Politics

[FireArrow]

But what exactly are guns gonna protect us from? Unless you're carrying it around all the time you're still just as vulnerable to gun violence (which will be pretty rampant given a "everyone owns a gun" scenario.) If any outside governments attacked U.S. soil, your gun is gonna be about as useful as a toothpick. Same goes for the U.S. military. The only thing I can really think of is wild animals in more rural areas. If you don't believe me, just look at gun based statistics in other countries.

The idea of needing a gun to protect ourselves is unique to America (other counties are pretty confused as to why we love guns so much), which comes from the whole unexplored frontier/every man for himself way back when our country was founded. I think people are so touchy about gun control because guns are so engraved into our culture, but I think the safety of the general public is more important than preserving that small part of American history and culture.

[mikey]

The idea of needing a gun to protect ourselves is unique to America (other counties are pretty confused as to why we love guns so much), which comes from the whole unexplored frontier/every man for himself way back when our country was founded. I think people are so touchy about gun control because guns are so engraved into our culture.

Well said.
If only SFK were here

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

Agreed.
Look at Australia, where virtually zero citizens have guns. Low murder rate, and when they took guns away, guess what didn't happen? Rise in homicide with other weapons. The gun deaths dropped, and nothing else picked up the slack.
Study after study after study consistently show that more guns=more homicides.
As the comedian Jim Jeffries put it, there's only one reason to have a gun; "Fuck off, I like guns!".

[Clanker37]

As an Australian I can confirm most of these facts. Except people still have guns, it's just regulated so that crazy people don't have guns.

Let's just ignore the shooting that occurred at Parramatta on Monday...

Nah fuck it, it was a police station, they have guns. It just further proves the point.

[KefkaticFanatic]

It's disgusting that there's such a dependency on them in this country.  We need a crackdown like Australia had, throw out the 2nd Amendment and everything, I don't care, it's been long overdue.

[EFitTrainr]

Politics, schmolitics!

Why, back when I was a kid, the closest thing we had to a political system was our unanimous fear of dinosaurs!
Those vicious bastards.

[mikey]

If we still had hostile forces in America it'd be a good idea

[blueflower999]

It's disgusting that there's such a dependency on them in this country.  We need a crackdown like Australia had, throw out the 2nd Amendment and everything, I don't care, it's been long overdue.

Get the states to vote on a new amendment to override the 2nd Amendment then. You need 75% of them to say "yes" to that and then it'll go through. Anything other than that is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

Obviously we have to go through due process, but that doesn't mean until we do we just sit around with our thumbs up our arses.

[FireArrow]

Get the states to vote on a new amendment to override the 2nd Amendment then. You need 75% of them to say "yes" to that and then it'll go through. Anything other than that is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

Gun control is not against the second ammendment, which is something that we urgently need to strike down on. Outright banning guns is something we can decide on later as it may prove to be unnecessary.

[Ruto]

Why the hell does everyone skip the "well-regulated" part?

1) A bunch of hicks carrying their rifles in public is not well-regulated
2) Parents not locking up their guns from their toddlers is not well-regulated.
3) Bypassing background checks by buying a gun from another bumpkin is not well-regulated.

Then there are people buying multiple guns. It just gives an illusion of class or safety (running away or taking cover is the best way to survive). I would throw in the compensation excuse too since it's mostly men that feel the need to buy the biggest, newest or the fastest whatever.

[blueflower999]

The first Democratic debate of this election cycle will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 8:30 EST on CNN. Participants include front-runner Hillary Clinton, socialist Bernie Sanders, and three other people that most voters haven't even heard of: Jim Webb, a former senator from Virginia, Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, and Lincoln Chafee, the former governor of Rhode Island.

Hope some of you tune into this one, it's going to be wildly entertaining even though it'll be a good bit shorter than the Republican debates thus far.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

Participants include front-runner Hillary Clinton, close second democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, and three other people that most voters haven't even heard of: Jim Webb, a former senator from Virginia, Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, and Lincoln Chafee, the former governor of Rhode Island.

FTFY

[blueflower999]

#1 It's not a close second, he's still a good 20% behind her and

#2 Didn't I imply that he's in second by saying that the other three participants are virtually unknown to the American voter base

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

1) Which states are you looking at? He's ahead in Iowa and NH. Looking only at the nationwide poll leaves a large gap in your knowledge, especially with a candidate that is gaining steam quickly like Bernie is.
2) Not really; you mentioned front runner and then listed off other candidates. Doesn't necessarily mean he's second; also you said nothing about him other than "socialist" which isn't even accurate. He's a democratic socialist; IE what Scandinavia has, what Canada has, what most of western Europe has as well.