bulletproof schoolbags

[Brian Peacock]

Do you think I can get away with campaigning to encourage would be shooters to choose worthwhile targets? Why not? Is it not a viable solution? I mean, if we're not going to get rid of guns, and as a country we sure as hell support shooting all kinds of people, then what would be wrong with establishing a non-profit aimed at encouraging would be shooters to shoot the right people?

I've been thinking about this for a long time actually.

What, like a reduced sentence for offing fat kids or dolts with low math scores?

[Jason]

I'm just saying that firearms are a tool, not an evil threat that needs to be staved off or conquered.

[Sean Hayden]

Do you think I can get away with campaigning to encourage would be shooters to choose worthwhile targets? Why not? Is it not a viable solution? I mean, if we're not going to get rid of guns, and as a country we sure as hell support shooting all kinds of people, then what would be wrong with establishing a non-profit aimed at encouraging would be shooters to shoot the right people?

I've been thinking about this for a long time actually.

What, like a reduced sentence for offing fat kids or dolts with low math scores?

I said the right people dammit!

[Brian Peacock]

I guess that means I'm off the steering committee? Well it'll give me time to finish the novel I suppose...

[Sean Hayden]

I'm just saying that firearms are a tool, not an evil threat that needs to be staved off or conquered.

Sure, and there's a chance our behavior on the whole will eventually be such that the number of guns available isn't a problem.

I'm not holding my breath though.

[Rum]

I'm just saying that firearms are a tool, not an evil threat that needs to be staved off or conquered.

Sure, and there's a chance our behavior on the whole will eventually be such that the number of guns available isn't a problem.

I'm not holding my breath though.

This is part of the 'gun blindness' those of us who don't have to live in fear of random shootings really don't get.

Guns make killing people EASIER! Mass availability plus ease of killing = lots of killing!

But I give up.

[Jason]

In Canada we have mass availability of firearms and we don't have lots of killing.

[Rum]

In Canada we have mass availability of firearms and we don't have lots of killing.

Annual homicides by gun:

Canada had 173 homicides by gun, according to a 2012 report.
The U.S. had 9,146 that year

Total number of civilian guns:

Canada has 9,950,000.
The U.S. has more than 27 times as many: 270,000,000.

Guns per person:

Canada reports 30.8 firearms per 100 people. The country ranks 13 worldwide for firearms per capita, according to a report published by The Washington Post in September.
The U.S. has 88.8. It ranks No. 1.

Waiting period to purchase a gun:

Canada requires a 60-day waiting period.
There is no federally mandated waiting period in the U.S. Residents can receive a gun after a background check.

[JimC]

In a country saturated by guns, any wannabe gangsta or psycho crazy can obtain one as easily as I can buy a bottle of gin.

[Hermit]

I'm just saying that firearms are a tool, not an evil threat that needs to be staved off or conquered.

It's a tool that affects behaviour. In the US firearms in general, and side arms in particular, have so saturated society that during even a minor confrontation one person shoots another because the chance of the other also having a side arm, and may shoot first, is comparatively large. I am reminded of a case of road rage where this resulted in a tie. The protagonists pulled up at a petrol station, got out of their respective cars and shot each other dead.

Every year 8-900 people are killed in the USA by police, many because they are armed with a firearm, too many because they just might. With 7.8 million inhabitants New South Wales is Australia's most populous state. Compared to the rest of the nation shootings by police are regarded as outrageously numerous. In the past 20 years there were 38 deaths, including three that turned out to be "collateral damage". 19 of the victims were schizophrenics or had other severe mental problems.

How many concealable weapons per person in Canada?

[pErvinalia]

I'm just saying that firearms are a tool, not an evil threat that needs to be staved off or conquered.

It's a tool that affects behaviour. In the US firearms in general, and side arms in particular, have so saturated society that during even a minor confrontation one person shoots another because the chance of the other also having a side arm, and may shoot first, is comparatively large. I am reminded of a case of road rage where this resulted in a tie. The protagonists pulled up at a petrol station, got out of their respective cars and shot each other dead.

Just outcome.

[Woodbutcher]

Do you think I can get away with campaigning to encourage would be shooters to choose worthwhile targets? Why not? Is it not a viable solution? I mean, if we're not going to get rid of guns, and as a country we sure as hell support shooting all kinds of people, then what would be wrong with establishing a non-profit aimed at encouraging would be shooters to shoot the right people?

I've been thinking about this for a long time actually.

What, like a reduced sentence for offing fat kids or dolts with low math scores?

I think it should become a game where you register in to participate as a shooter and as a target. As a shooter you get the name and address of the victim, the victim gets notice that he's been targeted and is allowed to defend himself by any means, and, whatever the outcome, the successfull participant will be registered as the opposite what he was before. After 13 turns you become immune and retire at a resort in comfort. I think this was a novel by Robert Sheckley, The Eleventh Victim IIRC.

[Woodbutcher]

It was The Seventh Victim.

[Jason]

I'm just saying that firearms are a tool, not an evil threat that needs to be staved off or conquered.

It's a tool that affects behaviour. In the US firearms in general, and side arms in particular, have so saturated society that during even a minor confrontation one person shoots another because the chance of the other also having a side arm, and may shoot first, is comparatively large. I am reminded of a case of road rage where this resulted in a tie. The protagonists pulled up at a petrol station, got out of their respective cars and shot each other dead.

It does escalate potential conflicts concordant with the saturation level of firearms in the local area as perceived by the average person, I'll grant you, but I'll also contend that it promotes a more carefully polite society wherein people feel the gravity of the ramifications of their decisions more heavily and give thought to what it is that they do in public.

It sounds like mental health and well-being in the general population is the probable cause here, not the firearms. Unless you wish to present some study which links possession of a firearm to increased aggression and likelihood of acting on that aggression?

Every year 8-900 people are killed in the USA by police, many because they are armed with a firearm, too many because they just might.

Do you have access to a study on American police ROEs? I'm very interested in knowing how you know what you claim to know here.

How many concealable weapons per person in Canada?

Concealed carry is allowed only in specific, and fairly extreme, circumstances in Canada. Nevertheless, I'm not prepared to concede the point you're implicitly contending here, that being reduction in CCW is concordant with a reduction in firearms related deaths.

[Seabass]

A backpack doesn't protect the whole body. Clearly, the only rational solution to this problem is to have our kids wear a steel barrel everywhere they go. It's the only solution that makes sense.