeant Major/Senior Writer, VE Today
IW COL Argon Viper{ret}
Fallen Angel and Proud of It!
"History is on the move, those who cannot keep up will watch from a distance, and those who get in our way will not watch at all" - Grand Admiral Thrawn
"Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses" - Carl G Jung

Honestly, I think MAD still holds.  Mutually Assurred Destruction is still in place, and still holds us at a stalemate.  In case you haven't noticed, the only wars that have happened in the past long while are wars in which one side has the definite possibility of coming out ahead (you'll notice that we didn't hit North Korea, even though North Korea really has those weapons.  No one wants to fight a war that risks MAD).  Therefore, I can't see us going up against another nuclear power, even if it only has one or two nukes.

My bet is, the advantage goes to whoever developes a working anti-ballistic missle system first (not the crap that Bush and Raegan have been pushing since the 80's, a real system).  Once a country realizes that it can win all out, it'll become dangerous, but until then, I doubt we have much to worry about.
 
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Argon Viper
Sergeant Major/Senior Writer, VE Today
IW COL Argon Viper{ret}
Fallen Angel and Proud of It!
"History is on the move, those who cannot keep up will watch from a distance, and those who get in our way will not watch at all" - Grand Admiral Thrawn
"Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses" - Carl G Jung

Now hold on! How can you blame Bush for the Florida debacle, just because Sore Loserman 2000 kept crying for recounts?
 
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FL/PO2 Chipmunk Man/Kaph 3-1/Phoenix/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)[LoC][MC:1]

Explorer's Post 1863

He who can laugh at himself shall never cease to be amused.

Bah we are back on being invaded subject again?
 
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*DarkDragoons*
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +
TRP/ASL/SGT Rema/2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][OPE] [AM-B][AM-S][AM-P][IH][SoA][CDS]
"Only Trust your Allies as much as you can Predict your Enemies."
"Do you expect me to talk?" "No Mr. Bond, i expect you to die."
"Luke, I am your Fasha."

meant? asin fate? no i dont think so, i think we will be, but we arnt meant for it, no we contributed other things to the world, those were what we're meant for, however the hole country has strayed from its original founding beleifs, over and over again, so maybe we should be invaded, maybo not,

who says china will try to take us out? we put so much moeny into that country each year, thye might want to keep us around, who says they arnt going to go after some one else, or europe?
 
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The Comnet Hermit
-Raider Squad-
TRP/SGT Sniping101/CrazyRAIDERS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA]
"A spanking new Athlon reduced to a Gameboy Emulator"- Gabe from Penny Arcade.
"As long as their is Space, Im going to stare off into it"-Garfield
I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I see an ARC all short and stout, BOOM!  I kiss him and love him all the night out! - Modified by Me, original by -anonymous

well considering China economic power, not to mention mear man power, i would think it alot bigger than North korea, but it still leaves the fact that it probably isnt a threat for the present, but 20-30 years down the road is when we start having to worry about it, i thinnk by that time the world will have enough people in it that anything with open space will come under fire, and everybody will be looking for more places to put everyone.  if that isnt done peacefulling it will come to weapons, it always dose.
 
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The Comnet Hermit
-Raider Squad-
TRP/SGT Sniping101/CrazyRAIDERS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA]
"A spanking new Athlon reduced to a Gameboy Emulator"- Gabe from Penny Arcade.
"As long as their is Space, Im going to stare off into it"-Garfield
I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I see an ARC all short and stout, BOOM!  I kiss him and love him all the night out! - Modified by Me, original by -anonymous

HA! there has to be, and there will be, somebody will, thye have to, look at the past and you can predict the future, friend,  maybe it wont be china, myabe europe will give birth to yet another bad one, or for some bassackwards reason we might try to invade somewhere(alright here im talking extreme future) and try to take the world as our own, any of those things could happen, and atleast one of them will. romes mistake was getting comfortable. luckily if we fallow romes example iof could be another thousand years beforew we are defeated.
 
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The Comnet Hermit
-Raider Squad-
TRP/SGT Sniping101/CrazyRAIDERS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA]
"A spanking new Athlon reduced to a Gameboy Emulator"- Gabe from Penny Arcade.
"As long as their is Space, Im going to stare off into it"-Garfield
I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I see an ARC all short and stout, BOOM!  I kiss him and love him all the night out! - Modified by Me, original by -anonymous

It wasn't a german tribe so much as many german tribes that defeated Rome.  Al Qaeda is the first of those tribes for the US...what will be the others?
 
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TRP/CPL Anubis Benor/4SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE
Wraith Squad
Vast Empire Army

No, it was the germanic tribes, whom Rome had considered sub-human barbarians. They overran the Roman armies and sacked all the cities in their paths. The destrouction of Roman technology like the baths and aquaducts and such is what led to the Dark Ages.
 
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FL/PO2 Chipmunk Man/Kaph 3-1/Phoenix/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)[LoC][MC:1]

Explorer's Post 1863

He who can laugh at himself shall never cease to be amused.