This is an interesting take I haven’t seen that often, but definitely makes way too much sense.

I can agree with this - the VPC definitely seems to be anti-violence across the board (not a bad thing!) so I could see bias creeping in. But they’re the only group who’s done a somewhat recent study about defensive gun usage (Kleck’s study is from 1992ish, and David Hemenway’s from about 1998) so they really had the…

I’ve slowed down because most of the replies hiding down in the greys are saying the same things I’ve already responded to (why not ban cars! chicago! every other response we’ve heard a million times already!)

Mental health is a big deal! I’m glad we can agree on that - I guess it’s safe to assume you’d support universal healthcare with a strong focus on mental health for our great country?

1 - Gimme a source on that if you’re gonna stick so strongly to it. I’ll admit to not being incredibly well-read on mental health regulations in the 1980s; although I think we’d both be able to agree that in the last 30 years we’ve all grown exponentially in our understanding of mental health issues.

I’ll refer back to something I spoke about earlier: the Violence Policy Center did a study based on DoJ statistics from 2007-2011, and found for everyone on time a gun was used in a justifiable homicide (meaning used against someone in the act of committing a felony), there were 44 criminal homicides. 44 to 1. Not…

I can agree with you that we’re well past the point of going door to door and getting people to give up their guns, and offering a nationwide buyback program would be an insanely costly endeavor (I’m not against local municipalities trying it out though).

Thanks! I get the fact that it’s a fucking thorny issue and that there’s no miracle solution for it. It’s easier to try and find common ground and work out the nuances and maybe, just maybe, we can find a sensible solution?

The Taliban (and the Vietnamese, and the Iraqis, and so on) did well with guerilla tactics, but they were also a trained & regimented military unit. I don’t see any group in the US being able to coalesce and train to become that polished without the government taking notice of it early on.

So you’re one of the good ones, that rules! And yes, I can imagine it gets incredibly frustrating to continually be lumped in with mass murderers who access and use guns in a way that makes it easy for society to paint you all with that broad brush. Don’t you want to do something to change that?

Let’s hit your two points:

I agree, the fact that there are already laws in place that get ignored is something that needs to be changed rightthefucknow.

I’m not crazy enough to think we’ll ever get rid of guns completely; I think most rational people realize that they’re too ingrained in our culture to do an immediate and complete 180 on them. But I’m just sick and tired of this attitude that throws its hands up in the air and says we can’t do anything at all because…

As I said to someone else, saying “well if we get rid of guns, people will find other ways to kill each other” is a totally defeatist way to look at it. Should we stop funding cancer research because heart disease still exists?

You blow that dogwhistle any louder, you’re gonna give your local dogs hearing problems.

I love when gun advocates use cars as an example!

The most recent numbers I can find come from a study by the Violence Policy Center, using statistics from the Bureau of Justice & FBI. There’s a lot of interesting information in there, but the gist of their report is that in the period from 2006-2010, the ratio of criminal homicides to justified (defensive) homicides…

But here’s the thing: you really didn’t address what I was asking in the first place. You’re telling me that you’re fine with the fact that you can be randomly killed going about your daily business, simply because of the fact that the government *might* turn its armaments on the citizenry?

a) that’s less a justification and more of a dick-swinging threat;

An armed and well-regulated militia made a ton of sense 240 years ago when the army’s technology was pretty much on par with what the layperson could acquire. It doesn’t hold up as well now when the army has access to technology light-years beyond what you’re gonna pick up at the local Gunz-N-Ammo.