How to reduce gun violence in the US?

[bdcheung]

If you're threatened with a baseball bat, is that any more or less deadly than if you are threatened with a ball point pen?

Yes. It's absolutely more deadly.

[cclaxton]

Why focus on the gun? Why not just seek to reduce violence as a whole? I get that one bombing every 8 years is next to nothing with regards to stats but violence in general far exceeds that of just "gun violence". Violence among kids and teens is more often than not never even reported. I've only seen one bar fight where police were involved and that was only because they were present when it started. Gun violence doesn't strike me as a problem. It only appears that way so the media can assist in your rights being stripped away.

This is a good question. Whether we like it or not, the national dialogue is about gun violence, mainly due to Newtown, CT. Gun violence is definitely a problem....any way you run the homicide numbers it is high especially compared to other modernized countries. I can't believe you would even make the claim....talk to any LE in Baltimore or Chicago....

I never said our rights should be stripped away, and I don't believe so either.
CC

[Dan_S]

Why reduce gun violence?....If we reduce gun violence, we make a better society.

No you don't. You actually make a society where brutality is more common place.

You make a society where in order to kill you, I have to hack you to pieces with a machete. You think I'm kidding? I'm not.



cclaxton, I'm not attacking you, in any way, shape, or form here. I'm genuinely interested in what your life experiences are, that cause you to hold the opinions that you do, so just try to follow me here....

How is is possible that reducing "gun violence" by further restricting firearms is going to do anything? So, instead of shootings, we have, oh, more stabbings such as has happened in some parts of the world?

Reducing violence carried out by means of a gun is pointless, as that is not the problem. The problem is the *people* that view violence of any kind as an acceptable method of getting what they want. Those people will have that mindset, no matter what tools are at their disposal.

By reducing the number of axes, and requiring mental health evaluations to purchase an axe, would that have any affect on the axe murder rate? Maybe it would, but overall, it would do absolutely NOTHING to the overall murder rate. Why? Because if I view murder as an acceptable option if I'm mad at someone, simply because I can't get an axe, doesn't mean that I'm not going to kill them....

[Dan_S]

Yes. It's absolutely more deadly.

No, it isn't. That's all psychological.

The presence of something can be used as a deadly weapon does not increase the likelihood of violence. I could mess you up with either a baseball bat or a ball point pen. Both are equally deadly, if I have intent to do you bodily harm. At the same time, you don't view it as a threat every time you see someone with a pen in their shirt pocket, do you?


There is no particular tool that is any more deadly than another tool. You couldn't very well argue that a pen is any less deadly than a baseball bat, right after you've been killed by an assailant with a pen. My point? That viewing *anything* as being "more deadly" is not based in reality, and the sooner more people understand this, the sooner they'll stop trying to ban everything in sight because it *might* be used to hurt or kill someone.

The cause of violence, be it pen violence, or baseball bat violence, or gun violence, is that the people committing the act of violence are, sick (for lack of a better term) and there is nothing that can be done to prevent their actions, without changing their way of thinking. If you don't respect life, you aren't going to care if you have to shoot someone, or if you have to hack off their head with a sharp rock...

[Hatchetman]

We are reducing gun violence: sales and the number of guns in private hands is up, while the rate of gun violence is down despite hard economic times.

I also think there is a strong cultural component to this, with strong nuclear families with fathers at home less likely to lose their kids to the street while establishing patterns of poor decision making.

[Tamara]

I've been threatened with a knife multiple times and it was far more frightening than I imagine a gun would be. Knives are scary.

The scaredest I think I've ever been, the dude had no weapon at all other than his bare hands and a dull, dead look in his eyes.

[Dan_S]

The scaredest I think I've ever been, the dude had no weapon at all other than his bare hands and a dull, dead look in his eyes.

Thanks, Tamara....


You just said in one sentence, what I've been trying to type out over the past half hour...

[cclaxton]

No, it isn't. That's all psychological.

The presence of something can be used as a deadly weapon does not increase the likelihood of violence. I could mess you up with either a baseball bat or a ball point pen. Both are equally deadly, if I have intent to do you bodily harm. At the same time, you don't view it as a threat every time you see someone with a pen in their shirt pocket, do you? There is no particular tool that is any more deadly than another tool. You couldn't very well argue that a pen is any less deadly than a baseball bat, right after you've been killed by an assailant with a pen. My point? That viewing *anything* as being "more deadly" is not based in reality, and the sooner more people understand this, the sooner they'll stop trying to ban everything in sight because it *might* be used to hurt or kill someone. The cause of violence, be it pen violence, or baseball bat violence, or gun violence, is that the people committing the act of violence are, sick (for lack of a better term) and there is nothing that can be done to prevent their actions, without changing their way of thinking. If you don't respect life, you aren't going to care if you have to shoot someone, or if you have to hack off their head with a sharp rock...

There is no way that the Newtown shooter could have killed as many kids in as short a time with a baseball bat or knife or machete. Somebody would have stopped him. The only other option would have been a bomb. Guns are more deadly than anything else except a bomb. There is a REASON we carry handguns and not axes or baseball bats....because they are the most lethal portable form of defense that, when used properly, minimizes the risk to innocent people.

The point of this poll is to figure out what actions, if any, can help society reduce gun violence. I think we all hear that you think there is nothing that can be done...okay...we heard you. Your reasons are....your reasons.
CC

[Dan_S]

You heard me, but you didn't listen.

You are trying to apply a tourniquet to a wound and call that a cure, when all you'e done is stopped the bleeding for now, but the patient will die of infection in a week...

[orionz06]

This is a good question. Whether we like it or not, the national dialogue is about gun violence, mainly due to Newtown, CT. Gun violence is definitely a problem....any way you run the homicide numbers it is high especially compared to other modernized countries. I can't believe you would even make the claim....talk to any LE in Baltimore or Chicago....

I never said our rights should be stripped away, and I don't believe so either.
CC

Why take the bait and even begin to negotiate gun rights? Focusing on violence and removing "gun" from discussion makes more sense and had had a better response from non-gun people who were teetering on the edge.