U.N. Agreement Should Have All Gun Owners Up In Arms

[DaShi]

Then it's not a gun-related injury...

[Dinner]

Do we have to go over this again? The infamous study done by Kleck claimed that Americans defended themselves by brandishing a gun 2.5 million times / year in the late 1980's - early 1990's. The study also rported that in 25% of these incidents the defender fired his weapon and 40% claimed to have hit the "perp". A little light math shows that, if the claims of the study were true, there ought to have been about 250,000 people wounded or killed annually by gun toting defenders. From that many gun shot victims one sould expect at the absolute minimum over 40,000 fatalities. The problem is that that was a fairly easy statistic to check up on, physicians and hospitals are legally required to report gunshot wounds. Published medical statistics showed that the number of people suffering gun wounds or fatalities not in the suicide, homicide, or assault categories was no where near those numbers. members of the medical community confronted Kleck about this discrepancy. Kleck offered the suggestion that there was a giant conspiracy of physicians treating wounded criminals sub rosa.

Why do so many conservatives buy into conspiracy theories whole sale? You brought up just one example but the thread title is another ("Da UN's black helecopters are coming for my guns!!!1111!!!ONE!11"), another one is Glenn Beck's "Agenda 21" nonsense which he's currently peddling, climate science denial is another ("Tens of thousands of scientists and government officials are all in a secret plot lasting decades because... Uh... Well... Because they want grant money?"), and don't even get me started on their whole nonsense surrounding creationism and evolution.

Edit: Oh, and let's not forget the whole anti-Fed gold nut nonsense which often even involves supposedly vast secret Jewish conspiracy groups who have secretly controlled the world for the last century or two.

[Felch]

The obvious solution to the conundrum is that they really didn't hit the perp.

Which is exactly what we all told Strangelove last time, but he loves citing pointless statistics to justify his statism.

Guns are demonized by a bunch of uptight fools who know nothing about them. That fact though, is that guns are perfectly safe when maintained and used properly. Accidental deaths are vanishingly rare, approximately one per 300,000 firearms in private hands annually. To put that in perspective, household swimming pools are thirteen times more likely to cause an accidental death than firearms. But nobody seems to think there should be licensing for getting a home swimming pool.

[Hauldren Collider]

Which is exactly what we all told Strangelove last time, but he loves citing pointless statistics to justify his statism.

Guns are demonized by a bunch of uptight fools who know nothing about them. That fact though, is that guns are perfectly safe when maintained and used properly. Accidental deaths are vanishingly rare, approximately one per 300,000 firearms in private hands annually. To put that in perspective, household swimming pools are thirteen times more likely to cause an accidental death than firearms. But nobody seems to think there should be licensing for getting a home swimming pool.

I read that part of Freakonomics

[regexcellent]

Why do so many conservatives buy into conspiracy theories whole sale? You brought up just one example but the thread title is another ("Da UN's black helecopters are coming for my guns!!!1111!!!ONE!11"), another one is Glenn Beck's "Agenda 21" nonsense which he's currently peddling, climate science denial is another ("Tens of thousands of scientists and government officials are all in a secret plot lasting decades because... Uh... Well... Because they want grant money?"), and don't even get me started on their whole nonsense surrounding creationism and evolution.

Edit: Oh, and let's not forget the whole anti-Fed gold nut nonsense which often even involves supposedly vast secret Jewish conspiracy groups who have secretly controlled the world for the last century or two.

Strawman much?

Some people, like myself, own guns and would just like to keep them and not have a ton of regulatory hassle over them.

The obvious solution to the conundrum is that they really didn't hit the perp.

Huh, that's actually a simple and very plausible explanation. Personally, I'd fire a warning shot first. Chances are that would scare off a burglar.

[Dinner]

Which is an entirely different topic than the one I brought up. BTW the points I raised are factual, not strawmen, so either address them or don't respond to the post with non sequitur.

[regexcellent]

You went on a rant about a group of conservatives which you allege exists (though I've never met anyone from it) but is not represented on this forum, not even by Ben Kenobi.

Anyway don't go on about how conservative people espouse conspiracy theories because we've had a fair number of left wing conspiracy theories cross this board. Including one today by kentonio about going to Iraq to make Haliburton rich. The conspiracy theory syndrome is not unique to any one group of the political spectrum. It exists everywhere.

[Ben Kenobi]

Wow, someone sticking up for me. TBF though:

another one is Glenn Beck's "Agenda 21" nonsense which he's currently peddling

Agenda 21 is a reality. Dunno what you're smoking but there are a ton of people who are involved in population control.

climate science denial is another

One, it's not secret. Two, yes, global warming is a theory which lacks confirmation or any scientific evidence and has already been caught falsifing data.

their whole nonsense surrounding creationism and evolution.

Sheesh. None of these things are a conspiracy. Go look up Dewey and get back to me and tell me that this hasn't been the plot for education for over 75 years now.

Is it sad that Oerdin can't find an actual example of a conspiracy theory? I mean look at the 9-11 truthers. I wonder if Oerdin considers them a conspiracy theorist since they believe that Bush brought down the towers himself. Oerdin probably doesn't consider that a conspiracy since that's what he does believe.

[giblets]

The conspiracy theories Oerdin cited are actual conspiracy theories. You either didn't understand what he said (what a surprise) or you actually believe them ("caught falsifying data"? )

[kentonio]

You went on a rant about a group of conservatives which you allege exists (though I've never met anyone from it) but is not represented on this forum, not even by Ben Kenobi.

Anyway don't go on about how conservative people espouse conspiracy theories because we've had a fair number of left wing conspiracy theories cross this board. Including one today by kentonio about going to Iraq to make Haliburton rich. The conspiracy theory syndrome is not unique to any one group of the political spectrum. It exists everywhere.

No, it's just too easy to write off anything you don't like as a conspiracy theory. Read Hitchens 'The Trial of Henry Kissinger' and then come back and talk to me about conspiracy theories.

[Dr Strangelove]

The obvious solution to the conundrum is that they really didn't hit the perp.

Even if the claims of hitting the perp were off by 50 to 75% the expected numbers would be more than an order of magnitude greater than the actual numbers. For that matter, if you were to shoot at someone and hit them, you would know it. The conclusion has to be that either the poll sample wasn't truly random or a large portion of the respondants lied.