Yes. Because EVERYTHING boils down to racism. o_0
Ignoring your insane abuse of debate terms / logical flaws,
i never advocated for unfettered access to fire arms for all.
nothing wrong with registering fire arms and looking for people to be licensed for safe use.
i see no problem with that. the issue i specifically was implying an american reverance for is the pursuit of happiness and freedom in the face of risk. We believe in giving people a chance to enjoy life, even if there are risks.
Thatâs being an american.
âIf thereâs just one life we can save, we have an obligation to tryâ was the line. That took me 10 seconds of googling to find.
And notice itâs not âwe will save one lifeâ, itâs âifâ. So it doesnât matter if it hasnât happened yet, only that it might happen in the future.
The government has made it clear that there are terrorists all over the place in the homeland, otherwise, why collect all that facebook data? Surely theyâre doing it to stop terrorists, right?
2 Likes
I donât think this delves deep enough into the human psyche â Iâd suspect that the reason so many love their guns is often much more Freudian.
Sometimes a rifle is just a rifle.
Every reason is freudian to a freudian.
8 Likes
This is also false. The US in not a particularity violent country, except when it comes to guns. The US has a similar or even slightly lower assault rate to the UK or Australia. We also have similar non-gun murder rates (knifes, blunt objects, strangling, poisoning, etc.).
On the other hand, we have a murder rate that is 4 to 5 times higher than the UK or Australia and essentially all of the difference is due to gun killings. The reason is that plentiful guns make it easy to kill. The presence of a gun can change any drunken argument into a murder. The US doesnât have an unusual number of drunken arguments but it has an unusual number of guns.
4 Likes
Not sure I actually like guns per se they are a tool and one I donât see the need for in my life. They are interesting in an engineering and historical way to me. Some of the fancy show piece firearms are pretty neat as works of art. But even growing up in one of the murder capitals of 'merica I never felt the need for one as self defense even when I would hang out with friends who lived in parts of the city where I stood out like a bright pasty white polka dot so I find it hard to wrap my head around the mentality of the frothing at the mouth spokes people for the NRA and such.
I think a better article would have been âWhy do so many Americans Fear Guns?â
I think you can thank Hollywood for that one. If a personâs only exposure to firearms is what they see on TV and the movies, they will come to associate guns with âthe bad guysâ. From assassins, to gang members, to bank robbers - all these people are using guns for evil (often times in unrealistic ways and with unobtainable hardware). These fears are confirmed with things such as sensational mass shootings and the violence in Chicago.
What they donât see is what 99% of guns are actually used for. They donât see the informal plinking at cans, shooting at bulls eye targets, shooting at steel plate, college competitions, 3-gun competitions, western shooting, trap and skeet shooting, scenario games, bowling pin matches, exhibition shooting, Olympic competition, hunting, and life saving brandishing or use in self defense.
No - guns are âbadâ. People who use them are âbadâ people with small penises.
I think it boils down to fear of the unknown and being bombarded by misinformation. The fact is when you look at the shear number of guns and gun owners out there, you can see an extremely small amount are being used for âbadâ things. Yet people are over come by irrational fear or biases. Itâs a tactic people have been using forever to demonize what ever thing they donât like - from premarital sex, to drugs and alcohol.
4 Likes
If you remove the illegal guns from the statistics, the US has one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the world. Demonizing all gun owners because of the people that donât obey gun laws to begin with is useless and counterproductive to overall crime rates.
There are enough laws on the books to prosecute illegal gun owners. Piling more on top of those will make zero difference to those already in violation.
I quoted Freud, so lets try EinsteinâŚ
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
2 Likes
âNothing wrong with registering fire arms and looking for people to be licensed for safe use.â
Well I am glad we agree on that.
The gun debate usually breaks down on lines between âI think it would be a good idea to close the glaring loop holes in the background check processâ and âany restriction on gun ownership means that the government is going to round up all guns and herd us into FEMA campsâ. This is not a symmetric debate. If you start by asking questions about âoutlawing gun ownershipâ then you sure sound like you are in the second camp rather than the first camp.
I for my part have enjoyed shooting for years. I donât think guns are going away in America and I wouldnât want them to. I agree that there is an acceptable level of risk. That being said, I think a car and driver type licensing approach to guns would be consistent with both personal freedom and reduced overall risk.
3 Likes
I call BS. Cite your sources. The typical murder in the US is a domestic argument gone wrong with a legally purchased gun not a gang land killing with an illegally purchased gun.
[edited for clarity]
2 Likes
Oh, I think you can thank the gun culture for it as well. Go to the local magazine rack and pick up a copy of Guns and Ammo or any of the dozen others like it sitting there. Invariably it is going to have some ultra tricked out gun on the cover. And mind you GnA is one of the tame mags out there, they tend to show only âGood Guyâ guns. The fetishization of guns by the hobbyists is creating fear as well, on purpose. Why own a Winchester .223 bolt action with a five round built in magazine when you can own the ZOMG! AR-15000001 with integrated everything and wine rack!. Which one gets shown off and by whom?
I agree that 99% of what guns get used for is a non issue. And you are 100% right here as well. But donât give the loud mouths in the room spreading misinformation a pass because they happen to like guns either.
Itâs funny how neither side knows what do to about a post that is reasonable, measured, not inflammatory, and somewhat centrist.
Maybe we do have the politicians we deserve. 
Your post is a microcosm of this whole debate. You accuse your opponent of lacking evidence, then make your own opposing assertion with 0 substantiation.
Hereâs a source:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded/expanded-homicide-data
Dig in and tell us if your assertion holds up.
1 Like
Let me get this straight: you just cited a story in which a thief was accidentally killed by the AR-15 rifle he stole as an example of such weapons keeping civilians safe?
OK, fine. I suppose we should legalize grenades too, because a bad guy might take one and accidentally off himself with it.
2 Likes
Cite your source, please.
1 Like
Because government, and only government, knows how to use grenades in the right and just manner.
You Americans are so cute with your gun arguments. Not that we donât have them here, but they donât get quite so far into the poles.
I have no issue with a properly licensed and reasonably regulated gun system comparable to vehicle licensing. But, like driving should be (but isnât), if you hurt someone through negligence or malice, you lost that privilege for life.
One minor point in response to the humorously frequent mention by people that guns are a way to protect yourself from bears in the WILD PLACES. Horseshit. Iâve worked in the woods for decades, and the simple fact is bears do NOT ambush people, ever. In almost every encounter Iâve had (hundreds), me and the bear made haste in opposite directions. I have never carried a gun while working in the woods, and I have never wished I had one. Abandon the idea that we need guns to protect ourselves from bears as a justification for gun ownership.
To be honest, the thought that there are a bunch of people packing heat in the back country who do not understand bears and are prone to start blazing away feels much more dangerous that running into a bear.
There is no easy answer to gun debates. I have given up on them in general. I donât trust our governments anymore, but I also have serious doubts that a few citizens with guns will stand a chance against well trained and highly powered troops. In the event of state repression, I suppose they will make a nice distraction while the rest of us try to figure out how to hack the oppressive system in some way. More likely the hardcore militias and gun types will make a convenient excuse for eliminating the last vestiges of our rights. There may not be a database of all the guns, but local enforcement types usually know where to look if they want to.
3 Likes
