This does not excuse nor explain the preponderance of male, black, and poor victims.

Yeah, I’m not doing that at all. Were you going to answer the question, though?

No, I just seriously pointed out a seriously misleading claim.

Innocent in this usage meaning not directly involved in a criminal lifestyle, so male crooks shooting male crooks doesn’t count.

In the letter, Clements calls on the actress to “demand change” and “Be a voice for our generation and for women — two groups who make up most of the victims of the gun violence in our country.”

No dispute that violence against women is an under-considered aspect of the larger conversation on guns, but the notion that women are the primary victims of gun homicide is the exact opposite of what’s true:

But Madam’s Organ sure does!

It doesn’t always come out in the direction it’s pointed. Happens at random. Sometimes it’s in one main stream and a diverted side stream. By the time you notice, you’ve shot about two tablespoons in a completely unexpected direction before you can clench and stop the stream. If you’re lucky it’s still the toilet…

Yeah, I’ve seen that happen but I don’t get it. I see a link to the blog entry.

It’s worth pointing out that in a real “Lord of the Flies” incident, the outcome was nothing like the novel - the boys worked together, used the buddy system, and protected each other until rescue came, 15 months later:

these kids have a fucking right to be in this fucking country,ok?

I guess the question is - if we know that no gun control will eliminate these tragedies completely, then how far should we go trying to reduce the prevalence of a class of crime that is already meteorically rare?

Assault rifles are great for hunting - they’re lightweight, modular, accurate, and reliable. People use wood-stock bolt-action rifles when they hunt for the same reason they drive stick shift - it’s part of the trip, not because it’s actually better. People who need to hunt for food hunt with AR-15 style modular…

Don’t see how that can be true, because Kellerman estimates - using the narrowest possible definition of defense gun use, “gun fired to stop imminent threat of death” - that guns are used defensively almost 80,000 times a year.* Gun homicides are somewhere on the order of 30-40,000.

“Is there anyone you can call?”

There are people who deal with mentally unstable people all the time.

She must not be very smart either, since, out of fear for her son might harm himself, she called someone so they could use force against him.

Look, I’ll be as plain as I can because you’re not very smart.

you’ll note that 123 out of 461 is outrageously disproportionate based on the overall percentage of mentally ill people in the general population. SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG WITH THIS.

I never said the police can de-escalate every conceivable interaction.