I'm gonna say it and I don't care what gun nuts think...

[TeamsterDem]

75. Once again you're putting the responsibility on the wrong party

What happened to Trayvon Martin was horrific and, in my view, illegal. But neither I nor any responsible gun owner have any responsibility for the actions of others. I'm responsible for me, not George Zimmerman. That is something HE - not WE - did. I have never in any way, shape, or form contributed to gun violence because I have never murdered anyone, nor - outside of military service - have I ever used a gun in a violent way. I am not the problem. George Zimmerman - and anyone like him - is.

That you keep trying to put the responsibility on me - ME, of all people, someone thousands of miles away who wasn't even there nor even met any of the parties involved in the situation - just shows the flimsiness of your argument. I have no more responsibility to "curtail the slaughter" than General Motors has responsibility for drunk drivers. It's a silly argument.

The responsibility in this case and cases like it lies with the shooter.

In terms of prevention, I'm not sure there exists a universe in which all bad outcomes can be prevented. You can do background checks, I'd like to see mental/psychological evaluations as a part of that, but I'm not sure you ever arrive at a place in which nothing bad ever happens. The proof of that of course is evident in the many laws we have which are unfortunately violated routinely: things like drunk driving still occur, as do overdoses owing to both legal and illegal drugs, etc. That you seem to think we can ban our way out of the problem I think shows a rather naive understanding of both the problem and how human behavior works, for bans typically don't actually or fully ban the targeted problem. And at times they create other problems, witness the explosion of organized crime syndicates after prohibition as one of those unintended consequences. In this case I suspect you'd see an explosion of violent home invasion-style robberies if guns were outlawed, and I also suspect the drug cartels would diversify into gun running as one of their fields of endeavor.

By banning guns you cannot promise me any erosion in gun-related deaths because you simply can't show me how you'd get ALL of the guns off the street. You also cannot show me how my right to defend myself would sustain after I lose one of the best tools known to do that. Nor can you show me why I should pay the price for what some people do - none of those people being me. As such your ban is necessarily fraught with at least as many problems as it pretends to resolve.