Quote:
Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO
I'm not sure what you mean here. I've only ever really heard them called guns, firearms, or specific types (pistol, handgun, rifle).
I could definitely get behind this. I don't have any problem with regulation, just outright banning.
I can get behind this for firearms and motor vehicles. I'm all for states' rights, but in both cases there is too much interstate travel / commerce involved. There needs to be one standard for each, coast to coast.
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You haven't heard people refer to their firearms as their 'tools' or 'toys'? You haven't heard people refer to their guns in a way that makes you think that you could easily substitute the word 'toy'? I've heard both, from far too many people, and on far too many occasions. Not just in the US, while primarily there, but also less often in Canada where we have the sort of controls, some of which I: would recommend for your people.
I'm glad to see that you would agree with my on those two fronts. It's rather refreshing to read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fatbuckRTO
Mindset has no real bearing on the end result, when the end result is death. What does it matter what a person's intent was if they run over a pedestrian? Sure, you address intent in court, when doling out punishment if it is appropriate. But it doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the dead pedestrian that the motorist only bought that car to get to work. To the dead guy's family, he's just as dead as if he had been riddled with bullets.
So what makes the 41k or so deaths due to privately owned motor vehicles less of an issue than the 31k or so deaths due to privately owned firearms?* By the way, half of those 31k firearm deaths were suicides.
*2007 numbers, easiest I could find on Google
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Once again, you're thinking on the wrong end of the equation. You're talking about what happens after the fact. I'm talking about trying to prevent the incident in the first place. From that point of view, mindset has a massive effect.
You're also minimizing the issue by making another invalid comparison; vehicular deaths to firearms deaths. In the United States there are roughly enough firearms to put one in the hands of every citizen over the age of 16 (rough estimate, based on the approximation that there are about 200,000 privately owned firearms in the US). Given that the majority of gun owners have more than one weapon, and that they are unlikely to all be taken out on a daily basis for their intended purpose, they are relatively unlikely to be involved in an incident. And yet they are.
On the flip-side of that you have road- going vehicles, the majority of which are used on a daily basis for their intended purpose. For this reason they are more likely to be involved in incidents resulting in death. Want a more valid comparison? Compare the number of wilful deaths resulting from both things and yes, a suicide is a wilful death.