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How many mass-bludgeonings have there been on US, Canadian, British, French etc. campuses? How many mass shootings? I hate this site sometimes. I can't speak

by na85 10y ago

How many mass-bludgeonings have there been on US, Canadian, British, French etc. campuses? How many mass shootings? I hate this site sometimes. I can't speak my mind or else I'll just get flagkilled. You seem so desperate to shift the blame off of US gun culture and the surrounding laws that it's bordering on absurdity.

pdeuchler 10y ago
Thank you for slumming it around here and enlightening us idiots. Meanwhile, in the real world, literally two hours after you posted this comment there was a mass stabbing on a school campus in Mountain View
- KirinDave 10y ago
  That is a tragedy, and it's true: we do have "mass stabbings." It's important to recognize the relative scale. "Mass stabbings" seldom exceed 12 victims, let alone fatalities. Gun violence easily extends past that. There is a common counter-argument here that the US is inherently a violent country and therefore limiting gun ownership wouldn't decrease violence. I'm not sure that follows, but it misses a central point: Guns enable violence at an industrial scale. They're mechanized killing devices with tens of thousands of engineering hours around making it quick and reliable to critically disable a target, often via death. A knife is a knife. Like any sharp object, it can be dangerous. A baseball bat is similarly potentially dangerous. But the scope of the dangers of these things is smaller. It seems unfair to compare them directly to gun ownership. It seems strange to say, "We cannot stop all murders, therefore we shouldn't try and stop the easiest kind." Every life saved is someone's mother/brother/father/sister/child. It's a human story that isn't ended in tragedy and pain. Pitting that against these rhetorical devices about "all violence" seems to me to not address the central question we're asking: "Could we save more lives if we made it harder to own guns?"
- na85 10y ago
  Did I say something about how mass stabbings don't happen? Nope.
roel_v 10y ago
... Really, you're going to take the French, who were attacked with a heavy truck 4 months ago resulting in the death of 86 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_attack, because you might not believe me of course), as an example of a country where no killings with other weapons than guns happen? Or you're going to ignore the last 10 entries on this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in... which are all stabbings? But no, these all aren't 'campus shootings' so they probably don't count in your (again) cherry-picked narrative. But sure, feel free to continue your 'arguing by eye rolling', because if only everybody else was as enlightened as you are (you don't even need to look at reality to know you're right!), the world would be a better place, right? Excuse me if it's my turn this time to roll my eyes.
- na85 10y ago
  >as an example of a country where no killings with other weapons than guns happen? Again with the straw man. Did I say no other killings than with guns? Of course not. You insist on putting words into my mouth so that you can attack an argument other than that which I'm making.

by na85 10y ago

pdeuchler 10y ago

Thank you for slumming it around here and enlightening us idiots. Meanwhile, in the real world, literally two hours after you posted this comment there was a mass stabbing on a school campus in Mountain View

KirinDave 10y ago
That is a tragedy, and it's true: we do have "mass stabbings." It's important to recognize the relative scale. "Mass stabbings" seldom exceed 12 victims, let alone fatalities. Gun violence easily extends past that. There is a common counter-argument here that the US is inherently a violent country and therefore limiting gun ownership wouldn't decrease violence. I'm not sure that follows, but it misses a central point: Guns enable violence at an industrial scale. They're mechanized killing devices with tens of thousands of engineering hours around making it quick and reliable to critically disable a target, often via death. A knife is a knife. Like any sharp object, it can be dangerous. A baseball bat is similarly potentially dangerous. But the scope of the dangers of these things is smaller. It seems unfair to compare them directly to gun ownership. It seems strange to say, "We cannot stop all murders, therefore we shouldn't try and stop the easiest kind." Every life saved is someone's mother/brother/father/sister/child. It's a human story that isn't ended in tragedy and pain. Pitting that against these rhetorical devices about "all violence" seems to me to not address the central question we're asking: "Could we save more lives if we made it harder to own guns?"
na85 10y ago
Did I say something about how mass stabbings don't happen? Nope.

roel_v 10y ago

... Really, you're going to take the French, who were attacked with a heavy truck 4 months ago resulting in the death of 86 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_attack, because you might not believe me of course), as an example of a country where no killings with other weapons than guns happen? Or you're going to ignore the last 10 entries on this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in... which are all stabbings? But no, these all aren't 'campus shootings' so they probably don't count in your (again) cherry-picked narrative. But sure, feel free to continue your 'arguing by eye rolling', because if only everybody else was as enlightened as you are (you don't even need to look at reality to know you're right!), the world would be a better place, right? Excuse me if it's my turn this time to roll my eyes.

na85 10y ago
>as an example of a country where no killings with other weapons than guns happen? Again with the straw man. Did I say no other killings than with guns? Of course not. You insist on putting words into my mouth so that you can attack an argument other than that which I'm making.