Chinese teenager kills eight wounds five in spree of violence

[Associate Justice PiT]

You probably should point out that if he had access to a handgun/rifle, he would probably have killed 20, not 8 ...

In this case he probably would have killed fewer.  It sounds as if others tried to grapple him as he fled and he used his knife on them so he could get away.  If he'd had a gun those samaritans would have been less likely to get in his way.  Also, it sounds as if this was an impulse crime. Once his handgun was out of ammo, he couldn't have hurt others too easily, since he would have been unlikely to have carried more than a single normal-sized clip.

     The way that guns are treated as weapons of exceptional killing power, it's easy to see how poor decision-making on the part of bystanders could lead to an inflated body count in a knife rampage. Media regularly overstates the effectiveness of firearms for dramatic effect. Knives get little respect by comparison.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Are the gun nuts trying to convince me of something? They're just making themselves look pretty silly right now.

     The truth can look silly. That is why silliness is altogether irrelevant.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Based off my initial findings, it appears that non-firearm related homicides are somewhat higher in countries that have blanket bans on guns. Example: there are as many stabbings per capita in Finland as there are in America. That's pretty counter-intuitive based on Finland's far lower crime rate and standard of living. Congratulations to all of the really, really funny people who contributed to this thread. You have managed to indirectly convince me that gun control is possibly less effective than advertised.

Does gun control reduce gun-related violence? Yes. It's undeniable. I hope that at the very least those who are in favor of our lax policy at least admit to that.

     On a more serious note, gun laws are a reflection of the social norms of their community. Blanket gun bans succeeded in England due to a lack of any substantial gun culture there. They could make it legal to buy an AK-47 at your local pharmacy and I suspect few people would. On the other hand, gun control laws are lax in the United States due to resistance from a deeply ingrained gun culture. If all guns were banned here, many people would just buy them illegally.

     My point is, there are plenty of reasons to think that gun control doesn't work that well. I am sure that it is not completely ineffectual, but its proponents are best characterized as hyperbolic. Well, that's true for any side of any issue. This is politics, after all.