For the thousandth (at least) time, there is no single answer to the problem.  The Second Amendment thread is full of stories of supposedly law-abiding citizens with guns who do something stupid and (i.e. blow their own balls off) because the problem with guns is not the "law-abiding" part.  It is that people do stupid shit and they do it all the time and when you do it with a gun someone may get shot.

The second point is this notion of "self-defense."  Pure 'Murrican mythology. 

 Third, Gun Nut Nation pretends that the laws that are in effect are not enforced now.  That's bullshit.  The problem is that they are easily circumvented.  In Chicago, the police have traced 1/3 of the guns seized to a single gun shop just across the city line where Chicago's laws do not apply.

Fourth, I don't know why we have so many nuts running around loose.  But we do.  I can't believe that other industrialized nations do not have nuts of their own but for one reason or another they do not seem to get their hands on guns with any great degree of frequency.  So while improved mental health care is desirable so is limiting the ability of nuts to get their hands on guns in the first place.

With a congress that thinks praying to fucking jesus is a viable alternative to reasonable discussion the thought of getting them to tackle any problem - let alone a problem with multiple facets - seems forlorn.  So I imagine we will do what Stephen Colbert said we will do.  Pretend that it will never happen again....until next time.


And there will be a next time.

(October 5, 2015 at 8:17 am)mh.brewer Wrote: Other than mental health, what disease do you or anyone expect them to study?

Mental health should be the focus. Really, if there weren't so many crazy mofos here people might not be as interested in having a gun. I wish that I didn't have to worry about robbers, murderers, bad people in general. If they were gone for good then a hunting rifle might be enough for me.

Bottom line, get rid of crazy fuckers that want to inflict harm to others and there is no more problem.

(October 5, 2015 at 8:25 am)RaphielDrake Wrote: Look; YES, guns kill people and YES school shootings would probably stop happening without them and YES crime would likely be reduced as a result of them being banned.
But for fuck sake, look at the big picture; Target practice is really fun.

Yes, and target practice is especially interesting when the little targets run and hide and try to escape from the school.

(October 5, 2015 at 1:14 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The second point is this notion of "self-defense."  Pure 'Murrican mythology. 

Not according to the study commissioned by the CDC, linked above.

(October 5, 2015 at 1:24 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: Yes, and target practice is especially interesting when the little targets run and hide and try to escape from the school.

What percentage of gun owners do you think feel this way?

(October 5, 2015 at 1:35 pm)KUSA Wrote:

(October 5, 2015 at 1:24 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: Yes, and target practice is especially interesting when the little targets run and hide and try to escape from the school.

What percentage of gun owners do you think feel this way?

Who feel what way?  Who prefer moving targets to stationary ones?  One does not get the thrill of the hunt from a stationary paper target.  But some people enjoy stationary targets.  They are certainly easier to hit than moving targets of the same size at the same distance.

(October 5, 2015 at 1:24 pm)Pyrrho Wrote:

(October 5, 2015 at 8:25 am)RaphielDrake Wrote: Look; YES, guns kill people and YES school shootings would probably stop happening without them and YES crime would likely be reduced as a result of them being banned.
But for fuck sake, look at the big picture; Target practice is really fun.

Yes, and target practice is especially interesting when the little targets run and hide and try to escape from the school.

Appeal to emotion.

(October 5, 2015 at 1:56 pm)Pyrrho Wrote:

(October 5, 2015 at 1:35 pm)KUSA Wrote: What percentage of gun owners do you think feel this way?

Who feel what way?  Who prefer moving targets to stationary ones?  One does not get the thrill of the hunt from a stationary paper target.  But some people enjoy stationary targets.  They are certainly easier to hit than moving targets of the same size at the same distance.

Why reply if you aren't going to answer the question? And don't play stupid, you know what you meant by get away from the school.

CDC covers all types of heath issues, anything that can cause injury and death, they don't stop at bacteria and viruses.

(October 5, 2015 at 2:02 pm)Brian37 Wrote: CDC covers all types of heath issues, anything that can cause injury and death, they don't stop at bacteria and viruses.

Then perhaps they need to take a hard look at mentally ill people with violent tendencies.