Have you ever been to Vegas? If not, it’s a worthy trip. I love the place. When you see how everything is setup and how wide open everything is on the strip, along with the fact that it’s teaming with all kinds of people doing all kinds of things, it’s real easy to stay anonymous if you want to.
Its the old balloon analogy. When you squeeze a balloon, the air will fill the one spot you cannot squeeze and that becomes the weak spot and is in fact then easier to pop then if the balloon were not squeezed.
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LOL! That’s I call a self defense weapon…
Good luck with that.
I LOVE baba ganoush… I can eat it all day every day. ME food is really, really good. Keeping their women imprisoned in the kitchen has yielded good eats.
People all over the world have hobbies about which they feel passionately. I would say gun culture is qualitatively different from what you’re describing. The feelings and attitudes it elicits run much deeper than those elicited by a beloved hobby.
Bear in mind, I’m trying to explain why we (America) have so many more shootings than do countries in which the proportion of households with a gun is even higher than ours. It seems to me (hunch-wise, I have no data to point to on this score) that one possible explanatory factor is our (for lack of a better term) ‘gun culture.’
You’re largely correct on this. However, he is the guy who, via his NRA membership and voting priorities, makes it nigh well impossible for the govt to do anything about gun violence (including even studying it).
The answer is, in part, that it is so extraordinarily easy to acquire a gun in our country.
In response, I will quote the wise words of @SkyzykS:
Makes sense 
if people had to go through more hoops be trained properly and vetted I dont see how it hurts a enthusiast. At the end of the day a collector sportsman or hunter could still enjoy his/her hobby. Not to mention self defense obviously. Its trading inconvenience for possible saving of many lives. Seems fair
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I think that’s largely due to the uniqueness and multifacetedness (probably just made that word up, lol) of the situation. In other words, it isn’t just about the hobby of shooting or the hobby of hunting, or even hunting for food. It’s also the relationship guns have with early American history, revolution and by extension freedom, and the self-defense angle, which is an extension of ones fundamental right to defend oneself.
There’s a lot to unpack there.
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You’d have to have regulations and training that made sense, but we all know that’s well neigh impossible. The government has enough problems trying to craft rational financial regulations (an area I regularly encounter professionally). Gun regulations on the other hand make virtually no sense. I suspect it’s because people crafting them have zero interest in educating themselves about firearms.
I’m frankly waiting on the day that some ban nut takes me up on the offer of some teaching and experience.
That said, I really couldn’t give two shits about banning bump stocks.
You make a number of good points here, especially regarding the fact that there is much unpacking to be done. However, no matter how we got here (ie, to our current state of gun culture), the question (for me) is to what extent said culture contributes to our outsized problem with gun violence.
You dont think it well help much? I E people will make them or find them some how anyhow?
I would agree a person that wants something will find it if they are smart… But some of these dipshits that arent smart planning a mass shooting could get caught in a web. But I 100% agree regulation and training would help nobody ever talks about training much. Im glad you brought it up.
However the ban makes sense its really not something anyone can justify for any reasonable use besides killing tons of peeps
The government is not prohibited from studying gun violence. The FBI and CDC study gun violence extensively and publish their findings for everyone to read for free.
What the government is prohibited from doing is spending tax dollars on bogus research like the Kellerman study (which has been thoroughly debunked as junk science). This led to the Dickey Amendment.
The gist of it is that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”
I realize this doesn’t sit well with gun control people, but you should at least be honest about what the government can and can’t do.
I also realize by “do anything about gun violence” you mean pass more gun control laws. Again, it makes discussion easier if you use plain language. This does, however, give you a convenient way to blame people who do not act violently for the actions of people who do. Keep that card up your sleeve because having a real discussion about violence in America will trigger a lot more people than simply blaming peaceful NRA members for societies problems.
Like you said, it is just a hunch. You can’t really back the idea up and it really doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny. My state of Maine has extremely lax gun laws and extremely high rates of ownership. I can own a machine gun (yes, fully automatic). I don’t need a permit to carry concealed. I can walk into the gun store and leave later today with an AR15, a thousand rounds of ammunition and several 100 round drum magazines.
Why do you think Maine, as steeped in guns as a culture can be, has levels of violence comparable to Iceland? What do you think makes your “hunch” inapplicable to this heavily-armed corner of the world?
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At images, or symbols, and the place of guns in our history and culture. This made a BIG impression on me as a kid reading the book. The scene where Atticus shoots the rabid dog. I grew up on a ranch, and we were a little bit fascinated and terrified at the idea of rabid animals.
Remember, to kill a mockingbird is a sin, they are beautiful and innocent so the bird becomes a symbol of the innocent man he defends. Atticus taught his children peace and nonviolence, and the kids thought their dad was harmless and maybe even old and feeble with his reading glasses. He won’t teach them to shoot their air rifles. They had no idea that he’d been known is his youth as this talented crack shot, something he hides from his children, and doesn’t even like to talk about. Scout wants to brag about her dad to the other kids, and Jem tells her “no.” He begins to realize his dad’s humility is part of what makes him a great man.
Anyway, it’s the scene of a good man protecting his family, protecting his home. He’s peaceful, unless he needs to be dangerous. Gregory Peck was great in that role.
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“In 1996, the Republican-majority Congress threatened to strip funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unless it stopped funding research into firearm injuries and deaths. The National Rifle Association accused the CDC of promoting gun control. As a result, the CDC stopped funding gun-control research — which had a chilling effect far beyond the agency, drying up money for almost all public health studies of the issue nationwide.”
That is very presumptuous of you. Why don’t you tell us, in plain language, what you’re trying to say here? After all, it makes discussion easier.
NRA backs “additional regulations” for bump stocks and other additives that make a semi-auto function like an auto.
I don’t think the laws and regulations will be crafted to be effective. The issue groups pushing for gun control don’t seem to be interested in anything than bans they can hold up as “successes.” SBR and “assault rifle” bans are great examples.
I wish more people would take basic gun safety courses. No need to shoot, but knowing what do and not do with a firearm if you encounter one is very helpful. I made sure my kids were familiar with basic firearms safety just as we made sure they were drown proofed.
My wife just texted me to let me know the NRA came out in favor of regulating bump stocks. I’m not surprised.
I don’t know anything about bump stocks, but I read an article this morning about how it’s more of a technique. “The practice of quickly ‘bumping’ a trigger with one’s finger to engage in rapid fire long predates bump stocks or other accessories.” I’m assuming bump stocks make this easier.
Yes - it uses the natural recoil of the gun to cause rapid triggering in the “sweet spot” of the pull.
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You’re citing an article that is deliberately attempting to mislead people into believing that the government cannot research gun violence. This is false.
In plain terms you’re talking about the Dickey Amendment.
If you still don’t believe me, a trip to the CDC’s web page should assuage your fears that they are somehow prohibited from studying gun violence. Spend some time poking around the WISQARS database to see all of the data on gun violence the CDC has compiled from recent years.
I meant what I said in plain language. I realize it was presumptuous, but I don’t think it is much of a stretch. Do you think it is an unfair characterization of the policies you’d like to see?
Any thoughts on Maine’s rampant gun culture and remarkably low rates of violence?
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Yea but your right if people were being properly trained for basics and storage they would also be vetted by pros at the same time… I E some high school kid trys to buy 13 guns all at once out of nowhere the instructor would obviosly see it as a red flag. Hes gonna not fit in amongst the regulars… For example the VT shooter, Columbine, Orlando, Sandy Hook and Arora guy … They were big time weirdos no way they could have looked normal in training sessions and screening… Now this guy was different he was wealthy and smart
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