Interesting...

guns don't kill people... stats do.

Clearly, guns don't kill people, bullets do.  So, every gun owner gets to keep their guns, but bullets are made illegal!  Simples.  

Right! No more shootings! Bring back pistol-whipping! Pistol-whipping now, pistol-whipping tomorrow, pistol-whipping forever!

No apology to George Wallace.

Regards,

Lou

Good grief. The video from #237 is another cut and paste of slanted bits and pieces of information to make one's case....in this guy's case, it's the progressives and the communist democrats' fault! LOL Talk about photoshopping your argument!

When making comparisons, you're supposed to make them among apples with apples...not apples with marbles or oranges with birds...

Compare the stats with other developed democratic nations, for example, not with corrupt puppet, despotic governments...

Plano, Texas population is less than 260,000 in the city proper with a median income of $84k... ( using Plano - declared one of the wealthiest city in the U.S. as comparison to the rest of the world - ROFLMAO)

Detroit is a city economically decimated. Where there is a high population of impoverished there will also be higher street crimes.

"Street crime" and I say "street crime" is an economics and education problem that is perpetrated by the least educated and the disinherited of the population....this population may not be able to afford a car to even make it any job appointments or (even get the job after 2 hours of public transport to get there and $5 poorer for the cost of getting there), but guns are easyier to come by than jobs or cars -

The higher crimes, like the ones my family often fall victim to are perpetrated by the educated - getting robbed and swindled - by "businesses" -- no gunfires there, but the loss is in the 10s of thousands...

So let's get our neurons properly plugged into their sockets when addressing the matter of guns and crimes and the economico-socio complexities that lead to it.

Whatever arguments -  bullshit or not - all sides can come up with.

Guns are Evil just waiting to be activated.

Simple as that.

Video in #237 wanna make a case against progressive democrats and their non-argument against guns. How ironic is that?

Democrats - George Wallace,Gabrielle Giffords, Tommy Burks, Derwin Brown, James E Davis, Bill Gwatney, Leon Jordan, Allard Lowenstein, Harvey Milk, George Moscone, Leo Ryan, MLK jr, the Kennedys, doctors, nurses, security guards at abortion clinics could tell you another side of the story about guns.

No photoshopping the argument there.

Hmm. A conclusion with no support.

Are baseball bats evil? They are used to kill people every day.

I don't think baseball bats were created with the express intention of ending life.

This is the crux of the argument.

Those who oppose banning guns argue that lots of other things can be used as lethal weapons; cars, baseball bats, knives, etc etc...

The difference is that these things are not primary intended for this purpose, only guns are designed and inteded solely for killing.  They have no real practical purpose other than that.

And while I do not believe that guns are inherently evil, they are simply tools after all, and quite useful in the right circumstances, there is a mindset in the US which cannot contemplate life without them.  This goes beyond necessity and rationality and into the realm of obsession.  Gun owners will always argue that they need their weapons for protection.  Protection from what?  Other gun owners?  Surely the escalation in ownership required by that line of thinking does not make for a safer society; and guns do not in reality make for very good protection against other guns.  Maybe some sort of body armour would make more sense?   Yet I don't see any such thing as the National Bulletproof Vest Wearer's Association.

The other argument much espoused by NRA-ers is that an armed populace is more difficult to oppress by a tyrannical state.  Now this may have worked in the 1770's, but the game has moved on somewhat.  Sorry to break this to you, but your government now has remote drones, the Marine Corps, and nuclear warheads at its disposal; in any serious civil conflict Jeb and Billy-Bob will be seriously outmatched.   And why should a disarmed population inevitably succumb to oppression?  The US seems to be the only nation in the "civilise" world which hangs on to this notion.

So, it seems that gun ownership in the US is a deeply ingrained, cultural phenomenon, not really addressable by rational argument: guns are there to stay, for the forseeable future, along with school massacres, drive-by shootings, and accidental kills.  That is the price Americans, at leas a significant number of them, seem willing to pay.  I'll take my chances in an (almost) gun-free country.

The problem isn't guns. It's people.

We human beings have an innate talent for destroying things and as such we have developed tools to better help us accomplish this goal.

The tool doesn't matter, the method by which we destroy irrelevent. People will find a way to hurt other people. 

Take away guns, we willl use knives. Take away knives, we will use blunt instruments. Take away blunt instruments and we will use our hands and feet.

Everyone wants to pin the blame on inanimate objects and geopolitical constructs and ignore the underlying problem:

Human nature.

Do guns cause deaths? Yes. Are guns inherently evil? No. 

People are going to hurt each other. People are going to kill each other.

Guns are not evil....people are.

Yes. Guns are residences of evil. Just waiting to be activated.

In the hands of toddlers and of children - the innocents - its evil will more than likely be activated - and it has.

Knives, cars, bats...in the hands of children and toddlers do not become lethal weapons.

Dare you approach a child with gun in hand?

Article below written in 2013 --- doesn't include more fatal deaths since from guns in childrens hands

At Least 194 Children Have Been Shot to Death Since Newtown

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/children-killed-guns-newtown-anniversary

.....

.....

• 127 of the children died from gunshots in their own homes, while dozens more died in the homes of friends, neighbors, and relatives.
• 72 of the young victims either pulled the trigger themselves or were shot dead by another kid.
• In those 72 cases, only 4 adults have been held criminally liable.
• At least 52 deaths involved a child handling a gun left unsecured.

Would you approach a child driving a car?  Or waving a knife or a bat around?  Good luck with that. 

How does a 4 y.o, 5. y.o., drive a car? LOL

Kids with knives, scissors, bats...just go up to them and take it away from them! Done it many a times. LOL

I know you were being ironic, Chairmaker

I suppose the point is that guns can only facilitate violence, whether by accident or intent.  They don't cause it.   They are not "repositories for evil".  So it's a bit silly to ascribe human moral value judgements to what are really only tools. 

Is a toaster good or evil?  I doubt if you would argue either way on that question.  But if you shoved someone's hand in a toaster, would that be an evil act?  Yes, that seems clear enough for anyone to understand.

Now you've put me in the position of defending guns, Feu.  Thanks for that!

You're not actually comparing a gun to a toaster are you? LOL

I stand by what I see. Guns are evil.

I see lots of things the human race doesn't see. I don't expect them to see what they are incapable of seeing. It's like expecting a blind person to see the stars.

I know what you all are talking about - that it is just a tool. I can understand how you come to that conclusion.

But you all don't know what I'm talking about. That's alright.

It doesn't prevent me from telling you what I see, even if you don't see it.

(I'm expecting that troll, balente, to come round any second now. Am setting my clock to countdown)

Balente is not a troll. It's a force of nature, like dark energy or black holes. Ineffable and unable to have enemies, as doesn't have an hurricane.

He's a troll, basta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC03hmS1Brk

Don't insult the laws of nature - God created the laws of nature.

Balente is a troll worm, fashioned from sewage slush.