Red Herrings and You - Gun Control

a reply to: diggindirt

Which is why any legislation that does pass has to be very carefully constructed so that it doesn't remove any rights of law-abiding citizens but, at the same time, makes it harder for crazies and criminals to get a hold of guns. Personally I think there is a deeply in-grained Fetish for guns embedded in American society that makes the problem that much harder to crack. Everyone, from a gang member on the street to some average law abiding citizen in the suburbs thinks that guns are the answer, thinks they are absolutely necessary. It makes it hard to make any progress because for people who want to go on a violent self-destructive rampage guns work just as well for them as they do for the hunter just trying to put food on his family's table.

Then we add in mental illness, poverty and our near police state level of incarceration, we've got people who are under-medicated, people who are over-medicated, and no matter what everyone is taught from birth to grave that guns are their right.

No matter how many factors and complications though it is still a discussion that needs to happen on a National level and the Red Herrings don't help.

These folks wouldn't recognize a red herring if it hit them in the face........

a reply to: Titen-Sxull
It's not a fetish with guns. It is a right guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. Calling it a fetish is one of your Red Herrings.

How about we try, just for a year or two maybe---enforcing the laws currently on the books?

Well since people like memes so much.



Gun control is the red herring.

Because a legitimate argument to limit our rights has NEVER been made.

If a person has actually bothered to read the Bill of Rights, and the 14th.

They know there is NO debate to be had.

a reply to: diggindirt

So you don't think there could be a dangerous fetish for an item which you have a right to own? I don't see how the fact that its in the Constitution means there can't be a deeply ingrained cultural fetish.

More guns are always portrayed as the answer. People get shot up and what do Americans do? They run out and they buy more guns, because they see guns as the answer. I'd say that's indicative of something cultural and that's why legislation is only gonna ever get us so far.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

Or superior prescience based on historical deductions and the actions of others.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull
Well, I suppose it's a an ages-old fetish if you wish to refer to it that way. "Arms" are the only physical item mentioned in the founding document. The founders had good reason for that I believe---they held the view that we have the right to defend ourselves. They didn't put any such statements in the document about any other physical item....not the right to own a house, not the right to own a horse---but the right to own a weapon. Because they believed in freedom and the rights of individual humans. Additionally, that is why they created a Republic rather than a Democracy---to equalize the sheep and wolves. It's not that they didn't recognize that there would be wolves---just that they gave us a way to protect ourselves when the wolves came to the door.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

Apparently a red-herring is also a valid comparison...just one you don't wish to understand. That, or you're a liar pretending to not understand. So maybe it will help if I say this loudly THE PROBLEM IS THE PEOPLE WHO KILL...NOT THE WEAPON THEY CHOOSE! Woooo...that felt good. But seriously, do you really and truly not understand that banning the paraphernalia of a killer is not going to stop killing any more than banning pipes and rolling papers is going to keep people from getting stoned.

The only way to get a stoner to stop smoking is to change their mind or take away their freedom (ie. jail). Oh...and maybe make them broke so they can't buy it, but they still have friends. So...as far as guns go, it would be totally unfair to take away gun owner's freedom for doing what the Constitution says they can. So I guess if you want to ban guns, for whatever reason...it obviously has nothing to do with mass killings...I guess you have to change their minds.

Good luck. Oh...and kids...don't use dangerous tools like guns if you're stoned. And if you do, don't tell a liberal. They'll be all over your butt about it.

So basically OP. What you're saying. We as a people, that have read your rantings, can not trust you with a gun, car or fork? Rocks, weren't meant or "designed" as "weapons". But David brought down Goliath with one. Oh! But that's probably just "folklore" to you. You're probably "educated". What's your point? Because you said a lot of nothing. People like you seem very fragile. Red Herrings taste like chicken by the way.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

That is ludicrous! "Law" doesn't do anything but make crime/criminals. It's already against the law to murder. How many laws need to be made to "ban" the death of innocence? You're confused about killing and murder. I get that.