But doesn’t this produce a chilling effect, akin to censorship, on your right to bear arms?
I love this strawman “I hate the Teabaggers because they have values and I’m into Moral Relativism.” nice… I think you have no clue what the “other side” thinks and feels about the issues you are posting about. In other words pot meet kettle…
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- In Canada it’s not actually considered a “right,” more of a “privilege.”
- If you’re going to shoot another human being it should only be because the alternative is something much worse than facing a lot of drawn-out legal procedures. I have no problem with creating a “chilling effect” on citizens shooting each other. If anything, I’d like to extend that “chilling effect” to law enforcement.
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Statistically, the most deadly spree-killers have used automobiles, improvised explosives, and arson (in roughly that order).
As I recall, bOINGbOING has a strict ‘sun’s out, guns out’ policy
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Are you saying we shouldn’t ban cars as well? I’m pretty sure all these fellow geniuses like me want to ban cars and knives and not just guns. They are really smart, not idiots being told what causes to support in order to feel good but in reality just be whiners. Long live gun control!
Yeah, those nuts. Stupid idiots doing stuff I don’t like. I think they should just be allowed to do what I want.
Was that a Double, or a Triple Lindy?
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The stats you posted say otherwise, considering “illegal sources” is at 40%. Granted “from family/friends” doesn’t give exact stats for “stolen,” presumably they fit in to the “Other” category, 8.5-11%. And it’s possible this is just sloppy wording, that buying/borrowing guns from family/friends in these various ways is illegal (probably varies state by state, so obviously not all of them), but because there are people in this thread who complain that mandatory universal background checks are so onerous on those who sell or lend to family/friends, I’ll put it in the category of “things people think should be completely legal if they aren’t already.” Which leaves it roughly 50/50 illegal/legal split. So you’re right that on these stats, “gun show loophole” is relatively minor. The real loophole is all those people who have guns lying around that criminals are buying, borrowing, or stealing from.
However, “the street” doesn’t just grow guns off a gun tree in the hood and sell them to passersby (at least, not yet, though the day is coming). The fact that it’s so easy to buy guns in other ways has to have an impact on the ease in selling guns illegal to people who shouldn’t have it…a person who can legally purchase them can “privately sell” it to somebody who then sells it to somebody else. I suspect that this is not the majority of illegal sales (which may well involve large scale smuggling) but if your laws are such where an illegal seller can, unless they’re actually caught in the act of an illegal sale, claim the guns are legal and theirs and they just happen to be taking them out for a drive as is their legal right, what business is it of yours, then whether criminals get their guns from legal or illegal sources is less important than how easy it is to get a gun, period.
Thought experiment / Academic argument:
Imagine yourself in a crowded room with a Mister Crazypants screaming bloody murder. Would you prefer he was flailing (A) A gun. (B) A knife.
Answers on a postcard please c/o BB.
Please note; prizes will not be available as Mikethebard scooped them all.
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Doesn’t matter, because lack of a gun will NOT stop a determined good guy from taking down a psychopath with a gun. Determination is ALL THAT MATTERS, apparently.
(Also, according to Batman, criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot, so the good guys have to have more determination anyway)
Wrong answer.
The correct answer is (B) A Knife.
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I think Angry Pete is suggesting a thought experiment. Suppose in the interests of racial equality and harmony, an equal number of our high-melanin brothers were to strut the streets carrying assault rifles? Would this be welcomed? I don’t think we actually need the poor, brave people to do it to know how it would end.
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Actually, it does, because your comments have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual comic in question, and show that you don’t understand what’s being portrayed, nor do you understand the laws that you’re posting opinions about.
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“Customers carrying lawnmowers, power tools and firearms will be asked to leave.”
Actually, I like that. Remind people that just because you can own a dangerous device doesn’t mean we have to put up with you flaunting it.
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If they tasted better why did they stop making them?
oreo had better marketing, and they eventually bought them out.
Batman says, and I quote, “no guns.”
Well, I’d need more information about both Mr. Crazypants and the crowd for that thought experiment.
If Mr. Crazypants has decent knife skills, and it’s a boy band concert where screaming is de rigeur, then I’d rather he have a gun. I am 100% serious, because I could take down easily ten times as many people in such a setting with a reasonably good knife. I can flail pretty accurately. They simply would not realize anyone was being harmed until it started getting hard to move for all the bodies on the ground, and knives don’t run out of ammo. With a gun, everyone would hear the shots and react right away.
If MC Pants is in a crowded prison yard or at a political fund-raiser, though, and has no hand-to-hand experience, I’d much rather he have a knife. The screaming will draw attention & reaction very quickly and there will be no lack of armed bullies standing by itching to do something about it.
I’m sure other scenarios exist, you know? As in the gun argument itself, there are more than two possible viewpoints, despite the unwillingness of the loudest two groups to acknowledge this.
I realized all this because my first attempt at the thought experiment gave me scenario number #1, possibly because the only times I have been in such venues it made me feel pretty crazy-pants. The hazards of raising female children…
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