Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking • Hacker News Board

Re: Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking

#161

Post by 13rules » Wed, Dec 19, 2012, 11:52 PM UTC

hga wrote: post #160

13rules wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you — and probably agree with your political views 100% if I had to guess. I think that most of those people do want to prevent these tragedies — I think that everyone does. I do not agree with their methods (as misguided as they may be), but that doesn't discount their motivation.

" I think that most of those people do want to prevent these tragedies.... " Well of course. But wanting that is not exactly out of the mainstream, is it? Who doesn't, besides the fantasies of NRA members and/or gun owners that too many gun grabbers hold in their minds?

It's not out of the mainstream, but I think that some on the gun control side really believe that gun owners don't care that these shootings happen. They basically opine that if you don't agree with their proposals then you must not care about preventing the tragedies from occurring again.

Piers Morgan is a good example (http://bit.ly/12q3n4q) -- he contributes nothing to the conversation or debate because he insults anyone that has a view opposing his.

Re: Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking

#162

Post by RyanMcGreal » Fri, Dec 21, 2012, 5:38 PM UTC

hga wrote: post #157

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think a real commitment to gun control would spark a civil war. So far, the paranoid right-wing tough talk has not coalesced into anything like a real movement, let alone a rebellion, despite the widespread belief among a certain segment of Americans that the president is a radical Muslim, foreign-born Manchurian candidate determined to turn American by stealth into a socialist dictatorship. Then again, I mig…

" Then again, I might be wrong about the civil war bit. " Given that, if you live in the US, it's a "you bet your life" proposition, you'd best be very careful before possibly sparking one, no matter how low a probability you think it is from people you've shown yourself to know nothing about. And you're definitely limited in your imagination, we've watched recent history and know "real movements" as such aren't an o…

I don't live in the USA, but I live close enough to it to pay attention to what's going on. I know the difference between the relentless bombast of right-wing propaganda and what most people are actually like.

As for the risk of people dying if something is done: we know for certain that people will continue to die from gun violence by the thousands on an annual basis if something is not done.

Re: Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking

#163

Post by hga » Fri, Dec 21, 2012, 7:05 PM UTC

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #162

hga wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Then again, I might be wrong about the civil war bit. " Given that, if you live in the US, it's a "you bet your life" proposition, you'd best be very careful before possibly sparking one, no matter how low a probability you think it is from people you've shown yourself to know nothing about. And you're definitely limited in your imagination, we've watched recent history and know "real movements" as such aren't an o…

I don't live in the USA, but I live close enough to it to pay attention to what's going on. I know the difference between the relentless bombast of right-wing propaganda and what most people are actually like. As for the risk of people dying if something is done: we know for certain that people will continue to die from gun violence by the thousands on an annual basis if something is not done.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=threeper

Re: Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking

#164

Post by tthomas48 » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 4:22 PM UTC

joshuahedlund wrote: post #79

tthomas48 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember it's an amendment . Which means it can be repealed. We also at one point had an amendment outlawing all liquor and then another that repealed it. The inverse could be done easily with the 2nd. I'd imagine it's something that won't be out of the question in about 20-40 years. Gun owners are overwhelmingly white, male and older. A demographic that is dying of old age.

This is a trend I would expect too, but the data does not appear to support it. Gun control has actually become consistently less popular over the last two decades[1]. I actually don't have a clue why, as it seems to counter other various demographic/political trends. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/files/2012/07...

It correlates with a massive decrease in crime. It's interesting, but I live in a fairly mixed-income and higher crime area and guns are very unpopular here. I think ultimately it's some sort of weird reaction to extreme safety. Our brains start creating fake risk when we don't have any in our lives.