Senseless Gun Deaths thread.

[dead0man]

a semantics argument AND a strawman about race, you win the thread brother!

[dead0man]

Sensible gun laws would save lives in the United States. Unfortunately, until reform is enacted, innocent Americans will continue to die. The loss of these people is heartbreaking, but often doesn't get much coverage. I'll be posting the stories I hear about in this thread because their lives matter.

Seven-year-old girl dies after being shot in the head

Non-fatal injuries:
Man allegedly shot 2-year-old son in face with shotgun during argument with child's mom
2 children shot in road rage incident involving father

Okay, I'm listening ... go on ... state a case...

If nothing else, mandatory trigger locks for all non-police/military firearms would probably help reduce the number of deaths caused by kids playing with a parent’s poorly-stored fire arm.

indeed, it could save dozens a year.  If we reduced the speed limit to 30mph tens of thousands of lives will be saved a year (including several thousand children).  If we banned private swimming pools we could save several hundred a year.  If the state locked up every non-custodial parent that had a great than 25% chance of doing something bad to the kid(s) (ya know, the way most kids that get hurt by adults are hurt by adults) we could save a few more dozen kids.

[dead0man]

You do not have a right to artillery weapons; naval vessels and military aircraft have never been privately owned once made available to the Armed Forces (unless released for such uses as display in a museum). 

lots of private citizens own former military aircraft, there are even tanks and artillery. (who the hell is going to pay $2500 to shoot a howitzer once?...weird right?)

[dead0man]

It's my right to keep and bear arms.  It's not your right, or anyone else's right to kill unborn children.  That's my view of the world.  If you don't like it, too bad.

Law enforcement doesn't care what your view of the world is though. They will NOT prevent a woman from getting a first trimester abortion, but they WILL prevent you from owning an anti-air missle turret. If you follow your worldview far enough Fuzzy, you will be seeing your view of the world from behind bars, whilst women getting abortions will see no legal penalties. That's the reality of America. If you don't like it, too bad.

Americans can own anti-aircraft guns

[dead0man]

It's my right to keep and bear arms.  It's not your right, or anyone else's right to kill unborn children.  That's my view of the world.  If you don't like it, too bad.

Law enforcement doesn't care what your view of the world is though. They will NOT prevent a woman from getting a first trimester abortion, but they WILL prevent you from owning an anti-air missle turret. If you follow your worldview far enough Fuzzy, you will be seeing your view of the world from behind bars, whilst women getting abortions will see no legal penalties. That's the reality of America. If you don't like it, too bad.

Americans can own anti-aircraft guns

Just the bullet kind though, or can they own the missile launcher ones?

if you got the coin and fill out the right paper work (and aren't a shady piece of sh**t), you can own pretty much whatever you want.  As it should be.  The only exceptions I can think of are in the NBC weapons family (nuclear, biological, chemical), but there exceptions to those exceptions.

[dead0man]

... But it did decrease, yes?  I'd call that a success.

Not until almost a decade after the buyback, from 1996 to the mid 2000s the homicide rate was either stagnant or even increased. That isn't indicative of the buyback lowering homicide rates.

and this was while homicide rates were trending down everywhere else

[dead0man]

... But it did decrease, yes?  I'd call that a success.

Not until almost a decade after the buyback, from 1996 to the mid 2000s the homicide rate was either stagnant or even increased. That isn't indicative of the buyback lowering homicide rates.

and this was while homicide rates were trending down everywhere else

At the very least, this is evidence against the common Republican/Libertarian/Trumpist dogma that gun control increases crime, no?

I think it's a tertiary reason at best, behind culture and poverty

Are you going to deny that the lack of availability of guns (not just a "durr durr we declare they're illegal now" like your side strawmans my side of advocating, but an actual removal of them from society) is a significant factor here?

there are more legal guns in Australia now than there was when Port Author happened.  Admittedly they are in fewer hands and they tend to be shot guns (used for murder more often than all semi-autos rifles (AR15s, AK47s, any other combination of two letters and two numbers you might be afraid of) combined, but still not very much) and bolt action rifles (almost never used for murder).  As one would expect, there are a lot more illegal guns than before as well.

But since Australia doesn't have a culture of violence (how can you when everything in nature is trying to murder you) and they don't have a large population of permanently poor, it's not a very good test case.


There is one though, it's the US.  There are more people carrying more guns here than ever before, is our gun homicide rate the highest it's ever been?  No?  Weird right?  You'd think, if guns were the cause of gun violence, you'd assume more of them being carried around in the wild would lead to more gun crime yet there are many tens of thousands of Americans walking around right now with a gun in their pocket, not hurting anybody.  Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow.  And these people were not doing this two decades ago.  Now, if you want to say they're mostly paranoid, I'd 100% agree with you, because the odds of a normal person getting shot in the US are astronomically low, just like every other place in the modern west.  If you don't have crazy ex spouses, if you don't visit drug dealers, if you don't spend a lot of time in high crime areas and you happen to die, it is almost certainly not from a bullet.  Those things are very very easy to avoid for what, 95% of Americans?