"“You know what, maybe we should not be selling and distributing
military-style assault weapons in this country, weapons designed just to
kill people?”
Hey Bernie, have your people get you some FBI stats. Rifles (including “assault weapons”) are very rarely used in crime. At least if you want after hand guns I could concede you are looking at control logically.
Also, they don’t have some prophetic fate. Some destiny to fulfill. Most of them made in the US never harm anyone and are used for hunting (no, you don’t use all the bullets) as well as target shooting, long range competition, and action shooting such as the 3-Gun and Action Rifle.
Semi-auto magazine fed rifles are one of the best selling styles of rifles right now. I think the mix of their popularity in video games and the fact the feds temporarily banned them are two reasons the paradigm shifted from “What do you need THAT for?” To “What do you mean you only have one?”
Of course. The huge increase in the style of weapons least suited for personal protection or hunting, but most suited to paranoid fantasising about insurrection, is because of video games.
Nothing to do with the election of the first black president.
OTOH, even if it were the video games, it does suggest that they’re selling to folks who think of guns primarily as toys. In my neighbourhood, guns are tools: serious, adult tools, best kept in the hands of serious adults,
I like to think of myself as a serious adult, but I haven’t yet learned how to use these tools. What are they for, exactly?
Around here? Euthanasing farm animals, mostly.
To be clear, I am not blaming video games. I think things like COD did help spark some interest with their realistic depictions of operations. And so someone wanting to get into shooting might start with what they sorta know. The big cause for the shift I think was the AWB. I think that single-handedly turned more people onto the idea of ownership more than anything else. If the gov. doesn’t want you to have, it has to be awesome (which is true with other stuff like drugs, alcohol, Nissan Skylines, privacy, etc).
The jump in gun sales is more in response to a fear in a future ban that it has to do with any one man.
As for guns being serious tools - sure they are. But they are used for formal and informal competition and plinking which is fun. Having something site in a safe is no fun. Using it is.
But your tone makes me want to stress the point that I assume in your mind you have an idea as to what a “serious” tool should be. That X type guns are toys or bad, and Y type are ok. That sort of thinking is flawed. (If you don’t think this, good for you, but plenty of people do.) Any gun can be misused. Any gun type can be demonized. Your bolt action deer rifle has the same capabilities as the sniper rifles used by the Army and Marines for decades. Their lineage can directly be traced to the military guns before it. Shot guns are great for bird hunting or clay pigeons, but throwing buck shot into them makes them lethatl. And that $10,000 Benellli can go from an heirloom to a sawed off that fits under a coat in one night with a hack saw.
Ah jeez, not this shit again.
MUST this thread, about an interview of Bernie Sanders by Spike Lee, devolve into yet another fucking tedious gun debate?
I mean really, Mr. 44, what’s up with you already this morning? Didn’t get any last night?
the way Spike and Bernie speak to one another sounds the way my friends and family speak to one another. Different accents, maybe, but the style of the dialog. I cannot think of another politician, even ones that I think are OK, who does this, not in public where I can hear them. The way other politicians speak sounds like an act. Which is another way to say “ploy.”
Maybe not the most important metric to judge a candidate. But if he’s not truly sincere, then Bernie’s the finest actor in history.
I agree.
Can someone put the gun stuff into a separate thread?
Well out of “Lee and Sanders talked frankly about race, Trump, trade, labor, and the Sanders campaign’s path to the presidency. Sanders talked about his views on guns…” Only one topic BB chose to highlight.
Hey - Trump is still a clown, have we talked about that enough?
Huh - just had this pop up on my FB feed. The numbers seem really large, both cut and raise wise. Not sure how reliable their estimates are, but try it out I guess. But I WAS curious to see how Bernie planned to pay for his plans, so I guess he has given enough details for an estimate.
Single issue voter?
Clearly, though serious, you’re not in the right neighbourhood.
So how come Mr Sanders hasn’t seen all of Mr Lee’s œuvres?
Sanders isn’t about actual facts anyway
Mod note: Stay on topic
off-topic, I know - but I got curious and there are a gazillion of stay-on-topic images out there.
a few of my favourites are
Please deposit these in the <a href=“https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/a-thread-for-png-jpg-and-that-kind-of-riffraff/67513/116"target=”_blank">rif-raff bank.
Possibly forever?
