*sighs, turns over "DAYS SINCE LAST MASS SHOOTING IN AMERICA" sign to 0*

I asked this a few pages ago and no one responded, so I'll ask again:

Why should I be able to buy a gun today? Is there some test you take when you go to these private sales, gun stores, etc?

I've never fired anything more powerful than a BB gun. The only genuine firearms I've held weren't loaded. I have zero training, zero experience. The only reason I can identify some guns from others is because of video games. My record is a barren desert, so I've done nothing to suggest I'd be dangerous with a firearm, but with no evidence of ability or skill, there's no evidence that I wouldn't accidentally hurt someone by assholing around with a gun, as does happen. I know trigger discipline because I've seen it discussed, not because anyone's taught me anything.

So based on all that, why should I be able to go buy a gun today, if I wanted to? Shouldn't I have to prove, at least to some degree, that I would know what the hell I'm doing?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Why should I be able to buy a gun today?
The question for any activity for americans is never "why should you be able to," it's "why should anyone stop you?"
Shouldn't I have to prove, at least to some degree, that I would know what the hell I'm doing?
Nope. Too much potential for government abuse there. It should have to be that somebody proves you can't, not that you have to prove you can. Otherwise it has an unacceptable potential to become poll literacy tests, but for guns.

However, I do think you (and I) should have been able to demonstrate the ability to safely handle a firearm to graduate high school :p
 
If said courses were free, it'd pass the poll-tax smell test... but the NRA wouldn't abide by that, because it'd be money out of their "Gun Owner Safety Classes" coffers.
Gas actually means for it to be a required course in high school, right alongside English and Math.

. . . I just pictured a comedy sketch, set in a high school PTA meeting, where the hippiest, most liberal parents are arguing vociferously for an Abstinence-only program. The punchline comes, of course, when we reveal it's a gun-safety course . . . and if we're on SNL, we pound away at the point for another 5 unfunny minutes.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Gas actually means for it to be a required course in high school, right alongside English and Math.

. . . I just pictured a comedy sketch, set in a high school PTA meeting, where the hippiest, most liberal parents are arguing vociferously for an Abstinence-only program. The punchline comes, of course, when we reveal it's a gun-safety course . . . and if we're on SNL, we pound away at the point for another 5 unfunny minutes.
Oooh, that's a good line... "Abstinence Only - it doesn't work as birth control, OR gun control."
 

figmentPez

Staff member
And yet, so far, you're only advocating one angle, and rejecting all others as against the 2nd amendment.
That is a load of horseshit and you know it.

From Stienman's post
- better mental health services
- better women’s healthcare
- better adoption options
- better sex education
- more available birth control

That's not "one angle" by ANY stretch of the imagination. Furthermore, I've said that what I think the most effective option would be is to increase school funding so that public schools are more effective in the role they're supposed to play. I think that will do far more and do it more quickly than any amount of gun legislation that could feasibly be passed in the United States, even if the NRA were banned from all lobbying.

Not only that, but giving proper funding to public schools would solve issues far beyond just school shootings and gun violence in general. If you manage to magically poof guns into non-existence, you still have lots of angry, socially maladjusted people who are looking for ways to lash out. You'll make it harder for them, but they'll find ways, and then others will mimic those ways. They'll run over crowds with cars. They'll plant bombs. They'll poison people. And in a decade or three they'll use 3D printers to make new guns.

Guns are not the root cause. They enable, but the rising rate of juvenile suicide, and the ever lowering age at which is is prevalent, is proof that there are bigger issues at hand than access to guns. Fewer households have guns, and yet the suicide rate keeps climbing. Guns are NOT causing this, and banning guns will not solve it. We need to do something that will have a bigger effect than banning guns, and wasting time villainizing people over their stance on gun laws is not making any progress on those fronts.

Stienman, Gas, myself, and others who reject the idea of outright banning guns have most certainly suggested many other angles to combat gun violence. Your denial of that is disingenuous, and it is emblematic of the reason why so little is being done about gun violence. Instead of seeking common ground, you seek to deny that there is any common ground to be found.

Properly fund schools. Smaller classes. Better paid teachers. Reinstate the arts. Provide proper supplies. Stop "school lunch shaming". Etc. You will see a greater reduction in school shootings than you will by passing any gun laws that won't cause a civil war. Moreover, you'll see benefits to more areas of society than any gun law will help.
 
No, I'm saying active shooter drills do nothing more than foster a sense of protection where there is none. It's the school equivalent of the TSA. Looks great, sounds great, but in practice it just doesn't work. I could really go into why in depth, but let me just say that there's a difference between "Hey, we're going to have an active shooter drill on May 10." and BLAM BLAM BLAM "What the fuck is that? What's happening? What do we do?!?"

Add in the fact that the student took the same training and so he knew what people were going to do and it really defeats the purpose of any training. It's a feel-good show.

Now, I WILL admit that these exercises are good for local law enforcement and first responders so that they know how to coordinate their actions, but by the time they get there, there are already dead kids and teachers.
Duck and Cover
 
That is a load of horseshit and you know it.

From Stienman's post
- better mental health services
- better women’s healthcare
- better adoption options
- better sex education
- more available birth control
Maybe next time don't post a list with only 1 point that's about gun control, and then complain i'm not right about saying he's only using 1 angle about gun control...

And, no, him also posting about sex stuff doesn't count towards what we where discussing, even if it counts for what he was talking about with someone else.



Stienman, Gas, myself, and others who reject the idea of outright banning guns have most certainly suggested many other angles to combat gun violence. Your denial of that is disingenuous, and it is emblematic of the reason why so little is being done about gun violence. Instead of seeking common ground, you seek to deny that there is any common ground to be found.
I was just talking to Stienman on that one.

My arguments against Gas where slightly different.

Properly fund schools. Smaller classes. Better paid teachers. Reinstate the arts. Provide proper supplies. Stop "school lunch shaming". Etc. You will see a greater reduction in school shootings than you will by passing any gun laws that won't cause a civil war. Moreover, you'll see benefits to more areas of society than any gun law will help.
You really think they're shooting up schools because their classes are too large?

Plus, all of those are still the same angle, "teach them not to shoot up schools".



by passing any gun laws that won't cause a civil war
Heh, you where saying about common ground again?
 
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The question for any activity for americans is never "why should you be able to," it's "why should anyone stop you?"
And isn't that question being answered every couple of months



Nope. Too much potential for government abuse there. It should have to be that somebody proves you can't, not that you have to prove you can. Otherwise it has an unacceptable potential to become poll literacy tests, but for guns.

However, I do think you (and I) should have been able to demonstrate the ability to safely handle a firearm to graduate high school :p
That's literally the same thing as having to go through a free gun safety course before buying one, you just made the funding come from the education budget.

You could have just said "i agree with it, but here's how we should do it to make sure our idiot politicians dont fuck it up".
 

GasBandit

Staff member
That's literally the same thing as having to go through a free gun safety course before buying one, you just made the funding come from the education budget.

You could have just said "i agree with it, but here's how we should do it to make sure our idiot politicians dont fuck it up".
It's not literally the same. One is requiring something to buy a gun, but otherwise not requiring it. The other is requiring it whether you buy a gun or not.
 
It's not literally the same. One is requiring something to buy a gun, but otherwise not requiring it. The other is requiring it whether you buy a gun or not.
I fail to see how that affects any of the things you where complaining about as dangers of requiring acknowledged training to purchase firearms.

But, yeah, sure, that's a difference, i guess.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I fail to see how that affects any of the things you where complaining about as dangers of requiring acknowledged training to purchase firearms.

But, yeah, sure, that's a difference, i guess.
Because fucking around with the test required to buy a gun alone is too easy, much like fucking around with the questions that were on the test required to vote. (Something not everyone does, and some people want to prevent other people from doing)

However, fucking around with a curriculum required to GRADUATE high school is a lot more difficult. (Something everyone does, and everyone is held to the same standard)

Also, universal training is better than selective training.
 
I fail to see how that affects any of the things you where complaining about as dangers of requiring acknowledged training to purchase firearms.

But, yeah, sure, that's a difference, i guess.
The difference is there. And it's huge. Gas's proposal provides education and keeps the government out of the citizen's personal life.

What Gas is advocating for is gun-education class akin to current sex-ed classes. Those classes aren't required before citizens are allowed to fuck.
 

Dave

Staff member
So would you say only high school graduates would be allowed to own guns?
No, more like, "To graduate from high school you have to learn how to use something that you are in no way required to use on a daily basis and your using or not using it does not have any effect whatsoever on your daily life."

In other words, only gun users should be able to graduate from high school.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Maybe next time don't post a list with only 1 point that's about gun control, and then complain i'm not right about saying he's only using 1 angle about gun control...

And, no, him also posting about sex stuff doesn't count towards what we where discussing, even if it counts for what he was talking about with someone else.
You're side-stepping and ignoring that we're not talking about just gun control. We're talking about how to save kids lives. And those steps will help reduce school shootings. Possibly more than gun control, in the long run. And they will definitely save more children's lives than gun control if we consider all the lives that will be saved by the effect on suicide rates, by the effect on economic growth, by the effects in so many areas of life.

I was just talking to Stienman on that one.

My arguments against Gas where slightly different.
My apologies. I assumed you were just piling on with Blotsfan, who irrationally rejected that it's possible to influence gun violence in any way that's not directly related to banning all guns. Oh wait, that's exactly what you're doing.

You really think they're shooting up schools because their classes are too large?

Plus, all of those are still the same angle, "teach them not to shoot up schools".
Wow, way to cherry pick. You are just trolling.

Short answer, it's not just about class sizes, and it's not just about shooting up schools. It's about public school being an awful mockery of what it should be. A pressure cooker that's churning out angry, disruptive, still uneducated people who are shooting others, killing themselves, and who have been failed by a system that's supposed to better them. An underfunded school where teachers cannot give students the attention they need is actively contributing to at least some of those students declining in mental health, among many other things.

Let me ask you. How does banning all guns help with childhood suicide rates? How does it help the growing gap between the rich and the poor? How does it help equip young people for a better economic future? How does it help combat a growing opiate addiction problem in the US? How does it help combat climate change and other environmental problems? Because better education helps with ALL of these.

Heh, you where saying about common ground again?
You don't think banning all guns would cause a civil war? I mean, gun nuts have told you over and over again that if you try to force them to give up all their guns, they'll start shooting. Do you think that's an idle threat when a lot of gun owners are dead serious about the 2nd Amendment being about their ability to protect themselves against the government?

For the record, I'm not against stricter gun laws. I'm not in the exact same boat as Gas, I'm more moderate on what sorts of restrictions I'd allow. I just don't think it's realistic to expect gun laws that worked in Australia to have the same effect in a vastly different population. We could pass better gun laws in the US. I think we should. I'm in no way against more effective gun control than we have now. I just don't think that anything short of banning all guns will do very much to slow down the rate at which school shootings are increasing, and banning all guns would cause a drastic uptick in other sorts of shooting (i.e. a civil war).

"American exceptionalism! We went to the moon why are things too hard now!?" Shut up.

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard;" If you think that I said that solving the gun violence problem in America was hard because I was just giving up, you're the problem, not me. I said hard, not impossible. Americans, as a nation, can do hard things. We have a history of doing hard things. That gun violence will be a hard problem to solve is not something that can stop it from being done. However, it will take people who step up and admit that it is a hard problem to solve. It will not be solved by people who want the easy solution, because there is no easy solution. All the solutions that could actually work are hard solutions, and it's time to either step up or shut up.

I don't see any reason to respond to you further than this. Because you have deliberately avoided actually addressing my points. You've cherry picked bits out of my statements, as you've done to Gas, as you've done to Steinman, and you've done it over and over. You are being completely irrational and that's just not worth my time. If you want to actually talk about this issue, and not just attempt to libel those with whom you disagree, then you're going to have to convince me, because right now I can't see any evidence that you're reading my posts and not just skimming them looking for points you can take out of context.
 
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figmentPez

Staff member
No, more like, "To graduate from high school you have to learn how to use something that you are in no way required to use on a daily basis and your using or not using it does not have any effect whatsoever on your daily life."
And that's different from the foreign language classes many high school students had to take?
 

figmentPez

Staff member
"10 students lose lives in shocking conjugation of spanish verbs incident"
See, now that's an argument against having gun education as a required class. Though, you'd have to prove that it carries a greater risk than biology and chemistry classes, and quite frankly I don't have any idea if you're more likely to get injured by a chemistry experiment or by a firing range. Most students won't actually be conducting chemistry experiments after high school, and there is some risk involved. I just don't know how much.
 
See, now that's an argument against having gun education as a required class. Though, you'd have to prove that it carries a greater risk than biology and chemistry classes, and quite frankly I don't have any idea if you're more likely to get injured by a chemistry experiment or by a firing range. Most students won't actually be conducting chemistry experiments after high school, and there is some risk involved. I just don't know how much.
High School lab classes are pretty low risk. The most dangerous thing I did was heating glass, which can cause burns. You don't really use anything dangerous until you get to college, and even then, they have a lot of safety protocol in place.
 
How does banning all guns help with childhood suicide rates? How does it help the growing gap between the rich and the poor? How does it help equip young people better for a better economic future? How does it help combat a growing opiate addiction problem in the US? How does it help combat climate change and other environmental problems? Because better education helps with ALL of these.
Your assumption is that he cares about the lives of children.
All he cares about is the death of guns, and if children have to live, then that's just acceptable losses gains.
High School lab classes are pretty low risk. The most dangerous thing I did was heating glass, which can cause burns. You don't really use anything dangerous until you get to college, and even then, they have a lot of safety protocol in place.
Well, maybe they are now.
My high school chemistry still involved active metals, oxidizers, mercury, and open flames. We even had periodic “fun days” where we were just allowed to play around with the Bunsen burners. I even got to fry eggs in a pie tin.

—Patrick
 
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figmentPez

Staff member
High School lab classes are pretty low risk. The most dangerous thing I did was heating glass, which can cause burns. You don't really use anything dangerous until you get to college, and even then, they have a lot of safety protocol in place.
Thank you. My high school experience was unconventional. I have no idea what's standard. That said, I have shot .22 rifles at summer camp when I was a Boy Scout, and quite frankly that experience was pretty safe as well. Maybe not as safe as a chemistry class, but I'm not convinced it's very far off. I really don't know what type of hands-on experience Gas would want for students, so it's kinda hard to gauge how much risk there would be for a curriculum that's purely hypothetical.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Thank you. My high school experience was unconventional. I have no idea what's standard. That said, I have shot .22 rifles at summer camp when I was a Boy Scout, and quite frankly that experience was pretty safe as well. Maybe not as safe as a chemistry class, but I'm not convinced it's very far off. I really don't know what type of hands-on experience Gas would want for students, so it's kinda hard to gauge how much risk there would be for a curriculum that's purely hypothetical.
Well you don't actually fuck in Sex Ed either :p

Mostly it would be for things like safety, maintenance, good practices, cleaning, etc, with no live ammo in the classroom, but maybe one "range day" a week/month/some other timeframe? Like Home Ec, it'd probably only be a 1 semester course.
 
Well you don't actually fuck in Sex Ed either :p

Mostly it would be for things like safety, maintenance, good practices, cleaning, etc, with no live ammo in the classroom, but maybe one "range day" a week/month/some other timeframe? Like Home Ec, it'd probably only be a 1 semester course.
Spring-powered airsoft guns could be used for 90% of it, they're fairly cheap, and are extremely unlikely to be lethal. That could actually work. And then at the end of the course, going to a local shooting range as a sort of "final exam".

You know what? I take my objection back, the idea does have merit and it can be both safe and affordable.
 
I doubt any of you are actually awaiting a response from me, but just know I'd love to spend some time responding and can't right now. Chances are you'll have moved on (or we'll have had another dozen shootings) by the time I get back, so don't hold your breath. Feel free to hold conversations with me in your head and assume they are cannon.
 
I doubt any of you are actually awaiting a response from me, but just know I'd love to spend some time responding and can't right now. Chances are you'll have moved on (or we'll have had another dozen shootings) by the time I get back, so don't hold your breath. Feel free to hold conversations with me in your head and assume they are cannon.
Me "What about Ducktales?"

@stienman "I like the original and the remake."

Me "You're having triplettes?!"
 
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