Quote:
Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
We have a society in which an extraordinary number of such people choose to shoot up schools. There is a problem, and it is getting worse. You may not be able to understand one, but what about 20?
The stats on gun violence in America are also pretty damning. Start here for some disturbing correlations. We have an organization of over 4 million Americans that supports the proliferation of automatic weaponry in our society and argues that "armed citizens" are something good in its own right - not hunters, not people shooting competitive, people whose "arming" is part of their "citizenship". That is, to my mind, a terrorist organization more dangerous than any on our various lists. And it owns one of the political parties and half of the other one.
And, think how this looks to the rest of the world. |
The data Ezra Klein compiled is actually mixed.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wo...united-states/
It appears violence has recently been decreasing, and mass killings have regularly occurred for decades. It also confirms that gun control does lead to a drop in gun killings.
I don't own guns, and never will, but I am troubled by efforts to excessively control them, and understand why gun people fight them with such determination. If you have defended criminals, you understand the imbalance of power between the individual and the state. I shudder to think of a country where the only people with handguns are law enforcement and government.
I would, however, favor a system in which handguns were barred for both law enforcement and domestic govt agents, and regular citizens. But that's simply fantastic thinking.
