America's politicians are so awesome some people buy two.

I'm nauseated beyond polite description.

"That's just an NRA talking point" is not a refutation of an argument; it's an admission of defeat.

First of all: We don't even know what the NRA does or doesn't say because no one is providing citations. It seems those accusing me of citing the NRA are far more familiar with their material than I will ever be. They either know NRA material front and back (which usually entails financial support of the group) or they're just parroting a trope.

Presumably everything the NRA says is factually incorrect. If the NRA said the sky was green it would be a simple matter to discuss how light is refracted in the atmosphere into which wavelengths of the spectrum and thus perceived by the human eye.

But those shouting "That's just an NRA talking point" never provide such presumably ready facts. They simply drop the statement and flee the discussion as if it were some rhetorical caltrop.

So what are we to think of this then? If we have no citation that the NRA claims a certain thing and -- particularly -- no evidence that the thing is in error we can only be left to assume the interlocutor has no countering argument.

"That's just an NRA talking point" isn't so much a rebuttal as it is a cry of, "Uncle!"

Put him in a hole he can never climb out of.

Suppose the Controllers got their fantasy of an Australian style requirement to surrender firearms in exchange for a stipend but the program produced substantially low turn-ins, i.e. registration laws currently show less than 5% compliance.

How should the authorities deal with non-compliance?

A) Overlook it. We don't need another War on X.

B) Wait until the owners do something otherwise lawful like, self defense, then prosecute them.

C) Compile records from background checks, FOIDs and registries to actively find the offenders

D) Other

I've read elsewhere that the "bail-in" could take 30% of all depositor accounts over $8,000EU. Considering tax dodging is the Greek national sport I'm not too torn up about that but the fact remains plenty of Greeks who do responsibly pay their taxes are going to get caught up in that without recourse. Why bother doing the right thing if you get hit twice while the cheaters only get hit once?

And 6 months or more of currency controls? That alone can devastate an economy -- assuming you actually have an economy. Methinks a robust underground is in the making but while that is good for individual Greeks it will only exacerbate the lack of revenue being collected by the state which in turn throws off the recapitalization projections being used to underwrite the bail-outs.

The smart money would be to accept the black market then work to incentivize turning it white. People are smart and resourceful and will work in their own best interest without a bunch of cronies/eggheads in distant capitals telling them what to do. It's weird, it's almost as if humans were meant to be free or something. So, instead of trying to overly control this phenomenon the twits in Brussels, Berlin and Athens should allow this wholly natural behavior to work for the betterment of all. The people will be the ultimate beneficiaries and that's supposedly why we have government in the first place.

Emphasis mine.

You guys may remember the OP. He posted here for a few days before retreating to less challenging environs. I must say, that's an interesting theory he has going. This is not isolated either.

Just yesterday I replied to a poster in GD that suggested whoever was ran Dylan Roof's background check deliberately overlooked disqualifying history so as to facilitate the rampage shooting.

This just underscores my curiosity from observing that many Controllers subscribe to such lurid fantasies of widespread violence -- while insisting on being defenseless. Meanwhile, I feel fairly confident that the pro-RKBA posters here must be scratching their heads at this silly fear-mongering.

He slipped through the cracks because law enforcement -- you know, the ones who would enforce gun laws -- couldn't get the information that would have disqualified him into the NICS in a timely manner.

A vendor can put the exact same amount of information into the system in order to perform a BGC to facilitate a sale at a gun show or a retail establishment but the authorities can't light the fire in time to keep a gun out of a killer's hands.

Remind me again how more laws will make this better.

Short answer -- no


First, we suicides by guns are decreasing --




Okay, but what do gun ownership rate look like?

Thee ATF states the number of guns has gone up (quite significantly, it seems) even though the number of gun owning households has decreased --

:large

The first thing this tells us (assuming people are being honest with pollsters at a time when gun owners are being vilified in the media and culture) is: The number of gun ownership is being concentrated among fewer households.

That would seem to imply that increasing the more guns a household owns lowers the suicide rate.

But what about the overall non-gun suicide rate?



For the most part suicide rates are declining regardless of the method. There are exceptions, such as, hangings among women seem to be on the uptick as a method even though suicide rates overall are in decline.

In other words, suicide rates are not tied to gun ownership.

What will things be like a week from now, a month from now, a year from now?