In the last 5 months there have been at least 71 kids killed by guns. Average just under 6 years old

[DanTex]

176. It's clear anti-intellectualism.

You have some gut feeling that owning a gun makes people safer from attacks. Based on this, you are trying to paint me as trying to prevent people from defending themselves, thereby leaving them at risk in a dangerous world. This, despite the fact that I've repeatedly pointed out that none of the gun control proposals being discussed would prevent any law-abiding citizen from owning a gun.

The problem is, the data don't support your beliefs. So what do you do? You make fun of the studies, calling them "faux intellectualism" and "boatload of sexy sounding survey studies" and so on, pretty much the exact same thing that the global warming deniers and creationists do when the data doesn't support their politics. I'm not sure why you believe that your assumptions about self-defense don't need to be backed with data.

My solution is to improve everyone's safety by reducing the likelihood that they will be killed. You can't reduce the risk to zero, but you can make things much better, the way they are in Canada, or Australia, or Western Europe, etc. What's not clear about this? In a world where guns are more tightly regulated, everyone is safer. And I want everyone to be safer.

Here's a thought experiment. Suppose that in country A, where there are no guns, you have a 1% of getting murdered. In country B, where there are lots of guns, you have a 10% chance of getting attacked, but if you do get attacked, there's a 10% chance you can successfully defend yourself with your own gun. Which means that, in country B, you have a 9% chance of getting assaulted and killed, and a 1% chance of getting assaulted and defending yourself.

Which country is a safer place to live?

Get it? Costs versus benefits.