Natural selection in action, Alabama style:
(BAY MINETTE, Ala.) The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office said a small child accidentally shot his mother, after finding the gun near his injured father’s side.
And how was the father injured? He tripped and fell, accidentally shooting himself in the leg with the loaded Glock he was carrying.
I know it pisses off the 2nd Amendment fundies every time I point this out, but study after study shows that the number one risk factor for death or injury due to firearms is availability. I’m just sayin’.
Again, facts are foolish things, to fools.
But fantasies are apparently endemic to gun nuts.
Thank you, Judy Brown. It’s so much easier having a discussion with someone when the other person proves that they’re an idiot right off the bat.
Yes, your idiocy is a shame, but I was too polite to use that term.
And, of course, I’m also aware that ad hominem attacks are not only a logical fallacy, but indicate that the arguer has no valid argument to make.
I’m trying to find the sarcasm in @1’s post, but it isn’t popping up. Am I missing something, Swearengen?
I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but I would like to point out that the state with the strictest gun control laws is also the state with the most gun crime (California). Just sayin’.
Personally, I’m in favor of gun control. We should be allowed to have guns, but they should not be easy or quick to procure.
@57
If you ignore the population difference maybe.
Firearm murders per 100,000 (FL data not provided) –
1) DC – 18.84
2) Louisiana – 10.46
3) Alabama – 8.02
CA comes in at 3.7 and TX at 3.49. Though TX has much higher rates for Firearm Robberies and Firearm Assaults than CA.
www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/index.html
Y’all bakers toasting in a roll bread.
I wonder how many of the gun advocates here would balk at state-mandated education. Frankly, I’m glad that every driver on the road has to pass a test.
On the odd occasion I go to the firing range with my gun-owner buddies, they insist on giving me a refresher course, and I’m glad to have it.
What do you think, West Texas? Let me guess: such a move would be simply to give the state a handy list of the people who have guns for when it comes time to take them all away. Amiright?
@58: “Gun Crime” is not “Firearm Murders”. Though that is a compelling statistic!
Basically what I am saying here is that this is a complicated issue, and that anyone who says “ban guns” is probably just as wrong as someone who says “let guns flow like rivers”.
@61
All the numbers are there, the FBI breaks them into 3 categories:
firearm murders, firearm assaults, and firearm robberies.
If I had a gun that didn’t have a real safety (ie, Glock), I would at least be smart enough to not have a round chambered. What a tard.
@60: personally I think everyone should have some firearms education. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. That way people can actually decide how they feel about guns after they have felt the recoil in their hands or on their shoulder.
Should it be government mandated? No, I feel that the federal government should become less involved in peoples personal lives. I know in several states, I will use Oklahoma for example since that is where I grew up, that if you want to get a hunting license, you must pass a hunter safety course if you are an Oklahoma resident. Doesn’t matter if you are 12 and are going to take your first deer with your dad, or you are 35 and going quail hunting with friends. You have to have taken a course on hunting safety. I think this is a good thing.
As a resident of Texas, a proud gun owner, with a concealed handgun license who carries everywhere it is legal to, I have never had an issue with firearms. the only time I take issue is when someone takes a tragedy like the one above and tries to politicize it: some idiot, who shot himself, and probably deserved to learn a lesson the hard way has put his child in a position where that kid will know that she/he shot his mother. That is going to have a impact on the kid.
The more education the better, just leave the Feds out of it. Leave it to the states and the citizens to decide. How? Simple. California has draconian gun laws, and since I don’t actually own a gun that is legal in California(not impressive, most typical guns are illegal there), I will never live in California. Those that want to live in an environment where they are gun free, go there(using it as a example as I haven’t researched washington’s gun laws beyond chl’s).
But here are some statistics you should look up: the typical chl carrier in most states(hint: they have most of their teeth and above average incomes), the crime reduction stats when a state allows it’s citizens to carry concealed(hint: it isn’t going up).
Now I would pose a question to everyone: your sister/mother/grandma/ lover/ partner is walking home from work and she is confronted by 3 men that intend to do her bodily harm for what little money she has on her. What would you rather she have: a can of mace that may stop the attackers, a cellphone to call the ten minute response time cops, or a .38 special and the knowledge how to use it safely to protect herself?
Thank you for your time, I am thoroughly enjoying this discussion.
@60,
I would totally support required gun education for everyone. There are a ton of things I think should be included as mandatory in general education. Economics and personal finance, sex and reproduction, gun operation and safety, foreign relations, etc. I guess there’s just too much stuff to learn and not enough time to learn them though.
@ Venomlash,
Oh c’mon man, SLOG is 99% trolling… that’s what drives page hits… you know that!
MY grampa never owned a gun, never shot anyone, never got shot, and had the good fortune to be too young for WW1 and too old for WW2.
More Rambo fantasies from West Texas, which is where I hope he stays.
The facts are plain: the odds you or your children be shot and/or killed zoom up if you live with a gun nut.
And God help the neighbor kid who visits a gun nut home.
In fact, you’re more likely to be shot, killed, or maimed by gunfire if you live in a gun nut state, county or city.
Those odds are also enormous when compared to the miniscule odds that the gun will be used in one of the gun nut “deterrent” fantasies.
There’s no good explanation for the gun nut obsession and fantasies other than the Freudian. But apparently, a penis substitute is more important to the gun nut than the reality of blood spilled.
@57
Did you REALLY never consider that the state with by far the largest population would of course have the most incidents of everything — including gun crimes?! As an old teacher used to say, it is obvious to the casual observer that you can only compare states by using per capita stats.
@52
Your guns are such a great deterrent in Texas, that you have a 50% higher robbery with firearm rate than California. Sounds to me like they’re coming armed in case the homeowner is.
About 40% of American households have a gun in them. The idea that this country would ever limit gun ownership in the way Britain or Australia did is as much a fantasy as a self-styled Rambo fighting marauders off his property with his AK.
To split hairs on each and every word of the second amendment is, at best, a form of intellectual masturbation when there are literally hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of citizens. They exist, they cause problems, and we should be able to have a reasonable discussion about who can own them (preferably not the bat-shit crazy) and how they can be legally used.
But we can’t have this discussion.
Because of the polarized, foaming-at-the-mouth tone at both ends there can be no reasonable compromises.
If you control for other factors, (poverty in particular), the statistical correlation between gun ownership and gun violence basically disappears. Of the top ten cities with the highest rates of gun violence, three are located in New Jersey, which has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the country. There simply is no factual, statistical argument that adequately links legal gun ownership with gun violence.
@64 – How about you pose that question directly to me, that five foot tall, 110-pounds-soaking-wet girlfriend-lover-sister-mother-blah blah?
Don’t bother. I’d rather be mugged than give you an excuse to live out your weird protector fantasy. And I’m not sure what the hell you’re so afraid of but please stop using me as an excuse to indulge your firearms fetish because I’m doing just fine over here.
Love,
Your Mother