Reply to Children Sacrificed to Pay for Easy Access to Guns

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Okay, we all agree there is cost vs benefits - keep this in mind next time someone brings up individual cases of accidents as this tread was started to do. The "even one is too many" logic is idiotically simplistic once you've acknowledge that there is a cost vs benefit decision to be made. We good citizens here do not wish harm and misfortune on any individual, but we must acknowledge that life decisions all have associated risks that run along a continuum. Any all-or-nothing type of logic is counter productive and adds nothing to the dialog. [/quote]

We agree on costs-vs-benefits.  But that doesn't mean you get to dismiss the collection of individual children being shot almost daily by guns.  If you think this thread is based on the theme of "even one is too many," you're not paying attention.  Every one of the children listed in this thread is part of the cost of guns.  It's too easy to ignore that cost when it's someone else's child in a faraway town; it's too easy to assume those children are not really victims of guns, but rather are collateral damage in the crossfire of wrongdoers shooting at one another.  Make no mistake: These children are victims of guns.  They are being shot, and often killed, because gun owners want easy access to guns without accepting restrictions on safe handling and storage.

[quote]I am in strong agreement that we should place restrictions on who can own a firearm - and the law does currently place such restrictions. Whether the restrictions are enough is a discussion we can all have, but arguing that no one should be able to own a firearm as many are doing in this thread is a conversation stopper. [/quote]

I'd like our country to have agreement on proper gun restrictions.  If the polling is to be believed, even most gun owners favor more restrictions.  But all too often, the NRA and the politicians beholden to it will block the most sensible restrictions.  I made clear in my first post that I'm not advocating for total elimination of all guns, but I know some people see total elimination as the logical response to the no-limits view of many pro-gun people.  Neither extreme should be a "conversation stopper."  If you don't want people advocating for total elimination, you ought to encourage other pro-gun people and even the NRA to become part of the solution to gun violence by proposing commonsense limitations.

[quote]There are significant benefits to gun ownership. Why else would it be such a large industry. The benefits of gun ownership has been brought up and rehashed over and over so I won't repeat the obvious. Whether it's sport, fun, or self defense, people find value in gun ownership and decide to do so. Gun ownership rate in the US is 41%, this is a minority but it's not a small minority. In many states, gun ownership is a majority. However, even if gun owners were a small minority as you seem to have imagined, the goal of a democratic republic is to implement the will of the majority[b] while protecting the rights of the minority. [/b] Without the second part, all you have is mob rule and I doubt any one would agree that's a superior way to govern a nation. The concept that you are justifying trading off the right of gun ownership because they are just a small minority is sickening.[/quote]

Your logic escapes me in this last paragraph.  I understand some people enjoy owning guns, and that counts on the benefit side of the ledger.  I question your facts, because the data I've seen suggests the number of gun owners is steadily falling, and is not little more than 20% of the population.  I'm simply not sure where you're going with this "rights of the minority" and "mob rule" argument.  Perhaps your passion outkicked your reason there.[/quote]

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