# Having laid low, the N.R.A. is fully prepped and rehearsed to control legislation. As usual.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 20, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605 "2012-12-20T05:02:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 20
### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/381 "2013-01-16T01:08:20Z")
Absitively, posolutely! Guns help protect us from crazy ass mofos armed with baseball bats! Not so great against C.A.M.s armed with military style weapons, sure, but up against a baseball bat, a cudgel, stick or _shillelagh_, nothing better than a good old fashioned equalizer! Or some guy coming up at you with a strangling cord, bang! no more threat! Shoot him, take the cord and use it to tag a toe.
Or a knife, same thing, shoot twice in that instance because of the threat level, remove the knife from the cooling dead hand, problem solved. Or a banana, once should do it, take the banana, eat the banana, and you have not only neutralized the perp, but disarmed him as well! Badda-boom, badda bang bang bang bang!
Clearly, if the problem is people, a gun is the best solution.
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/382 "2013-01-16T04:19:32Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> But that’s simply how you would class them. I disagree. Guns are also useful items that contribute to the public good, in my view.
A train provides transportation. A building provides shelter.
A gun provides entertainment value and perhaps a feeling of safety to hobbyists and enthusiasts. This is no more in the interest of the public good than baseball bats or fishing rods are.
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### Author:  [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/383 "2013-01-16T05:01:06Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> A train provides transportation. A building provides shelter.
>
> A gun provides entertainment value and perhaps a feeling of safety to hobbyists and enthusiasts. This is no more in the interest of the public good than baseball bats or fishing rods are.
You know, you’re absolutely right, we should ban baseball bats then, since they’re only useful for recreation, and they’re dangerous in the wrong hands.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/384 "2013-01-16T11:41:17Z")
> [@Absolute](#):
>
> You know, you’re absolutely right, we should ban baseball bats then, since they’re only useful for recreation, and they’re dangerous in the wrong hands.
So why do you need a gun if you have a baseball bat?
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### Author:  [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/385 "2013-01-16T13:12:16Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Why is their dissimilarity so important? In this matter, why aren’t we focusing on their similarity: to wit, their role in making suicides easy?
>
> In other words, you appear to advance the argument that because guns facilitate suicide, we should accept some sort of regulation of them. I point out trains (and now add tall buildings) as equally atttractive to would-be suiciders. You dismiss them because they aren’t guns. True, they aren’t – but since the rationale you advance is their role in suicides, why is their difference from guns so dispositive?
This is demonstrably incorrect, since there are between 300 and 500 train suicides per year in the US, versus approximately 15,000 firearms suicides per year in the US.
Clearly, in the US guns are more attractive as a method of suicide than trains.
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/386 "2013-01-16T13:22:22Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> So why do you need a gun if you have a baseball bat?
And what if the pitcher intentionally beans you? Are you saying baseball players don’t have a right to defend themselves?
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/387 "2013-01-16T13:25:09Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> And what if the pitcher intentionally beans you? Are you saying baseball players don’t have a right to defend themselves?
I oppose the sale of semi-automatic baseball bats.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/388 "2013-01-16T13:25:48Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> And by the way – does a person have a right to commit suicide, or not?
I don’t see that right listed in the Constitution, so I’ll go with no. Am I right?
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/389 "2013-01-16T13:36:17Z")
> [@Absolute](#):
>
> You know, you’re absolutely right, we should ban baseball bats then, since they’re only useful for recreation, and they’re dangerous in the wrong hands.
When baseball bat violence becomes the cause of thousands of deaths and the not-that-occasional mass murder of Americans, let’s get a proposal on the table.
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/390 "2013-01-16T13:38:01Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#):
>
> This is demonstrably incorrect, since there are between 300 and 500 train suicides per year in the US, versus approximately 15,000 firearms suicides per year in the US.
>
> Clearly, in the US guns are more attractive as a method of suicide than trains.
Guns are sure as hell more accessible than trains. Do you even KNOW how hard it is to get light rail built in a city these days?
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/391 "2013-01-16T13:52:54Z")
Got one right here. I might avail myself, someday, but the results of leaping in front of an oncoming train can be kinda…messy. At my funeral, I would much prefer flocks of women crying and weeping, rather than dashing outside to puke behind a tree. Solemn dignity, you understand.
I mean, what the heck, I’m halfway there already! Put me down for suicide by extreme old age!
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/392 "2013-01-16T14:04:09Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> When baseball bat violence becomes the cause of thousands of deaths and the not-that-occasional mass murder of Americans, let’s get a proposal on the table.
Are you kidding? Face off against Major League Baseball?
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/393 "2013-01-16T15:02:20Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> A train provides transportation. A building provides shelter.
>
> A gun provides entertainment value and perhaps a feeling of safety to hobbyists and enthusiasts. This is no more in the interest of the public good than baseball bats or fishing rods are.
Not a complete statement. A gun also provides actual safety, rather than just a “feeling” of safety.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/394 "2013-01-16T15:03:43Z")
> [@Hamlet](#):
>
> I don’t see that right listed in the Constitution, so I’ll go with no. Am I right?
Me, too, but many on the Left seem to disagree.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/395 "2013-01-16T15:10:15Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#):
>
> This is demonstrably incorrect, since there are between 300 and 500 train suicides per year in the US, versus approximately 15,000 firearms suicides per year in the US.
>
> Clearly, in the US guns are more attractive as a method of suicide than trains.
No – we just don’t have many trains.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/396 "2013-01-16T15:16:07Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> No – we just don’t have many trains.
Which is cheaper, easier and faster-finding a train track, or buying a gun?
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/397 "2013-01-16T15:28:05Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Which is cheaper, easier and faster-finding a train track, or buying a gun?
Depends on where you are.
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### Author:  [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/398 "2013-01-16T15:33:02Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> No – we just don’t have many trains.
Then please clarify what you mean by asserting that trains are equally attractive to would be suicides. How do you determine this? Why does a 30 fold greater rate of one method over another not demonstrate “attractiveness”?
Isn’t easy accessibility a quality that makes something attractive?
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/399 "2013-01-16T15:33:40Z")
Why bother with a train? Jump in front of a car.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-laid-low-the-n-r-a-is-fully-prepped-and-rehearsed-to-control-legislation-as-usual/644605/400 "2013-01-16T15:38:26Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Why bother with a train? Jump in front of a car.
Perhaps the media is to blame for that. I’ve seen numerous incidents on television and in the movies where people get hit by cars and survive(some even keep on running), but not too many where someone survives getting hit by a train.
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