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The encouraging thing is this: there is a strong sentiment in the US that the government should not track firearm purchases, there are laws in place to that eff

The encouraging thing is this: there is a strong sentiment in the US that the government should not track firearm purchases, there are laws in place to that effect, and consequently it is very difficult to track down the owner of a registered gun. The political process works! Now, if we just could de-fang Google, Facebook, the advertising networks that track users across websites and all the other data aggregators!

onetwotree 10y ago
The obvious difference is that the gun industry is opposed to making it easy to track down guns. There are no powerful financial interests fighting for our data privacy.
- splintercell 10y ago
  Home come gun industries in other countries fought against gun laws? Maybe it's something to do with the fact that Gun lobby is powerful because we're a huge gun owning country with a constitutionally defined right to keep and bear arms. People don't become alcoholic because powerful beer industry spent money on preventing laws against alcohol.
  - onetwotree 10y ago
    > People don't become alcoholic Perhaps you're right, and we need to treat our countries addiction to guns instead of trying to reduce the supply.
    - hga 10y ago
      Perhaps you're right, and we need to treat our countries addiction to freedom in addition to trying to reduce the supply of liberty. Fixed it for you, as my side sees it.
    - splintercell 10y ago
      > Perhaps you're right, and we need to treat our countries addiction to guns instead of trying to reduce the supply. There's no 'addiction' to Gun. I am an immigrant myself, and before coming to America I was anti-gun. Now, I am not scare of guns anymore and consider it to be a great social good.
- hga 10y ago
  It's not the gun industry that's powerful financially, or more important, electorally, which I'll note is represented by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), it's the population of gun owners, only a fraction of which belong to the NRA at any one time, that have achieved this result. Money's important, but you can ask the most recent stark example, Jeb Bush, just how far it gets you without votes. And I'll add that only happened after there was a sufficient trail of dead or maimed bodies, enough atrocities committed by the BATFE starting in the early '70s (new law + sugar price supports putting their "revenuers" out of a job when moonshine became a hobby), that we got riled up enough to achieve this. As of yet, our lack of data privacy hasn't produced enough of these.

onetwotree 10y ago

The obvious difference is that the gun industry is opposed to making it easy to track down guns. There are no powerful financial interests fighting for our data privacy.

splintercell 10y ago
Home come gun industries in other countries fought against gun laws? Maybe it's something to do with the fact that Gun lobby is powerful because we're a huge gun owning country with a constitutionally defined right to keep and bear arms. People don't become alcoholic because powerful beer industry spent money on preventing laws against alcohol.
- onetwotree 10y ago
  > People don't become alcoholic Perhaps you're right, and we need to treat our countries addiction to guns instead of trying to reduce the supply.
  - hga 10y ago
    Perhaps you're right, and we need to treat our countries addiction to freedom in addition to trying to reduce the supply of liberty. Fixed it for you, as my side sees it.
  - splintercell 10y ago
    > Perhaps you're right, and we need to treat our countries addiction to guns instead of trying to reduce the supply. There's no 'addiction' to Gun. I am an immigrant myself, and before coming to America I was anti-gun. Now, I am not scare of guns anymore and consider it to be a great social good.
hga 10y ago
It's not the gun industry that's powerful financially, or more important, electorally, which I'll note is represented by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), it's the population of gun owners, only a fraction of which belong to the NRA at any one time, that have achieved this result. Money's important, but you can ask the most recent stark example, Jeb Bush, just how far it gets you without votes. And I'll add that only happened after there was a sufficient trail of dead or maimed bodies, enough atrocities committed by the BATFE starting in the early '70s (new law + sugar price supports putting their "revenuers" out of a job when moonshine became a hobby), that we got riled up enough to achieve this. As of yet, our lack of data privacy hasn't produced enough of these.