Guns

[FlameBlade]

Santa Fe.

Will more thoughts and prayers fix it this time?

[Phoebe]

We seem to be at the point where a certain portion of the population is now comfortable with this kind of thing and accepts it as the "price of freedom". It's hard to fathom, but then, it's also hard to fathom why the majority of gun owners do not keep their guns locked up, or why a high school kid runs around displaying his Nazi symbols and doesn't provoke a lot of inquiry, because freedom!

[Bonefish]

He also had communist symbols, Imperial Japanese symbols and... lol, Cthulu. Like, seriously, he looked like any other weird kid in school. Guess we're just gonna start rounding up the weird kids?

Prosecute the kid's father as an accomplice or accessory.

[Phoebe]

In what fever-zone of gun love does "inquiry" = "rounding up"? Jesus.

Anyway, I've come with the olive branch today because Arne Duncan and who knows who else is now leading a push for parents like me - you know, the ones who donate $$$, have the luxury to find alternative care for their kids for long periods, and are highly unlikely to be sent to jail when their kids are truant for two weeks - to BOYCOTT SCHOOL TOTALLY starting after Labor Day, until major national action is taken to deal with the Gun thing. I don't know if his movement will gain steam, but he's not the kind of idiot who asks women to boycott work for a day so that - - - ??? nothing will happen. I assume legislative requests would attach themselves to the effort, and if those failed, November is right around that corner.

In short, efforts to mobilize suburban parents to abandon schools are trickling down to my ear, because Guns, and there doesn't seem to be much concern over the finer points of policy as opposed to "get rid of all these damn guns!"

[mimekiller]

[Bonefish]

[Phoebe]

I am willing to give the guy a pass on events that happened after that horrifying murder, but not on what he was doing beforehand, which apparently was loving that terrible NRA woman and being a poor gun owner.

On the other hand, in general: parenting is weird because you are totally responsible, and yet sometimes not responsible. Bad parents have good kids, good parents have bad kids, the same parents produce totally different end results in their kids after using very similar methods, and so on. Drug addiction happens and it makes no sense because one kid will become a pediatrician with a completely normal family life and grandkids, and the other kid becomes a drug addict and is lucky to be clinging to life in whatever way possible. Hard to know why.

[Phoebe]

Actual Congressperson:
Pornography is now, in 2018, "available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store. Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there". I... wha... does anyone have the heart to introduce this woman to the internet? This was part of a causal explanation of school shootings. ???? This is why we have the laws we do.

[WillyGilligan]

Pornography was in a bunch of stores when I was a kid, but it was monitored and started phasing out by the 90s. Did that congressperson go on to start talking about how you can buy a pack of cigarettes from a coin operated machine?

[Phoebe]

Someday she'll discover you can buy condoms in the grocery store.

[mimekiller]

I find the statistics and ideas in this article worth pondering.

REMEMBER AT ALL TIMES, the media needs you to be afraid.

http://reason.com/blog/2018/08/02/3d-gu ... -technopho

[Bonefish]

Currently, it takes high end printers to make good quality steel. Some of their proponents claim they can make hardened steels, but I'm skeptical. To make a functional firearm that will work reliably and safely you need good steel.

On the other hand, if you have a electric drill, a hammer and vise, you can make a functional fully automatic weapon in your shed in a week or two. That time frame is assuming a few hours a night, and that this is your first time doing any "machining".

Interestingly, you don't see these unreliable, untraceable and dangerous weapons in countries with lax gun laws. But in countries with strict gun laws, you see underground factories where these things are made.

[mimekiller]

I don't fear random crazies with guns. I fear what the government and law enforcement can do to me or anyone with impunity. This is why rational adults should be completely against cops and soldiers being the only people allowed to have high powered firearms.


https://heavy.com/news/2018/09/botham-shem-jean/

[Phoebe]

Not a random crazy here, natch.

[mimekiller]

I think this is interesting and worth pondering.

https://crimeresearch.org/2018/11/new-c ... D_4Igyeics

[Kyle]

[Bonefish]

But no one suggest that doctors or academics who call for gun control are biased, right? Because, clearly, the only bias can happen in stupid conservatives, while clever liberals are too intelligent and intellectual to have cognitive biases.

Also, ain't it weird how California keeps having these mass shootings in the past decade? I mean, I thought they had banned their assault weapons, high capacity magazines, instituted very strict background checks, have very strict laws about the carrying of firearms, red flag laws...

Like, it's almost as if someshit don't fuckin' work? But hey, we need to have an honest and frank conversation about guns and gun violence and shit, but we really just want to blow our own horns and crow about how much better we are than those stupid liberals/Republicans/muslims/whatever.

[FlameBlade]

When the population of California is like 1/8 the population of United States, naturally, there should be about 1/8 mass shootings there, so it will appear that there are more happening there. Quick survey seems to suggest that California is on par with the rest of the country, when surveying by population. Don't know how I might draw conclusions from that.

[Bonefish]

Seem weird though that a state with a large population, but restrictive gun laws, would have more mass shootings than a state with a large population, and by comparison permissive gunlaws.

It's almost as if something other than the gun laws is at work.

[Mike]

First off, California doesn't have more. As Flame said, per capita they are on par with the rest of the country.

Personally, I'd like to see studies that control for population density. I assume that mass shootings rise with population density. That is, in a state with restrictive gun laws, the rate of shootings will increase in areas where density increases. And in a state with permissive gun laws, the rate of shootings will increase in areas where density increases.

So what I'd like is a study to confirm or refute this suspected correlation, and if it is real, then further study to compare areas with various gun laws while controlling for population density. But then there's all sorts of stuff about guns and gun laws that I'd love science to take a peek at, but it won't.

But I say this because people hold up Chicago all the time as an example of a place where restrictive gun laws just don't work. But is that true? Chicago has about the same population as Houston, and also has a comparable number of shootings and gun deaths. So one might be tempted to say gun laws are irrelevant at best. But then consider that Chicago is less than one third the size of Houston so it has a population density of over 11,000 people per square mile, compared to Houston's 3,300. What role does that play? Take all those people and cram them into a MUCH smaller space, and yet still manage to keep gun violence from escalating? Is that an achievement or just coincidence or what?

Plus there are many other differences between the two cities that could be playing into this. It takes research.