Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (211827)	12/16/2012 12:53:09 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541015

The best movie metaphor I know for America's reaction to gun violence is this one: youtube.com Starting at about 0:25. The above is not the best clip of this, but I didn't find a longer one. The theme keeps reoccurring throughout the movie, just like America's reaction to gun violence in real life.

To: JohnM who wrote (211827)	12/16/2012 1:07:14 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541015

"Ad hominem"? John, I'm sorry if you viewed my post as a personal attack. I used the words "scary" with guns because guns are scary. You have a machine that's designed for killing and all it takes is a slight tension on one finger and you hold the life of another in your hands. That's the essence of the desire by most people who would support the only truly effective gun control measure to eliminate most mass killings...removing guns from circulation. My assertion that guns weren't that scary to people like us was to make the point that many progressives don't have such a great fear of guns and might end up on the other end of that debate; refusing to support legislation that would remove most guns from circulation. I would not support such legislation and I tend to the progressive side on most issues. As far as the "emotional" versus "rational" dichotomy; I'm guilty. I confess. It is difficult for me to understand why a bright and logical poster, such as yourself, would be so unabashedly supportive of spending political capital while at the same time strengthening the opposition's base by standing on an issue where he could voice no specific proposal that would either accomplish his goals or have any chance of passage. Ed

To: JohnM who wrote (211827)	12/16/2012 1:17:20 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541015

The gun is as scary as the person in whose hands it sits. And unless it's in the hands of someone I know pretty well, I'm not feeling so good to know there's a gun in their hands. It's true that many people have cars, who should not have them, and those kill too- but at least cars are good for peaceful purposes. The purpose of a gun is to kill. If you aren't in the country hunting, then you've got it to kill a human. I'm not sure who wouldn't be scared to know other people, people whose background and motives they do not know, have guns on them. It seems to me the only rational course IS to be scared, and that is of course, the whole NRA notion of criminals being too scared to commit crimes. The whole NRA strategy rests on the proposition that guns ARE scary in the hands of the citizenry. The problem, of course, is that the citizenry are not a well regulated militia- or well regulated at all. We have a mess of people who own guns, and many of them are nutty, in their various ways, many of them are untrained or under trained with their weapons, many store their weapons unsafely, and many of them get their weapons stolen. It's a mess. And anyone who isn't a little bit scared by the mess hasn't considered it carefully.

To: JohnM who wrote (211827)	12/16/2012 1:29:23 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 541015

I think what we should do is tie gun violence to voting Republican. The link is clear. Who fought to remove the assault weapons ban? Republicans. Make EVERY massacre a REPUBLICAN massacre. Let me go on record as saying I found a lot of the assault weapons ban dumb. Functionally, there is no difference between this hunting rifle: and this assault weapon: Except that the top rifle is probably more accurate and the bottom rifle has a larger clip. Banning large clips made sense, banning scary looking rifles didn't. You can probably buy a big clip for the top rifle.