10 reported killed in Oregon college shooting

God damn do I wish people could bankrupt those inhuman lizard people with civil suits rather than them sue cities that try to fix what they’ve enabled.

I see the trolling has already begun. I’m not surprised.

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“Freedom means living with risk.” Supposedly Snowden said something to that effect. We could live in a place where everyone is scanned on entry, papers checked, bags searched, etc. But I wouldn’t want to live there.

Right now all of us are using a device that could be used to traffic child porn, commit identity theft, commit fraud, stalk harass or threaten someone, plan a crime, hack information, or take down infrastructure. Should we lock down these dangerous machines because of the minority who misuse them?

But I say that every time. For a place that in general distrusts the government when it comes to personal freedoms (e.g. crypto technology, lock picking, drug use and it’s decriminalization, over reaching copy rights, NSA spying, government surveillance, unlawful search seizure and arrest by the police, TSA shenanigans etc), many are quick to condemn millions of people owning something because a tiny minority misuse it.

Someone bought “Oregon” and “shooting” as google adwords.

I will pick this apart for practicality later.

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There are so many guns in private hands in the US that any gun control measure will take generations to see a real benefit.

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Yes, that’s what seems so very fucked up to me. Apparently, someone is betting ad dollars that a common-enough response to this shooting will be “hey, let’s add more guns to situations like these!”.

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Uh - more likely someone wants information on shooting in Oregon. Like, stores and ranges and clubs in the area.

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Try with other states. Chances are that you get pretty similar ads.

So…you don’t live in the United States then?

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The difference is, the only thing you can do with a gun is hurt someone. It has literally no other purpose. We regulate the living hell out of hundreds if not thousands or even millions of other products because of their potential to do harm (try buying a truckload of fertilizer and see how many TLAs start finding you very interesting, or try buying legit Sudafed without a driver’s license). Why is it so completely impossible for people to understand that regulating something which can only do harm is not a completely absurd government conspiracy to take away all your freedoms and make you slaves to the state, but instead a completely rational response to the relative danger the damn things pose to everyone?

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Thanks for being so predictable!

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What they said.

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Well you are incorrect about that. 80-100 million gun owners in the US alone, and they find other things to use them for besides killing people.

It is ridiculous we have to do that.

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Compensating for their small members?

You mean the target shooting that they do in preparation for when they need to kill something with it?

“No, we don’t only kill things with these weapons! We also use them to practice killing things so we’ll be ready to kill when the time comes!”

Remember, I grew up shooting guns too. I was given my first firearm for my seventh birthday. I do agree that guns aren’t only useful to kill humans. You can kill all of God’s critters with a firearm.

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I actually paraphrased something there; I wonder if anyone will get it. But I agree, not all media consumers act like that.

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Well, except I can go get groceries in my car or drive to work.

You’re pretending guns have a greater purpose than causing harm to some living creature but, frankly, that isn’t going to pass the sniff test for anyone who isn’t already a gun advocate. Firearms were created to kill things. That’s why they exist. None of your other examples are things that were created to kill things as their purpose. The fact that I can kill you with a spoon doesn’t mean it is the spoon’s purpose. If someone kills someone with a gun, they can’t say the gun isn’t doing what it was intentionally designed to do.

I figured they are used to kill children and other people in public spaces based on what I’ve seen in the last few decades. Oh, and I guess brown people overseas or anyone in front of a cop too.

What’s the “mean time to school shooting” these days? 45 days?

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That’s the last straw. I think I’m going to instead take up artisanal baking-- grind my own wheat, the whole nine yards.

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See - that is disingenuous at best. I agree they can be misused and bad things done with them. Just like people can drink too much and beat up their spouse, crash their car, or black out. But if you look at the number of people using them for crime vs the number of people using them safely and lawfully, the numbers are overwhelming that they are not being used to harm people.

This bias that they are only used for bad is the same sort of exaggerated risks that lead to stranger danger, having to take off our shoes at the airport, and other things.

In the year 2015, there have been 19 school shootings and we’re 274 days into the year. So unfortunately, it’s worse than you thought…

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OH you really don’t want to grind your own wheat.

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If you see my post above (around #7) you will see that I can go get groceries with my gun. In fact, it was my plan for this weekend.

(Note, I do favor much more stringent gun control measures.)