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Comment by kjjjjjjjjjjjjjj | Hacker News Reader

Basically unrestricted access to guns causes mass shootings. Maybe we can do something to stop bad people from getting guns?

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Unrestricted access to toothbrushes doesn’t result in amazing dental hygiene across the country. Mass shootings are a mental health issue. If we were to go to the extreme and outlaw all guns, people with severe mental illness who wanted to kill a bunch of people could either buy a gun illegally, or use a knife, a homemade pipe bomb, a vehicle, or a myriad of other ways to kill a lot of people.

is buying a gun legally and shooting youself/people with it *as easy as* "buying a gun illegally, or use a knife, a homemade pipe bomb, a vehicle"?

Mass stabbing? Not a thing. Suicice with a knife? Any idiot knows that it'll be much more painful than a bullet in the head, so they'd think (more than) twice a about that, as opposed to a gun, just pull the trigger and be done with it.

How did you even type that comment with a straight face?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_van_attack

Jesus how could I forget the very few van attacks in the past decades that were far outnumbered by mass shooting

That was a lazy response, but my point was you don't need access to gun to commit mass killings. You claimed that nobody would commit a mass killing with anything but a gun. I provided you with an example of where you were wrong.

> You claimed that nobody would commit a mass killing with anything but a gun

Phrasing it like that is a bit disingenuous. The only thing I said was mass stabbing was not a thing, which was wrong I guess. You don't have to read it so literally.

The point is gun is one of, if not the most effective vehicle for mass killing.

I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make by saying you can kill a lot of people with other things too. Yes but it's not as easy as killing with a gun that's why those things have not happened to the same degree.

> Mass stabbing? Not a thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_attacks_in_China

I think someone needs to look more into global stats of mass attacks by weapons...

thanks for completely ignore the point, "it happens" is very different than it being a pandemic level occurence like in the US. Obviously the harm one can inflict with a blade is much less than that of gun, unless you are batman.

And yet, America is the only country where this regularly happens

Maybe we should be looking at the data for guns instead of toothbrushes since we already have it? "There are more public mass shootings in America than in any other country in the world."

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/americas/us-gun-statistics/in...

I don't think so. I think it is our society.

If you gave everyone in Japan a gun, I don't think people would just start committing more crimes.

If you took away guns from everyone in a place like South Africa, I don't think it would decrease violence.

the abundance of guns influences the society?

> If you took away guns from everyone in a place like South Africa, I don't think it would decrease violence.

Regardless, you bet it would decrease the death count.

> Regardless, you bet it would decrease the death count.

Absolutely not. Guns "democratize" violence. People who are less strong will at least have a fighting chance to defend themselves. Without guns, those with brute force have all the power. It would be especially bad for women.

When we have a country where everyone gets along and trusts the police and government, then we can have a discussion about banning guns. I still won't support it but at least you have some justification for considering gun control.

what does "democratizing" have anything to do with death count? I guess you are saying maybe less women die? If they do carry guns that is? Do they?

Point is overall number, men or women, will be lower, unless you think that with the same number of violent incidents, the chance of fatal injuries with and without guns are exactly the same.

The rifle deaths in the US are superb. 300 per year via FBI statistics in a country of 320 million. Thats practically a number we should be celebrating. For comparison theres about 1500 homicides by knife per year.

If you want to live in a free society every once in a while some shit is going to go down.

have some shame? Source?

FBI Homicide Data: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-...

"Have some shame" for what listing inconvenient fact?

shameless is cherry picking one category of gun to compare to knife, and have the audacity to continue arguing. You think people are stupid?

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the entire national discussion has been over banning the AR15. Have you been living under a rock?

No kidding, most homicides are committed with hand guns in liberal cities from gang violence where they have already completely banned guns. I dont think people are stupid but I do think you are. And quite triggered, clearly.

wow you have even less shame than I thought. Nice try with the "already banned guns" bs.

Let's not go there yet. We're talking about the numbers and you deliberately, and, again, shamelessly quote a misleading number.

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