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Originally posted by debaser
As far as the "techno-weenie stuff", you are the one who brought up the technical aspects of firearms in your post.
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Wow. I lay out some basic terms, e.g. military-grade ammunition (with a couple of examples), and I'm going technical. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. So anyway, where were we:
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The sad irony of the situation is that while you may not feel safer, the presence of competant, armed, law-abiding citizens in this country actually makes you much safer.
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I can think of at least 55,000 people who might disagree with you. At least, they would if they were still alive. You can talk comparatively all you like, but you're not addressing the basic point: guns do kill people. "Guns are neat little things, aren't they? They can kill extraordinary people with very little effort. " -- John W. Hinckley
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Every criminal who will ever size you up will do so under the assumption that you may have a gun. You're welcome.
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I'm trying very hard to see where I should be thankful; the odds are that he just wants to make sure his gun is bigger. Oh, look! Our very own arms race. The fact that the "bad guys" have guns does not mean that people should buy ever more of them. It means that alternate solutions to the problem are required, or the U.S. will rapidly come to resemble Beirut.
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Yes, so long as there are guns, there will be deaths. The same goes for knives, lawn-darts, cars, and shampoo.
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I've never seen anyone quite so complacent about death before. What a saddening thing. However, we license people to drive; we require that they are trained in automotive safety. We also restrict cars to within certain boundaries of power. Why, pray tell, do we not do the same with guns? You're in the military; you've had that training. What about Joe-Bob out there, who bought that Desert Eagle or what have you because it looks cool? What safety training has he got? In most states, the odds are that he has none.
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No, what you are trying to say, in a round about way, is that we should ban all guns. Period. You see, your definition of what is dangerous includes every gun I have ever seen.
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Right. Don't tell me what I was trying to say. I don't believe in banning all guns, FYI. But you're right:
all guns are dangerous. The sooner society wakes up to this simple fact, the sooner we can begin working on fixing the problem. That's the trick about those little implements designed from their very inception to
kill people; they're inherently hazardous to health, both yours and that of anyone around you.
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I was simply trying to allay your irrational fear of firearms using humour. I find it funny that my target pistol is suddenly such a dangerously out of control device that I am likely to go out and start mowing down the innocent masses with it.
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Irrational fear of guns? What a load of tripe. My fear of guns is entirely rational. I've seen firsthand precisely what they can do. I've also seen firsthand how carrying a weapon is no guarantee of safety; but it can increase the likelihood of your being a victim of gun violence. And as far as your pistol goes, are you trying to tell me that if you were not of a mind, you couldn't begin "mowing down the innocent masses"? Or someone else with exactly the same weapon? Your intransigence awes me, as does your utter incapability to realize that my fear of guns is every freaking bit as rational as your fear of gun control.
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And as for the definition, yours would be the alternate.
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Not from where I'm standing. The difference is that perhaps I trust my own judgement better than I trust words on paper. It's a perspective thing.
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You see, the term assault weapon carrys legal weight, therefor the term is defined in balck and white.
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I have never heard of a more laughable notion than that which states laws are black and white, outside of narrow ink-color-on-paper-color terms. Laws are fluid. Laws change. Laws are inconsistent. Laws come and go. Laws are passed to supersede other laws. No law is static, inflexible, or absolute.
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Not even close, though I am very fond of guns. I make my living with them, you see. And you buy them for me.
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Tell me, would you like me to expound upon just why your being in the military only reinforces my earlier assessment?
Somehow, I am not reassured.