If someone wants to talk numbers, go right ahead. I know numbers can be read any way people want too, it's not going to magically make people agree on this thread. There's violence in other parts of the world than the US, but we're talking gun deaths, gun ownership, crazed killers with automatic weapons.
This is not going to happen 99.9% to me. The odds are very slight. If I bring a weapon inside my home so I can feel 'safe' against such an odd, then I should never go out in the street where a car is far more likely to run me over. I get to live my life not pondering violent death every new level of the dungeon because guess what! I live in a civilized society!
Shit happens still. So what.
The odds are worse in the US, but as I said, who is benefitting from this, who is feeding this, and is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you cultivate a culture of violence you'll reap violence. Then you say 'we need the guns against the violence'. Oh come on.
Wink wink! This conversation is awesome! Let's wink at helm because we're sarcastic and can't make a straight-ahead argument without resorting to our amazing cynicism.
There's violence in other parts of the world, for many reasons. We're talking about gun violence, gun ownership. What is the point you're trying to make here? That europeans kill people and have killed people in the past? Yes they have. This isn't an US vs YOU game in which if we all are after all not blameless, we can all rest somewhat easier that we're both in a shitty situation. Someone just killed 30 students with an automatic weapon. It might have happened in germany, it might happen in greece tomorrow. But how many times has it happened in the US, and how many times will it happen again?
QuoteYour pacifistic values sound cute, but when someone's threatening your life and the lives of your loved ones, you're going to wish you had some way of defending yourself.
This is not going to happen 99.9% to me. The odds are very slight. If I bring a weapon inside my home so I can feel 'safe' against such an odd, then I should never go out in the street where a car is far more likely to run me over. I get to live my life not pondering violent death every new level of the dungeon because guess what! I live in a civilized society!
Shit happens still. So what.
The odds are worse in the US, but as I said, who is benefitting from this, who is feeding this, and is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you cultivate a culture of violence you'll reap violence. Then you say 'we need the guns against the violence'. Oh come on.
QuoteAnd since you keep mentioning a "culture of violence", what about the widespread riots in Paris? I remember picking up a textbook once and seeing something about a few thousand years worth of war in Europe, too. Hmmm... Oh, but it's up to the US to make a good example, I forgot. Wink
Wink wink! This conversation is awesome! Let's wink at helm because we're sarcastic and can't make a straight-ahead argument without resorting to our amazing cynicism.
There's violence in other parts of the world, for many reasons. We're talking about gun violence, gun ownership. What is the point you're trying to make here? That europeans kill people and have killed people in the past? Yes they have. This isn't an US vs YOU game in which if we all are after all not blameless, we can all rest somewhat easier that we're both in a shitty situation. Someone just killed 30 students with an automatic weapon. It might have happened in germany, it might happen in greece tomorrow. But how many times has it happened in the US, and how many times will it happen again?