You really are pathetic. How dare you say that. You crossed the line there dude. I sure as hell don't believe someone deserves to be hurt, killed, or treated badly because they are different than me. I believe in equality, and in people having a right to practice their own religion, or live their life how they want as long as they don't harm others with the choices they make. I believe nobody should be discriminated against simply because they are different. I can't stand bullies and mean people, and that is one of many reasons I didn't like Trump. I also believed Trump harmed people by his lies and misinformation about the dangers of Covid and not wearing masks or social distancing. I felt he put people in harm's way with divisive remarks that were pure incitement for haters to harm others. I don't own a gun, and don't believe violence solves anything. I don't believe for a minute more guns makes our country safer. That's such a bunch of BS. I never have and never will stand up for somebody belittling or harming others. It sickens me to see that. How dare you put me in any category with killers and racists. I made a comment. Yeah, politically incorrect, but that doesn't mean I am a racist against emotionally disturbed white guys or anyone else. I am an advocate for better care, help, and resources for mentally ill people, and have spoken about this before. You guys judging me must think you are perfect angels who have never in your life said or done anything remotely wrong. I am not the person you should be worrying about dude. Maybe you should focus your concerns on some of those people in the 55 or so hate groups in Texas, especially since hate and guns are a deadly duo, and Texas has a whole lot of both.
Do you think if it was legal to sell pipe bombs or heroin at a store like Academy that pipe bombings and kids getting hooked on heroin might increase?
Pipe bombs? Not sure but since they are so easy to make, maybe not. I think, in the countries that opium or heroin is legal there have been decreases in overall use. I have no data to support that though. Far too lazy.
What is the purpose of an assault rifle? If they’re no more effective than pistols then why all the resistance towards banning them?
He looks like someone who actively posts on Reddit - definitely should not have been let loose into society. We need to lock these losers up for longer periods during their 1 million incidients before the big one and stop babying everyone. As far as the assault rifle ban -- I agree, but it's not going to stop losers who want to kill in mass. We've seen them using bombs, cars, etc. when no access to assault rifles so once again, it's a mentality problem we have here in states and banning guns isn't the real discussion
but then why bring race up at all? Thats the real question and it applies to many many posts in this sub forum.
Damn, damn, damn... just heard about Boulder. These hideous situations make the need for the existence of a "greater power" more necessary. The victims' families deserve extra blessings and the perpetrator deserves extra punishment in some sort of way.
The "assault weapons ban" rhetoric is going to draw out high voter turnout for single issue voters. Expect us to lose the mid terms. In the grand scheme of things these type of bans don't generate much in reducing gun violence deaths.
Instead, we should stay with the "thoughts and prayers" approach since that has done so much to reduce gun violence deaths...
I ask that same question each and every time I fill out a form or application of any kind. What does it matter? Why can't we all just be Americans, short and sweet. Government shouldn't categorize everyone by ethnicity and skin color. If you treat everyone equally then it should never be an issue.
Im sure you already know the answer to a certain extent but yeah AR obsession is going to be hard to unwind. At this point it’s both a hobbyists favorite recreational activity (fun to shoot and can mod the hell out of it for looks and performance) and most importantly the culture on the right has radicalized the right to truly believe there is a war coming to their doorsteps any day now and they need the training and the weapons that any navy seal would have in order to save their family. They truly believe it’s necessary to own for protection. That’s how bad right wing propaganda has radicalized half the country. To what Tomtras point was though was to warm you up to the point of agreement that it’s actually a mental health problem in America. Which of course is factually nonsense and a talking point of the right to move off of guns as a topic of reform. Statistically there is no correlation between being in America and having more cases of mental health disease. Yes there are mental/personality/cultural factors that are unique to America but it has nothing to do with being a clinically mental illness. If you took you or me, removed exposure to fact based media, indulged in daily excess of right wing propaganda, read books like The Turned Diaries (book McVeigh was inspired by and many others on the right read)... then at their fingertips could acquire an arsenal of weapons, then could join unregulated communities on Facebook where we meet likeminded dudes who pump each other up, then had the most powerful person in the world telling me I was a patriot and a hero or have a cleric oversees telling me I’m going to get 1000 virgins in the afterlife... You might be then a pretty freaking dangerous person capable of mass murder. Banning AR’s and other assault rifles takes out a piece of that equation. It takes out the part of the equation where someone gets radicalized and then gets a tool to actually take action. Yes that person is still able to use anything as a weapon but instead of using your car, you have a weapon that is designed to kill in war. Roadblocks can be created for cars entering public walking zones. There are few roadblocks for an AR. America controls the tools we offer. That’s what people don’t seem to comprehend here. I don’t think you can safely take back the millions of AR’s already out there, but it’s ridiculous for it to say you can’t do anything about it and since they are already out there that means you and I need one too (NRA propaganda). Government also has the ability to better control disinformation that radicalizes the right and other extremist culture groups. Facebook could overnight change this dynamic and remove a major organizational tool. Saying there’s nothing we can do is nonsense. Overnight Zuckerberg could say the word and remove one of the biggest parts of the equation.
27000 people die a year in the US because of a lack of healthcare coverage. Yet you don't see those deaths sensationalized to the point where people want URGENT policy change. How many AR-15s are in circulation at the moment? There is no way Biden is going to do a gun confiscation so only future purchases won't be allowed. How many deaths will it actually prevent? Ask yourself. I'm all for universal background checks for private sales, insurance etc. But banning weapons is a cause that will rile up a large segment if this country in a bad way.
I pretty much universally hate your posts, but you nailed it here. Couldn't have said it better myself. Perfectly articulated.
I agree but at the same time I reject the notion that we should take into equation anything because “it will rile up the right.” At this point they get riled up because Biden owns a German Shepard. We just can’t really worry about that. I think it’s funny though that the poster above said he agrees with your post for a change, but I bet he doesn’t agree with what you actually want to happen though. I think he took your point to be that “oh there are already too many guns so there’s no point... look over there at that black guy kneeling!!” My guess is you probably do think there are things that can be done but just didn’t go into that level of detail. The point about a ban being the end all be all is taken. I’ll never suggest that it’s the first step and only hill to die on. If you go there first, I agree nothing else will get done in DC. Biden wants to use his time to actually get things done and going on the hill of spending 100% of our time arguing about a AR ban takes away the ability to get things like a public option for health insurance done.
Good post and agree with most of it. When people say that we shouldn't consider bans because there are other ways to kill people I would like to hear then why is it so important to keep these weapons? A frequent argument is that we need these people for self-defense or to fight tyranny. If we can kill people with pistols or cars then why not just use those for self-defense? It's people that kill people and not guns themselves but guns make it much easier to kill people.
It's been over 20 years since Columbine, and in the last 4 years Trump has stirred up a whole new breed of radical gun toting haters. The problem can't be ignored another 20 years. I do agree that affordable healthcare is the #1 issue in this country, but Biden also can't put gun reform on the back burner while in office.
I agree there is a practical argument regarding how many of these weapons are out there. My main argument though is the idea that somehow these aren't as lethal as pistols or automobiles. I also agree that an assault weapon ban along the previous ban won't work because it was largely based on appearance than function. Any ban should address that. That said a ban on future sales won't address all of these weapons out there but it will make sure that there aren't more out there. At this point I would say a confiscation program will be disastrous but I don't see much point to just continuing to add more of these weapons into public circulation through new weapons.
I don't see a practical use for AR-15s as well. I also agree that pandering to conservatives doesn't work mainly because many of their positions are simply to "trigger the libtards". However there are certain issues that conservatives in this country are far more adement about where they aren't speaking from bad faith just to own the "libs". Banning weapons is one of them. I don't think Biden would ever go as far as gun confiscations, but to me, that would be the spark that would legitimately start armed insurrection throughout the country and cause a lot more deaths than the current rate AR-15s cause on society. The pushback to banning these weapons with how a large segment if this country has turned "doomsday prepper" psychotic is just going to cause more violence than the problem banning these weapons would attempt to solve. I'm sure you can find polls where roughly 60+% of the nation would be fine banning these weapons but there is merit to how adement the 35-40% are against it. The people against it are far more adamenet and sensetiive to these ban suggestions than the people for it. Their entire poltical commentary centers only on gun politics. That's the part I'm not sure many here understand. Simply a majority beliving it's okay to ban them isn't enough due to how strongly the people against it are against it. Maybe I'm jaded because I've been around these people for a long time and have an inflated perception of how many of these people who are ADEMENTLY against any type of weapons bans exist but I'm afraid what might happen if Biden successfully does a weapons ban. I speak to these people and many of them after conserving are open to ideas like M4A and increasing the min wage etc but they will never vote for a person with (D) infront of their name because of their positions on firearms.
I fully agree a confiscation program might not lead to civil war but it will be horrendously bloody. Not to mention might not be Constitutional. Like most problems facing this country there is no easy solution, nothing that can work quickly, and definitely nothing that will prevent all mass killings. What we need is steps that gradually reduce the amount of firearms and the easy availability to them. Universal background checks and updating databases to track firearms including who owns them are no brainers. We should next look at using the tax power on both weapons and ammunition to make it more expensive and licensing and insurance. Ultimately though it will take a change in culture. Until we get to the point that we as a society stop deciding that we need so many weapons we're not going to see any substantial change.
