Guns

[Raphael]

In my opinion, if you make guns illegal, eventually (maybe in many many years) the guns that exist today are going to be fail. You take guns off the market today, and it will make guns more difficult for criminals to obtain. They may never be impossible to obtain, but they will likely be harder to obtain. I don't agree that that is a recipe for disaster, but we may just have to agree to disagree on that matter.

it will make some of the more high powered guns more difficult to obtain. as well as automatics, but I've seen a chap make a working AK47 out of a shovel. I'm reading another thread about a chap who is making a working 1/2 scale AR-15 from scratch and he (according to his own words) has very little experience as a machinist.
Zip guns are made from car antenna's.

As long as people have working models, they will be able to replicate them. All banning guns will do for the criminals is create a massive underground black market industry, and to quote Terry Pratchett

Like the paper I linked to seems to indicate, prohibition did work to varying degrees. Is it achievable in this day in age? I agree with you, it probably isn't. There's just too much strife on the matter. Both criminals and law abiding folk would rather die than give up on gun culture. That's why I think getting to the root of the issue is the only solution, if we really want a solution, but I'm convinced that most people in America don't want a solution. We're a nation that likes to argue about these things, but rarely do we act.

I don't think the problem is owning the guns, or even really the number of guns and the type of guns. The problem is that there is often not enough respect for what a gun can do.
Speaking as someone who is a complete outsider, I think what America has is too many people who own guns who don't know/care enough to use proper gun safety.

[KingsGambit]

How would you propose to address it?

I think groups like the NRA are already on the right track there... but some people just don't pay attention to such things. (These don't seem to be hardcore gun enthusiasts usually responsible.) As cold as it sounds, you just can't account for stupid... kind of like how try as you will, you'll never stop some people from driving drunk.

[Epoetker]

Um, I think it's about possible strategies to reduce the terrible toll of gun death, particularly accidental gun death.

Have a population moral and intelligent enough to handle them. The ones with the most deaths from guns or otherwise would be killing each other "accidentally" with knives, rocks, and fists in any case.

Again, for that, you may want to consult with your Puritan forefathers, and even the Cavaliers down south had a few well-tested methods.

[Paprika]

How would you propose to address it?

Publicised Darwin-style awards.

[firstfloor]

Marysville Pilchuck High School shooting:
"A gun is just a tool" - for solving teenage boy emotional difficulties apparently.
“[he] was angry at a girl who would not date him, and that the girl was one of the people shot"

Guns – manliness – authority over women (girls) – feelings of entitlement, jealousy, rejection, and ultimately concluding that if he can’t have the girl, then nobody can.

[Cow Poke]

Yeah, the great liberal social experiment is coming back to roost!

[Paprika]

Guns – manliness – authority over women (girls) – feelings of entitlement, jealousy, rejection, and ultimately concluding that if he can’t have the girl, then nobody can.

Yeah, the great liberal social experiment is coming back to roost!

Acid attacks as a reaction to being rejected in many Asian countries demonstrates that such revenge have little to do with guns or liberalism.

[Cow Poke]

Acid attacks as a reaction to being rejected in many Asian countries demonstrates that such revenge have little to do with guns or liberalism.

Yeah, this ain't Asia.

But good to see you again!

[firstfloor]

Yeah, the great liberal social experiment is coming back to roost!

How did you work that out? I’m wondering how that applies to Native Americans.

“Just a week earlier, Fryberg had been crowned prince of the school’s homecoming court—he was a community volunteer, student athlete, and all-around “good kid.””

http://www.newyorker.com/science/mar...h-gun-violence

[Paprika]

Yeah, this ain't Asia.

Actually, I have to correct my idiocy in the previous post:

Most, if not all of the acid attacks would not have happened if the social norm of arranged marriages had not been undermined in part or in whole in favour of the liberal Western ideas of courtship or dating.

So yes, it would appear accurate to blame liberalism.

But good to see you again!

Aww, you missed me!

[Cow Poke]

Actually, I have to correct my idiocy in the previous post:

Most, if not all of the acid attacks would not have happened if the social norm of arranged marriages had not been undermined in part or in whole in favour of the liberal Western ideas of courtship or dating.

So yes, it would appear accurate to blame liberalism.

The article FF cited is interesting, as it seems to label as "myths" the perception by many that these shootings and violence take place due to mental illness. I'm wondering if FF actually read the article she cited.

Aww, you missed me!

You can be a real pain in the butt (as can I ) but you often have thoughts worth considering. (I didn't say that)

[Christianbookworm]

Isn't FF a boy?

[Paprika]

The article FF cited is interesting, as it seems to label as "myths" the perception by many that these shootings and violence take place due to mental illness.

The theory that crime was caused by an imbalance in glandular production used to be rather popular. You're not left with much after original sin is rejected

[firstfloor]

Isn't FF a boy?

I think he means that he would prefer it if I was a girl. I like CP so much that I’m happy to go along with the fantasy.

[Cow Poke]

Isn't FF a boy?

ooops... um.... at the risk of sounding like a male chauvinist pig.... FF's "logic" often strikes me as.....

um... well.....


ok, go ahead and kick me in the stomach and get it over with.