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billh58

(6,655 posts)
11. Let's see...
Sun May 12, 2013, 10:48 PM
May 2013

Killing with a knife takes a lot of physical effort, and killing with a bomb takes technical expertise. Killing with "and so on" usually takes some amount of physical effort and/or technical expertise, or a combination of both, coupled with the requirement to be relatively close to the victim (strangling, bludgeoning, smothering, "and so on&quot . Shovels and axes are unwieldy and messy, and drowning someone in a bathtub or a swimming pool is iffy at best.

OTOH, killing with an easily obtainable and readily accessible gun is relatively simple, because that is what guns are designed and manufactured for, and are very efficient at getting the job done. Point, aim, and pull the trigger -- mission effortlessly accomplished. They are perfectly legal to buy, practice with, and handguns are easily concealable. Yes, the "shooters" weapon of choice is a gun, because nothing deals death quite so beautifully as a tool designed for the purpose.

So I agree that it is "insane, dumb, careless, feckless or reckless people" who kill other people -- and themselves. It's just that guns are designed for that purpose, easy to get, and make it ever so much easier to get the job done. Most suicides by gun are successful, whereas other methods of "attempted suicide" often fail. Just like an unsafe automobile, or a faulty household appliance, an unsafe (unlocked, loaded, and accessible) gun is a public health issue.

The RKBA/Gungeon argument goes something like, "but the gun is just an inanimate tool until it is fired by a person, and it is these people that we need to blame, and not the gun." I would just like to take that one step further: it is indeed "people" that we need to blame, but the people are our politicians who have been bought and paid for by the gun manufacturers and their bag-men, the NRA. It is these people who have allowed the scourge of unaccountable and unregulated guns to plague our nation.

These are the people who have allowed the unfettered proliferation of lethal weapons to be inflicted on our society, and have allowed those "insane, dumb, careless, feckless or reckless people" easy access to fucking guns and absolutely no accountability for the source of the guns used by them. They have allowed and enabled this epidemic of gun violence on this country for nothing other than greed and profits through outright corruption.

So if you really want to phrase the "killer argument" properly, blame the people who are the source of the problem of gun violence: the right-wing, greed-driven, arms dealers, promoters, and politicians who don't give a rat's ass WHO gets to "keep and bear" guns as long as the profits and pay-offs keep rolling in.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

I agree. NYC_SKP May 2013 #1
Get rid of the violent gun users and there would be no guns either Fumesucker May 2013 #2
every case of gun violence has one thing in common, a gun. Guns kill people bowens43 May 2013 #3
they also have in common "gun owners" nt msongs May 2013 #5
Like the five year old who shot a three year old recently? Fumesucker May 2013 #6
There's A Difference Between A Gun OWNER And A Gun POSSESSOR ChoppinBroccoli May 2013 #12
Every single one of those also involves at least one human. Lizzie Poppet May 2013 #7
And yet Japan has as few as two (2) gun related deaths per year Fumesucker May 2013 #10
Apple, meet Orange. Lizzie Poppet May 2013 #17
States with strong gun laws have far fewer suicides MannyGoldstein May 2013 #19
That may be the case. Lizzie Poppet May 2013 #20
So you think I just made an argument in favor of enabling 30000 death a year? Cronus Protagonist May 2013 #14
"why do so many make such clearly inaccurate statements in postings about ..." It's what they do. AnotherMcIntosh May 2013 #4
Because that is our vernacular, is "why." Live by the sword; die by the sword. NOT "swordsman." WinkyDink May 2013 #8
In that example, "the sword" is clearly a metaphor for "violence" Cronus Protagonist May 2013 #15
Yes, yes, but it is still our vernacular. And the metaphor nonetheless supports that. It isn't "Be a WinkyDink May 2013 #22
Dog shoots man, Woman shot by oven, etc. Electric Monk May 2013 #9
Let's see... billh58 May 2013 #11
agreed but it goes further than that sigmasix May 2013 #13
Good work, my friend Cronus Protagonist May 2013 #16
Well said. n/t OneGrassRoot May 2013 #18
This message was self-deleted by its author Cronus Protagonist May 2013 #21
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