@hightor,
hightor wrote:But you can't blame people for looking primarily at the hardware end of the relationship versus actually trying to change human behavior.
I can when they want to ban hardware that there is no good reason to ban.
hightor wrote:On paper it seems sensible to restrict access to particular types of weapons, availability of particular kinds of ammunition,
Every time someone says "sensible" or "common sense" they are invariably calling for an outrageous civil rights violation.
That said, which types of weapons and which types of ammunition? And what would be a good reason for each specific ban?
hightor wrote:and number of guns a consumer can buy at a time
Why should important gun collections be broken up into separate pieces? Why should someone who wants to buy a couple hundred guns have to wait in order to buy them?
hightor wrote:The glamorization of gun culture, the sheer ubiquity of guns in our movies, TV shows, and on the streets, and the preoccupation with killing human beings in general needs to be dialed back. Over the past thirty years the gun lobby and the gun industry have worked assiduously to portray firearms as little more than fashion accessories, badges of patriotism not much different than American flag lapel buttons. Introducing a few restrictions would at least signify that we reject the "wild west" model for our neighborhoods and that the glorification of firearms -- "gun culture" -- is, well, an adolescent preoccupation with power and delusory "freedom".
America is never going to reject our heritage as a free country.
hightor wrote:While Nate Silver's organization publishes great statistical research and Libresco makes good points, it's never good to base your conclusions on one study that you happen to agree with. There are other peer-reviewed studies which have come to slightly different conclusions about the efficacy of gun control.
Quote:In a comprehensive review of firearm-control legislation worldwide, we identified a range of studies examining the association between firearm-related laws and firearm deaths. Three general observations emerge from this analysis:
1) The simultaneous implementation of laws targeting multiple elements of firearms regulations reduced firearm-related deaths in certain countries;
2) some specific restrictions on purchase, access, and use of firearms are associated with reductions in firearm deaths;
3) challenges in ecological design and the execution of studies limit the confidence in study findings and the conclusions that can be derived from them.
What Do We Know About the Association Between Firearm Legislation and Firearm-Related Injuries?
Is someone who is killed with a gun any more dead than someone killed with a knife?
The left's hysteria over the method that is used to kill someone is a bit silly.