Subj : Republicans & Trump To : Lee Lofaso From : Kostie Muirhead Date : Mon Aug 31 2020 06:36 pm Re: Republicans & Trump By: Lee Lofaso to Kostie Muirhead on Mon Aug 31 2020 04:52 pm LL> Guns are not a "force equalizer", but a weapon of terror. LL> There are more public mass shootings in the USA than in any other LL> country in the world. Do you care about shootings, or killings? They lead in civilian involved shootings, but barely register in terms of overall violent crime or mass killings as a whole. LL> About 66% of US gun owners own multiple guns. And? Completely irrelevant to anything. That's equivalent to changing a discussion about driving age to how many cars are in a household. Data being related does not make it relevant. LL> Guns are manufactured to kill people. Usually people who want LL> to kill themselves, rather than others. LL> Of course, only one gun is all that is really needed to off oneself. LL> Along with one bullet. LL> Personally, I like the Japanese way. No gun, or bullet, required. Ok, if you're seriously comparing the morality of different ways to off oneself I really have to wonder about your thought process. LL> If someone is intent on killing himself, he is going to find a way LL> to do it. Even if it kills him. Same if someone is intent on killing LL> someone else. But most kill themselves before they kill someone else. Umm, Ok. That's kind of exactly what my point is - the implement is the last thing you should be looking at if you actually want to affect change. Changing access to implements without addressing root causes doesn't actually change anything. LL> Kind of hard to do a mass shooting with a knife. Columbine would Mass *shooting* yes, mass *killing* no. There's mass stabbing and killings with other bladed weapons ALL THE DAMN TIME in the world. We've fairly recently seen a mass murder rivaling any shooting conducted with nothing more than a rental truck. If you don't like guns, that's fine. But arguing that somehow changing the second amendment in the US is going to stop all the issues with violence is *at best* just a waste of energy that's far better spent nearly anywhere else. There's major cultural, socio-economic, media, political, and mental health access issues that do *actually* need attention and would *actually* pay dividends. Gun control is at best just safety theatre in the same vein as the overly intrusive TSA nonsense one has to deal with if travelling in the US. Do you think that preventing a 90 year old woman from carrying too much shampoo onto a plane actually does anything to prevent someone crashing it into a building? === Underminer The Undermine BBS - bbs.undermine.ca:423 Fidonet: 1:342/17 --- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux * Origin: The Undermine - bbs.undermine.ca:423 - Calgary, AB (1:342/17)