Gun Policy

[JDR13]

There's also 3281 gun murders in there (for 2019) where the type of gun was unspecified. Plus 840 murders where the basic type of weapon wasn't specified. So the real numbers are likely around 30-40% higher than the ones you're giving.

Just goes to show you, though, how the gun control crowd is concentrating completely on the wrong things. Almost 20X as more killings with handguns than rifles. We don't know exactly how many of those rifles are ones they'd call "assault rifles", but assault rifle murders are probably going to be something like 2-3% of all firearm murders. Plus, the number of victims who were killed in "mass shootings" is like 1-2% of all the firearm murder victims. But mass shootings and assault rifles are all those guys can talk about. If both of them went away overnight, gun violence numbers would barely register a change.

And that only goes to show that guns in general obviously need to be regulated better here. I couldn't care less about which guns make up which statistics. It doesn't change the fact that our stats are downright embarrassing when compared to other first-world countries.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

And that only goes to show that guns in general obviously need to be regulated better here. I couldn't care less about which guns make up which statistics. It doesn't change the fact that our stats are downright embarrassing when compared to other first-world countries.

Um. No. You need to look at all murder statistics in the US. The US has higher murder rate by stabbing, blunt instrument, and unarmed too. It's not because other countries have tight controls over knives, fists, and hammers. It's because the US is a more violent place. Keep your mitts off my guns.

 

[Couchpotato]

True but most citizens are depressed or have some type of other mental problems. Which leads to all these mass shootings and other murders. Don't just blame guns. There just a factor. Though an average citizen should not be allowed to own automatic weapons.

 

[JDR13]

Um. No. You need to look at all murder statistics in the US. The US has higher murder rate by stabbing, blunt instrument, and unarmed too. It's not because other countries have tight controls over knives, fists, and hammers. It's because the US is a more violent place. Keep your mitts off my guns.

Yeah, because having more guns is obviously going to make it less violent, right?

 

[Stingray]

True but most citizens are depressed or have some type of other mental problems.

All of the world has those problems though. What makes the US a more violent place is that it has far more class and racial/ethnic strife than any other developed country. Not to mention, the mainstream media and many politicians actively promulgate a Grievance Culture where supposedly most of the population is being oppressed by someone or another.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

@JDR13 yes. Exactly. Now you're getting the point. I'm so glad you're beginning to see the light. Vote Republican or Libertarian in two years for looser gun control and lower violence.

 

[JDR13]

@JDR13 yes. Exactly. Now you're getting the point. I'm so glad you're beginning to see the light. Vote Republican or Libertarian in two years for looser gun control and lower violence.

Only if QAnon tells me to.

 

[OverIt]

All of the world has those problems though. What makes the US a more violent place is that it has far more class and racial/ethnic strife than any other developed country. Not to mention, the mainstream media and many politicians actively promulgate a Grievance Culture where supposedly most of the population is being oppressed by someone or another.

I really don't understand the US racial/ethnic strife.

One the one had you have the US that had slavery, released slavery and people still blame things on slavery after 200 years. Then you have Europe, who did the same but don't blame things on slavery and ethnic people are better off.

 

[Ripper]

All of the world has those problems though. What makes the US a more violent place is that it has far more class and racial/ethnic strife than any other developed country. Not to mention, the mainstream media and many politicians actively promulgate a Grievance Culture where supposedly most of the population is being oppressed by someone or another.

I think that's true, though because of the racial/ethnic history, I have more sympathy for the idea that the legacy of discrimination remains significant, particularly where black folks are concerned. They were still aggressively campaigning for racial purity and exclusion of black people in Forsyth county in the late 80s. I was on the carpet, more concerned with my Transformers at that point, which was a while ago, but hardly lost in the mists of time.

The problem is, while I think there is a conversation to be had, there is an element of black politics that is hugely toxic in its own right. We see it peeping through in the nonsense of Kanye West and Kyrie Irving - a bit of Farrakhan, a bit of 'Black Hebrew Israelites', and a dash of flat-Earth sauce. And this kind of bleeds over into the excesses of the woke faction of the Left, where silly positions are defended by word salad tossed with scrambled logic. From my point of view - someone who strategically wants to keep the worst exponents of the right away from power - they are a nightmare. If it weren't for these excesses, I think the right wing would have a very tough sell.

There's a reason the Right are happy to keep the conversation on the culture war stuff - because even when those commentators are not exactly scholars and debate champions, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[Pladio]

I really don't understand the US racial/ethnic strife.

One the one had you have the US that had slavery, released slavery and people still blame things on slavery after 200 years. Then you have Europe, who did the same but don't blame things on slavery and ethnic people are better off.

Really not the same thing. Europe did not have slavery at the heart of its internal operations. There actually were very few slaves on mainland Europe. They were all shipped to the colonies to work in horrible conditions.

 

[OverIt]

Really not the same thing. Europe did not have slavery at the heart of its internal operations. There actually were very few slaves on mainland Europe. They were all shipped to the colonies to work in horrible conditions.

I can find that ~4 million slaves were in the USA at the time of abolition. But I cant find any numbers for slaves in Europe. Did Europe just simply do the trading but kept very little?

 

[Stingray]

I can find that ~4 million slaves were in the USA at the time of abolition. But I cant find any numbers for slaves in Europe. Did Europe just simply do the trading but kept very little?

Almost all slaves were taken to European colonies in the western hemisphere, not to Europe itself. Check out the "Flag of vessels carrying the slaves" chart here, the rightmost column:

Atlantic slave trade - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Going by those numbers, out of the 12.5M slaves transported, only 8861 went to Europe. Vast majority went to Brazil and the Caribbean. The US actually didn't get that many. Most of the slaves in the US were bred, not transported.