The only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a 5 year old with a gun

[Sparhawk]

You mean ever since the passing of the Brady Bill? Kind of makes a stronger case for gun control than a lack of gun control, doesn't it?

Gun ownership up, more states with conceal-carry laws... which is the real reason for decline?

 

[Bowielee]

It's almost as if correlation doesn't equal causation...

 

[grub]

It's almost as if correlation doesn't equal causation...

What?! He's a witch!

 

[sixpackshaker]

One big reason is the end of the Saturday Night Special. i.e. the Brady Bill. I see the Brady Bill's cooling off period that really dropped the number of gun deaths. And the $50 legal pistol is pretty much gone.

 

[GasBandit]

One big reason is the end of the Saturday Night Special. i.e. the Brady Bill. I see the Brady Bill's cooling off period that really dropped the number of gun deaths. And the $50 legal pistol is pretty much gone.

Eh, I don't know about that. You can get a Hi Point 9mm for around $100-$150, which if you adjust for inflation, isn't that much more expensive. I considered getting one myself (though I was looking at the .45 version) but they have a reputation for being jam-prone.

 

[sixpackshaker]

I have a cheap pistol that I bought nearly 20 years ago. It stove-piped at least once per 13 round magazine. But hey, the first round always fired.

 

[CrimsonSoul]

One big reason is the end of the Saturday Night Special. i.e. the Brady Bill. I see the Brady Bill's cooling off period that really dropped the number of gun deaths. And the $50 legal pistol is pretty much gone.

No cool off in texas

 

[fade]

I'm not particularly interested in getting into a debate where both sides have already made up their minds, evidence be damned. But I do have to report this. Pure anecdote, but interesting. I work in an office where I'm one of the few Americans. A coworker from Bangladesh made a comment that got a murmur of consent from around the lunch table the other day. He said basically "I come from a developing country with a lot of problems. There are a lot of things I like about America, but I can't help but notice the violence here. Everyday, I see 1-2 shooting deaths in Houston, almost without fail. This is not something any of us in Bangladesh ever expected to see in America. In some ways, I find it more scary than most places back home." The other internationals nodded in agreement, including the guy from Tunisia, and the guy from Nigeria. They added that war was one thing, but criminal violence was another entirely, and it seemed to be a problem here in the States.

 

[PatrThom]

I am actually quite curious as to the root cause, but have not the means to investigate.

--Patrick

 

[fade]

I've had a theory on that for a while. Frankly, things got too good for people in the US. People need strife, and when there isn't any in the environment, they create it. In most of the previous generations in this country, there was a clear enemy to direct ourselves against. Then, post-war (WWII), we began to turn inward on ourselves. When we did get a new enemy, patriotism had been replaced by anti-jingoism. Then we came to the point where violence was considered uncivilized and even deplorable, so we turned to divisive politics, while some--consciously or subconsciously decided that the only outlet they had was to become the bad guy. To shake things up. They're a unique kind of villain in that they don't need to rationalize or pretend to be "good"--they willingly accept their role as the "villain".

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

I've had a theory on that for a while. Frankly, things got too good for people in the US. People need strife, and when there isn't any in the environment, they create it. In most of the previous generations in this country, there was a clear enemy to direct ourselves against. Then, post-war (WWII), we began to turn inward on ourselves. When we did get a new enemy, patriotism had been replaced by anti-jingoism. Then we came to the point where violence was considered uncivilized and even deplorable, so we turned to divisive politics, while some--consciously or subconsciously decided that the only outlet they had was to become the bad guy. To shake things up. They're a unique kind of villain in that they don't need to rationalize or pretend to be "good"--they willingly accept their role as the "villain".

It's a growing disparity between the richest and the poorest

 

[GasBandit]

People need strife.

"My associates couldn't agree more."

 

[SpecialKO]

That image is so small on my screen, it took me a while to realize what it was.

 

[GasBandit]

Yeah, the only other options were giant, screenchoking sizes, and I was too lazy to resize it myself. But the pink and green marble walls separated by floor to ceiling wall lights should have been a dead giveaway.

 

[SpecialKO]

Yeah, the only other options were giant, screenchoking sizes, and I was too lazy to resize it myself. But the pink and green marble walls separated by floor to ceiling wall lights should have been a dead giveaway.

On my screen, it just looks a non-descript man standing in a greenish-gray room surrounded by black cardboard cutouts. It was only when I muttered that sentence out loud that I realized what it was.

 

[GasBandit]

I can hardly wait for the gun control debates when the handheld laser weapon becomes a technological reality.

 

[AshburnerX]

I'm not particularly interested in getting into a debate where both sides have already made up their minds, evidence be damned. But I do have to report this. Pure anecdote, but interesting. I work in an office where I'm one of the few Americans. A coworker from Bangladesh made a comment that got a murmur of consent from around the lunch table the other day. He said basically "I come from a developing country with a lot of problems. There are a lot of things I like about America, but I can't help but notice the violence here. Everyday, I see 1-2 shooting deaths in Houston, almost without fail. This is not something any of us in Bangladesh ever expected to see in America. In some ways, I find it more scary than most places back home." The other internationals nodded in agreement, including the guy from Tunisia, and the guy from Nigeria. They added that war was one thing, but criminal violence was another entirely, and it seemed to be a problem here in the States.

I'd be willing to bet that they think this because they aren't grasping that the guys with guns in their country (soldiers) are more like our gangs than our soldiers. They don't have the same crime rate because the people committing the crimes are soldiers using their authority and weapons to get what they want, not unaffiliated criminals. This makes it a "war" problem, not a "crime" problem.