# Do Joe Biden's Recent Comments On Gun Control Bother You? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 3, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186 "2013-02-03T04:25:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/21 "2013-02-03T18:15:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :rolleyes: **No,** sir. Univeral registration and pre-check are **not** first steps to banning all guns. That’s just an instance of the [slippery-slope fallacy.](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Slippery_slope) No, it isn’t. Your magic spell failed. _pfizzle_ The slippery slope fallacy is when someone says “You can’t do reasonable thing X, it will inevitably lead to bad thing Y!” No one is claiming that universal registration will _lead_ to a universal ban. That is obviously not the case. However, universal registration would make a ban easier to enforce. That is why people object to it. This is not a fallacy, it’s self-evidently true. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/22 "2013-02-03T18:22:46Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > The sentence “Nothing we are going to do is fundamentally going to alter or eliminate the possibility of another mass shooting or guarantee that we will bring gun deaths down” seems to me to simply be a factual statement and nothing more. > > You may be reading more into it than I am, but I guess that’s all the rage these days. But I think that’s exactly the point. If it’s a factual statement, then the logical question to ask is: why are you proposing this legislation then? > [@](#): > > Wayne LaPierre of the NRA saying ‘You can’t trust the government. They’re taking your guns away,’ like he said to Chris Wallace this weekend, is far, far more disturbing because it is not true and is designed to upset and alarm. Can we see the quote where he said that? Because we wouldn’t want to be “reading more into” something someone said, would we? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/23 "2013-02-03T18:27:44Z")
> [@Kable](#): > > A lot of us think you have had your compromise already. You just want us to compromise again, as a “step” in the direction of getting all guns banned, which we know (and you admitted) is what a lot of you really want. Like I said, not thanks. > > And nobody wants children to be murdered. We hope that they will be protected. Like this girl… > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPfz7ENFUB0&list=UU02JJcAx3xXhXflFI\_wgZ6g&index=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPfz7ENFUB0&list=UU02JJcAx3xXhXflFI_wgZ6g&index=1) > > …who if you had your druthers would have been defenseless. Is that really what you want? > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The pro-gun side has made it quite clear they don’t care in the slightest if children or anyone else _are_ murdered, however. Not even their own children, much less anyone else’s. They care about guns. Period. I think that’s enough hysteria from both sides. Take it to the Pit if you want to continue making comments like this; other posters want a relatively civil debate. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/24 "2013-02-03T18:30:43Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Obama is presumably from Chicago The Kenyan truth will come out soon enough… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/25 "2013-02-03T18:57:21Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Obama is presumably from Chicago, why has he not spoken out against the rampant handgun violence there? [Just for the record: he has.](http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-takes-leading-role-national-gun-debate-192530717.html) Somehow it became a conservative talking point that he is ignoring this, but he mentioned it during the second presidential debate and he has talked about it in speeches with regard to gun registration. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/26 "2013-02-03T20:01:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But I think that’s exactly the point. If it’s a factual statement, then the logical question to ask is: why are you proposing this legislation then? > Can we see the quote where he said that? Because we wouldn’t want to be “reading more into” something someone said, would we? Wallace asked LaPierre for his thoughts on a photo of Obama shooting a gun, released by the White House this weekend. “I think of the same thing I did during the campaign when he said to people, ‘I’m not going to take your rifle, shotgun and handgun.’ They leafleted the country with flyers like this: ‘Obama is not going to take your gun’; ‘Obama will protect gun rights.’ And now he’s trying to take away all three,” LaPierre said. He predicted a universal gun registry is next – a measure that, as Wallace reminded him, has not been proposed. “Forgive me, sir, but you take something that is here and you say it’s going to go all the way over there,” Wallace said. “There’s no indication – I mean, I can understand your saying that’s the threat, but there’s nothing that anyone in the administration has said that indicates they’re going to have a universal registry.” LaPierre said he doesn’t find that convincing. “And Obamacare wasn’t a tax until they needed it to be a tax,” he said. “I don’t think you can trust these people.” > **[Fox Host Dresses Down NRA Head: 'It's Ridiculous'](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wayne-lapierre-obama-guns_n_2610763?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003)** > > Fox Host Dresses Down NRA Head: 'It's Ridiculous' ---
**Author:** ![JXJohns](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jxjohns/32/469_2.png) [@JXJohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JXJohns)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/27 "2013-02-03T20:40:51Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > Wayne LaPierre of the NRA saying ‘You can’t trust the government. They’re taking your guns away,’ like he said to Chris Wallace this weekend, is far, far more disturbing because it is not true and is designed to upset and alarm. So when both Feinstein and Cuomo speak of confiscation and forced buy backs, we should just disregard them both as cantankerous seniors? ---
**Author:** ![JXJohns](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jxjohns/32/469_2.png) [@JXJohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JXJohns)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/28 "2013-02-03T20:58:16Z")
> [@JXJohns](#): > > So when both Feinstein and Cuomo speak of confiscation and forced buy backs, we should just disregard them both as cantankerous seniors? [Cuomo](http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336373/cuomo-confiscation-could-be-option-eliana-johnson) [Feinstein on AW’s 1995](http://www.infowars.com/video-dianne-feinstein-says-prepare-to-turn-in-your-guns/) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/29 "2013-02-03T21:13:27Z")
> [@JXJohns](#): > > [Cuomo](http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336373/cuomo-confiscation-could-be-option-eliana-johnson) > > [Feinstein on AW’s 1995](http://www.infowars.com/video-dianne-feinstein-says-prepare-to-turn-in-your-guns/) It may be worth noting here that [the bill Cuomo signed last month included neither buybacks nor confiscation](http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/us/new-york-gun-bill/index.html), and Feinstein was talking about a bill she would have passed had she been able (but wasn’t) in 1995, and also hasn’t passed since. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/30 "2013-02-03T22:23:46Z")
Bidens statements are like a con man who reveals what he’s doing is a con, but some people are still dumb enough to fall for it! > [@Marley23](#): > > Feinstein was talking about a bill she would have passed had she been able (but wasn’t) in 1995, and also hasn’t passed since. So? An elected official talking about something draconian is nothing to be concerned about? > [@Zoe](#): > > We need to be able to compromise to satisfy the Amendment and those who prefer no guns at all. **NO! HELL NO!** :mad: None of us should have to compromise any of our Constitutionally protected rights! The answer to significantly reducing violent crime is to hammer those that perpetrate it. School/mall shootings are an extremely rare occurrence. The majority of violent crime takes place by repeat offenders that are continually put in and out of the system. Burglars, armed robbers, batterers, etc. rarely get sentenced to more than 10% of the maximum of what they could receive. The guy that shoots a gas station attendant this week would not have been able to had he still been locked up for the burglary he committed 2 years ago. The expense of keeping truly awful people locked up is dwarfed by the expense of our revolving door justice system and the carnage and human suffering such “people” cause while out on the street. Adding new laws and encroachments on our liberties will have no effect. Even the Vice President of the United States of America agrees with me on this! ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/31 "2013-02-03T22:28:29Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Adding new laws and encroachments on our liberties will have no effect. That’s nonsense. It’s an assertion based on what, magic? ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/32 "2013-02-03T22:30:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It may be worth noting here that [the bill Cuomo signed last month included neither buybacks nor confiscation](http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/us/new-york-gun-bill/index.html), and Feinstein was talking about a bill she would have passed had she been able (but wasn’t) in 1995, and also hasn’t passed since. Yes, so? They haven’t succeeded yet. What is your point? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/33 "2013-02-03T22:36:43Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > The Kenyan truth will come out soon enough… Wait I didn’t mean it like that! 🙂 > [@Marley23](#): > > [Just for the record: he has.](http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-takes-leading-role-national-gun-debate-192530717.html) Somehow it became a conservative talking point that he is ignoring this, but he mentioned it during the second presidential debate and he has talked about it in speeches with regard to gun registration. Well that’s good then. The gun violence in certain parts of Chicago has been ludicrously bad. > [@pkbites](#): > > The answer to significantly reducing violent crime is to hammer those that perpetrate it. School/mall shootings are an extremely rare occurrence. The majority of violent crime takes place by repeat offenders that are continually put in and out of the system. Burglars, armed robbers, batterers, etc. rarely get sentenced to more than 10% of the maximum of what they could receive. The guy that shoots a gas station attendant this week would not have been able to had he still been locked up for the burglary he committed 2 years ago. The expense of keeping truly awful people locked up is dwarfed by the expense of our revolving door justice system and the carnage and human suffering such “people” cause while out on the street. > > Adding new laws and encroachments on our liberties will have no effect. Even the Vice President of the United States of America agrees with me on this! I do agree that we should really bring the hammer down on people convicted of gun related crimes. Sentences should be served in full and should be extremely punitive. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/34 "2013-02-03T22:50:19Z")
We can’t talk about people who want to confiscate guns until they actually confiscate guns. That’s part of the “reasonable, common sense discussion on gun control” that the gun confiscators keep saying we need to have–nobody is allowed to talk about the issue but them until they get everything they want. Then, we can all discuss the wisdom of the guns we used to have as much as we’d like to. See? Reasonable! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/35 "2013-02-03T23:07:46Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Adding new laws and encroachments on our liberties will have no effect. Then, they cannot be objectionable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/36 "2013-02-03T23:09:42Z")
> [@Kable](#): > > It’s not fallacy at all when your side admits such and such regulations are the first step towards your ultimate goal. Call it incrementalism if you prefer. [Incrementalism - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incrementalism) The “ultimate goal” is a less-armed society, not a disarmed society – no American gun-control advocate seriously expects **that.** ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/37 "2013-02-03T23:44:35Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I do agree that we should really bring the hammer down on people convicted of gun related crimes. Not good enough. Assault, Battery, strong armed robbery, burglary. They are all serious crimes which don’t require a gun to commit. ---
**Author:** ![ChickenLegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@ChickenLegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChickenLegs)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/38 "2013-02-03T23:59:11Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The pro-gun side has made it quite clear they don’t care in the slightest if children or anyone else _are_ murdered, however. Not even their own children, much less anyone else’s. They care about guns. Period. This, presumably, from the side that’s always asking for a “rational” debate on gun control. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/39 "2013-02-03T23:59:46Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Not good enough. > > Assault, Battery, strong armed robbery, burglary. They are all serious crimes which don’t require a gun to commit. Aren’t the penalties strict enough now, and the law-enforcement vigorous enough? That is why we have the world’s largest incarcerated population proportional to the general. Clearly, bringing the hammer down still harder won’t help and is not what is needed; we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns there. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186/40 "2013-02-04T00:11:45Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It may be worth noting here that [the bill Cuomo signed last month included neither buybacks nor confiscation](http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/us/new-york-gun-bill/index.html), and Feinstein was talking about a bill she would have passed had she been able (but wasn’t) in 1995, and also hasn’t passed since. Stop bothering us with the facts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-joe-bidens-recent-comments-on-gun-control-bother-you/649186.md?page=3)