Guns

[Psychic Missile]

Before any sort of political solution is considered, politicians need to stop taking orders from the NRA.

[Raphael]

Before any sort of political solution is considered, politicians need to stop taking orders from the NRA.

And you could just as easily say that before any sort of political solution is considered, politicians need to stop taking orders from the anti-gun nutters.

The problem is not the NRA or the anti-gun nutters.

[pancreasman]

The mass hysterics of people against vehicles wouldn't see it that way though. The point I was making is that any facts you pout fourth as an argument against guns can be debunked by counter facts. Your argument is subjective and based on pure emotion (I say that because I've heard the arguments exhaustively from both sides).

I hope you see I wasn't actually making an argument. So, you don't think the US has a problem with gun death?

[seanD]

I hope you see I wasn't actually making an argument. So, you don't think the US has a problem with gun death?

Sure it does, but it's part of an overall violent crime problem. The problem is crime not guns. Gun control won't stop overall crime as evidenced in places that have strict gun control, and in many cases, more guns actually equate to less crime.

[pancreasman]

Sure it does, but it's part of an overall violent crime problem. The problem is crime not guns. Gun control won't stop overall crime as evidenced in places that have strict gun control, and in many cases, more guns actually equate to less crime.

I'm not saying it will. The US has one of the highest rates of incarceration per capita of any Western nation. Are you guys plagued with more violent criminals than us? What's your prescription for a way forward?

[firstfloor]

Many cultures all around the world, teach kids about guns and other weapons at a very young age by giving, especially boys, toy weapons or violent computer games. Kids are taught that the use of weapons and violence is pleasurable and there are no adverse consequences because people do not actually die when they are shot by a toy and dead computer game characters can be revived by a reset button. The immediate cause is accidental substitution of a weapon for a toy. If you keep weapons in the home this sort of accidental substitution is always a possibility.

The poor kid was just doing what he was taught to do.

[Kristian Joensen]

Can you just imagine the mass hysteria over vehicles if MSM broadcasted each and every vehicular death in the US each day.

Are you contending that each and every gun death gets reported by the MSM?

[seanD]

I'm not saying it will. The US has one of the highest rates of incarceration per capita of any Western nation. Are you guys plagued with more violent criminals than us? What's your prescription for a way forward?

The prison system is big money in the US. The prison system problem is a separate issue.

[Cow Poke]

Quite true. But cars are designed to be used for lots of things and killing people is a tragic unintended consequence. I'm not sure you can say the same about handguns.

I keep a .22 loaded with rat shot to kill snakes around the barn, and a .357 for killing feral hogs and coyotes.

[Bill the Cat]

I've never been to Montana but I would guess that with such wide ownership, there is more of a culture of gun safety (unlike, say, the OP)?

If you went, wouldn't you double the population?

[Cow Poke]

With the explosion of gun sales in the US (at least in part over concern that guns will be outlawed or heavily regulated) wouldn't you expect a correlating increase in gun violence?

Yet, Over the past 20 years, gun sales have increased exponentially, but homicides with firearms are down almost 40 percent during that time (nearly 50% since 1993) and “other crimes with firearms” are down nearly 70 percent.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/...ublic-unaware/

[Bill the Cat]

A gun is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Cow Poke]

I don't think it's helpful to compare gun deaths in the US with gun deaths in other countries.

Opposing studies cite the same statistics, but for different reasons. And "gun ownership" is defined differently. For example, in Norway, military aged men are required to keep guns in their homes, but the guns are owned by the government. One study will cite this as a much lower incidence of gun ownership per capita, yet there are more guns in homes than many other countries - but those guns don't count because they're owned by the government. On the OTHER other hand, another study seems to accept the premise that there are more guns in Norway but lower gun death rates, then argues that we should adopt the gun laws of Norway.

[Littlejoe]

here's an interesting pictoid I have left over from the last TWEB. I apologize but I don't remember where I found it. Notice that with Suicides and Murders combined, Denmark and France are both higher than the US, and Japan is close behind the US...what does that say? Japan has some of the strictest Gun Control laws AND Knife/Sword control Laws in the World IIRC.

gun ownership.jpg

[Cow Poke]

What would be more helpful, I think, is to look at communities with strict gun laws as opposed to communities with high gun violence. Anybody wanna take a guess at how that plays out?