I agree it’s about saving lives. And in an ideal world I’d wiggle my nose and make all the guns vanish. But my name’s not Sabrina and even without the Constitutional issues you can’t change American culture to a diametrically opposed position by haranguing people.
Frankly I’d rather start by dealing with the people who think that racking a shotgun in Walmart is just fine and the people who want to hand out revolvers in Crackerjack boxes and all the others who think the Second Amendment means that they can do Any Damn Thing They Want with a gun. I want people who think that it’s their job to be ready at any moment to fight off the Bad Guys at their local coffee shop to keep their paranoid fantasies to themselves. I want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill and children. I want legislation based on good solid research, and I want the NRA to stop blocking that research.
And overall I want to encourage **responsible **gun use, not drive the responsible gun users over to the side of the Crazies. And that’s not going to happen if you insist on an all-or-nothing position. So let’s first work toward removing the barriers to constructive dialogue rather than being one, and we’ll go from there.
Lets just say I am glad that I accidentally assumed the burglar was my dad and let him get off with my wallet (and several hundreds of dollars that I had taken out to use on the vactaion:smack:). Than to accidentally assume that my dad was a burglar andfill him full of lead.
Let’s talk about probabilities. Is such a home invasion one of the major threats you face? Do you keep kryptonite on hand in case a hypothetical villanous alien shows up? If you’re like me, failure to keep medications (like nitroglycerine) on hand reduces life expectancy many thousands of times more than a defense against home invasion by bat wielders would. A can of mace when they go out will probably reduce your wife’s and daughter’s risk of rape orders of magnitude more than your gun will.
I’ve never been an anti-gun control freak, and used to blame America’s absurdly high death rate from guns more on cultural sicknesses than availability of guns. Reading threads like this has changed mind. Many of you American gun nuts have sick twisted minds.
Risks need to be assessed quantitatively. For example, cutting or burning our grass to make it harder for snakes to hide improves my household’s safety far more than a gun would. The cynical right-wing nincompoops you gun nuts help to elect represent a far bigger threat to your quality of life than your hypothetical bat-wielding home invader.
Allow me to posit the following hypothetical conversation:
Gun Owner: “I was in a situation where having a gun kept me from being (robbed/beaten/raped/killed). Thank God I had a gun!”
Gun Control Advocate: “But statistically guns are far more likely to enable suicide, accidentally kill people, or be used to murder. The number of self-defense uses don’t justify the harm guns do. They should be severely restricted or banned”.
Gun Owner: “But what about me? I’d have been up shit creek if I hadn’t had a gun!”
Gun Control Advocate: “That would have been regrettable; but I have to consider all the people who were harmed because guns are easily available in the US.”
Gun Owner: “Are you saying that I, who didn’t do anything wrong, should have agreed to be harmed, for everyone else’s sake??”
Gun Control Advocate: “It would be for the greater good, yes.”
Now, at this point, is the Gun Owner entitled to say “Fuck You!!”?
Allow me to posit the following hypothetical conversation:
Anti-Vaccination Loon: "I had a friend/family member whose child got a vaccination then developed autism! Thank goodness I don’t vaccinate my children!
Pro-Vaccination Supporter: “But statistically vaccinations are far more likely to prevent dangerous and sometimes fatal illness. The unfounded fear of autism doesn’t justify the harm going without vaccinations does. They should be mandatory”.
Anti-Vaccination Loon: “But what about my children? I don’t want them to get autism!”
Pro-Vaccination Supporter: “Your belief is not based in realty. We have to consider all the people who would be harmed because of the unvaccinated children in the US.”
Anti-Vaccination Loon: “Are you saying that my children, who didn’t do anything wrong, should have agreed to be harmed, for everyone else’s sake??”
Pro-Vaccination Supporter: “It would be for the greater good, yes.”
Now, at this point, is the Anti-Vaccination Loon entitled to say “Fuck You!!”?
This rubber-glue thing hasn’t worked for you yet, but it is just one more thing you are too fucking dumb to recognize. Here is the only salient fact: you stated everyone is one bad day from mass murder and now you refuse to take ownership of it. I already linked in this thread to where you said it and I pointed out how you chickenshitted out of that thread entirely when called on it. You are a coward. You are a liar. Most of all, you are completely delusional in your assessment of both your basic intelligence and how you have “pwned” this (or any) thread. It’s a shame your father didn’t get his nuts bitten off by a shar-pei when he was a child.
What about you and the preservation of lives? I have asked you before, without you answering, if you choose to not own guns because you fear you would commit murder if you had a gun. Care to answer that now? How could it do other than increase community respect for you to let it be public knowledge that you renounce arms in the interest of our safety?
So I take it you are pro-life? Please prove that there are more murders as a result of the legal ownership of guns as opposed to banning private ownership of guns.
Already done, many many times, as you fucking well know. Of course, nothing can get through your wall of fear, can it?
Now, when are you going to tell us what rate of murders should be “acceptable” (your own choice of word)? You’ve told us multiple times that there is one, but not what it is. So, what is it?
I’m not one of the ones trying it, am I? :rolleyes: Tell your delusional-psychotic friend who thinks people with a respect for human life are “hoplophobes”, and that some rate of killings is “acceptable”.
Nobody but you is talking about child rape, either.
