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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: JohnM who wrote (211734)12/15/2012 10:29:03 PM
From: cosmicforce2 Recommendations  Read Replies (1) of 541458
 
For years I got paid to do risk management. If we are to rationally use the bully pulpit of the media, talking about guns is a hundred times less important than what actually kills us. It is as though we have a tumor that weighs ten pounds (our health risk) but we are focused on a pimple (gun risk). In terms of the number of deaths per gun it is lower than many things you can point to - 17k homicides from 200MM guns is a margin of safety that is actually pretty high for a device that suddenly projects a mass at the speed of sound for a thousand yards. And the deaths that occur are largely criminal acts when one removes the suicides from the intentional misuse.

I think that nearly without exception, these high profile shootings have involved people that have previously intimated some intent and were known to be mentally ill or criminal. It is cheaper to ignore the mental and physical health problem. The ability to get these people help would go far further to improve society than trying to put the gun genie back in its bottle while we remove yet another constitutional right from people who pose relatively little risk.

The ACLU did a major disservice to the mentally ill by giving them the right to live under bridges and alleys- and ironically 95% of the time I'm in favor for what the ACLU does. But when it comes to mental history there is no central check to say - OBTW, this person is crazy: handle with care. Nope - that violates their constitutional rights. I have to get a background check to get a job - why not one for when I get a gun? Social security number to buy a car, but not required to possess a gun: now THAT is insane.
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