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The (evil, evil) Gun Thread
So what with all the discussion on this topic in other threads, I thought it would be a good idea to make a thread with all this shootytastic fun in.
Firstly it seems really strange that fact that you can purchase a handgun with minimal checks on you mental health . Secondly, what is up with the second amendment xIpLd0WQKCY
Firstly it seems really strange that fact that you can purchase a handgun with minimal checks on you mental health . Secondly, what is up with the second amendment xIpLd0WQKCY
Comments
In any case, I've already said my bit. I'm not arguing that I do not need target training with guns, but I think the fact that Kate wouldn't come over anymore if I had a rifle is weird, because there are other things that I own and do that are also martial in their origin. She insists that it is different because it is a more powerful weapon. I argue that it is still just an inanimate object that if owned by a smart, responsible person is not to be feared. Handled carefully, in the proper setting, but not feared. That's the summary.
It is that a sword poses an obvious, extremely deadly threat (in anyone's hands) and I do not condone their use. Intruders could utilize it, an accident could happen, etc.
However, I'll just point out some past threads similar to the subject.
As for your sword, Emi, I am lot more likely to survive a sword wound than a gun shot and I would take my chances with a sword over a gun any day.
Moreover, if there was effective gun control in place, the attacker would not likely have a gun, thus making escape or grappling him/her to the ground far more likely.
These arguments are for pacifism, not for gun control. If you want to be a pacifist, that's fine. Don't dress it up as an argument against guns when the things you are saying about guns apply to a bunch of other things as well.
Hell, my sister, who has thrown a knife not more than twice in her life, has a good chance of hitting a person sized target well enough to cause considerable harm.
Also, I suggest taking up knife throwing. It's fun, and a cheap hobby to participate in. My apologies, but I must agree. There can be No compromise on gun control. Accept a reasonable level of control with mostly freedom for the gun owners, or ban them all. Your compromise is meaningless - given a good rifle and the correct ammunition, I have the proven ability to hit a man sized target with deadly force out to 2500 yards from a cold bore. It doesn't matter that I only have one shot, because I only need one at a time, and I can always reload. If you're willing to compromise despite this, then it makes your entire argument into a pointless farce. There is no "I'm willing to eliminate all guns but a very specific sort" - it is an all or none proposition from the position you argue. As has been said before, Trained and insufficiently trained drivers kill and injure others with far greater frequency. It's also far easier for someone to obtain a car - you don't even need a license, background check or waiting period - and far easier for an under-trained, over confident person to kill or injure others with a car than a firearm.
So unless you're lobbying to get rid of cars first, then you are essentially arguing from a position where human life is meaningless. What a Firearm was designed to do isn't relevant, what you do with it is.
Pens are designed to write, but that is irrelevant to the fact that one lodged in someone's clavicular notch is probably going to kill them without prompt medical assistance, and if you lodge one in someone's head, then it's unlikely that medical attention will help them at all. About the only statement in this that is even vaguely correct is that Knife crime and other violent crime are still possible, though it ignores the fact that as the UK proves, in a nearly firearm free environment, they simply become more common of an implement used in violent crime.
It's actually quite hard to defend yourself against a knife. You can't control a knife someone else is holding nearly as easily, and just about any attempt to do so without very serious training in almost guaranteed to get you seriously injured, and even then, it can get very dicey - Pardon me to again speak from experience, but I'm a very well trained martial artist, and the last time a knife was pulled on me, even though I survived, and by any standard won the fight, I still have a 3 1/2 inch scar on my hip from where I was stabbed for my trouble. Also, for the sake of completeness, It's hard to armor yourself against a knife - Armor that will stop a bullet won't stop a knife - in fact, given the level of strength available to an average person, you can put a knife through a car door.
As for a knife being harder to use in a crime of passion, you know that's horseshit. A crime of passion is most commonly performed with an object that is close to hand and easiest to obtain and far, far more crimes of passion are committed with either a knife or more commonly, a blunt object. On top of that, only about a quarter of the people in the US own guns - Unless you're suggesting that gun owners are more prone to crimes of passion, then the numbers simply don't add up to support that argument. Then you're either being foolish, or you believe that guns are some fearsome voodoo magic objects that perform actions on their own. Any object is only as safe as the person interacting with it. People are stabbed on purpose far more often than they are shot on purpose, but you don't want to ban knives. People are run over on purpose and by accident far more often than they are shot - on purpose or by accident - but you don't want to ban those.
What something is designed to do is irrelevant, it's what it ends up being used for.
For a few examples, The Internet started out intending to be a distributed communications and data storage network for the army, for example. Dynamite was intended for use in Mining and other such harmless activities. Rockets were invented as weapons, and now, they also take us into space.
When I was young and at one of my lowest points, I was going to use that pistol to kill myself. I was looking down the barrel and I was getting ready to do it. The lights were on and I could see the bullets in the chambers. But then, I realized that I could also see cobwebs in the chambers and the barrel. Now, for the die-hard geeks, I understand that they probably weren't actually little spiderwebs and that they were probably just bits of dust held together by static electricity or some shit, The point was that the pistol was horribly, laughably un-clean. I didn't know if Dad even had a cleaning kit.
So I was sitting there, looking down the barrel of this unclean pistol, and I realized that if I pulled the trigger, the pistol would most likely just blow up in my hand, and I would still be alive, but with a ruined hand.
So I owe my life (or at least my right hand) to bad gun ownership habits.
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I'd like to point out that if your Dad had had good gun ownership habits, you wouldn't have been able to get ahold of the gun and ammunition in the first place.