This is amazing Corrosive!!!!!!! Can't believe we've not seen something similar in the past.

One question: Will you perhaps make a silver yahtzee set after this?

The private sales thing was mentioned before, and while I agree that falls under the category of a law that should be sured up, private sales like the link you posted previously are only allowed in some states. In addition, they make up a very small percentage of gun purchases. If a kid or any other wacko had slipped through the cracks and purchased a gun from a gun show, it'd be the poster argument for gun control. Because it hasn't yet happened to my knowledge, its a concern, but not a major one.

Well first, we'd need to break down two things you said. One, what is a military style weapon, and two, how do you define easily available to anyone? Not being facetious at all here, but are you familiar with the gun buying process in the US?

Hell, imagine how much damage you could do with $30 worth of household cleaners mixed together? You probably wouldn't have any problem bringing them into a building in plain sight either. Screw trying to sneak a weapon onto an airplane, how much damage do you think a criminal could do by poisoning a vat of Coke after a quality assurance test?

I wouldn't say that an AR-15 is the best hunting/home defense weapon, but there are very real circumstances where someone may want one. I don't personally care for them, but I don't see why they are stigmatized. Knives are designed to cut, guns are designed to shoot, cars are designed to drive. If someone wants to shoot someone but doesn't have a gun, they can either stab or run down someone. Guns are just a tool, what matters is the intent of the owner.

I do not agree that people need guns to defend themselves in public. I'm fairly against open/concealed carry. If you are in the woods and you are carrying a machete to hack bush, thats fine. If you carry that machete into a grocery store, you deserve whatever is coming your way. If you have a shotgun for home defense, so be it. As long as I don't break into your house, its none of my concern.

If I had to take a stab at one of the major points of the issue is, its that the US is BIG. If there is a federal gun law, it applies to Alaska the same way that it applies to New York. Shootings aren't taking place in Wyoming, they are taking place in population centers.  People do legitimately need guns in some places, in others they may not need them, but as long as they meet certain criteria (an adult, not a felon, etc) and they take responsibility for their tools, so be it.

but I don't see why they are stigmatized

If someone wants to shoot someone but doesn't have a gun, they can either stab or run down someone. Guns are just a tool, what matters is the intent of the owner.

Its a tricky issue here, because the proposals to change are too far in the extreme to get support from regular gun owning citizens. Its become a polarizing issue, because people aren't willing to talk about starting reasonable low impact measures, and testing the results. Gun violence is indeed a problem, but the best solution isn't necessarily the most extreme solution, and those are the only ones being proposed.

We could get rid of all rubber duck related fatalities if we executed anyone who owned a rubber duck, but that isn't really the best solution. If you talk to a lot of people that are pro gun rights, they don't have anything bad to say about the responsibility of gun ownership. Many have no problem with requiring basic safety measures, teaching hunters safety, properly storing cleaning, etc. Things that prevent accidents. Guns are just tools, they are a bit more convenient for violence than say a chainsaw in slasher movie style.

Gun responsibility is completely skipped over, and the first reaction after something occurs is, this wouldn't have happened if guns were illegal. People don't seem to realize that minors can't own guns legally. Their possession is illegal, yet they somehow don't seem to obey the law? Laws don't stop criminals, if you are planning on doing something that will result in a life sentence in prison or your death regardless, you don't care how much money you need to spend to obtain a weapon illegally, or the other consequences, which more often fall on the guy who wants a hunting rifle to shoot deer with. If you want to keep guns out of kids hands, teach their parents to keep their weapons unloaded and locked up, you don't need to penalize people who aren't doing anything wrong, in the process of making a statistically futile effort at lowering violence.

Where can I read about that more?

Is Florida a key state when it comes to votes?

oil


there are many countries with dictators right now, there always are. US concentrates on "bringing democracy" to specific countries for specific reasons. In the case of Venezuela, it's oil (2nd highest confirmed oil reserves in the world)


Venezuelans are struck by the commodities curse: everyone who wants to "help" probably just wants to help themselves. Chinese gov, Russian gov and the Venezuelan gov are all as greedy as the US gov.

what is IN for them

Totally. Any OECD health data shows the same trends and health spending issues with the US, but apparently to many the answer for the US is to do more of the things (ie. privatizing healthcare) that make them an outlier in health spending, instead of doing more of the things that would make them more like the rest of the world!

I used to do policy development work in this space (not in the US though) and was always bemused by the US system, and the language and apparent unwillingness of many in the US to let the Government get more involved in healthcare. From an outsider looking in it always ended up a name calling match with shouts of 'socialist healthcare!' that don't actually mean anything in practice. It's a real shame and people's health outcomes and money keep going to waste.

~To put in perspective - none, and I mean none, of the OECD countries have a model anywhere close to the current US model...

Don't get me wrong Suchmoon, you could be right -- though I do think that the market is the best place to ensure prices, competition, innovation, etc.

I once had an idea of an app for choosing a cheap medical service, with customer ratings and all (don't anyone try to steal my idea, I'm gonna sue you for billions) and eventually came up with about a dozen or so reasons why it would be bad for health outcomes but probably quite profitable for some unscrupulous entrepreneur, "hack cheap cunt slicing me open" being one of them if perhaps not in so many words.

I wonder when Amazon starts adding doctors to its services. Probably needs to lobby to change some regulations first.