Watch: Setting up a fake gun store in NYC

[Permalink]

3 Likes

I feel like I’ve heard that music in a Kickstarter campaign before…

1 Like

Ahhh! But riiiiights! I don’t want to think about the purpose of those rights and how the intention behind them has zilch to do with crime-prevention. My riiiiights!!!

4 Likes

How sad is it that the fact that the customers changed their minds about gun ownership makes me assume they were actors?

16 Likes

Perhaps they never thought the purchase though to begin with.

They are also not showing everybody and the reality is they were really no selling those guns.

1 Like

Many similarities with so-called Pregnancy Crisis centres.

12 Likes

You also have to wonder how many real customers weren’t dissuaded by the sob stories.

Owning a firearm is serious business. If you’re not aware of the fact that guns can and do kill people when they’re not stored properly and treated as what they are, then you probably shouldn’t own one. If you do understand and accept the responsibilities, then the fact that other people were less responsible isn’t likely to change your mind.

Legally purchasing a firearm in NYC is a daunting process. It’s not cheap or easy. You have to be willing to let the NYPD climb directly up your ass for a good look around. You have to be determined to legally purchase a firearm in the city - and no amount of tragedy-whoring is going to change your mind. The only folks susceptible to that sort of manipulation (if they weren’t actors) are the merely curious - people who would never have jumped through the hoops in the first place.

17 Likes

OR they could have pointed them to where they can acquire proper training, given them a 10 min go over of basic handling and safety, and up sell them on a quick access safe if they are asking about protection. You know actual education vs “guns are icky” propaganda.

A more realistic used gun shop would more of these types of stories assigned to them:
“Bought by a guy who used it 3 times before having to sell it to pay some bills. It mostly sat in a case for three years.”

“This one was used for hours of target shooting, and won him 2nd place at a local competition.”

13 Likes

“Here’s a jar of peanut butter. It’s the same one that caused a five year old to die of anaphylactic shock.”

“And this book here, Catcher In the Rye, was a favorite of the man who killed John Lennon, and the man who tried to kill President Reagan.”

“On this rack here are Twinkies, which were a favorite food of the man who murdered Harvey Milk.”

“Here are some Ozzie Osbourne and Judas Priest albums…”

16 Likes

Whose palms did they grease to import and posses several NY illegal “assault weapons” within the state and even more restrictive city? Most of the scary guns on the back wall are not even legally purchaseable due to our stupid new laws. This was just more disingenuous appeal to emotion.

7 Likes

The revolver he pulled out of the cabinet was a larger caliber than the .22 he claimed it was. And there is no way that they got their hands on every actual weapon that was used in a crime. At best, he can say that “these are sorta like the ones that were used for felonies, but not really.”

Why didn’t he show them the one that I pointed at the guy who busted my head open with a club? Oh, yeah, the police gave it back to me and said that I had showed remarkable restraint.

8 Likes

I think it’s an interesting reality check, this project, even though I lean pro-gun ownership. (note: Responsible gun ownership–lots of training, regulation)

As some have mentioned, if they were dissuaded by the human stories of accidents and loss, then they probably were not taking the idea of gun ownership seriously enough. I’ve tinkered with the idea of buying a gun for defense, or even sport (my family is full of hunters, and deer are tasty), but I don’t make it past the same internal dialog that is happening in the video.

4 Likes

They should have showed the gun carried by a bystander in the Aurora theatre shooting. (Heard in a radio interview) He ducked behind a seat when the shooting started, and when asked why he didn’t use it - he said it didn’t occur to him at the time. So why did he carry? “Oh for self-defense of course”.
He’d probably be better off carrying a chair.

11 Likes

Not a club? You left out club! Kevin_Harrelson will be very upset with you!

How do you not understand that humans make poor decisions when angry and having a ‘kill this shit’ button can only result in a number of deaths that would not have occurred if the perp had to be more hands-on, or at least given the victim better odds of defending themselves.

I guess we can just keep passing laws trying to keep people from hurting each other and end up either with everyone zoned out on drugs, or have their hands encased like this.

Because… that’s the outcome everywhere else that has sensible gun laws… or something? What the fuck are you talking about?

12 Likes

It’s from “Moneyball”, I think.

See, I really think some people have to be projecting when it comes to this. People get mad all the time and don’t murder anyone. Maybe YOU can’t control yourself and should look into that. I’ve been very mad in the past, but never has hurting someone even crossed my mind (in my adult life, I am sure I smacked my siblings a time or two when i was a kid).

[quote=“teapot, post:16, topic:53907, full:true”]
Because… that’s the outcome everywhere else that has sensible gun laws… or something? What the fuck are you talking about?[/quote]

What sensible gun laws do you propose? If you cherry pick out the worst crime areas in the US - usually its the dense, gang related stuff that many other places don’t have, the US crime rate is almost the same as our mores sensible neighbors to the North.

Personally I think we should be looking at why we have bad crime in some areas and work on fixing the cause. They won’t stop killing each other because laws or restricted access to weapons.

1 Like

The “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” are always going to default to pretzel logic on this issue.

The USA is in the minority world-wide in having “Right to bare arms” in our constitution, that’s where the change would have to be, and that’s why it never gets done, no one person, politician, or organization will take this on. Sadly it leaves us with this catch 22 decade after decade, and likely never to be addressed.

2 Likes

It’s because I do understand this that I think fixing how humans make decisions addresses the real problem, rather than treating a coincidental symptom. Limiting the options of people who are conditioned towards compulsive aggression does not do anything to help them with their being compulsive and aggressive.

…bear.

8 Likes

Maybe YOU can’t control yourself and should look into that.

The ol’ ad-hominem disguised as concern: so classy!

The funny thing is that I am very good at impulse control when it matters but I accept that people vary and don’t assume that others are like me, and I don’t suggest that if they aren’t as perfect as me then there’s something wrong with them. Every one of the examples in my peanut butter, book and twinkie reply describe actual recent shooting events that, believe it or not - considering my apparent inability to control myself, don’t involve me!

If you cherry pick out the worst crime areas in the US - usually its the dense, gang related stuff that many other places don’t have

“If you cherry pick out all the worst debt in Greece the country’s economy is booming!”
^This is your argument?

Your suggestion to just ignore the really murdery parts of America (good, peaceful people live in these places too - do they just deserve it according to your narrative?) also completely ignores that America’s love of guns and locking people up is precisely the reason these places are so murdery now.

8 Likes