Friday, January 14, 2011
8 comments:
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bocopro said...
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Depending on where you go to look, you can find a wide range of estimates for the number of guns and gun owners in this country. If you average them all out, you come up with approximately 1 of every three people in the US either own or have easy access to some sort of firearm. And this doesn’t include other forms of weapons, such as spear guns, bows, machetes, bolos, axes, hatchets, cleavers, hammers, screwdrivers, chains, or even long-neck bottles and baseball bats.
The FBI estimates that the number of privately owned firearms (the things that go “BANG!”) in the United States is more than 200 million. So, if you add those NOT owned privately by individuals, such as law enforcement personnel, military personnel, and retail shops (guns not yet sold), there is at least one gun for every adult and every child in the country.
Makes one wonder why the hell at least half of us haven’t been shot to death yet, what with all those guns running around indiscriminately shooting people. But in terms of total deaths, firearms simply aren’t the biggest culprit. Of all deaths in any given year, non-firearm causes are considerably higher, especially by automobile. In fact, deaths by automobile are more than 3 times as high as homicide by firearm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, averaging around 15,000 annually. Homicides have recently averaged around 16,000 per annum with slightly more than half committed by firearms (around 9000). But the US isn’t the statistically worst nation for homicide by firearm. India, Colombia, Russia, and Mexico (last year) outperform us in that category.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html
Frankly, I hate statistics, and if you look around long enough, you can always find one that proves your point (unless you’re completely misinformed in the first place and tend to give credence to alarmists and bullshit artists). But facts ARE facts, and even in countries which have banned firearms, manslaughter and murder still occur.
Firearms kill. Duh! That’s what they’re designed to do. But so do Toyotas and corn knives and sudden stops at the ends of falls from tall buildings. Now . . . I see no particularly good reason for the average person to have a weapon with extended magazine capacity. Seems to me 8 or 10 rounds should be enough.
And I don’t really see why most people would ever need an automatic. But I also don’t see why people need Hummers, either, or Tommy Hilfiger jackets, or boiled shrimp. The mere fact that I don't agree with something should not be cause for banning it (unless it's rap "music").
The issue is, or at least it should be, that when you start removing the nuts and bolts from the Eiffel Tower, or you start chipping away at the base of the Washington Monument, or you start drilling holes in the biggest goddam redwood you can find, before long you’re going to hear a series of ominous creaks and groans and finally three prolonged, sickening thuds as the structures come down.
And when you whittle away at the structure of the Constitution by attacking its language, or its principles, or its applicability, sooner or later instead of a nice useful document you have a pile of discarded confetti and some missing spitwads.
Seems to me, and I’m just an ol’ country boy who’s been a lotta places and seen a lotta things, that if we’d enforce the laws we already have, if we’d eliminate a few worthless bastards instead of making them dependent on the taxpayers for the rest of their lives, if we’d stop trying to pussify the country with kumbaya and pixie dust and castles in the air, and if we’d let kids do what kids have always done and stop feeding them sedatives and teaching them double standards and protecting them from reality, we’d be one helluva lot better off.
Just thinking through my fingers, that’s all. -
1/14/11, 1:51 PM
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bocopro said...
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Depending on where you go to look, you can find a wide range of estimates for the number of guns and gun owners in this country. If you average them all out, you come up with approximately 1 of every three people in the US either own or have easy access to some sort of firearm. And this doesn’t include other forms of weapons, such as spear guns, bows, machetes, bolos, axes, hatchets, cleavers, hammers, screwdrivers, chains, or even long-neck bottles and baseball bats.
The FBI estimates that the number of privately owned firearms (the things that go “BANG!”) in the United States is more than 200 million. So, if you add those NOT owned privately by individuals, such as law enforcement personnel, military personnel, and retail shops (guns not yet sold), there is at least one gun for every adult and every child in the country.
Makes one wonder why the hell at least half of us haven’t been shot to death yet, what with all those guns running around indiscriminately shooting people. But in terms of total deaths, firearms simply aren’t the biggest culprit. Of all deaths in any given year, non-firearm causes are considerably higher, especially by automobile. In fact, deaths by automobile are more than 3 times as high as homicide by firearm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, averaging around 15,000 annually. Homicides have recently averaged around 16,000 per annum with slightly more than half committed by firearms (around 9000). But the US isn’t the statistically worst nation for homicide by firearm. India, Colombia, Russia, and Mexico (last year) outperform us in that category.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html
Frankly, I hate statistics, and if you look around long enough, you can always find one that proves your point (unless you’re completely misinformed in the first place and tend to give credence to alarmists and bullshit artists). But facts ARE facts, and even in countries which have banned firearms, manslaughter and murder still occur.
Firearms kill. Duh! That’s what they’re designed to do. But so do Toyotas and corn knives and sudden stops at the ends of falls from tall buildings. Now . . . I see no particularly good reason for the average person to have a weapon with extended magazine capacity. Seems to me 8 or 10 rounds should be enough.
And I don’t really see why most people would ever need an automatic. But I also don’t see why people need Hummers, either, or Tommy Hilfiger jackets, or boiled shrimp. The mere fact that I don't agree with something should not be cause for banning it (unless it's rap "music").
The issue is, or at least it should be, that when you start removing the nuts and bolts from the Eiffel Tower, or you start chipping away at the base of the Washington Monument, or you start drilling holes in the biggest goddam redwood you can find, before long you’re going to hear a series of ominous creaks and groans and finally three prolonged, sickening thuds as the structures come down.
And when you whittle away at the structure of the Constitution by attacking its language, or its principles, or its applicability, sooner or later instead of a nice useful document you have a pile of discarded confetti and some missing spitwads.
Seems to me, and I’m just an ol’ country boy who’s been a lotta places and seen a lotta things, that if we’d enforce the laws we already have, if we’d eliminate a few worthless bastards instead of making them dependent on the taxpayers for the rest of their lives, if we’d stop trying to pussify the country with kumbaya and pixie dust and castles in the air, and if we’d let kids do what kids have always done and stop feeding them sedatives and teaching them double standards and protecting them from reality, we’d be one helluva lot better off.
Just thinking through my fingers, that’s all. -
1/14/11, 1:51 PM
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bocopro said...
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Depending on where you go to look, you can find a wide range of estimates for the number of guns and gun owners in this country. If you average them all out, you come up with approximately 1 of every three people in the US either own or have easy access to some sort of firearm. And this doesn’t include other forms of weapons, such as spear guns, bows, machetes, bolos, axes, hatchets, cleavers, hammers, screwdrivers, chains, or even long-neck bottles and baseball bats.
The FBI estimates that the number of privately owned firearms (the things that go “BANG!”) in the United States is more than 200 million. So, if you add those NOT owned privately by individuals, such as law enforcement personnel, military personnel, and retail shops (guns not yet sold), there is at least one gun for every adult and every child in the country.
Makes one wonder why the hell at least half of us haven’t been shot to death yet, what with all those guns running around indiscriminately shooting people. But in terms of total deaths, firearms simply aren’t the biggest culprit. Of all deaths in any given year, non-firearm causes are considerably higher, especially by automobile. In fact, deaths by automobile are more than 3 times as high as homicide by firearm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, averaging around 15,000 annually. Homicides have recently averaged around 16,000 per annum with slightly more than half committed by firearms (around 9000). But the US isn’t the statistically worst nation for homicide by firearm. India, Colombia, Russia, and Mexico (last year) outperform us in that category.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html
Frankly, I hate statistics, and if you look around long enough, you can always find one that proves your point (unless you’re completely misinformed in the first place and tend to give credence to alarmists and bullshit artists). But facts ARE facts, and even in countries which have banned firearms, manslaughter and murder still occur.
Firearms kill. Duh! That’s what they’re designed to do. But so do Toyotas and corn knives and sudden stops at the ends of falls from tall buildings. Now . . . I see no particularly good reason for the average person to have a weapon with extended magazine capacity. Seems to me 8 or 10 rounds should be enough.
And I don’t really see why most people would ever need an automatic. But I also don’t see why people need Hummers, either, or Tommy Hilfiger jackets, or boiled shrimp. The mere fact that I don't agree with something should not be cause for banning it (unless it's rap "music").
The issue is, or at least it should be, that when you start removing the nuts and bolts from the Eiffel Tower, or you start chipping away at the base of the Washington Monument, or you start drilling holes in the biggest goddam redwood you can find, before long you’re going to hear a series of ominous creaks and groans and finally three prolonged, sickening thuds as the structures come down.
And when you whittle away at the structure of the Constitution by attacking its language, or its principles, or its applicability, sooner or later instead of a nice useful document you have a pile of discarded confetti and some missing spitwads.
Seems to me, and I’m just an ol’ country boy who’s been a lotta places and seen a lotta things, that if we’d enforce the laws we already have, if we’d eliminate a few worthless bastards instead of making them dependent on the taxpayers for the rest of their lives, if we’d stop trying to pussify the country with kumbaya and pixie dust and castles in the air, and if we’d let kids do what kids have always done and stop feeding them sedatives and teaching them double standards and protecting them from reality, we’d be one helluva lot better off.
Just thinking through my fingers, that’s all. -
1/14/11, 2:24 PM
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Anonymous said...
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And spoons make Rosie O'Donnell and Orca Winfrey fat.
Tim -
1/14/11, 3:07 PM
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toadold said...
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"....and spoons make Rosie fat."
I really need to stop reading an commenting here. It is driving me to "hate thought" crimes.....and makes me PC (Pork Consumer)
My last poll read was 53 percent think the MSM is wrong to blame the Gifford shooting on the Right, 33% think they should ( and have to check their shorts for racing stripes to put them on right), and the rest move their lips when they read the centerfold. -
1/14/11, 3:09 PM
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toadold said...
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Whoops, I'm out of date, new poll shows only 15% believe Right wing climate of hate responsible for Gifford shooting. Hmmmm, looks like the Dims should have stopped digging in that particular hole.
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1/14/11, 3:35 PM
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Anonymous said...
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hey Old Man, What type of ammo did you get at cheaperthandirt?
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1/14/11, 4:13 PM
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Anonymous said...
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I've purchased mostly 30-06 on cheaper than dirt, but lots of other ammo at other sites.
Casca -
1/14/11, 4:32 PM
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