All Hail the Second Amendment

[The Grand Nudger]

Bundy supporters seethe over arrest of militant with illegal machine gun: They’re playing with a ‘time bomb’

-and all he had to do was pay for an inspection and a stamp (ofc all the regular gun laws also apply, valid id, bc check, etc) and the MG would have been legal.  How fucking dumb can you get? I want a SAW so damned bad, but I'm sure as shit not going to own one if I can't find it in me to pay the fees......because that would be criminally retarded.

[Minimalist]

Is anyone at all surprised by this?

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/these-bl...ts-werent/

These black parents were charged when toddlers shot themselves — but these white parents weren’t

Yup.  "Murrica.  And justice for some.

[Minimalist]

Listed on Gunfail, 3 dead and 3 wounded in so-called accidental shootings in the last 24 hours...

including the latest winner of Gun Nut Nation's Dead Kid Lottery.



http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf...s_fro.html

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A 10-year-old suburban Columbus boy died Thursday from a gunshot wound suffered at his home, police say.

And, of course...

The grandmother told the dispatcher that Colin accidentally shot himself with his stepfather's gun, according to the Dispatch. The boy's mother and stepfather were not home at the time of the incident, but his 7-year-old sister was.

[The Grand Nudger]

These accidents are starting to put intentional shootings to shame. Murderers might need to step up their game or we'll stop giving a shit.

[Minimalist]

Not a winner of Gun Nut Nation's Dead Kid Lottery, yet.

But they're working on it.

http://www.texomashomepage.com/news/loca...ot-in-head

Three-year-old Accidentally Shot in Head

A witness said the boy was bouncing on the bed in a trailer home when he landed on a pistol, and it went off.

Authorities say when the pistol went off, it struck the boy in the back of the head.

Sure.  What better place to store a gun?

[Gawdzilla]

Guns are not safe unless they're safely stored. Guns safely stored are not ready for immediate use. Therefore you cannot use a gun for home protection without putting residents at risk. Given that far more homes have guns than will ever be invaded the number of accidental shooting will always exceed the number of successful Defensive Gun Uses (DGU).

[The Grand Nudger]

Lets deconstruct the claim above, and the method by which it was arrived...step by step.  First, let's talk stats-

According to the CDC, reported in 2011, there were roughly 35k lethal shootings..of which approx 600 were deemed to be unintentional.  In the same year, according to the National  Center for Injury Prevention and Control...there were roughly 80k non-lethal shootings...of which approx 15k were deemed to be unintentional.  I've rounded each of these numbers -up- to be generous to the claim. Lets do that again..and call 600, 1k.  

So, in 2011, there were a total of 16k shootings deemed to be unintentional, fatal and nonfatal combined.  Compare that with the lowest credible estimates -ever- given for DGU's....and I''ll leave it up to you to find which one you prefer.  What you will find, is that our numbers don't support the truth of the claim made, no matter who's estimates or numbers for DGUs or unintentional shootings we choose to accept as representative, and depending on which estimates or numbers we accept..the claim goes from plain wrong..to wrong by orders of magnitude.  Keep in mind that, in addition to this...those numbers of intentional shootings above -include- DGUs...many, granted, entirely unlawful. Such as one drug dealer defending himself against another drug dealer..or your generic cops v robbers situation that we don't generally...even consider in DGU stats...for whatever reason, but that form the majority of -all- non suicide related shootings.

Now, on to the method by which we arrived at the conclusion, completely in contradiction with any information we have on the subject-

A gun stored unsafely simply doesn't lead, inexorably, to an accidental shooting.  Most guns -aren't- stored safely...and yet it's a vanishingly small number of guns that have ever been involved in any shooting, fatal or non-fatal.....accidental or otherwise.  Further, successful DGU's in no way require ammunition, safe, -or- unsafe storage.  The saftey of storage is simply irrelevant.  The sound of a 12g pulling back in the dark is -terrifying-...and that has nothing to do with whether or not a shell has been or could be chambered.  Among respondents and reported instances of DGU's...it's much more common that the gun was simply pointed at the other "x", or alluded to in verbal threats.  More than this...the number of DGU's reported are not, in any way, limited to home intrusion- and that right there, should be enough to explain why the relationships required for the claim to have any value do not exist.

While I, personally, feel that a gun is a poor choice for home defense, and while I..personally...feel that we should enforce our safety and storage laws to their fullest extent..and while I, personally, think that we have -way- to many "accidental" shootings;

I also feel that we should not make claims about guns and gun safety that are easily torn to shreds by batshit people who do think every home should have a gun, and that we shouldn;t concern ourselves with the storage of those guns or the laws which we have in place regarding the same, or that the fields of freedom must be continually watered with blood. We'd be making it too easy for them. /2cents

[Minimalist]

The problem with stats is that they are bloodless numbers.  Take the last case.  Do you suppose that flying off for "emergency surgery" is the end of it?  If he survives the surgery someone is going to have to deal with a brain damaged 3 year old for the rest of his life.  They were living in a fucking trailer in Wichita Falls, Texas.  I rather doubt the family will be able to pay for his care.

Everyone fixates on the dead in these incidents.  The survivors can be far more costly.  I wonder how much that adds to 'Murrica's shitty health care problems?

[The Grand Nudger]

Agreed, the survivors are..as callous as it may sound, a bigger issue...if only because they are -far- greater in number.  Billions in costs and lost productivity, iirc. No way to count the anguish.

[Minimalist]

Actually, that didn't take anywhere near as long as I thought it would.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015...in-america

At $229 billion, the toll from gun violence would have been $47 billion more than Apple's 2014 worldwide revenue and $88 billion more than what the US government budgeted for education that year. Divvied up among every man, woman, and child in the United States, it would work out to more than $700 per person.
But even the $229 billion figure ultimately doesn't capture what gun violence costs us. For starters, there are gaps in what we know about long-term medical and disability expenses specifically from gunshots. Miller's research accounts for about seven years of long-term care for victims, and for lifelong care for those with spinal-cord or traumatic brain injuries.