Well by my nature, I am somewhat a pacifist. I will defend myself but I will do it by other means than using a gun.
it was easy for you to buy a gun. as far as i know, you haven't used it to kill someone. great. it was equally easy for this guy to buy a gun. he killed 32 people with it. not great. sorry if it restricts your liberties, but i'm not all that concerned with that in the face of gun violence. i'm for making it more difficult, if not impossible, for either of you to buy guns.
And I hope to never be in that situation either Manny, but if I am, I like to think I will do what is neccessary to protect life, even if it means taking his.
I posted this in the ammo thread, but I think it applies here- We shouldn't legislate based on anomalies. Gun legislation is best directed towards reducing the day to day gun violence which is far far greater than these periodic killing sprees, but gets 1/1000th the attention. As for curbing extremely high level of gun violence in the US, I certainly don't have the answer, but I have a few thoughts. I do think gun ownership helps serve as a check on authoritarian government. I don't want government to have a monopoly on weapons. People think freedoms and rights come without costs. If we suspended the right of habeas corpus it could prevent a terrorist attack, but I don't want to live in a country that allows the government to lock up people without a system for redress. The right to own guns also comes with a cost- higher levels of gun violence. Wingnuts that pee their pants at the thought of a terrorist attack and are ready to throw the Bill of Rights under the bus (except for the 2nd amendment), for a little more security, should be hooted out of the public square. Freedom is not for wussies. If we want to keep the right to bear arms, but want to to reduce gun violence, we should look to societies and models that have been effective at balancing these two conflicting goals. From what I know, it seems that Boston was successful at drastically reducing their homicide rate by focusing heavily on a relatively small group of people who were responsible for most of the gun violence in the city. I'm all for more severe penalties for illegal posession of a firearm and for any crime comitted while in posession of a firearm. Finally, I think we should look to Canada. Socially, Canada is about as close a model of the US as we're going to get. Albeit, with a much smaller population. They have a relatively high degree of gun ownership, yet their homicide rate is a fraction of that in the US. Why is that? I suspect it is a complicated answer that has a lot more to do with a more robust social welfare system and a much smaller percentage of people living desperate lives filled with anxiety. And less to do with the % of the population that owns guns.
ok...great..help me out. that's why i'm asking. i know if a guy threatens to do something, counselors/lawyers/teachers/doctors etc have a DUTY to make it known. but if a guy is just writing some scary stories and has an expectation of confidentiality, those don't become public records which are shared with law enforcement.
Both are low compared to what? Car accidents, cancer ? So ... because there are other causes of death, it's ok to be shot also?
Why not attack violence at its core? Without a gun this guy was still prone to violence. Why not push efforts of community and social interaction?
i'd be for that, too. i don't seem them as mutually exclusive. in the words of eddie izzard: "they say guns don't kill people. that people kill people. yeah, but don't you think the guns helped an awful lot?"
Autos are extremely high but we don;t ban them because of their usefulness. They are the number 1 cause of accidental deaths around 50% i think. guns are .3% They have a usefulness also. It doesn;t make it better for the dead people but neither does driving your own car to work instead of a subway.
But helping to curb violence would push our society forward faster and no one has a problem with it. It would result in less infighting and more support.
i'm just thinking that cars are more useful than guns. i live just fine without a gun. i'd struggle a bit without my car. insert something about our entire economy being dependent on mobility, too.
Well you can rest easy. I don't plan on getting a gun anytime soon and the fear of me going Tron on people here should be relieved and ease people's minds. And honestly, dude, the question I asked you is probably one you have been asked before. You don't need to take it so personal. I mean with all the gun violence in this country, you should probably expect people to ask you this. But the difference between you and me, Falcons, is that if there is something out there that I could use - regardless of what weapon is, I will choose not to use it or even buy it. Because I don't want to put myself in the position that I might have ended someone's life where you look at it as a way of protecting yourself. But I feel you can protect yourself in other ways than having a gun on you (see most of Sishir Chang's posts in this thread). If protecting yourself in that way is not an option and you feel that you live in an area where violence and crime are problems, move to a place where that is not a problem.
How much time do you think the average Americans spend with their cars per day? How much time does the average Americans spend with their guns?
great..how do we get started? i'm all for working towards building a culture where people truly respect human life....where they don't see it as a commodity.
Manny, if the solution were that easy, the antis could all move to the UK and Australia. As for the question, yes, I did take it personal for two reasons. 1. It was completely untrue. 2. It actually was the 1st time someone has asked me that question.
Exactly and factor in that the percentage of people who own a car is a lot higher than those that own a gun and it is no surprise to me, that accidental deaths are greater in cars than in guns which means that once again, using cars in this argument is a flawed one.
Hmmm... 7:30-8:00...ankle strap/carrying in car. 8:00-4:15...at work locked in car safe 4:15-9:00--ankle strap bed time--wake--gun stored 8 feet high next to bed.
