The latest school massacres

[Undertoad]

That's the point LL

[BigV]

tw, there's no such thing as violent crimes per GDP. Come on, what the hell is that, really?

[tw]

Originally Posted by BigV

tw, there's no such thing as violent crimes per GDP.

Replace GDP with per person. Forgot what the technical expression is.

[classicman]

lol

[Pamela]

That runs counter to Saul Alinsky's tactics, which were required reading at UC Berkeley. "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

[Spexxvet]

Another one last night - if you're not part of the solution i'm sure you're happy.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/deadly-shoo...ry?id=34363113

[xoxoxoBruce]

In 2013 there were 8,454 homicides with a gun. Cops estimates 80% of those are gang/drug related, which are mostly in urban slums. Other people have a 0.000530%, or 1:188,700, chance of being killed with gun. Each year you statistically have a greater chance dying falling down stairs 1:180,000, or riding a bicycle 1:140,000.

See the problem? Numbers can be manipulated to support any position. Gun violence is something most people only see on TV news. It couldn’t happen here in my safe town/city. When it does, it’s a horrible thing, until the media assails you with the next horrible thing.

Looking at it practically, I read the other day the US has more guns than people, worth how many Trillions of dollars? How do you get rid of them? Pass a law like prohibition? Certainly the police must be exempted, and the Secret Service, maybe politicians. How about doctors, lawyers, or Indian chiefs?

Maybe a war on guns, since the wars on drugs, poverty, etc, worked so well. Until it’s no longer a political football, fuhgedaboudit.

[glatt]

Nobody really cares if the gangs and thugs kill each other off, but when their warfare spills over into the world of the regular folks, then it's a problem.

If somebody is being mugged for drug money and it goes wrong and they get killed, then do the cops dismiss that as drug related, or is that a real crime?

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by glatt

Nobody really cares if the gangs and thugs kill each other off, but when their warfare spills over into the world of the regular folks, then it's a problem.

...

It's hard to avoid giving a very sarcastic reply; but that is just not true.

[classicman]

"happy" ? I don't think anyone is happy, but ...

[Sundae]

Hang on - you don't get a choice as to whether you were born with a vagina or not.
I'm not sure the same can be said for guns.

I mean, your country, your laws, none of my business, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Hang on - you don't get a choice as to whether you were born with a vagina or not.

Ever heard of Caitlyn Jenner? Was she born with one? Methinks not.

[Pamela]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Hang on - you don't get a choice as to whether you were born with a vagina or not.
I'm not sure the same can be said for guns.

I beg your pardon? *I* get to choose to have a vajayjay. Didn't you get your choice form in the post?

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Hang on - you don't get a choice as to whether you were born with a vagina or not.

Originally Posted by Pamela

I beg your pardon? *I* get to choose to have a vajayjay.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Once again, their voices are missing from the debate.

Gun owners who favor restrictions on firearms say they are in the same position after the mass shooting in Oregon as they have been following other rampages — shut out of the argument.

The pattern, they say, is frustrating and familiar: The what-should-be-done discussion pits anti-gun groups against the National Rifle Association and its allies, who are adamantly opposed to any new restrictions on weapons.

Gun owners who occupy the middle ground complain that they are rarely sought out or heard, yet polls show the majority of gun owners support universal background checks and other controversial limits. President Obama is reportedly considering using his executive authority to impose new background check requirements on high-volume dealers in private sales — and many gun owners may support that.

“There’s this perception that people are neatly divided into folks who want an M1A1 Abrams battle tank to drive to work and those who want to melt every last gun and bullet into doorstops,” said Patrick Tomlinson, a science fiction writer and gun owner in Milwaukee who favors universal background checks and longer waiting periods for gun purchases. “There seems to be no middle there, but I know there is. I’m in it.”

WaPo