Gun Talk Re: have you heard about...?

[runawayjimbo]

Wait, so more people carrying around guns isnt making us safer? Its actually doing the opposite?

Well, not really: the gun homocide rate has been cut in half over the past 20 years and is the lowest since 1963

Didnt see any NRA reps go rush to defend those two African Americans rights to carry guns when one even had a carry permit....backwards ass system

Yup, that's totally fucked. Although they did have Shaneen Allen's back, but no excuse for failing to speak out against the two most recent shameful episodes.

[rowjimmy]

Access to guns increases their use; this is a statisticaly proven fact.
Also demonstrable is the influence of NRA campaign financing on political inaction with respect to gun control.


There is no question that racism is a contributor to the problem.
White people need to get the fuck over themselves.

If you deem another human as less than yourself, then you are lessening yourself and all of us in the process.

[Buffalo Budd]

I honestly can't understand how a political aversion can sway your opinion on a matter such as this.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/05/08/conservative-media-misread-data-to-declare-gun/193961

[emay]

Wait, so more people carrying around guns isnt making us safer? Its actually doing the opposite?

Well, not really: the gun homocide rate has been cut in half over the past 20 years and is the lowest since 1963

Didnt see any NRA reps go rush to defend those two African Americans rights to carry guns when one even had a carry permit....backwards ass system

Yup, that's totally fucked. Although they did have Shaneen Allen's back, but no excuse for failing to speak out against the two most recent shameful episodes.

Yeah so that graph shows a drop in homicides right around when Clintons ban on assault riffles was taking place.....which means less guns were prob around in 96 and on which means less homicides. I think a lot of people give credit to better policing too, more cops with in car computers and easier to target areas of high crime. Which worked in the 90s and maybe early 2000's but try to tell an Afircan American community today that they will get better police to fix this.

and glad they protected one gun owning citizen they are really doing God's work. I would be very shocked to see them stand up for them now since they are dead, but they havent even acknowledged that the rights they are so quick to protect contributed to this man's death.

[runawayjimbo]

Yeah so that graph shows a drop in homicides right around when Clintons ban on assault riffles was taking place.....which means less guns were prob around in 96 and on which means less homicides.

Not really. See here:

Did the law have an effect on crime or gun violence? While gun violence did fall in the 1990s, this was likely due to other factors. Here's the UPenn study again: "We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence."

One reason is that assault weapons were never a huge factor in gun violence to begin with. They were  used in only 2 percent to 8 percent of gun crimes. Large-capacity magazines were more important — used in as many as a quarter of gun crimes. But, again, the 1994 law left more than 24 million magazines untouched, so the impact was blunted.

Here's a pretty good rundown of *some* of the factors for the decrease including, as you mentioned, more/better policing, a fact that seems incomprehensible right now given the recent actions of a (relatively) few bad cops.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/03/weve-had-a-massive-decline-in-gun-violence-in-the-united-states-heres-why/?tid=sm_tw

[sophist]

The man at Piedmont Park that was found hanging in a tree is about 7 miles from our apartment, and it didn't make national news but an African American man was also gunned down about 300 yards from my home.  Pretty much 2 blocks over.  In one of the safest neighborhoods in Atlanta.  This coupled with Dallas and MN are just sickening to us (my wife and I).  We have a lot of concern that even more will happen this weekend.  This is a lot of unrest here. 

We talked about moving this morning, and I looked at the immigration policy for moving to Canada.  I would have never thought of it years ago, but things are just so bad to me.  We had a very serious conversation about this.  I def think we'll investigate more.  And if it is actually feasible, we want to do it.  We want kids.  But just not in a country that does this every fucking week without actually working to fix anything.  Everything is broken here.   And its not going to get better.  Our two choices for president are two of the worst people on this earth.  No third party candidate will ever win.  Never mind being great again, I'd take decent.  It's been a while since we have even had that. 

[emay]

Kinda with you there, just last week there was a gunman in the office building next to mine in downtown Denver.
First reports said there was an active shooter running around 16th st mall (the walking tourist mall downtown) and there were multiple victims
we had a lockdown on our building no one could leave

Ended up being 1 dude that ran into the building next door, never opened fire anywhere outside, and ran into his wifes office and shot her multiple times and then barricaded himself inside and shot himself later. It was a targeted attack on his wife for filing a divorce with him.

The amount of fear that was around the office and just downtown from the lockdown, from false reports, was frightening. Scary world we live in.

[mbw]

Yup. And when a black dude dies in the south, it's obviously because they are all sister-fucking, dumb as rocks, lynching mother fuckers down there. But I mean, if Daily Kos says so...

I have no idea what you just typed but good luck with that.

[Buffalo Budd]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/US-Capitol-on-Lockdown-Everyone-Asked-to-Shelter-in-Place-386007501.html

[rowjimmy]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/US-Capitol-on-Lockdown-Everyone-Asked-to-Shelter-in-Place-386007501.html

False alarm. Happens
all the time here in D.C.
They don't fuck around.

[mbw]

So, they blew up the Dallas shooter with a bomb, huh.
That's a new one.

[mbw]

http://usuncut.com/news/nypd-cop-road-rage-killing/

[ytowndan]

Jesus.  Wtf.

[PIE-GUY]

My ravings today, should you care to read them.

On August 1, 1966 "mass shooting" first entered the American vocabulary after a troubled man gunned down 46 people from the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower, killing 14.
On August 1, 2016, exactly 50 years later, guns may legally be carried by civilians onto Texas college campuses, including UT, for the first time.
I struggle to express exactly how I feel about this stuff. I learned to shoot a rifle at age seven. I am not anti-gun, per se. I do not own, nor do I intend to buy, a gun. That's my choice. But, I know and love (and absolutely trust) many gun owners. I don't want the government to take those guns away.
All that said, the "Don't tread on me," pro-gun lobby that not only refuses to allow common sense gun laws to pass but actually pushes the envelope of where and when it is appropriate to allow guns is now treading on ME.
They argue that more guns in the hands of good guys will make us safer. The problem with the "good guy with a gun" argument is that it defies simple logic. I call it the "fragile vase on the top shelf" theory. Of course, kids are taught not to play ball in the house. Theoretically, that means the vase is safe. But the potential energy of a vase on the top shelf is greater than that of a similar vase on the bottom shelf. When the kids, inevitably, play ball in the house and knock over the vase, the damage is relative to where that vase sits. The bottom-shelf vase gets chipped while the top-shelf vase shatters into unrecognizable bits.
To put guns into an environment filled with people adds potential energy to the equation. It's really that simple. Fewer guns equals fewer gun deaths.
One of the common sense gun laws that persists in most states (there are idiotic exceptions) is the ban on guns in bars. Guns and alcohol don't mix. Why? Alcohol is the kids playing ball in the house. Fists are the bottom-shelf vase. Guns are the top-shelf vase. Common sense dictates that guns in bars have the potential to shatter lives unnecessarily.
College campuses have long been havens for young adults experimenting with alcohol and drugs. Students push the boundaries of alcohol especially because they have not yet learned what those boundaries are. This brings with it all sorts of issues like campus rape and drunk driving. Adding guns to that environment increases the potential for disaster.
But let's get back to the "mass shooting" problem. That's what the gun lobby wants you to think good guys with guns are going to protect you from, after all. I argue that the only thing that can protect us from senseless violence is LOVE. To a gun-totin' disciple of the NRA that may sound crazy but it's the absolute truth.
What's my proof? I'll point to one example, but there are thousands of examples of love conquering hate all around the world. They don't often make headlines because "crisis" sells a lot more fast food than "crisis averted."
My example is Antoinette Tuff, a compassionate, unarmed, citizen who kept her school from becoming another Sandy Hook Elementary. How? With love. She told the AK-47-wielding 20 year-old that she loved him and understood what he was going through. The incident ended without a single injury. Read about Antoinette here: http://cnn.it/2aCHvPQ.
The bottom line for me will always be:
Love over hate.
Compassion over violence.
Common sense over well-funded lobbies.
I don't want the government to take away guns or overwrite the 2nd Amendment. I want common sense gun laws. We don't need guns on campus. We don't need guns in bars. We don't need guns in our city hall (yes this is a thing in Texas). We don't need semi-automatic assault rifles designed to kill every person in the room in a matter of seconds.
It's common sense. It's logic.
Talk about it.
Write your lawmakers.
Vote!
Shine a light!

[rowjimmy]

Nicely put.