[quote=“Kimmo, post:55, topic:14177”]
A tiny fraction of the world’s nuclear stockpiles has been used to kill people. [/quote]
Well it is hard for me to condemn nuclear weapons. They have literally saved millions of lives with MAD replacing conventional warfare. No country who has nuclear weapons has been attacked by another country with nuclear weapons. The “super powers” haven’t had a direct conflict since WWII. Sure there have been wars by proxy, but it’s nothing compared to the destruction a full scale conventional war would cause.
I think that’s the point I’m making. In the US most normal everyday people never point a gun at another person in their lives. There is gun violence, which is glorified by movies and the like, but they vast majority aren’t used to kill anything, unless you believe paper targets have a soul.
In the US, car accidents kill about 35,000 people every year. I won’t dispute your point, but I will say that’s a lot of dead people and their families to whom it was a big deal.
Sure, but we barely bat an eyelid over it, collectively… aside from the occasional bit of hand-wringing, there haven’t been too many blips on that score since Nader IIRC - since whom, there’s been constant improvement AFAIK.
And that reenforces my point. Cars we feel familiar with, encounter everyday, and feel safe around them. We find them an acceptable risk.
Guns kill about as many people, but there is disproportionate amount of fear of them, partly because most people’s only experience is what they see in movies (shooting people) and on the local news (shooting people). They aren’t exposed to the millions of guns fired at targets that day that hurt no one.
Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were in Oz. The viewpoint you explained to us would not be in any way unusual for someone living in a wealthy suburb, family compound or gated community in the USA. We have multiple disconnected subcultures here, and most people don’t make friends or spend significant amounts of time outside their cultural bubbles. I like to think I’m a little unusual in that regard, for an American.
I can’t walk into a bar, or a subway station, or a school or whatever with a car in my pocket. You can generally let your guard down against cars when you’re not on the street.
It was very unexpected. We discovered it while taking our children (at the time, a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old) for a (wobbly, giggly) walk down to the park. I downplayed it as hard as I could to my wife, and convinced her it was just local kids trying to put a scare into the adults (hopefully, that is exactly what it was!). But we were the only mixed race family in the neighborhood, so I wasn’t really as sure as I pretended. There are violent skinheads in the city 12 miles north of us (which, when I was a child, was occupied by the National Guard for two years to put down race riots). It’s pretty weird to have “the conversation” with a four-year-old.
Sort of funny side effect. There was an elderly couple living a few doors up from us. The old man was a WWII infantry veteran. When swastikas showed up in the neighborhood he was pissed. He had the city down there with sandblasters and hoses and new signs in no time, and was more than ready to take on some racist punks. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” as they say.
Punk ain’t no religious cult
Punk means thinking for yourself
You ain’t hardcore cos you spike your hair
When a jock still lives inside your head
Nazi punks
Nazi punks
Nazi punks-Fuck Off!
Nazi punks
Nazi punks
Nazi punks-Fuck Off!
If you’ve come to fight, get outa here
You ain’t no better than the bouncers
We ain’t trying to be police
When you ape the cops it ain’t anarchy
[Repeat chorus]
Ten guys jump one, what a man
You fight each other, the police state wins
Stab your backs when you trash our halls
Trash a bank if you’ve got real balls
You still think swastikas look cool
The real nazis run your schools
They’re coaches, businessmen and cops
In a real fourth reich you’ll be the first to go
[Repeat chorus]
You’ll be the first to go
You’ll be the first to go
You’ll be the first to go
Unless you think
Dude, fucking teach me how to debate. Your arguments simultaneously show both your opinion AND respect for the person you are communicating with. If only all humans could socially interact like you it wouldn’t matter in the first place if we had guns or not because everyone could just talk their way through shit. But in all seriousness you have given me a new perspective on legalization, decriminalization, and criminalization in general. I wouldn’t say that you have changed my opinion as a whole on how guns should be regulated but you have made me question it and look at it more in depth than I ever did before, instead of just accepting it as fact I took some time to look at from a different perspective, and while I still hold onto it as a policy I believe in you have given me much greater respect for anyone with a diverging opinion. You have no idea how amazingly grateful to you I am.
-Thank you
You’re very welcome.