Woman shot following Walking Dead argument

[DarthTom]

Merry Farrell wrote:

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i think getting rid of guns would have to help. i mean it must take a bit more effort to go up to someone and physically attack them with the chance they could defend themselves, grapple your weapon off you, etc compared to pulling a trigger.

i know if someones determined to kill they still will, but there'd be a lot less innocent victims with driveby knifings or self-inflicted woundings from forgetting the safety on your baseball bat.

and i hadnt seen stats for those other countries, just v responsible european ones. so oops i concede that point.

Assuming you're right that doesn't change:

1. You cannot un-ring the bell - approx 350 million firearms exist in the US today and many of the owners of those won't let you take them out of their cold dead hands.

2. The US constitution will never be modified to limit/eliminate gun ownership.

3. The vast majority of gun owners are responsible and limiting / banning owership would never stop criminals from getting a gun.

[Trekker4747]

Merry Farrell wrote:

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G-man. yeah its not a good arguement, but the statistics for gun related crimes of usa v other countries show that americans can't be trusted with guns.

You DO know that criminals don't follow laws, right? And that if guns were outlawed or more restricted to people the only people who won't have them are people who follow laws. Criminals will still get them.

So, we'll live in a country where only criminals and the government and it's officials have guns. Yeah, count me in on that.

[Mr. Adventure]

Best defense: "I thought she was Shane." Or alternatively "She was arguing in favor of fast zombies."

(BTW, this site is insufferable on mobile Safari. Video popup ads, really?)

the G-man wrote:

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The most unbelievable part of this whole story is that this guy had a girlfriend to begin with...

They always do, it's the bane of us decent folk who have so much trouble.

[junxon]

well in the uk we dont have easy or legal access to firearms. same as a lot of countries. the whole 'only criminals would have guns boo hoo i gotta protect myself against them' arguement just doesnt wash with me. sure theres a lot of crime. very little involves guns.

[Trekker4747]

Merry Farrell wrote:

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well in the uk we dont have easy or legal access to firearms. same as a lot of countries. the whole 'only criminals would have guns boo hoo i gotta protect myself against them' arguement just doesnt wash with me. sure theres a lot of crime. very little involves guns.

But, is it not true that only criminals and the police have guns where you live? Does that not give you some degree of concern?

[junxon]

no. it doesnt.

criminals dont use guns as much here. i mean of course it happens, but not as often. knife crime is a much much bigger issue.

[Psion]

I'll just put this here and see what comes of it.

[Sindatur]

Merry Farrell wrote:

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i think getting rid of guns would have to help. i mean it must take a bit more effort to go up to someone and physically attack them with the chance they could defend themselves, grapple your weapon off you, etc compared to pulling a trigger.

i know if someones determined to kill they still will, but there'd be a lot less innocent victims with driveby knifings or self-inflicted woundings from forgetting the safety on your baseball bat.

and i hadnt seen stats for those other countries, just v responsible european ones. so oops i concede that point.

pssst...you skipped right over the part that making guns illegal will not get rid of guns, it will ensure no one has guns but bad guys, so, the bad guys will get worse

[Sindatur]

Merry Farrell wrote:

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well in the uk we dont have easy or legal access to firearms. same as a lot of countries. the whole 'only criminals would have guns boo hoo i gotta protect myself against them' arguement just doesnt wash with me. sure theres a lot of crime. very little involves guns.

As I said, if you're gonna kill me, I'll take the bullet to the head over being beaten to death with a baseball bat or stabbed with a knife repeatedly, thank you

[PKerr]

Ryan8bit wrote:

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This is one of those situations where it has to be a lot deeper than just a TV show. That a journalist tries to pick something sensational for people to latch onto is nothing new.

THIS!!
Thank GOD! Someone with intelligence.

It's amazing it wasn't the Walking Dead video game then they could kill two birds with one stone, you know the old "Video games breed violent people AND Video games are training simulators for people to go on shooting sprees and all that other nonsense.

Bottom line these people are not right to begin with, it could have just as easily been over who drank the last bit of the milk and done with a baseball bat.

GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE!! People kill people.

It doesn't matter if you have a gun or not, if you are so sick that you are going to snap and kill someone a fork out of the dishwasher will do.

I play violent video games practically every day and I watch tons of shoot em' ups, I also have a concealed weapons permit (had it 15 + years now ) I have a Gun in my truck and several in my house and I would never, EVER think of pulling it unless me or mine were directly threatened and I had not other choice but to do so.

[Trekker4747]

Merry Farrell wrote:

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no. it doesnt.

criminals dont use guns as much here. i mean of course it happens, but not as often. knife crime is a much much bigger issue.

Interesting... So banning guns didn't stop all crime? Huh.

[Kegg]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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Interesting... So banning guns didn't stop all crime? Huh.

There is drastically less gun-related crimes, though, which would seem to be what's relevant. I don't pretend to know what would happen in a United States sans legal firearms, but here the restrictions on firearms - including for policemen (who have been predominantly unarmed since the 1920s) - has not exactly given us a whole lot of gun related crime.

So the supposition illegal guns = only criminals have guns is a little simplistic, as generally less people right across the board have guns.

[Trekker4747]

Kegg wrote:

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There is drastically less gun-related crimes, though, which would seem to be what's relevant. I don't pretend to know what would happen in a United States sans legal firearms, but here the restrictions on firearms - including for policemen (who have been predominantly unarmed since the 1920s) - has not exactly given us a whole lot of gun related crime.

So the supposition illegal guns = only criminals have guns is a little simplistic, as generally less people right across the board have guns.

Less gun-related crimes, perhaps, but then more knife-related crimes? More bat-related crimes? Why is it the gun to be demonized and not the person themself?

[Set Harth]

Sindatur wrote:

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As I said, if you're gonna kill me, I'll take the bullet to the head over being beaten to death with a baseball bat or stabbed with a knife repeatedly, thank you

What is your position on immolation or being eaten by piranha?

[junxon]

because standing there shouting 'bang!' never killed anyone?

on a serious note, america locks up a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country (more than china and iran, etc) so maybe its a deeper cultural thing.