United States to fund gun-violence research after 20-year freeze

Post by ryeights » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 6:01 AM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #93

stevenicr wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cars kill thousands of kids, recommend fewer cars swimming pools kill a thousand, recommend banning swimming pools drugs kill a thousand, make drugs illegal with huge jail terms. wait, that doesn't work. why are there thousands of kids handling guns fine without accidents in rural areas and thousands getting killed by a few hundred in urban areas. it's much more complex than just fewer guns, no private pool ownership…

Neither cars nor swimming pools are weapons designed to kill. Nor are most drugs.

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 6:03 AM UTC

intopieces wrote: post #76

rayiner wrote: post #3

Gun violence research is a good example of how science can be skewed to make different political points. For example, one of the new tactics gun control advocates have adopted is lumping homicides and suicides together into “gun deaths” even though the policy implications of the two things are quite different. (Suicides accounting for the large majority of “gun deaths,” but bans on semi-automatic rifles and high capa…

>I’d also point out that, at the end of the day, gun rights derive from the Constitution. Gun control is therefore not merely a policy choice to be made based on facts and data. That it was written in the Constitution (which also counted black people as three fifths of a person and failed to enshrine voting rights) should not reduce the value the facts and data to "mere" status. You are right about the statistics, th…

Post by baroffoos » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 6:05 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #65

kasey_junk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of gun violence of all types, suicides, gang murders, mass shootings, domestic violence etc. are committed with hand guns. Hand gun ownership popularity is at a high in the US across many demographics. But assault rifle bans are the most popular form of gun control, probably because of the popularity of hand guns.

Not only that, support for banning hand guns has collapsed: https://news.gallup.com/poll/150341/record-low-favor-handgun... . In 1959, 60% of people favored a handgun ban, to 36% opposed. By 2011 that had flipped to 73% opposed and just 26% in favor. People focus on rifles, which are responsible for relatively few deaths, because banning handguns is wildly unpopular. (Heck Kamala Harris owns a handgun.)

Post by tptacek » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 6:06 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #122

tptacek wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really tired of this argument that people are irrationally afraid of black rifles and simply don't understand the machines they're purporting to regulate. These are devices that were designed to be field stripped by 18 year olds in a jungle. They're not that complicated. The Mini-14 (for example) has a wooden stock, and looks like something out of Little House On The Prairie, in part because it was brought to mar…

> I'm really tired of this argument that people are irrationally afraid of black rifles and simply don't understand the machines they're purporting to regulate. Given that more people are killed with hands and feet than are killed with rifles of any kind, "assault" or otherwise, yes, it's an irrational fear. Source: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-... For 2018, the numbers are: Rifles: 297…

Post by Glyptodon » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 6:08 AM UTC

melling wrote: post #30

rayiner wrote: post #3

Gun violence research is a good example of how science can be skewed to make different political points. For example, one of the new tactics gun control advocates have adopted is lumping homicides and suicides together into “gun deaths” even though the policy implications of the two things are quite different. (Suicides accounting for the large majority of “gun deaths,” but bans on semi-automatic rifles and high capa…

The entire 2nd Amendment claim is hotly debated, of course. Chief Justice Warren Burger’s epic rant: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Eya_k4P-iEo There’s also an excellent episode about the Second Amendment on WNYC. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/radio... When people tell you the Constitution is clear about gun ownership and that it’s settled, they are lying.