We’re not particularly impressed by your appraisal of what you think we need. “You don’t need it, so I want to take it away from you” will never be convincing. You don’t need a car that can go faster than 25 miles per hour, but you don’t see me clamoring to empty your driveway, even though we’d save a lot of lives that way.
Wrong, try again. We could cut the balls off of gang warfare by ending the war on drugs and working to right the social inequalities that propagate urban cultures of violence. I’ll be the first to admit that handgun licensing and registration might help too, in the long run, but it’s either ignorant or dishonest of you to claim that, because we insist in strong terms that a law-abiding person still be able to own a handgun, we “prefer” mass shootings and gang warfare. Please, retire this absurd false dichotomy. We’re reacting with natural defensiveness because you’re calling for us to give up our rights in the name of solving a problem that is as much your fault as it is ours.
Tell me something, how is 28 in a matter of minutes worse than two hundred in a week? Especially since those few minutes of terror happen but once in a while, but that week repeats itself fifty-two times every year? You’re engaging in selective outrage, driven not by facts or by concern for safety but by some kind of abstract moralizing. How many times do you think I’ve heard the same echoes from the right wing? It’s tiresome; you’re the same as they are.
You know, if you just set aside inner city gang violence, our murder rate is not much different from those of western European countries. Unless you’re in a gang, you’re about as safe as anyone in Britain; quite possibly safer, depending on where you live. Is that fair? No, not really; but then again it took a bunch of white kids getting shot for you and yours to suddenly get a strong opinion on the “gun violence” problem again, so make of it what you will.
I don’t really give a fuck what you think about what you need, all gun nuts are too fargone to be negotiated with, society is changing and progressives will win as we almost always do, and you will be dragged kicking and screaming to give up your precious guns and eventually there won’t be a school shooting so often and the ghettos will get more liveable like in Europe and nobody will miss it but the ass backwards south.
People who have never thought civilians should have guns are zero percent culpable for school shootings and other gun homicides. ZERO.
I’m from one of the worst neighborhoods in Chicago, asshole. I didn’t wake up and fucking realize guns are not good for society because of Sandy Gate.
I know this might be hard to believe but some of us don’t think Gang Members should be murdering each other either since they’re also human beings and it’s, get this, a fucking crime. And Gang Members are the only ones so far who have waived guns in my face and threatened to shoot me, so it fucking matters that gang members have guns. Some people have no choice but to live in their neighborhoods which would be a lot safer without the guns.
You have absolutely no reason to think that, and you’re wrong. It’s fucking hilarious the people I have lost to gun violence and you’re assuming little white kids in Sandy Hook is why I fucking think people should not have handguns.
Take a deep breath. Make yourself a cup of tea. Sit down. Sip slowly. Feeling better? Perhaps you only think I’m too far gone to be negotiated with because your own ideas are too extreme to suffer any self-reflection or critical analysis, and you’re just not interested in looking at facts or reasons or trying to understand anyone else’s point of view (though I and others like me have repeatedly offered compromise) because your high-strung emotions tell you what to think, and by golly, if they’re good enough for you, they’re good enough to be forced on everyone.
But needless to say, I vote. Millions of people like me vote. We lobby. We rally. We write our representatives. You’re welcome to oppose us; perhaps one day you’ll win. Or we will. Me, I still look for reasonable middle ground, informed by facts and not hysteria, that preserves enough of regulation and of liberty to make us both grumble. But I don’t feel any need to indulge myself in fantasies of you weeping bitterly at some dreamed-of final victory for the second amendment, nor to fling such fantasies in your face in an effort to make you lose your temper.
And I’m not responsible for the actions of anybody who unjustifiably takes a life, no matter what weapon they used. But you missed the point.
I grew up in a place where guns are commoner than people; I live in a city on the west coast with very liberal gun laws, where a person can wear a handgun on their hip without even needing a license to do so. (Folks here can also smoke marijuana and marry members of the same sex if they’ve got an inclination.) We’re quite safe over here. I’m sorry things are so bad where you are, but the availability of guns ain’t necessarily a cause of the violence, or else we’d be having an even worse time than Chicago.
Well guess what, I think the same way. I only brought it up out of bitterness that thousands of deaths every year are blithely ignored except by a few, but if a dozen or so happen in the same place and the same time, suddenly it’s the freaking gunpocalypse. And you know what, I’m sorry that I made that slanted comment implying that you were willing to overlook the symptoms of social inequality. It was an ugly and unjustified thing for me to say, and a sign that I was starting to lose my cool. For what it’s worth, I apologize.
As a pro Obama gun owning liberal, you really scare me.
Your shrill fear mongering is just the opposite of what should be happening. It’s quite clear that you know nothing about guns, and that is also a bit worrisome.
This research you guys are so proud of, got anything in this century? And when they ask the respondent if they have used a gun in self-defense, and they said “Yes” did anyone ask which police department they reported it to? Does anyone think that someone who owns a gun is more likely to be “pro-gun” than someone who does not? Any chance that this fact colors their responses?
And again, we are faced with a conundrum. People who absitively, posolutely believe that research will solidly support their favored positions sabotage any effort to perform such research. That this fact demonstrates, yet again, that Cognitive Dissonance is the number one threat to the Republic need not be mentioned. But I will anyway…
Then do you at least realize how unrealistic it is to insist that we confiscate everyone’s handguns and high capacity magazines, even in THIS environment?
In light of this, do you agree that you are making the passage of reasonable registration, licensing and background check requirements less likely because these reasonable measures are getting lumped together with the unlikely and idiotic measures being proposed (like AWB, a handgun ban would be even less popular).
Politics is the art of the possible but gun control advocates are abandoning the possible REAL GOOD they could do to satisfy their desire to ban guns of some sort no matter how ineffective the ban would be.
Bullshit.
National registration, background checks and licensing requirements will reduce the number of guns in criminal hands over time.
You seem to think the only way to reduce gun violence is to make guns illegal. And maybe you are right, after a few decades, the inventory of guns in the hands of criminals will go down as they get confiscated or break down. What do you think happens during those decades?
You seem to think it takes some significant amount of time to change a magazine. Are you SURE you’re a recreational shooter (or did one of your friends take you to the shooting range one time)?
And once again, what do you think happens in the meantime?
Once again, I am perfectly happy to have universal background checks. I happy to have licensing requirements. I’m even happy to have everyone register their guns the same way you would register your car.
To be fair, the left doesn’t find itself in the position of defending ridiculous positions as frequently as the right because facts just happen to have a liberal bias.
So you don’t think he is a recreational shooter like he claims?
So now the research has to be within the last twelve years? What exactly do you think has changed in the last 20 years that would make the original research invalid?
You ask for cite so you are presented with a cite about a research poll conducted by the Department of Justice and you think the deck is somehow rigged? Frankly, you’re the one who seem ready to ignore evidence that is contrary to your favored position. So where is YOUR cite?
I remember how much we all laughed when Republicans were trying argue against the validity of polls because the polls didn’t support their position. You got better data? Lets see it or just admit you are simply not open minded to new ideas, its OK, neither are Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachman, you’re in good company. Just for the record, what do you consider convincing evidence?
Really, how is it quite clear? Because I don’t like them? I’ve fired a Colt .38, Sig P-229 with a laser sight, A Nazi slave made 9mm Luger and a CZ-75. I’m sure I’m forgetting other guns, people at the range are usually pretty cool about letting you fire try their gun out if they can try yours. I go shoot around twice a year, I’m definitely a very casual shooter but I’m quite a good shot and I know a little bit about guns. So please tell me how it’s so obvious I don’t know anything about guns.
Perhaps that question deserves an answer, I had been thinking it didn’t.
No, as a general rule, I don’t bother. Well, my windows are sealed, from enemies both relentless and unforgiving. Bitter cold in the Minnesota winter, and mosquitoes in the summer. Spring, not so bad, and if it falls on a Sunday, even better.
I’ve been mugged, been robbed at gunpoint. Jacked my mind around severely, I am not ashamed to tell you. Like when I was driving cab, and another cabbie got killed. Happened every few years or so. Even got a compact pistol, a .32, fit in my kit.
And then this guy jumped in my cab and everything about him set off my clanging claxons, aaarrroooga! Damn near died that night. Because I was so busy watching him in the rear view mirror, I wasn’t keeping my attention where it belongs.
Fear rots the mind, gnaws at your humanity like a rat. It ain’t worth it. So, how do I live like that? Pretty easy. Perhaps its easier because I have so little to steal, or maybe thats just a virtuous excuse for sloth.
It was completely unuseable. At any range beyond point blank range the dot jumped all over the place, I found more success just lining up the sights the traditional way and trying my best to ignore that stupid red dot jumping around all over the place.
Until that day, I thought laser sights were cool. The P229 in .40 itself was butter, though.
Could be a fun game to play with a cat. Let him chase it in frustration, then let him catch it, and then…Surprise! Forty caliber is going to be a bit messy, though.
Kable was the one who started this non sequitur thing-quoting your request for home invasion evidence, then answering it with a video that wasn’t about home invasion.
The P229 in .40 itself was butter, though.