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

[krispos42]

103. Ah, intelligent dialogue.

Thank you. It can get stale in the Gungeon.

I don't know that the number of guns has tripled since 1970-ish; our population has increased by 50% (from 205 million to 310), so that would mean that our per-capita gun ownership rate about doubled in the intervening time. I did find this interesting graph in the Gungeon several years ago, if it's of any interest.

It shows gun ownership going from about 6,800 per 10,000 in 1981 to about 8,100 per 10,000 in 2006, a 25-year span. Extrapolating back to 1971 would seem to lead to about 6,300 per 10,000 in 1971.





For what it's worth.

However, we have to note that our non-gun homicide rate is higher than Western European nations' total homicide rate. And since an unknown but probably large percentage of gun-related murders would still be committed with "other" if, say, guns magically turned into rust tomorrow. Remember, we have about 16,000 murders a year, committed by about 15,000 or so people (most murders are single-victim).

Yeah, we could maybe save lives by embarking on a multi-generational process to disarm Americans. It would go something like this:

Step 1: Immediately outlaw news sales of self-loading firearms, including handguns. This would limit people to bolt-action, slide-action, lever-action, break-action and muzzle-loading long guns. Institute licensing and registration of new guns.

Step 2: Prohibit selling or inheritance of self-loading firearms to anybody but the government. The government will be required to pay fair market price for all self-loading firearms, then destroy them. This would probably encompass about 80 million handguns and another 60 million or so self-loading rifles and shotguns. At, say, $1,000 each average, that works out to $140 billion in today's dollars.

Step 3: Prohibit selling or inheritance of firearms that feed from a magazine or have multiple chambers per barrel. This limits new guns sales to break-action single and double rifles and shotguns, and muzzle-loading shotguns and rifles.

Step 4: Wait. As the gun owners age and die off, eventually the number of handguns and multi-shot long guns drops to near zero. At least in theory. So does the number of murders... at least in theory. Several decades later, as the drop in civilian guns finally begins to make a dent in gun available to career violent criminals. At least in theory.

Step 5: Deal with a persistent problem of angry or desperate gun owners selling their guns to criminals for loads of cash, and gangs and cartels either producing their own or corrupting the police to acquire them.


Or we can just legalize pot and maybe a few other recreational drugs for an immediate reduction in murder, robbery, and home invasions.



Regarding the "life bubble", I was merely pointing out that when something like the Dark Knight Massacre happens, people get jarred out of their usual perception of their surroundings. This also happens after a car crash; I was in a pretty bad one 2 years ago. I escaped unscathed (not a scratch) but the car was wrecked. And I was extremely aware of the potential consequences and the kinetic energies of moving vehicles for a few days afterwards, until my usual bubble reestablished itself.

I am comforted by the fact that my usual highway driving habits have resulted in zero accidents in about 17 years; when the guy hit me I was towing a trailer in the RH lane at 55mph, instead of cruising at 70 in the LH lane.



Note that my car is on the median. When the guy hit the trailer, I was jackknifed into the middle lane, where he then T-boned me to the median. That's right... across three lanes of heavy Sunday afternoon traffic!

I'm sorry your brother is such a poor decision-maker; like all interests there is a practical limit which he seems to be far in excess of. While I don't know if he has murder potential, it does sound like he has definite accident potential.

And the 2nd Amendment is not immunity from misuse, I would like to note.