It's the culture. It's avoiding the "my neighbor is out to get me" thought people have. You can have a lot of guns. Canada and America are similar here. But the fear of your neighbor and everyone around you (including the damn government) creates a mindset that isn't healthy when in possession of such a weapon. Of course education, poverty etc hurt and also are causes of higher levels of crime. But the way people think about guns and "my cold dead hands" perpetuates people having guns on them 24/7 and escalating situations which rarely escalate elsewhere.

LOL. Weren't you the one fiercely opposed to drawing premature conclusions in the Zimmerman case? Wanted to wait until all the facts were in.

Also you offering a blanket criticism of (anyone specific?) logic might actually be the most ridiculous part of this thread.

Let's reframe this thing. How's your understanding of economic principles?

Lower the cost of something and you move along demand curve to a new, higher, equilibrium. The cost (i don't mean $$, i mean time, risk, emotional exposure) of killing someone is much lower if you have a gun than if you don't.

If your point is that individuals with numerous brain injuries on steroids shouldn't own guns, I'd be inclined to agree.

Now how you enforce that without running afoul of everyone's civil liberties is beyond me.

So with Zimmerman, it's a rush to judgment. With the NFL player, even though we have even more immediate facts, we're already sure he's on steroids (not the drugs/alcohol widely reported) and has CTE!

How good is your understanding of psychology?

You do understand that attempting to apply logically driven cost/benefit analysis to individuals who behave in these manners quite often causes you to arrive at faulty conclusions, correct?

I mean, we get it, he shot her. Then himself. Many of you view this individual as a fallen deity. I get that too.

But this is a ridiculous situation to blame the gun.

There's a lot of blame to go around, least of which is his ability to purchase a gun (which, it's worth noting, you could hardly hamper for an individual with the financial means this man possessed in any event).

The steroids are a safe assumption for a pro athlete. If "mind altering substances" makes you more comfortable, I'll go with that.

Also, I'm going to go ahead and state anyone who believes its possible to be a pro linebacker without suffering repeated concussions at some juncture from childhood to now is a bit naive.

People die because of fast food and driving fast. If you want to start putting restrictions on the types of heavy artillery that some people can still buy, go ahead. If you are looking to get rid of all guns, like Costas apparently thinks we should, I would say you are a reactionary child. Everyone is going to die. If this issue is so important to you than go ahead and move somewhere like the UK where people can't own a gun. I kind of don't get why an American gun activist even exists. It's like being a fast food nut who lives inside of a McDonalds. Just go ahead and move to another country that is more in line with your ideals not a country where the 2nd ****ing amendment is something you are deeply opposed to. I don't even own a gun but I am so sick of the media making a huge deal out of this. It is all for profit. They cream their shorts every time there is a gun incident. There are millions of hunters in this country. Guns are not and should not be outlawed, but yes machine guns should be.

I haven't read this whole thread, but that has to be the worst comparison in this thread, right?

Hint: Dying a few years earlier because of lifestyle choices is not the same as being murdered.

Lolz.....my point was that without guns in the house this murder would been much less likely to have happened. A thought you apparently agree with but also pretend is stupid..... if somebody you've prejudged as anti gun says it

Have you and neblis thought about arguing for gun control as the best way to convince people it's bad

FYP

Costas (via the article he was quoting) was very specifically talking about handguns.

You're really bad at playing the reverse racist card FWIW

You didn't understand

Why don't we make it illegal to produce cars that go faster than the speed limit?

how about we make it illegal to produce cars that go faster than 30 mph!

I don't know if you are criticizing me or defending me but Costas wants to leave hunting weapons as legal but hand guns as illegal? And so all the people who want to own a hand gun today are not going to want to own a hunting weapon tomorrow?

What happens when another NFL players kills his gf with a hunting weapon? At that point it will be the time to ban those as well?

Ok so we agree if this individual didn't have a gun, a >0 probability exusts that this murder doesn't occur. Where do we go from here?

Also, my disagreement is not with the statement that there's a chance this murder doesn't occur without a gun, it's with the statement that this murder doesn't occur without a gun.

Why don't we jump to even more conclusions without reading the article or showing a simple understanding of it why thinking the gun control would be like banning cars going over 30 mph or somehow controlling the dietary habits of everyone.

he and the article writer are also clearly complete assclowns. whats your point?

No one's arguing with you there DBJ. Let's say at random numbers that 10% of the time this happens with a gun, 3% without. (Yes, these numbers are completely arbitrary, but unimportant) Next you find out why these numbers are seemingly much higher in America then other countries with similar gun ownership habits of course.

Neither really, I was just clarifying what he said which wasn't:

LOL.

That post had nothing at all to do with racism.

A dog-whistle, while most commonly associated with racism, is really any type of statement used to say one thing while actually meaning another.

Phrases such as "sensible gun control" fall into this category.

So people die because we have so many guns. Where we go from is to ask are the benefits (um, hunting, collecting.. paranoia?) worth the costs. I obviously think the answer is resoundingly no but I'm sure you would disagree.


No reasonable person would say that. I don't believe I've said that, if I did it was hyperbole.