Somehow lots of economically-disadvantaged people maintain car and renters insurance.

That’s not a bug, that’s a feature.

Meaning that it’ll be the same routine of hyper-aggressive law enforcement going full Terminator in low-income and minority neighborhoods, with the added bonus of random terrorism from fringe nutjobs whose fears will suddenly and idiotically validated by the “Yes we are coming to take your guns” crowd.

It is too many. Which should make you wonder why the people compiling these statistics don’t think it’s enough.

Apparently it does need misrepresentation, since the numbers of tiny children shot in cold blood weren’t producing the desired level of action. Basically what the people compiling these numbers are saying is, “Look, it’s obvious that you’re all callous scumbags who don’t care about 200 dead kids, so we’re going to…

Yeah, I like, didn’t say that it was totally normal. I said we’re an anomaly even among countries that have firearms ownership approaching ours. The problem I’m having is with this push to try and make people more afraid by gaming the numbers so they think there are random mass shootings occurring every second of…

Big surprise, you asked for one, and when you got it you acted like it didn’t matter. But I don’t expect much from people who focus on gun violence as if people killed by other means aren’t actually as dead.

They asked for one. I gave them one. I’m sure if we applied the same standard the Gawker community is now using to define “mass shooting” to the UK and Australia, we’d find there have been quite a few more than zero since their gun laws were passed. Sorry if that makes you angry, you should really work on that.

You’re also allowed to own short-barreled shotguns and rifles without any special licensing, where we are not. Other countries allow the purchase and ownership of silencers with no more controversy than if you were going to the hardware store to pick up a hammer, where the US still bans them entirely in some states…

Good job, bomb nuts.

Name me a mass shooting in the UK since Dunblane

The impulse to “do SOMETHING” is a panic reaction. It’s informed by fear, not facts. “Do SOMETHING” is what gave us the War on Drugs. “Do SOMETHING” is what gave us the Patriot Act and the War on Terror. The alternative is not “throw in the towel”, that is black-and-white absolutist thinking. What we should be doing…

What I said is that the data is not dishonest and explained why it is not dishonest

You’ve managed to hit every single point that angers them the most. Someone should be along shortly to scream at you about how you have a small dick and you’re most likely going to shoot everyone in your family.

You said the issue wasn’t the sensationalism of the media, or how they track data, and that the real problem is our “gun worshipping culture”. Would I be correct in thinking that therefore anything drawing attention to what you believe is the real problem is then acceptable even if it is somewhat dishonest?

If you’re okay with statistical data being manipulated in such a fashion, then there’s really nothing else that I can say.

The problem with some of these statistics is that you have to have a way to differentiate between something like gang on gang violence and terror attacks like what has happened today and in Colorado.

Oh ffs, the golden boy of the gun control crowd, Michael Bloomberg, is worth more than the entire firearms industry combined. He’s all ready outspent the NRA six-to-one during several different legislative fights. Maybe the reason you keep losing is not because of the money.

So, CA’s firearms laws changed due to ignorance and bigotry, and the response is “We need more of that”. Yeah, great idea.

The increase in mass shootings is artificial. Incidents like Sandy Hook are not becoming more common, they’re just being lumped in with any shooting that satisfies the current popular definition here at Gawker, which is any shooting involving a minimum of four people. So now gang shootouts and family annihilators are…