AWKWARD ZOMBIE

So you expect every single person in the entire country to have a gun and a bulletproof vest. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?

I don't see why bulletproof vests would be illegal, anyway? Nobody has even been killed by a vest.

Here are some fun things! Homocides by firearms per 100,000 people:

The graph shows countries that can be considered to be on an equal stage in terms of development as the United States.
We blend in pretty well with third-world countries in terms of "getting shot to death". Kind of shameful for a country that thinks of itself as a leader on the world stage. I could hang out in Haiti, Cuba, Iraq, or Afghanistan, and statistically be less likely to be shot. (We aren't THE WORST but nobody really holds Russia, Mexico, and the Honduras the same standards as the USA and Europe.)


This is not true in all states. In far too many (read: any AT ALL) of them you can walk into a Walmart, buy a rifle, and then walk out.

A background check does piss all for determining if someone might have violent intentions. Sure, if someone has fifteen prior convictions for beating up someone in a bar, MAYBE not sell them a weapon? There was that woman in 2009 who used a gun at a firing range to kill her son and then herself (she thought she was the anti-christ or something). SHe had no history and would have passed every test.



I take a personal interest in gun control on account of that time someone was willing to point a gun at me for $150 in cash.

Guns suck. People who think they need to have them because "buh mah freedoms" have seriously got priority problems. You use them for hunting? That's great. One or two shot rifles should be enough for anything any sane person wants to go after. No civilian NEEDS to own a gun and no civilian should have access to automatic weapons ever.

Reminds me of the people who said Newtown wouldn't have happened if all teachers or students had guns. Also wasn't there a school that allowed all kids to carry guns shortly after that?

I don't think you can trust people to be responsible with their shiny deadly toys. It's scary how often you hear stories about people in the US who pulled their gun at the drive-thru because they didn't get enough ketchup or some other bullshit reasons.

My opinion is that yeah, you can't outright ban firearms, but people shouldn't feel compelled to own guns in the first place. America's gun culture is terrifying. Of course people are going to fear for their lives when every other person they meet everyday could kill them because everybody has a gun to protect themselves from other people who have guns. If fewer people had guns, then fewer people would need guns.

I think "freedom" gets thrown around so much in the US that it has lost all its meaning. Is living in constant fear "freedom"? Aren't you more "free" when you can just live your life peacefully?

I support gun control, but that's kind of the default by now where I live. At this point in time, I think the US is too set in its ways to ever relinquish its firearms. A large portion of the culture holds through the Second Amendment (which would be IIRC really difficult to ratify?) that they have that right to bear weaponry. And overturning one of the founding values of a country is bound to be hard.

Look at where I live, Australia. We actually started with some form of gun control (what can you expect, at the time more than half of us were criminals), though it was really limited because firearms were necessary in order to deal with Aboriginal raids (a touchy subject of which I don't really want to go over right now). As society continued to build, guns continued their only light restrictions given that civilians still had to deal with bushrangers (and duel, which is badass but not particularly healthy) and prepare rudimentary defenses in case of invasion. For a long time, gun laws were governed on a state-by-state basis.

After World War I, the rise of communism and the whole 'red scare' deal had a profound effect. While in the US I understand this meant citizens felt more driven to protect themselves (Not sure on this, feel free to correct me US guys) it inspired a more 'they could be any one of us' fear in Australia, and logically that meant that the best way to deprive communists of guns was to deprive citizens of guns. Of course, this was still on a state-by-state basis.

True nation-wide gun control didn't come in 1996, when a horrific shooting (with 35 dead and more injured) prompted instant action. Gun laws were tightened. It didn't quite finish the job, though. The laws were modified again in the early 2000's after another shooting or something.

So here gun control had been a long time coming, it'd tightened its grip on society over the entire nation's history. Even then there was controversy (I remember reading somewhere that to stop the 1996 laws being passed, a bunch of shooters tried to join the liberal party. They were rejected, even when they took it to the supreme court.) Fun fact: Prime Minister John Howard wore a bulletproof vest when he announced the laws to the public.

For similar revolution to happen in the US you need a majority in Congress, right? I don't think that's gonna happen for a long time, if ever.

The first Red Scare - after WWI - was, to put it simply, mass xenophobia. The second Red Scare - after WWII - was actually more of a "they could be any one of us" mindset with a later characterization as "anti-intellectual", mostly due to McCarthyism and Hoover vs. the CIA pretty much ruining everything. I'm really not sure about the aftermath of that. There was probably a lot more patriotism after the first Red Scare.

This is basically it and it's kind of disturbing that there are people who are adamant that they absolutely HAVE to own a gun. How awful of a place are you living in if you genuinely believe you can't go without one??

I'm not sure that the debate isn't a moot point by now. To completely get rid of guns in the US would be an impossible task. But keeping guns out of the hands of people with malicious intent seems just as hard. I've seen guns bring nothing but misery here. I wish there was a solution here, but the situation is just too messy and I don't know what more can be said.

I don't think the suggestion was to make bulletproof vests illegal but that it's ridiculous to consider it reasonable for everyone's safety to be contingent upon wearing one.

Let's keep the gun talk rolling Iowa grants gun permits to the blind

WHY

I mean if they've been blind for long enough they could, in fact, rely on hearing

But

WHY

Okay, while I'm against outright banning firearms, I've gotta say, that's just asking for trouble, for obvious reasons.

Now, I've got a question about the church shooting. Didn't the shooter post pictures of himself with guns and rebel flags, spouting racist propaganda or something like that? With all the data collection the government's doing, which is ostensibly to catch terrorists, if they had noticed this guy, the authorities would have had plenty of probable cause to arrest the guy and prohibit him from having access to weapons, as long as that due process thing is involved. Calling for a second civil war and saying racist shit, while showing that he had weapons and that he intended to use them should have at least been enough for them to bring him in and (at least temporarily) take his weapons. A judge could later have looked at the evidence and then issued an order prohibiting him from having access to firearms again.

At least, I think. Not completely sure.

You're saying the government should have the authority to take guns away from people if they say threatening things on the internet? At what point do you cross over from protected "free speech" to get-arrested-just-for-saying-that-stuff speech?

I think a lot of people would have a problem with that.

Protecting the public from hate crimes and terrorism is a great cause, but is it worth infringing on our freedoms to do it? That's something we still haven't figured out.

Threatening someone or a group of people is generally not protected under free speech and it really should be that way.

Here's the thing, People Post retarded shit just to get noticed. There are TONS of People who post empty threats.
Also This Happened

Maybe some consequences would be good for the idiots who post empty threats to not run their fucking mouths then? There's way too much "it doesnt count if it happens online" shit going on as it is.