Because we need more stories about gun violence...

And another one.

This one didn't actually shoot at them, just threatened them with his gun.

I could go on like this for quite a while.

I actually would rather not even give credence to the premise.

^^^Perhaps, but if one makes the argument, one deserves it's ridiculousness pointed out to them!

No clearly something needs to be done but it should be done with much thought so as to actually legislate something that will actually work without infringing upon peoples rights.

My point is that it's a false distinction. Better to argue that it's a false distinction than to try and mantain that it's a kind-of valid distinction and then try to justify the distinction.

Reject the premise rather than accept the premise and then try to argue it.

Ahhhh, fair enough. But i thought i was rejecting the premise and showing why it was ridiculous to begin with as opposed to tacitly accepting it by arguing against it.

Video for MDF

Gun control, in the US, is just plain silly. You have to be living in a fantasy land, innumerate, or both, to think it is a good idea.

The main fantasy land I have in mind is the one where the government is the good guys, and it's a good idea to hand them more power and take it away from citizens. Been sleeping for the last 30+ years? Never heard of the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and the developing War on Immigrants? Haven't tried to fly on a plane or cross a border lately? More gun laws mean more policing, more police authority, and more police state.

Some math: there are already 200+ million guns out there, owned by about 80 million citizens. Total number of annual gun deaths is maybe 20 thousand, including shooting of oneself or others, and a big fragment of the latter are committed with illegal guns. Something like less than 0.01% of gun owners shoot anyone other than themselves with them per year for any reason, something like 0.005% of guns themselves or less are so used.

On the other hand, if you try to reduce this vast number of guns enough to thwart would-be shooters due to lack of access, you are talking about the gov't declaring some huge percentage of those 80 million armed people criminals and going after them. The point is to reduce gun deaths? Any attempt at significant gun control would make the Civil War look like a family picnic.

About those deaths: ~2,500,000 people per year die in the US. 600,000+ die from heart disease, 120,000+ via ordinary accidents, etc... Death by gun is only around 10,000, way less than 1% of the total, and just isn't all that many. Death by shooting up a crowd or shooting spree is actually quite rare, and even less significant - on average you are more likely to get hit by lightning, many times more likely to die from taking aspirin or drown in your own bathtub.

For thinking people who limit their intake of mass media, gun control is a non-issue, just like abortion, gay kids going to proms, "Ground Zero Mosque", etc... These aren't real, practical political issues, they are symbolic public theater - well-designed to divide and distract people from the fact that the US is transitioning into an outright Plutocratic police state.

Wow. I lost count of the non sequiturs halfway through this rambling mess.

Are guns currently "controlled" in any way, shape or form, in the US, right now? Yes, or no?

Simple question.

If you answer "no", you are saying that no law or regulation of any form constrains any kind of gun ownership or use anywhere in the US, barring the normal non-gun-specific criminal law (like, not shooting people to death, for example -- it's murder, but the relevant law is not gun-specific).

If you answer "yes", then somewhere, somehow, in some way, some kind of restraint exists on ownership and/or transfer of guns.

And if yes, then everything you have written above is total and utter drivel and you should be ashamed beyond measure for having even written it.

Not true. There are plenty of gun related events that kill people that is the direct result of poor decision making and stupidity.

Don't make the assumption that just because i own a gun that i immediately have the intent to go out and do malicious deeds. I really have no desire other than to shoot paper targets from both close and long distances.

Obviously you've never spent time around a redneck that intentionally hunts with his truck.

There are a multitude of guns that i own, that i could never use for "self defense". The round would end up potentially leaving my house and potentially hitting someone outside my house. It would be a piss poor decision to use that gun in the means of "self defense".

I also don't kill anything with my guns. Outside of a silhouettes and targets, my guns have never fired at anything living. Could i use my guns for killing or ending the life of something? Oh hell yea. But i don't want to, i also have no intent to. I own many a gun and i have absolutely no desire what-so-ever to end a human life over anything.

"Self Defense" also needs to be defined. Shooting someone running down the street carrying your television is not "self defense", that's protection of property. Self defense in my opinion means that either myself or my immediate family are in life-ending danger.

You can take all my shit, that's what insurance is for. But if i have verbally warned you that i will protect myself if you advance, and i feel as though our lives are in immediate danger, i am going to shoot you.

The chances of this happening to me are slim, very slim. Hence the reason i properly store my firearms in a locked safe as to avoid anyone getting them that shouldn't have them. The gun i do keep out is secured.

So technically, my guns weren't really made with the intent of ending anything. The intent lies solely on the shoulders of the people holding the gun. As a gun is an inanimate object that has no free will of choice.

I used to shoot competitively, i also shoot skeet. It's a skill. Nothing more, nothing less.

I don't remember the right to proper transportation being listed in the constitution.

Don't get me wrong. I entirely agree with the idea that gun sales need to be more regulated. I have no problem being licensed for my firearms, i have no problem with required classes every year, along with psychiatric evaluations or whatever else you want to throw at me. But neither side has done that. I like the idea of a background check, i wish it was more thorough.

But blaming an object for the intent of the user is kind of assanine. Blaming cars for DUIs, blaming computers and the internet for hackers, blaming any object for the act of the person using the object doesn't make any sense.

I have no illusion of going up against armed United States Military Forces, I have no desire to topple the government, i don't believe Aliens are going to attack and the only defense we are going to have is the armed citizen, i have zero belief in the "If there was just one armed citizen in that situation, it would have ended" bullshit scenario. Now the Zombie Apocalypse.....that's some scary shit right there and i am willfully prepared. (i kid, i kid)

I own guns, i like to shoot. That's it.

Not to mention that news media thrives on sensationalism, and just eats shit like this up as it sells papers.