Everyone uses guns legally until they snap and go on a rampage. The guns in these rampages were almost always required legally.

Contrary to any widespread evidence of that.

A perfect example is us vs. our neighbors to the North:

Canada 1.6
U.S. 4.2

Most all Western 1st world countries fall under the 0-2 range.

#1 per capita of first world Western countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

millie’s caricature of your mentality makes about as much sense as your formulation….

And come to think of it, yes, I am angry. Angry that the corporate-funded, iron-clad grip of the NRA on our politicians has made it so much easier for crazies to shoot so many people.

I’m also angry when gun advocates keep coming up with justifications for their hobby and/or ironically dangerous mode of self-defense in these discussions, instead of owning their complicity in the senseless murder of many, many innocents.

And for shit’s sake, this isn’t about whether or not I’m a “good person.” What are you even talking about?

but if you want to dismiss it as a brain fart, then go ahead. i know that i’ll never convince you.

I don’t care, and I can’t believe you would honestly say that those legal uses are worth the deaths. Just not a priority in my opinion. I don’t really think that your so called freedoms – your rights to use guns legally – are worth it.

And come on. You are saying we should have guns so that we can overthrow the government. OK. Bathe the streets of Washington with blood and all that. Nice. I am so glad that you are well armed. (And that use doesn’t fall into your “millions who legally use guns for one reason or another.” That one is pretty illegal.)

etc.

And, come on, plenty of people would be hurt if we completely eliminated abortion. The question is who is hurt if we don’t eliminate abortion?

But seriously, I can’t believe people would rather preserve their rights to use guns for legal reasons when so many guns are used to kill people. Why do you want your guns so badly? Is your right to have fun hunting and shooting worth the deaths? Or maybe we could try to have fewer guns.

Until someone is willing to spend more than 5 minutes fleshing out the idea and then defend the specifics, they need to let the grownups talk. 

What bar is it you think you’re raising?

ETA: “Exactly the kind of blinkered perspective I’d expect from someone with your profile name and pic.”

It is an issue I am passionate about. Most attacks on guns stems from fear and ignorance, not rational logic. I hope to help some people see that.

How about we put it this way — the VAST majority of guns and ammo purchased by mass murderers are purchased legally, killing MANY. Just because a lot of people want easy access to guns doesn’t mean we should continue making it easy for insane people to murder of dozens of innocent people on a regular basis.

Who is hurt if we allow guns to be purchased? Adam Lanza’s mother bought her guns legally. He took them and killed children. If his mom hadn’t had the guns, those kids might be alive. Yeah, he might have stabbed people or done something else, but there would have been a less direct path to easily killing 6 year old children.

If his mom hadn’t been allowed to buy her guns, she would have had to come up with a different hobby or find another way to entertain herself. That is too bad. But not as too bad as a bunch of dead children.

The VAST majority of guns are used for sport or defense and ends up hurting NO ONE. Just because there are a few crazies with guns doesn’t mean we should penalized the millions of sane, safe users. How logical is that?

But, and I appologize for the wording on this but I can’t find a more delicate way to put it: it’d be one hell of a challenge to pin down 20 children and 6 adults and stab them all to death without being beaten unconcious by a single adult wielding a chair, or two adults wielding chairs, or three adults willing to take you down in exchange for some stab wounds.

One gun gives one person the ability to overpower MANY people.

I’m not going to deny that Hollywood doesn’t glorify violence, but those same Hollywood movies that you watch in America, they’re also popular all over the world. I’ll use the Australia example again, because I’m most familiar with it and its highly relevant:

Since the introduction of gun control laws there has been a huge drop in gun violence in Australia. There has been no restriction on Hollywood violence in Australia that shows any correlation.

I’m not going to argue about Hollywood any further because it is a diversionary argument that is irrelevant to the debate.