[Newbie Wants Info]

"Those with guns typically kill each other."

Well, that's absurd. If you were a "deep woods peckerhead," a "deep barrio greasehead," or a "deep ghetto burrhead" or a "deep cave towelhead" would you go out of your way to shoot armed people? Of course not, you would shoot unarmed people who presented a lesser threat.

That's why the vast majority of shooting victims are unarmed.

More importanly I was really referring to animal species who would be hunted to extinction by gun owners for food. Deer and coyotes are typically unarmed.

[Newbie Wants Info]

You're misreading statistics. All that says is that people are more likely to die by getting shot in the heart than stabbed in the heart. The vast majority of people who get shot in the United States are not gun wielders but unarmed victims. There's a reason why shooters typically target schools not police stations.

[SamInNebraska]

Gun violence mostly affects people already prone to violence themselves.

Sure. That is because people give a gun the intent. A gun is a perfectly safe tool, will sit there for centuries and not kill anyone. Same as storing a thermonuclear device in one's basement. Wouldn't ever harm a fly.

But let a person get involved, and holy crap, be it a gun, thermonuclear weapon, kitchen knife or car, and there will be blood.

[C8]

There was actually a study done which strongly suggests that the trigger pulls the person as much as the person pulls the trigger. Kids played a video game both with and w/o a real gun in their front view on the table. When the real gun was in their sight they committed many more violent acts. Just the sight of guns makes many nervous and tense and probably increases the odds they will be used by some.

Ask yourself this: if every driver went to work tomorrow with a loaded gun on the passenger seat- would you feel safer or not? If every kid went to school with a gun, would you feel they were safer or not?

pretty much a no brainer.

[vtsnowedin]

(Yes Davep, the new guy tends to drift off topic, but in this case a discussion on gun violence would seem to be relevant. Anyway he is also wrong, so I feel compelled to respond.)

That's why the vast majority of shooting victims are unarmed.

Between 1990 and 1994, 75% of all homicide victims age 21 and younger in the city of Boston had a prior criminal record.[45] In Philadelphia, the percentage of those killed in gun homicides that had prior criminal records increased from 73% in 1985 to 93% in 1996.[16][46] In Richmond, Virginia, the risk of gunshot injury is 22 times higher for those males involved with crime.[47]
In 2005, 75% of the 10,100 homicides committed using firearms in the United States were committed using handguns, compared to 4% with rifles, 5% with shotguns, and the rest with unspecified firearms.[48] The likelihood that a death will result is significantly increased when either the victim or the attacker has a firearm.[49] For example, the mortality rate for gunshot wounds to the heart is 84%, compared to 30% for people who sustain stab wounds to the heart.[50]

I don't see a contradiction between those two. Sure the criminals are involved in most of the crime but the ones that die are the ones that brought a knife to a gun fight. Of course 100% of "Gun" homicides are committed with guns. What type of gun doesn't really matter. And the last stat shows that if you want to kill someone a gun is the most efficient way to do it. Why get all sweaty bludgeoning, stabbing or strangling your victim when a simple double tap to the head will do.

[dionisio]

You're misreading statistics. All that says is that people are more likely to die by getting shot in the heart than stabbed in the heart. The vast majority of people who get shot in the United States are not gun wielders but unarmed victims. There's a reason why shooters typically target schools not police stations.

Completely untrue. School shootings are statistically very rare and are not
typical in any way.

[John_A]

There was actually a study done which strongly suggests that the trigger pulls the person as much as the person pulls the trigger.

Of course. Everyone is brainwashed at a young age to become homicidal the instant they see a trigger. Makes perfect sense.

Kids played a video game both with and w/o a real gun in their front view on the table. When the real gun was in their sight they committed many more violent acts. Just the sight of guns makes many nervous and tense and probably increases the odds they will be used by some.

Certainly that is why there are parents, to teach their children to A) don't listen to the music coming out of California, B) play the games designed for California parents looking for babysitters for their children that they might smoke weed, C) don't watch the movies coming out of California, and finally D) don't expect liberals to find the children so stupid as to think that video games are the same thing as the real world, another californian trait where being a celebrity is itself a goal, a profession, and somehow confers status upon people in that environment who we can only hope will never then breed.

Ask yourself this: if every driver went to work tomorrow with a loaded gun on the passenger seat- would you feel safer or not? If every kid went to school with a gun, would you feel they were safer or not?

pretty much a no brainer.

All the teachers should be armed, certainly. None of the children. Agreed.