Guns are cool and Good

@HoraceGreenley its true

@HoraceGreenley In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available as of 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics reports 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were by suicide and 13,958 were homicides. Not so cool.

@badminton i don't think guns are responsible for suicide. But i can see a case being made for homicides a little bit. Though I would say its not very strong

@badminton I don't fear guns or responsible gun owners. I fear a bad guy with a gun. I'm not going to punish responsible gun owners.

Suicide is a mental health issue, not a gun issue. The trigger does not pull itself.

@HoraceGreenley The purpose of gun safety laws are to screen out unfit, dangerous people. Anyone who wants to drive a car must have a driver's license. I think we should require the same for owning a gun.

@badminton Stringent gun control laws don't reduce homicides. See the Harvard Gun Study and the UN gun study.

Gun crime is overwhelmingly committed by illegal gun owners.

Those two studies establish that high gun ownership leads to less violent crime.

@badminton guns in the united states aren't quite the same as a car tho. Cars aren't really mentioned in the constitution for one. With that being the case the right to owning a gun is almost equivalent to the right to vote. So screening for whos fit and whos not isn't really possible in the same way its not possible for voting.

@NoahB To vote a person must register to vote. There are age restrictions on who can vote. Congress can enact restrictions on gun ownership and use.

@badminton yeah but you cant "screen" people out of voting. If their felons they aren't allowed to vote sure but I'd agrue thats a violation of freedom in of itself

@badminton @NoahB @HoraceGreenley you do realize all those were illegal firearms

@MarineBob Remember the mass shooting in Las Vegas 2017? The shooter, Stephen Paddock. Killed 60 people and wounded over 400. He was a legal gun owner. There are many other examples.

@MarineBob Yeah. Bob, I'm with you. See my earlier comments.

@badminton Yeah, but the vast majority of homicides are conducted with illegal guns. Besides, Paddock was an obvious mental health issue.

You can't extrapolate from a few incidents to characterize the whole.

@badminton it was still an illegal weapon

@HoraceGreenley i disagree with paddock being a mental health issue. dude was perfectly sane. did what he did in cold blood.

@MarineBob I do not believe the Las Vegas shooter's arsenal were illegal guns. He had 24 guns in his hotel room, including 14 AR-15s and 8 Ar-10's. A marine platoon going into a combat zone don't carry that much firepower. It is insane that anyone should be allowed to own that many military-grade weapons.

@NoahB If you think a person that kills and wounds dozens of strangers in cold blood without motive is sane, then you don't understand the law or psychology.

@badminton Those are not "military grade" weapons. Discussing guns with you is like discussing sex with a virgin.

@HoraceGreenley the act of doing something evil isn't evidence of mental unwellness in of itself lol. i don't think YOU understand law or psychology

@NoahB Dude, evil is not a legal term like sane is. Psychology does not recognize evil as a disease.

Killing without motive is indicative of sociopathy. Now whether a court wants to recognize this person as sane or insane is another matter. Personally, I don't care. They guy should be shot.

But he does not exhibit a normal, healthy psychology.

@HoraceGreenley I can discuss ballistics with you. The NATO 5.56 mm round with 55 grain bullet has a muzzle velocity of about 3,250 ft/s. The 7.62 mm NATO with 147 grain bullet has a muzzle velocity of 2,800 ft/s.

I used to own an FN-49 .30-06 semi-auto rifle. From the bench with iron sights at the 100-yard range I could shoot a five-inch group.

Any more questions?

@HoraceGreenley There is no evidence to indicate he "had no motive". The police simply couldn't find one. Anything that could be used as evidence one way or the other was destroyed or missing. His hard drive was purposefully destroyed etc etc things like that.

Also why bring up his mental health at all in this framework if your going to skirt away from classifying him as insane or not insane

@badminton So you know the difference between semi-automatic and automatic? And that an Assault Rifle is a fully automatic weapon?

@NoahB Because sane and insane are legal terms. They have nothing to do with psychology. Apparently you don't know the difference.

@HoraceGreenley I do know the difference lol. you're the one saying he was mentally unwell with no basis.