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Author Topic:   Gun Control III
PaulK
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Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


(2)
Message 132 of 1184 (829102)
03-03-2018 2:39 AM


The NRA helps in one way
According to a study covered in this piece at Ars Technica gun injuries drop during NRA conventions. By 20% nationwide and a whopping 63% in the hosting state.
If the NRA want to help reduce gun violence they should hold more conventions!

Replies to this message:
 Message 133 by NoNukes, posted 03-03-2018 9:27 AM PaulK has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 144 of 1184 (830377)
03-28-2018 3:31 AM
Reply to: Message 143 by Faith
03-28-2018 1:16 AM


Re: Computing gun deaths per 100K per state
I guess this is an example of critical thinking where you come up with objections to an opposing position. That is a very small start.
You need to go further and do the analysis before you can say that there is something wrong with the data. You might consider, for instance, that population density is already considered and should largely account for the effects of inner cities anyway. And you don’t even mention that.
But let’s do a little analysis. The easy one to consider is New York. Let’s simplify by saying that half of the population is in the city and assume that there are no homicides in the rural areas - the cited homicide rate of 4 per 100k in the state would then come out as 8 per 100k in the city. That’s still notably less than the 14 per 100k quoted for Kentucky. If we use a population of 9 million for the city and 20 million for the State it still comes out as less than 9 per 100k. That really isn’t looking good for your argument.
Arguing that Kentucky has a higher proportion of people living in inner cities than New York State seems odd - and that is what you were saying. That it would have to be higher than the proportion in New York City is even less plausible. Never mind the fact that Alaska is even worse than Kentucky.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 143 by Faith, posted 03-28-2018 1:16 AM Faith has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 145 by Faith, posted 03-28-2018 8:53 AM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


(1)
Message 146 of 1184 (830385)
03-28-2018 9:31 AM
Reply to: Message 145 by Faith
03-28-2018 8:53 AM


Re: Computing gun deaths per 100K per state
I’m quite definitely right that by the quoted figures the city of New York has a lower rate than the State of Kentucky, let alone Alaska. That’s simple mathematics.
Your problem is that you are no good at actual critical thinking. Which is why boasting that you are so much better than the rest of us was a very silly thing to do.
If you were you would know to dig into the figures. Do they include suicides, for instance ? Where guns are available they are often used to commit suicide, and it’s not unlikely that poor rural communities might have a high suicide rate. I won’t say that is the answer without checking it, but it seems worth checking. That is what real critical thinking involves.

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 Message 145 by Faith, posted 03-28-2018 8:53 AM Faith has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 195 of 1184 (830861)
04-08-2018 8:03 AM
Reply to: Message 194 by Percy
04-08-2018 7:53 AM


Re: Ted Nugent Goes on Hate Filled Tirade
In my opinion the extreme Conservatives are gearing up to destroy democracy. Elections are tyranny if their preferred candidates lose. That’s why they want guns, that is the reason for the hate and the lies.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 194 by Percy, posted 04-08-2018 7:53 AM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


(1)
Message 762 of 1184 (850655)
04-11-2019 1:04 PM
Reply to: Message 761 by Faith
04-11-2019 12:57 PM


Re: the white supermacists lying accusation
Trump was clearly speaking about the Unite the Right protestors, which included White Supremacists and Nazis. Anyone involved on that side was at the least willing to ally with such people. That’s the point of it.

This message is a reply to:
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PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


(1)
Message 775 of 1184 (852702)
05-16-2019 12:09 AM
Reply to: Message 774 by Hyroglyphx
05-15-2019 9:29 PM


Re: Is a lifetime of due diligence even possible?
quote:
For every hypothetical scenario, there is its counterpart waiting in the wing.
Percy’s scenario wasn’t hypothetical. As is quite obvious if you read his post.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 774 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-15-2019 9:29 PM Hyroglyphx has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 777 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-16-2019 10:40 AM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 780 of 1184 (852722)
05-16-2019 11:35 AM
Reply to: Message 777 by Hyroglyphx
05-16-2019 10:40 AM


Re: Is a lifetime of due diligence even possible?
quote:
And neither are murders
Which doesn’t change the point. You tried to answer a real story with a contrived hypothetical scenario.
quote:
My point, which was "quite obvious" if you read it, was that any good argument has a counter-argument.
No, it certainly isn’t obvious that that was your point. You know I was willing to believe you didn’t read Percy’s post carefully and simply assumed that he was talking hypothetically. And apologising for that mistake would have been a good response. This is just digging yourself deeper.
quote:
And we can "what-if" something to death
Percy’s story wasn’t a “what-if”.
quote:
The fundamental question is should an idiot's actions get to dictate mine? The answer is no
And I am sure that many people who left guns lying around would ask the same question to justify keeping their guns.
The real question is what benefits does gun ownership offer society to offset the cost. I don’t see that we lost anything worth having here.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 777 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-16-2019 10:40 AM Hyroglyphx has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 783 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-16-2019 12:34 PM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 789 of 1184 (852741)
05-16-2019 1:25 PM
Reply to: Message 783 by Hyroglyphx
05-16-2019 12:34 PM


Re: Is a lifetime of due diligence even possible?
quote:
Do you honestly believe I've never heard of a story where a kid shoots himself with a gun? You're missing the entire point... which is by that fact, alone, should it dictate the fate of gun ownership. That's Percy's ENTIRE premise, is it not?
Even if it was - and it isn’t - responding with a self-serving “hypothetical scenario” is still a lousy answer. Playing “what-if” games is no way to deal with facts.
quote:
Do I need to pull up a random article of someone using a gun to kill an intruder in order to justify the logic of it?
That would be better but still poor. Percy’s point is these events are inevitable given widespread gun ownership and they don’t all happen to involve “idiots”.
quote:
Paul... instead of attacking the substance of an argument, you set off looking for strawmen to set on fire. Oh, its not a hypothetical, its a real story!!
But that isn’t a strawman. You really did dismiss Percy’s point as a “hypothetical scenario” which could be countered by inventing your own. That is the “substance”.
quote:
The underlying argument based on that story IS hypothetical. Because of this happening, that ought to happen in response.
That doesn’t even make sense.
quote:
Why don't you ask the military that question. A law or a fundamental right without any teeth is useless. At some point force will have to be applied some of the time. that's just the way life is.
And you still make no sense. Why would the military have any special insight ? The fact that I am living in a country with highly restrictive firearms laws and no signs of any serious ill-effects from that surely speaks louder than anything the military could say.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 783 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-16-2019 12:34 PM Hyroglyphx has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 795 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-16-2019 2:34 PM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 796 of 1184 (852763)
05-16-2019 2:50 PM
Reply to: Message 795 by Hyroglyphx
05-16-2019 2:34 PM


Re: Is a lifetime of due diligence even possible?
quote:
Ah, so, if I implant a SINGLE murder story that could have been avoided if they were armed, I suddenly validate the whole premise of gun ownership based on that single example?
You really do jump to irrational conclusions. The point is that a real example is better than a purely invented one. Do you really not understand that ?
quote:
But what you're suggesting is that I must now only discuss that particular case
Nope. I’m suggesting that simply inventing scenarios is not an adequate answer to a real example.
quote:
Yeah, and murder is inevitable too but we still pass legislation against it... I mean, seriously... what is your point?
So legislation against wide-spread gun ownership would be a good idea ?
quote:
The story is real, the moral behind it is hypothetical and debatable
You are going to have to do better than throwing the word “hypothetical” around without any clear point.
quote:
The purpose of Percy sharing that story serves as an illustration of why people should not privately own weapons. A child can't shoot themselves without the gun, ergo if you introduce the gun you are responsible for the outcome... ergo guns should not be privately owned. How's that?
Are you suggesting that the gun owner shouldn’t be held responsible? After calling him an “idiot” ?
Percy’s point is that people will make mistakes, and widespread ownership of guns means that people will make mistakes with guns.
Curbing gun ownership - and public carrying of firearms - will obviously reduce the occurrence of those mistakes.
quote:
You seem to believe that guns have zero utility....
No, I believe that very little utility has been lost by the restrictions we have here.
quote:
Obviously guns do have a place in society, for however unfortunate that reality may be. As to your country, the one that has headlines about its "knife epidemic," only serves to prove that in the absence of guns people find other ways to kill people... which brings it all back to my central point that the true underlying issue is why people feel compelled to kill in the first place
But it also argues for restricting the more effective means of killing. The mosque shooter in New Zealand went there precisely because New Zealand has less restrictive gun laws than Australia, which nicely illustrates the point.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 795 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-16-2019 2:34 PM Hyroglyphx has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 807 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-21-2019 2:13 PM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 808 of 1184 (853009)
05-21-2019 2:46 PM
Reply to: Message 807 by Hyroglyphx
05-21-2019 2:13 PM


Re: Is a lifetime of due diligence even possible?
quote:
And what point is that - that crazy people are sometimes determined to find ways of behaving like assholes?
Try reading in context. Restricting the means of killing does make it more difficult for the crazies.
quote:
I live in Austin. We had a serial bomber about a year ago. He purchased perfectly legal items to construct bombs. Are you suggesting that its the fault of society or legislators for selling those items legally? My issue with many gun control proponents is that they seize upon a tragedy as an opportunity to go after the gun instead of placing the blame where it actually belongs.
I am suggesting that society weighs up the pros and cons of allowing said items to be sold. I wouldn’t be surprised if the arithmetic came out rather better for those items than it does for guns.
And, in fact, we do restrict many potentially dangerous items far more now than we did when I was young.
quote:
You're also blaming New Zealand law and contrasting it with Australia to make a baseless assertion that gun laws actually prevent crazy people from obtaining or using those weapons.
I never said prevent. But certainly Australian gun law was restrictive enough that the “crazy” person decided to go elsewhere, even though it was obviously less convenient in other ways, and I’m sure he’d rather have done his murdering in Australia.
quote:
Russia has some of the strictest gun laws imaginable and their rate of homicide is off the charts. French laws on gun ownership is tightly regulated, but it didn't stop terrorists wielding AK-47's on the streets of Paris.
If this New Republic article is accurate, Russians are allowed to carry rifles for “self defence” ! Also, the laws aren’t that well enforced with about twice as many illegal guns as legal.
As for France I never said that gun laws were a panacea, and a well organised terrorist cell should be able to obtain weapons that are not that easily be available. But death from terrorist attack is hardly the only or the most important issue here.

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 Message 807 by Hyroglyphx, posted 05-21-2019 2:13 PM Hyroglyphx has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 851 of 1184 (886206)
05-10-2021 8:04 AM
Reply to: Message 850 by Percy
05-10-2021 7:21 AM


Re: Big Guns
It doesn’t say that anyone was killed with a single shot. One person - perhaps the shooter - survived long enough to be taken to hospital. Details are lacking.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 850 by Percy, posted 05-10-2021 7:21 AM Percy has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 852 by Percy, posted 05-10-2021 8:45 AM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 853 of 1184 (886208)
05-10-2021 8:52 AM
Reply to: Message 852 by Percy
05-10-2021 8:45 AM


Re: Big Guns
Or he shot them in the head after they were down. We just don’t know.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 852 by Percy, posted 05-10-2021 8:45 AM Percy has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 862 by Percy, posted 05-11-2021 9:16 AM PaulK has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


(1)
Message 1132 of 1184 (909245)
03-30-2023 8:50 AM
Reply to: Message 1127 by marc9000
03-29-2023 9:28 PM


Re: What Damage an AR-15 Can Do
quote:
I agree of course, most everyone does. The pictures of the innocent victims.....just leaves me without words, frustrating.
Maybe you do, but you’re on the same side as those who don’t agree. Alex Jones springs to mind after his coverage of Sandy Hook.
quote:
How about a military, ground invasion of the U.S. by the Taliban, Iran, China, Russia?
I’d say that means that you want school shootings to go on. None of them are exactly plausible threats. But then I have to remind myself that you are a complete moron who apparently believes utter rubbish if it suits him.
quote:
As you can see by reading that, "experts" (liberal college professors) fell all over themselves to declare that an armed U.S. citizenry had absolutely nothing to do with an enemy's decision to do, or not do, a mainland, ground invasion of the U.S. Do you believe them?

Not being a complete moron, of course I believe obvious truths.
quote:
It was such a ridiculous idea that Facebook needed to CENSOR it, to keep as many people as possible from discussing it, or thinking about it? Democrats agree with this censorship of course, while calling Republicans "fascists". This is clearly in the "you-can't-make-this-stuff-up catagory.
But you did make it up. And that’s hardly the most ridiculous claim you’ve made up.
Facebook didn’t censor it, they flagged it as misinformation. Because it is. And it needed to be flagged as misinformation because unthinking gun supporters didn’t think enough to see that it was utterly ridiculous.
quote:
Is there NO CHANCE that a future 9/11 style sucker-punch to the U.S could partly or completely involve a ground invasion? Considering the current state of our southern border? And the tactical leader of an invasion would give NO THOUGHT to the differences between an armed society versus one that has been disarmed by its government?
There is no reasonable chance of it, no. Even states better equipped than WWII Japan either have no motive or better things to do with their military than ship it across an ocean to where it can be hammered to pieces. Or risk nuclear retaliation.
And I note that you obviously have no respect for the US military. Armed citizens are only a factor if the military can’t stop the invaders. Yet you think that the Taliban could launch a successful invasion of the U.S.?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1127 by marc9000, posted 03-29-2023 9:28 PM marc9000 has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 1140 by marc9000, posted 03-30-2023 8:46 PM PaulK has replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


(2)
Message 1133 of 1184 (909248)
03-30-2023 8:53 AM
Reply to: Message 1131 by Phat
03-30-2023 8:44 AM


Re: AR-15 kept around in case of mainland invasion?
quote:
If that is the only primary reason for keeping it legal to own such a weapon, I would argue that the current risk(random civilian shootings) outweighs the only reward(protecting the US mainland in the event of an invasion). Comments?
Of course real threats outweigh paranoid delusions. No sane person could think otherwise. Not to mention that the US has a large and well-equipped military and a National Guard.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1131 by Phat, posted 03-30-2023 8:44 AM Phat has seen this message but not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 1141 by marc9000, posted 03-30-2023 8:47 PM PaulK has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.3


Message 1145 of 1184 (909296)
03-31-2023 2:11 AM
Reply to: Message 1140 by marc9000
03-30-2023 8:46 PM


Re: What Damage an AR-15 Can Do
quote:
Nope, not on the side of the mass shooting recruiting, sensationalizing news media.
OK so you are one of those people who doesn’t really care about the deaths.
quote:
The ratings seeking, climate change loving news media springs to mind for me.
So you’re fine with people egregiously lying about Sandy Hook. But you hate people telling the truth about climate change.
Maybe you’re one of those people longing for the breakdown of society so they can get down to the real murdering. They’re right-wing gun nuts, too,
quote:
What logic!
If someone doesn’t want action taken to prevent school shootings and tells stupid lies to try to stop it, it’s pretty clear that they want school shootings to continue,
Pretty simple. Even you should be able to understand it,
quote:
This recent, school shooter, even though mentally ill, proved that even someone mentally ill is able to plan and prepare for their moments of notoriety. They can also plan their way around government "bans".
Yawn. No solution is perfect. But making it much harder to obtain the weapons would certainly help.
quote:
I have to remind myself that people who actually claim to think new laws are in any way going to reduce school shootings might have a climate change big government appetite that overcomes their common sense.
Presumably you mean that they are actually opposed to children being murdered, unlike you,
quote:
Oh my bad, they didn't censor it, they FLAGGED it! There must be a major difference, maybe one of your fixers can help you explain it!
Flagging just means that they labelled it as misinformation. That isn’t censorship.
quote:
That's what happened on 9/11 isn't it? it would be impossible for a Pearl Harbor air attack on a U.S. NON military installation, wouldn't it? Swoop down low, bomb it, and fly away long before the U.S. military shows up? Or suicide ram it? A few AR-15's can pick them out of the sky, if someone knows how to use it. A disarmed public cannot. Far fetched I know. So was 9/11.
Neither of them were invasions and armed civilians could do nothing to stop Pearl Harbour. As for 9/11, allowing guns on flights means that the terrorists can take their guns on flights. I think we all know that isn’t a great idea. And armed civilians on the ground aren’t going to do anything about it.
quote:
More amazing liberal logic. Can you quote anything I've said that suggests that?
The whole idea that the Taliban could launch a successful invasion of the U.S. unless there were armed civilians to stop them reveals a profound contempt for the US military.
quote:
Armed citizens can be a factor for any variety of SURPRISE attacks, committed and over minutes, hours, or days before the military can get there. Like 9/11.
So obviously you can’t defend your original claim. And armed civilians wouldn’t be much use against most surprise attacks either. They wouldn’t be any use at Pearl Harbour. I doubt they would be much use in a real 9/11 situation either - not if the terrorists had guns too. Which they would if you allowed guns on planes.

This message is a reply to:
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