Have we become used to or immune to mass shootings?

[Happy Monkey]

Even perfect drivers need a license and insurance, and cars must meet safety standards.

[henry quirk]

*Only reason for licensing is so a buck can slide into the public coffers.

*Only reason for insurance (mandatory) is so a buck can slde into the provider's bank account.

*Only reason for gov-mandated safety standards (instead of market-mandated standards) is that pesky buck again.

But, it's apples and oranges: there is no group lookin' to 'de-car' folks.









*there's another reason: plain, old-fashioned, control...makin' it apples and apples after all.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

*Only reason for licensing is so a buck can slide into the public coffers.

Then there's that little thing where you are making sure a person can drive before they get on the road. It doesn't come naturally, and insurance charts are very clear that new drivers suck, for the most part.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

*Only reason for licensing is so a buck can slide into the public coffers.

*Only reason for insurance (mandatory) is so a buck can slde into the provider's bank account.

*Only reason for gov-mandated safety standards (instead of market-mandated standards) is that pesky buck again.

You know the reasons. It would be redundant to list them when everyone already knows them.

But, it's apples and oranges: there is no group lookin' to 'de-car' folks.

I'm certainly happy that people who do not qualify, or do not comply, with the regulation of cars are de-carred. You don't need to find a "group lookin' to" do something that is routinely done already.

But if you need to have such a group, I'm sure you could find some ecological group advocating the elimination of cars.

Their existence wouldn't justify the elimination of licenses, insurance, or safety standards on cars.

And the existence of groups that want to ban all guns doesn't justify the elimination of gun control laws.

[henry quirk]

Oh, I'm all for 'em...seriously...hell, ban guns completely! Can't be more control-y than that.

Won't make a damn bit of difference, but it'll make a whole whack of peopke 'feel better' and 'feel safe' (for a while, anyway).

So -- yeah -- control the hell out of those guns.

#

"risk"

If there was some way to eliminate it...hmmm.

There's a fellow -- Alastair Young -- who writes nano and meta- nano at 'The Eldraeverse'. One of his entries is about the major powers of his setting. One particular passage stands out...

Equality Concord
The Equality Concord and its dozen worlds share the dubious distinction of being the galaxy’s only genuinely functional, non-corrupt, decent-standard-of-living-enabled, etc., communist state.

(As opposed to genuinely non-functional communist states, like the former People’s State of Bantral.)

That’s because the Concord’s founders recognized the fundamental problem of Real True Communism requiring a whole set of instincts and drives and incentives and desires that are not commonly found among sophonts as nature made them. So they studied the gentle art of sophotechnology, and they built themselves some nice bionic implants to fix that problem, and create the perfect collectivist people for their perfect collectivist utopia. And then, and this is the important bit, they avoided the classic trap by applying the implants to themselves before applying them to anyone else.

It works. It may not be the most innovative of regimes, or the wealthiest, or up there on whatever other metric you choose to apply, but it does work, and self-perpetuates quite nicely.

Pity about that whole “free will” thing, but you can’t make an omelette, right?

You first.