Do you recognize which band is this?

[Drewthetexan]

 Dallas, where I live, is kind of the asshole of the goth scene.  Austin, the state capital and a remarkably liberal area in a very conservative state, used to have a pretty good scene, but it's been falling off over the years.  I've recently decided to make the 3 hour drive down to Austin's club, Elysium, at least once a month.

CTRL is one group from Austin that I know of, but they started out in Pennsylvania and came down some time back.  There are perhaps other groups coming out of Texas, but right off I can't think of anyone else noteworthy. 

Yeah, by blatant I meant that in Texas we (I'm generalizing) tend to be proud of our firearms, although most of the people I know are rather subtle about it.  Proponents of private firearm ownership, and specifically of our second amendment, tend to point to Switzerland regarding the lower violent crime rates and responsible ownership, on the whole.  We also like to point to UK's disaster since they banned all firearms. 

My father lived in Switzerland for a number of years when he was a teenager.  He learned to ski in the Alps.  I'm not sure where he was exactly, though.  I'd love to visit there myself (truth is I want to take a month and just go see as much of Europe as possible). 

You should definitely make a trip out sometime. There are definitely some neat things to see and do in the States. 

Chuck Norris once did a round house kick so fast his foot broke the speed of light, went backwards in time, and killed Amelia Earhart. 



We like Chuck Norris too! :)
 

[Lexus]

The Rhone Valley. Sion, Brig-Glis, Zermatt [Ive seen the Matterhorn like it does on those postcards :P] and of course the Alex Glacier. Also been on the Furka pass. Damn thats scary. Also been to some valleys attached to the Rhone valley.
Ive stayed in Belalp one time, cant remember the names of the places of the other 2 times, but all 3 times in the same valley. One time further to the east and one time further to the west compared to Belalp.


And the Fass 90 and Sig 550 are the same rifle right?
Yeah, Ive read a bit about them. Not much though. 

[Black_Heidi]

Yes, Fass 90 and SG 550 are the same gun, we call it Fass 90 usually but abroad it is more know as SG 550. It's quite nice weapon as far as I know, it has a kind of green light which you can use for night shooting, it also has a 3-bullets shooting mode and a bipod integrated. the downside is that it is quite long and for close-quarters combat that's bad, and cqc is getting more and more important.

Ahah re-reading me I may look quite "blantant" about our guns, but yes Fass 90 is quite a swiss simbol so I'm happy to speak about it to you. But I don't do that all the time, I swear!

Thank you for your suggestion Drew, I will try CTRL and see how they are.

You both have connection with Switzerland or even been there, that's quite a surprise, they told me me US people usually don't know anything about what's happening outside their country and that most don't leave US not even once in their life.

Lexus did you take the "Glacier Express"? I used to take to go to school some times, it's a very good train and the view from it is awesome!

[Lexus]

There is a short barreled version of the SG 550. It has a different number though, 551 or 552 or something.

I never knew that the Swiss where such gun people though. Ive been there 3 times and I never noticed anything about guns. Just swiss army knives. I bought one there. Maybe it was because I always visited cute little villages and small towns instead of the bigger cities. Or maybe I never looked for it.

And I never took the Glacier Express. Is that the train that goes over the Furka pass? I did once take the car train that goes through the mountain.

Also, Im from Holland/The Netherlands, not America :P

[Black_Heidi]

Holland!!! Ik heb een beetjen nederlands geleerd, maar nied veel! I've been to Amsterdam a couple of times and it was amazing, to me Holland and Switzerland are quite similar country and people that could learn very much from each other (for example legalizing weed and use bike more often lol!). I've also been to Utrecht once, it was a nice quiet "little" city compared to Amsterdam. Love Holland, really!! May I ask you where you live there?

Well, as I said I don't think we're so blantant like maybe in Texas, we keep the Fass 90 in our closets we don't bring them around you know. I heard many people in the US walk in the street with their guns in their pockets, well here nobody does that. Never heard of somebody bringing a gun around in the streets, that'd be a crazy thing what do we need guns for in the streets?

Yeah Glacier Express is the train the goes over the Furka, from Chur to Lausanne or Geneva, I don't remember.

[Lexus]

Lol, quite similair XD Mountains vs flat overpopulated country side.

Utrecht small? Its almost as big as Amsterdam I think. Though youre right, the center is smaller. Meh, I dunno, Ive only been in Amsterdam three times or something. I dont really like it there. Noisy, smelly, ugly and the people suck.

I live in Amersfoort, its slightly east from Utrecht. 20 minutes by train or something.

Oh wait, Ive been in the Glacier Express then. Just for a short ride and not all the way up or down. Just between a few stations.

Also, your Dutch is pretty good ^^

[Drewthetexan]

Thank you for your suggestion Drew, I will try CTRL and see how they are.

You both have connection with Switzerland or even been there, that's quite a surprise, they told me me US people usually don't know anything about what's happening outside their country and that most don't leave US not even once in their life.

Lemme know how you like them.  I saw them live when Funker Vogt came through last year.  They put on a great show.

Most people in the US are complete boobs and neither know nor care about anything beyond our borders, sadly.  I'm a bit behind the curve because I've spent the last 6 years with my head in a book, but working on it! :)

I went to Greece last year and was horrified by some of the behavior I witnessed by American tourists.  I was in line for a gyro at a street corner and this fat woman in front of me threw a fit because they didn't have ketchup. Ketchup on a fucking gyro! I seriously thought about using a fake accent to order mine...

Well, as I said I don't think we're so blantant like maybe in Texas, we keep the Fass 90 in our closets we don't bring them around you know. I heard many people in the US walk in the street with their guns in their pockets, well here nobody does that. Never heard of somebody bringing a gun around in the streets, that'd be a crazy thing what do we need guns for in the streets?

Lol, I keep mine in my waistband. ;)

In many states it is legal to openly carry a rifle or shotgun.  In Texas there is no law that says you can't, but there is a law that says you can't carry with the intent to alarm or scare people, so it's a bit open to interpretation.  People just don't do it. (carry rifles and shotguns around)

In very few states it is legal to openly carry a handgun, Vermont is one, I think - Texas is not. All but 2 states issue concealed handgun (or weapon) licenses to people who pass stringent background checks.  These are federal checks conducted by our FBI.  The vast majority of the population can not qualify, actually. There was quite a bit of controversy about it when it first started happening in the mid 90s, but as of yet there has not been "blood in the streets" from people shooting each other, as was expected by many protesters.

Most people that carry do so because there is a significant amount of violent crime, at least significant enough in their minds to warrant it.  Since the mid 90's crime has been dropping precipitously. I can't say for sure that the correlation between people carrying handguns with them daily and the drop in violent crime is valid.

What I can say is that there are far too many cases where police just don't arrive in time to do anything but investigate.  That doesn't stop a crime in progress.  The most compelling argument for daily carry regards a mass murder at a Luby's Cafeteria here in Texas.  Is it rare? Yes. Does it happen? Yes. Could it have been stopped? Maybe. 

Statistically, people who are licensed to carry concealed weapons also commit fewer crimes than do police.   










 

[Lexus]

Meh, banning guns wont stop crazy idiots from obtaining one and go around and killing everyone they see before killing themselves.

And of course most people wont start shooting each other in the face. Unlike what some of us tend to believe, the vast majority of human beings is fairly rational and decent, and wont go on a murdering spree because its fun. Of course, some of us do think that, but banning guns wont change a thing about their ideas. They are just fundamentally sick in the head....