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Comment by stuffn

1 day ago

The real litmus test for your beliefs is gun rights. Taken to it's logical conclusion you would think that you would be staunchly pro 2A.

I'm not sure my position on 2A but it seems you're making a pretty big leap to connect them.

Guns kill others. To me, that's a big difference. Gambling does not, only indirectly, you gamble your money away your family doesn't eat. But if you're going indirect than anything fits. Cars kill more than guns.

You could argue the similarity is that some people can be responsible with guns and others can't but you're back the previous point. Irresponsible gun use directly harms others. Irresponsible gambling at most indirectly harms others.

  • > Cars kill more than guns.

    In most countries, but not in the US.

    • Just some context because gun violence studies are probably the most manipulated data sets in history. The two numbers (auto deaths and gun deaths) are pretty close to each other and different policies can and do push one above the other.

      - Most of those gun deaths are suicides and the vast majority would happen anyway without guns.

      - This wasn't true before about 2015 and the change (increase in non-suicide gun deaths) over the last decade is largely the consequence of 'defund the police' policies.

      - 90+% of gun violence happens in about 4 urban zip codes, all of which have some of the strictest gun control laws in the US.

      There is a reason you have never heard a criminologist rail about guns (its usually a sociologist). The data points to problems with other policies. Also gathering the data honestly is difficult; people stop reporting types of crimes when the police stop investigating those types of crimes.

      PS A "curve-off" public welfare policy is far more effective than banning guns.

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