(s)Maybe open firearm carry should be mandatory for everyone so we can avoid these accidents.(/s)
(Edit, added sarcasm tags)
You’re right. If everyone had guns, then those wouldn’t be called accidents.
Also, I’m pretty sure the quickest way to get Republicans behind gun control is to encourage black people to open carry guns.
We?
In so many of these situations, only one party is making a fatal mistake. You want that I should take precautions, including a voluntary abrogation of my rights, to help an insufficiently trained para-professional not murder me in the name of my freedom and safety?
Oh, wait, I’m white. Nevermind. This doesn’t affect me, I don’t need to take it seriously. /s.
That reminds me, someone once told me that the first modern gun control laws were to forbid arms to newly freed blacks after the US Civil War. Wouldn’t surprise me.
13 things police have mistaken for guns when carried by black people
(Another post title in need of fixing.)
Except (in these 13 examples) not all of the victims are black.
Hurr derrr, because all Republicans and pro-gunners are racists. Never mind many of the “sensible” gun laws, like having the Sheriff sign off on a hand gun permit still around in some states, is a relic of Jim Crow laws. But hey you get painting done faster with wide brushes and broad strokes.
To the original issue, I really think it’s an issue of priming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)
I think too many people expect to see something and in fleeting moments something, anything can look like what they were expecting and cause a reaction. The problem with this sort of thing is it is how our brains work. I don’t know how you can combat it. But I’m not a psychologist so maybe there is a way they could prime themselves in a positive way.
Right. So we can have more shootings and more deaths. Giving guns to those who have no training in firearm use (and quite possibly no care for it) would just end badly.
Also, just a few weeks ago, posted here, was a Stanford study about how guns increase crime. http://boingboing.net/2014/11/18/study-shows-guns-promote-more.html
A more nuanced way of putting it would be: “the current incarnation of the Republican party appeals to racists”. I am making a statement about hypocrisy, rather than about gun control. I honestly don’t care what Republicans or anyone else thinks about guns.
It’s hard to argue against the idea that Republicans suddenly become pro-gun-control when black people start carrying guns because that’s exactly what’s happened, historically speaking. See, for example, the Black Panthers and the Mulford Act. The Republican party and the NRA suddenly flipped positions and started advocating for gun control - the NRA actually went so far as to write national pro-gun-control legislation (which shouldn’t be surprising since it was and is largely made up of and controlled by Southern, white conservatives).
5 out of the 13 objects look exactly like GUNS. How the hell are cops supposed to know whether a AK-47 toy replica is real or not? Would YOU take that risk?
I’ve found that logic and evidence are mostly unwelcome in gun debates, so I will proceed to my own deeply held conviction with no supporting evidence whatsoever.
Thorough training in the proper use of weapons should be mandatory in any polity that claims to have a public education system.
Understanding weapons is not going to harm you, and could easily make the difference between life and death in a police encounter.
Have you seen what a stale slice of pizza can do to a man?! How the hell are cops supposed to know whether the crust is dry of not? Would YOU take that risk?
Sure. Would and have. I’ve had a whole crew of large teenagers with realistic airsofts come up on me suddenly without feeling any need to even draw, much less fire. But never mind that, because I’m not a cop, and hopefully neither are you. It’s not really relevant how you or I would react or what we can recognize.
I submit that if a policeman can’t tell the difference between toy guns and real ones, with far more accuracy than a regular person such as yourself, s/he is in the wrong line of work. It’s pretty obviously a skill required to do the job properly, isn’t it? Arguing that police have no obligation to recognize commonly available toys just because regular people don’t is akin to arguing that surgeons don’t need to be able to use scalpels better than anyone else. The communities the police supposedly serve would like the police to have higher levels of calm and judgement, just as you would like your surgeon to be able to operate without unnecessarily killing people. It’s their job. Police are supposed to prevent, resolve or obviate confrontations, not escalate them due to mistaken fears.
Yes, and continue the story. The NRA backed not only the NFA of 34 but the Gun Control act of 68. Then in the 70s there was a political shift and a take over of who was in power.
Since then and especially now they have been opposed of most proposed legislation. They don’t have any caveat to limit a certain group’s rights. It’s for everyone. Some of the most recent, high profile cases were filed by black men in DC and Chicago. While they are in support of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and felons, they know that pretty much all the laws people propose fail to do that.
To paint the current NRA as racist is either ignorant of their current policies, or stereotyping gun owners.
Maybe, Maybe not. I don’t look forward to the massive cultural change which is implicit in advocating “open carry.”
You know who else supported Gun Control? Hitler!
Isn’t their current prez the one who calls the Civil War “the war of Northern aggression”?
(Please don’t point that .44 at me. I’m just asking questions! 
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