All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[Dalak]

While opinions will differ, I have never seen a knife jam or misfire. A knife can slit my throat even if you are really lousy with a knife. There is no really good way for me to grab a knife if you are trying to kill me with it.

Knife.

You can outrun a knife-wielder, you can't outrun a bullet. You can also pick up random objects around you to give you an option to defend yourself against a knife in most locations, not possible with a gun. You can also train yourself to face someone with a knife barehanded, not possible against a gun unless they are far too close to you.

I'm pretty damn handy with a cane/stout stick with some training, so equipped I would face said knife wielder with confidence. Hell, a suitcase/purse can give you a defense against a knife. It just requires that if you want to defend yourself capably you have to train yourself to do so. It's the quick, easy, and lazy way out to rely on a gun as if you are disarmed you are almost powerless.

[Kirby101]

You are correct. They were banned in 1994 through 2004. At that point, citizens gained the right to own them again. Interestingly enough, firearm violence dropped the decade following the lift of the ban.

Nice strawman.

[worstblogever]

If you want to wail and gnash your teeth over the 248 rifle homicides per year as opposed to the 1,567 knife homicides... that's your business.

I'd rather, y'know, try and mourn at the moment. Rather than have to simultaneously shoot down the same absurd arguments of folks who love their guns more than they care about dead strangers in the thousands every year. Oh, that would be another good thing to check on... Gun deaths this year... already over 6,000 confirmed. Mass shootings? Already 138 (in only 165 days).

Sorry I haven't posted these dreaded facts lately. I've been away.

[MECHANO]

Nice strawman.

I honestly do believe the internet has played the biggest part in the reduction of gun or any other type of violence. And not because it is educating people.

[Kirby101]

I honestly do believe the internet has played the biggest part in the reduction of gun or any other type of violence. And not because it is educating people.

I'll bite. Why?

[Dalak]

I honestly do believe the internet has played the biggest part in the reduction of gun or any other type of violence. And not because it is educating people.

You seriously believe that The Internet has played the biggest part in reducing every form of violence?

Ok, I think we're done here.

[Tendrin]

You are correct. They were banned in 1994 through 2004. At that point, citizens gained the right to own them again. Interestingly enough, firearm violence dropped the decade following the lift of the ban.

That drop does not mean what you're saying it means. The drop in violence was a continuance. The more /important/ statistic is:

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence examined the impact of the Assault Weapons Ban in its 2004 report, On Target: The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Act. Examining 1.4 million guns involved in crime, "in the five-year period before enactment of the Federal Assault Weapons Act (1990-1994), assault weapons named in the Act constituted 4.82% of the crime gun traces ATF conducted nationwide. Since the law’s enactment, however, these assault weapons have made up only 1.61% of the guns ATF has traced to crime.

[Tendrin]

There's a good argument that violent video games, actually, are one of the reasons for the drop in violent crime rates.

[MECHANO]

We're all too busy playing it safe at home on our laptops to get mixed up with other people. People being tucked away in their own homes, as opposed to out and about, getting into arguments in person... with the situation escalating. It's just a theory without any evidence.

[Tendrin]

We're all too busy playing it safe at home on our laptops to get mixed up with other people. People being tucked away in their own homes, as opposed to out and about, getting into arguments in person... with the situation escalating. It's just a theory without any evidence.

I think the reduction of environmental lead is a bit more important than that.

[worstblogever]

We're all too busy playing it safe at home on our laptops to get mixed up with other people. People being tucked away in their own homes, as opposed to out and about, getting into arguments in person... with the situation escalating. It's just a theory without any evidence.

Meanwhile actual studies with evidence show the opposite, that it's decreasing empathy in human beings, who don't interact with actual people face to face.

[numberthirty]

You can outrun a knife-wielder, you can't outrun a bullet.

While I see what you're saying, this is not always a true statement.

[numberthirty]

Knives and pens, and any object you could name have purposes outside of being instruments of death. That is what guns are designed to do. This is not complicated, nor is the need for this argument new to this forum.

The question is "Which one are you more afraid of?"

The mechanical reality of a gun means there is a slim chance that you can point one at my head and pull the trigger, and I won't get a bullet in the head.

If you are in the process of plunging a knife into my neck, it has no such possibility.

[jeanvaljean]

It's against the thread rules to post youtube links without commentary or a summary this way, so, yeah, you really do need to provide a "Cliff Notes Version." Sorry.

Seems that rule is not being enforced anymore, which would make for one messy election season on this thread.

[numberthirty]

That said...

The mechanical reality of a gun also makes it possible to kill yourself while cleaning one.

Knowing that fact still does not make me more afraid of a gun.