What gun control advocates need to understand is the utter irrationality of their own arguments for gun control - some of which we've already pointed out. Not only are they irrational, they are wholly disproportionate in magnitude to many, MANY other causes of death we routinely face - tragedies gun control advocates simply ignore in favor of more sensational topics like "guns."
While it gets old having to constantly remind gun control advocates that their arguments simply don't hold water or worse, that their actions when implemented actually have the OPPOSITE effect of that which [they say] is intended, this is a topic rational people who value their freedom and liberty will not allow to go unanswered or unopposed. Moreover, I'm tired of the lame, irresponsible accusations that attempt to put the blame and onus on responsible gun owners for the tragic incidents that have happened in the past - or the veiled threats that would have us be the ones who assume responsibility for the "misuse of guns" - or the asinine innuendos "if we REALLY want to protect the 2nd Amendment."
If you want to start a dialog and establish even some semblance of credibility on this issue, you need to start addressing OUR data, OUR statistics, OUR concerns. It's ridiculously easy to refute arguments made by gun control advocates - so I understand why you don't take our offer up and respond to the refutations we make - like the ones we made in the posts above. I think you realize you can't. But not to be dissuaded from your purpose, you push on regardless, despite the overwhelmingly logical and reasonable arguments against your ideology.
The only side that needs to "step up and take accountability for the misuse" of anything... is the gun control side, which misuses statistics, which confuses emotions with reason, which takes absurdly disproportionate stances on topics they largely have no knowledge of whatsoever.
For instance, you mentioned "suicide" earlier. Do you know where suicide ranks in the list of all deaths in the US? 27. And that's ALL suicides. Did you know there are more people killed in car accidents than who kill themselves? Rank: 22.
Or how about homicide? It ranks 35th. And that's for all homicides, not just those committed with a gun.
Your argument for gun control included the snippet about threats of violence making parts of large cities off-limits to outsiders. Ever thought about why that is? Ever imagine that it might not be in part because those are cities who have banned guns? Two of the largest cities in this nation (Chicago and Wash, D.C.) have banned handguns and yet lead the pack in gun violence.
Speaking of massively disproportionate "concern:"
Wanna know where abortion - the "darling" plank of the liberal platform ranks? It ranks a firm, solid #1
Wanna know why? Because we abort more babies annually than the next top 4 causes of death combined, more than coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancers, and lung diseases combined.
Yep - abortion, right there at the top of the liberal agenda. Er, the "woman's right to choose."
Well you're so enamored with giving women the right to choose, how about law abiding citizens? How about letting us decide whether we want to own a gun or not? Or is a little hypocrisy ok?
You have not even recognized some of the suggestions for compromise in my post. Please tell me why they cannot be considered. You should listen to the linked podcast, you would hear valid opinions that seldom get attention from either side of the issue and it's a pretty good in any case.
First what you get wrong about my argument:
-I don't want your gun taken away from you, and I don't blame you and other responsible gun owners for our problem.
-I don't refute that violence is steadily declining, including gun violence
-I have listened to the arguments and I know why people choose to carry guns
-Liberals do not want gun control. Normal people want to see the problems surrounding guns addressed.
But yes, people are irrational! They are irrational when they want to ban a thing that human nature says is impossible to ban, whether that's pot, liquor, or guns. They are also irrational when they refuse to compromise on anything because it's a free country and we can't make you.
You know the thing about liberty? It is not the same for everyone. In fact, your liberty can come at the cost of my liberty, and vice versa. So when you decry your liberties being threatened, others consider their liberties being held hostage by you. That is why you cannot be an absolutist and live in a civilization. There is a trade-off with sharing society with other people.
By the way, if gun-control freaks are guilty of forgetting statistics, so are gun nuts.
You think that because gun violence is declining in the US that there is no problem? Of all the countries in the world, it is the developed country with the worst record on gun violence. That's the same whether it's ranked by suicide, homicide, unintentional, or total. You might be safer in Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador, but that's nothing to write home about.
And that is just per capita. We are also the 3rd most populous country in the world. That is a lot of bodies. If you cannot see that there is a problem, then you cannot begin to address a solution.
How about another sadly forgotten statistic? If you have a gun in your house for your own defense?
It's unfortunate, then, that those who do and their families are statistically more likely to die from a gun in their home. I'm not denying that they might be careful and responsible. By having a gun in their house they are statistically more likely to die from one. A person might have a gun to protect their wife or girlfriend, but the sad fact is that by living in that house, women are statistically much more likely to die from it than men are.
Yes, women are more likely to die in the home by a gun, a fact you should remember when you derail the topic by shooting back with "liberals kill more babies than guns kill people." I am not going to argue with you about the morality, or realities, or science of abortion. I'm fine with just letting you know that it's pretty misogynistic to accuse women of worse atrocities than mass-murderers. At the very least, you're probably just not going to be that popular with the ladies if you share that opinion with them.
And when you rank deaths by causes, satisfied that heart attacks and strokes and cancer and car accidents kill more people, you are ignoring the obvious. Only violent acts and suicides are the direct result of a person wanting to hurt another person, for which we as a society are entitled to demand justice, in the individual act and at large. Hiding behind a list of hundreds of thousands of sick, injured, and diseased people to satisfy that a lesser cause of death is unimportant in the cosmic sense is pathetic.
By the way, if you want to see where guns from places like NYC come from, look at places like Virginia. The reason gun violence cannot simply be a state and local matter is because people don't have to stay on one side of the country.
It used to be that the US thought of gun owners as normal people, hunters, defenders of their lives and property, and willing to fight for their country when the time called.
Unfortunately now those earnest people are overshadowed by a vocal few militant absolutists who are more likely to threaten revolt against their country at the slightest provocation, dismiss any discussion as offensive to liberty, and would rather see dozens of kids killed in cold blood before they consider any compromise. They are like SUV drivers that everyone on the road can't stand, willing to pose a danger to others if it offers them the slightest degree of protection, because it's their kids, g*d d****t. That means no taxes, no limits on ammo, no waiting periods, no background checks at gun shows. They are going to piss off so many people that eventually they will completely turn public opinion against them.
You can keep your guns and your rights, but please tell the people that will never listen to reason to let up before they ruin it for everyone.