6 ms·

> An underappreciated side effect of the second amendment is that an awful lot of Americans have an extremely effective means of "assisted dying" at their finge

> An underappreciated side effect of the second amendment is that an awful lot of Americans have an extremely effective means of "assisted dying" at their fingertips. Even if we take "you can impulsively shoot yourself at a moment's notice" as a good thing (I don't think it is), none of that is correct: 1. Any gun will do, and france (and more generally europe) has extensive allowance for hunting and sports shooting, both of which can easily be used to try to kill yourself. 2. Try being an important word here, fucking up a gun suicide attempt is a common occurrence and can leave you extensively maimed and debilitated (e.g. gun pointed too high, recoil moves the gun and blows up your entire face leaving you alive, gun pointed too low, bullet hits the palate or misses the skull entirely and hits the spine, ...) 3. Whether successful or not, finding a gun-suicide is one of the worst discoveries you can make, to say nothing of the cleanup (mostly in case of success). While a gun is not the worst suicide method by a mile (train, car, or cop involve and endanger other people), it's still a shitty one.

Ao7bei3s 4y ago
I'm in all in favor of strict gun laws, but your arguments aren't entirely correct. That "side effect" is is not because of impulse buying and getting guns on short notice. In fact, there's a mandatory waiting period in 1/5th of US states (10 days in California) specifically to prevent that situation, which seems like a _very_ good idea to me. It's about a) getting them without learning a large amount of material (not everyone memorizes things as easily as engineers), and b) without approval buy someone who might actually object. To get a gun in France, you need a hunting/sports license. The hunting license requires a 1-day theoretical and practical exam, as well as a medical exam that is specifically meant to verify if the physical and mental health is compatible with the stated purpose of the purchase. Whereas in the US, you need at most a trivial knowledge test (firearms safety certificate, with questions like in which direction to point the gun. possible answers: safest possible direction, up, down, north (!) [1]) to buy a firearm (hunter's safety education is only required to purchase a hunting license, not a gun). And regarding your third point, sure, but the solution to that is to provide a better, legal, safe and professionally supervised pathway. Anything else makes as much sense as writing a law that bans cancer. [1] https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/forms/hscsg.pdf https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/forms...
- masklinn 4y ago
  > I'm in all in favor of strict gun laws Cool story but that’s got nothing to do with my comment. > That "side effect" is is not because of impulse buying The impulse I’m talking about is once you have a gun in your home. Going out to buy a gun to shoot yourself seems unlikely as there’s plenty if faster ways to commit suicide along the way unless you live next door to a gun shop. > And regarding your third point, sure, but the solution to that is to provide a better, legal, safe and professionally supervised pathway. A better, legal, safe, and professionally supervised pathway… to shooting yourself tanks to the second amendment? You do realise I was replying to a specific comment yeah?
  - Ao7bei3s 4y ago
    Thanks for the clarification. I do agree with you of course on the problem of people making impulse decisions after the purchase. And I meant a better pathway through the medical system, not involving firearms. Using guns for that seems all around awful, and it is sad if people do see that as their most realistic option.

Ao7bei3s 4y ago

I'm in all in favor of strict gun laws, but your arguments aren't entirely correct. That "side effect" is is not because of impulse buying and getting guns on short notice. In fact, there's a mandatory waiting period in 1/5th of US states (10 days in California) specifically to prevent that situation, which seems like a _very_ good idea to me. It's about a) getting them without learning a large amount of material (not everyone memorizes things as easily as engineers), and b) without approval buy someone who might actually object. To get a gun in France, you need a hunting/sports license. The hunting license requires a 1-day theoretical and practical exam, as well as a medical exam that is specifically meant to verify if the physical and mental health is compatible with the stated purpose of the purchase. Whereas in the US, you need at most a trivial knowledge test (firearms safety certificate, with questions like in which direction to point the gun. possible answers: safest possible direction, up, down, north (!) [1]) to buy a firearm (hunter's safety education is only required to purchase a hunting license, not a gun). And regarding your third point, sure, but the solution to that is to provide a better, legal, safe and professionally supervised pathway. Anything else makes as much sense as writing a law that bans cancer. [1] https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/forms/hscsg.pdf https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/firearms/forms...

masklinn 4y ago
> I'm in all in favor of strict gun laws Cool story but that’s got nothing to do with my comment. > That "side effect" is is not because of impulse buying The impulse I’m talking about is once you have a gun in your home. Going out to buy a gun to shoot yourself seems unlikely as there’s plenty if faster ways to commit suicide along the way unless you live next door to a gun shop. > And regarding your third point, sure, but the solution to that is to provide a better, legal, safe and professionally supervised pathway. A better, legal, safe, and professionally supervised pathway… to shooting yourself tanks to the second amendment? You do realise I was replying to a specific comment yeah?
- Ao7bei3s 4y ago
  Thanks for the clarification. I do agree with you of course on the problem of people making impulse decisions after the purchase. And I meant a better pathway through the medical system, not involving firearms. Using guns for that seems all around awful, and it is sad if people do see that as their most realistic option.