Gun Violence Thread

Well Christina Grimmie's brother tackled her killer and he had a gun. That took tremendous courage, so I do think people would be more confident against someone with a knife.And in general too. If I was in that Orlando club, 10/10 times I would much rather prefer the guy be holding a kitchen knife, then a AR-15.

 

There's a difference between blind courage and confidence. The guy with the knife has the upper hand. Unless you have combat training on how to disarm a person with a knife, I don't see how you can confidently tackle that person.

 

Ya but I mean all attackers to some degree will have the element of surprise no matter the weapon, I guess what I should have said was that If you are the dude close to someone who is being attacked, I think you will more likely find the courage in you to tackle the person and disarm him/her vs a person who has a gun shooting at multiple people in succession at a distance.

 

Sure, but there's a reason why we don't have "Save a life. Turn in your knife" campaigns here in the USA. Knife perps get shot. Either by police or by armed citizens.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36550304

So a British member of parliament is now dead after a wacko with a homemade gun shot her. You can do all the "gun control" you want. People who are determined to kill will find a way to do it. So what option do law-abiding citizens in the UK have to protect themselves? Nothing.

 

That's not an issue of our nation then, but of our times. There's no way around technological advancement, and quite frankly I think you're exaggerating things. People weren't being "shamed" for their looks/intelligences/hobbies before? People used to connect more before? I just don't think that's true. That's nostalgia and bias for the past. Technology and social media definitely have aspects that isolate us, but it also brings people together like never before. Before, you'd be called a nerd if you liked a certain video game (as an example). Now you can find an online community of people who like it just as much as you do, and play that game with friends/family across the country. If Reddit/Twitter/YouTube/Facebook ceased to exist, do you think people would suddenly leave their houses to hang out with other people in person all the time? No, they'd just sit around and watch cable TV instead. I think it's vastly oversimplifying the problem to blame mass shootings and suicide on the increased incorporation of computers and technology into our daily lives.

 

Yes, gun control is flawed because a truly determined whacko will find illegal ways to obtain a gun, or use some other sort of deadly homemade weapon.

But I'm genuinely curious; how many shootings or violent crimes have been successfully stopped by a nearby citizen who happened to have a gun?

I don't have stats to back this up, but I feel like the amount of guns you'd have to disperse to the public in order to give them the power to occasionally stop violent crimes ... would be offset by the increased amount of violent crimes due to having so many guns out in public.

 

I like this guy's dry sarcasm.

 

There are already millions of guns and bullets in the USA. They are not going to disappear the instant private gun ownership is banned. Taliban troops shot 19th century British muskets at our soldiers. Guns can last a long time if properly stored. And as long as they are available on the black market, organized criminals or deranged murderers will find a way to get their hands on them.

Also, as RD has already explained. Law abiding citizens are rarely allowed to carry weapons outside their home. Until that changes, this argument doesn't hold much merit. Even if they are allowed by law to carry, the properties that these crimes take place at are usually "gun-free zones" like schools.