besides, comparing them like that brings out interesting things

if you think GTA is how people act normally IRL, boy do you have a low respect for humanity

ex. that specific comparison made me realize, what's to ever stop someone else from starting up the drug game?

say you have a plan to wipe the streets clean of every single drug dealer, even on down to the lowest ranking member

and it works

it works until there is demand, and someone low on cash but access to drugs

yet another reason the war on drugs fails

(aside from the fact people have been getting high since the start of recorded history and before then even)

but i could say the same thing about guns as i do for the war on drugs. Take the AR-15 for example. It is an amazing hog hunting weapon. Wild hogs cause millions of dollars in damages to crops each year. Then tend to come in groups, which is why the AR-15 works so well. A bolt action won't let you kill many hogs after you laid some bait before the scatter. And the hogs you miss will most likely eat some of your crop by morning. This is one of a few reasons it got the nickname of a varmint rifle.

yet people see scary black rifle and assume there is no legit use for it

the focus on a symptom, not the problem, then wonder why the problem doesn't go away, or gets worse but is slightly hidden.

I didn't know any of that, especially about wild hogs. interestin

but yes, I've noticed that as it pertains to gun control, I don't think I've ever seen a guy who was actually intimately familiar with guns aiding with the control side of the argument

I don't think that means anything specifically, but I find that interesting because you'd think there would be one and that he'd be very well-known

like i said, most people who see guns go "big scary black gun" and the only place they have seen it was on the news (and you only really see bad things on the news mostly), and in the hands of bad guys in movies or at war

and given that a large part of the population lives in cities, i don't exactly blame them for being uneducated. In a city, where the police are within walking distance most of the time as is another human who might help, guns are nearly as necessary a tool outside of a deterrent

but leave the city and the cops are not seconds away, they are minutes or sometimes hours away

and thats if the problem is human

i've lived in a wooded area as a kid. wild bears were a common day thing. If i moved back out into the country, a gun is wanted to deal with wild animals more than humans, but if i a human shows up to do me harm, its also my best chance because cops are not gonna be there in time, and i have no where really to run given how far away the nearest other person is

and what good is it banning guns if it doesn't noticeably reduce the overall homicide rate, or causes a sharp increase in violent crimes?

yeah, one person wasn't shot (which doesn't always kill. usually its lack of prompt medical response that kills with gunshots). But instead 1 house was broken into, 2 people mugged, and another stabbed (which a gut stab will have you bleed out dead in 10 minutes)

what I wonder is why people are so fixated on gun killing specifically

it gives some odd feeling as if killings of other kinds are perfectly fine

its "out of sight out of mind"

guns are loud. literally and figuratively.

I ask people that every now and then. the answer I tend to get is "guns are designed to fire hot metal slugs..."

how often does a stabbing make national news?

trade 1 shooting for 3 stabbings and people will say things are safer

because htey didn't hear it on the evening news

as much as I'd be interested in hearing about such a tragedy, unless the killer was Solid Snake or Jack the Ripper, I don't think we're hearing much about a stabbing

exactly

but some person just calls in gun shots at a school and it makes the news (even if there is no evidence there actually was a shot fired)

like i said, stabbings are quieter, and people also think less lethal.

Unless you are in china.

true

then you get mass stabbings of like 100 people

but in china that is someone just accidently sneezing while holding a knife they are so densely populated.

lol

when it comes to shooters one way think of it is this. If a madman can't find a gun then he'll find a knife of not that then poison, making a bomb, acid his bare hands. The weapons are the methods the mindset is what's most lethal.

exactly

i mean, look at the UK, the prized apple of gun control advocates. They still have problems with homicides and seem to now include basically any lawn care equipment as "deadly weapons". Which, to an extent, they can be, but usually its deadly to the operator because they were careless.