Pathetic... Even The 'Democratic Underground' Is Afraid Of The NRA

[Pholus]

84. I misread your initial assertion then. However...

your actual assertion is just plain questionable and proves nothing. You even hint at that yourself in the last sentence. The number of guns have increased by roughly a factor of about three in the last 40 years (some pro-second amendment site I was reading) but as you hinted the fraction of self-reporting households owning guns has stayed roughly constant over the last 20 years at least (Gallup). That would seem to lead to the conclusion that the size of the average gun collection has increased while the fraction of gun owners has stayed constant. You really wouldn't expect an explosion of gun violence under that condition -- a gun owner who starts murdering people really isn't going to use more than a gun (or two or three or four) but likely not the entire collection. Haha I just argued a point for you -- guns don't kill people, people with access to guns do and fortunately that fraction is not significantly changing. It would also form a decent starting argument that guns are probably *not* the primary cause of the drop in the homicide rate, but we can save the full set of details for another time.

And arguing that things are somehow okay because we're desensitized to risk really isn't really that hot an argument either. Just as I am a safe driver, I end up having to examine other "life bubbles" to make sure that my family risk stays low. I make it a point to get to know my neighbors well because my kids might have to interact with them when I'm not there. If one of my neighbors were to be like my idiot gunloon brother (150+ gun collection, proud single issue voter, carries everywhere, too cool to practice proper gun safety, cannot manage a 10 minute conversation without turning to guns, family living in a hovel as a result) you can BET we would take extra caution around them. My dear ol bro might not be the average gun owner, but I consider people like him EVERY bit as dangerous as a drunk driver and use him as my handy guide of warning signs for all gun owners. He's not a murderer, but he is stupid and reckless and others *have* been injured as a result of that in the past. But we have a second amendment that prevents all rational discussion and so he can still have his toys.

There are other reasons to be aware of your neigbors "life bubbles," but I would like to thank everyone who tirelessly advocates so that gun ownership ends up as a firm permenent member of the list.