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.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/21/police-seize-hundreds-weapons-knife-crime-crackdown-london-7332054/

if they ban guns, this is the next target: https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/sei_563403.jpg?w=748&h=561&crop=1

and that still doesn't address the problem

oi you got a license for that potato peeler?

@Adreyu people's arguments with that is that the killer would have to try a lot harder to kill that many people with knife or poison vs a gun you can just buy or steal

https://twitter.com/MPSBarnsbury/status/910872512418009091/photo/1

tbh I just point people to cars

that is a real fucking tweet from a police department

cars kill a ton of people but no one's gonna willingly part with that power if they have it

these tools can harm as well if ends up in wrong hands. *looks at my hands. you mean these tools?

the pro-gun control people call this argument a slippery slope while pointing to the country that proves its not a fallacy.

I wonder what life in New Zealand is like though

not too long ago I saw a video where it's stated they can legally own machine guns, but there's no mass murder there

they have recently been coming out more and more as ban all guns, not some guns (while saying its not all guns... just semi autos which is 95% of all guns sold these days, even a fucking revolver counts. at least the kind that doesn't require cocking the hammer), then say "it will just go to knifes" is slipper slope while point to the UK.....