2406: Thoughts No Prayers

[Keith]

Those people aren't changing. Fuck 'em.

The real problem isn't guns it's that I hurt feelings...

Mkl heard and read the weapons ban facts. Not for one second did he think, "That's interesting..."

Again, I'm not talking to the people who disagree with me.

[Sparrow]

you know that's not what i mean. stop being goofy.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Keith

Again, I'm not talking to the people who disagree with me.

i'm not disagreeing with you; we all want insane assholes to stop shooting up public spaces. i'm saying the conversation we keep having about this every time it happens isn't becoming fruitful which leads me to believe we need to try it differently.

i fully believe the /best/ thing people can do right now is occupy our spaces. go and dance and have fun. putting as much energy into combatting fear with joy as we are want to spend screaming at people we find disgusting feels more productive to the end game.

[Keith]

I'll work on the guns, you work on the dancing.

[mkl]

Originally Posted by Keith

Those people aren't changing. Fuck 'em.

The real problem isn't guns it's that I hurt feelings...

Mkl heard and read the weapons ban facts. Not for one second did he think, "That's interesting..."

Again, I'm not talking to the people who disagree with me.

My feelings aren't hurt, we disagree based on the available data I have. I thought about what you said, I looked up the data around the first AWB, and saw that the 'facts' you are presenting don't appear to be the case as presented. I would need citations I guess. Maybe I am misunderstanding what "deaths decreased by half" is being measured against. I don't see any researchers saying the AWB was successful, even the DOJ is quoted as saying it didn't have an impact. From the independent research I see, it was a mixed bag, with some types of gun crimes going down, others going up...nothing that is statistically significant. Feel free to cite some sources and I'll certainly read them.

Did the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Work?
From the researchers:

"Koper, Jan 14: In general we found, really, very, very little evidence, almost none, that gun violence was becoming any less lethal or any less injurious during this time frame. So on balance, we concluded that the ban had not had a discernible impact on gun crime during the years it was in effect."

"Koper, 2004: Although the ban has been successful in reducing crimes with AWs [Assault Weapons], any benefits from this reduction are likely to have been outweighed by steady or rising use of non-banned semiautomatics with LCMs [large-capacity magazines], which are used in crime much more frequently than AWs. Therefore, we cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence, based on indicators like the percentage of gun crimes resulting in death or the share of gunfire incidents resulting in injury, as we might have expected had the ban reduced crimes with both AWs and LCMs."

So...it appears to me what I was saying, it may feel good to ban scary guns, but it doesn't actually reduce violence. Feel free to post your sources or correct me. I don't think I'm being an overly zealous gun nut here, and do have an open mind about the issue. Admittedly, I am starting from the opposite side, but I have no qualms changing my opinion with data.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Keith

I'll work on the guns, you work on the dancing.

may get a little further with the former if we're all doing a little of the latter.

[Keith]

I'm dancing right now! I see what you mean!

[Sparrow]

you are a salty sausage, sugar.

i'm gonna go with whatever tide is coming on this one, but whatever comes, let's just make careful sure not to dehumanize each other. and, yes, dancing helps.

[Lanfear]

Mkl it just makes me mad that you don't even want to start thinking on the guns issue but argue that the big social problems that all of humanity has can be solved.

1 of your two parties is trying to overturn the healthcare reform, the other party didn't mange to elect the candidate that was campaigning for education reform and you got to be kidding me if you think there will EVER be a way out of poverty. And I'm not saying you shouldn't try to make people's life better but by definition somebody is always poorer than the middle/rich class that's how math works.

Other countries have less guns and less people die because it is much harder to kill 50 people at the same time with a knife.

In Germany (and the rest of Europe) we have a horrendous refugee crisis and because there are racist idiots everywhere just yesterday somebody shoot at a refugee group. You know what that idiot used? An airgun because that's the best he could find in what was probably an impulsive decision making process. Nobody died. I'm still livid that it happened but NOBODY FUCKING DIED THAT DAY!

[CherryLavender]

About the Judge that denied the trans man's request to change his name... He is in South Georgia and it is being appealed and the backlash towards him is encouraging.

I am filing a name change with the attorney I work for with the exact same situation shortly. I'm sure in the metro Atlanta area we won't have the same issue, but if so, I'll get my 15 minutes...